Coronary-prone behavior may be declining in Danish men and women

Four hundred males and four hundred females were randomly selected from the Danish population and received the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) on two occasions, once in 1988 and again in 1992. The JAS was rated by the standard procedure, providing a measure of the degree of time urgency and ambitiousness (Factor A), speed and impatience (Factor S), hard-driving and competitiveness (Factor H) and job involvement (Factor J) shown by the subjects. The scores obtained for all four factors tended to be lower in 1992 than in 1988, and the differences were significant for Factor H. In addition, gender differences were observed for Factors A, S and J, with higher scores being obtained by males than by females. Age-related differences were observed for Factors A and J. The findings indicate that Type A behaviors have declined during the past four years in the Danish adult population and that different strategies may be required for encouraging health behaviors in men and women.     

Letting in the Jungle

ABSTRACT The destruction of the environment is a matter for moral concern and cannot be halted in the long term by appeals to human utility. However, the inadequacy and naïvety of humanist styles of ethical argument become apparent when attempts are made to extend them to environmental issues. They usually abstract certain supposed features of natural objects, e.g. sentience, and reify these as essential characteristics which operate to carry or ground ethical values. These arguments necessarily lead to the exclusion of objects which are, in fact, ethically valued or entail an unacceptably expansive egalitarianism. Such egalitarianism is often followed by a return to human-centred prejudices opposed to the originally stated aims of 'biocentric'ethicists like Taylor. Similarly, those physical and ecological holisms which rely not upon shared 'natural'features, but upon sharing in nature itself cannot solve this dilemma as they are incapable of explaining differential ethical values. The attempt to place boundaries on moral considerability should be abandoned in favour of an ethical pluralism which places emphasis on the context of valuations.     

DISCREPANCY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTITUDINAL FREEDOM

The present research varied threats to attitudinal freedom and initial receiver attitude at four discrepancy intervals from the position advocated in a persuasive communication: extreme agreement; moderate agreement; moderate disagreement; and extreme disagreement. Results indicated that receivers in moderate disagreement and extreme agreement shifted toward the recommended position, with no difference as a function of message threat level. In contrast, significant attitude change away from the position advocated in a threatening message occurred among receivers in moderate agreement and extreme disagreement. The significance of these results for the importance of the freedom to agree or disagree with a persuasive communication is discussed.     

ARE LIBERALS AND EVANGELICALS SINGING FROM THE SAME SONG SHEET?

Characterising Liberal and Evangelical theology as positions on a continuum or spectrum is common within Protestant circles. I argue that Liberals and Evangelicals do not share a common conceptual framework but embody competing and incommensurable conceptual schemes. Liberal theology then is not a distortion of true Biblical Christianity, as is often supposed, but rather is an entirely different approach to doing theology, indeed, to seeing the world. What I hope to achieve by way of this paper is to provide a context within which to better understand both Liberal and Evangelical claims, and to offer an explanation as to why the debates between the two schools are seemingly intractable. Further, I hope to encourage Liberals and Evangelicals to pursue the difficult task of understanding each other's position so that genuine dialogue can take place.     

Schadenfreude as a mate‐value‐tracking mechanism: Replication and extension of Colyn and Gordon (2013)

The present research provides a replication and extension of L. A. Colyn and A. K. Gordon's (2013) study on gender differences in schadenfreude. An experiment—in which both the gender of the unfortunate other and the dimension on which the misfortune occurred were manipulated—showed that female participants reported more schadenfreude when a same‐gender other (vs. an opposite‐gender other) experienced a misfortune on the dimension of physical attractiveness (vs. social status), whereas male participants reported more schadenfreude when a same‐gender other (vs. an opposite‐gender other) experienced a misfortune on the dimension of social status (vs. physical attractiveness). In the discussion, differences between our results and those of Colyn and Gordon are discussed.