The Effects of Contact with Asians and Asian Americans on White American College Students: Attitudes, Awareness of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Adjustment

On the basis of acculturation theory, explicating mutual influences between different cultural or ethnic groups coming into contact, this study focused "on the other side of acculturation" theory by examining the effects of intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans on the psychosocial experiences of White American college students. Participants (N = 315), undergraduates attending a public university located within the state of Massachusetts, completed a survey that assessed demographic and personal characteristics, acculturation (extent of intercultural contact with Asian people and Asian cultures), attitudes towards Asians and Asian Americans, awareness of institutional discrimination and blatant racial issues, and psychological distress. Results indicated that White American students' intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans contributed significant variance to the prediction of their attitudes towards this ethnic group and awareness of discrimination and racial issues, but not to psychological distress. This study provides implications for understanding mutual acculturative influences between different ethnic groups in the United States.     

Simmering in the Soviet pot: language heterogeneity in early Soviet socio-linguistics

At the beginning of the ’30s—the period of lively debates on the relation between language and society—one of the main issues in linguistics was language heterogeneity. On the example of the texts by Boris Larin, Georgij Danilov and Lev Jakubinskij we shall compare two attitudes about unity and division of a language. If the studies by Larin and Danilov in various ways establish divisions in society and language at the end of the ’20s, in the ’30s there is a marked tendency to recognize language unity and the cohesiveness of the proletarian society, as seen in socio-linguistic analyses by Jakubinskij. The conclusion, suggested at the end of this exposition, claims that the idea of one national language grows in importance in the discourse of the Soviet linguistics at the beginning of 1930s. Disappearance of the contemporary language heterogeneity in the discourse of Soviet linguists of the period corroborates how linguistics adapts to the political conceptions of society.

Protection of Life and Human Dignity: The German Debate between Christian Norms and Secular Expectations

The German debate on bioethics and medical ethics turns on achange in the meaning of human dignity. Such dignity is increasinglyrendered contingent upon a person's empirically assessable qualityof life. In contrast to such dignity-endowed human life, a merelybiological human life is taken to disqualify its bearer fromsuch dignity, depriving his life of the protection "respectfor human dignity" would otherwise guarantee. The idea of a"life not worth living" or "undignified life" evokes categories,which were developed at the beginning of the 20th century, andlater informed the crimes of National Socialist medicine inGermany. Against this secular development, this article analysesthe theological and church-based discussion of basic bioethicalquestions in Germany, especially the controversy among Protestants:once Protestant ethicists abandon an explicitly theologicalbasis for their arguments, their conclusions come to closelyresemble those of the secular participants in the debate. Asa result, such Protestants relativize fundamental ethical norms.They subordinate, along with their secular environment, theprotection of life to respect for autonomy. They thus preparethe ground for a revival of the risky concepts of the past.     

The Lost Voice: How Libertarianism and Consumerism Obliterate the Need for a Relational Ethics in the National Health Care Service

This article analyzes the contribution Christian ethics mightbe able to make to the ethical debate on policy and caregivingin health and social care in the United Kingdom. The articledeals particularly with the concepts of solidarity and subsidiaritywhich are essential in Christian social ethics and health careethics, and which may be relevant for the ethical debate onhealth and social caregiving in the United Kingdom. An importantargument in the article is that utilitarian and market-drivenpolicies in the National Health Service (NHS) and the socialcare system have marginalized the position of the elderly andhave seriously impoverished the quality of care for the elderly.The neglect of the elderly and other vulnerable groups is alsothe result of widespread consumerist attitudes among patientsand of libertarian models of noninterference which are affirmedby a public ethos of self-sufficiency and counter-dependency.Those who need care dare not make their need known to othersand ask for help, while simultaneously those who could helpare so intimidated by the public affirmation of privacy andnegative rights that they do not dare to offer help except ifthis is explicitly demanded. This distant and standoffish attitudeis in an important way responsible for the fact that the voiceof those in need is altogether lost to the public forum. Christianethics puts much emphasis on responsibility and solidarity withthe needy other but is not able to have much impact on the deliveryof care in a secularized society and health care system likethe NHS. Nonetheless, Christianity still has a powerful andrespected voice, by speaking up for those who cannot speak forthemselves, such as the elderly and the handicapped. Christianscan find allies in the ethics of care and other relational approachesin health care ethics in order to combat libertarianism, consumerism,and utilitarianism.     

Emotion and Full Understanding

Aristotle has famously made the claim that having the right emotion at the right time is an essential part of moral virtue. Why might this be the case? I consider five possible relations between emotion and virtue and argue that an adequate answer to this question involves the epistemic status of emotion, that is, whether the perceptual awareness and hence the understanding of the object of emotion is like or unlike the perceptual awareness of an unemotional awareness of the same object. If an emotional awareness does not have a unique character, then it is unlikely that emotions provide an understanding that is different from unemotional states of awareness: they are perhaps little more than “hot-blooded” instances of the same understanding. If, on the other hand, an emotional state involves a perceptual awareness that is unique to the emotion, then emotions are cognitively significant, providing an understanding of the object of the emotion that is absent in a similar but unemotional episode of awareness. I argue the latter and substantiate the claim that emotions are essential to moral virtue because they can be essential to a full understanding of the situations that they involve. In such cases, emotions are not merely a symptom of the possession of an adequate understanding, but are rather necessary for having an adequate understanding.     

