Offense Characteristics of Incompetent to Stand Trial Defendants Charged With Violent Offenses

The current study compared offender and offense characteristics of pretrial defendants found incompetent to stand trial (IST) against those described as general offenders by victims in the 2008 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey and evaluated factors that differentiated IST defendants who allegedly used weapons from those who did not during the course of a violent offense. IST defendants were older and used “weapons” more frequently than those reported in the BJS survey; however, other characteristics, including use of firearms, did not differ. No demographic, clinical, or legal factors differentiated pretrial defendants who used weapons from those who did not. Overall, pretrial defendants were frequently diagnosed with a comorbid substance use disorder, and were homeless, unemployed, and had an extensive history of psychiatric hospitalizations and prior arrests at the time of their alleged offenses. Such results indicate that models for comprehensive discharge planning may have utility in addressing the unique needs of this subgroup of mentally disordered offenders. The findings also raise questions about the federal and state prohibition of gun rights to all IST defendants. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Epistemic Instrumentalism and the Too Few Reasons Objection

Abstract

According to epistemic instrumentalism (EI), epistemic normativity arises from and depends on facts about our ends. On that view, a consideration C is an epistemic reason for a subject S to Φ only if Φ-ing would promote an end that S has. However, according to the Too Few Epistemic Reasons objection, this cannot be correct since there are cases in which, intuitively, C is an epistemic reason for S to Φ even though Φ-ing would not promote any of S’s ends. After clarifying both EI and the Too Few Epistemic Reasons objection, I examine three major instrumentalist replies and argue that none of them is satisfactory. I end by briefly sketching a fourth possible response, which is, I suggest, more promising than the other three.     

Ratiovitalistic hermeneutics and sport in the perspective of Ortega y Gasset

This work aims to show, in the first place, that the ratiovitalism of Jose Ortega y Gasset is one of the possible lines of the hermeneutic transformation process of contemporary thinking. Nietzsche’s hermeneutical mark on the development of Ortega’s thinking is clear in some very relevant aspects, such as the importance of the body and the innovative notion of life, both of which are decisive issues to understand sport. Secondly, an attempt is made to tap into the rich reflections of Ortega y Gasset on sport, which have a considerable impact on the entire human life, based on the claim of a notion of living body (Leib) and of a new notion of life. Sport forms part of a vital horizon that is not reduced by the narrow utilitarian perspective, but which announces the superior form of human existence, opening up to a festival and creative meaning of life. This requires a discipline that is not merely satisfied with correctly complying with some standards, but which encourages indefinite improvement. The attribute of sport is creative vitality, a new way of understanding life. Because, based on this new vital perspective, homo oeconomicus can no longer be used as a model, but rather, the vital phenomenon understood in a sporting manner is festival, joyful, creative, agonal and Olympic, freely vigorous, a meaningful source of energy. Life is, in principle, creation, a creative experiment, as in the Nietzschean conception.     

Why ‘spiritism’?

Some of the early representatives of psychoanalysis had a lifelong interest in certain ‘occult’ phenomena. Although several theories were born for the purpose of understanding the interest of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung or Sándor Ferenczi in spiritualism and related phenomena, interpreters usually ignore the changing cultural meaning and significance of modern occult practices like spiritualism. The aim of the present essay is to outline the cultural and historical aspects of spiritualism and spiritism in Hungary, and thus to shed new light on the involvement of Ferenczi – and other Hungarian psychoanalysts like Géza Róheim, István Hollós, and Mihály Bálint – in spiritualism and spiritism. The connections between spiritualism and the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis will be discussed, highlighting the cultural and scientific significance of Hungarian spiritualism and spiritism in the evolution of psychoanalysis. Taking into account the relative lack of the scientific research in the field of spiritism in Hungary, it can be pointed out that Ferenczi undertook a pioneering role in Hungarian psychical research.     

Self‐Monitoring and the Metatraits

Prior attempts at locating self‐monitoring within general taxonomies of personality traits have largely proved unsuccessful. However, past research has typically neglected (a) the bidimensionality of the Self‐Monitoring Scale and (b) the hierarchical nature of personality. The objective of this study was to test hypotheses that the two self‐monitoring factors are located at the level of the metatraits. Using data from two large multi‐informant samples, one community (Sample 1: N = 552, M_age = 51.26, 61% female; N_Peers = 1,551, M_age = 48.61, 37% female) and one online (Sample 2: N = 3,726, M_age = 24.89, 59% female; N_Peers = 17,868, M_age = 26.23, 64% female), confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Results confirmed hypotheses that acquisitive self‐monitoring would have a strong positive relation to metatrait Plasticity, whereas protective self‐monitoring would have a moderate negative relation to metatrait Stability. In both samples, constraining the correlation between acquisitive self‐monitoring and Plasticity to unity did not alter model fit indices, indicating that the two putatively distinct constructs are identical. Findings have wide‐ranging implications, including integration of the construct of self‐monitoring into the mainstream of personality research, as the latter moves toward the development of broad explanatory theories.     

