Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education – Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present varieties of ethical competence that are highlighted in ethics and moral education research articles, and to discuss them in the light of competences stressed in the Swedish curriculum, understood as an example of ethics education in compulsory school. The material consists of 1,940 educational research articles published between 2000 and 2015, and the method of analysis is inductive, focusing on ethical competence. One finding is the similarity between the study’s tentative formulation of identified ethical competences in four categories, and Rest’s understanding of acting morally, captured in the four components: sensitivity, judgement, motivation and implementation. Based on the analysis of the articles, broader understandings of these focuses are developed, and later discussed in relation to Swedish ethics education, characterised as both a conservative and liberal values education. The analyses and comparison show the importance of the components of moral sensitivity and moral implementation and their relative absence in the Swedish curriculum, but also how moral judgement must include a competence to evaluate moral motivations, where empirically testable reasons are also central. Moreover, the risk of neglecting contextual, situational and knowledge-related aspects of ethical competence is highlighted.     

Increased skills usage statistically mediates symptom reduction in self-guided internet-delivered cognitive–behavioural therapy for depression and anxiety: a randomised controlled trial

Cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for clinical and subclinical symptoms of depression and general anxiety, and increases life satisfaction. Patients’ usage of CBT skills is a core aspect of treatment but there is insufficient empirical evidence suggesting that skills usage behaviours are a mechanism of clinical change. This study investigated if an internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) intervention increased the frequency of CBT skills usage behaviours and if this statistically mediated reductions in symptoms and increased life satisfaction. A two-group randomised controlled trial was conducted comparing internet-delivered CBT (n = 65) with a waitlist control group (n = 75). Participants were individuals experiencing clinically significant symptoms of depression or general anxiety. Mixed-linear models analyses revealed that the treatment group reported a significantly higher frequency of skills usage, lower symptoms, and higher life satisfaction by the end of treatment compared with the control group. Results from bootstrapping mediation analyses revealed that the increased skills usage behaviours statistically mediated symptom reductions and increased life satisfaction. Although skills usage and symptom outcomes were assessed concurrently, these findings support the notion that iCBT increases the frequency of skills usage behaviours and suggest that this may be an important mechanism of change.     

Comparative visual search: a difference that makes a difference

In this article we present a new experimental paradigm: comparative visual search. Each half of a display contains simple geometrical objects of three different colors and forms. The two display halves are identical except for one object mismatched in either color or form. The subject's task is to find this mismatch. We illustrate the potential of this paradigm for investigating the underlying complex processes of perception and cognition by means of an eye-tracking study. Three possible search strategies are outlined, discussed, and reexamined on the basis of experimental results. Each strategy is characterized by the way it partitions the field of objects into "chunks." These strategies are: (i) Stimulus-wise scanning with minimization of total scan path length (a "traveling salesman" strategy), (ii) scanning of the objects in fixed-size areas (a "searchlight" strategy), and (iii) scanning of object sets based on variably sized clusters defined by object density and heterogeneity (a "clustering" strategy). To elucidate the processes underlying comparative visual search, we introduce besides object density a new entropy-based measure for object heterogeneity. The effects of local density and entropy on several basic and derived eye-movement variables clearly rule out the traveling salesman strategy, but are most compatible with the clustering strategy.     

Overt and covert aggression in work settings in relation to the subjective well‐being of employees

Aggressive behavior was studied in workplaces having (1) predominantly male, (2) predominantly female, or (3) both male and female employees in equal or near equal frequencies. In addition to examining the occurrence of different types of aggression in these workplaces, the question of whether being a target of aggression is related to employees’ subjective well‐being was addressed. One hundred sixty‐nine participants (mainly 30–50 years of age) employed in a wide range of organizations in the public sector completed a questionnaire measuring four types of observed and experienced aggression: direct overt, indirect manipulative, covert insinuative, and rational‐appearing aggression. Indirect manipulative and rational‐appearing aggression were perceived to be the most widely used aggression styles in the work context. In the predominantly male workplaces, the men were perceived to use more of all types of aggression than in the predominantly female workplaces. The women’s aggression was not related to the relative number of females and males with whom they worked. Participants were divided into two groups on the basis of the extent to which they estimated themselves to be targets of workplace aggression. Those who considered themselves to be victims of workplace aggression suffered significantly more from psychosocial problems and physical symptoms than those who had been victimized to a lesser extent or not at all. The victimized group also considered the aggression they had suffered to be the reason for their psychosocial and health problems. Aggr. Behav. 27:360–371, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Adolescents born extremely preterm: behavioral outcomes and quality of life

