Dualists needn’t be anti-criterialists (nor should they be)

Sometimes in philosophy one view engenders another. If you hold the first, chances are you hold the second. But it’s not always because the first entails the second. Sometimes the tie is less clear, less clean. One such tie is between substance dualism and anti-criterialism. Substance dualism is the view that people are, at least in part, immaterial mental substances. Anti-criterialism is the view that there is no criterion of personal identity through time. Most philosophers who hold the first view also hold the second. In fact, many philosophers just assume that substance dualists ought to, or perhaps even have to, accept anti-criterialism. But I aim to show that this assumption is baseless. Substance dualism doesn’t entail, suggest, support, or in any way motivate anti-criterialism, and anti-criterialism confers no benefit on dualism. Substance dualists have no special reason—and, indeed, no good reason at all—to accept anti-criterialism. Or so I shall argue. My aim isn’t to defend substance dualism, nor is it to attack anti-criterialism. My aim is to show that, contrary to a long-standing trend, dualists needn’t be anti-criterialists. Nor, as it will turn out, should they be.     

Meta‐Analysis of Counseling Outcomes for Youth With Conduct Disorders

Twenty‐one clinical trials were synthesized using a random‐effects model, which substantiated that counseling generally produces a medium effect in treating conduct disorder in youth at termination (d + = 0.30 to 0.57; k = 28). However, the lasting effects at follow‐up were unclear because few follow‐up studies (k = 13) have been conducted (d + = ?0.53 to 0.58), and only 2 randomized controlled follow‐up studies were located. No effects of moderating variables were evident. Implications for counseling practice and outcome research are addressed.     

Forging a Collaborative Relationship Between the Black Church and the Counseling Profession

In the field of counseling, there has been a growing awareness of the important role the Black church plays in African American communities. Although counseling professionals have begun recognizing the influence the Black church has in the lives of African Americans, there seems to be little information on how counselors can collaborate with African American congregations to meet the mental health needs of African American clients. The authors examine how counselors can use the psychological and social strengths of the Black church. Strategies and implications for collaborating with this institution are also discussed.     

A Multivariate Associative Finite Growth Mixture Modeling Approach Examining Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Use

Theoretical and empirical substance use development research suggests that adolescent populations are not homogenous and can often be separated into subpopulations characterized by qualitatively different patterns of substance use development. This paper demonstrates the application of a multivariate associative finite latent growth mixture modelling approach to examine heterogeneity in patterns of adolescent alcohol and marijuana use and the influence of age, gender, parent, and peer substance use. Substance use problem outcomes were also examined. Participants were male and female adolescents (N = 1,044) ranging in age from 11 to 17 years at the first assessment (Mean age = 14.47; SD = 1.95). Individuals were 45% female and 82% Caucasian. Using growth mixture methodology, a 7-class model captured distinct simultaneous alcohol and marijuana use patterns over a 3-year period. Findings highlight the importance of examining subgroups of adolescent substance use, rather than focusing only on single samples.     

Machismo and Mexican American men: an empirical understanding using a gay sample

Machismo continues to be a defining aspect of Mexican American men that informs a wide array of psychological and behavioral dimensions. Although strides have been made in this area of research, understanding of the role of this construct in the lives of gay men remains incomplete. Our purpose in this study was to gain a deeper understanding of machismo using a sample of Mexican American gay men. This study examined for the first time whether a 2-factor model of machismo previously validated with heterosexual, Mexican American men generalized to a sample of 152 gay men of similar ethnic background. Relations between machismo, sexual risk, and internalized homophobia were also explored. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the 2-factor model with the current sample. Results also indicated machismo as predicting internalized homophobia and as an index of risky sex. Limitations are presented and implications are discussed.     

Why additional presentations help identify a stimulus

Nosofsky (1983) reported that additional stimulus presentations within a trial increase discriminability in absolute identification, suggesting that each presentation creates an independent stimulus representation, but it remains unclear whether exposure duration or the formation of independent representations improves discrimination in such conditions. Experiment 1 replicated Nosofsky's result. Experiments 2 (masking the ISI between two-presentations) and 3 (manipulating stimulus duration without changing number of presentations or overall trial duration) ruled out an explanation in terms of extended opportunities for stimulus sampling, from either a sensory buffer during additional ISIs or increased stimulus exposure, respectively. Experiment 4 (comparing two and three-presentations, other factors controlled) provided some limited additional support for Nosofsky's original claim that additional stimulus presentations can create either independent or duplicate representations. Experiments 5 and 6 (both manipulating ISI) demonstrated that a key factor in the additional stimulus presentation effect is the overall trial duration. We discuss the results in relation to models of absolute identification, their relative emphasis on stimulus sampling versus response selection, and the mechanisms by which duplicate representations could be created.     

Strategic adaptation to performance objectives in a dual-task setting

How do people interleave attention when multitasking? One dominant account is that the completion of a subtask serves as a cue to switch tasks. But what happens if switching solely at subtask boundaries led to poor performance? We report a study in which participants manually dialed a UK‐style telephone number while driving a simulated vehicle. If the driver were to exclusively return his or her attention to driving after completing a subtask (i.e., using the single break in the xxxxx‐xxxxxx representational structure of the number), then we would expect to see a relatively poor driving performance. In contrast, our results show that drivers choose to return attention to steering control before the natural subtask boundary. A computational modeling analysis shows that drivers had to adopt this strategy to meet the required performance objective of maintaining an acceptable lateral position in the road while dialing. Taken together these results support the idea that people can strategically control the allocation of attention in multitask settings to meet specific performance criteria.     

Should Happiness-Maximization be the Goal of Government?

Recent social surveys of happiness (subjective well-being) have given a new stimulus to utilitarian political theory by providing a statistically reliable measure of the ‘happiness’ of individuals that can then be correlated with other variables. One general finding is that greater happiness does not correlate strongly with increased wealth, beyond modest levels, and this has led to calls for governments to shift priorities away from economic growth and towards other social values. This paper notes how the conclusions of this research help to address some of the traditional objections to utilitarianism. The question of how happiness research findings can be used to set happiness-maximization goals for public policy needs careful examination, as the translation from research to policy is not always straightforward. Some empirical and ethical objections to this ‘new utilitarianism’ are raised. The complicating factors of public expectations of, and trust in, governments pose obstacles to any proposal that happiness research may lead to changes in public policy and hence to ‘happier’ populations.