Fostering a Culture of Land

Paul Thompson’s essay, “Agrarian Philosophy and Ecological Ethics,” [1] usefully highlights some of the defects in the now-dominant strands of environmental ethics. It offers an agrarian alternative that solves many of them. Thompson’s agrarianism, in turn, has its own limitations, yet it nonetheless merits close attention.     

Subjective utility,anticipated utility,and the Allais paradox

One of the most notable counterexamples to expected utility theory is the “Allais paradox” (M. Allais, 1953, Econometrica, 31, 503–546). A number of alternative theories have been proposed in an attempt to resolve this paradox, notably including Karmarkar, 1978, Karmarkar, 1979, 24, 67–72). It is shown that SWU theory necessarily involves violations of dominance, but that the theory can be modified to avoid these violations. The result is a special case of J. Quiggin's anticipated utility theory (1982, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, 3, 323–343).     

COVID-19 and Its Lockdown in Belgium: How Limited Access to Environmental Satisfaction Impacts Emotions?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to induce several psychological consequences (e.g., increases in anxiety and stress). Accordingly, it seems relevant to investigate how individuals cope with their emotions. Indeed, when facing negative emotions, individuals need to rely on adaptive emotion regulation strategies to alleviate their negative impacts (e.g., decrease in quality of life, increase in sleep disturbances). Moreover, lockdown’s measures led to a restriction of the access to activities which, in turn, might have decreased the “environmental satisfaction”. Then, this research investigates the pandemic’s psychological impacts on emotions and regulation strategies, intolerance of uncertainty, and environmental satisfaction. Our approach’s originality relies on comparing one’s actual psychological functioning (i.e., since the pandemic) to one’s general psychological functioning (i.e., before the pandemic). This study also assesses the relationships between both negative and positive emotions and (1) emotion regulation strategies, (2) intolerance of uncertainty and, (3) environmental satisfaction since the pandemic and its lockdown. The total sample comprised 948 adults from the general population. Results show that, since the pandemic, individuals experience higher levels of negative emotions, lower levels of positive emotions and environmental satisfaction. They also tend to worry less and to resort to acceptance more often. Also, environmental satisfaction is the most important predictor of both negative emotions and positive ones. Overall, findings confirm previous ones and seem to indicate that environmental satisfaction should be addressed more thoroughly.     

Water contaminant levels interact with parenting environment to predict development of depressive symptoms in adolescents

Contaminants in drinking water, such as lead, nitrate, and arsenic, have been linked to negative physical health outcomes. We know less, however, about whether such pollutants also predict mental health problems and, if so, the conditions under which such effects are strongest. In this longitudinal study, we examined whether drinking water contaminants interact with negative family environments (parental psychological control) to predict changes in depressive symptoms in 110 adolescents—a developmental period when symptoms often first emerge. We found that for adolescents in psychologically controlling families, levels of drinking water contaminants prospectively predicted depressive symptoms 2 years later; this effect was not present in adolescents in non‐controlling families. Importantly, these associations were not accounted for by family‐ or community‐level socioeconomic resources, demographic features, or by the adolescents’ stress exposure. These findings highlight the interplay of physical and psychological environments in influencing depressive symptoms in adolescents. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/thBV-DwnGcY     

Intention of Chinese college students to use carsharing: An application of the theory of planned behavior

Carsharing originated in Europe and then expanded to developed countries such as the United States. With the revival and popularity of the “Sharing Economy,” carsharing has remarkably increased in China in recent years. Carsharing has increased convenience for individuals without private cars and is changing the traditional view of car ownership. Chinese college students are a large, highly educated group with low incomes and low rates of car ownership. Understanding the determinants of Chinese college students' intention to carshare is critical to promote carsharing services. In this research, an expanded version of the theory of planned behavior, which contains environmental concern, is the theoretical research framework. The model was empirically tested by using the questionnaire data of 356 college students from four universities in Qingdao, China. The results indicate that subjective norm and the perceived behavioral control are directly and positively associated with Chinese college students’ intention to use carsharing, and attitude and environmental concern have no direct correlation with the intention. Environmental concern has a significant direct effect on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. In addition, environmental concern indirectly impacts Chinese college students’ intention to use carsharing through subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. The findings yield practical insights for carsharing organizations and transportation planners. Based on these results, limitations of this study and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Reactivity of Tic Observation Procedures to Situation and Setting

Tic frequency was assessed and compared across home and clinic as well as three experimentally-manipulated situations in order to assess the phenomenon of tic reactivity. Forty-three youngsters with chronic tic disorder recruited from two geographically-distinct sites were videotaped over three weekly laboratory visits under each of the following conditions: (1) alone/camera present, (2) other present/camera present, and (3) alone/camera hidden. Contrary to expectation, more tics were observed during overt as compared to covert observation, while the presence of another person had no overall impact on tic expression. Mean tic counts obtained from clinic observation did not significantly differ from those obtained at home collected either one day before or after. Tic frequency counts were remarkably stable over the three weekly assessments both at home and clinic. Study findings are consistent with past observations that tic expression can be influenced by environmental factors and suggest the stability of tic frequency may exhibit greater temporal and setting stability than previously thought. The clinical and research implications of these results are discussed.     