Fifty-two extremely premature born and 54 full-term controls were assessed regarding behavioral outcomes, risk-taking and self-perceived quality of life. Behavioral outcomes were assessed with the Achenbach Youth Self Report; risk-taking was estimated regarding alcohol and nicotine use; self-perceived quality of life and future expectations were rated; and attention and hyperactivity problems were surveyed retrospectively with the Wender Utah Rating Scale. The prematurely born reported fewer problems than full-term born on the externalizing scale (delinquent behavior and aggressive behaviour); and they reported less alcohol consumption. No difference was observed between the two groups concerning nicotine use, views about quality of life and expectations for the future or in the retrospective assessment of attention and hyper-activity problems. Conclusively, the prematurely born adolescents described a quality of life and future expectations comparable to full-term born controls. They also reported fewer behavioral problems and less risk-taking behavior.     

Lüdecke C,Sachsse U,Faure H (2010) Sucht – Bindung – Trauma: Psychotherapie von Sucht und Traumafolgen im neurobiologischen Kontext

Buchbesprechungen

Lüdecke C, Sachsse U, Faure H (2010) Sucht – Bindung – Trauma: Psychotherapie von Sucht und Traumafolgen im neurobiologischen Kontext Schattauer, Stuttgart, 364 S., ISBN-13: 978-3794527465, EUR 49,95     

Kant,Reichenbach, and the Fate of A Priori Principles

Abstract: This article contends that the relation of early logical empiricism to Kant was more complex than is often assumed. It argues that Reichenbach's early work on Kant and Einstein, entitled The Theory of Relativity and A Priori Knowledge (1920) aimed to transform rather than to oppose Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. One the one hand, I argue that Reichenbach's conception of coordinating principles, derived from Kant's conception of synthetic a priori principles, offers a valuable way of accounting for the historicity of scientific paradigms. On the other hand, I show that even Reichenbach, in line with Neo‐Kantianism, associated Kant's view of synthetic a priori principles too closely with Newtonian physics and, consequently, overestimated the difference between Kant's philosophy and his own. This is even more so, I point out, in the retrospective account logical empiricism presented of its own history. Whereas contemporary reconstructions of this history, including Michael Friedman's, tend to endorse this account, I offer an interpretation of Kant's conception of a priori principles that contrasts with the one put forward by both Neo‐Kantianism and logical empiricism. On this basis, I re‐examine the early Reichenbach's effort to accommodate these principles to the paradigm forged by Einstein.     

Waking and dreaming: related but structurally independent. Dream reports of congenitally paraplegic and deaf-mute persons

Models of dream analysis either assume a continuum of waking and dreaming or the existence of two dissociated realities. Both approaches rely on different methodology. Whereas continuity models are based on content analysis, discontinuity models use a structural approach. In our study, we applied both methods to test specific hypotheses about continuity or discontinuity. We contrasted dream reports of congenitally deaf-mute and congenitally paraplegic individuals with those of non-handicapped controls. Continuity theory would predict that either the deficit itself or compensatory experiences would surface in the dream narrative. We found that dream form and content of sensorially limited persons was indifferent from those of non-handicapped controls. Surprisingly, perceptual representations, even of modalities not experienced during waking, were quite common in the dream reports of our handicapped subjects. Results are discussed with respect to feedforward mechanisms and protoconsciousness theory of dreaming.     

Does temporal preparation increase the rate of sensory information accumulation?

Recent studies showed that temporal preparation, i.e., the ability to prepare for an upcoming stimulus, improves perceptual processing. The mechanisms underlying this benefit are still controversial. Based upon the theoretical framework of accumulation models, it has been proposed that the accumulation of sensory stimulus information begins earlier when participants are temporally prepared than when they are unprepared. Alternatively, however, temporal preparation might also affect the accumulation rate of sensory information. In the present study, we examined these possibilities. Specifically, in three experiments, we manipulated participants' decision criterion. This manipulation should interact with any experimental manipulation affecting the rate of information processing, but produce additive effects with any manipulation affecting the onset of information accumulation rather than its rate. We obtained additive effects on RT, irrespective of whether the decision criterion was manipulated by increasing catch trial proportion or nogo trial proportion. These results suggest that temporal preparation improves perceptual processing by operating on the onset of sensory information accumulation rather than the rate of sensory information accumulation.