Adam Smith: Self-Command,Practical Reason and Deontological Insights

In this paper, I argue that, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith conflates two different meanings of ‘self-command’, which is particularly puzzling because of the central role of this virtue in his theory. The first is the matrix of rational action, the one described in Part III of the TMS and learned in ‘the great school of self-command’. The second is the particular moral virtue of self-command. Distinguishing between these two meanings allows us, on the one hand, to solve some apparent paradoxes of the text; and, on the other, to identify various features of both the practical reason and deontological ethical traditions that are present in Smith's sentimentalism, enriching his phenomenological account of moral actions.     

A Comparison of Personal Project Motives in Three Age Groups

This study examined the extent to which adolescents systematically perceive a discrepancy between private and group norms about the acceptability of bullying and examined the association between norm estimation and actual bystander behavior. Ninety-one 8th graders (42 male and 49 female) described their personal attitudes about bullies and victims as well as their perceptions of their classmates' attitudes. Teachers rated adolescents' participant roles during bullying episodes at school. Results provided support for the premise that teens systematically perceive their peers to hold less prosocial views (e.g., to be more tolerant of bullies, less empathic toward victims, and less inclined to believe they have a responsibility to protect victims) than they themselves do. This tendency to perceive oneself as “out of step” with the group (i.e., pluralistic ignorance) was particularly salient among girls. In addition, there was a significant association between perceived self–other discrepancy in attitudes toward bullying and adolescents' actual bystander behavior when confronted by peer harassment. The more students viewed themselves as out-of-step with group norms about bullying, the higher their teacher-rated scores on passive bystander behavior. Potential implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.     

Self-transcendent positive emotions increase spirituality through basic world assumptions

Spirituality has mostly been studied in psychology as implied in the process of overcoming adversity, being triggered by negative experiences, and providing positive outcomes. By reversing this pathway, we investigated whether spirituality may also be triggered by self-transcendent positive emotions, which are elicited by stimuli appraised as demonstrating higher good and beauty. In two studies, elevation and/or admiration were induced using different methods. These emotions were compared to two control groups, a neutral state and a positive emotion (mirth). Self-transcendent positive emotions increased participants' spirituality (Studies 1 and 2), especially for the non-religious participants (Study 1). Two basic world assumptions, i.e., belief in life as meaningful (Study 1) and in the benevolence of others and the world (Study 2) mediated the effect of these emotions on spirituality. Spirituality should be understood not only as a coping strategy, but also as an upward spiralling pathway to and from self-transcendent positive emotions.     

Growing Older in Portugal: Gender Issues in Physical Health and Well-being

This article presents three studies which demonstrate that (1) Older women enjoy the status of grandparenthood, and they show resources, continued personal growth, and positive functioning; (2) Spouses provide emotional support, and widowhood has an impact on the experience of emotional loneliness; and (3) As they age, men remain cognitively more preserved, and women affectively more preserved. Over a 3-year period, older people showed smooth changes in physical health, cognitive functioning, and mental health. Results are discussed in terms of healthy living, resilience, positive affect, and also conditions that promote undesirable pathways in older age. Implications for feminist therapy with older people are discussed.     

Neuroanatomical correlates of category-specific semantic disorders: A critical survey

Current models of verbal short‐term memory (STM) propose various mechanisms for serial order. These include a gradient of activation over items, associations between items, and associations between items and their positions relative to the start or end of a sequence. We compared models using a variant of Hebb's procedure in which immediate serial recall of a sequence improves if the sequence is presented more than once. However, instead of repeating a complete sequence, we repeated different aspects of serial order information common to training lists and a subsequent test list. In Experiment 1, training lists repeated all the item–item pairings in the test list, with or without the position–item pairings in the test list. Substantial learning relative to a control condition was observed only when training lists repeated item–item pairs with position–item pairs, and position was defined relative to the start rather than end of a sequence. Experiment 2 attempted to analyse the basis of this learning effect further by repeating fragments of the test list during training, where fragments consisted of either isolated position–item pairings or clusters of both position–item and item–item pairings. Repetition of sequence fragments led to only weak learning effects. However, where learning was observed it was for specific position–item pairings. We conclude that positional cues play an important role in the coding of serial order in memory but that the information required to learn a sequence goes beyond position–item associations. We suggest that whereas STM for a novel sequence is based on positional cues, learning a sequence involves the development of some additional representation of the sequence as a whole.     

