On the Robustness of Outcome Bias: No Constraint by Prior Culpability

Research on outcome bias has shown that blame attributions for behavioral decisions depend on the decision's consequences. Five studies of American undergraduates (N = 219, N = 83, N = 62, N = 279, and N = 45, respectively) demonstrated robust outcome effects across a variety of circumstances. A manipulation of prior negligence (Study 1), and attempts to keep prior negligence exceedingly low (Studies 2-4) produced converging results. In Study 5, a within-participants manipulation failed to eradicate outcome effects. Furthermore, outcome effects were not moderated by beliefs in a just world. Across all studies, mediational analyses suggested that participants adjusted estimates of negligence to match outcomes, which in turn led to more outcome-consistent attributions of blame. Study 5 showed that those low in belief in a just world were especially likely to adjust their negligence ratings in this way. These studies demonstrate that outcome effects contravene both the standards for rationality delineated by rational decision theorists, and also the more relaxed standards embodied in established legal doctrine.     

The Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory and the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory

The theoretical grounds, purposes, and features of the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI; Millon, Green, & Meagher, 1982) and its forthcoming replacement the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI; Millon, in press) are reviewed. The rationale and procedure for the construction of the component scales are briefly explained, and the logic of configural or profile interpretation is examined and recommended. Uses and limitations of the MAPI and MAC1 are considered. Evaluative research, although limited in scope, points to the general utility of the MAPI and MACI as clinical tools, and to areas where further study may enhance their applicability in a counseling context.     

Assessing the Validity of a Theoretically-Based Substance Abuse Scale for Personnel Selection

This paper describes the development of a theoretically-based substance abuse scale to be used for personnel selection. Twenty-eight studies were conducted to validate the predictor. A meta-analysis was conducted using all 28 of the studies (N = 4,118). The mean validity coefficients for bare bones and fully corrected analyses were .25 and .43, respectively. The studies were analyzed according to the type of subject (students, applicants, employees), method used to collect the criteria (self-report, not self-report), and job relevance of the criteria (job-related, not job-related). The method used to collect the criteria was a moderating variable: mean validity coefficients for studies using self-report and nonself-report criteria were .64 and .33, respectively.     

New scanner data for brand marketers: How neuroscience can help better understand differences in brand preferences

A core goal for marketers is effective segmentation: partitioning a brand's or product's consumer base into distinct and meaningful groups with differing needs. Traditional segmentation data include factors like geographic location, demographics, and shopping history. Yet, research into the cognitive and affective processes underlying consumption decisions shows that these variables can improve the matching of consumers with products beyond traditional demographic and benefit approaches. We propose, using managing a brand as an example, that neuroscience provides a novel way to establish mappings between cognitive processes and traditional marketing data. An improved understanding of the neural mechanisms of decision making will enhance the ability of marketers to effectively market their products. Just as neuroscience can model potential influences on the decision process—including pricing, choice strategy, context, experience, and memory—it can also provide new insights into individual differences in consumption behavior and brand preferences. We outline such a research agenda for incorporating neuroscience data into future attempts to match consumers to brands.     

Group Session Rating Scale: Preliminary psychometrics in substance abuse group interventions

Background: Although ultra‐brief outcome and process measures have been developed for individual therapy, currently there are no ultra‐brief alliance measures for group therapy. Method: The current study examined 105 clients in group therapy for issues related to substance abuse or with issues related to the substance abuse of a significant other. We tested whether a newly developed group therapy alliance measure – the Group Session Rating Scale would be related to other commonly used group process measures (Working Alliance Inventory, Group Cohesion, Group Climate) and early change (change over the first four sessions of group therapy). Results: The findings provided support for reliability based on Cronbach alphas and test‐retest coefficients. Additionally, the GSRS was a one‐factor measure that was related to other group process measures as well as predicted early change. Discussion: Clinical implications for how to utilise ultra‐brief outcome and alliance measures are provided.     

The Obedience of the Eternal Son

According to Karl Barth, the obedience of the eternal Son in the economy of salvation is the proper mode whereby he enacts the undivided work of the Trinity ‘for us and our salvation’. This thesis now enjoys rather wide acceptance among contemporary theologians. In many instances, adopting this viewpoint has resulted in significant revisions of traditional trinitarian metaphysics. The purpose of the present article is to demonstrate that adopting Barth's thesis does not require such revision and that this thesis can and should be appropriated within the orbit of traditional trinitarian theology. We will endeavor to establish our claim by considering the relationship between the Son's eternal generation and his economic obedience, and by addressing three major objections that might be raised against our claim.     

The Caveman's Conscience: Evolution and Moral Realism

An increasingly popular moral argument has it that the story of human evolution shows that we can explain the human disposition to make moral judgments without relying on a realm of moral facts. Such facts can thus be dispensed with. But this argument is a threat to moral realism only if there is no realist position that can explain, in the context of human evolution, the relationship between our particular moral sense and a realm of moral facts. I sketch a plausible evolutionary story that illuminates this relationship. First, the sorts of adaptive pressures facing early humans would have produced more than just potent prosocial emotions, as evolutionary antirealists like to claim; it would have produced judgments—often situated within emotions—to the effect that others could reasonably disapprove of some bit of conduct, for an early human who cared deeply about how others might respond to her action enjoyed the benefits of more cooperative exchanges than those early humans who did not. Second, according to objectivist versions of moral constructivism, moral facts just are facts about how others, ideally situated, would respond to one's conduct. Thus if any objectivist moral constructivism story is true, then we can intelligibly assert that a) our capacity for moral judgment is the product of adaptive pressures acting on early humans and b) some moral judgments are objectively true.     

Cortical asymmetries in speech perception: what's wrong,what's right and what's left?

Over the past 30 years hemispheric asymmetries in speech perception have been construed within a domain-general framework, according to which preferential processing of speech is due to left-lateralized, non-linguistic acoustic sensitivities. A prominent version of this argument holds that the left temporal lobe selectively processes rapid/temporal information in sound. Acoustically, this is a poor characterization of speech and there has been little empirical support for a left-hemisphere selectivity for these cues. In sharp contrast, the right temporal lobe is demonstrably sensitive to specific acoustic properties. We suggest that acoustic accounts of speech sensitivities need to be informed by the nature of the speech signal and that a simple domain-general vs. domain-specific dichotomy may be incorrect.     

How to Individuate Universals—Or Not

In a recent article in this journal, J. P. Moreland (2013) extends his theory of individuation to include universals. In this note, I show how Moreland’s novel proposal leads to the unwanted conclusion that every concrete particular exists of necessity and has but a single essential property.