The moral significance of the genetic relation

Our ordinary moral attitudes give a prominent place to the principle that each person ought specially to care for any child who is his or her genetic offspring. From this principle of genetic-parental responsibility and other plausible premises, we can derive the principle that each person has the right to control the genetic use of his or her own genes. But there are competing principles of parental responsibility that require consideration. Principles of nurture are among the important competitors. Also, the view that a woman has the right to control her own body for reproductive purposes may be based on a principle that denies the genetic-parental principle. An analysis is developed of the relations that constitute the criteria for the various possible principles of parental responsibility. Causality, temporality, spatiality, and resemblance are considered. The genetic relation is not any one of these relations, but it includes some of them. The justification of any principle of parental responsibility requires a detailed consideration of the principle from the viewpoint of a deontological or consequentialist moral theory. This examination is beyond the scope of this paper, but consideration is given to some issues and problems of justification, and difficult or unusual cases are discussed. There remain, then, complexities that require further study.     

The effects of stimulant drugs on curiosity behaviors of hyperactive boys

The curiosity behaviors of 20 hyperactive boys, both on and off stimulant drugs, and in relation to 20 nonhyperactive boys, were assessed. Comparisons on object, manipulative, conceptual, perceptual, and reactive curiosity tasks indicated that stimulants reduced only the object curiosity task performance of hyperactive boys, although the level tended to remain above that of nonhyperactive boys. Also, hyperactive boys both on and off drugs tended to have lower conceptual curiosity scores than controls. Implications are discussed.     

The moral basis of Graeco-Roman medical practice

The physician in the Graeco-Roman world was primarily concerned with perfecting his skills and in establishing his craft as a legitimate profession. The “ethical” treatises in the Hippocratic corpus reflect this need for public acceptance; they stress medical etiquette rather than philanthropic ideals. Overall, philanthropy had no intrinsic connection with the pursuit of medicine. Such works as the Hippocratic oath, which attempt to introduce morality and humanism into the profession, are a rarity. However, as a result of the new morality brought on by Stoic philosophy and the mystery religions, we see medicine in late antiquity frequently identified with humanistic principles.     

The effects of a career course on undecided college students

The effects of a career course taught by 11 instructors (two sections each) for college students, who were undecided about a major field or career, were evaluated in a pre-post design using the Vocational Identity, Occupational Information, and Barrier scales of the My Vocational Situation (J. A. Holland, D. C. Daiger, & P. G. Power, Palo Alto, Calif.: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1980). Large main effects were observed for the Identity and Occupational Information scales, but not for the Barriers scale. No interactions by instructor or student characteristics were found by using a simple ANOVA procedure or by using a split plot factorial design. The implications for new research and career instructors were discussed.     

The new birth phenomenon during imprisonment: Corrective emotional experience or flight into health?

In prisons the “born-again” experience is frequently encountered in the inmate population. The goal of this article is to examine the social and psychological parameters of this phenomenon, as well as those issues which indicate an enduring or transitory response.     

Flexibility of information processing and the memory of field-independent and field-dependent learners

This study examined memory differences between 48 field-independent and 48 field-dependent learners, and it hypothesized that rigid information processing by field-dependent learners interferes with cue efficiency during memory recall. The field-independent and field-dependent learners were presented with paired associates in which the target recall words were homographs, and accompanying associates emphasized one of the homograph's two meanings. Homograph recall occurred under three conditions: (a) same cue recall, (b) different cue recall (emphasized other meaning of homograph), and (c) free recall. This study found memory differences favoring the field-independent learner and findings consistent with the rigid information processing hypothesis of field-dependent learners.     

On the psychological reality of a natural rule of syllable structure

If natural rules in phonology, such as the rule which deletes a word final consonant before a consonant, are frequently found in unrelated languages, it must be because they tap universal features of production and/or perception. The present experiment employed a learning task to see whether naive subjects have a predisposition for the natural rule as opposed to its converse (consonant deletion before a vowel). The Ss first learned four novel words (nouns) - two beginning with a consonant, two with a vowel - as paired associates to English ‘translations’. Then three novel adjectives were combined with each of the four nouns, following the natural rule for one group of Ss, the unnatural rule for the other. The twelve phrases were cued by their English translations and the S had to respond to each with the phonologically correct sequence of adjective and noun; confirmation followed each response. The Ss learning the unnatural corpus had a strong tendency to give natural responses, whereas the converse was not true. Consequently they made many more errors en route to mastery than their natural counterparts, even when the operative rule was displayed on the first trial by presenting in turn each adjective with its four following nouns. It appears that our Ss had implicit knowledge of the natural rule, even though it does not operate to any significant extent in English.     

An analysis of children's oppositional behavior

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between children's oppositional behavior and the following two variables: number of commands issued and time from command presentation. Twenty-four five year-old children and their mothers served as subjects. The results indicated an increase in oppositional behavior as the number of commands increased. Furthermore, most oppositional behavior occurred immediately following the presentation of a command.This study was part of a larger investigation examining the effects of time-out on noncompliance (Scarboro & Forehand, 1975).The investigation was supported by a grant from the University of Georgia research council.     

The social play of two behaviorally disordered preschool children during four activities

The effect of contingent teacher attention on the social play of two behaviorally disordered preschool children was investigated. Using a multiple baseline design with reversal conditions, social play was measured on four activities: pegs and pegboard, athletic ball, blocks, and water pail. Baseline data indicated considerable variability in the amount of social play across the four activities. The initiation of the experimental contingency produced a dramatic increase in percentage of time in which the subjects engaged in social play. The implications of these results for the remediation of isolate behavior in young children with multiple behavioral deficits are discussed.