Reasonable expectations,moral responsibility,and empirical data

Philosophical Studies - Many philosophers think that a necessary condition on moral blameworthiness is that the wrongdoer can reasonably be expected to avoid the action for which she is blamed....     

Effects of spatial attention on detection and identification of oriented lines

In this paper, we study the effects of spatial attention on detection and identification of oriented lines presented at near-threshold luminance. In the first experiment, we found that the cuing effect was greater when observers had to discriminate between two close orientations than when they had to discriminate between two far-apart orientations. In the second experiment, we examined the effects of peripheral cues on summation of low-contrast oriented lines. We found that the range of orientations within which summation occurred was greater when the cues were invalid than when they were valid. Our results suggest that attention to a specific location in the visual field modulates the neural channels which code orientation in at least two different ways: (a) spatial attention increases the responsivity of these channels to stimuli presented at this location, and (b) it reduces the bandwidths or ranges of orientations to which these channels are sensitive. These results suggest that the properties of the orientation-tuned channels, including those that seem to exert their effects at early stages of orientation processing (e.g., tuning function), may not be fixed, but rather vary according to the attention being paid to the spatial region within which the target stimulus is presented.     

Definition of compassion-evoking images in a Mexican sample

To assemble a calibrated set of compassion-eliciting visual stimuli, 60 clinically healthy Mexican volunteers (36 women, 24 men; M age = 27.5 yr., SD = 2.4) assessed 84 pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System catalogue using the dimensions of Valence, Arousal, and Dominance included in the Self-assessment Manikin scale and an additional dimension of Compassion. Pictures showing suffering in social contexts and expressions of sadness elicited similar responses of compassion. The highest compassion response was reported for pictures showing illness and pain. Men and women differed in the intensity but not the quality of the compassionate responses. Compassion included attributes of negative emotions such as displeasure. The quality of the emotional response was not different from that previously reported for samples in the U.S.A., Spain, and Brazil. A set of 28 pictures was selected as high-compassion-evoking images and 28 as null-compassion controls suitable for studies designed to ascertain the neural substrates of this moral emotion.     

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: translation and validation in university students

The aim of this study was to translate into Spanish and to validate the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), completed by 420 university students. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the model that best fit the data, both in the total sample and in the male and female subsamples, was the one-factor structure with method effects associated with positively worded items. The results indicated high, positive correlations between self-esteem and the five dimensions of self-concept. The scale showed satisfactory levels of internal consistency and temporal stability over a four-week period. Lastly, gender differences were obtained. These findings support the use of the RSES for the assessment of self-esteem in higher education.     

Prediction of longevity of volunteer service: a basic alternative proposal

A problem for many organizations is the low continuity of volunteers. Diverse theoretical models have been developed to explain sustained volunteerism, but most of these models have focused on the study of welfare volunteerism and not have verified whether their results could be generalized to other types of volunteerism. In this study, we propose a basic model to explain sustained volunteerism in any type of volunteerism. The aim of this study is to examine this basic model empirically in a sample of socio-assistential volunteers and in a sample of environmental volunteers. For this purpose, 290 volunteers completed a questionnaire and subsequently, two telephone follow-ups were carried out to determine whether the volunteers remained in the NGO one year later. The results show that the basic model offers an acceptable explanation of sustained volunteerism in the two types of volunteer samples studied, but it accounted for a low percentage of variance of the duration of service in both samples. Various relevant implications for the practical management of volunteerism in organizations are derived from theses findings.     

Psychoanalytic transformations1

The author describes how Bion took Freud's conception of dreams as a form of thought and used it as the basis of his theory of transformations. Bion developed an expanded theory of ‘dream thought’, understood as a process of selection and transformation of sensory and emotional experiences. In this theory, the work of analysis is in turn conceived as a process not only of deciphering symbols, of revealing already existing unconscious meanings, but also of symbol production‐of a process for generating thoughts and conferring meaning on experiences that have never been conscious and never been repressed because they have never been ‘thought’. Analysis, in its specific operational sense, becomes a system of transformation whereby unconscious somatopsychic processes acquire the conditions for representability and become capable of translation into thoughts, words and interpretations. The rules of transformation applied by the patient in his representations and those applied by the analyst in his interpretations have the same importance for the analytic process as those described by Freud for the process of dreaming. The author discusses the broad categories of transformation adduced by Bion (rigid motion, projective, and in hallucinosis) and introduces some further distinctions within them.     

The twofold face of fatalism: collectivist fatalism and individualist fatalism

Fatalism has been a central framework for understanding the psychological processes in cultures with pronounced collectivism that are economically poorly developed. In this context, fatalism emerges as cognitive schema defined by passive and submissive acceptance of an irremediable destiny, governed by some natural force or the will of some God. This image has now lost such a clear profile. But currently, fatalism also accompanies the life of people from individualist cultures, who live in a highly developed, or even opulent, economic context. In this case, fatalism is like some mood of uncertainty, insecurity, and helplessness following the events that characterize the society of global risk. In this paper, we propose a theory to develop the two faces of fatalism.     

Depression and the complete state model of health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. In order to specify the contents of this positive state, the Complete State Model of Health (CSMH) considers mental health as a series of symptoms of hedonia and positive functioning, operationalized by measures of subjective, psychological, and social well-being. This model has empirically confirmed two new axioms: (a) rather than forming a single bipolar dimension, health and illness are correlated unipolar dimensions, and (b) the presence of mental health implies positive personal and social functioning. In the present article, we have taken the CSMH as the theoretical framework for the study of depression. Confirmatory factor analyses did not support the first axiom. In fact, the model that posits that measures of mental illness and health form a single bipolar dimension provided the best fit to the data.     

Metrical perception of trisyllabic speech rhythms

The perception of duration-based syllabic rhythm was examined within a metrical framework. Participants assessed the duration patterns of four-syllable phrases set within the stress structure XxxX (an Abercrombian trisyllabic foot). Using on-screen sliders, participants created percussive sequences that imitated speech rhythms and analogous non-speech monotone rhythms. There was a tendency to equalize the interval durations for speech stimuli but not for non-speech. Despite the perceptual regularization of syllable durations, different speech phrases were conceived in various rhythmic configurations, pointing to a diversity of perceived meters in speech. In addition, imitations of speech stimuli showed more variability than those of non-speech. Rhythmically skilled listeners exhibited lower variability and were more consistent with vowel-centric estimates when assessing speech stimuli. These findings enable new connections between meter- and duration-based models of speech rhythm perception.