On Being Annoyed

What is it that unites episodes of the emotion of annoyance? The paper considers possible analyses of the content of the state of annoyance, and concludes that this emotion should be understood to involve a negative construal of an object, event, or state of affairs as having failed to exemplify one of a suite of kinds of everyday quality or excellence. This account permits us to see what is common to a varied range of superficially‐disjointed emotional responses, and to make sense of the conditions under which annoyance is appropriate or inappropriate. Moreover, it reveals something of what we care about in everyday and social contexts, in our ordinary dealings with persons and artefacts.     

Relational consciousness and the conversational practices of Johnella Bird

In this article we review Johnella Bird's notion of relational consciousness, explaining it in terms of an ethnomethodologically informed social constructionist theory. We extend this notion to her conversational practices in therapy, examining first her general practice (and focus) on relational language‐making. We then turn to describing three of her specific conversational practices – negotiating conflicting discursive positions between partners in a relationship, exploring a partner's experience of hurt in a relationship, following unspoken assumptions, and negotiating power relations. We conclude by relating relational consciousness to an attendance to language as it is used by clients and by therapists in dialogue with clients.     

Alasdair MacIntyre's Analysis of Tradition

I argue that, in analysing the structure and development of moral traditions, MacIntyre relies primarily on Kuhn's model of scientific tradition, rather than (as is held by at least two influential commentators) on Lakatos' model. I unpack three foci of Kuhn's conception of the sciences, namely: the ‘crisis’ conception of scientific development, what I call the ‘systematic conception’ of scientific paradigms, and the view that successive paradigms are incommensurable. I then show that these three foci are integrated into MacIntyre's account of the development of moral traditions with a surprising degree of faithfulness to Kuhn. And crucially, I argue against the overall cogency of his account, given the disparities I pinpoint between scientific and moral traditions. My overall critique is, however, fundamentally friendly, since nothing I have to say invalidates the very notion of a moral tradition, and all I am calling for are less problematic construals of that notion.     

What role does neuroticism play in the association between negative job characteristics and anxiety and depression?

Many studies have established an association between job characteristics and anxiety and depression and noted that personality characteristics such as neuroticism likely play a role in creating or modifying these associations. Few studies, however, have explicitly tested or compared these possible alternative roles. In this study, we tested several specific hypotheses about neuroticism and its effects on job characteristics, anxiety and depression and their association in a series of structural equation models. Participants (N = 372) completed the Big Five Inventory, Job Contents Questionnaire and General Health Questionnaire. We tested (a) whether neuroticism is likely to be an important confounder of the association between job characteristics and anxiety and depression and (b) whether neuroticism moderates the association between job characteristics and anxiety and depression. Results indicated large attenuations by neuroticism of the association between job characteristics and anxiety and depression but there remained significant effects of psychological demands on anxiety, and social support on depression independent of neuroticism. Evidence was also found for interaction effects between neuroticism and decision latitude, with those lower in neuroticism being at higher risk for depression under conditions of low control.     

Loss Shapes Political Views? Terror Management,Political Ideology,and the Death of Close Others

This study used longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample to examine long-term effects of loss on political views. Drawing on terror management theory, it was predicted that individuals would reinforce their political views in response to the loss of relatives or close friends. Results were consistent with this hypothesis, though the effects were more pronounced among conservatives than liberals. By showing that the death of loved ones can shape political attitudes, the findings shed new light on the long-term effects of death confrontation.     

Fortunate Strangers: An Experience in Group Psychotherapy by Cornelius Beukenkamp,Jr.

The subjective response of aliveness in the work of the group may be a valuable signal on the journey toward creative character change in group therapy. In order to promote change in others, the group therapist must engage deeply and use internal responses as guides during interactions with group members as well as in relation to the group as a whole. Subjective awareness of increased aliveness that is linked with a sense of the work of the group may guide both therapist and group participants in the midst of inevitable anxieties and passions aroused during this quest for new vitality and freedom in relationships in the group. Winnicott's concept of potential space as well as group-relations theory about the primary task provide a conceptual foundation for this approach not only on the level of the individual member within the group but also on the level of the group as a whole.     

A terror management analysis of self-awareness and anxiety: The hierarchy of terror

Abstract

In this article, we apply terror management theory to the operation of self-awareness processes. According to the theory, self-esteem consists of accepting a cultural conception of reality and believing that one is living up to the standards of value inherent in that conception. The function of self-esteem is to buffer the anxiety that results from the awareness of human vulnerability and mortality that results from our capacity for self-awareness. We argue that self-awareness leads to comparisons with standards, and to behavior aimed at reducing any discrepancies that are detected, because of the potential for existential terror that self-awareness creates. Existential terror is seen as the emotional manifestation of the instinct for self-preservation. Management of this terror is conceptualized as the superordinate goal in a hierarchy of standards through which behavior is regulated. A hierarchical terror management model is proposed. This structure provides a unique analysis of the self-system and its relationship to other attitudes, values, and beliefs. The theory posits several dynamic principles that specify how self-awareness and disruptions determine the movement of conscious attention through various levels of the hierarchy. The implications of this analysis for unresolved theoretical questions about self-awareness processes, unconscius sources of motivation, and clinical problems are discussed.     

Sleep on it, but only if it is difficult: Effects of sleep on problem solving

Previous research has shown that performance on problem solving improves over a period of sleep, as compared with wakefulness. However, these studies have not determined whether sleep is beneficial for problem solving or whether sleep merely mitigates against interference due to an interruption to solution attempts. Sleep-dependent improvements have been described in terms of spreading activation, which raises the prediction that an effect of sleep should be greater for problems requiring a broader solution search. We presented participants with a set of remote-associate tasks that varied in difficulty as a function of the strength of the stimuli–answer associations. After a period of sleep, wake, or no delay, participants reattempted previously unsolved problems. The sleep group solved a greater number of difficult problems than did the other groups, but no difference was found for easy problems. We conclude that sleep facilitates problem solving, most likely via spreading activation, but this has its primary effect for harder problems.     

Reasons and religious belief

This paper purports a limited study of the concept of reason. It analyzes the claim of religious belief to be reasonable. The context for this analysis is an examination of some evidential (criteriological) connections between reasonable belief and ‘(good) reasons’ for such belief. Consideration of the typical sort of evidential connection shows, not surprisingly, that religious belief cannot claim to be reasonable. But it is argued that there is (at least) one other sort of connection, and that it is philosophically plausible to regard this connection as definitive of a quite distinctive sense of ‘reasonable’, with its own kind and style of criteria, according to which religious belief can be thought reasonable.