Are Newborns Morally Different from Older Children?

Policies and position statements regarding decision-making for extremely premature babies exist in many countries and are often directive, focusing on parental choice and expected outcomes. These recommendations often state survival and handicap as reasons for optional intervention. The fact that such outcome statistics would not justify such approaches in other populations suggests that some other powerful factors are at work. The value of neonatal intensive care has been scrutinized far more than intensive care for older patients and suggests that neonatal care is held to a higher standard of justification. The relative value placed on the life of newborns, in particular the preterm, is less than expected by any objective medical data or any prevailing moral frameworks about the value of individual lives. Why do we feel less obligated to treat the premature baby? Do we put newborns in a special and lesser moral category? We explore this question from a legal and ethical perspective and offer several hypotheses pertaining to personhood, reproductive choices, “precious children,” and probable evolutionary and anthropological factors.     

创造性测验的性别与材料差异效应

以415名中学生为对象,采用修订后的《青少年科学创造性测验》考察了创造力的性别差异,并分析了不同测验材料对创造性表现的影响。结果发现：（1）在创造性总体上高中生显著优于初中生,但不存在显著的性别差异;（2）在流畅性与灵活性方面不存在显著性别、年级差异,在独特性上性别和年级的交互作用显著,表现为高中男生得分显著优于女生,而初中性别差异不显著;（3）不同性质的测验材料对创造性的影响不同,言语任务方面不存在显著的年级、性别差异,而图形任务方面则是高中生显著优于初中生,男生显著优于女生。     

评分者内部一致性的研究和应用

在行为科学的研究和实践中,研究者常常需要将个体层次的评价,整合到群体层次的评价,对于这种自下而上整合模式的一致性问题,国内一些学者常常错误地使用评分者内部信度作为评分者内部一致性的指标。评分者内部一致性和评分者内部信度不仅在理论基础上存在差异,而且在实践中也存在前者很高(或很低),而后者却很低(或很高)的不一致情况。文章阐述了学术界对评分一致性这一问题的提出、争论和取得一致观点的发展脉络,以期学者们对这一问题能够有深入的思索,避免在今后的研究中出现类似的错误。     

“心理阻抗”真的可以提升生育意愿吗？社会经济地位的调节作用

“恐生”这一话题受到广大网民的热议，针对该现象，国家出台了一系列鼓励生育政策，但我国的生育率依然持续下降，甚至面临“低生育率陷阱”的生育危机。为什么在国家出台“全面二胎”的鼓励生育政策之后，国民生育意愿却下降？本研究考察了生育年龄限制感对生育意愿的影响，以及社会经济地位在其中的边界条件。研究1通过两个子研究考察了生育年龄限制感与生育意愿的关系，其中研究1a对400名在职育龄个体进行问卷调查；研究1b对500名二孩育龄人群进行线上实验，启动被试二孩最佳生育年龄为40岁；研究2以100名硕士研究生为研究对象，使用实验操纵生育年龄限制感：最佳生育年龄为26岁（VS.对照组），并进一步探讨社会经济地位在生育年龄限制感与生育意愿之间的调节作用。结果发现：被试的实际年龄越接近自己认为的最佳生育年龄，其生育意愿越强烈；社会经济地位在生育年龄限制感和生育意愿间的调节作用显著。该研究丰富了心理学视角下生育意愿的文献，为提升育龄人群的生育意愿，提高我国的总和生育率、走出“低生育率陷阱”具有一定的理论价值与实践指导意义。     

L’âge subjectif en contexte de formation. Étude auprès d’une population estudiantine roumaine

Subjective age is a little-used variable in psychological research, in spite of being considered by numerous authors a more accurate indicator as compared to the chronological age. The current research aims to concentrate on the subjective age of the students while in their formation years and to identify the connections that it establishes with their chronological age and their subjective age in general. Two hundred and twenty-eight students from the university of Brasov, aged between 18 and 56 answered two questionnaires (the Romanian adaptation of the Staitz and McClay (1998) questionnaire and the adaptation of the same questionnaire to the context of academic formation). The questionnaires were separated by another one, administered for relaxation purposes. The results show that there exists a subjective age during the formation years, which is different from, but nonetheless correlated to the chronological age and to the subjective age in general. The results bring forward the impact of the context, in the given situation an academic one, on the age that one gives himself.     

言语吸引力影响因素探索：物理属性和社会特征

语音吸引力是个体吸引力的重要组成部分。为探索言语吸引力影响因素,以汉语词汇为材料,设计实验分析语音基频、共振峰等物理属性以及词义、声音受喜欢程度和语音性别等社会属性对语音吸引力的影响。结果表明：分析物理属性,基频、共振峰等并未能预测语音吸引力;分析社会属性,较之词语意义,声音本身具有的吸引力水平对言语吸引力评价影响更大;而男性和女性对两种性别言语吸引力评价差异不显著。言语吸引力评价在男性和女性间具有一致性：＂好声音＂比＂会说话＂更加容易被认为具有吸引力。     

The counselor perspective on the use of directives in counseling in China: Are directives different in China as in the United States?

Eight Chinese counselors were interviewed about their use of directives in counseling. They typically believed that directives can be beneficial in counseling Chinese clients. They used directives to extend the influence of counseling beyond sessions, meet client needs and expectations, and fit their own personality and orientation. In terms of conditions that need to be met for directives to be helpful, they identified client factors such as readiness, communication styles, past experience, and insight; the counselor factor of ability to communicate directives; and the therapeutic relationship. They emphasized the importance of clients acquiring a new perspective as a result of directives. Cultural factors in using directives are discussed.     

Sleepwalking Into Infertility: The Need for a Public Health Approach Toward Advanced Maternal Age

In Western countries today, a growing number of women delay motherhood until their late 30s and even 40s, as they invest time in pursuing education and career goals before starting a family. This social trend results from greater gender equality and expanded opportunities for women and is influenced by the availability of contraception and assisted reproductive technologies (ART). However, advanced maternal age is associated with increased health risks, including infertility. While individual medical solutions such as ART and elective egg freezing can promote reproductive autonomy, they entail significant risks and limitations. We thus argue that women should be better informed regarding the risks of advanced maternal age and ART, and that these individual solutions need to be supplemented by a public health approach, including policy measures that provide women with the opportunity to start a family earlier in life without sacrificing personal career goals.     

On the Significance of Difference‐Making Principles

It has been claimed that difference‐making plays important roles in both metaphysics and epistemology. The idea is that facts often make a difference to other facts. Thus, causes are said to make a difference to their effects, and the world is thought to make a difference to what is believed. One way to cash out this idea is in terms of the notion of counterfactual dependence between the facts in question. It has recently been objected by some philosophers, however, that the counterfactual‐dependence account misrepresents the difference‐making idea, prompting them to offer a different, weaker construal of the idea in question, which, they claim, illuminates a number of problems in both epistemology and metaphysics. This article, while acknowledging that the difference‐making idea is a genuine constraint on some of our concepts, challenges the claim that the weaker interpretation has significant philosophical potentials and, having delineated its real function, spells out the lessons that should be drawn from its failure.