The empirical relevance of Perelman's New Rhetoric

Perelman's work has been very influential in various disciplines, among them philosophy, rhetoric and law. Especially the typology of argumentative schemes which he developed together with L. Olbrechts-Tyteca has been considered as an excellent classification of arguments in natural language. There are, however, some weaknesses of this typology which make its application to empirical research quite difficult, namely, the lack of explicitness and the absence of clear criteria of demarcation. Still, the typology is highly relevant for empirical research, if these weaknesses are removed. This is illustrated with an example: the scheme called the division of the whole into its parts by Perelman/Olbrechts-Tyteca is described explicitly and then applied to the analysis of a sample of everyday arguments (mostly taken from newspapers).     

Mobiliser les arbitrages organisationnels pour prévenir les risques professionnels dans les espaces confinés : le cas des chantiers de réfection de canalisation en égouts

This contribution participates to the development of ergonomic contributions to the prevention of occupational risks in confined spaces, specifically in sewer pipe rehabilitation projects. The intervention deployed was structured around a participatory and collaborative approach involving all stakeholders in the project to sustainably improve the prevention of work-related accidents and musculoskeletal disorders among workers. Detailed analyses of workers’ activities coupled with a systemic analysis of the design and collective monitoring of the worksites were carried out. This made it possible to characterize the health and safety risks of site teams as products that compromise between several organizational requirements and situational constraints. Extended to the site manager, the analysis of his activity, although strategic, of anticipation and continuous design of intervention situations, proved to be limited by a vertical organization of the sites, which does not integrate his expertise. Based on the diagnosis, validated and shared by all, the prevention challenges were articulated with the performance objectives of the worksites in a perspective of co-design with and by the different hierarchical levels of the department. The intervention made it possible to collaboratively build new organizational rules that consider the concrete realities of the work of workers and site managers.     

Promoting perspective coordination by dilemma discussion. The effectiveness of classroom group discussion on interpersonal negotiation strategies of 12-year-old students

Promoting social competence and social cognition is an important aim of education and socialization. According to theories of social cognitive and moral development, social cognition may be promoted by adolescent peer interaction. In this study, social cognition is theoretically conceptualized by the interpersonal negotiation strategies model of Selman which distinguishes levels of perspective coordination and steps of information processing (identification of a problem, generating negotiation strategies, selection of a strategy, evaluation). In a pre-post control group design this study investigated whether dilemma discussions among peers lead to higher individual levels of perspective coordination compared to an individualistic condition. Members of the discussion-condition exhibited higher gain scores in perspective coordination compared to the control group regarding the information processing steps generating strategies and strategy selection. In order to analyze verbal interaction in the discussion groups, an integrative coding schedule was developed. In addition, trait-like argumentative motives of the participants were assessed. The results of multilevel analyses suggest that progress in posttest-perspective coordination is mediated by the groups consensual solution of the dilemma as well as by an explanation-oriented discussion style, but only if the latter is accompanied by a trait-like subject- and consensus-oriented argumentative motive. Theoretical and practical conclusions are drawn.     

制约我国医学人文学科发展原因的探究

医学人文学科（medical humanities)是医学中的重要作用已爱到越来越多的关注。但令人遗憾的是,我国医学人文学科的水平离它应当承担的责任还相距甚远,医学人文学科的发展依据是困难重重。今从学术共同体、学科建设和学术规范等方面对我国医学人文学科目前面临的困境进行剖析,并试图为如何走出困境提供几点思路。     

资源两难问题的研究及其新进展

作为多人社会两难问题的基本范式之一,近年来资源两难问题引起了包括社会学家、经济学家和心理学家在内诸多领域研究者越来越多的关注。文章介绍了资源两难问题的定义、特点、研究意义并总结了以往的研究成果,着重介绍了Samuelson和Messick于1994年提出的资源两难决策模型。在此基础上进一步指出以往研究存在的一些不足,如忽视了对不确定性的研究等。文章最后指出了近年来有关资源两难问题的研究在心理学界的发展,并提出了对以后研究的一些建议。     

Ethical and Philosophical Consideration of the Dual-use Dilemma in the Biological Sciences

The dual-use dilemma arises in the context of research in the biological and other sciences as a consequence of the fact that one and the same piece of scientific research sometimes has the potential to be used for bad as well as good purposes. It is an ethical dilemma since it is about promoting good in the context of the potential for also causing harm, e.g., the promotion of health in the context of providing the wherewithal for the killing of innocents. It is an ethical dilemma for the researcher because of the potential actions of others, e.g., malevolent non-researchers who might steal dangerous biological agents, or make use of the original researcher's work. And it is a dilemma for governments concerned with the security of their citizens, as well as their health. In this article we construct a taxonomy of types of "experiments of concern" in the biological sciences, and thereby map the terrain of ethical risk. We then provide a series of analyses of the ethical problems and considerations at issue in the dual-use dilemma, including the impermissibility of certain kinds of research and possible restrictions on dissemination of research results given the risks to health and security. Finally, we explore the main available institutional responses to some of the specific ethical problems posed by the dual-use dilemma in the biological sciences.     

