Groundless Truth

Abstract

?We defend two claims: (1) if one is attracted to a strong non-maximalist view about truthmaking, then it is natural to construe this as the view that there exist fundamental truths; (2) despite considerable aversion to fundamental truths, there is as yet no viable independent argument against them. That is, there is no argument against the existence of fundamental truths that is independent of any more specific arguments against the ontology accepted by the strong non-maximalist. Thus there is no argument that the strong non-maximalist herself will find dialectically motivating.     

Contingency Horizon: on Private Events and the Analysis of Behavior

Skinner’s radical behaviorism incorporates private events as biologically based phenomena that may play a functional role with respect to other (overt) behavioral phenomena. Skinner proposed four types of contingencies, here collectively termed the contingency horizon, which enable certain functional relations between private events and verbal behavior. The adequacy and necessity of this position has met renewed challenges from Rachlin’s teleological behaviorism and Baum’s molar behaviorism, both of which argue that all “mental” phenomena and terminology may be explained by overt behavior and environment–behavior contingencies extended in time. A number of lines of evidence are presented in making a case for the functional characteristics of private events, including published research from behavior analysis and general experimental psychology, as well as verbal behavior from a participant in the debate. An integrated perspective is offered that involves a multiscaled analysis of interacting public behaviors and private events.     

Does Leaving Faith Mean Leaving Family? Longitudinal Associations Between Religious Identification and Parent-Child Relationships Across Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

The present study investigated the parent-child relational repercussions of converting to religion, switching, or deconverting from religion. Qualitative research indicates that these religious changes may negatively affect parent-child relationship quality, however, few quantitative studies investigate this issue. Subsequently, we utilized structural equation modeling to test if changes in religious identification during adolescence and emerging adulthood predicted worse parent-child relationship quality using three waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion (N = 2,352). We found that deconversion between Waves 1–2 significantly predicted poorer parent-child relationship quality at Wave 2 and father-child relationship quality at Wave 3. Further, deconversion between Waves 2–3 significantly predicted poorer mother-child relationship quality at Wave 3. Autoregressive cross-lagged models indicated an association between deconverson and father-child relationship quality. Deconversion had a significant indirect effect on parent-child relationship quality through decreased parental warmth and mother-child religious belief similarity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The Reflections on Forgiveness Framework: A Framework to Understand Older Adults’ Forgiveness Development over the Life Course

Journal of Adult Development - The present study uncovers how older adults have reported learning about forgiveness throughout the life course. We used a series of 22 semi-structured interviews to...     

Proactivity,adaptability and boundaryless career attitudes: The mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness

We examined the role of entrepreneurialism in careers in the information society and global economy, bringing together key constructs in the fields of career studies and entrepreneurship. Specifically, our study involving a diverse group of 750 undergraduate students from Singapore showed that entrepreneurial alertness to opportunities partially mediates the relation of proactive personality to boundaryless career mindset and career adaptability, but not to self-directed or protean career attitudes. Findings are discussed in relation to the contribution of entrepreneurialism to careers research and the larger issues of workforce development.     

Cyberbullying Victimization among High School and University Students in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study sought to establish the extent of cyberbullying among students in Ghana, its consequences on the victims, and the characteristics of the victims. The study found that nearly all participants had experienced one form of cyberbullying before. Victims of cyberbullying were not very different from non-victims in psychological wellbeing. The effect of cyberbullying on psychological wellbeing was small, and no clear profile characterizing victims emerged. The present findings should be an eye-opener for Ghanaian parents, educators and health professionals and set the stage for further studies to understand the Ghanaian situation.     

Adolescent religiousness as a protective factor against pornography use

This study examined mediators of relations between adolescent religiousness and pornography use. The sample consisted of 419 adolescents (ages 15–18 years; M age = 15.68, SD = 0.98; 56% male). It was hypothesized that religiousness (religious internalization and involvement) would protect adolescents from pornography use (accidental and intentional viewing) by increasing self-regulation, conservative attitudes towards pornography, and social control against pornography. Path analyses revealed religious internalization and involvement were indirectly linked to intentional viewing through all three mediators. For accidental viewing, the only indirect effects were from religious internalization through self-regulation and social control, and from religious involvement through social control. Thus, religiousness may protect adolescents from intentional and accidental exposure to pornography.     

The psychology of face construction: Giving evolution a helping hand

Face construction by selecting individual facial features rarely produces recognisable images. We have been developing a system called EvoFIT that works by the repeated selection and breeding of complete faces. Here, we explored two techniques. The first blurred the external parts of the face, to help users focus on the important central facial region. The second, manipulated an evolved face using psychologically‐useful ‘holistic’ scales: age, masculinity, honesty, etc. Using face construction procedures that mirrored police work, a large benefit emerged for the holistic scales; the benefit of blurring accumulated over the construction process. Performance was best using both techniques: EvoFITs were correctly named 24.5% on average compared to 4.2% for faces constructed using a typical ‘feature’ system. It is now possible, therefore, to evolve a fairly recognisable composite from a 2 day memory of a face, the norm for real witnesses. A plausible model to account for the findings is introduced. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.