Acceptability of traffic safety measures with personal privacy implications

The aim of the present study was to examine knowledge, beliefs, and acceptability of three information and communications technology (ICT) safety measures with personal privacy implications, that is, section control, informative intelligent speed adaptation (ISA), and event data recorder (EDR). A questionnaire study was carried out among car users in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (n = 1319). Results demonstrated that the respondents displayed a low level of knowledge of the measures, although the level of acceptability was relatively high. Notably, EDR was perceived to be a greater threat to personal privacy than section control and ISA, and acceptability was also lower for EDR than for the other measures. In regression analyses, background factors, knowledge, and general and specific beliefs were entered as predictors of acceptability (Adj R² was approx. 0.70). Awareness that speeding is a problem and evaluating the measures as fair, effective, and a less infringement on personal freedom and personal privacy, resulted in higher levels of acceptability. The effects of background factors and knowledge were limited after controlling for different beliefs.     

Freud's psychoanalysis: A moral cure

That psychoanalytical treatment in its classical Freudian sense is primarily a moral or ethical cure is not a very controversial claim. However, it is far from obvious how we are to understand precisely the moral character of psychoanalysis. It has frequently been proposed that this designation is valid because psychoanalysis strives neither to cure psychological symptoms pharmaceutically, nor to superficially modify the behaviour of the analysand, but to lead the analysand through an interpretive process during which he gradually gains knowledge of the unconscious motives that determine his behaviour, a process that might ideally liberate him to obtain, in relation to his inner desires, the status of a moral agent. There resides something appealing in these claims. But it is the author's belief that there is an even deeper moral dimension applying to psychoanalytical theory and praxis. Freudian psychoanalysis is a moral cure due to its way of thematizing psychological suffering as moral suffering. And this means that the moral subject – the being that can experience moral suffering – is not primarily something that the psychoanalytical treatment strives to realize, but rather the presupposition for the way in which psychoanalysis theorizes psychological problems as such.     

Young People,Sexuality, and HIV Prevention Within Christian Faith Communities in South Africa: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Faith communities exert a powerful influence on the life of their members, and studies are needed about how they may be able to influence young people’s attitudes regarding sexuality and HIV prevention. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from young people (811), aged 15–24 years, affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church and the Assemblies of God. The majority of participants perceived themselves at risk of HIV infection (53 %). Premarital sexual abstinence was the most frequently (88 %) reported prevention message, followed by faithfulness (23 %), HIV testing (18 %) and condom use (17 %). Furthermore, religious affiliation was associated with education on sexuality and HIV in youth groups, with better information given to members of the Lutheran and Catholic churches. Faith communities need to strengthen their capacity to educate young people in a more holistic way about sexuality and HIV prevention.     

Mental Health Problems,Recovery, and the Impact of Green Care Services: A Qualitative,Participant-Focused Approach

This study aimed at gaining knowledge of users' experience of green care services (interventions using nature to improve health) for people with mental health or drug problems. Data were obtained from interviews with 20 participants in green care services and were analyzed qualitatively. Findings revealed that work in a social context close to nature and work with animals increased mastery and meaningfulness. Participation resulted in personal changes, new practical skills, improved social networks, and feelings of well-being. There appears to be powerful potential in using green care services as a recovery tool for people with mental health or drug-related problems.     

A general strain theory of intimate partner homicide

Men and women who kill an intimate partner experience qualitatively different situations and emotions in the months and weeks preceding the homicide event. Theoretical explanations of intimate partner homicide are either gender-specific or gender-neutral, and, as such, fail to take these gender differences into account. This article extends current theory by presenting a general strain theory of intimate partner homicide. General strain theory suggests that men and women who kill an intimate partner experience different types of strain and emotions, and that homicide occurs in response to these experiences. This application not only affords gender-sensitivity, but also incorporates negative emotions (often neglected by other theory-building), explains coping mechanisms, and combines proximal and distal etiological factors.     

The interference problem for the betting interpretation of degrees of belief

The paper’s target is the historically influential betting interpretation of subjective probabilities due to Ramsey and de Finetti. While there are several classical and well-known objections to this interpretation, the paper focuses on just one fundamental problem: There is a sense in which degrees of belief cannot be interpreted as betting rates. The reasons differ in different cases, but there’s one crucial feature that all these cases have in common: The agent’s degree of belief in a proposition A does not coincide with her degree of belief in a conditional that A would be the case if she were to bet on A, where the belief in this conditional itself is conditioned on the supposition that the agent will have an opportunity to make such a bet. Even though the two degrees of belief sometimes can coincide (they will coincide in those cases when the bet has no expected causal bearings on the proposition A and the opportunity to bet have no evidential bearings on that proposition), it is the latter belief rather than the former that guides the agent’s rational betting behaviour. The reason is that this latter belief takes into consideration potential interferences that bet opportunities and betting itself might create with regard to the proposition to be betted on. It is because of this interference problem that the agent’s degree of belief in A cannot be interpreted as her betting rate for A.     

Do you understand what you are reading?

This article discusses the concepts of literacy, theological literacy and literacy practices as a resource for understanding how tradition and faith/belief are intertwined. Against the background of recent elaborations of literacy within the field of literature and educational studies, the suggestion is made that “tradition” can be understood as a semiotic domain, i.e. a set of practices that recruits one or more modalities to communicate distinctive types of meanings. Theological literacy is accordingly defined as the ability to interpret, develop and communicate a theological semiotic domain. Literacy helps us to see that Christian faith/belief cannot be taught and acquired once and for all by learning a doctrinal content and a specific religious practice. At the same time, however, literacy nevertheless stresses the importance of knowing doctrinal content and religious practise, seeing that literacy is part of the process of shaping and construing faith and tradition.     

Psychoanalysis and the Growth of Knowledge

This paper discusses two kinds of complexities inherent in psychoanalysis' concept of transference. The first kind: transference emotions usually appear in the shape of polarities—that is, an emotion is accompanied by its opposite that may be manifest or latent. This is true both of emotions that are split off and ambivalent. In addition, two or more such polarities often co-exist, running like parallel tracks, e.g., an aggression polarity together with a dependence polarity. A clinical vignette illustrates this train of thought. The second kind: Starting from Winnicott's concept of transitional phenomena, the epistemologicaI status of the transference concept is discussed. Transference phenomena take place in an intermediate area between reality and phantasy, and between past and present. The ensuing paradoxes that will characterize the concept-formation have to be accepted and respected. Some technical consequences of these complexities are discussed.     

Expected car use reduction in response to structural travel demand management measures

Selecting the appropriate travel demand management (TDM) measures aiming to reduce the environmental problems associated with private transportation demands a thorough understanding of the behavioral consequences of different measures. In this scenario based study, the expected car use reduction in response to one push measure (i.e. raised tax on fossil fuel), one pull measure (i.e. improved public transport), and a combination of the two measures were analyzed. The aim was to compare the expected car use reduction in response to the different TDM measures, the car use reduction strategies used to achieve this reduction, and factors important for the expected car use reduction (i.e. background factors, internal motivational factors (general intention and personal norm), and perceived personal impact of the measure). In a two step between-subject design, a sample of car users first answered a pre-questionnaire and subsequently three groups of car users (N = 274) each evaluated one of the TDM measures. Results demonstrated that the combined measure led to larger expected car use reduction compared to the measures evaluated individually and the reduction was mainly expected to be made by means of trip chaining and changing travel mode. Moreover, internal motivational factors, such as personal norm or general intention, and the perceived impact of the measure, were found to be important for the expected car use reduction in response to the TDM measures.