Pain and Bodily Care: Whose Body Matters?

Pain is unpleasant. It is something that one avoids as much as possible. One might then claim that one wants to avoid pain because one cares about one's body. On this view, individuals who do not experience pain as unpleasant and to be avoided, like patients with pain asymbolia, do not care about their body. This conception of pain has been recently defended by Bain [2014 Bain, D. 2014. Pains That Don't Hurt, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92/2: 305–20.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] and Klein [forthcoming Klein, C. forthcoming. What Pain Asymbolia Really Shows, Mind. [Google Scholar]]. In their view, one needs to care about one's body for pain to have motivational force. But does one need to care about one's body qua one's own? Or does one merely need to care about the body that happens to be one's own? In this paper, I will consider various interpretations of the notion of bodily care, in light of a series of pathological cases in which patients report pain in a body part that they do not experience as their own. These cases are problematic if one adopts a first-personal interpretation of bodily care, according to which pain requires one to care about what is represented as one's own body. The objection can run as follows. If the patients experience the body part as alien, then they should not care about it. Therefore, they should be similar to patients with pain asymbolia. But they are not. Hence, bodily care is not necessary to pain. To resist this conclusion, one can try to revise the interpretation of the notion of bodily care and to offer alternative interpretations that are not first-personal. However, I will show that that those alternatives also fail to account for these borderline cases of pain.     

Method of transportation and drinking among club patrons

ObjectiveThe current study examines the variation in alcohol use among nightclub patrons under three transportation conditions: those who departed from a club using modes of transportation other than cars or motorcycles (e.g., pedestrians, bicyclists, subway riders); those who were passengers of drivers (auto/taxi passenger patrons); and those who drove from the club (driving patrons). We seek to determine whether patrons’ choice for how to leave the club contributes to their risk, as assessed by blood alcohol concentrations (BAC), after controlling for other factors that may contribute to their BAC including demographic characteristics and social drinking group influences.MethodsData were collected from social drinking groups as they entered and exited clubs for 71 different evenings at ten clubs from 2010 through 2012. Using portal methodology, a research site was established proximal to club entrances. Each individual participant provided data on themselves and others in their group. The present analyses are based upon 1833 individuals who completed both entrance and exit data. Our outcome variable is blood alcohol content (BAC) based upon breath tests attained from patrons at entrance and exit from the club. Independent variables include method of transportation, social group characteristics, drug use, and personal characteristics. We use step-wise multiple regressions to predict entrance BAC, change in BAC from entrance to exit, and exit BAC: first entering individual demographic characteristics, then entering group characteristics, then drug use, and finally entering method of transportation (two dummy coded variables such that drivers are the referent category).ResultsIn sum, in all three of our analyses, only three variables are consistently predictive of BAC: presence of a group member who is frequently drunk and non-driving modes of transportation, either being the passenger or taking alternate methods of transportation. In particular, taking an alternate form of transportation was consistently and strongly predictive of higher BAC.ConclusionsAdditional public health messages are needed to address patrons who are no longer drinking and driving but who are nonetheless engaged in high levels of drinking that may lead to various risky outcomes, for example: being targeted for physical and/or sexual assault, pedestrian accidents, and other adverse consequences. These risks are not addressed by the focus on drinking and driving. Key messages appropriate for patrons who use alternate transportation might include devising a safety plan before entering the club and a focus on sobering up before leaving.     

Revisiting the university front

The article argues that the most important trends in the recent metamorphosis of higher education, especially of university teaching and research, cannot be understood without placing them in the context of general developments in political life. Both processes reveal alarming features and there is a link between them. In recent decades a religion has established its dominance in the public policy field. Its dogmas are called “liberalization”, “economic man”, “individual preference”, “the free market”, “competition” and “efficiency”. The consequences of the progressive imposition of this doctrine on the universities—including on the relation between teaching and research—are well documented but not always well understood. It is argued that the “commercialization” of higher education and research means in reality their hyper-bureaucratization, via the imposition of so-called evaluation, assessment and accreditation schemes, the latest avatars of the managerialist ideology. Might the final result be the disintegration of the university as an institution?     

