Moral Overridingness and Moral Theory

I begin by proposing and explicating a plausible articulation of the view that morality is overriding. I then argue that it would be desirable for this thesis to be sustained. However, the prospects for its vindication will depend crucially on which moral theory we adopt. I examine some schematic moral theories in order to bring out which are friendly and which unfriendly to moral overridingness. In light of the reasons to hope that the overridingness thesis can be sustained, theories apparently incompatible with it – I argue that consequentialism is one – have a count against them.     

Epistemology, the History of Epistemology, Historical Epistemology

A brief discussion of the ways in which awareness of and sensitivity to the history of philosophy can contribute to epistemology even if epistemology is understood as a distinctively philosophical and not primarily historical enterprise.     

Severe and nonsevere events in first onsets versus recurrences of depression: evidence for stress sensitization

Overall, research has evidenced support for Post's (1992) model, which asserts that the 1st episode of depression is more likely to be associated with severe life events than are subsequent episodes. In spite of this, there are significant gaps in the understanding of the stress-depression association. This study aimed to address three gaps by (a) identifying the explanatory model underlying the association (stress sensitization vs. stress autonomy), (b) elucidating how the role of stress changes with successive episodes, and (c) examining the role of nonsevere events. The impact and occurrence of severe and nonsevere events in a 5-year longitudinal study of late-adolescent women were examined using Cox regression models. Overall, we found support for the stress sensitization model over the stress autonomy model. Specifically, the impact of nonsevere (but not severe) events was greater in individuals with a history of depression compared with those with no history of depression. In addition, the occurrence of severe (but not nonsevere) events was greater for 1st onsets than recurrences. These effects were modified by event independence. The results were discussed in terms of the underlying mechanisms of the stress-depression association and future directions for research were elaborated.     

Spillover to triadic and dyadic systems in families with young children

Research has evidenced support for the spillover model, which asserts that parents' marital functioning influences their parenting and coparenting behavior in dyadic (mother-child and father-child) and triadic (mother-father-child) family contexts. However, few studies have simultaneously investigated the spillover model in both parenting and coparenting systems, preventing examination of whether spillover impacts both systems equally or differentially. Further, little research has examined whether quality of the marital system influences children's behavior toward their parents, as well as their parents' behavior, in dyadic interactions. We examined the spillover model using observational measures of parent and child behavior in parent-child dyadic interactions as well as coparenting in triadic interactions. We also explored parent and child gender differences in spillover effects. Participants were families with children aged 3 to 6 years (n = 149). Findings indicated that spillover occurs to multiple family systems, but the effects varied according to whose behavior (mother, father, child) was explored. In families of boys and girls, the marital system influenced warmth in triadic interactions, as well as fathers' responsiveness and children's responsiveness to mothers in dyadic interactions. Spillover effects were largely equivalent for girls and boys, but spillover to coparenting hostility in triadic interactions was limited to families raising girls. Parent gender also moderated associations between marital functioning and parent-child interactions: Spillover was significantly stronger for fathers' responsiveness (vs. mothers' responsiveness) and child responsiveness to mothers (vs. child responsiveness to fathers).     

Examining the evidence for an independent semantic analyzer: an ERP study in Spanish

Recent ERP findings challenge the widespread assumption that syntactic and semantic processes are tightly coupled. Syntactically well-formed sentences that are semantically anomalous due to thematic mismatches elicit a P600, the component standardly associated with syntactic anomaly. This ‘thematic P600’ effect has been attributed to detection of semantically plausible thematic relations that conflict with the surface syntactic structure of the sentence, implying a processing architecture with an independent semantic analyzer. A key finding is that the P600 is selectively sensitive to the presence of plausible verb-argument relations, and that otherwise an N400 is elicited (The hearty meal was devouring … vs. The dusty tabletop was devouring …: Kim & Osterhout, 2005). The current study investigates in Spanish whether the evidence for an independent semantic analyzer is better explained by a standard architecture that rapidly integrates multiple sources of lexical, syntactic, and semantic information. The study manipulated the presence of plausible thematic relations, and varied the choice of auxiliary between passive-biased fue and active-progressive biased estaba. Results show a late positivity that appeared as soon as comprehenders detected an improbable combination of subject animacy, auxiliary bias, or verb voice morphology. This effect appeared at the lexical verb in the fue conditions and at the auxiliary in the estaba conditions. The late positivity elicited by surface thematic anomalies was the same, regardless of the presence of a plausible non-surface interpretation, and no N400 effects were elicited. These findings do not implicate an independent semantic analyzer, and are compatible with standard language processing architectures.     

Dworkin and Casey on abortion

This article responds to two important recent treatments of abortion rights. I will mainly discuss Ronald Dworkin's recent writings concerning abortion: his article "Unenumerated rights: whether and how Roe should be overruled," and his book Life's Dominion. In these writings Dworkin presents a novel view of what the constitutional and moral argument surronding abortion is really about. Both debates actually turn, he argues, on the question of how to interpret the widely shared idea that human life is sacred. At the heart of the abortion debate is the essentially religious notion that human life has value which transcends its value to any particular person; abortion is therefore at bottom a religious issue. Dworkin hopes to use this analysis to show that the religion clauses of the First Amendment provide a "textual home" for a woman's right to choose abortion. I wish to scrutinize this suggestion here; I want to probe the precise consequences for abortion rights of such an understanding of their basis. I will argue that the consequences are more radical than Dworkin seems to realize. The other work I will examine here is the important 1992 Supreme Court decision on abortion, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The controlling opinion in that case, written jointly by Justices Kennedy, O'Connor, and Souter, strongly reaffirmed Roe v. Wade, but also upheld most of the provisions of a Pennsylvania statute that had mandated various restrictions on abortion. The justices' basis for upholding these restictions was their introduction of a new constitutional standard for abortion regulations, an apparently weaker standard than those that had governed previous Supreme Court abortion decisions. I think there is a flaw in Casey's new constitutional test for abortion regulations, and I will explain, when we turn to Casey, what it is and why it bears a close relation to Dworkin's reluctance to carry his argument as far as it seems to go.     

Creating political websites: Balancing complexity &; usability

By integrating what is known about how people navigate the overwhelming tide of political information with research on usability, the experiments reported in this article aim to provide information about how to create political websites that are usable, engaging, and educational. This article reports on a series of four different experiments (n=478) comparing a simpler and more easily navigable website to a more complex and interactive website. The types of websites tested include: adwatches, issue grids, candidate biographies, and campaign finance sites. The results suggest that simpler, more navigable websites are preferred to more interactive websites with web tools. Results also suggest that more political information is not always preferable, as in most cases, participants rated sites with more political information lower. Brett A. Mueller received a master’s degree from the Annenberg School for Communication in 2002. This research is supported by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts; Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Primary Investigator. The authors than Joyce Garczynski, Jon Stromer-Galley, Svjetlana Tepavcevic, and Dannagal Goldthwaite Young for their work on the project.     

Outdoor Behavioral Health Care: A Longitudinal Assessment of Young Adult Outcomes

This article details a 3‐year outdoor behavioral health care outcome study. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze data from 186 young adults in a wilderness therapy program. Participants completed the Outcome Questionnaire–45.2 (Lambert et al., 2004 ) 6 times from Week 1 to 18‐month postdischarge follow‐up. Results indicated that clinically and statistically significant change occurred in treatment. Rates of change varied, and posttreatment scores remained stable, thus demonstrating that in‐treatment gains were maintained. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.