How believing in affirmative action quotas protects White men’s self-esteem

We propose that White men derive a psychological benefit from believing that affirmative action is a quota-based policy. Three studies provide evidence that quota beliefs protect White men’s self-esteem by boosting their sense of self-competence. Study 1 found a positive relationship between quota beliefs and self-esteem that was mediated by self-perceived competence. In Studies 2 and 3, the belief in affirmative action quotas—whether measured or experimentally manipulated—protected White men’s self-esteem from self-image threatening feedback. Only participants who did not believe in quotas reported a lower self-esteem after being told they had performed poorly on an intelligence test. As in Study 1, this effect was mediated by self-perceived competence. In all, these studies suggest that the belief that affirmative action is a quota policy may persist, in part, because it benefits White mens’ self-esteem.     

Learning to Move

ABSTRACT— Locomotion—moving the body from place to place—is one of infants' greatest achievements. In addition to conquering gravity, infants must cope with variable and novel constraints on balance and propulsion. At the same time that they are learning to move, changes in infants' bodies, skills, and environments change the biomechanical constraints on movement. Recent work highlights both flexibility and specificity in infants' responses to novel and variable situations, demonstrating that infants are learning to learn as they master locomotion. Within sitting, crawling, cruising, and walking postures, experienced infants adapt their locomotor responses to the current biomechanical constraints on movement. However, what infants have learned about coping with variability and novelty in earlier-developing postures does not transfer to later-developing postures.     

The body in action

This article is about how to describe an agent’s awareness of her bodily movements when she is aware of executing an action for a reason. Against current orthodoxy, I want to defend the claim that the agent’s experience of moving has an epistemic place in the agent’s awareness of her own intentional action. In “The problem,” I describe why this should be thought to be problematic. In “Motives for denying epistemic role,” I state some of the main motives for denying that bodily awareness has any epistemic role to play in the content of the agent’s awareness of her own action. In “Kinaesthetic awareness and control,” I sketch how I think the experience of moving and the bodily sense of agency or control are best described. On this background, I move on to present, in “Arguments for epistemic role,” three arguments in favour of the claim that normally the experience of moving is epistemically important to one’s awareness of acting intentionally. In the final “Concluding remarks,” I round off by raising some of the worries that motivated the denial of my claim in the first place.

儿童对观察者预期造成的模糊刺激解释多样性的理解

研究考察6~8岁儿童在由观察者预期造成的对模糊信息有多样解释上的理解.操纵影响观察者预期的因素,包括知觉经验、知识水平、先前经历和偏见,要求儿童预测观察者对局限视野图形或两可动作信息的解释.结果表明,6岁儿童仅对观察者偏见影响其对行动者行为的解释拥有部分理解,他们还不能理解知觉经验和知识水平会影响观察者对视觉刺激的解释,以及先前经历会影响观察者对行动者行为的解释.7岁儿童除了知识水平外,其它三方面的理解都已发展起来.8岁儿童可以理解多种观察者预期造成的解释差异,解释性心理理论比较稳定,但离完全成熟的理解还有一段距离.     

局部亮度与语义关系对真实情景识别的影响

以真实情景图片为材料,探讨局部亮度与语义关系对情景识别的影响,以及情景背景线索和语义关系的获得。实验一结果显示,被试对有无语义关系情景图片的识别反应时存在显著差异,且对拼接图片的识别正确率更高,反应时更短。实验二探讨了局部亮度与呈现时间变化条件下情景背景线索和语义关系的获得。结果发现,情景语义关系和背景信息的获得受到局部亮度变化和呈现时间的影响。这表明,语义关系和呈现时间对情景识别存在显著影响,而且这种影响与情景背景线索和语义关系的获得有关。呈现时间越长,越易获得情景语义关系。局部亮度变化越小,背景线索越易获得,呈现时间的影响越小。     

靶刺激变换对情景知觉过程中注视控制的影响

研究考察了情景浏览过程中靶刺激变换对注视控制的影响,运用了眼动记录技术。实验采用2(靶刺激位置:左、右)×2(变换方式:增加靶刺激、删除靶刺激)的重复测量设计。结果发现:(1)靶刺激变换方式对靶刺激所属兴趣区首次注视启动时间存在显著性影响,并对靶刺激所属兴趣区的前3次注视持续时间产生影响;(2)靶刺激位置属性对兴趣区首次注视启动时间、前3次注视持续时间均不存在显著影响。结果表明,与靶刺激增加相比,靶刺激的删除更易引起被试的优先注意,而且会抑制首次注视过程中的信息提取。     

Trauma and Deferred Action in the Reality of Adolescence

In the search for ever earlier determinants of adult pathology many ignore the transformative impact of adolescence. The authors suggest that the reality of adolescent development creates a vulnerability to being overwhelmed. Through deferred action childhood experiences may interact with adolescent realities and omnipotent beliefs to traumatize the adolescent. The authors suggest that trauma in adolescence can be independent both of the intensity of current external exposure or of earlier traumatic experiences.     

Does God Cheat at Dice? Divine Action and Quantum Possibilities

The recent debates concerning divine action in the context of quantum mechanics are examined with particular reference to the work of William Pollard, Robert J. Russell, Thomas Tracy, Nancey Murphy, and Keith Ward. The concept of a quantum mechanical "event" is elucidated and shown to be at the center of this debate. An attempt is made to clarify the claims made by the protagonists of quantum mechanical divine action by considering the measurement process of quantum mechanics in detail. Four possibilities for divine influence on quantum mechanics are identified and the theological and scientific implications of each discussed. The conclusion reached is that quantum mechanics is not easily reconciled with the doctrine of divine action.     

God, Freedom, and Evil: Perspectives from Religion and Science

This paper develops analogies concerning the evolution of dissipative structures in nonequilibrium thermodynamics to interpret irrational human behavior in which one finds a lack of correspondence between the invested means and the consequences observed. In an attempt to positively explain the process of cooperation between the free human person and interacting God, I use philosophical categories of Whitehead's process philosophy in an aesthetic model that opposes composition and performance in a musical symphony. Certainly, the essence of human freedom can be expressed in neither thermodynamical nor aesthetic terms. The models proposed can, however, facilitate our understanding of the mutual relations between God's action in the world and the drama of human free choice of moral evil.