Evidentialism and pragmatic constraints on outright belief

Evidentialism is the view that facts about whether or not an agent is justified in having a particular belief are entirely determined by facts about the agent’s evidence; the agent’s practical needs and interests are irrelevant. I examine an array of arguments against evidentialism (by Jeremy Fantl, Matthew McGrath, David Owens, and others), and demonstrate how their force is affected when we take into account the relation between degrees of belief and outright belief. Once we are sensitive to one of the factors that secure thresholds for outright believing (namely, outright believing that p in a given circumstance requires, at the minimum, that one’s degree of belief that p is high enough for one to be willing to act as if p in the circumstances), we see how pragmatic considerations can be relevant to facts about whether or not an agent is justified in believing that p—but largely as a consequence of the pragmatic constraints on outright believing.

Others' anger makes people work harder not smarter: the effect of observing anger and sarcasm on creative and analytic thinking

The authors examine whether and how observing anger influences thinking processes and problem-solving ability. In 3 studies, the authors show that participants who listened to an angry customer were more successful in solving analytic problems, but less successful in solving creative problems compared with participants who listened to an emotionally neutral customer. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors further show that observing anger communicated through sarcasm enhances complex thinking and solving of creative problems. Prevention orientation is argued to be the latent variable that mediated the effect of observing anger on complex thinking. The present findings help reconcile inconsistent findings in previous research, promote theory about the effects of observing anger and sarcasm, and contribute to understanding the effects of anger in the workplace.     

From Working Through the Holocaust to Current Ethnic Conflicts: Evaluating the TRT Group Workshop in Hamburg

The TRT (To Reflect and Trust) approach of bringing together descendants of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazi perpetrators relies on group dialogues in which participants share their personal life stories, thereby enabling them to reflect on their personal and collective histories as victims and victimizers. This process was initiated and led by the second author—an Israeli psychologist and a specialist in group processes—in the context of the socially and historically contextualized approach to group interventions that he has developed. The present study describes a new phase of the TRT group that brought together, in the framework of a workshop, professionals from South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel and the Palestinian Authority—all of whom were working with victims and victimizers in current conflicts. Our question was whether the TRT process, using methods of storytelling to address a past catastrophe of human making, could help the professionals who try to help other people move out of current conflicts into peace-building. We found that the TRT storytelling approach facilitates the working through of current ethnic conflicts. Participants' responses to the workshop indicated the importance of the storytelling process and of the emotional support provided by the TRT group members. We focus here on the special significance of the group process between Germans, Jews, and Palestinians, which emerged as highly significant for the Jewish participants in their efforts to reconcile being both victims and victimizers (within two separate historical contexts: German/Jewish and Israeli/Palestinian).     

The effect of spectral manipulations on the identification of affective and linguistic prosody

We investigated the effect of various spectral manipulations on the identification of sentential prosody. Two main categories of prosody--affective (happy, angry, sad) and linguistic (statement, question, continuation)--were studied. Thirty-six subjects were presented with stimuli that were recorded by a female native speaker of American English. The stimuli were digitally manipulated to create synthesized, band-pass filtered (F0-range and F2/F3-range) and re-entrant (pitch only version of stimulus is convolved with a steady-state signal) conditions. Results of a forced-choice discrimination paradigm showed that, in general, performance is remarkably robust despite spectral manipulation, even when there is relatively little spectral information. However, performance was significantly degraded in the low band-pass and re-entrant conditions. These observations are discussed in light of the relevance of the fundamental frequency as well as syllabification for the analysis of prosodic information.     

Addressing the needs of new mothers in a multi-cultural setting: an evaluation of home visiting support for new mothers – Mom to Mom (Negev)

This study evaluated the Mom to Mom (M2M) program operating in the Negev region of Israel, an area with a high proportion of immigrants. M2M helps women cope with the first year of parenting through home visits of volunteer mothers. Specific objectives were to evaluate (1) Participants’ motivations for joining M2M; (2) Gains from participation; and (3) The effect of participation on post-partum depression (PPD). Three stages included (1) Analysis of demographics of all 440 mothers in M2M; (2) A telephone survey of 51 mothers to assess gains from participation; and (3) 137 mothers filled out the Edinburgh Post-Natal Depression Scale (EPDS) and were followed for one year. Most mothers in M2M were first time mothers, with a high rate of perinatal complications (54.4%) and positive EPDS scores (38.7%). Two major reasons for participation were being an immigrant and having low income. The greatest gains from home visits were increased self-confidence, improved parenting skills and communication with the partner. Seventy-nine percent of mothers with PPD symptoms were functioning at work and at home after a year from joining the program. Our findings suggest that M2M has the capacity to address challenges in the post-natal period among women from diverse cultures.     

Cultural differences in mothers' developmental goals and ethnotheories

The influence of ecocultural context on parents' image of the adaptive adult is explored via a comparison between the child‐rearing goals and ethnotheories of 20 immigrant mothers from the former Soviet Union and 20 Israeli‐born mothers. It is assumed that parents' socializing practices are premised on developmental ethnotheories reflecting societal child rearing models and expectations for children's development. The image of the “adaptive adult” in parents' country of origin is so fundamentally ingrained in their beliefs about child rearing that it is retained after immigration, and is integrated with aspects of the image of adaptive adulthood which prevails in the host culture. The current study explored (through semistructured interviews) mothers' developmental ethnotheories concerning the nature of development, how it can be influenced, and why it should be influenced, with regard to cognitive competence, autonomy, emotional regulation, and social understanding and behaviour of their 3–4‐year‐old children. It also explored their goals and expectations for their children as adults. Analysis of the interviews with Israeli‐born and immigrant mothers lends support to the main thesis of this study. Mothers of both groups would like their children to grow into intelligent, joyful, and independent adults, to be well educated and to hold prestigious occupations. All of the mothers assume, moreover, that much of child development should be promoted through the active involvement of parents. Israeli‐born mothers, however, place a greater emphasis on social competence, autonomy, and leadership, whereas the emphasis of the Soviet‐born mothers is on achievement, emotional control, efficiency, and organization. The differences and similarities between the two groups of mothers are discussed in the context of their respective ecocultural backgrounds. It is proposed that each group's ethnotheories, developmental goals, and aspirations for their children reflect their respective values, perceptions, and understanding of the reality in which they raise their children. These values and perceptions seem, in turn, related to the respective ecocultures in which they were raised, as well as the one in which they rear their own children.     

The traumatic roots of containment: the evolution of Bion's metapsychology

W. R. Bion wrote repeatedly about his World War I experiences as a tank officer, thus engaging in historicizing a traumatic emotional experience. A close reading of the many layers in these writings suggests that the war experiences influenced the metapsychology he created. The author argues that haunting questions regarding the ability of the mind to survive trauma led Bion to elaborate on the process of containing emotional experience, and hence to address the lack of an intricate theory of thinking in psychoanalytic metapsychology and to offer a vision of a mind struggling to survive, culminating in the growth of a postmodern consciousness.     

Sociality,Expression, and This Thing called Language

Davidson’s well-known language skepticism—the claim that there is no such a thing as a language—has recognizably Gricean underpinnings, some of which also underlie his continuity skepticism—the claim that there can be no philosophically illuminating account of the emergence of language and thought. My first aim in this paper is to highlight aspects of the complicated relationship between central Davidsonian and Gricean ideas concerning language. After a brief review of Davidson’s two skeptical claims and their Gricean underpinnings, I provide my own take on how Davidson’s continuity skepticism can be resisted consistently with his rejection of the Gricean priority claim, yet without giving up some of Grice’s own insights regarding the origins of meaning.