Sport as strategic action: A Habermasian perspective

The purpose of this paper is to explore the moral status of sport through a conceptual structure borrowed from Jürgen Habermas's philosophy and social theory. Habermas distinguishes between communicative and strategic action as two ways in which social action may be coordinated. While the former relies on the building of mutual understanding between social agents, the latter entails one agent manipulating others, as if they were mere objects to be treated instrumentally. In an initial model of sporting practice, it is suggested that sport primarily involves strategic action and in particular encourages the undermining of one's opponent's autonomy. This model is subject to criticism, by scrutinising Habermas's interpretation of the Wittgensteinian notion of a language game, and thus the relationship between communicative language-use and strategic games playing. It will be suggested that games playing has more in common with language-use than Habermas acknowledges, thereby opening up a space for genuinely communicative and expressive action within sport. In conclusion, it will be suggested that the moral significance of sport lies in the fact that its communicative and expressive potential can only be exercised against the moral threat of the dominance of strategic action.     

How Congregations Can and Do Use the Internet,with Special Reference to Social Action

ABSTRACT

Congregations increasingly use the Internet as a fast, very low cost, versatile means for communication within the organization, to reach out to people unacquainted with the congregation or the denomination, and as a vast information resource. Congregational insights gained in the course of using the Internet are based on a survey of some 43 congregations, an analysis of websites, and the author's experiences. Critical considerations in congregational website design are discussed. How congregations cope with lack of universal access to the Internet, privacy issues, and derogatory uses of the Internet are reported. The Internet proves particularly useful for identifying and mounting a rapid response to social action issues as they arise.     

Effects of Group Status and Victim Sex on Male Bystanders’ Responses to a Potential Party Rape

This study examined male bystanders’ responses to risk for party rape. Undergraduate men (N = 77) imagined attending a party (either alone or with 3 friends) where a sober man led an intoxicated potential victim (either a man or woman) into a bedroom. After random assignment to 1 of these 4 conditions, participants completed measures of behavioral inaction and barriers to action. Bystanders in groups were more inactive than lone bystanders. Compared to bystanders who saw a woman at risk, bystanders who saw a man at risk reported greater inaction and greater barriers to action, including risk uncertainty, lack of responsibility to help, and skills deficits. Results highlight social factors that inhibit male bystanders’ prosocial responses to high-risk situations.     

毕生控制理论的新发展:调节模型及控制策略

毕生控制理论能较好地解释毕生发展,认为适应能力的中心特质是动机调节,可促进个体发展并使其达到最优化.生命历程被视为由一列有序的目标定向行动周期组织而成,该周期包括目标选择、目标结合及目标解除.基于该角度,在回顾控制理论的基本概念、初级控制的首要性和毕生发展轨迹基础上,对毕生发展的调节模型和控制策略的适应功能进行了综合阐述.未来研究应从跨文化情境下的适用性、满足适应目标选择三个因素的进一步验证和成功老龄化相关研究等方面开展更深入的探讨.     

婴儿动作理解的研究回顾与展望

婴儿对他人动作意图的正确推理是一种重要的社会认知能力,有利于婴儿根据他人意图来调整自己的行为以适应更好的社会互动.婴儿的这种能力作为一种重要的社会认知根源,对自身的社会反应、心理理论以及语言理解都有重要的影响.但是婴儿是如何获得这种能力的呢?经验论认为是学习的结果,但目的论则认为是婴儿与生俱来的一种能力.两种理论都获得了一些实证支持,目前还没有一致结论.这类研究对具身认知、身心关系的探讨有一定启发作用.     

Selective humanitarian intervention: moral reason and collective agents

This paper examines four interpretations of the observation that humanitarian intervention might be used ‘selectively’ or ‘inconsistently’ in order to elucidate the normative commitments of the deliberative process in international relations. The paper argues that there are several types of concerns that are implicit in the accusation of inconsistency, and only some of them amount to objections to humanitarian intervention as a whole. The paradox of humanitarian intervention is that intervention is prohibited except where the intervention is humanitarian, yet humanitarian reasons never exist in isolation, and it is nearly impossible to determine the real reason for intervention (or any other collective action) in the international arena. The problems revealed by an examination of inconsistency in the example of humanitarian intervention turn out to be general problems with applying the norms of practical reasoning to moral questions dealing with collective agents.     

