Causal Exclusion and Dependent Overdetermination

Jaegwon Kim argues that unreduced mental causes are excluded from efficacy because physical causes are sufficient in themselves. One response to this causal exclusion argument is to embrace some form of overdetermination. In this paper I consider two forms of overdetermination. Independent overdetermination suggests that two individually sufficient causes bring about one effect. This model fails because the sufficiency of one cause renders the other cause unnecessary. Dependent overdetermination suggests that a physical cause is necessary and sufficient for a given effect, but it necessitates a mental cause of the effect as well. This model fails because the necessity of the mental cause renders the physical cause individually insufficient.     

The Relationship Between Ability-Based Emotional Intelligence and Contextual Performance and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: A Test of the Mediating Effects of Job Satisfaction

This article investigated the mediating role of job satisfaction between four ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) dimensions and contextual performance and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), and controlled for Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Agreeableness. Based on data collected from 222 employees, results supported the hypothesized partial mediation model. Job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between (a) the ability-based EI dimension, regulation of emotion, and contextual performance, and CWB-I and CWB-O; (b) the ability-based EI dimension, selfemotion appraisal, and CWB-I and CWB-O; (c) the ability-based EI dimension, use of emotion and contextual performance; and (d) between Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness and contextual performance and CWBs. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

‘Wine’, Women and Song: The More Things Change…

The paper addresses the socially controversial issue of the public expression of sexuality in dance in the Caribbean. Of particular interest is the phenomenon of ‘wining’ or ‘wukkin’ up’, dancing involving pelvic gyrations. The focus is on changes taking place in societies in which there is supposedly the continued dominance of a male patriarchal figure. Can these changes be anything more than a new form of male control of female sexuality and public sexual expression? It seeks to address this question through an analysis of two songs, one a male performed classic competition winning calypso, ‘The Black Man feeling to party’ and a competition winning calypso sung by a female entitled ‘This is what we do’. The former celebrates heterosexual relationships right from the period of partner dancing courtship, through marriage, child rearing and, with child rearing achieved, a return to partner dancing. The latter exalts and justifies the behaviour of women ‘wining’ alone or on each other. The paper concludes that women are asserting ownership of their own sexuality through auto-sexual dance expression in public. Things have indeed changed.     

Interpreting Survey Questions About Sexual Aggression in Cross-Cultural Research: A Qualitative Study with Young Adults from Nine European Countries

Examining equivalence in the interpretation of survey items on sexual assault by participants from different cultures is an important step toward building a valid international knowledge base about the prevalence of sexual aggression among young adults. Referring to the theoretical framework of contextualism, this study presents qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 128 young adults from nine EU countries on their understanding of survey items from the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S). The measure had previously been used to collect quantitative data on the prevalence of sexual aggression perpetration and victimization in the same countries that had yielded substantial differences in the rates of victimization and perpetration between countries. Based on the methodological approach of a mixed research design, the current study was conducted as a follow-up to the quantitative study with a new sample to explore whether systematic differences in the interpretation of the survey items in the different countries might explain part of the variation in prevalence rates. The interviews showed that participants from the nine countries interpreted the items of the SAV-S in a similar way and as intended by the authors of the scale. Systematic differences between men and women in interpreting the survey items were revealed. Implications of the findings for conducting survey research on sexual aggression across cultures are discussed.     

Preference stability belief as a determinant of response to personalized recommendations

Preference stability refers to the objectively measured choice consistency among options with different attribute values in the same product category. We suggest that a consumer's subjectively held belief of preference stability may be an important determinant of response to personalized recommendations. Experimental results confirm that preference stability belief moderates the effect of customization on the evaluation of recommendation accuracy and receptiveness to the learning relationship. Customization will produce stronger effects on accuracy evaluation and receptiveness for subjects with high preference stability belief than for subjects with low preference stability belief. Customers who believe their preferences are stable appreciate customized recommendations more, notice more acutely whether recommendations are customized or not, and are more receptive to the learning relationship when recommendations are customized than when not. Customers who believe their own preferences are less stable do not appreciate customized recommendations as much, are less sensitive to whether recommendations are customized or not, and are not more receptive to the learning relationship even when recommendations are customized. Theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Note on the Relationship Between Task Requirements and the Contextual Interference Effect

Typically, tasks used in past contextual interference experiments had movement, spatial pattern, or timing requirements. The possibility exists that the blocked/random manipulation of only one of these task characteristics contributes to the contextual interference effect. The purpose of the experiment reported here was to test the impact of separate movement and timing tasks on the superior learning of random trained groups. The task for all subjects in the movement condition was to release a start button and knock over a wooden barrier. There were three movement time goals to be learned. Half of the subjects in this condition practiced the three movements in a blocked schedule and half practiced them in a random schedule. The subjects in the no-movement condition estimated the same three times by holding down the start button for the appropriate duration. Similarly, these subjects were divided into random and blocked practice groups. All subjects then performed a retention test. Results showed that for the movement condition, the blocked group performed with less error than the random group during acquisition. In retention, however, the random group performed with less error than the blocked group. Conversely, for the no-movement condition, there were no differences between the two practice schedule groups during acquisition or during retention for any of the dependent measures. These results indicate that experimental tasks must have some type of movement requirement in order to facilitate learning through the use of random practice schedules.     

Respiratory phase and visual signal detection

Previous studies have implicated respiration as a source of intra-S variation in visual signal detection tasks. In the present study, pneumographic respiration records were obtained on 22 female undergraduates during a visual signal detection task. The analysis of signal detection with respect to respiration phase showed that signals presented during exhalation were detected more frequently than those presented during inhalation. These findings suggest that the intra-S variation in signal detection performance may be partially accounted for by respiratory behavior at the moment of signal presentation.