Pushing moral buttons: The interaction between personal force and intention in moral judgment

In some cases people judge it morally acceptable to sacrifice one person’s life in order to save several other lives, while in other similar cases they make the opposite judgment. Researchers have identified two general factors that may explain this phenomenon at the stimulus level: (1) the agent’s intention (i.e. whether the harmful event is intended as a means or merely foreseen as a side-effect) and (2) whether the agent harms the victim in a manner that is relatively “direct” or “personal”. Here we integrate these two classes of findings. Two experiments examine a novel personalness/directness factor that we call personal force, present when the force that directly impacts the victim is generated by the agent’s muscles (e.g., in pushing). Experiments 1a and b demonstrate the influence of personal force on moral judgment, distinguishing it from physical contact and spatial proximity. Experiments 2a and b demonstrate an interaction between personal force and intention, whereby the effect of personal force depends entirely on intention. These studies also introduce a method for controlling for people’s real-world expectations in decisions involving potentially unrealistic hypothetical dilemmas.     

Introduction

This introduction presents the extension of Freud's instinct theory via Kohut's theory of narcissism and the self to an application of the combined theories to the political group violence racking the world scene.     

Wavelet modelling of collinearity judgment error

Prior research has found that participants manifest complex profiles of error when they are asked to judge collinearity of stimulus elements. These studies used harmonic analysis to model the data, and found large departures from accurate collinear judgments, with the amplitude and specific angular position of departures from valid judgment varying from one participant to the next. The models appeared to be a composite of many large‐, medium‐ and small‐scale departures, but this could not be established with any certainty because of the global nature of harmonic model components. Wavelet modelling is better suited to answer the question of whether the error profile is produced by independent sources that vary in size and location. Here, we examined judgments of collinearity of dot pairs across 360° of angular position. A priori and post hoc wavelet modelling strategies were used to identify independent sources of error that could not be attributed to chance, and some new statistical protocols were applied. We found evidence of error sources at several levels of scale, and these results were confirmed by the application of cross‐validation methods that make no assumption about the nature of the error probability distribution.     

What do the MMPI-2 restructured clinical scales reliably measure? Answers from multiple research settings

The Restructured Clinical (RC; Tellegen et al., 2003) scales were developed to improve measurement of the core constructs of the MMPI-2 (Butcher et al., 2001) Clinical scales by removing "demoralization," hypothesized to affect these scales adversely. Using 25 samples with MMPI-2 responses from 78,159 subjects across diverse clinical settings, we found that each RC scale was highly correlated with a Supplementary, Content, or Personality Psychopathology 5 (PSY-5; Harkness, McNulty, & Ben-Porath, 1995) scale: higher, in fact, than the correlation between the RC scale and its parent scale. Furthermore, for over half the RC scales (i.e., RC1, RC3, RC7, RC8, and RCd), the correlations were strong enough to conclude that the RC scales replicate MMPI-2 scales with rich empirical foundations; the remaining RC scales were not redundant. Next, we examined reliability estimates using alpha coefficients and interitem correlations and did not reveal superior reliability for most of the RC scales over existing MMPI-2 scales.     

Testicular Cancer and Genetics Knowledge Among Familial Testicular Cancer Family Members

Purpose  

It was our aim to determine baseline levels of testicular cancer and genetics knowledge among members of families with Familial Testicular Cancer (FTC).     

Consenting to uncertainty: challenges for informed consent to disease screening—a case study

This paper uses chronic beryllium disease as a case study to explore some of the challenges for decision-making and some of the problems for obtaining meaningful informed consent when the interpretation of screening results is complicated by their probabilistic nature and is clouded by empirical uncertainty. Although avoidance of further beryllium exposure might seem prudent for any individual whose test results suggest heightened disease risk, we will argue that such a clinical precautionary approach is likely to be a mistake. Instead, advice on the interpretation of screening results must focus not on risk per se, but on avoidable risk, and must be carefully tailored to the individual. These points are of importance for individual decision-making, for informed consent, and for occupational health.

Occupational Attachment and Met Expectations as Predictors of Retirement Adjustment of Naval Officers1

Attachment to one's former occupation and met expectations regarding retirement were proposed as predictors of the adjustment of military retirees. While results suggested that occupational attachment had a minimal impact, the extent to which expectations of civilian work, financial, and family aspects of life were met emerged as significant predictors of satisfaction and adjustment after military retirement. These findings suggest that the characteristics of the post‐retirement environment, and expectations regarding this environment, outweigh the importance of occupational attachment in determining post‐retirement adjustment in this setting.     

Orthographic neighborhood size effects in recognition memory

This study argues for the importance of physical word features in recognition memory by investigating the influence of orthographic distinctiveness. Experiment 1 demonstrated a mirror effect in ayes/no recognition test by manipulating orthographic neighborhood size. Words with small neighborhoods showed more hits and fewer false alarms than did words with larger neighborhoods. Experiment 2 replicated the neighborhood size mirror effect using null pairs in a forced choice recognition test. Experiment 3 required remember/know judgments in a yes/no recognition task. Experiment 4 used the same yes/no test as did Experiment 1, adding a study task that drew attention away from orthographic information in the study list. The mirror pattern disappeared with the addition of the study task.