Pre-Entry Expectations,Attitudes, and Intentions to Join Predict Military Tenure

The objective of this study was to examine pre-entry expectations, attitudes, and intentions as predictors of tenure among military members. Data from nationally representative (U.S.) samples of youth on attitudes toward military service, expectations about the effect of joining the military on quality of life, and intentions to join the military were linked to tenure among those who later joined the military as adults. Results from survival analyses indicate that those who initially had no desire to join the military and did not expect military service to have positive effects on their quality of life, but ultimately joined the military nonetheless, tended to have shorter military careers. Explanations for these findings are offered along with implications for military staffing.     

Superdupersizing the mind: extended cognition and the persistence of cognitive bloat

The hypothesis of extended cognition (EC) contends that parts of the world outside of the head partly comprise the vehicles of representation and mind. I consider and reject recent efforts to defend EC from the problem of “cognitive bloat.”     

Through hermeneutics of suspicion to a rediscovery of faith

Ric?ur argued that the critique of religion developed by the three modern masters of a hermeneutics of suspicion – Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud – is liberating insofar as it makes possible a mature faith. In the first part of the article, I explore this issue in relation to Kierkegaard. In the second part of the article, I discuss how Kierkegaard uses a biblical critique of religion, particularly the figure of the prophet, in his final attack on the church in his pamphlet “What Christ Judges of Official Christianity”. Through my investigation of the role of a hermeneutics of suspicion in Kierkegaard’s rediscovery of faith, I aim to question Ric?ur’s dichotomy between an external, atheistic hermeneutics of suspicion versus an internal hermeneutics of faith.     

Regulating self-defensiveness: If–then plans prevent claiming and creating performance handicaps

Claiming or creating obstacles before performing important tasks (i.e., self-handicapping) is a costly strategy to protect the self from implications of poor outcomes. We predicted that forming an if–then plan (implementation intention) helps individuals overcome their performance-related worries and thus prevents self-handicapping behavior. In two experiments, all participants formed the goal to perform well on an upcoming task and learned the strategies to ignore worries and tell themselves “I can do it”, either in an if–then format (implementation intention) or not (control). The task was either described as an intelligence test (highly threatening) or as a perception style test (less threatening). Participants could then claim a self-handicap (report stress, Experiment 1) or behaviorally self-handicap (inadequately prepare, Experiment 2). As predicted, implementation intentions reduced claimed and behavioral self-handicapping to levels observed in the low-threat control conditions. Experiment 2 demonstrated these effects among chronic self-handicappers. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Developmental Changes in the Use of Absolute and Relative Information: The Case of Spatial Extent

In the present paper we investigated the development of the ability to reproduce extent in elementary school students. Children were shown a target line in a frame and were asked to reconstruct the line in a frame of a different size. One experimental condition involved reproducing absolute extent, i.e., drawing a line that would be equal in length to the target line. The other condition involved reproducing relative extent; drawing a line that would preserve the relation between the target line and the frame. We found that in both conditions the length of the target and its relation to the frame affected children's responses. Yet, older children (7–9-year-olds) showed distinctive response patterns in the two conditions, indicating differentiation between absolute and relative extent. Whereas the performance of 5-year-olds in reproducing relative extent was similar to that of older children, their reproduction of absolute extent reflected a compromise between the use of absolute and relative cues. These findings extend the results of prior work suggesting an early advantage in the ability to use relative rather than absolute extent.     

The Effect of Examining Actual Products or Product Descriptions on Consumer Preference

Many consumers purchase products in stores, where they can physically examine and touch the items. In addition, consumers shop for products online or through direct mail, where they cannot physically examine and touch the merchandise. Building on an analysis of perceptual mechanisms involved in the sense of touch, we find that products with primarily material properties, such as clothing or carpeting, are more likely to be preferred in shopping environments that allow physical inspection than in those environments that do not. We also find that there is no difference in preference across the two environments for products with primarily geometric properties, such as packaged goods, for which vision is highly diagnostic. Furthermore, when the touch properties of a material product are verbally described, this reduces the difference in preference between the two environments.     

A personality profile of Mount Everest climbers

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised was administered to a group of climbers (N=39) who were attempting to summit Mount Everest. The personality profiles for these climbers were characterized by higher scores on the Extraversion (sociability) and Psychoticism (toughmindedness) scales and lower scores on the Neuroticism (anxiety) scales than for the normative sample. This profile is consistent with the pattern typically observed for athletes and notably for higher achieving athletes.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Role of Biopsychosocial Factors in Predicting Body Change Strategies Among Adolescent Boys

In this study we examined the role of biopsychosocial factors on adolescent boys' body modification strategies over an 8-month period. Participants were 434 adolescent boys aged between 11 and 16 years. The majority of respondents were from Anglo-Australian backgrounds (83%); the others were from Asian and European non-English-speaking backgrounds. The results indicated a consistent relationship between perceived encouragement to engage in body change strategies and increases in adolescents' body modification strategies, including muscle gain, weight gain, and weight loss. In addition, poor parent relations, being younger, and higher scores on the pubertal development scale predicted increased use of food supplements. However, the stability of the body modification strategies and the examined variables over the 8-month period were low. Further studies are needed to examine the stability of adolescent self-perceptions over both longer and shorter periods. Moreover, researchers need to include other factors that may be more relevant for adolescent boys (e.g., involvement in sports).     

Is It Worth Lying For? Physiological and Emotional Implications of Recalling Deceptive Affection

This investigation explored the risks of affectionate expressions in romantic relationships by examining the physiological and emotional implications of recalled expressed deceptive affectionate messages to romantic partners. Ninety‐nine participants were assigned to one of three conditions: deceptive affection, honest affection, or plans with a friend (control). Results indicate that individuals' blood pressure and heart rates are not differentially influenced when recalling deceptive affection compared to honest affection or common communication. Similarly, there were no differences in feelings of guilt and shame based on the motive for the deceptive expression. Posthoc analyses compared affectionate conditions (deceptive and honest) to the control condition and revealed no significant physiological differences. Implications for theory, methodological comparisons, and future research are discussed.     

Jus Ad Bellum,Values, and the Contemporary Structure of International Law

In “Religion, Violence, and Human Rights: Protection of Human Rights as Justification for the Use of Armed Force,” James Johnson discusses an important dilemma for contemporary society: when should transnational military force be permitted to protect human rights? Professor Johnson uses the relatively recent doctrine of a “responsibility to protect” as the centerpiece of his paper, characterizing it as a reaction to legal concepts that emerged in the “Westphalian system.” Yet the doctrine, at least as it relates to the use of military force, is not a reaction to that system but, rather, to the relatively recent system of the UN Charter, particularly its relegation to the Security Council of the exclusive authority to determine when military force should be used for purposes other than self‐defense. When the Cold War ended and the Security Council failed to act to protect human rights, the doctrine was born.