Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan: Religion and Politics in United States War‐Culture

Abstract : This article digs beneath the surface of American assumptions regarding war to explore the ethical interconnections between national identity, war, and religion. Striking differences emerge between the dynamics of religion and politics with regard to war and peace in presidential speeches regarding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the analysis of war from an earlier generation, encapsulated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Beyond Vietnam: A Call to Conscience,” from 1967. Study of this political discourse helps us better understand our own reality in the United States, and the moral consequences of our beliefs about war, sacrifice, the human character, and the identity of the nation.     

Close, and a cigar!--Why size perception relates to performance

In baseball batting, golf putting, and dart throwing, successful players estimate the size of the target object to be bigger than their less successful counterparts. While more and more empirical evidence is accumulated supporting the existence of this intriguing phenomenon, an explanation of the processes underpinning this effect remains to be provided. Here, we re-analysed data from a dart throwing experiment to examine the proposal--recently put forward by Proffitt and Linkenauger (in press)--that the variability in target-related performance may serve as a scaling metric for perceived target size which may explain why actors who perform consistently close to the target perceive the target to be bigger. Our results confirm that less variability in target-related performance in darts relates to perceiving the target as being bigger, thereby providing initial support for Proffitt and Linkenauger's proposal.     

Effect of an aerobic training program as complementary therapy in patients with moderate depression

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of an aerobic training program as complementary therapy in patients suffering from moderate depression. 82 female patients weredivided into a group that received traditional pharmacotherapy (Fluoxetine 20 mg) and a group that received pharmacotherapy plus an aerobic training program. This program was carried out for eight consecutive weeks, three days per week, and included gymnastics, dancing, and walking. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Beck Depression Inventory and the ICD-10 Guide for Depression Diagnosis, both administered before and after treatments. The results confirm the effectiveness of the aerobic training program as a complementary therapy to diminish depressive symptoms in patients suffering from moderate depression.     

Chilean validation of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian version (PCL-C) after the earthquake on February 27, 2010

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual re-experiences a traumatic event, avoids situations related to it, and shows excessive arousal. The disorder appears after experiencing a life-threatening event, such as a war or a natural disaster. Thus, the validation of tests which assess the disorder after the earthquake on February 27, 2010, in Chile is crucial for its evaluation and subsequent intervention. The present study includes psychometric data for the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian version (PCL-C) on a sample of 509 survivors of the disaster. Values indicate good psychometric properties of the questionnaire.     

APOLOGIZING WITHOUT REGRET

A common belief about the nature of agent regret is that regretting some event E is closely linked to being sorry for the occurrence of E. Or more specifically, that if one is sorry for E then she must regret E. I will call this ‘the sorry‐regret hypothesis’. My contention is that one may be sorry for some action but not regret it. I take the rejection of this ‘truism’ to be a positive development. I offer two lines of argument for rejecting the sorry‐regret hypothesis. One line of argument is based on counterexamples. The second attacks the validity of a reconstructed argument for the sorry‐regret hypothesis. It is desirable to reject the sorry‐regret hypothesis since there is a component of regret that many will not wish to be saddled with as a condition of apologizing. To regret an act, one must wish that she had not performed that act. Since a person is the person she is (speaking loosely) because of the actions she has performed, for many actions, if one regrets an action, then she wishes that she were a different person. This is a worrisome consequence.     

Group commitment in the face of discrimination: The role of legitimacy appraisals

In contrast to everyday use of the term discrimination, we propose that discrimination can be appraised as either illegitimate or legitimate, and a comprehensive analysis of responses to discrimination needs to account for both ways of experiencing discrimination. We examine how perceived pervasiveness of discrimination and legitimacy appraisals affect group commitment among women in academia (Study 1) and tobacco smokers facing an upcoming smoking ban (Study 2). We found support for our hypothesis that legitimacy of discrimination appraisals moderates the effect of pervasiveness of discrimination. In both studies, group identification and collective action intentions were undermined most when the ingroup claimed that discrimination against them was legitimate and discrimination was perceived as pervasive. In both studies, group identification mediated the effects on collective action intentions. The results highlight the important role of legitimacy appraisals in understanding disadvantaged group members' responses to discriminatory treatment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CALLING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SCALE MEASURE

This study clarifies the definition of calling—a consuming, meaningful passion people experience toward a domain—and develops a 12‐item scale measure of calling. Drawing on multiwave longitudinal, 2‐wave longitudinal, and cross‐sectional data from 1,500 participants (2,278 observations) in 4 separate domains, music, art, business, and management, we demonstrate the scale's reliability and unidimensional structure across contexts and over time. We establish the scale's convergent validity and discriminant validity. We determine criterion‐related validity through the scale's relationship to satisfaction with the calling domain, career‐related self‐efficacy, clarity of professional identity, career insight, attending a calling‐oriented college program, professional pursuit of the calling domain, and differences across the 4 domains. We discuss implications of this reliable, valid measure for theory and research on calling, meaning of work, and careers.     

ExpTime Tableau Decision Procedures for Regular Grammar Logics with Converse

Grammar logics were introduced by Fariñas del Cerro and Penttonen in 1988 and have been widely studied. In this paper we consider regular grammar logics with converse (REG ^c logics) and present sound and complete tableau calculi for the general satisfiability problem of REG ^c logics and the problem of checking consistency of an ABox w.r.t. a TBox in a REG ^c logic. Using our calculi we develop ExpTime (optimal) tableau decision procedures for the mentioned problems, to which various optimization techniques can be applied. We also prove a new result that the data complexity of the instance checking problem in REG ^c logics is coNP-complete.