Human agency in the twenty-first century: the views of P. S. Davies,R. Niebuhr,and A. N. Whitehead

With neuroscience and psychology making significant advances in contemporary brain research, fundamental questions concerning the nature of human life and activity will become evermore critical as we proceed further into the twenty-first century. Put simply, are we creatures who exercise some genuine degree of freedom and agency in the world or are we creatures whose actions are largely if not wholly determined by biological, neurological, and psychological factors far below the radar of our conscious awareness? This article explores this important and timely question by examining the views of Paul Sheldon Davies, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Alfred North Whitehead. Drawing on contemporary science, Davies dismisses Niebuhr’s existential analysis of human existence and any meaningful conception of human agency. Succinctly stated, can one take both the results of contemporary neuroscience seriously, as Davies does, and the affirmation of human agency seriously, as Niebuhr does? The thesis of this essay is that Whitehead offers a constructive bridge between Davies’ affirmation of science and Niebuhr’s existential account of human existence. In sum, it is argued that Whitehead’s process philosophy enables us to affirm the genuine influence of nonconscious factors in experience as well as the authenticity of human agency and subjectivity in the world.     

Examining the Merit of Grit in Women's Soccer: Questions of Theory,Measurement, and Application

The purpose of the current study was to examine the factorial validity of existing grit measures and to examine differences in the grit level of athletes across performance tiers (i.e., collegiate, professional, Olympic). Female soccer players (N = 305) of varying competitive levels completed measures of grit. Results revealed preliminary support for the 8-item Grit Scale factorial validity, as well as a significant age-adjusted difference in grit level between Division I and Division II collegiate athletes. Taken together, study results prompt questions regarding the theoretical underpinnings, and consequent measurement, of the grit construct in sport psychology practice.     

The Impact of Films on Viewer Attitudes towards People with Schizophrenia

The media, including television, newspapers, and popular films have been implicated in the facilitation of mental illness stigmatization by presenting negative and inaccurate depictions of various diagnoses. The current study examined the impact of film on participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards people with schizophrenia. A total of 106 participants completed questionnaires before and after viewing a 45-min film excerpt. Films viewed included a fear-based inaccurate, likeable-inaccurate, and an educational-accurate depiction of schizophrenia. There was also a control group. There were significant increases in stigmatizing attitudes for participants in the fear-based inaccurate group compared to the accurate and control group. Fear-based participants reported increased negative affect and endorsed statements suggesting that people with schizophrenia were unpredictable, dependent, and dangerous. These results provide support for the hypothesis that negative, inaccurate portrayals of severe mental illness enhance stigmatizing attitudes. Accurate film depictions, advocacy for social equality, and the continued education of individuals, clients, families, communities and organizations will help to mitigate the impact of films on mental illness stigmatization.     

How to Apply Mathematics

This paper presents a novel account of applied mathematics. It shows how we can distinguish the physical content from the mathematical form of a scientific theory even in cases where the mathematics applied is indispensable and cannot be eliminated by paraphrase.     

Experienced and Expected Similarity to Same-Gender Peers: Moving Toward a Comprehensive Model of Gender Segregation

Gender segregation is often explained by children being interested in interacting with other children who behave similarly to themselves. Children??s beliefs about girls and boys (i.e., their gender cognitions) may also play a role in gender segregation, but this idea has received little attention. In this study, we proposed a model of gender segregation that included similarity on gender-typed behavioral qualities (e.g., rough and tumble play) and gender cognitions concerning perceived similarity to same-gender others, and we assessed whether this more comprehensive heuristic model predicted observed peer interactions in young U.S. children (n?=?74; M age = 51 m; middle-class families). A multi-method design was employed including observations of behavior and child reports of gender cognitions. Support was found for the linkages proposed in this comprehensive model for boys; partial support was found for girls. Specifically, the inclusion of gender cognitions was supported for both genders: gender cognitions about perceived similarity related to interactional partner choices for both girls and boys, and accounted for variance in observed partner choices even after behavioral similarity was included in the model. The traditional link concerning behavioral similarity on rough-and-tumble play predicted boys?? but not girls?? interactions. The findings extend knowledge about the role of social cognitions in social behavior, and are consistent with ideas proposed by gender schema theory and other constructivist theories.     

Predicting premature termination within a randomized controlled trial for binge-eating patients

Understanding the dropout rates of efficacious forms of psychotherapy for patients with binge eating disorder (BED) is an unsolved problem within this increasing population. Up until now the role of psychotherapy process characteristics as predictors of premature termination has not been investigated in the BED literature. Within a randomized controlled trial (N=78) we investigated the degree to which early psychological process characteristics, such as components of the therapeutic relationship and the experiences of mastery and motivational clarification, predicted premature termination of treatment. We statistically controlled for the influences of covariates such as rapid response of treatment, treatment group, body mass index, Axis II disorder, and patients' preexisting generalized self-efficacy at baseline. Patients' postsession reports from Sessions 1 to 5 indicated that low self-esteem in-session experiences was a stable predictor of premature termination. Its predictive value persisted after controlling for the above-mentioned covariates. Exploratory analyses further revealed low self-esteem experiences, low global alliance, and low mastery and clarification experiences as predictors in those patients who explicitly specified discontentment with therapy as reason for premature termination. These results indicate that patients' self-esteem experiences may not be an epiphenomenon of their specific psychopathology but may represent general mechanisms on which remaining or withdrawing from psychotherapeutic treatment depends. Early psychotherapy process characteristics should therefore be considered in training and evaluation of psychotherapists carrying through BED treatments.     

Divergent effects of different positive emotions on moral judgment

Positive emotions are often treated as relatively similar in their cognitive-behavioral effects, and as having unambiguously beneficial consequences. For example, Valdesolo and DeSteno (2006) reported that a humorous video made people more prone to choose a utilitarian solution to a moral dilemma. They attributed this finding to increased positive affect. To determine whether such results actually stem in general from positive affect or from other more specific properties of humor, we conducted an experiment with moral dilemmas presented during an interleaved emotion-induction procedure involving mirth and another positive emotion, elevation. Mirth increased permissiveness for deontological violations, whereas elevation had the opposite effect. Furthermore, affective valence had no apparent independent influence on these judgments. Our results suggest that mirth and elevation have distinct cognitive consequences whose properties reflect their respective social functions, not their shared positive valence.     

Emotion Regulation and Attachment: Unpacking Two Constructs and Their Association

This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing the development of emotion regulation in young children. A sample of 73 4 1/2-year-olds and their mothers were observed in an emotion regulation probe involving mild frustration for children, and mothers and children were later independently interviewed about how the child had felt. Fewer than half the mothers agreed with children’s self-reports in the emotion they attributed to children (a lower rate than the concordance of observer ratings with children’s self-reports), and higher mother-child concordance was associated with secure attachment and mother’s beliefs about the importance of attending to and accepting their own emotions. Mother-child conversations about recent events evoking children’s negative emotion were also analyzed. Children were less likely to avoid conversing about negative feelings when they were in secure attachments and when mothers were more validating of the child’s perspective. Children’s greater understanding of negative emotions was also significantly associated with higher mother-child concordance and less child conversational avoidance. Taken together, these findings underscore the multiple influences of attachment on emotion regulation and the importance of children’s emotion understanding to these processes.