Individual Differences in Experiences of and Responses to Guilt and Shame: Examining the Lenses of Gender and Gender Role

How are experiences of and reactions to guilt and shame a function of gendered views of the self? Individual differences in guilt and shame responses were explored in a sample of 104 young adults, most of whom were European American. Results indicated that, although women reported greater proneness to guilt and shame, men reported more trait guilt. Heightened levels of guilt- and shame-proneness were observed among both men and women with traditionally feminine gender roles, whereas a more traditionally masculine self-concept was associated with decreased shame-proneness for women. Gender schematic women favored verbal responses to ameliorate the experience of guilt, whereas gender schematic men preferred action-oriented responses. These results are discussed as gendered outcomes of schematic versus aschematic gender role socialization.     

Scientific information and uncertainty: Challenges for the use of science in policymaking

Science can reinforce the healthy aspects of the politics of the policy process, to identify and further the public interest by discrediting policy options serving only special interests and helping to select among “science-confident” and “hedging” options. To do so, scientists must learn how to manage and communicate the degree of uncertainty in scientific understanding and prediction, lest uncertainty be manipulated to discredit science or to justify inaction. For natural resource and environmental policy, the institutional interests of government agencies, as well as private interests, pose challenges of suppression, over-simplification, or distortion of scientific information. Scientists can combat these maneuvers, but must also look inward to ensure that their own special interests do not undermine the usefulness of science.     

共情的性别差异

共情指的是个体在与人交往的过程中共享并理解他人的情绪状态的倾向, 包括认知共情和情绪共情两种成分。共情在学前阶段没有性别差异。进入中小学阶段以后, 共情出现了性别差异。一方面, 共情的性别差异与个体自身的生理成熟有关。随着年龄增长, 两性逐渐趋向生理成熟, 荷尔蒙分泌增加并出现差异, 其中催产素有助于情绪共情, 睾丸酮则与认知共情有负相关, 两性的共情水平也因此有了显著差异。另一方面, 共情的性别差异与社会性别角色倾向有关。女性的性别角色以关注他人为导向, 与共情有直接相关, 男性的性别角色以关注公平公正为导向, 与共情没有相关。当两性习得各自的性别角色以后, 他们的共情表现就出现了差异, 这一差异在情绪共情方面较为突出。有关共情性别差异的研究虽然取得了丰富的成果, 但仍然有进一步深入挖掘的空间, 未来的研究需要在视角上注重从年龄、性别和文化交互作用的角度进行考察, 在理论上考虑从能力和倾向性的维度区分共情, 在内容上丰富对影响性别差异的各项因素的研究。     

Threat to Parental Role: A Possible Mechanism of Altered Self-Concept Related to Carrier Knowledge

Researchers and clinicians have suggested that learning one is a carrier for a genetic disorder has the potential to alter self-concept. Concerns about self-concept have influenced the development of policies regarding the availability of carrier testing for minors and the informed-consent process. A literature review identified three mechanisms through which self-concept has been proposed to be affected: altered perception of genetic identity, diminished social identity, and an altered perception of health. This paper presents a conceptual framework developed from identity theory and the self's response to threat to propose a fourth mechanism: threat to the parental role. Clarification of the role of self-concept, the threat to self-concept related to carrier knowledge, and coping behaviors activated in response to this threat would help to target appropriate genetic counseling interventions.     

Timely Completion of Class Requirements: Effects of Student and Faculty Gender

Male and female students have displayed different reactions to the gender of their faculty. This research was designed to explore whether biases exist early in the school term. Students unfavorable attitudes toward instructors were measured by the extent to which they delayed completing a course requirement: participation in a subject pool. Students scheduled a date upon which to participate in a research study. Discrepancies between their scheduled and their actual participation dates reveal that male students delayed their requirement (a) more when their instructors were female than when they were male, and (b) more than female students when the instructors were female. Supporting data suggest that the delayed completion time reflects lower evaluations of female faculty. Discussion focuses on implications in academic settings.     

Wolfhart Pannenberg's Engagement with the Natural Sciences

Wolfhart Pannenberg's engagement with the natural sciences is surveyed. A critique is given of his treatment of these themes: the concept of a field; contingency; the role of the future.