The ‘face’ of the il y a: Levinas and Blanchot on impersonal existence

This essay argues for a reading of Levinas’ work which prioritizes the significance of the il y a over the personal Other. I buttress this reading by using the well-documented intersections between Levinas’ work and that of Maurice Blanchot. Said otherwise, I argue that Levinas’ relationship with Blanchot (a relationship that is very much across the notion of the il y a) calls scholars of the Levinasian corpus to place the conception of impersonal existence to the forefront. To do so is to take seriously the complex relationship between Levinas’ explicitly ethical account of the face, and his phenomenological account of impersonal existence. To approach Levinas in this way (by way of his relationship with Blanchot) is to not only recognize that the ethical import of the face lies in its being without determination or nomenclature, but it is to also fully acknowledge the underlying horror of a Levinasian rendition of the ethical encounter.     

The Affective Experience of Aesthetic Properties

It is widely agreed upon that aesthetic properties, such as grace, balance, and elegance, are perceived. I argue that aesthetic properties are experientially attributed to some non‐perceptible objects. For example, a mathematical proof can be experienced as elegant. In order to give a unified explanation of the experiential attribution of aesthetic properties to both perceptible and non‐perceptible objects, one has to reject the idea that aesthetic properties are perceived. I propose an alternative view: the affective account. I argue that the standard case of experiential aesthetic property attribution is affective experience.     

Brands on the brain: Do consumers use declarative information or experienced emotions to evaluate brands?

An fMRI study was conducted with unfamiliar and familiar (strong and weak) brands to assess linguistic encoding and retrieval processes, and the use of declarative and experiential information, in brand evaluations. As expected, activations in brain areas associated with linguistic encoding were higher for unfamiliar brands, but activations in brain areas associated with information retrieval were higher for strong brands. Interestingly, weak brands were engaged simultaneously in both processes. Most importantly, activations of the pallidum, associated with positive emotions, for strong brands and activations of the insula, associated with negative emotions, for weak and unfamiliar brands suggested that consumers use experienced emotions rather than declarative information to evaluate brands. As a result, brand experiences should be considered a key driver of brand equity in addition to brand awareness and cognitive associations.     

APPLICATIONS OF A SEQUENTIAL ALTERNATING TREATMENTS DESIGN

We propose the use of a combined version of the alternating treatments and multiple baseline designs in situations in which a traditional baseline (no treatment) condition either does not provide an adequate contrast condition or is not feasible or practical due to clinical constraints. We refer to this design as a sequential alternating treatments design because two treatments are initially implemented in a random or counterbalanced fashion and are followed by a sequential change in one or both treatments across settings, subjects, or tasks. The effects of the independent variables are assessed first by analyzing the two series of data points representing the different treatments (relative effects) and then by assessing changes in one or both series, as application of the alternative treatment is introduced sequentially. The sequential application of treatment provides an analysis of control in the same manner as the multiple baseline design; the initial alternating treatments phase provides a contrast condition in much the same manner as a baseline condition. Applications of this design to the assessment of peer training and self-injurious behavior are described.     

Female attractiveness and eating disorders: Do children's television commercials play a role?

The differential rate of eating disorders in males and females has been partially attributed to gender socialization. Media influences, even in children's programming, may contribute to the greater emphasis on physical attractiveness for girls compared to boys. Commercials from Saturday morning cartoon programming were analyzed for the number of male/female main and supporting characters, sex of narrator, sex of intended consumer, and appearance enhancement of person, doll, or animal. A majority of the commercials (60.6%) were for food products. Chi-square comparisons revealed significantly more male than female main characters and narrators in these commercials. Of those commercials (13.8%) scored for appearance enhancement, all male/female chi-square comparisons were significant with more female supporting characters, female main characters, female narrators, and female consumers. With the combined emphases on food and, for girls, on appearance, support for possible influences of commercials in eating disorders is noted.     

Imagery,concreteness, goodness,and familiarity ratings for 500 proverbs sampled from theOxford Dictionary of English Proverbs

Partly in order to facilitate research on the relation between some standard psychological variables, we gathered normative data on 500 proverbs sampled from theOxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (Wilson, 1970). The scales for which we gathered data are imagery, concreteness, goodness , and familiarity. These norms may be of value to researchers who wish to sample linguistic units larger than the word from a set that contains an extensive number of unfamiliar and familiar items. To illustrate the possible uses to which these data may be put, we presented a causal model of the relation between the four variables mentioned above.     

The effects of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and social identity threat on racial minorities’ attitudes about police

This study examines the role of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and race-based social identity threat on racial minorities’ trust and cooperation with police. We hypothesize that in police interactions, racial minorities’ phenotypic racial stereotypicality may increase race-based social identity threat, which will lead to distrust and decreased participation with police. Racial minorities (Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and multi-racials) and Whites from a representative random sample of city residents were surveyed about policing attitudes. A serial multiple mediation model confirmed that racial minorities’ self-rated phenotypic racial stereotypicality indirectly affected future cooperation through social identity threat and trust. Due to the lack of negative group stereotypes in policing, the model did not hold for Whites. This study provides evidence that phenotypic stereotypicality influences racial minorities’ psychological experiences interacting with police.