A note on sequent calculi intermediate between LJ and LK

We prove that every finitely axiomatizable extension of Heyting's intuitionistic logic has a corresponding cut-free Gentzen-type formulation. It is shown how one can use this result to find the corresponding normalizable natural deduction system and to give a criterion for separability of considered logic. Obviously, the question how to obtain an effective definition of a sequent calculus which corresponds to a concrete logic remains a separate problem for every logic.     

Synergistic Paths to Happiness: Findings from Seven Countries

Four individual profiles of ways toward happiness were found on a Slovene sample: Full, Empty, Pleasurable, and Meaningful life types. The present study aimed to validate these four types in samples from seven different countries (N = 3690) utilising four different languages. Participants completed the Orientation towards Happiness Scale and measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and ill-being. A two-step cluster analysis was performed with each of the seven country samples. A highly congruent, highly internally replicable four-cluster solution was found in all seven samples. Full and Empty life individuals have high and low scores on all three orientations to happiness, respectively. Pleasurable and Meaningful types reflect two traditional philosophic orientations: Pleasurable life individuals scored high on pleasure, average on engagement and low on meaning orientation, while Meaningful life individuals had high scores on meaning, average on engagement, and low scores on pleasure orientation. The four types differed in subjective happiness and psychological well-being with full life type characterized by the highest scores on subjective happiness and psychological well-being, and Empty life by the lowest scores. On the other hand, depressive symptoms were likely to be the lowest in the Full life type and the highest in the Empty life type. Meaningful and Pleasurable life types were characterized by moderate well- and ill-being, but the two types tended not to differ from each other on the measures used.     

A Generalization of Inquisitive Semantics

This paper introduces a generalized version of inquisitive semantics, denoted as GIS, and concentrates especially on the role of disjunction in this general framework. Two alternative semantic conditions for disjunction are compared: the first one corresponds to the so-called tensor operator of dependence logic, and the second one is the standard condition for inquisitive disjunction. It is shown that GIS is intimately related to intuitionistic logic and its Kripke semantics. Using this framework, it is shown that the main results concerning inquisitive semantics, especially the axiomatization of inquisitive logic, can be viewed as particular cases of more general phenomena. In this connection, a class of non-standard superintuitionistic logics is introduced and studied. These logics share many interesting features with inquisitive logic, which is the strongest logic of this class.     

The Contribution of Metacognitions and Attentional Control to Decisional Procrastination

Earlier research has implicated metacognitions and attentional control in procrastination and self-regulatory failure. This study tested several hypotheses: (1) that metacognitions would be positively correlated with decisional procrastination; (2) that attentional control would be negatively correlated with decisional procrastination; (3) that metacognitions would be negatively correlated with attentional control; and (4) that metacognitions and attentional control would predict decisional procrastination when controlling for negative affect. One hundred and twenty-nine participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21, the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire 30, the Attentional Control Scale, and the Decisional Procrastination Scale. Significant relationships were found between all three attentional control factors (focusing, shifting, and flexible control of thought) and two metacognitions factors (negative beliefs concerning thoughts about uncontrollability and danger, and cognitive confidence). Results also revealed that decisional procrastination was significantly associated with negative affect, all measured metacognitions factors, and all attentional control factors. In the final step of a hierarchical regression analysis only stress, cognitive confidence, and attention shifting were independent predictors of decisional procrastination. Overall these findings support the hypotheses and are consistent with the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model of psychological dysfunction. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Effect of State and Trait Self-Critical Rumination on Acute Distress: An Exploratory Experimental Investigation

Self-critical rumination is a process whereby individuals focus attention on past failures and inadequacies without consideration for improvement or problem-solving. Past research has demonstrated that self-critical rumination is a separate process from the experience of having intrusive self-critical thoughts and that engaging in self-critical rumination is strongly correlated with beliefs that it is uncontrollable or represents a weakness of character. What is less clear at this time, however, is the impact that self-critical rumination has on levels of distress when faced with failure. Thirty volunteers who were not experiencing significant levels of depression were randomly assigned across three groups: one rumination and two controls. Acute distress was measured prior to and immediately following a task, as well as upon debrief. Individuals expected to complete an impossible task, who experienced simulated self-critical rumination experienced greater levels of acute distress than controls immediately following the task. There was also a significant correlation between reported levels of trait self-critical rumination, negative metacognitive beliefs and self-esteem with levels of distress following debrief when controlling for initial levels of distress and group membership. The use of subjective self-reports and small sample size limits the findings of this exploratory study. Engaging in self-critical rumination, and associated negative metacognitive beliefs, may have a significant impact on levels of acute distress following a recent failure.

     

How do Lithuanian adolescents address identity questions? A four-wave longitudinal study on change and stability in identity styles

Abstract

The present investigation evaluated multiple patterns of change and stability in Berzonsky’s identity styles (informational, normative, and diffuse-avoidant) in a four-annual-wave longitudinal study with 468 adolescent boys and girls from Lithuania. A combination of mean level changes, high rank-order stability, and high profile stability has been found in this study. First, levels of informational and normative identity styles remained stable for girls, but decreased significantly for boys; levels of diffuse-avoidant identity styles remained stable for girls and boys. Second, the rank-order stability of the normative and diffuse-avoidant styles was lower for boys, than for girls. Third, the mean profile stability was high for girls and moderate for boys. In general, our findings highlighted substantial gender differences in multiple indices of change and stability of identity styles.     

Extension Properties and Subdirect Representation in Abstract Algebraic Logic

This paper continues the investigation, started in Lávi?ka and Noguera (Stud Log 105(3): 521–551, 2017), of infinitary propositional logics from the perspective of their algebraic completeness and filter extension properties in abstract algebraic logic. If follows from the Lindenbaum Lemma used in standard proofs of algebraic completeness that, in every finitary logic, (completely) intersection-prime theories form a basis of the closure system of all theories. In this article we consider the open problem of whether these properties can be transferred to lattices of filters over arbitrary algebras of the logic. We show that in general the answer is negative, obtaining a richer hierarchy of pairwise different classes of infinitary logics that we separate with natural examples. As by-products we obtain a characterization of subdirect representation for arbitrary logics, develop a fruitful new notion of natural expansion, and contribute to the understanding of semilinear logics.