Her heart is in the right place: an investigation of the ‘heartbeat hypothesis’ as an explanation of the left side cradling preference in a mother with dextrocardia

A majority of mothers, whether right- or left-handed, exhibit a preference to hold their babies to the left of the body midline. One of the earliest explanations for this finding proposed that babies were being held close to the mother's heart [Salk, L. (1960). World Mental Health, 12 , 168–175]. Salk suggested that the foetus becomes imprinted on the sound of the maternal heartbeat in utero. This paper reports a left holding preference in a mother who has the heart positioned on the right rather than the normal left side of the body. Salk's ‘heartbeat hypothesis’ is not supported by the holding preference of the dextrocardiac mother, nor by the detailed patterns of holding in the control group. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moral Individualism,Moral Relationalism,and Obligations to Non‐human Animals

Moral individualists like Jeff McMahan and Peter Singer argue that our moral obligations to animals, both human and non‐human, are grounded in the morally salient capacities of those animals. By contrast, what might be called moral relationalists argue that our obligations to non‐human animals are grounded in our relationship to them. Moral relationalists are of various kinds, from relationalists regarding assistance to animals, such as Clare Palmer and Elizabeth Anderson, to relationalists grounded in a Wittgensteinian view of human practice, such as Cora Diamond and Alice Crary. This article argues that there are, in fact, two distinct types of moral reasons, those based on salient capacities and those based on relationships. Neither type of reason is reducible to the other, and there is no third type to which to reduce them both. Any attempt at reduction would run counter to deep intuitions about our moral relation to non‐human animals as well as to other humans. Among the implications of this is that certain kinds of arguments, such as the argument from marginal cases, seem to be incomplete precisely because they do not capture the complexity of our moral relations to non‐human animals.     

Reliability and Validity of Scores From the Inventory of Drug Use Consequences

Psychometric properties of the Inventory of Drug Use Consequences (InDUC; W. M. Miller, J. S. Tonigan, & R. Longabaugh, 1995), a self‐report assessment of negative consequences associated with alcohol and other drug use, were investigated. The InDUC demonstrated sound psychometric characteristics and can be a valuable clinical tool for chemical dependency counselors.     

Continuous Learning Skill Demands: Associations with Managerial Job Content,Age, and Experience

Purpose  

Given that competence at continuous learning is increasingly a key part of successful work, we investigated which aspects of managerial work are associated with a need for competence at continuous learning. Also, given the aging work force, we investigated whether age or experience is associated with reported need for continuous learning competence for effective performance.