Thought Experiments and Personal Identity

Philosophical Studies -     

The Learning Paradigm College – John Tagg

Books reviewed: The Learning Paradigm College. By John Tagg. Boston, Mass.: Anker Publishing Co., 2003. xviii & 379 pages. ISBN 1-8829-8258-4. $39.95 (Cloth).     

Physiological stress responses to inequality across income groups in a virtual society

A growing body of research suggests that inequality can be stressful for all within a society. We consider this assertion by exploring whether there is evidence of physiological stress responses to different income and inequality conditions in a hypothetical society. The combined effect of inequality for different income groups on cardiovascular reactivity was assessed while participants engaged in purchasing decisions. The study included 102 participants, 84 of which had full data for analyses (42 male, 41 female, 1 unspecified). The average age was 23 years. A 3 × 2 design manipulated both inequality (stable, increasing, and decreasing) and income (high and low). Cardiovascular reactivity was operationalized as change in heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP; diastolic and systolic) responses at the end of the purchasing task compared with baseline. Although there was no direct association between income, inequality, and BP, results indicated that low-income participants had the higher HR reactivity to stable inequality compared with increasing inequality. These findings indicate that inequality has the hallmarks of a stressor; this is contingent on the type of inequality. This suggests that inequality itself may be detrimental to future health via the stress pathway. These findings highlight that the nature of inequality, increasing, decreasing, or stable is relevant to its impact and that these impacts of inequality may extend to the biological.     

PREDICTORS OF SAT MATHEMATICS SCORES OF GIFTED MALE AND GIFTED FEMALE ADOLESCENTS

A regression analysis was conducted to determine the relative importance of a series of variables in the prediction of SAT-Mathematics (SAT-M) scores of gifted males and females. Among the variables considered were visual-spatial ability, cognitive reasoning ability, learning style, and SAT-Verbal (SAT-V) scores. Scores on the visual-spatial task were analyzed for speed of response as well as ability. For both sexes, reasoning skills were the predominant factor in the prediction formulas. Differences in the two formulas seemed to reflect males' greater facility with process skills necessary for the SAT-M. Implications are discussed regarding how to interpret the differential performance of gifted males and females on the SAT-M.     

Predicting Suicide Attempts for Racial and Ethnic Groups of Patients During Routine Clinical Care

The aim of this study was to examine variation in suicide ideation and its relationship to risk of suicide attempt in the subsequent 90 days by race and ethnicity. Participants were adults who completed the Patient Health Questionnaire depression module (PHQ9) during an outpatient encounter between January 10, 2010, and December 12, 2012 (N = 509,945 patients; N = 1,228,308 completed PHQ9). Data came from the Virtual Data Warehouse from four health care systems in the Mental Health Research Network. The sample was majority female (73.7%), primarily 30–64 years old (60.1%), healthy (64.5% comorbidity index = 0), and over half were non‐Hispanic White (52.9%). Only Asian patients (OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.24, 1.39) had higher odds of reporting suicide ideation when compared to non‐Hispanic White people. All racial and ethnic groups had increased risk for suicide attempt with increased frequency of suicide ideation. The PHQ9 item 9 can be used as an indicator of suicide ideation and risk for suicide attempt up to 90 days after the reported ideation in racial and ethnic minority patients during routine clinical care.