Fitting Attitudes, Welfare, and Time

Chris Heathwood has recently put forward a novel and ingenious argument against the view that intrinsic value is analyzable in terms of fitting attitudes. According to Heathwood, this view holds water only if the related but distinct concept of welfare—intrinsic value for a person—can be analyzed in terms of fitting attitudes too. Moreover, he argues against such an analysis of welfare by appealing to the rationality of our bias towards the future. In this paper, I argue that so long as we keep the tenses and the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction right, the fitting-attitudes analysis of welfare can be shown to survive Heathwood’s criticism.

Determinants of Attitudes toward Affirmative Action in a Swiss Sample

162 Swiss employees were surveyed to assess knowledge of and attitudes toward different types of affirmative action programs (AAPs) for women. Findings show that knowledge of AAPs was limited and AAPs were most frequently associated with child care measures. Attitudes toward opportunity enhancement programs, especially toward child care, were more positive than toward preferential selection and positive discriminatory programs. Women held more positive attitudes toward AAPs. However, for some attitudes, gender differences were entirely mediated by symbolic prejudice toward working women. Independently of gender, symbolic prejudice was a key predictor of all attitudes. Measures of self-view (self-esteem and gender self-concept) were largely unrelated to attitudes toward AAPs. Implications for research and organizations are discussed.

Failures to retrieve specific memories in previously depressed individuals: random errors or content-related?

Failures to retrieve specific memories have been related to general tendencies to commit errors in executive functioning tasks, raising the question of whether they are simply a reflection of randomly occurring lapses in cognitive control or whether their occurrence is in any way related to memory content. This study investigated the relation between failures to retrieve specific autobiographical memories and dysfunctional attitudes in individuals at risk for depression and controls. Sixteen previously depressed and 19 never-depressed participants were assessed for dysfunctional attitudes regarding "need for approval" and "performance evaluation". One week later, they were asked to generate specific memories following dependency- and achievement-related cue words, both under single and dual task conditions. In previously depressed participants, dysfunctional attitudes regarding "need for approval" significantly predicted specificity for dependency-related events under dual task conditions. The findings provide qualified support for a role of content and demonstrate how, in previously depressed individuals, content effects can surface when cognitive control is undermined.     

Parent characteristics, economic stress and neighborhood context as predictors of parent involvement in preschool children's education

This study examines factors related to three dimensions of parent involvement in preschool: school-based involvement, home-based involvement, and the parent–teacher relationship. Participants were 154 predominantly African American parents recruited from two Head Start programs. Results of bivariate and canonical correlation analyses support the validity of a multi-dimensional, ecological conceptualization of parent involvement. Perceived context variables, including economic stress and neighborhood social disorder, related negatively to parent involvement. Parent characteristics, including sense of efficacy regarding education and level of education, related positively to parent involvement. Regression analyses detected different patterns of association between predictors and the three dimensions of parent involvement. Parent characteristics were associated with home involvement, while perceived context variables were predictive of the teacher–parent relationship. Implications of differential predictors for different domains of parent involvement and directions for future research and intervention with low-income families are discussed.     

The acceptance of modern myths about sexual aggression scale: development and validation in German and English

Scales of rape myth acceptance (RMA) often yield low means and skewed distributions. This is proposed to be because of a change in rape-related beliefs toward more subtle content. Incorporating insights from racism and sexism research, a 30-item self-report scale measuring the acceptance of modern myths about sexual aggression (AMMSA) is presented. Across four studies (total N=1,279), the reliability and validity of parallel German and English versions of the AMMSA scale were examined. The results show that both language versions are highly reliable; compared with a traditional RMA scale, means of AMMSA scores are higher and their distributions more closely approximate normality. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses provide evidence for the AMMSA scale's concurrent and predictive construct validity.     

Officer attitudes towards adult male prisoners who self-harm: development of an attitudinal measure and investigation of sex differences

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to explore attitudes towards self‐harm in a sample of prison officers, with subsidiary aims of assessing if these attitudes alter as a function of the prisoner's behavior and the sex of the participant. Method: One hundred and sixty‐two officers (100 men and 62 women) completed a general measure of their attitudes towards prisoners and one designed to assess Attitudes towards Prisoners who Self‐Harm (APSH). Participants rated their perceptions of two adult male prisoners depicted in vignettes. The vignettes depicted identical types of self‐harm but varied the behavioral characteristics of the prisoners involved, with one depicted as “well‐behaved” and the other as “disruptive”. Results: Women were more likely than men to report positive attitudes towards self‐harm and in particular were less likely than men to endorse negative myths regarding self‐harm. The prisoner depicted as “disruptive” invoked increased negative attitudes than the “well‐behaved” prisoner. This finding was consistent across sex. Conclusion: The current study indicates that APSH are comprised of a number of components that were influenced by the sex of the participant and the behavioral characteristics of the prisoners depicted. The implications of these findings to practice are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 33:63–72, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Role of Moral Emotions in Predicting Support for Political Actions in Post-War Iraq

