The relationship between second‐order false belief and display rules reasoning: the integration of cognitive and affective social understanding

To investigate the relation between cognitive and affective social understanding, Japanese 4‐ to 8‐year‐olds received tasks of first‐ and second‐order false beliefs and prosocial and self‐presentational display rules. From 6 to 8 years, children comprehended display rules, as well as second‐order false belief, using social pressures justifications decreasingly and motivational justifications with embedded perspectives increasingly with age. Although not related to either type of display across ages, second‐order tasks were associated with both types of display tasks only at 8 years when examined in each age group. Results suggest that children base their second‐order theory of mind and display rules understanding on distinct reasoning until middle childhood, during which time the originally distinct aspects of social understanding are integrated.     

Strategies of self‐regulation in goal attainment versus goal maintenance

We propose that there exists an important difference between attainment and maintenance in terms of the goal pursuit strategies for which they call. Specifically, we propose that goal attainment calls for the use of eager approach strategies, whereas goal maintenance calls for the use of vigilant avoidance strategies. We distinguish between attainment versus maintenance as two different goal pursuit conditions on the one hand, and promotion versus prevention focus as two different self‐regulatory concerns on the other hand. We then use insights from Regulatory Fit Theory to make predictions concerning the interactive effects of these two motivational dimensions on outcome valuations. Consistent with our proposal about attainment and maintenance, we found that participants in a promotion focus valued the outcome of an attainment task more than did participants in a prevention focus, whereas the opposite was true for a maintenance task. Implications for maintenance‐related phenomena such as belief perseverance effects are subsequently discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Object-oriented millisecond timers for the PC

Object-oriented programming provides a useful structure for designing reusable code. Accurate millisecond timing is essential for many areas of research. With this in mind, this paper provides a Turbo Pascal unit containing an object-oriented millisecond timer. This approach allows for multiple timers to be running independently. The timers may also be set at different levels of temporal precision, such as 10⁻³ (milliseconds) or 10⁻⁵ sec. The object also is able to store the time of a flagged event for later examination without interrupting the ongoing timing operation.     

Sympathy for the Devil: Evidence That Reminding Whites of Their Mortality Promotes More Favorable Reactions to White Racists

Terror management research has often shown that after reminders of mortality, people show greater investment in and support for groups to which they belong. The question for the present research was whether or not this would extend to Euro American investment in their identification as White. Although it seemed unlikely that White participants would directly exhibit increased identification as Whites, we hypothesized that mortality salience would increase sympathy for other Whites who expressed racial pride or favoritism toward Whites. In support of the hypothesis, a White person expressing pride in his race was viewed by White participants as particularly racist relative to a Black person who does so in Study 1, but was deemed less racist after White participants were reminded of their own mortality in Study 2. Similarly, in Study 3, White participants rated an explicitly racist White employer as less racist when they were reminded beforehand of their own mortality. The results were discussed in terms of implications for affiliation with racist ideologies and terror management defenses.     

What is the value of mentoring in a small business? Using narrative evaluation to find out

The paper examines the case of one small business manager (Alistair) and the value he gave to a mentoring intervention demonstrated by the use of narrative evaluation. Doubts about the efficacy of orthodox approaches to evaluation when applied to management development activities lead to the view that narratives are more appropriate. Narrative evaluation techniques are applied to a story told by Alistair, the Managing Director of a small business in Sheffield, concerning his view of his involvement in a mentoring programme. Alistair's initial reservations about the value of the programme are revealed rhetorically through a range of arguments. After such doubts, through a process of conversation, the story reveals how Alistair is able to find value from mentoring.     

Meta‐normative Realism,Evolution, and Our Reasons to Survive

In this article, I articulate and respond to an epistemological challenge to meta‐normative realism. The challenge has it that, if realism about the normative is correct, and if evolutionary forces have significantly influenced our normative judgments, then it would be a remarkable coincidence if the content of the normative facts and our normative judgments were aligned. I criticize David Enoch's recent attempt to meet this challenge, but provide an alternative response that is structurally similar. I argue that if realism is correct, then it would be remarkable if the content of our normative judgments and the normative facts were not significantly aligned.