Nanotechnology Bound: Evaluating the Case for More Regulation

In continuing news, there is a growing debate on whether current laws and regulations, both in the US and abroad, need to be strengthened as they relate to nanotechnology. On one side, experts argue that nanomaterials, which are making their way into the marketplace today, are possibly harmful to consumers and the environment, so stronger and new laws are needed to ensure they are safe. On the other side, different experts argue that more regulation will slow down the pace of business and innovation in nanotechnology, or that self-regulation is the answer, or other opposing positions. This paper will draw out the core issues behind the debate and explain that there is more at stake than merely environmental, health and safety (EHS) worries or business interests, as it first appears. We will also suggest an alternative solution to stricter laws, since stricter laws would face formidable practical challenges, even if they are warranted.     

Specificity of Disgust Domains in the Prediction of Contamination Anxiety and Avoidance: A Multimodal Examination

Although core, animal-reminder, and contamination disgust are viewed as distinct “types” of disgust vulnerabilities, the extent to which individual differences in the three disgust domains uniquely predict contamination-related anxiety and avoidance remains unclear. Three studies were conducted to fill this important gap in the literature. Study 1 was conducted to first determine if the three types of disgust could be replicated in a larger and more heterogeneous sample. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a bifactor model consisting of a “general disgust” dimension and the three distinct disgust dimensions yielded a better fit than a one-factor model. Structural equation modeling in Study 2 showed that while latent core, animal-reminder, and contamination disgust factors each uniquely predicted a latent “contamination anxiety” factor above and beyond general disgust, only animal-reminder uniquely predicted a latent “non-contamination anxiety” factor above and beyond general disgust. However, Study 3 found that only contamination disgust uniquely predicted behavioral avoidance in a public restroom where contamination concerns are salient. These findings suggest that although the three disgust domains are associated with contamination anxiety and avoidance, individual differences in contamination disgust sensitivity appear to be most uniquely predictive of contamination-related distress. The implications of these findings for the development and maintenance of anxiety-related disorders marked by excessive contamination concerns are discussed.     

Association between serotonin Cumulative Genetic Score and the Behavioral Approach System (BAS): Moderation by early life environment

The present study investigates if genetic variation in the serotonergic system interacts with early adversity to predict changes in the Behavioral Approach System (BAS), a system that taps into reward processing. In a sample of community adults (N = 236) the influence of single serotonergic candidate polymorphisms on BAS was analyzed, we also examined the aggregate contribution of these genetic variants by creating a Cumulative Genetic Score (CGS). A CGS quantifies an individual’s cumulative risk by aggregating the number of risk alleles across the candidate polymorphisms. After individual gene analysis, three candidate genes rs7305115 (TPH2), rs6311 (HTR2A), and rs6295 (HTR1A) were combined into the CGS. There were no significant interactions between individual candidate polymorphisms and childhood adversity, but the CGS interacted with childhood adversity to explain a significant amount of variance (11.6%) in the BAS. Findings suggest that genetic variations in the serotonergic system in combination with childhood adversity contribute to individual differences in reward sensitivity.     

Information elaboration and team performance: Examining the psychological origins and environmental contingencies

Information elaboration enables functionally diverse teams to transform their breadth of knowledge resources into actionable solutions to complex problems. The current study advances information elaboration theory and research in two ways. First, we identify how team ability and social motivation composition characteristics provide the psychological origins of complex information processing efforts. Second, we identify environmental turbulence as an important boundary condition, clarifying when information elaboration benefits team performance and when it does not. These ideas were tested in a sample of 4-person self-managed teams (N = 68) which were functionally diverse and performed a cooperative strategic decision-making task. Results indicate that cognitive ability equips teams with the “can do” ability for complex elaboration efforts through emergent team mental models, whereas low preferences for self-reliance provide the “will do” motivation for in-depth information exchange through collective leadership. In turn, teams benefited from information elaboration in turbulent but not stable environments.