Jus interruptus bellum: the ethics of truce-making

With his new book, A Theory of Truces, Nir Eisikovits has succeed in producing the most comprehensive and insightful book to exist on the nature and morality of truces during international military conflict. In it he plausibly argues that thought about such conflict should avoid binary terms such as long-lasting peace and all-out war, and instead must readily acknowledge conditions ‘in between’ them, such as cease-fires and agreements to limit belligerence to certain times. In this critical notice of Eisikovits’ book, I have two major aims, in light of the fact that in it he does not systematically engage with the contemporary literature on and positions in just war theory. One aim is to situate Eisikovits’ analysis of truces in that context, and to contend that he has implicitly founded a new field that would be aptly labelled jus interruptus bellum as distinct from jus in bello and jus ex bello. Another is to build on Eisikovits’ ethical appraisal of truces, by considering what principles of just war theory entail for them.     

Therapists’ perspectives about working with meaning in life in psychotherapy: A survey

Of 212 practicing therapists who completed a survey about working with meaning in life (MIL) in psychotherapy, 129 (61%) had recently worked with MIL with at least one client and reported on their work with a client in this survey. Those therapists who had worked with a client on MIL as compared with those who had not were older, more experienced, more humanistic/existential/experiential in orientation; reported more MIL training; and felt more competent working with MIL. Clients reported on primarily had internalizing, interpersonal, and career issues. Only 12% of clients explicitly labeled MIL as an issue coming into therapy. The three most frequently used interventions involved offering support; helping clients examine thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to discover hopes and goals; and facilitating exploration of MIL cognitions and experiences. Therapists reported many positive consequences from working with MIL. Therapists reported minimal training in MIL and moderate competence in working with MIL. Implications for practice, training, and research are presented.     

In situ stress relaxation mechanism of a superelastic NiTi shape memory alloy under hydrogen charging

On account of its good biocompatibility, superelastic Ni–Ti arc wire alloys have been successfully used in orthodontic clinics. Nevertheless, delayed fracture in the oral cavity caused by hydrogen diffusion can be observed. The in situ stress relaxation susceptibility of a Ni–Ti shape memory alloy towards hydrogen embrittlement has been examined with respect to the current densities and imposed deformations. Orthodontic wires have been relaxed at different martensite volume fractions using current densities of 5, 10 and 20 A/m² at 20 °C. The in situ relaxation stress shows that, for an imposed strain at the middle of the austenite–martensite transformation, the specimen fractures at the martensite–austenite reverse transformation. However, for an imposed strain at the beginning of the austenite–martensite plateau, the stress decreases in a similar way to the full austenite structure. Moreover, the stress plateau has been recorded at the reverse transformation for a short period. For the fully martensite structure, embrittlement occurs at a higher stress value. This behaviour is attributed to the interaction between the in situ austenite phase expansion and the diffusion of hydrogen in the different volume fractions of the martensite phase, produced at an imposed strain.     

Urban–rural differences in children's earliest memories

The purpose of the present study was to address the effects of urban vs. rural upbringing on earliest autobiographical memories. We asked children (aged 10–13) brought up in an urban vs. in a rural setting to report their earliest memories. Earliest memories of children from rural areas were a year later than those of children from urban areas. Moreover, memories of children from rural areas were more likely to contain social interactions and tended to be less detailed compared to those from urban areas. The groups, however, were not different in specificity, autonomous orientation, or emotion. Results are discussed in the context of a social cultural developmental approach.     

The influence of visual mental imagery size on metamemory accuracy in judgment of learning

Many studies have found the font size of to-be-remembered words has a significant influence on judgments of learning (JOLs). However, few studies have investigated whether JOLs are affected by the mental imagery size of to-be-remembered words, even when the font sizes themselves are kept identical in study materials. This study investigated whether the visual mental imagery size influences the participants’ JOLs and what the underlying mechanisms are. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants learned words with identical font sizes, mentally generated large or small imageries and then made JOLs. We found that JOLs under the large imagery condition were significantly higher than those under the small imagery condition, but actual recall performance exhibited no significant difference. In Experiment 3, participants pressed a button immediately after mental imagery generation and showed that it took significantly longer to generate large imageries than to generate small imageries, and the difference in JOLs between two conditions was no longer significant. In Experiment 4, we used a questionnaire to investigate the contribution of beliefs and found that participants believed large imageries were easier to remember. These findings indicate that imagery size has a significant impact on JOLs, in which beliefs may play a leading role.     

Latent variables underlying the memory beliefs of Chartered Clinical Psychologists,Hypnotherapists and undergraduate students

In courts in the United Kingdom, understanding of memory phenomena is often assumed to be a matter of common sense. To test this assumption 337 UK respondents, consisting of 125 Chartered Clinical Psychologists, 88 individuals who advertised their services as Hypnotherapists (HTs) in a classified directory, the Yellow Pages^TM, and 124 first year undergraduate psychology students, completed a questionnaire that assessed their knowledge of 10 memory phenomena about which there is a broad scientific consensus. HTs’ responses were the most inconsistent with the scientific consensus, scoring lowest on six of these ten items. Principal Components Analysis indicated two latent variables – reflecting beliefs about memory quality and malleability – underlying respondents’ responses. In addition, respondents were asked to rate their own knowledge of the academic memory literature in general. There was no significant relationship between participants’ self reported knowledge and their actual knowledge (as measured by their responses to the 10-item questionnaire). There was evidence of beliefs among the HTs that could give rise to some concern (e.g., that early memories from the first year of life are accurately stored and are retrievable).     

家庭社会经济地位与父母教养方式对儿童青少年公正世界信念的影响

以全国24013名10~15岁儿童青少年为对象,探讨家庭社会经济地位与父母教养方式对公正世界信念的影响。结果发现：（1）家庭社会经济地位能够正向预测一般公正世界信念与个人公正世界信念;（2）权威型教养方式能够正向预测一般公正世界信念与个人公正世界信念,独裁型与纵容型教养方式能够负向预测一般公正世界信念与个人公正世界信念;（3）家庭社会经济地位与父母教养方式的交互作用对公正世界信念的影响显著,其中,权威型教养方式对高家庭社会经济地位比对低家庭社会经济地位儿童青少年公正世界信念的促进作用更大,独裁型与纵容型教养方式对低家庭社会经济地位比对高家庭社会经济地位儿童青少年公正世界信念的削弱作用更大。     

主管威权领导与下属前瞻行为：一个被中介的调节模型构建与检验

采用214份主管-下属配对调查数据, 考察了威权领导这一华人企业组织中特有的领导方式对下属前瞻行为的影响, 尤其是检验了下属对领导者信任的中介作用与权威主义和集体主义这两种传统价值取向的调节作用。层次回归分析结果表明：(1)威权领导与下属的前瞻行为呈显著负相关; (2)对领导者的信任在威权领导与下属前瞻行为之间起完全中介作用; (3)下属权威主义取向对威权领导与下属对领导者信任和前瞻行为之间的负向关系均具有显著的弱化效应, 并且下属对领导者的信任完全中介了威权领导与下属权威主义取向之间的交互作用对前瞻行为的影响; (4)下属集体主义取向对威权领导与下属对领导者的信任之间的负向关系具有显著的增强效应。