Anscombe and “Hume and Julius Caesar”

This article analyzes Elizabeth Anscombe's short piece “Hume and Julius Caesar” from the standpoint of traditional foundationalist epistemic criteria, and concludes that while Anscombe may be right about finding a mistake in Hume, she has also failed to fill in her own arguments in the way that her overall aim requires. Special allusion is made to the work of J. L. Austin, especially insofar as that work has to do with reformulating sentences so that they appear to meet foundationalist criteria.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on Selected New Developments in Military Enlistment Testing

This article provides a brief discussion of the historical context for the major recent advances in enlisted selection and classification that are the subject of this special issue. By providing a perspective on the difficulty personality assessment has had gaining traction as a screening measure, it supplies a basis for understanding the significance of recent advances in personality measurement. This article also summarizes the military research on interest measurement that will receive more extended treatment later in this issue. It relates the work in this issue on new information technology testing to the role of information testing in the current military operational selection and classification test battery, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), and discusses the background for 2 additional cognitive measures, Coding Speed and Assembling Objects. Finally, it previews issues to be discussed in the commentary article at the end of this issue.     

Second person thought

There are modes of presentation of a person in thought corresponding to the first and third person pronouns. This paper proposes that there is also thought involving a second person mode of presentation of another, which might be expressed by an utterance involving ‘you’, but need not be expressed linguistically. It suggests that co-operative activity is the locus for such thought. First person thought is distinctive in how it supplies reasons for the subject to act. In co-operative action there is first person plural intending and judging. So there is a way of thinking of another, when openly co-operating with him or her, which plays the distinctive role of giving reason for contribution to the co-operative activity. In slogan form, ‘you’ is ‘we minus I’. The way children learn to use second and third person pronouns is naturally explained on this view. Contrasting less sophisticated kinds of co-operative activity with more sophisticated forms, and considering some issues about common knowledge and common purpose, help to fill out the proposal.     

A Brunswik lens model of consumer health judgments of packaged foods

Consumer health judgments of packaged food were compared with an objective healthfulness criterion using a Brunswik lens model. Consumer judgments were obtained from a representative consumer sample (N = 1329) who evaluated the healthfulness of 198 packaged food products. The objective healthfulness criterion was calculated for each product according to its specific nutrition values using a validated nutrition profile. The lens model included explicit cues such as nutrition values, nutrition and health claims, food category, and brand and implicit cues such a packaging design and category representativeness. The study revealed that the objective healthfulness criterion is highly predictable on the basis of cues such as the food category, brand, carbohydrate content, and whether the food is a typical “light” product. However, consumer judgments of food healthfulness are based almost entirely on the food category and to a lesser extent on the brand and consumer familiarity with the product. The results are in conflict with consumers' self‐reported use of nutrition information but are in accordance with findings from studies using implicit methods. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Counteracting Media's Thin-Body Ideal for Adolescent Girls: Informing Is More Effective Than Warning

The present study investigated whether information or warnings about depictions of the thin-body ideal in mass media are effective in counteracting media-induced negative body perceptions of adolescent girls. Based on counter-advertising and reactance theories, our hypotheses were tested in a 3 (weight labels: information vs. warning vs. no label) × 2 (media models' body shape: thin vs. normal weight) × 2 (self-esteem: lower vs. higher) design (N = 178). Body dissatisfaction, objectified body consciousness, and body comparison with media models served as dependent variables. Pretested media models were systematically combined with various textual weight labels and presented on the front page of a magazine targeted toward girls. The results indicated that a simple information label that provided the weight status of thin media models induced less negative body perceptions in adolescent girls when compared with the use of warning labels or images only. Especially, girls with lower self-esteem then exhibited lower levels of body dissatisfaction and objectified body consciousness. When compared with exposure to images only, the warning labels had little effect on body perceptions by adolescent girls. Thus, informing is more effective than warning in counteracting the undesired effects of the thin-body ideal promoted by the media.     

An initial study of transgender people's experiences of seeking and receiving counselling or psychotherapy in the UK

Background: There are no published empirical research studies exploring transgender people's experiences of seeking and receiving counselling or psychotherapy outside of gender identity clinics within the UK. As a result, counsellors know little about why transgender people seek counselling, who they seek counselling from, and what their experiences are of receiving counselling. Aim: To address this gap in the literature, this study investigated transgender people's experiences of seeking and receiving counselling or psychotherapy outside of gender identity clinics within the UK. Funding for this study was provided by a BACP Seedcorn grant. Method: A mixed method small‐scale qualitative research design was employed, comprising an online survey and five semi‐structured interviews. Findings: Participants tended to seek counselling on two or more occasions and received between 2 and 12 sessions. Participants sought counselling for common psychological concerns as well as gender identity and coming out issues. A fear of being discriminated against and exploring gender for the first time were significant barriers in seeking help. Participants reported mixed experiences of counselling but valued a therapeutic relationship in which they felt affirmed, listened to and understood. Discussion: The findings from this study mirror aspects of previous research conducted in the USA concerning transgender clients' experiences of counselling. However, these findings point to the importance of recognising the potential vulnerability transgender clients experience when seeking counselling and the need for therapists to develop greater awareness, knowledge and competence regarding working with transgender clients.     

Academic Misconduct among Business Students: A Comparison of the US and UAE

A survey of 345 undergraduate business students from a medium-sized southeastern regional university and 164 undergraduates from a medium-sized university in the United Arab Emirates found that 71 % of all respondents admitted to academic misconduct in a recent 1-year period, a percentage similar to McCabe’s (2005) finding that an average of 70 % of undergraduate students admitted to recent academic misconduct. Business students from the Middle East were significantly less likely to perceive various academic misconduct behaviors as forms of serious cheating compared to business students from the US. Hofstede’s (2001) cultural dimension of individualism/collectivism and Ajzen’s (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50, 179–211, 1991) theory of planned behavior are discussed as likely explanations of reported academic misconduct differences between the two countries.