Family-of-Origin,Sexual Attitudes,and Perceptions of Infidelity: A Mediation Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence family of origin and sexual attitudes have on perceptions of infidelity through a mediation analysis to test whether sexual attitudes mediates the relationship between family of origin attitudes and perceptions of infidelity. Results indicated that family of origin attitudes were linked with higher permissive sexual attitudes and lower perceptions of infidelity. Additionally, results indicated an indirect link between family of origin attitudes and perceptions of infidelity through sexual attitudes. These findings align with previous research examining how family of origin influences the occurrence of infidelity and provides insight to helping professionals as they address infidelity in romantic relationships.     

Helping children apply their knowledge to their behavior on a dimension-switching task

To investigate why 3-year-olds have difficulty in switching sorting dimensions, children of 3 and 4 years were tested in one of four conditions on Zelazo's card sort task: standard, sleeve, label and face-up. In the standard condition, children were required to sort blue-truck and red-star cards under either a blue-star or red-truck model card, first by color or shape, and then by the other dimension. Here 3-year-olds sorted correctly until the dimension changed; they continue to sort by the initial dimension. The sleeve condition (placing the sorting cards in an envelope prior to sorting) had little effect. In the label condition, the child labeled the relevant sorting dimension on each trial. Most 3-year-olds succeeded; evidently their labeling helped them refocus their attention, overcoming ‘attentional inertia’ (the pull to continue attending to the previously relevant dimension). In the face-up condition, attentional inertia was strengthened because sorted cards were left face-up; 4-year-olds performed worse than in the standard condition. We posit that attentional inertia is the core problem for preschoolers on the card sort task.     

Causal explanation improves judgment under uncertainty,but rarely in a Bayesian way

Three studies reexamined the claim that clarifying the causal origin of key statistics can increase normative performance on Bayesian problems involving judgment under uncertainty. Experiments 1 and 2 found that causal explanation did not increase the rate of normative solutions. However, certain types of causal explanation did lead to a reduction in the magnitude of errors in probability estimation. This effect was most pronounced when problem statistics were expressed in percentage formats. Experiment 3 used process-tracing methods to examine the impact of causal explanation of false positives on solution strategies. Changes in probability estimation following causal explanation were the result of a mixture of individual reasoning strategies, including non-Bayesian mechanisms, such as increased attention to explained statistics and approximations of subcomponents of Bayes’ rule. The results show that although causal explanation of statistics can affect the way that a problem is mentally represented, this does not necessarily lead to an increased rate of normative responding.     

TRANSCENDING OUR BIOLOGY: A VIRTUE ETHICS INTERPRETATION OF THE APPEAL TO NATURE IN TECHNOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

“Arguments from nature” are used, and have historically been used, in popular responses to advances in technology and to environmental issues—there is a widely shared body of ethical intuitions that nature, or perhaps human nature, sets some limits on the kinds of ends that we should seek, the kinds of things that we should do, or the kinds of lives that we should lead. Virtue ethics can provide the context for a defensible form of the argument from nature, and one that makes proper sense of its enduring role in debates concerning our relationship to technology and the environment. However, the notion of an ethics founded upon an account of the essential features of human nature is controversial. On the one hand, contemporary biological science no longer defines species by their essential characteristics, so from a biological point of view there just are no essential characteristics of human beings. On the other hand, it might be argued that humans have, in some sense, “transcended our biology,” so an understanding of humans as a biological species is extraneous to ethical questions. In this article, I examine and defend the argument from nature, as a way to ground an ethic of virtue, from some of the more common criticisms that are made against it. I argue that, properly interpreted as an appeal to an evaluative account of human nature, the argument from nature is defensible with the context of virtue ethics and, in this light, I show how arguments from nature made in popular responses to technological and environmental issues are best understood.     

The role of the patient in the management of post surgical pain

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to test the idea that patients do not have the necessary knowledge about pain relief to contribute effectively to their own pain management through such strategies as being more assertive in requesting analgesia. When patients were provided with video-taped information about available pain control techniques, together with a rationale for the minimisation of pain and encouragement to request analgesia as required, they did not achieve significantly less pain than control groups. Since patients were well satisfied with pain levels substantially greater than zero, it is argued that the conventional wisdom that high pain scores indicate that post surgical pain is badly treated should be re-assessed.     

Disclaimer labels on fashion magazine advertisements: Effects on social comparison and body dissatisfaction

Recent proposals across a number of Western countries have suggested that idealised media images should carry some sort of disclaimer informing readers when these images have been digitally enhanced. The present studies aimed to experimentally investigate the impact on women's body dissatisfaction of the addition of such warning labels to fashion magazine advertisements. Participants were 120 and 114 female undergraduate students in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 respectively. In both experiments, participants viewed fashion magazine advertisements with either no warning label, a generic warning label, or a specific more detailed warning label. In neither experiment was there a significant effect of type of label. However, state appearance comparison was found to predict change in body dissatisfaction irrespective of condition. Unexpectedly, trait appearance comparison moderated the effect of label on body dissatisfaction, such that for women high on trait appearance comparison, exposure to specific warning labels actually resulted in increased body dissatisfaction. In sum, the present results showed no benefit of warning labels in ameliorating the known negative effect of viewing thin-ideal media images, and even suggested that one form of warning (specific) might be harmful for some individuals. Accordingly, it was concluded that more extensive research is required to guide the most effective use of disclaimer labels.     

Employee theft in the restaurant trade: Forms of ripping off by waiters at work

The variety of part‐time theft techniques used by waiters in the restaurant trade is examined using a self‐report methodology. Using twelve hypothetical cases of ripping off in restaurants, three potential theft targets are assessed: the restaurant, customers of the restaurant, and co‐workers. Predictions about the frequency of involvement of these theft activities are tested using a sample of waiters in four “prime rib” restaurants. Hypotheses dealing with working conditions and the ability to neutralize moral controls against theft are presented to explain which waiters will be involved in employee theft. The theoretical implications of “amateur trading” and pecuniary‐based theft are developed in order to show the critical role that theft activities play in the work setting of the restaurant. The findings have implications for the “controlled larceny” solution to the problem of employee theft suggested by some observers.     

Perceptions of punishment for crime

A survey questionnaire administered to 662 university undergraduates is used to assess patterns of perceptions of punishment. Results show that the nature of the crime, characteristics of criminal offenders, and characteristics of respondents affect the nature of punishment assigned for 25 criminal offenses.