Interpretative memories of artworks

It is well known that memories of self‐relevant experiences are reconstructed over time. Artworks often require an elongated period of interpretative meaning‐making. Such works were therefore used to study temporal aspects of memory construction. In a longitudinal study, individuals' memories of artworks were examined to explore the idea that only with the passage of time would autobiographical memory and emotion be associated with thematic integration of the artwork memory. We also expected that integrated artwork memories would be more differentiated (in terms of number of details) than memories that were not integrated. Memories of artworks were collected from visitors to an art gallery in person as they left the gallery, and 5 months later in a phone interview. Participants were also asked, at both interviews, whether the memory recollection was associated with an autobiographical memory and with an emotion. Associations among the elements of autobiographical memory, emotion, differentiation, and integrated artwork memories were significant only at the time of the longer‐term recollection. The data suggest that, during an incubation period, these elements moved from a state of disconnection to interconnection.     

Walking the Walk or Just Talk?: A Global Examination of Men’s Intentions to Take Violence Preventative Action

Given the increasing prominence of both bystander-based approaches to gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and of proactively engaging men and boys to join efforts to end GBV, understanding the factors that support men’s antiviolence bystander behavior is important. This study examined correlates of willingness to engage in violence preventative bystander behavior in a global sample of 299 adult men engaged in GBV prevention events or work. Participants came from over 50 countries and provided data via an online, anonymous survey available in English, Spanish, and French. Path analysis was used to model participants’ willingness to engage in a variety of violence-preventative behaviors in the future, with variable selection guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and by research implicating gender-related attitudes in bystander willingness and behavior. Findings suggest that bystander willingness was supported by past bystander behavior, self-efficacy to engage in bystander behavior, positive beliefs about the contributions of antiviolence involvement, and by an awareness of male privilege. Social network support for GBV prevention work, and support for gender equity were not significant correlates of bystander willingness in the full path model. These findings held across participants from the Global North and Global South, suggesting that self-efficacy, an awareness of male privilege, and positive attitudes toward antiviolence work are factors which may support men’s violence preventative actions across broad regional contexts.     

Is "Change Blindness" Attenuated by Domain-specific Expertise? An Expert-Novices Comparison of Change Detection in Football Images

When an aspect of a visual image is altered, observers often fail to notice the change. Recent studies suggest that successful change detection requires the observer to attend to and effortfully encode the changing aspect between the images. In this study we addressed the question of whether individual characteristics of the observer, namely expertise in a domain, selectively influence the ability to detect changes in images from that domain. A total of 48 individuals, half of whom were experts in the sport of American football and half of whom were American football novices, were presented alternating sequences of football-related and unrelated images. Our results indicate that expertise in a specific domain increases observers' sensitivity to semantic changes of domain-related images. Implications for the development of diagnostic tools are briefly addressed.     

“I don't reject the Catholic Church—the Catholic Church rejects me”: How Twenty- and Thirty-somethings in Poland Re-evaluate their Religion

Abstract

Given measures of religious belief and participation, young adults in Poland are becoming increasingly disengaged from the Catholic Church. Broad theories of secularisation are less useful for making sense of this trend than an analysis of the role of Catholicism in Polish society in the twentieth century, which demonstrates the ways in which forms of belief are contingent upon wider social and political transformations. This article argues that, since 1989, attempts by the Catholic Church in Poland to influence public life through conservative social and political interventions have alienated young people who are looking for religious resources with which to make sense of their lives in a rapidly changing social milieu. Alongside disengagement from conservative, propositional forms of Catholic truth and rejection of direct authority, young people still possess ‘religious capital’ and look upon religious ideas to orientate their personal lives. However, disaffection from the propositional truths offered by the Church and disengagement from rituals and practices of ‘folk Catholicism’ at the level of the family and local parish have not led to widespread expressions of atheism among young people. Instead, there is a sacralisation of everyday life and there are attempts to use ‘religious capital’ to help young people make choices for life. The reconfigured ‘religious capital’ is often expressed through diffuse Catholic symbols and sentiment as well as the periodic use of major religious festivals as a means of finding access to some form of collective religious experience. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of these changes for the future religious landscape of Polish society.