Understanding the Dark Side of Costly Punishment: The Impact of Individual Differences in Everyday Sadism and Existential Threat

In public goods situations, a specific destructive behaviour reliably emerges when individuals face the possibility of costly punishing others: antisocial punishment, that is, costly punishing cooperative individuals. So far, however, little is known about the individual differences and situational factors that are associated with the dark side of costly punishment. This research deals with this shortcoming. We argue that antisocial punishment reflects the basic characteristics of sadism, namely, aggressive behaviour to dominate and to harm other individuals. We further argue that antisocial punishment may reflect a type of behaviour that allows for the maintenance of self‐esteem (through aggressively dominating others). Therefore, we expect that individuals who report a disposition for everyday sadism are particularly likely to engage in antisocial punishment when their self has been threatened (by thinking about one's own death). In a study (N = 99), we found empirical support for this assumption. The present research contributes to a better understanding of antisocial punishment and suggests that sadistic tendencies play a crucial role, especially when the self is (existentially) threatened. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Integrating motivational interviewing in career counseling: A case study

Motivational interviewing (MI) is receiving increasing attention in the field of career counseling. However, none of the previous studies have concretely presented how this method could and why it should be integrated in career counseling. Through the use of a single case study design, this paper illustrates how a brief MI (BMI) intervention can be integrated into career counseling interventions to help resolve career dilemmas. An analysis of the interactions between the client and his counselor using the Motivational Interviewing Skills Code 2.1 illustrates why this method can be useful for career counseling. Immediate and long-term effects of the global career counseling intervention on the client's career decision-making difficulties, as well as the specific impacts of the BMI intervention, are assessed. This case study shows that the BMI approach can be integrated in a career counseling intervention to help career counseling clients overcome career dilemmas and increase their readiness to make career choices.     

Effects of Dark Tetrad traits on utilitarian moral judgement: The role of personal involvement and familiarity with the victim

The aim of this study was to re‐examine relations between dark traits and utilitarian moral judgement in sacrificial moral dilemmas by taking into account two contextual characteristics of dilemmas: the actor’s role in sacrificing (personal or impersonal involvement in inflicting harm) and the actor’s familiarity with the victim (a known or an unknown person). Results showed that all dark traits, except for psychopathy, obtained significant main and positive effects on utilitarian moral judgement. However, psychopathy and sadism obtained interaction effects with dilemma type, indicating the importance of the specific context of moral judgement in individuals with these traits. Furthermore, among all dark traits, only sadism showed an incremental contribution to utilitarian judgement over empathy and HEXACO traits, with the highest contribution to dilemmas that include personal harm. Results highlighted the role of enjoyment of cruelty in utilitarian moral judgement.     

When to (or not to) trust intelligent machines: Insights from an evolutionary game theory analysis of trust in repeated games

The actions of intelligent agents, such as chatbots, recommender systems, and virtual assistants are typically not fully transparent to the user. Consequently, users take the risk that such agents act in ways opposed to the users’ preferences or goals. It is often argued that people use trust as a cognitive shortcut to reduce the complexity of such interactions. Here we formalise this by using the methods of evolutionary game theory to study the viability of trust-based strategies in repeated games. These are reciprocal strategies that cooperate as long as the other player is observed to be cooperating. Unlike classic reciprocal strategies, once mutual cooperation has been observed for a threshold number of rounds they stop checking their co-player’s behaviour every round, and instead only check it with some probability. By doing so, they reduce the opportunity cost of verifying whether the action of their co-player was actually cooperative. We demonstrate that these trust-based strategies can outcompete strategies that are always conditional, such as Tit-for-Tat, when the opportunity cost is non-negligible. We argue that this cost is likely to be greater when the interaction is between people and intelligent agents, because of the reduced transparency of the agent. Consequently, we expect people to use trust-based strategies more frequently in interactions with intelligent agents. Our results provide new, important insights into the design of mechanisms for facilitating interactions between humans and intelligent agents, where trust is an essential factor.