Superstitious behavior in sport: A literature review

The objective of this first literature review, in this area, is to unveil the current status of knowledge on superstition in sport. Its outcome reveals that superstitious behaviors vary with the type of sport, athletic level, as well as athletic role. In agreement with past theories, they increase with the level of challenge, as reflected by the importance of the competition, as well as with the level of uncertainty. Cultural factors, in conjunction with the education level, as well as gender, have a strong influence on superstitious behaviors in sports. Based on current thoughts, religiosity and superstition are different psychological constructs used as psychological aids by several athletes. Personality factors appear to mediate the manifestation of the behavior. Elite athletes are clearly more superstitious than non‐elite athletes, An interaction between athletic skill and task‐difficulty emerges to be another strong predictor of superstition in sport. It is evident that a set of complex personal and situational factors interact in the manifestation of superstitious behavior in sport that is used for the regulation of emotions in a quest for optimal performance. It is concluded that the objective benefits (i.e., success) of superstition in sport may be ascribed to the placebo effect that yields an increased sense of control and mental reassurance in unpredictable contest situations.     

Can the aim of belief ground epistemic normativity?

Philosophical Studies - For many epistemologists and normativity theorists, epistemic norms necessarily entail normative reasons. Why or in virtue of what do epistemic norms have this necessary...     

Trajectories of Oppositional Defiant Disorder Irritability Symptoms in Preschool Children

This study traces the developmental course of irritability symptoms in oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) from ages 3–5 and examines the psychopathological outcomes of the different trajectories at age 6. Method. A sample of 622 3-year-old preschoolers (311 were boys), followed up until age 6, was assessed yearly with a semi-structured diagnostic interview with parents and at age 6 with questionnaires answered by parents, teachers and children. Results. Growth-Mixture-Modeling yielded five trajectories of irritability levels for the whole sample (high-persistent 3.5 %, decreasing 3.8 %, increasing 2.6 %, low-persistent 44.1 % and null 46.0 %). Among the children who presented with ODD during preschool age, three trajectories of irritability symptoms resulted (high-persistent 31.9 %, decreasing 34.9 % and increasing 33.2 %). Null, low-persistent and decreasing irritability courses in the sample as a whole gave very similar discriminative capacity for children’s psychopathological state at age 6, while the increasing and high-persistent categories involved poorer clinical outcomes than the null course. For ODD children, the high-persistent and increasing trajectories of irritability predicted disruptive behavior disorders, comorbidity, high level of functional impairment, internalizing and externalizing problems and low anger control at age 6. Conclusions. Irritability identifies a subset of ODD children at high risk of poorer longitudinal psychopathological and functional outcomes. It might be clinically relevant to identify this subset of ODD children with a high number of irritability symptoms throughout development with a view to preventing comorbid and future adverse longitudinal outcomes.     

Reprogenetics,Genetic Tools and Reproductive Risk: Attitudes and Understanding Among Ethnic Groups in Israel

The present study investigated a possible relationship between the attitudes toward genetic technologies and the understanding of genetics, reproduction, and reproductive risk among Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. The study included 203 respondents, who answered a structured self-report questionnaire. They were recruited using a snowball method, which increased the participation of Israeli Arabs in the sample, although the sample was not representative of the Israeli population as a whole (there were more Arabs and fewer men). The respondents in this study expressed a positive attitude toward genetic technologies, but were less in favor of using genetic tools for non-medical purposes. Respondents of both groups were not knowledgeable of genetics; however, they scored higher on the items related to reproductive risk, which suggests that some awareness about genetic risk exists in both sectors of the Israeli population. Nevertheless, Israeli Arabs were less positive than Israeli Jews regarding the application of genetic tools. Moreover, although an understanding of genetics correlated positively with the attitude among Arabs, it did not affect the attitude of Jews, who remained very positive, regardless of their level of understanding. This result suggests that other social and cultural factors, besides understanding, might be at work among these two major ethnic sectors. Further studies that integrate educational, social, and cultural aspects among ethnic sectors of the population are required to improve health services and genetic counselling in Israel and in other countries.     

Past and Future Episodic Thinking in Middle Childhood

The abilities of past and future episodic thinking develop hand in hand across the preschool years and are intimately connected in adults. Little is known, however, about the development of episodic thinking in middle childhood and how it is influenced by sociocultural factors. In the present study, one hundred sixty-seven 7- to 10-year-old children from European American and Chinese cultural backgrounds were interviewed individually about temporally near and distant past and future events. The child data were further contrasted with adult data in Wang, Hou, Tang, and Wiprovnick (2011 Wang , Q. , Hou , Y. , Tang , H. , &; Wiprovnick , A. ( 2011 ). Traveling backward and forward in time: Culture and gender in the episodic specificity of past and future events . Memory , 19 , 103 – 109 . doi: 10.1080/09658211.2010.537279 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). European American children generated more specific details than did Chinese children in both past and future events. Children of the two cultures relied similarly on general knowledge in their episodic thinking, and yet, they did so to a greater extent when compared with adults. In addition, similar to adults, children exhibited consistency in episodic specificity between past- and future-event construction, and they generated more specific details in past events compared with future events and in near events compared with distant events. The findings provide important insights for the development of episodic thinking in middle childhood and beyond.