Response to Gert on Practical Reason

This is a response to Joshua Gert’s criticisms of my book Reasons from Within and defense of his own contrasting position.     

College Women’s Attitudes Toward Sex Workers

A growing number of women are entering the sex industry as a means of funding their education (Reilly 2008). Many people view sex workers in stereotyped ways, and may discriminate and oppress women who work in the sex industry (Wolffers and van Beelen 2003). This investigation assessed attitudes toward sex work. Two hundred sixty-six women from a primarily woman’s university located in the Southwestern region of the U.S. completed selected items from the Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and Hostility Toward Women Scale. Results indicated that participants who knew a sex worker had less stereotypical attitudes toward sex workers. However, participants with higher levels of social desirability and hostility toward women had more stereotypical attitudes toward sex workers.     

The relationship between emotion awareness and somatic complaints in children and adolescents: Investigating the mediating role of anxiety and depression

The objective of this study was to examine if emotion awareness in children and adolescents (age 7-18 years old) is directly related to somatic complaints, and if this relationship holds when considering symptoms of anxiety and depression as mediating factors. A number of questionnaires measuring emotion awareness, symptoms of anxiety and depression and somatic complaints were administered to Dutch schoolchildren (N?=?617). A path model was constructed, with the use of structural equation modelling. The results showed that two aspects of emotion awareness (bodily awareness and differentiating between emotions) contributed to the prediction of somatic complaints. However, this was no longer the case when controlling for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Thus, in this study, no direct relation was found between emotion awareness and somatic complaints. Instead, the relation was perfectly mediated by symptoms of anxiety and depression. The results suggest that focusing only on the relation between emotion awareness and somatic complaints is an oversimplified perspective that falls short as a starting point to find therapeutic solutions for children who suffer from somatic complaints.     

Managing,Understanding, Applying,and Creating Knowledge in the Information Age: Next-Generation Challenges and Opportunities

New media, new knowledge practices, and concepts point to the need for greater understanding of cognitive processes underlying knowledge acquisition and generation in open informational worlds. The authors of the articles in this special issue address cognitive and instructional challenges surrounding multiple document comprehension—a prerequisite of digital literacy and knowledge work in the information age. In this article, we raise issues of conceptual clarity regarding constructs such as source and document, and discuss work in disciplinary literacy and knowledge-building communities to clarify uses of information resources to support knowledge creation. The discussion aims to (a) provide insights into the cognitive and social practices needed for students to manage, understand, apply, and create knowledge and (b) suggest research directions to advance these goals.     

Effects of IQ on Executive Function Measures in Children with ADHD

The present study compared children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and controls on a selected set of clinical measures of executive function (EF). A total of 92 children (51 ADHD, 41 control), ages 6-16, completed measures chosen from a larger neuropsychological battery to illustrate diverse components of the EF construct (planning, inhibitory control, response preparation, memory search). The selected measures were moderately correlated with one another, and moderately correlated with IQ. After controlling for age, sex, presence of learning disability (LD), ADHD, and IQ test version, Full Scale IQ was significantly related to four of the five selected EF measures. A second analysis showed group differences on the EF measures at different IQ levels. After covarying for age, there was a significant multivariate effect for IQ level (average, high average, superior) and a significant multivariate interaction between group (ADHD vs. control) and IQ level. Three of the five selected EF measures showed significant univariate group effects (controls performing better than ADHD) at the average IQ level; however, there were no significant group differences between children with ADHD and controls at high average or superior IQ levels. These results suggest that clinical measures of EF may differ among children with ADHD and controls at average IQ levels, but there is poorer discriminatory power for these measures among children with above average IQ.     

A comparison of same- and cross-age interactions in mixed-age groups

This study investigated the types of interactions occurring within and between age groups in mixed-age preschool classes. Using point-time sampling procedures, the peer interactions of 30 3- to 5-year-old preschool children enrolled in two preschool classes were recorded. Interactions were coded according to six categories and according to the role of the target child in the interaction. Contrary to popular assumptions about interactions in mixed-age groups, results indicated that for both the older and younger children the types of interactions occurring across age groups did not differ significantly from interactions within same-age groups. Symmetrical rather than asymmetrical relationships across age groups were found in the exchange of nurturance, direction and information.     

A measure of stereotyping in fear-of-success cues

Prior studies suggest that sex-role stereotypes influence responses to Horner's fear-of-success cue. This study investigates stereotypes about both sex roles and achievement settings. One hundred sixty college males and females wrote stories to different cues, then rated the masculinity-femininity of their characters. Both John and Anne were rated more masculine as medical students than in a neutral setting. Anne was rated more feminine than John in the neutral setting but equally masculine as a medical student. However, Anne's success was not regarded as maladaptive, but competent. Clearly Horner's cue reflects stereotypes; a more ambiguous cue might assess motives more effectively.Portions of this article were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C., 1976. Special thanks to Professor Charles P. Smith for his advice and encouragement throughout this research.