The Asceticism Dimension of the Protestant Work Ethic: Shedding Its Status of Invisibility

Asceticism seems an “invisible” Protestant work ethic (PWE) dimension that has largely been ignored in research. This study, building directly on existing knowledge, investigated the possibility that deference to authority was central to asceticism and the possible ethical implications of this. In 3 samples of employed persons, results demonstrated that highly ascetic individuals were highly authoritarian, were low in advanced moral reasoning, and regarded ethically questionable activities benefiting organizations (but not individuals) as relatively acceptable. However, “hard workers,” another PWE dimension, regarded all ethically questionable activities as inappropriate, regardless of the beneficiary, and were less clearly authoritarian. Significant relationships involving the PWE may sometimes be undetectable when combining distinct dimensions, and asceticism merits attention as a distinct PWE component.     

Decision making and testosterone: When the ends justify the means

Behavioral endocrinology research suggests that testosterone may play a role in moral decision making. Studies involving human and nonhuman animals indicate that high basal testosterone is associated with decreased aversion to risk and an increased threshold for conflict, fear, stress, and threat. We tested the role of testosterone in moral decision making. We predicted and found that individuals high in testosterone are more likely to make utilitarian decisions—specifically when doing so involves acts of aggression and social cost.     

Legal briefing: Crisis standards of care and legal protections during disasters and emergencies

This article outlines current safe harbors in the law for healthcare practitioners who work in a disaster setting. It reviews available legal protection in crisis situations with respect to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), criminal liability, and licensure.     

Deliberate Microbial Infection Research Reveals Limitations to Current Safety Protections of Healthy Human Subjects

Here we identify approximately 40,000 healthy human volunteers who were intentionally exposed to infectious pathogens in clinical research studies dating from late World War II to the early 2000s. Microbial challenge experiments continue today under contemporary human subject research requirements. In fact, we estimated 4,000 additional volunteers who were experimentally infected between 2010 and the present day. We examine the risks and benefits of these experiments and present areas for improvement in protections of participants with respect to safety. These are the absence of maximum limits to risk and the potential for institutional review boards to include questionable benefits to subjects and society when weighing the risks and benefits of research protocols. The lack of a duty of medical care by physician–investigators to research subjects is likewise of concern. The transparency of microbial challenge experiments and the safety concerns raised in this work may stimulate further dialogue on the risks to participants of human experimentation.     

Intentionality in Intuitive Versus Analytic Processing: Insights From Social Cognitive Neuroscience

A new preliminary model of emotional disorders, derived from basic tenets of emotion theory and new developments in cognitive science, is presented. It is suggested that tightly organized basic emotions stored in memory fire inappropriately on occasion. In individuals who are vulnerable both biologically and psychologically, these emotions may become the focus of anxiety or dysthymia in that the emotions themselves are experienced as uncontrollable and threatening with adequate coping being difficult or impossible. Early experiences with lack of control over one's environment as well as biological vulnerabilities may well determine whether or not one becomes anxious/dysthymic over the experience of basic emotions in an inappropriate context. This model is illustrated in the context of panic disorder and then extended to depression (sadness/distress), stress (anger), and mania (excitement).     

Of mouse and man

“Hickory, dickory, dock, The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one. The mouse ran down. Hickory, dickory, dock.     

Latent growth modeling of the relationship between depressive symptoms and substance use during adolescence.

To explicate the nature of the relationship between depressive symptoms and substance use, the authors conducted research that incorporated both individual and group approaches and utilized longitudinal data across development. Multiple-group latent growth curve models were used to assess specific dimensions (cross-sectional and longitudinal correlation, within-individual change, and movement off developmental trajectories) of the relationship between depressive symptoms and substance use during adolescence and how this relationship differs by gender. Annual survey data from 8th through 11th grade were provided by 441 girls and 510 boys in the Raising Healthy Children project (E. C. Brown, R. F. Catalano, C. B. Fleming, K. P. Haggerty, & R. D. Abbott, 2005). Levels of depressive symptoms and substance use in early adolescence were positively associated for alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use for girls, but only for marijuana use for boys. Individual changes in depressive symptoms and substance use across adolescence were positively associated for each type of substance use. Evidence was also found for positive association between episodic expressions of depressive symptoms and alcohol use that fell outside developmental trajectories. Predictive relationships across constructs were not found, with the exception of higher level of depressive symptoms in early adolescence predicting less increase in alcohol use.