Does accuracy matter? A review of the consequences of accurate personality impressions as a function of context and content

What are the implications of seeing others as they see themselves? That is, does viewing others accurately have consequences, positive or negative, to relationship evaluations (e.g., liking)? To address this, the current article provides a comprehensive review of the personality accuracy literature and discusses related work from the self-verification and empathic accuracy domains. We specifically explore whether the consequences of accurate perceptions could be influenced by two key categories of moderators: the context of the impression (e.g., high vs. low stakes) and content of the impression (e.g., desirability of traits). Lastly, we discuss future directions to aid our understanding of this question.     

Fowler's Stages of Faith Development in an Honors Science-and-Religion Seminar

According to Paul Tillich's understanding of religion as "ultimate concern," a religious dimension is implicit in all university curricula. A science-and-religion course, such as one taught at Southeast Missouri State University, can offer students the opportunity to integrate their worldview, taking seriously both religious ideas and scientific information. Assignments based on A. E. Lawson's model of a learning cycle provide a vehicle for evaluating significant student learning leading toward fuller integration. The stages of faith developed by James W. Fowler serve as a fruitfull framework for interpreting changes in student viewpoints. Fowler's six stages of faith are characterized. Examples from student writing assignments demonstrate shifts in the cognitive understanding of faith that coincide with Fowler's stages.     

WHY NO GUIDELINES FOR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION?

This paper reviews the guidelines for behavioral programs published by the National Association of Retarded Children. The review discusses a number of reasons why guidelines should not be enunciated for behavior modification, e.g., the procedures of behavior modification appear to be no more or less subject to abuse and no more or less in need of ethical regulation than intervention procedures derived from any other set of principles and called by other terms. The review recommends alternative methods for protecting the rights of clients who participate in behavioral programs. Specifically, behavioral clinicians, like other therapists, should be governed by the ethics codes of their professions; also, the ethics of all intervention programs should be evaluated in terms of a number of critical issues.     

Autonomy,life as an intrinsic value,and the right to die in dignity

This paper examines two models of thinking relating to the issue of the right to die in dignity: one takes into consideration the rights and interests of the individual; the other supposes that human life is inherently valuable. I contend that preference should be given to the first model, and further assert that the second model may be justified in moral terms only as long as it does not resort to paternalism. The view that holds that certain patients are not able to comprehend their own interests in a fully rational manner, and therefore ‘we’ know what is good for these patients better than ‘they’ do, is morally unjustifiable. I proceed by refuting the ‘quality of life’ argument, asserting that each person is entitled to decide for herself when it is worth living and when it is not. In this connection, a caveat will be made regarding the role of the family. The author’s research interests include bioethics, free speech, tolerance and ethics in the media.     

Artificial Intelligence, Religion, and Community Concern

Future developments in artificial intelligence (AI) will likely allow for a greater degree of human-machine convergence, with machines becoming more humanlike and intelligent machinery becoming more integrated into human brain function. This will pose many ethical challenges, and the necessity for a moral framework for evaluating these challenges will grow. This paper argues that community concern constitutes a central factor in both the evolution of religion and the human brain, and as such it should be used as the organizing principle for moral evaluations of AI technologies.     

人生终极的理性自觉——儒家"命"的观念

The Confucian idea of “ming 命 (destiny)” holds that in the course and culmination of human life, there exists some objective certainty that is both transcendent and beyond human control. This is a concept of ultimate concern at the transcendental theoretical level in Confucianism. During its historical development, Confucianism has constantly offered humanist interpretations of the idea of “destiny”, thinking that the transcendence of “destiny” lies inherently within the qi endowment and virtues of human beings, that the certainty of “destiny” is in essence contingency at the beginning of life and linear irreversibility towards its end, and that to live in light of ethics and physical rules — having a “commitment to human affairs” — means putting “destiny” into practice. As all these facts show, the Confucian ultimate concern regarding human life is full of rational awareness. __________ Translated by Huang Deyuan from Kongzi yanjiu 孔子研究 (Study on Confucius), 2008, (2): 4–11     

观点采择对共情性尴尬的影响：共情反应与尴尬类型的不同作用

对158名大学生进行实验研究,探讨观点采择在影响共情性尴尬的过程中,尴尬类型与共情反应的不同作用。结果表明：（1）共情反应在观点采择与共情性尴尬之间起中介作用,（2）这种中介作用受到尴尬类型的调节,即在自尊模型和违背他人意愿模型下,共情反应在观点采择对共情性尴尬的影响中起到部分中介作用;在戏剧模型和非意愿暴露模型下,共情反应在观点采择对共情性尴尬的影响中起完全中介作用。     

Dreaming as a primordial state of the mind: The clinical relevance of structural faults in the body ego as revealed in dreaming1

Thetherapeuticactionofpsychoanalysis, attributedformanyyearstotheinterpretation of the repressed libido, has shifted its focus to object relationships. Some modern analysts maintain that the primary factor of psychic change is the new model of object relationship provided by analysis, and do not consider signifi cant the knowledge of episodes comprising implicit memories, whose irrecoverable nature is demonstrated by neuroscience. Nevertheless, the author proposes that the knowledge of specifi c archaic events, useless as their interpretation may be, offers a glimpse of the make‐up of the mind, contributing to the improvement of the empathy indispensable for inducing changes in the patient. Episodes linked to absolute narcissism, in the beginnings of the body ego, which do not appear either in associations or in transference, emerge in dreams. Neuroscience has made possible the understanding of aspects of dreaming capable of providing a glimpse of the genesis of the ego, whose development from the bodily phase of absolute narcissism to the psychic object phase can thus be traced. The unearthing of the genesis of primary structural faults in dreaming furnishes the analyst with an estimate of the possibilities for development of the ego, and this knowledge provides fi ne tuning capable of guiding the analyst's conduct. A clinical case illustrates how these phenomena occur, showing the intersubjective relationship as the silent primary generator of psychic changes, consolidated and developed secondarily by means of the analytical dialogue.     

Ethnic differences in BMI, weight concerns, and eating behaviors: comparison of Native American, White, and Hispanic adolescents

Evidence suggests that substantial proportions of adolescents, regardless of ethnicity or gender, are engaged in excessive weight control behaviors. Crago and Shisslak (2003), however, have noted that small samples and poorly validated instruments have limited the value of previous ethnic difference studies. Using the McKnight Risk Factor Survey, we compared Native American, White, and Hispanic adolescents. Native students were divided into groups with one (NA-mixed) or two (NA) Native American biological parents. Surveys were completed by 5th through 10th grade students. BMI z-scores were significantly higher for boys and girls in the NA group, and boys in this group were significantly more engaged in weight control behaviors, including purging. A higher percentage of Native and Hispanic girls preferred a larger body size. BMI was positively correlated with weight and shape concerns and with weight control behaviors, regardless of ethnicity or gender. Overweight among Native adolescents may put them at greater risk for eating problems than their White peers.