The structure of feared social situations among individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of social anxiety disorder in two independent nationally representative mental health surveys

The present study employed both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic approaches with nationally representative samples of individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (n=1123; n=3091, respectively) using split-halves of the National Comorbidity Replication Survey (n=9282) and cross-validated with the Canadian Community Health Survey on Mental Health and Wellbeing (n=36,984). Strong support was found for a three-factor solution. This model was obtained from exploratory factor analysis and was further evaluated using two confirmatory factor analytic investigations in the two national samples. The three social situational domains reflected (1) Social Interaction Fears, (2) Observation Fears, and (3) Public Speaking Fears. Individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (i.e., those who endorsed 7 or more of 13 feared social situations assessed in the survey) were significantly more likely to report Social Interaction Fears and Observation Fears compared to individuals with non-generalized social anxiety disorder (i.e., those who endorsed only 6 or fewer of 13 feared social situations). Individuals with generalized social anxiety were particularly characterized by combinations of Public Speaking Fears plus Social Interaction Fears and Observation Fears. The clinical and classification implications of our study for DSM-V are discussed.     

Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes: Treatment Practice and Policy Implications

Treatment professionals, whether clinicians, scientists, or policy makers, are interested in developing methods to improve behavioral health treatment outcomes. Clinicians are interested in knowing what treatment practices to incorporate into the services they offer clients. Policymakers request guidance regarding which decisions are most likely to lead to effective treatment approaches and structures. Scientists are eager to contribute knowledge pertinent to building and evaluating effective treatment practices and policies. The papers in this special series provide information on substance abuse treatment practices andpresent findings relevant to clinical practice, policy decisions, and scientific inquiry. This paper provides a brief overview of the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES) and briefly summarizes the other research papers included in this issue, all of which exemplify practice and policy issues in the substance abuse treatment field and bolster approaches applied to address these issues.     

Fluid intelligence is independently associated with all-cause mortality over 17 years in an elderly community sample: An investigation of potential mechanisms

The long-term relationship between lower intelligence and mortality risk in later life is well established, even when controlling for a range of health and sociodemographic measures. However, there is some evidence for differential effects in various domains of cognitive performance. Specifically, tests of fluid intelligence may have a stronger association with mortality than do tests of crystallized intelligence. The present study examines the relationship between intelligence and mortality in a sample of 896 Australian community-dwelling males and females, aged 70–97 at recruitment and followed for up to 17 years. There were 687 deaths during the follow-up period. Cox proportional hazard regression models examined whether the relationship between intelligence and mortality might be mediated by socioeconomic status, by health behaviors, by health status, or a combination of these. Higher fluid intelligence — as measured by the Symbol–Letter Modalities Test — was strongly associated with lower mortality rates (Hazard ratio = 0.80; 95% confidence interval = 0.72–0.88), even after accounting for any combination of potential mediators and confounders. A significant association between crystallized intelligence, as measured by the National Adult Reading Test, and mortality (HR = 0.89; 95% CI = 0.80–0.99) was attenuated by the inclusion of socioeconomic, health status measures, and health behavior measures and when deaths from the first four years of the study were excluded. The findings show little support for the hypothesized mechanisms of the intelligence–mortality relationship.     

Virtue and Continence

John McDowell argued that the virtuous person (VP) knows no temptation: her perception of a situation silences all competing motivations – be it fear in the face of danger or a strong desire. The VP cannot recognize any reason to act non-virtuously as a reason, and is never inclined to act non-virtuously. This view rests on the requirement that the VP rationally respond, and not merely react, to the environment – it rests on the requirement that the relation between the VP and the world (ethical requirements) must rule out the possibility that the VP is a brain in a vat. I will argue that the opposite is true: virtue requires a sensitivity to temptation. The VP, as such, must be able to recognize reasons for performing non-virtuous actions as reasons, and be inclined to perform them. She must find nothing human alien. This is so because the VP must possess the ability to understand non-virtuous agents, and understanding necessarily involves vulnerability to temptation. Otherwise, it will be argued, the VP views the actions of others as determined from outside the space of reasons. But the VP, like any other person, must have the ability to view the actions of others as rational responses to the environment, not only as reactions to it. Put differently, the VP’s view of others must rule out the possibility that they are brains in a vat – the possibility that their actions are merely caused, rather than justified, by the facts. Finally, it will be suggested that an amended conception of the VP can meet both requirements: view others as rationally responsive to the world, without relinquishing its relation to the facts.

Skepticism and Cryptography

Cryptography is an essential component of America’s national security infrastructure. Billions of dollars are spent on cryptosystems every year, in both the public and private sector. Unfortunately, the field is rife with dubious claims, snake oil salesmen, and outright fraud. This paper highlights the importance of skepticism and critical thinking in the role of evaluating and procuring cryptosystems. We discuss our experiences in teaching future leaders about testing extraordinary cryptographic claims by asking hard questions and show examples from our own experience. We believe that the rigorous application of skepticism and critical thinking in cryptography are absolutely essential to the wise use of America’s resources and the security of the nation.