Stances and Epistemology: Values,Pragmatics, and Rationality

Bas van Fraassen has argued that many philosophical positions should be understood as stances rather than factual beliefs. This paper discusses the vexed question of whether and how such stances can be rationally justified. It argues that stances may be justified pragmatically, in terms of both their epistemic fruits and their coherence with our values, both epistemic and non‐epistemic. It also examines van Fraassen's version of epistemological voluntarism, which has received considerable attention of late, and shows that it provides a theoretical framework, and approach to epistemology, within which the pragmatic and value‐based forms of justification appropriate to stance choice find a natural home.     

The role of religious leaders in anti-Apartheid mobilisation: implications for violence prevention in contemporary South Africa

This study examines how South African religious leaders mobilised spiritual capacity and religious assets to resist and fight against state and structural violence during the 1970s and 1980s. Document analysis and qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with six key informants who were directly or indirectly involved in an interfaith Peace March in 1989 in Cape Town. Our analysis was aimed at identifying and understanding the factors, which enabled individuals from diverse religious backgrounds to work together to combat the Apartheid state and structural violence, drawing out possible roles for interfaith leadership within the prevention of direct violence in South Africa. The analysis shows that interfaith leadership was enacted as five kinds of performances: of safety in sacred spaces, solidarity and community, non-violence, voice and representation, and humanitarian relief and healing. These performances relied on specific religious assets, spiritual capacity and psychological and interpersonal qualities characteristic of transformative leaders. In conclusion, we offer some suggestions for how interfaith leadership alongside other social actors may contribute to the prevention of interpersonal violence.     

Affirming Control by Multiple Reinforcers via Progressive Treatment Analysis

It is common to isolate reinforcement contingencies across several test conditions in functional analyses of problem behavior; however, synthesizing all reinforcement contingencies in a single test condition may also have merit and even be necessary in some cases. Following a differentiated functional analysis, which relied on an interview‐informed synthesized test condition, functional communication training (FCT) was applied across the three suspected contingencies of reinforcement, partly in an attempt to understand the relevance of each. Communication responses were acquired for all three reinforcers, and problem behavior ceased only when all contingencies were addressed via FCT, suggesting that problem behavior was controlled by multiple contingencies of reinforcement. These analyses suggest that control by multiple contingencies of reinforcement can be understood during the treatment development process following a highly efficient functional analysis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Training AIDS and Anger Prevention Social Skills in At‐Risk Adolescents

Youth in alternative schools often engage in high rates of risk behaviors for AIDS and violence. This study included 42 youth, ages 13 to 18, from alternative schools in San Diego, CA, and tested the effectiveness of behavioral skills training based on the Behavioral‐Ecological Model. Two interventions were evaluated: one teaching condom use skills and the other teaching anger management skills. Changes in most skills were significant at postintervention but were not maintained at 6 months. Few risk‐related attitudes or behaviors improved at 6 months for either group.     

Examination of supervisory satisfaction in traditional and nontraditional gender-based reporting relationships

Supervisory Satisfaction relates to satisfaction with supervision rather than other conditions or agents in the work place. The supervisor-subordinate relationship is becoming increasingly important given the shift from managing work to managing people. Six variables were theorized as influencing satisfaction. Developing a parsimonious model to predict the variance in supervisor satisfaction, this empirical study examined 202 traditional supervisory relationships (subordinate reporting to a male supervisor) and 48 nontraditional supervisory relationships (subordinates reporting to a female supervisor). The sample was predominantly whites. Four of the five variables theorized, predicted a high level of variance in supervisory satisfaction in both traditional and nontraditional relationships. However the predictors were not different for the two groups.     

Relational frameworks for recall in young and older adults

Recent research indicates the presence of an age-related visual processing deficit, for which the elderly may attempt to compensate through the use of relational information. This hypothesis was tested, using the category superiority effect as a model system. In studies of young adults, the category superiority effect has been shown to be confined to relatively abstract stimulus materials, such as verbal items, and to be absent for pictures. However, it was predicted that a category superiority effect would be present in elderly adults both for verbal and for pictorial stimuli, since the elderly would be expected to utilize category information to compensate for imagerie deficits. This prediction was confirmed, consistent with the hypothesis advanced above. It was further suggested that the establishment of a prior framework for recall, based on relational information, would reduce this effect significantly. This prediction was also confirmed. This research was supported by Grant AGI 1605, National Institute on Aging, and by a grant from the School of Natural Sciences, California State University, Fresno.     

Sensitivity for Treatment Effects of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) is a relatively new self-report questionnaire that measures DSM-defined anxiety disorders symptoms in children. The present study examined the treatment sensitivity of the SCARED. Eleven anxiety-disordered children aged 10 to 13 years received cognitive-behavioral treatment, an intervention that is generally known to be effective. Children completed the SCARED on three occasions: (1) 3 months before treatment (i.e., baseline), (2) at pretreatment, and (3) at posttreatment. Before and after treatment, scores on traditional childhood anxiety measures (i.e., State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Fear Survey Schedule for Children) were also obtained. Results showed that children's SCARED scores remained relatively stable from baseline to pretreatment. However, from pre- to post-treatment, significant decreases were evident for the SCARED and for all traditional measures. These results suggest that the SCARED reliably taps treatment effects and, thus, provide further support for its utility as a self-report index of childhood anxiety in clinical and research settings.