Genuine belief and genuine doubt in Peirce

Peirce makes it clear that doubt and belief oppose one another. But that slogan admits of a weaker and a stronger reading. The weaker reading permits and the stronger reading forbids one to be in a state of doubt and of belief with respect to the same proposition at the same time. The stronger claim is standardly attributed to Peirce, for textual and philosophical reasons. This paper maintains that this standard construal is excessively strong. It argues that the secondary literature tends to presuppose the strong reading and that it often does so by confusing sufficient conditions for belief with necessary ones. It acknowledges some textual evidence on behalf of the strong reading but maintains that, taken as a whole, the relevant passages are as friendly to the weak as to the strong interpretation of Peirce. The paper then links the doubt–belief theory of “The Fixation of Belief” to the papers on probability that occupy the bulk of the Illustrations of the Logic of Science. It shows that Peirce's discussion of probability, strength of belief, and weight of evidence makes room for confidence, but not belief, to be undermined and thus offers a more flexible version of Peirce's theory of inquiry.     

Psychological threat and extrinsic goal striving

Although people generally endorse intrinsic goals for growth, intimacy, and community more than extrinsic goals for money, appearance, and popularity, people sometimes over-emphasize extrinsic goals, to the potential detriment of their well-being. When and why does this occur? Results from three experimental studies show that psychological threat increases the priority that people give to extrinsic compared to intrinsic goals. This was found in the case of existential threat (Study 1), economic threat (Studies 2), and interpersonal threat (Study 3). Discussion focuses on the possible reasons why threat breeds extrinsic orientations.     

Materialistic values and well‐being in business students

We explored whether values focused on money, image, and popularity are associated with lowered well‐being, even in environmental circumstances supportive of such values. To this end, we administered three widely used measures of a materialistic value orientation to 92 business students in Singapore. As expected, those students who had strongly internalized materialistic values also reported lowered self‐actualization, vitality and happiness, as well as increased anxiety, physical symptomatology, and unhappiness. Results are consistent with past research suggesting that some types of values may be unhealthy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some Benefits of Being an Activist: Measuring Activism and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being

Do activists lead happier and more fulfilled lives than the average person? Two online surveys using a sample of college students (N = 341) and a national sample of activists matched with a control group (N = 718) demonstrated that several indicators of activism were positively associated with measures of hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well‐being. Furthermore, in both studies, activists were more likely to be “flourishing” ( Keyes, 2002 ) than were nonactivists. A third study of college students (N = 296) explored the possible causal role of activism by measuring well‐being after subjects either engaged in a brief activist behavior, a brief nonactivist behavior, or no behavior. Although well‐being did not differ substantially between these three groups, the subjects who did the brief activist behavior reported significantly higher levels of subjective vitality than did the subjects who engaged in the nonactivist behavior. Potential mediators of the relationship between activism and well‐being and the usefulness of these findings are discussed.     

The Relation of Psychological Needs for Autonomy and Relatedness to Vitality,Well-Being,and Mortality in a Nursing Home1

Drawing from both self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1991) and Carstensen's (1993) socioemotional selectivity theory, we hypothesized that well-being and health would be facilitated by: (a) greater personal autonomy; (b) perceived support for autonomy from both nursing-home staff and residents friends and relatives; and (c) the emotional quality (rather than quantity) of residents' contacts with friends and family. Results based on structured interview and survey data from 50 nursing-home residents, showed that both autonomy support and relatedness indexes correlated with psychological out-comes. Personal autonomy also was significantly related to mortality at a 1-year follow-up. It also was found that subjective vitality (Ryan & Frederick, 1997) was associated with lower distress and greater well-being, and perceived autonomy and relatedness.     

Guns, testosterone, and aggression: an experimental test of a mediational hypothesis

We tested whether interacting with a gun increased testosterone levels and later aggressive behavior. Thirty male college students provided a saliva sample (for testosterone assay), interacted with either a gun or a children's toy for 15 min, and then provided another saliva sample. Next, subjects added as much hot sauce as they wanted to a cup of water they believed another subject would have to drink. Males who interacted with the gun showed significantly greater increases in testosterone and added more hot sauce to the water than did those who interacted with the children's toy. Moreover, increases in testosterone partially mediated the effects of interacting with the gun on this aggressive behavior.     

Changes in materialism,changes in psychological well-being: Evidence from three longitudinal studies and an intervention experiment

Few studies have examined how changes in materialism relate to changes in well-being; fewer have experimentally manipulated materialism to change well-being. Studies 1, 2, and 3 examined how changes in materialistic aspirations related to changes in well-being, using varying time frames (12 years, 2 years, and 6 months), samples (US young adults and Icelandic adults), and measures of materialism and well-being. Across all three studies, results supported the hypothesis that people’s well-being improves as they place relatively less importance on materialistic goals and values, whereas orienting toward materialistic goals relatively more is associated with decreases in well-being over time. Study 2 additionally demonstrated that this association was mediated by changes in psychological need satisfaction. A fourth, experimental study showed that highly materialistic US adolescents who received an intervention that decreased materialism also experienced increases in self-esteem over the next several months, relative to a control group. Thus, well-being changes as people change their relative focus on materialistic goals.     

Can Thrift Bring Well‐being? A Review of the Research and a Tentative Theory

Contemporary forms of consumer capitalism encourage people to prioritize materialistic values, an orientation associated with lower personal well‐being. Such materialistic values stand in contrast to the economic attitude of thrift, which encourages saving, self‐sufficiency, reuse of goods, and avoiding debt. This article reviews the existing empirical literature on thrift and well‐being, finding it to be very contradictory, with studies showing positive, negative, and null associations between various operationalizations of well‐being and of thrift. A need‐based theory is presented to explain these inconsistent findings. The theory suggests that thrifty attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles sometimes can work to satisfy psychological needs for safety/security, competence, relatedness, and autonomy (and thus promote well‐being) but sometimes interfere with satisfaction of these needs (and thus diminish well‐being). Empirical and anecdotal evidence is reviewed in support of this theory, and future directions for testing and refining it are proposed.     

What Makes for a Merry Christmas?

Despite the importance of Christmas within many cultures, researchhas not examined the types of experiences and activities that are associated withholiday well-being. Thus, we asked 117 individuals, ranging in age from 18 to 80,to answer questions about their satisfaction, stress, and emotional state during theChristmas season, as well as questions about their experiences, use of money, andconsumption behaviors. More happiness was reported when family and religiousexperiences were especially salient, and lower well-being occurred when spendingmoney and receiving gifts predominated. Engaging in environmentally consciousconsumption practices also predicted a happier holiday, as did being older and male.In sum, the materialistic aspects of modern Christmas celebrations may underminewell-being, while family and spiritual activities may help people to feel more satisfied.