Why ‘non-mental’ won’t work: on Hempel’s dilemma and the characterization of the ‘physical’

Recent discussions of physicalism have focused on the question how the physical ought to be characterized. Many have argued that any characterization of the physical should include the stipulation that the physical is non-mental, and others have claimed that a systematic substitution of ‘non-mental’ for ‘physical’ is all that is needed for philosophical purposes. I argue here that both claims are incorrect: substituting ‘non-mental’ for ‘physical’ in the causal argument for physicalism does not deliver the physicalist conclusion, and the specification that the physical is non-mental is irrelevant to the task of formulating physicalism as a substantive, controversial thesis.

Church‐Based Social Relationships and Change in Self‐Esteem Over Time

This study has two goals. The first goal is to see if church‐based social relationships are associated with change in self‐esteem. Emotional support from fellow church members and having a close personal relationship with God serve as measures of church‐based social ties. The second goal is to see whether emotional support from fellow church members is more strongly associated with self‐esteem than emotional support from secular social network members. The data come from an ongoing nationwide survey of older adults. The findings reveal that having a close personal relationship with God is associated with a stronger sense of self‐esteem at the baseline and follow‐up interviews. In contrast, emotional support from fellow church members was not associated with self‐esteem at either point in time. However, emotional support from secular social network members is related to self‐esteem at the baseline but not the follow‐up interview.     

Hindsight bias redefined: It’s about time

Four experiments introduced a new conceptual and methodological approach to hindsight bias, traditionally defined as the tendency to exaggerate the a priori predictability of outcomes after they become known. By examining likelihood estimates rooted to specific time points during an unfolding event sequence (videos and short text stories), judged both in foresight and hindsight, we conceptualized hindsight bias as a contrast between two “inevitability curves,” which plotted likelihood against time. Taking timing into account, we defined three new indicators of accuracy: linear accuracy (how well hindsight judgments capture the linear trend of foresight judgments over time), rate accuracy (how well hindsight judgments reflect the slope of foresight judgments over time), and temporal accuracy (how well hindsight judgments specify the overall timing of the full envelope of foresight judgments). Results demonstrated that hindsight judgments showed linear and rate accuracy, but were biased only in terms of lack of temporal accuracy. The oft-used catchphrase “knew it all along effect” was found to be a misnomer, in that participants were well aware in hindsight that their earlier foresight judgments reflected uncertainty. The current research therefore points to one way in which retrospective judgments can be considered biased, yet simultaneously suggests that considerable accuracy exists when people render such judgments.     

Human–Android Interaction in the Near and Distant Future

ABSTRACT— In this article, a psychologist and an artificial-intelligence (AI) researcher speculate on the future of social interaction between humans and androids (robots designed to look and act exactly like people). We review the trajectory of currently developing robotics technologies and assess the level of android sophistication likely to be achieved in 50 years time. On the basis of psychological research, we consider obstacles to creating an android indistinguishable from humans. Finally, we discuss the implications of human–android social interaction from the standpoint of current psychological and AI research and speculate on the novel psychological issues likely to arise from such interaction. The science of psychology will face a remarkable new set of challenges in grappling with human–android interaction.     

Hormonal regulation of aggression: Evidence for a relationship among genotype,receptor binding,and behavioral sensitivity to androgen and estrogen

Gonadectomized male mice from the CF-1, CFW, and CD-1 strains were exposed to different androgens (testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, methyltrienolone) or estrogens (estradiol, diethylstilbestrol) and tested for aggressive behavior. Genetic differences in sensitivity to the aggression-promoting property of the various treatments were found. CF-1 mice responded to either androgenic or estrogenic stimulation, CFW males were most sensitive to the estrogen treatments, while CD-1 males responded to androgen but were relatively insensitive to the aggression-promoting property of estrogens. These data suggest that there may be multiple aggression-activating systems and that the functional pathway varies with genotype. Additional experiments examined whether receptor binding in the hypothalamic-preoptic-septal region was related to the genetic differences in behavioral responsiveness. The binding data suggested that sensitivity to the aggression-promoting property of estrogens was related to either a higher concentration of binding sites or to higher affinity binding between estrogen and its receptor. A systematic relationship between dihydrotestosterone binding and behavioral responsiveness to androgen was not found.     

Future directions for implicit learning: Toward a clarification of issues associated with knowledge representation and consciousness

Areas of agreement and disagreement regarding knowledge representation and consciousness within implicit learning research are reviewed. It is argued that further progress in the field requires more precise definitions of abstract and episodic knowledge, and of conscious and unconscious forms of cognition. In particular, we argue that implicit learning research should be informed by more general theories of memory and performance, and that concepts such as consciousness are unlikely to act as explanatory constructs within this approach.     

A second look at the impact of nontraditional vocational role models and curriculum on the vocational role preferences of kindergarten children

During a 10-week period 24 kindergarten children in a treatment group were exposed to nontraditional vocational role models and curricular materials, and a control group, consisting of 24 kindergarten children, was exposed to a curriculum unrelated to vocational or sex roles. Using a t test for related measures, the pretest and post-test scores were compared. The results were that the children in the treatment group were only slightly less traditional in their vocational role preferences at the end of the 10-week treatment. None of the t values were significant. These findings are compared to an earlier study in which one of the authors was involved and which used a similar, shorter term treatment (2 weeks). The results of this study are discussed in the context of L. Kohlberg's (E. Maccoby (Ed.), The Development of Sex Differences. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1966.) Cognitive Developmental Theory of Sex Roles. Some possible implications for role-related education and further research are suggested.     

Conflicting sex-role expectations,housework dissatisfaction,and depressive symptoms among full-time housewives

Little research has been conducted on the factors that influence a full-time homemaker's attitudes toward housework, and the influence of satisfaction with housework on psychological well-being. Data from a community survey of 134 full-time housewives showed that the greater the degree of conflict in the marital dyad over expectations for the female role, the greater the dissatisfaction of the housewife with housework. It was further demonstrated that the more dissatisfied a woman was with housework, the more likely she was to suffer from depressive symptoms. Finally, the results suggest that the greater the degree of conflict over sex-role expectations, the higher the depressive symptom score of the housewife.     

Not All Blarney Is Cast in Stone: International Cultural Conflict in Northern Ireland

A core characteristic of world politics is the presence of communal conflict over ideas of national identity, inextricably bound to ideas of cultural identity. Increasingly, foreign policy decision-makers realize the importance of considering cultural factors in their calculations of how peoples will define the "self" that seeks "determination." Although a collective's culture changes over time (through interaction with others and in response to external events), scholars and policy analysts sometimes treat identities as static, monolithic, and derived from cultures that rarely change. This leads policymakers to underestimate the extent to which culture influences and can be influenced by foreign policy. This paper integrates work in political science and psychology into a content analysis–based method for examining three major ways in which culture impinges on communal conflict. The utility of the approach is demonstrated with a case study of the Northern Ireland conflict from 1984 to 1986, which shows how the rhetoric of the competing nationalist/Catholic leaders (John Hume and Gerry Adams) was the site of debate over group culture, how differences in the rhetoric reflected different cultures of the conflict, and how the conflict has been affected by the foreign policy decisions of other actors.