Being implicated: on the fittingness of guilt and indignation over outcomes

Philosophical Studies - When is it fitting for an agent to feel guilt over an outcome, and for others to be morally indignant with her over it? A popular answer requires that the outcome happened...     

Outsourcing the deep self: Deep self discordance does not explain away intuitions in manipulation arguments

According to manipulation arguments for incompatibilism, manipulation might undermine an agent’s responsibility even when the agent satisfies plausible compatibilist conditions on responsibility. According to Sripada (2012 Sripada, C. (2012). What makes a manipulated agent unfree? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 85, 563–593.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), however, empirical data suggest that people take manipulation to undermine responsibility largely because they think that the manipulated act is in discord with the agent’s “deep self,” thus violating the plausible compatibilist condition of deep self concordance. This paper defends Sripada’s general methodological approach but presents data that strongly suggest that, contrary to Sripada’s contention, most of the effect of manipulation on attributions of moral responsibility is unmediated by worries about inadequate information or deep self discordance. Instead, it depends largely on worries that the action is ultimately explained by factors outside the agent’s control, just as proponents of manipulation arguments have proposed. More generally, data suggest that judgments of deep self discordance are themselves explained by worries about responsibility, and that the everyday notion of what an agent wants or is “deep down” is sensitive not only to the agent’s internal psychological structure, but also its source. This casts some doubt on recent claims about the explanatory role of deep self judgments.     

Is disgust sensitive to classical conditioning as indexed by facial electromyography and behavioural responses?

Earlier studies provided preliminary support for the role of classical conditioning as a pathway of disgust learning, yet this evidence has been limited to self-report. This study included facial electromyographical (EMG) measurements (corrugator and levator muscles) and a behavioural approach task to assess participants’ motivation-to-eat the actual food items (conditioned stimuli, CS). Food items served as CS and film excerpts of a woman vomiting served as unconditioned stimuli (US). Following acquisition the CS+ (neutral CS paired with US disgust) was rated as more disgusting and less positive. Notably, the conditioned response was transferred to the actual food items as evidenced by participants’ reported lowered willingness-to-eat. Participants also showed heightened EMG activity in response to the CS+ which seemed driven by the corrugator indexing a global negative affect. These findings suggest that classical conditioning as a pathway of disgust learning can be reliably observed in subjective but not in disgust-specific physiological responding.     

Distinct neuronal patterns of positive and negative moral processing in psychopathy

Psychopathy is a disorder characterized by severe and frequent moral violations in multiple domains of life. Numerous studies have shown psychopathy-related limbic brain abnormalities during moral processing; however, these studies only examined negatively valenced moral stimuli. Here, we aimed to replicate prior psychopathy research on negative moral judgments and to extend this work by examining psychopathy-related abnormalities in the processing of controversial moral stimuli and positive moral processing. Incarcerated adult males (N = 245) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging protocol on a mobile imaging system stationed at the prison. Psychopathy was assessed using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R). Participants were then shown words describing three types of moral stimuli: wrong (e.g., stealing), not wrong (e.g., charity), and controversial (e.g., euthanasia). Participants rated each stimulus as either wrong or not wrong. PCL-R total scores were correlated with not wrong behavioral responses to wrong moral stimuli, and were inversely related to hemodynamic activity in the anterior cingulate cortex in the contrast of wrong > not wrong. In the controversial > noncontroversial comparison, psychopathy was inversely associated with activity in the temporal parietal junction and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that psychopathy-related abnormalities are observed during the processing of complex, negative, and positive moral stimuli.     

Development of a Health Related Quality of Life Measure for Adolescents and Young Adults Following Invasive Meningococcal Disease

This study describes the key areas that matter to adolescent survivors of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD). Satisfaction with Life After Meningitis is a brief multidimensional measure of health related quality of life that is reliable and correlates with criterion variables in a theoretically meaningful way. To develop a Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) measure for adolescent and young adult survivors of (IMD) we used a cross-sectional study and focus groups. The study was conducted in two phases. In Phase 1 a pool of potential items were generated based on the following: a review of existing measures, focus groups with IMD survivors, and an expert group consultation. Phase 2 involved administration of the questionnaire to a sample of adolescent and young adult IMD survivors. Factor analysis suggested a correlated four factor solution: Wellbeing, Positive about Future, Social Support, and Confidence. These factors were significantly correlated in a theoretically predictable way with scores from the Beck Depression Inventory (correlations ranged from ?0.77 to ?0.81) and the eight domains of the SF-36 Health Survey (correlations ranged from 0.32 to 0.79). The reliability of all subscales was high ranging from 0.85 to 0.92. The Satisfaction with Life After Meningitis (SLAM) questionnaire is a HRQoL self-report measure that produces reliable scores and is appropriate for use with young survivors of IMD. There is also evidence of concurrent validity with existing measures of physical and psychological well-being.     

