The Structure of Character

In this paper, I defend a local account of character traits that posits traits like close-friend-honesty and good-mood-compassion. John Doris also defends local character traits, but his local character traits are indistinguishable from mere behavioral dispositions, they are not necessary for the purpose which allegedly justifies them, and their justification is only contingent, depending upon the prevailing empirical situation. The account of local traits I defend posits local traits that are traits of character rather than behavioral dispositions, local traits that are necessary to satisfy one of their central purposes, and local traits whose justification is dependent upon theoretical rather than empirical considerations.     

WITHOUT CONSENT: PRINCIPLES OF JUSTIFIED ACQUISITION AND DUTY-IMPOSING POWERS

A controversy in political philosophy and applied ethics concerns the validity of duty-imposing powers, that is, rights entitling one person to impose new duties on others without their consent. Many philosophers have criticized as unplausible any such moral right, in particular that of appropriating private property unilaterally. Some, finding duty-imposing powers weird, unfamiliar or baseless, have argued that principles of justified acquisition should be rejected; others have required them to satisfy exacting criteria. I investigate the many ways in which we regularly impose duties on one another without prior consent. I show that doing so is not weird, and I offer criteria which demarcate the reasonable from the worrisome aspects of duty-imposing powers.     

The Role of Cognitive Control in Cocaine Dependence

While hedonic and reward-related processes are central to drug use and dependence, this article focuses on the contribution that cognitive processes may make to addiction. In particular, attention is drawn to those processes involved in exercising control over behavior as drug dependence is characterized by risky, impulsive behavior. Functional neuroimaging implicates prefrontal deficits in cocaine dependence with an emerging picture of cocaine users having attentional biases towards drug-related stimuli, poor performance in laboratory tests of inhibitory control, and compromised monitoring and evaluation of their behavior. Combined, these deficits may contribute to the continuation of use in dependent individuals and may qualify as important targets for therapeutic interventions.     

Ethics and the sexual countertransference

In this paper I shall suggest that, in addition to 'conscience', the archetype of Eros plays an important part in 'benign relatedness' and that this is what constitutes an ethical attitude. I also propose that the idea of 'benign relatedness' can provide us with a workable concept for those serving on Ethics Committees especially when our Code of Ethics is unclear or limited. I attempt to show that the analytic attitude is essentially ethical and define what I see as the analytic attitude as a way of demonstrating this. By discussing the neurotic sexual countertransference and unconscious identity I hope to clarify the main reasons for unethical enactments. I use examples of ethical problems, including a personal experience, to illustrate the kinds that occur and lastly I discuss how mourning plays an important part in the resolution and avoidance of these problems.     

Religiosity and HIV Risk Behavior Involvement Among “At Risk” Women

During the past decade, increased attention has been payed to the role that religious and faith-based organizations can play in enhancing health behaviors. Generally, researchers have found that religious and faith-based programs can have a positive impact upon enhancing people's health and helping them to reduce risky health practices. Initial research into the impact that these programs can have on HIV-related knowledge and risk behaviors has also been promising, albeit quite limited. In this study, we examine the role that religiosity plays in women's involvement in HIV risk behaviors. Religiosity was found to be a strong predictor of women's involvement in HIV-related risky behaviors, with the greatest risk reported by women who were the least religious.     

Framingham vascular age is associated with worse cognitive performance in the middle-aged and elderly

“Normal” age-related cognitive decline has been associated with cardiovascular risk factors. Framingham Vascular Age is age-normed cardiovascular risk which may help communicate risk to patients and identify those at relatively higher risk. We aim to assess the association between Framingham Vascular Age and cognition. 346 “healthy” participants (57±10 years) without neuropsychiatric disorders or clinical manifestations of cardiovascular disease were studied. Cognition was evaluated using the Brief Memory and Executive Test and Framingham Vascular Age was calculated. The association between Framingham Vascular Age and cognitive performance was determined through General Linear Models to control for covariates. Framingham Vascular age was associated with poorer Memory and Executive Function/Processing Speed indices (p= 0.019 and p<0.001, respectively). We conclude Framingham Vascular Age is associated with worse Executive Function/Processing Speed and Memory. Vascular Age may help identify patients at higher risk of age-related cognitive decline with implications for communicating the morbidity associated with cardiovascular risk.     

More focused attention upon relationship; another call for paradigm shift in psychiatry

Much of what are understood as ‘mental health difficulties’ reflects shortcomings in the ability to develop and sustain healthy relationships. Many of those embarking upon life as someone with a psychiatric diagnosis are people whose difficulties can be traced to adolescence, or even earlier in life. Unsatisfactory relational experiences during childhood are acknowledged contributors to subsequent psychological vulnerability. Numerous studies identify associations between other forms of relational disturbance, and the onset and maintenance of psychological difficulties. Some eighty years’ psychotherapy research has repeatedly suggested that the quality of therapeutic relationship is a major determinant of outcome. Sophisticated analyses of large databases now confirm this beyond doubt. All concur that social exclusion and stigma are the most disabling consequences of living as someone with a psychiatric diagnosis. None of these facts are disputed but there is continuing resistance to broad acknowledgement of their implications. This has many parallels with other examples of paradigm shift, as so clearly outlined by Thomas Kuhn. Uncertainties about the value of medical psychiatry and growing recognition of the role relationships play in the genesis and relief of mental health difficulties suggest that psychiatry can be seen in similar terms. This paper develops that thesis.     

Why are some people’s names easier to learn than others? The effects of face similarity on memory for face-name associations

Using synthetic faces that varied along four perceptual dimensions (Wilson, Loffler, & Wilkinson, 2002), we examined the effects of face similarity on memory for face-name associations. The nature of these stimuli allowed us to go beyond the categorical similarity manipulations used in previous verbal associative memory studies to trace out the parametric relation between similarity and various performance measures. In Experiment 1, we found that recall performance diminished as a function of how many studied faces were in the vicinity of the cue face in similarity space. Also, incorrect recalls were more likely to come from nearby positions in face space. Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, demonstrated analogous effects with a set of more distinguishable, photorealistic faces, and in an associative recognition task. These results highlight the similarity between associative recall and associative recognition, and between face-name association and other domains of associative memory.     

The Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues: How They Are Viewed Today by Laity

In 1989 the results of a survey on laity attitudes toward the traditional deadly sins and the schedule of virtues formulated by Erik H. Erikson were published in Pastoral Psychology. This study reports the results of a similar survey conducted ten years later. While the results were generally similar to the earlier study, there were some changes in the way respondents ranked the sins and virtues, indicated their personal identification with them, and viewed their gender-relatedness. The major conclusions drawn from comparison of the 1999 with the 1989 surveys is that men have become more conscious of the role of melancholy in their lives, and exhibit somewhat less hopefulness than ten years ago; that both men and women place greater emphasis on the importance of fidelity in their lives; that women are somewhat less oriented to the virtue of care traditionally ascribed to them, whereas men exhibit greater orientation to care; and that women emphasize competence while men emphasize purpose.