Spatial Compatibility Effects With Unimanual and Bimanual Wheel-Rotation Responses: An Homage to Guiard (1983)

ABSTRACT. Y. Guiard (1983) reported a prescient study of compatibility effects in response times for clockwise/counterclockwise wheel rotations to stimuli in left/right locations. Left-right coding of responses predominated in his study, but some results suggested that unimanual versus bimanual operation was also a factor. The authors report 3 experiments directly examining whether there is a difference in spatial compatibility effects obtained with wheel-rotation responses executed bimanually or unimanually (with left or right hand). Adopting a right-to-clockwise or left-to-counterclockwise mapping was advantageous for top, side, and bottom hand placements. This benefit interacted neither with unimanual or bimanual responding nor with the response hand. The results confirm that the critical relation is between the wheel and stimulus position, and is not effector dependent. This finding is in agreement with results from studies using discrete keypress responses, emphasizing that spatial coding of stimuli, actions, and their goals is of central importance in response-selection decisions.     

Is social inhibition of return due to action co-representation?

When two individuals alternate reaching responses to visual targets presented on a shared workspace, one individual is slower to respond to targets occupying the same position as their partner’s previous response. This phenomenon is thought to be due to processes that inhibit the initiation of a movement to a location recently acted upon. However, two distinct forms of the inhibition account have been posited, one based on inhibition of an action, the other based on inhibition of an action and location. Furthermore, an additional recent explanation suggests the phenomenon is due to mechanisms that give rise to action congruency effects. Thus the three different theories differ in the degree to which action co-representation plays a role in the effect. The aim of the present work was to examine these competing accounts. Three experiments demonstrated that when identical actions are made, the effect is modulated by the configuration of the visual stimuli acted upon and the perceptual demands of the task. In addition, when the co-actors perform different actions to the same target, the effect is still observed. These findings support the hypothesis that this particular joint action phenomenon is generated via social cues that induce location-based inhibition of return rather than being due to shared motor co-representations.     

Training Aboriginal Practitioners in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Comments on an article by Bennett‐Levy and colleagues. This commentary reviews a dissemination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for Aboriginal Australians, with regard to the strengths of the dissemination effort and areas for future efforts. As an initial step in bringing CBT to a population that has been severely limited in access to evidence based practice, despite a notable need, this study was an important step forward. Feedback from the participatory action research group (n = 5 Aboriginal Australian counsellors) identified CBT elements and adaptations perceived to be particularly effective with Aboriginal Australian clients. Case conceptualization was identified as a potential avenue for further tailoring CBT to the individual needs of clients. Several factor including the success of the dissemination effort, reports that clients shared CBT techniques with their communities, and the skill‐building nature of CBT raised the possibility of future community‐based dissemination.     

Predicting parental sunscreen use: Disentangling the role of action planning in the intention–behavior relationship

Structural equation modeling was used to examine antecedents of parental sunscreen use (N = 436) in a longitudinal design. The influence of a volitional planning cognition was assessed in several path models, investigating potential mediation and moderation of the intention–behavior relationship. Premotivational and motivational variables accounted for 55.1% of the variance in intention to use sunscreen. Intention emerged as the most powerful predictor of behavior, followed by action planning and self-efficacy expectations, together explaining 35.4% of parental sunscreen use after five months. Strong support was found for both mediating and moderating influences of action planning on the intention–behavior relationship. Action planning also partially mediated the impact of self-efficacy on behavior. The results support theoretical considerations to add postintentional cognitions to current health behavior models. Although action planning is an important component in the transition from intention to behavior, the impact of intention and of other premotivational and motivational variables should not be overlooked when developing health educational interventions.