Mastery Without Mystery: Why there is no Promethean Sin in Enhancement

Several authors have suggested that we cannot fully grapple with the ethics of human enhancement unless we address neglected questions about our place in the world, questions that verge on theology but can be pursued independently of religion. A prominent example is Michael Sandel, who argues that the deepest objection to enhancement is that it expresses a Promethean drive to mastery which deprives us of openness to the unbidden and leaves us with nothing to affirm outside our own wills. Sandel's argument against enhancement has been criticized, but his claims about mastery and the unbidden, and their relation to religion, have not yet received sufficient attention. I argue that Sandel misunderstands the notions of mastery and the unbidden and their significance. Once these notions are properly understood, they have surprising implications. It turns out that the value of openness to the unbidden is not just independent of theism, as Sandel claims, but is in fact not even fully compatible with it. But in any case that value cannot support Sandel's objection to enhancement.This is because it is not enhancement but certain forms of opposition to enhancement that are most likely to express a pernicious drive to mastery.     

An Examination of the Moderating Effect of Core Self-Evaluations and the Mediating Effect of Self-Set Goals on the Primed Goal-Task Performance Relationship

An understudied issue in the goal priming literature is why the same prime can provoke different responses in different people. The current research sheds light on this issue by investigating whether an individual difference variable, core self-evaluations (CSE), accounts for different responses from the same prime. Based on the findings of experiments showing that individuals with high CSE have higher performance after consciously setting a task-related goal than individuals with lower CSE, two hypotheses were tested: (1) Individuals who score high on CSE perform better following a subconsciously primed goal for achievement than do individuals who score low on CSE, and (2) this effect is mediated by a self-set goal. Two laboratory experiments (n = 207, 191) and one field experiment (n = 62) provided support for the hypotheses. These findings suggest that personality variables such as the CSE can provide an explanation for the “many effects of the one prime problem”.     

War experiences and emerging rights claims in postwar former Yugoslavia: The role of generalized conflict exposure and collective anomie

Violent conflicts have often been observed to generate social environments in which human rights violations are more easily tolerated and legitimized. However, recent research has documented cases in which communities exposed to violence react with increased condemnations of human rights violations. In this article, we focus on the distinction between generalized and particularized violence. Our findings show that, in the postwar ex-Yugoslavia context, when local communities have been exposed to violence that was generalized across different ethno-national groups, they strongly condemn human rights violations. Multilevel structural equation models show that the relationship between generalized victimization and the condemnation of human rights violations is mediated by a collective sense of anomie. The processes that move from collective exposure to violence to the collective reaffirmation of human rights are more likely to unfold in communities where violence transcended group boundaries than in communities where particular groups were disproportionately affected by the violence.     

The Relationship between Coping Strategies and Perceived Stress in Telephone Intervention Volunteers at a Suicide Prevention Center

This study examines stress perceived by telephone intervention volunteers at a suicide prevention center before their shift, during the most high-urgency call, and after the shift. Eighty of the 82 active volunteers completed questionnaires concerning stress, coping strategies, motivations for volunteer work, and experiences with suicide. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that only one variable, the amount of experience in telephone intervention with suicidal persons, predicted stress level before the shift; volunteers with more experience tended to be less stressed. Stress during the most urgent call was related first to the level of urgency of the call, then to the total length of all calls received, followed by the coping mechanisms of magical thinking, detachment, and feeling personally responsible. Stress after the shift was related first to the total amount of time spent on calls, then to the number of other persons present during the shift. Stress after the shift was also negatively related to amount of education and having realistic expectations about interventions. Magical thinking was positively related to stress, and the mechanism of positive thinking was negatively related. A high proportion of volunteers had attempted suicide, had previous thoughts about suicide, and had known persons who attempted or died by suicide. These findings are discussed as to their implications for the selection and training of volunteers in suicide prevention.