A web-based study of 393 undergraduates at a public university in the United States was conducted to examine the relationship between moral emotions (i.e., emotions that motivate prosocial tendencies) and support for political actions to assist Iraqi citizens after the Second Gulf War (2003–2004). Previous work on emotions and prosocial tendencies has focused on empathy. In the context of post-war Iraq, we found that while empathy predicted support for a number of different political actions that have the potential to advance the welfare of the Iraqi people (humanitarian action in particular), guilt over the U.S. invasion was an important predictor of support for reparative actions (i.e., restoring damage created by the U.S. military), and moral outrage toward Saddam Hussein and his regime was the best predictor of support for political actions to prevent future harm to the Iraqi people and to punish the perpetrators. Our findings demonstrate the utility of an emotion-specific framework for understanding why and what type of political actions individuals will support. And in contrast to the traditional view that emotions are an impediment to rationality, our findings suggest that they can serve as a potentially powerful vehicle for motivating political engagement among the citizenry.     

Personality Traits, Partisan Attitudes, and Voting Behavior. Evidence from Germany

Political psychology has paid rather little attention to personality traits when explaining political attitudes and political behavior in mass publics. The present paper argues that personality traits contribute to our understanding of political attitude formation and decision making of ordinary citizens. Based on the Five Factor Model of Personality, we state hypotheses regarding the effects of personality traits on partisan attitudes and vote choice in Germany. We test the hypotheses using survey data obtained from a random sample of the Germans eligible to vote. The evidence confirms that personality traits indirectly affect partisan attitudes and voting behavior in Germany in predictable ways even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. More specifically, Openness makes citizens more inclined to support parties endorsing social liberalism whereas low scores on Conscientiousness increase the likelihood of liking and voting for parties subscribing to economic or social liberalism as do high levels on Agreeableness . High levels of Neuroticism appear to promote support for parties that offer shelter against material or cultural challenges.     

Desire, Judgment, and Reason: Exploring the Path not Taken

At the outset of The Possibility of Altruism Thomas Nagel charts two paths out of the fundamental dilemma confronting metaethics. The first path rejects the claim that a persuasive account of the motivational backing of ethical judgments must involve an agent’s desires. But it is the second path, a path that Nagel charts but does not himself take, that is the focus of this essay. This path retains the standard account, upon which all motivation involves desire, but denies that desires are given prior to reason. Instead, these attitudes that motivate are themselves open to rational assessment. One reason for this focus is that many philosophers, including Quinn, Raz, and Scanlon, have come to reject the claim Nagel takes to block this path – that desires are somehow given prior to reason, hence are not in the relevant way proper objects of rational assessment. A second reason is that unlike the first path, this second does not require the rejection of the belief-desire theory, only the rejection of one assumption about the nature of conative attitudes. Unlike Nagel’s chosen path, then, the second holds out the prospect of reconciling ethical objectivity, internalism, and the belief-desire theory within a unified account. I argue that the account of desire found in Quinn, Raz, and Scanlon, augmented by aspects of Davidson’s account of propositional attitudes, yields a coherent account of the involvement of reason even in basic desires, an account that is well suited to Nagel’s intriguing path not taken. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan. I am grateful to members of those audiences for helpful comments, in particular to Stephen Darwall, David Velleman, Kevin Toh, Voula Tsouna, and Tony Anderson. I have also benefited from helpful discussions of these arguments with Peter Thielke, Ted Hinchman, Dion Scott-Kakures, and Charles Young.     

Prenatal Diagnosis for Inherited Deafness—What is the Potential Demand?

Genetic testing for inherited deafness is now available within some genetics centres. This study used a structured questionnaire to assess the potential uptake of prenatal diagnosis (PND) for inherited deafness, and document the opinions of deaf and hearing individuals toward PND and termination of pregnancy (TOP) for hearing status. Participants were self-selected from the whole of the UK, of whom 644 were deaf, 143 were hard of hearing or deafened, and 527 were hearing individuals who had either a deaf parent or child. The results showed that 21% of deaf, 39% of hard of hearing and deafened, and 49% of hearing participants said they would consider PND for deafness. Six percent of deaf, 11% of hard of hearing and deafened, and 16% of hearing participants said they would consider a TOP if the fetus was found to be deaf. Two percent of deaf participants said they would prefer to have deaf children and would consider a TOP if the fetus was found to be hearing.