The Responsibilities of Engineers

Knowledge of the responsibilities of engineers is the foundation for answering ethical questions about the work of engineers. This paper defines the responsibilities of engineers by considering what constitutes the nature of engineering as a particular form of activity. Specifically, this paper focuses on the ethical responsibilities of engineers qua engineers. Such responsibilities refer to the duties acquired in virtue of being a member of a group. We examine the practice of engineering, drawing on the idea of practices developed by philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, and show how the idea of a practice is important for identifying and justifying the responsibilities of engineers. To demonstrate the contribution that knowledge of the responsibilities of engineers makes to engineering ethics, a case study from structural engineering is discussed. The discussion of the failure of the Sleipner A Platform off the coast of Norway in 1991 demonstrates how the responsibilities of engineers can be derived from knowledge of the nature of engineering and its context.     

Cruel nature: Harmfulness as an important,overlooked dimension in judgments of moral standing

Entities that possess moral standing can be wronged and deserve our moral consideration. Past perspectives on the folk psychology of moral standing have focused exclusively on the role of “patiency” (the capacity to experience pain or pleasure) and “agency” (usually defined and operationalized in terms of intelligence or cognitive ability). We contend that harmfulness (i.e., having a harmful vs. benevolent disposition) is an equally if not more important determinant of moral standing. We provide support for this hypothesis across four studies using non-human animals as targets. We show that the effect of harmfulness on attributions of moral standing is independent from patiency and intelligence (Studies 1–2), that this effect pertains specifically to an animal’s harmful disposition rather than its capacity to act upon this disposition (Study 3), and that it primarily reflects a parochial concern for human welfare in particular (Study 4). Our findings highlight an important, overlooked dimension in the psychology of moral standing that has implications for real-world decisions that affect non-human animals. Our findings also help clarify the conditions under which people perceive patiency and agency as related versus truly independent dimensions.     

Flexibility within working memory and the focus of attention for sequential verbal information does not depend on active maintenance

The focus of attention seems to be a static element within working memory when verbal information is serially presented, unless additional time is available for processing or active maintenance. Experiment 1 manipulated the reward associated with early and medial list positions in a probe recognition paradigm and found evidence that these nonterminal list positions could be retrieved faster and more accurately if participants were appropriately motivated—without additional time for processing or active maintenance. Experiment 2 used articulatory suppression and demonstrated that the underlying maintenance mechanism cannot be attributed to rehearsal, leaving attentional refreshing as the more likely mechanism. These findings suggest that the focus of attention within working memory can flexibly maintain nonterminal early and medial list representations at the expense of other list representations even when there is not additional time for processing or active maintenance. Maintenance seems to be accomplished through an attentional refreshing mechanism.     

Cross‐cultural Measurement Invariance of the Employment Opportunity Index (EOI) in Mexican and Brazilian Professionals

Perceived employment alternatives have been shown to add incremental variance in understanding voluntary turnover as well as factors related to recruiting and staffing. The Employment Opportunity Index (EOI) is a multidimensional assessment of perceived employment alternatives that has exhibited predictive validity across multiple job types and populations. This study assessed the measurement invariance of the EOI in American, Mexican, and Brazilian professionals. We found support for configural and metric invariance in all five dimensions of the EOI with these populations, and support for scalar invariance three of the five EOI dimensions. The construct validity of the EOI appears to be relatively robust in Latin American populations, although cultural and macroeconomic factors may impose some response bias in these groups.     

The effects of brief prayer on the experience of forgiveness: An American and Indian comparison

The present study offers a cross‐cultural examination of the effect of prayer on forgiveness. American (n = 51) and Indian (n = 100) participants either prayed for their romantic partner (prayer condition) or described their romantic partner's physical attributes (control condition). Prayers were self‐guided and lasted 3 minutes. Pre‐test and post‐test measures of retaliation were completed. Results showed that participants in the prayer group showed statistically significant decreases in retaliation motives from pre‐test to post‐test and the magnitude of this change was not different across cultures. Control groups in both cultures showed no change. Because of the religious diversity present in the Indian sample, the robustness of the effect of prayer on forgiveness was tested across Christian, Hindu and Muslim Indians. Religious affiliation did not moderate the effect of prayer on forgiveness in this sample. Results suggest that a brief prayer is capable of producing real change in forgiveness and this change is consistent across American and Indian cultures and across three different religious groups in India. Brief prayer for others that enhances forgiveness may be useful for individuals in close relationships, in certain counselling settings and for people in many different walks of life.     

Ordinary Social Interaction and the Main Effect Between Perceived Support and Affect

Relational regulation theory hypothesizes that (a) the main effect between perceived support and mental health primarily reflects ordinary social interaction rather than conversations about stress and how to cope with it, and (b) the extent to which a provider regulates a recipient's mental health primarily reflects the recipient's personal taste (i.e., is relational), rather than the provider's objective supportiveness. In three round‐robin studies, participants rated each other on supportiveness and the quality of ordinary social interaction, as well as their own affect when interacting with each other. Samples included marines about to deploy to Afghanistan (N = 100; 150 dyads), students sharing apartments (N = 64; 96 dyads), and strangers (N = 48; 72 dyads). Perceived support and ordinary social interaction were primarily relational, and most of perceived support's main effect on positive affect was redundant with ordinary social interaction. The main effect between perceived support and affect emerged among strangers after brief text conversations, and these links were partially verified by independent observers. Findings for negative affect were less consistent with theory. Ordinary social interaction appears to be able to explain much of the main effect between perceived support and positive affect.     

The Abbreviated Character Strengths Test (ACST): A Preliminary Assessment of Test Validity

The 24-item Abbreviated Character Strengths Test (ACST) was developed to efficiently measure character strengths (Peterson, Park, &; Castro, 2011 Peterson, C., Park, N., &; Castro, C. A. (2011). Assessment for the US Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program: The Global Assessment Tool. American Psychologist, 66, 10–18.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, its validity for this purpose has not yet been sufficiently established. Using confirmatory factor analysis to test a series of structural models, only a modified bifactor model showed reasonably acceptable fit. Further analyses of this model failed to demonstrate measurement invariance between male and female respondents. Relationships between ACST dimension and Big Five personality trait scores were generally weak-to-moderate, and support for hypotheses regarding each ACST virtue's expected correspondence with specific Big Five dimensions was mixed. Finally, scores on ACST dimensions accounted for a combined 12% of the variance in satisfaction with life scores, after controlling for socially desirability. Although an abbreviated measure of character strengths represents a practical need, considerable improvements to the ACST are needed for it to adequately meet this purpose.     

Introduction to the Special Section on Cultural Considerations in Collaborative and Therapeutic Assessment

Issues of culture abound in the conduct of psychological assessment. This special section brings together a collection of articles from expert practitioners in the Therapeutic Assessment (TA) model to discuss cultural considerations. The special section is comprised of a conceptual discussion of the cultural influence of the assessment situation itself, 3 case examples illustrating the way in which culture enters into assessment, and the ways that the TA paradigm can be useful in mitigating the potential negative effects; and a comment on the 4 articles. In this introduction to the special section, I discuss 2 interrelated concepts that are helpful in framing the articles that will follow: the need to practice assessment with multicultural competence, and the potential benefits of using an assessment model (e.g., TA) that is itself culturally responsive. As the world continues to become more culturally diverse through changing demographics and the recognition and evolution of different subcultures, the need to practice assessment using these concepts will only become more central.     

The IKEA effect and the production of epistemic goods

Philosophical Studies - Behavioral economists have proposed that people are subject to an IKEA effect, whereby they attach greater value to products they make for themselves, like IKEA furniture,...