Capital Punishment, Restoration and Moral Rightness

In order to show that opposition to capital punishment cannot be both moral and entirely unconditional, Hugo Bedau proposes a fantasy–world scenario in which the execution of a murderer restores his murder victim to life. Were such a world to exist, argues Bedau, the death penalty would then be morally right. The aim of this article is to show that Bedau's argument is mistaken, largely because capital punishment in his fantasy world would not be an instrument of perfect restitution, as he thinks, but instead would be an instrument of unfair restitution. Two attempts are made to repair Bedau's fantasy–world argument, but neither of them is found to be successful. Consequently his fantasy world does not successfully provide the conditions under which opposition to capital punishment morally would have to cease. However, because capital punishment is morally wrong in his fantasy world it does not follow that it is morally wrong in this world.     

Social-cognitive processes as moderators of a couple-focused group intervention for women with early stage breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose was to examine whether social-cognitive variables would moderate the efficacy of a couple-focused group intervention (CG) for women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. DESIGN: Participants (N = 238) were randomly assigned to 6 sessions of a couple-focused group versus usual care. Intent to treat growth curve modeling analyses indicated that emotional expression and emotional processing moderated CG effects on depression. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measures for this study were psychological distress and psychological well-being. RESULTS: Treatment attrition analyses separating out participants assigned to but not attending CG indicated that emotional expression, emotional processing, and protective buffering moderated the effects of CG among those who attended CG with the most consistent effects noted for emotional processing on indicators of distress and well-being. CONCLUSION: The CG intervention may be more effective for patients who begin the group experience using emotional approach coping strategies to deal with cancer.     

A randomized trial of a representational intervention to decrease cancer pain (RIDcancerPain).

OBJECTIVE: Based on theories regarding cognitive representations of illness and processes of conceptual change, a representational intervention to decrease cancer pain (RIDcancerPain) was developed and its efficacy tested. DESIGN: A two-group RCT (RIDcancerPain versus control) with outcome and mediating variables assessed at baseline (T1) and 1 and 2 months later (T2 and T3). Subjects were 176 adults with pain related to metastatic cancer. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome variables were two pain severity measures (BPI and TPQM), pain interference with life, and overall quality of life. Mediating variables were attitudinal barriers to pain management and coping (medication use). RESULTS: One hundred and fifty subjects completed the study. Subjects in RIDcancerPain (T1-T2 and T1-T3) showed greater decreases in Barrier scores than those in control. Subjects in RIDcancerPain (T1-T3) showed greater decreases in pain severity than those in control. Change in Barriers scores mediated the effect of RIDcancerPain on pain severity. CONCLUSION: RIDcancerPain was efficacious with respect to some outcomes. Further work is needed to strengthen it.     

Retrieval processes that produce interference in modified forced-choice recognition tests

Recognition can suffer if the retrieval cues activate more than one trace (e.g., for Flower A and Flower A′). We found evidence for two retrieval processes by examining interference effects in forcedchoice tests (e.g., Did you see Flower A or Flower A″?). Experiment 1 provided evidence of a problem in discriminating between temporally and contextually similar traces that were formed in the study phase. A competitor (Flower A′) interfered more if it was shown in the study phase rather than in the test phase. Experiments 2 and 3 found evidence for a blocking process in recognizing pairs of words (child—apple). A competitor interfered more if it was recent, shown at test rather than at study. This pattern occurred regardless of whether the competitor was similar to the target (child—orange) or dissimilar to it (child—truck). The importance of a particular retrieval process may depend on an item’s representation as well as on the retrieval cues.