Phenomenology and delusions: Who put the ‘alien’ in alien control?

Although current models of delusion converge in proposing that delusions are based on unusual experiences, they differ in the role that they accord experience in the formation of delusions. On some accounts, the experience comprises the very content of the delusion, whereas on other accounts the delusion is adopted in an attempt to explain an unusual experience. We call these the endorsement and explanationist models, respectively. We examine the debate between endorsement and explanationist models with respect to the 'alien control' delusion. People with delusions of alien control believe that their actions and/or thoughts are being controlled by an external agent. Some accounts of alien control (e.g., ) are best thought of in explanationist terms; other accounts (e.g., ) seem more suited to an endorsement approach. We argue that recent cognitive and neurophysiological evidence favours an endorsement model of the delusion of alien control.     

“Are You My Mommy?” On the Genetic Basis of Parenthood

What exactly is it that makes someone a parent? Many people hold that parenthood is grounded, in the first instance, in the natural derivation of one person's genetic constitution from the genetic constitution of others. We refer to this view as "Geneticism". In Part I we distinguish three forms of geneticism on the basis of whether they hold that direct genetic derivation is sufficient, necessary, or both sufficient and necessary, for parenthood. (Call these 'Sufficiency', 'Necessity', and 'Strong' Geneticism, respectively.) Part I also explores the relationship between geneticism and the debate over surrogacy. Parts two through four examine three arguments for geneticism: the Property argument, the Causal argument, and the Parity argument. We conclude that none of these arguments succeeds. The failure of positive arguments for a view cannot demonstrate that the view is false; however, in light of our arguments we provisionally conclude that 'Strong' and 'Necessity' Geneticism are unacceptable. Our arguments do not undermine 'Sufficiency' Geneticism, so this thesis is considerably more promising than the others. But sufficiency geneticism is also compatible with a much more pluralistic account of the nature of parenthood.     

Gamete donation and parental responsibility

Abstract Unlike surrogacy and cloning, reproduction via gamete donation is widely assumed to be morally unproblematic. Recently, a number of authors have argued that this assumption is mistaken: gamete donors, they claim, have parental responsibilities that they typically treat too lightly. In this paper I argue that the 'parental neglect' case against gamete donation fails. I begin by examining and rejecting the view that gamete donors have parental responsibilities; I claim that none of the current accounts of parenthood provides good reason for ascribing parenthood to gamete donors. I then argue that even if gamete donors do have parental responsibilities for 'their' children, it is not clear that they treat these responsibilities too lightly. I conclude the paper by examining the wider question of just what kind of responsibilities gamete donors might have towards the children that they have a role in creating.     

Serial-Pattern Learning in Mice: Pattern Structure and Phrasing

The Psychological Record - In two experiments, mice learned 24-element serial patterns. In Experiment 1, patterns either were perfectly structured or had a single violation element and were either...     

Psychological Type as a Model of Personality Development

Contemporary psychological type theory is discussed, emphasising its model of development and showing that in this theory 'type' is not used in a static sense (though there is an element of continuity) but rather as indicating each type's different, 'normal' pattern of development. The concepts of good type development and false type development are touched on. A self-development exercise is described which (a) applies and illustrates aspects of the theory, and (b) provides an opportunity to practise listening and action skills.     

Rule learning in rats: serial tracking in interleaved patterns

Humans have the ability to chunk together information from nonadjacent serial positions in sequential patterns. For example, human subjects can extrapolate the pattern, A-M-B-N-C-O-D-P-E-..., to find the missing element, Q, by sorting pattern elements into two component interleaved subpatterns: A-B-C-D-E and M-N-O-P-... Two experiments investigated the ability of rats to reorganize pattern elements from nonadjacent serial positions into chunks not presented by the experimenter. Rats learned either a structured or unstructured sequence interleaved with elements of a repeating sequence (experiment 1) or an alternation sequence (experiment 2). In both experiments, rats learned the interleaved subpatterns at different rates. Acquisition rate was correlated with the structural properties of component subpatterns and the nature of the rules required to describe the interleaved subpatterns. The results indicate that rats are sensitive to the organization of nonadjacent elements in serial patterns and that they can detect and sort structural relationships in interleaved patterns. Received: 7 September 1998 / Accepted after revision: 27 January 1999     

Behavior of Maudsley reactive and nonreactive rats (Rattus norvegicus) in three consummatory contrast paradigms

Maudsley reactive (MR/Har) and nonreactive (MNRA/Har) rats (Rattus norvegicus) were tested in successive, simultaneous, and anticipatory contrast procedures. The MR/Har rats showed smaller successive negative contrast effects than the MNRA/Har rats when shifted from 32% to 4% sucrose, and the degree of contrast was smaller in animals of both strains than that typically obtained with unselected Sprague-Dawley derived rats. Chlordiazepoxide (4 and 8 mg/kg), which typically reduces contrast, did not influence degree of contrast in rats of either strain. Animals of both strains showed positive and negative contrast in the simultaneous contrast procedure, but degree of contrast in both cases was smaller in rats of the MR/Har strain. Animals of both strains also showed anticipatory contrast when a 0.15% saccharin solution preceded 32% sucrose in once-per-day pairings. In terms of latency to initiate licking, the MNRA/Har rats showed a contrast effect, but the MR/Har rats showed a "reinforcement" effect--shorter latency when saccharin preceded sucrose than when saccharin preceded saccharin. Open-field tests showed typical strain differences: The MNRA/Har rats ambulated more, reared more, defecated less, and showed less thigmotaxis than the MR/Har rats.     

Human Eye Movements During Visually Guided Stepping

Visually guided locomotion was studied in an experiment in which human subjects (N = 8) had to accurately negotiate a series of irregularly spaced stepping-stones while infrared reflectometry and electrooculography were used to continuously record their eye movements. On average, 68% of saccades made toward the next target of footfall had been completed (visual target capture had occurred) while the foot to be positioned was still on the ground; the remainder were completed in the first 300 ms of the swing phase. The subjects' gaze remained fixed on a target, on average, until 51 ms after making contact with it, with little variation. A greater amount of variation was seen in the timing of trailing footlift relative to visual target capture. Assuming that subjects sampled the visual cues as and when they were required, visual information appeared most useful when the foot to be positioned was still on the ground.     

Psychological type and counselling

Psychological type as a theory of four major personality characteristics is applied to empathy and choice of strategy. The issues of how versatile counsellors should be and of how, specifically, type can be used in counselling, are discussed. The problem of losing weight is used to illustrate how strategies may be matched with clients of different types or temperaments. Type suggests the possibilities of quicker and deeper empathy, more appropriate challenging, a wider range of strategies, and which kinds of strategy are most and least likely to be effective with which clients.     

Therapeutic Interventions

This article has two aims. One is addressed to practitioners, to say to them that too big a distinction is being drawn between interpretations and other interventions, and in particular that the term directive is being wrongly used. This militates against important moves toward the integration of different therapies. The other is addressed to researchers, to say to them that their research will be inadequate to the extent that they ignore many of the interventions used in therapy. Both of these aims are eventually served by the provision of a list of interventions running the whole continuum from non-directive to more directive. By looking at this list, we can become more aware of the range of what is possible in psychotherapy, and also of where the standard types of interpretations come in the scheme of things. It seems as though the wide range of interventions available in psychotherapy represents one of the ways in which it differs from counseling.