Reinforcement sensitivity theory and major motivational and self-regulatory processes in children

The present research explores the role of sensitivity in the BIS and the BAS as antecedents to cognitive and affective motivational processes in middle-school children. Two studies were initiated to examine the relationship between sensitivity in the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and behavioral approach system (BAS) and several important motivational factors. The first study looked at the assumption that the BIS and the BAS are systematically linked to motives and achievement goals. The second study investigated the links between BIS/BAS and individual differences in self-regulatory processes and affect during problem-solving. The findings indicate that the motive to avoid failure, the inability to take action after failure and to initiate intended goal-directed activities, as well as the tendency to focus on avoiding misunderstanding are all grounded in threat responsiveness. Conversely, the motive to approach success, self-efficacy and the tendency to focus on comparison with others in a problem-solving setting are grounded in incentive responsiveness.     

How Effects Depend on their Causes,Why Causal Transitivity Fails,and Why we Care About Causation

Despite recent efforts to improve on counterfactual theories of causation, failures to explain how effects depend on their causes are still manifest in a variety of cases. In particular, theories that do a decent job explaining cases of causal preemption have problems accounting for cases of causal intransitivity. Moreover, the increasing complexity of the counterfactual accounts makes it difficult to see why the concept of causation would be such a central part of our cognition. In this paper, I propose an account of our causal thinking that not only explains the hitherto puzzling variety of causal judgments, but also makes it intelligible why we would employ such an elusive concept.     

Influence of co-morbid generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and personality disorders on the outcome of cognitive behavioural treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder

This study examined co-morbid generalized anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder and personality disorders as predictors of treatment outcomes in adult outpatients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The patients received exposure with response prevention (ERP) treatment with the addition of either elements of cognitive therapy (ERP+CT) or relaxation training (ERP+REL). It was hypothesized that the addition of cognitive interventions would yield better treatment outcomes for patients with co-morbid generalized anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder. It was also hypothesized that patients with any personality disorder would show less treatment gains in both conditions. Using intention-to-treat criteria, patients with generalized anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder co-morbidity showed less treatment gains at post-treatment across both treatment conditions. This group showed significantly more treatment gains in the ERP+CT condition at the post-treatment and the 12-month follow-up assessments compared with patients in the ERP+REL condition. However, this was not significant when comparing treatment completers. Patients with a co-morbid Cluster A or B personality disorder showed significantly less treatment gains in both treatment conditions at the 12-month follow-up assessment. Among treatment completers, patients with a Cluster C personality disorder showed significantly better outcomes at the post-treatment assessment in the ERP+REL treatment condition. These results, clinical implications, and the importance of further investigations are discussed.     

Life Satisfaction and Associated Factors Among People Aged 60 Years and Above in Six European Countries

Life satisfaction is a concept frequently used to measure wellbeing of older people. However, there is still a lack of cross-national comparative research investigating factors associated with life satisfaction. There may be unique and common factors associated with life satisfaction across European countries. This study aimed to investigate life satisfaction among people aged 60–89 years in six European countries in relation to health problems, ADL capacity, self-esteem, social and financial resources. A cross-sectional study was performed, including 7,699 people aged 60–89 years, in Sweden, the UK, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Austria and Italy, participating in the European Study of Adult Wellbeing, using questions from the Older Americans Resources and Services schedule, Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire, Life Satisfaction Index Z and Rosenberg’s Self-esteem scale. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine factors associated with life satisfaction in the six national samples. In cases where people were less satisfied with their life it was fairly satisfactory and unsatisfactory social contacts (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.5–13.8), poor financial resources (OR 1.7–15.1), feeling greatly hindered by health problems (OR 2.2–5.4) and self-esteem (OR 2.1–5.1) rather than the ability to perform activities of daily living and the extent of social contacts that gave the greatest risk of low life satisfaction in all the six European countries. There were both common and country-specific factors important for life satisfaction in the six European countries. However, the importance of satisfactory social contacts, financial resources, self-esteem and feeling hindered by health problems seems universal in the six included countries and thus important to target in preventive interventions.     

Contributions of weight perceptions to weight loss attempts: Differences by body mass index and gender

Previous studies have consistently observed that women are more likely to perceive themselves as overweight compared to men. Similarly, women are more likely than men to report trying to lose weight. Less is known about the impact that self-perceived weight has on weight loss behaviors of adults and whether this association differs by gender. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among an employee sample (n = 899) to determine the association of self-perceived weight on evidence-based weight loss behaviors across genders, accounting for body mass index (BMI) and demographic characteristics. Women were more likely than men to consider themselves to be overweight across each BMI category, and were more likely to report attempting to lose weight. However, perceiving oneself to be overweight was a strong correlate for weight loss attempts across both genders. The effect of targeting accuracy of self-perceived weight status in weight loss interventions deserves research attention.