Theories of Practical Reason

Leading theories of practical reason can be grouped into one of four families: psychologism, realism, compatibilism, and Aristotelianism. Although there are many differences among the theories within each family, I ignore these in order to ask which family is most likely to deliver a satisfactory philosophical account of reasons for action. I articulate three requirements we should expect any adequate theory of practical reason to meet: it should account for (1) how reasons explain action, (2) how reasons justify action, and (3) how an agent can act for the reason that justifies her action. Only the Aristotelian theory, however, can meet all three requirements. It avoids the problems that plague the other theories by grounding reasons neither in psychological states nor in facts totally independent of the agent in question, but in the nature of the kind of creature the agent is. Our explanations of action need descend to the biographical only when explaining why a human being does not act in ways characteristic of her kind. The Aristotelian view of practical reason, then, appears to be the most promising program for future work.     

Collective action and subordinate group identity in a simulated society game

Abstract: This research examined the effects of upward mobility and resource disparity on subordinates’ collective action and group identity in a context of intergroup negotiation by using a simulated society (SIMSOC) game. According to the social identity theory, it was hypothesized that when individual mobility opportunities for a subordinate group increase, the members of the subordinate group are less likely to participate in collective actions and to appreciate the merits of their own group identity. Four hundred and fifty‐four undergraduates participated in 12 separate SIMSOC games. For each game, approximately 40 undergraduates were divided into dominant and subordinate groups. Each of the four combinations of high/low levels of upward mobility and large/small resource disparity was played out three times. Subordinates in the low‐mobility condition acted collectively more frequently and evaluated their own group more positively than those in the high‐mobility condition. A signifificant positive correlation between the frequency of subordinates’ collective action and in‐group favoritism was found.     

临床决策与卫生政策

从讨论趋利性临床决策与泛企业化卫生政策的共同作用是造成我国医改失败的根本原因入手,在对3个典型案例进行深入剖析的基础上,论证了临床决策和卫生政策相互依存、相互作用的基本关系;研究了临床决策与卫生政策的决策主体、影响因素、决策过程、信息反馈、关系调整的循环路径;认为完善决策机制是保证临床决策和卫生政策正确有效的必要条件,提出了进一步完善临床决策和卫生政策的决策机制的具体意见和建议。     

成就目标导向对创业行动效能的影响研究

在调查基础上,本文研究了成就目标导向对创业行动效能的影响。研究结果表明,学习目标导向与自我效能感及创业行动效能存在正相关,业绩接近目标导向与自我效能感及创业行动效能存在较弱的负相关．业绩回避目标导向与自我效能感及创业行动效能存在较高的负相关;自我效能感对创业行动效能具有显著影响;自我效能感在成就目标导向对创业行动效能的影响中起中介作用。     

语言理解中主体职业特征与动作表征的激活

运用句-配范式以及句子理解与身体反应相互作用的实验范式,探讨 “做某事的是某人”与“某人做某事”两类句式理解过程中主体职业特征与动作表征的激活。结果发现,在“做某事的是某人”句子理解过程中,主体的职业特征和动作表征得到了激活,但在“某人做某事”句子理解过程中,主体职业特征表征和动作表征只有其中一种表征处于匹配状态时,另一种表征才能得到明显的激活。这表明,句子理解过程中,主体职业特征表征得到了激活,而主体职业特征表征与动作执行器表征的同时激活则受到对方匹配情况的影响,知觉符号理论得到了进一步的证明。     

The role of preschoolers' social understanding in evaluating the informativeness of causal interventions

Preschoolers use information from interventions, namely intentional actions, to make causal inferences. We asked whether children consider some interventions to be more informative than others based on two components of an actor’s knowledge state: whether an actor possesses causal knowledge, and whether an actor is allowed to use their knowledge in a given situation. Three- and four-year-olds saw a novel toy that activated in the presence of certain objects. Two actors, one knowledgeable about the toy and one ignorant, each tried to activate the toy with an object. In Experiment 1, either the actors chose objects or the child chose for them. In Experiment 2, the actors chose objects blindfolded. Objects were always placed on the toy simultaneously, and thus were equally associated with the effect. Preschoolers’ causal inferences favored the knowledgeable actor’s object only when he was allowed to choose it (Experiment 1). Thus, children consider both personal and situational constraints on knowledge when evaluating the informativeness of causal interventions.     

The value of distrust

We assume that a state of distrust is the mental system’s signal that the environment is not normal—things may not be as they appear. Hence, individuals sense they should be on guard. In particular, they are likely to avoid routine strategies, ones proven to be optimal and regularly used in normal environments, because these strategies are easily anticipated by whoever may be seeking to deceive them. Conversely, a state of trust is associated with a feeling of safety. The environment is as it normally is and things really are as they appear to be. Thus, individuals see no reason to refrain from doing what they routinely do. Accordingly, we hypothesize that figuring out a new situation depends on the type of environment and the actor’s state of mind: in normal environments, where routine strategies are optimal, individuals who trust should outperform those who distrust; however, in unusual environments, where non-routine strategies are optimal, individuals who distrust should outperform those who trust. This paper reports three experiments that manipulate distrust via orienting tasks that participants perform prior to attempting to predict a series of events (Experiments 1 and 2) or solve matchstick arithmetic problems (Experiment 3). Performance success depends on discovering and implementing an appropriate rule. We found that, as predicted, the manipulation of distrust sensitized participants to the existence of non-routine contingencies, that is, contingencies that were not expected.     

Does action make you faster? A retrieval‐based approach to investigating the origins of the enactment effect

The enactment effect, the stable finding that memory for action phrases is enhanced in a subject-performed compared to a verbal task (SPT; VT), has repeatedly been demonstrated. The question remains whether the enactment effect has to do with specific characteristics of the SPT-retrieval process. Experiment 1 tested younger and older adults in a within-subjects design with two direct free recall tests. Thorough analyses of the recall process showed that the benefit from self-performing the items becomes apparent early into the retrieval phase for both age groups. Experiment 2 tested the same age groups with a retention phase of 30 minutes. The same general results pattern emerged. The acceleration of the recall process in SPTs is indicative of a heightened accessibility of the actively encoded material, making it less susceptible to forgetting. This property of SPTs must be taken into account when trying to determine the origins of the enactment effect.     

Paving the road to war with group membership, appraisal antecedents, and anger

This study uses appraisal theory, functionalist approach to emotions, and recent theory on group emotions as a basic framework to model the genesis of supporting military action. During the year after the events of 9/11, 588 college students participated in a series of four studies that assessed religious affiliation, appraisal antecedents, anger response to viewing photographs of the 9/11 attack, and support for military action. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that the relation between support for the war and attitudes toward terrorism and relevance could be explained adequately by a model in which anger mediated the effects of attitudes and relevance on support. Attitudes toward terrorism were further identified as mediators that could explain the group effect by Christians. The result was not only generalizable across the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in terms of how consent for war manifests itself--outright calls for bloodshed versus more subtle, politically loaded, posturing (e.g. entreaties to "support our troops").