Is Global Poverty a Philosophical Problem?

Peter Singer’s groundbreaking call to action in 1972, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” drew philosophical attention to the topic of famine and the associated suffering or preventable death of many throughout the world. Yet despite the volume of philosophical work Singer’s paper inspired, it would still be easy to suppose that global poverty is not a problem for philosophers to take seriously in itself but is rather a particularly stark illustration or instance of a more general problem, whether in ethics or in political philosophy. The aim of this paper is to argue that the philosophical landscape of global poverty is both sui generis and sufficiently complex that the topic should be considered not as an instance of a more general philosophical problem but as a distinct area of normative inquiry.     

Parents‐in‐law's topic avoidance: Understanding the role of interaction goals and relational characteristics

Utilizing dual logic from a multiple goals and relational turbulence theory, this study examined parents‐in‐law's interaction goals for topic avoidance with their children‐in‐law. Data from 159 parents‐in‐law revealed that multiple and conflicting goals were associated with parents‐in‐law's topic avoidance. Furthermore, relational parameters (i.e., relational uncertainty and partner influence) were associated with the goals in‐laws pursued. Results augment theorizing on a multiple goals perspective, relational turbulence, and topic avoidance, as well as theoretically ground the study of in‐law communication.     

Gender Differences in Self-Perception and Negative Recall Biases

This study investigated gender differences inthe accuracy of self-perceptions and whetherself-perception biases are related to negative recallbiases. Participants were 275 female and 213 malecollege students. Approximately 10% of the participantswere minorities (mostly African American and Asian). Ona masculine task, gender differences in self-perceptionswere found for three measures of accuracy: The accuracy of self-evaluations, calibration,and response bias. Females underestimated theirperformance, were less well calibrated, and showed amore conservative response bias than did males. Ashypothesized, no gender differences in the accuracy ofself-evaluations were found for feminine and neutraltasks. Participants' expectancies mediated the genderdifferences in post task self-evaluations ofperformance. In addition, evidence for a negative recallbias was found. Females were more likely than males torecall their mistakes even with performance and accuracyof self-evaluations controlled. The implications of females' greater self-perception biases onmasculine tasks are discussed and suggestions for futureresearch are made.     

Counselling breast cancer patients: A specialist nurse service

The evaluation of a specialist nurse-counselling service is described. Forty newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, treated by mastectomy, were randomised to receive either routine care or routine care plus counselling by a nurse. Psychological morbidity was assessed at one week, 3 months and 12 months postoperatively to determine the efficacy of this service. Comparisons between the groups indicated that counselled patients were significantly less depressed at 3 months postoperatively and reported more beliefs in personal control over health. At 12 months postoperatively there were no significant differences between the groups. Although both groups continued to adjust throughout the year following surgery, this adjustment occurred more rapidly if patients were counselled. The results suggest that a nurse-counselling service can be of value in helping to reduce the amount of distress experienced as a result of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.     

Structural family therapy with Mexican-American family systems

Characteristics of traditional Mexican-American families with consequent family rules that affect these family systems are discussed along with selected clinical cases. The specific cases discussed involve: (1) interactions with family of origin in intercultural marriages, (2) intracultural differences in levels of acculturation and traditional family rules, and (3) extended family impact in response to severe life crisis. The development of therapeutic processes from structural and strategic family therapy approaches, which reflect appreciation for cultural differences and strengths, is suggested.This material was presented at the annual meeting of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, January, 1994, San Antonio, TX.     

Social organization predicts nature of infant-adult interactions in two species of wild guinea pigs (Cavia aperea and Galea monasteriensis)

The authors compared interactions of infants with mothers and unfamiliar females in a novel environment in 2 caviomorph rodent species: the harem-living Cavia aperea, the probable progenitor of the domestic guinea pig; and the pair-living Galea monasteriensis. In C. aperea, interactions with mothers and unfamiliar females were largely similar; in G. monasteriensis, interactions with the mother, but not unfamiliar female, were characterized by physical closeness and sociopositive behavior. In G. monasteriensis, plasma cortisol levels were lower when with the mother than when with the unfamiliar female. Results are consistent with the species' social organizations and suggest that behavioral interactions of pups with mothers and other females in domestic guinea pigs reflect primarily the social organization of the progenitor species rather than domestication.     

Appearance-related commentary, body image, and self-esteem: Does the distress associated with the commentary matter?

Research that has examined the association between appearance-based commentary and body image has generally focused on the frequency of occurrence of the commentary, not the subjective rating of the distress associated with the feedback. The current study examined both frequency and distress (effect) components of commentary in a sample of 246 undergraduate female students aged 18–25. Significant correlations were found between both frequency and effect dimensions of commentary and measures of body image disturbance and self-esteem. The utility of both frequency and effect variables in predicting body image disturbance and self-esteem was demonstrated in regression analyses. Implications of the findings for broadening the assessment of appearance-based commentary to include both dimensions of the construct are discussed.     

Light direction from shad(ow)ed random Gaussian surfaces

Three human observers estimated the illumination direction for samples of random Gaussian surfaces illuminated by a collimated beam from random directions. These stimuli appear as 'texture' due to shading and shadowing (the surface on the microscale was Lambertian of uniform albedo; thus texture appears only through shading and shadowing). We found that observers were able to estimate the azimuth of the source with remarkable accuracy. In the shading regime (no shadows) the observers committed 180 degrees azimuth errors with 50% probability, whereas in the shadow-dominated regime they were able to avoid this convex/concave confusion to a large extent. They evidently relied on second-order statistics in the shading regime and used an unidentified first-order cue in the shadow regime. The elevations of the source were also estimated with remarkable precision. We attribute this to the statistical homogeneity of the sample which can apparently be exploited by the observers. Likely cues are the fraction of shadowed surface, average intensity and rms contrast. The ability of human observers to estimate the illumination direction from surface texture no doubt contributes to the ability to estimate the light field in scenes, which is a prerequisite to the photometric parsing of scenes (shape from shading, and so forth).