Eysenck's theory of personality and child-adult emotional attachments

The present study was mainly designed to examine the link between child-adult emotional bonds and personality characteristics. A sample of Pakistani adolescents aged between 13 and 14 completed the Emotional Attachment Scale and the Eysenck Junior Personality Questionnaire. Adult subjects to whom the adolescent subjects were predominantly emotionally attached were also asked to complete the Eysenck Adult Personality Questionnaire. The results indicated that children tend to develop emotional attachments to those parents whose personality scores correlate significantly positively with theirs; however, if they attach to nonparent adults, no significant association between their personality scores and those for adults exists.     

Ethical Concerns About Human Genetic Enhancement in the Malay Science Fiction Novels

Advancements in science and technology have not only brought hope to humankind to produce disease-free offspring, but also offer possibilities to genetically enhance the next generation’s traits and capacities. Human genetic enhancement, however, raises complex ethical questions, such as to what extent should it be allowed? It has been a great challenge for humankind to develop robust ethical guidelines for human genetic enhancement that address both public concerns and needs. We believe that research about public concerns is necessary prior to developing such guidelines, yet the issues have not been thoroughly investigated in many countries, including Malaysia. Since the novel often functions as a medium for the public to express their concerns, this paper explores ethical concerns about human genetic enhancement expressed in four Malay science fiction novels namely Klon, Leksikon Ledang, Transgenesis Bisikan Rimba and Transgenik Sifar. Religion has a strong influence on the worldview of the Malays therefore some concerns such as playing God are obviously religious. Association of the negative image of scientists as well as the private research companies with the research on human genetic enhancement reflects the authors’ concerns about the main motivations for conducting such research and the extent to which such research will benefit society.     

Three Kinds of Social Kinds

Could some social kinds be natural kinds? In this paper, I argue that there are three kinds of social kinds: 1) social kinds whose existence does not depend on human beings having any beliefs or other propositional attitudes towards them (e.g. recession, racism); 2) social kinds whose existence depends in part on specific attitudes that human beings have towards them, though attitudes need not be manifested towards their particular instances (e.g. money, war); 3) social kinds whose existence and that of their instances depend in part on specific attitudes that human beings have towards them (e.g. permanent resident, prime minister). Although all three kinds of social kinds are mind‐dependent, this does not make them ontologically subjective or preclude them from being natural kinds. Rather, what prevents the third kind of social kinds from being natural kinds is that their properties are conventionally rather than causally linked.     

Psychological Healing in Pakistan: From Sufism to Culturally Adapted Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

The current paper provides an overview of the cultural and religious background of Pakistan; the current situation of mental health in Pakistan with special emphasis on cultural adaptation of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in Pakistan. In the context of Sufism- Islamic Mindfulness, it is interesting to note that it has been easy to explain the concepts of CBT to the therapists and clients in Pakistan, but the process to culturally adapt CBT in Pakistani culture, had to be based on patience while generating evidence for it. Our group has taken the responsibility to do that and so far, have been successful in the endeavours pertaining to research and service development, described in this paper.     

Shiftwork, burnout, and well-being: A study of canadian nurses

This study examined the relationship between shift-time and employees’ burnout, psychosomatic health, job satisfaction, skill use, intrinsic motivation, and absenteeism. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from nurses (N=175) working in a psychiatric hospital in a large metropolitan city in eastern Canada. One-way ANOVA,t-tests, and two-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Shift-time was not related to burnout. However, nurses on rotating shifts and night shifts appeared to suffer more seriously than nurses on other shifts in terms of their well-being. Limited support for gender (males vs. females) as a moderator of shift-time and outcome variables was found. Results are discussed in light of the previous empirical evidence on shiftwork and employees’ well being. Implications for management and employees involved with shiftwork are highlighted.     

Beliefs of Jordanian Women About Wife–Beating

The beliefs of 356 Jordanian women about wife–beating were investigated, using a self–administered questionnaire. The participants showed a strong tendency to justify wife–beating, to believe that women benefit from violence against them, and to blame women for their beating. Furthermore, the participants expressed clear opposition to formal assistance for battered women from governmental agencies. In this vein, they considered wife abuse a personal problem that should be treated within the family. The results also revealed that while the women showed a weak tendency to blame violent husbands for wife abuse, the prevailing belief was that violent men should not be punished for their behavior. The results are analyzed in light of the patriarchal ideology that typifies Arab culture and predominates in Jordanian society. Finally, the article discusses the implications of the results for future research, prevention, and establishment of appropriate services for combating wife abuse in Jordanian society.     

How Scientific Is Scientific Essentialism?

Scientific essentialism holds that: (1) each scientific kind is associated with the same set of properties in every possible world; and (2) every individual member of a scientific kind belongs to that kind in every possible world in which it exists. Recently, Ellis (Scientific essentialism, 2001; The philosophy of nature 2002) has provided the most sustained defense of scientific essentialism, though he does not clearly distinguish these two claims. In this paper, I argue that both claims face a number of formidable difficulties. The necessities of scientific essentialism are not adequately distinguished from semantic necessities, they have not been shown to be necessities in the strictest sense, they must be relativized to context, and they must either be confined to a subset of scientific properties without warrant or their connection to causal powers must be revoked. Moreover, upon closer examination (1) turns out to be a trivial thesis that can be satisfied by non-kinds, and (2) is inapplicable to some of the most fundamental kinds in the basic sciences.