To Act or Not to Act: Nonconsequentialism in Environmental Decision-Making

Research on environmental-decision making is usually based on utilitarian models, which imply that people's decisions are only influenced by the outcomes. This research provides evidence for values and moral positions that reflect nonconsequentialist rather than consequentialist views. In doing this, this article refers to “sacred values,” which are values that are seen as not-substitutable and nontradable. Two studies were designed to examine evidence for sacred values and their role on act versus omission choices within the environmental domain. The studies revealed that sacred values were closely associated with preferences for actions, trade-off reluctance, deontological focus, and position of moral universalism. The results suggest that it is important to account for sacred values and nonconsequentialist views in environmental decision-making research.     

Examining the pathways between gratitude and self-rated physical health across adulthood

The current study examined whether dispositional gratitude predicts physical health among adults, and if so, whether this relationship occurs because grateful individuals lead healthier lives, either psychologically or physically. Specifically, we examined whether psychological health, healthy activities, and willingness to seek help for health concerns mediated the link between gratitude and self-reported physical health, as well as if these mediational pathways are moderated by age, in a broad sample of Swiss adults (N = 962, M_age = 52 years, age range: 19–84). Dispositional gratitude correlated positively with self-reported physical health, and this link was mediated by psychological health, healthy activities, and willingness to seek help for health concerns. However, the indirect effects for psychological health and healthy activities were stronger for older than younger adults. In other words, the mechanisms explaining why gratitude predicts health appear to differ across adulthood.     

Adolescent perceptions of indirect forms of relational aggression: sex of perpetrator effects

Different types of aggressive behavior (both physical and relational) by boys and girls have been shown to be perceived differently by observers. However, most research has focused on adult perceptions of very young children, with little research examining other ages. The aim of this study is to establish any sex differences in adolescent perceptions of indirect forms of relational aggression enacted by boys and girls. One hundred and sixty adolescents were shown one of the two videos involving relational aggression and completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of the aggression. The videos were identical except for the sex of the aggressor and the victim; one condition portrayed boy-to-boy aggression, the other showed girl-to-girl aggression. Results indicated that participants viewed boy-to-boy relational aggression as more justified. This study revealed that stereotypes about aggressive boys are perpetuated even when the aggression is a type that is not commonly associated with boys.     

间接互惠中的声誉机制：印象、名声、标签及其传递

Alexander在1986年提出了间接互惠的概念, 并在次年出版的《道德体系生物学》一书中进行了系统阐述, 用来解释人类道德以及大规模合作行为的起源。间接互惠一经提出就得到了广泛的关注, 研究者基于进化博弈论的视角对间接互惠进行了诸多研究, 认为人群中间接互惠的大量存在是声誉机制的结果, 并提出了诸如印象分数、名声、标签等不同的声誉机制, 但是目前关于声誉机制的研究大都建立在个体信息可被所有他人观察到的假设之上, 多在个体层面展开声誉机制的研究。今后应该注重在信息不充分情景下开展群体层面上声誉传递机制的研究, 探讨间接互惠中心理机制(如信任、公平等)的作用并提高研究的生态效度。     

父母支持、友谊质量对孤独感和抑郁的影响：检验一个间接效应模型

以560名5、7、10年级学生为被试, 检验父母支持、友谊质量与孤独感、抑郁的关系是否符合间接效应模型及其模型适用性问题。结构方程建模及群组分析结果发现：(1)总体上, 间接效应模型成立, 父母支持既直接影响孤独感和抑郁, 也通过影响友谊质量进而影响孤独感和抑郁状况; (2)从具体适应问题看, 间接效应模型对于孤独感和抑郁均显著, 但更适用于对孤独感的预测; (3)从发展阶段看, 间接效应模型仅适用于童年晚期和青少年早期, 且更适用于童年晚期; (4)从性别角度看, 间接效应模型对两性均显著, 但更适用于男生。结果提示, 父母支持、友谊质量对孤独感和抑郁的影响均符合间接效应模型, 但该模型的适用性可能因具体适应问题、发展阶段和性别而有差异。     

Reliability of implicit self‐esteem measures revisited

This study investigated the internal consistencies and temporal stabilities of different implicit self‐esteem measures. Participants (N = 101) responded twice—with a time lag of 4 weeks—to five different tasks: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT), the Affective Priming Task (APT), the Identification‐Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (ID‐EAST) and the Name‐Letter Task (NLT). As expected, the highest reliability coefficients were obtained for the self‐esteem IAT. Importantly, the internal consistencies and the temporal stabilities of the APT, the ID‐EAST, and the NLT were substantially improved by using material, structural, and analytic innovations. In particular, the use of the adaptive response‐window procedure for the APT, the computation of error scores for the ID‐EAST, and the computation of a double corrected scoring algorithm for the NLT yielded reliability coefficients comparable to those of the established IAT. Implications for the indirect assessment of self‐esteem are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships among individualism--collectivism, gender, and ingroup/outgroup status, and responses to conflict: a study in China and the United States

Responses to conflict were studied in samples of college students from a highly collectivistic society (China, n = 207) and a highly individualistic society (United States n = 209). As predicted, the collectivistic society reported more conflict-reducing behaviors and less verbal or physical aggression. However, the effect of individualism/collectivism was moderated by both the ingroup/outgroup status of the target and gender of the participant. Chinese and US women did not differ on any measure. However, of the four groups, Chinese men reported the most conflict-reducing behaviors and the least physical aggression, whereas US men reported the fewest conflict-reducing behaviors and the greatest physical aggression. As predicted, conflict-reducing behaviors were more common in the ingroup condition and both verbal and physical aggression was more common in the outgroup condition. However, the latter were moderated by gender of the participant. US men reported greater physical aggression than any other group. Neither gender nor society had any effect on the level of indirect aggression. There were no gender or individualism/collectivism effects on indirect aggression. Observed gender effects were attributed to differences in how collectivistic and individualistic societies conceptualize masculinity. The effect sizes associated with the ingroup/outgroup condition were consistently and substantially larger than effect sizes associated with individualism/collectivism or gender.     

The badness of discrimination

The most blatant forms of discrimination are morally outrageous and very obviously so; but the nature and boundaries of discrimination are more controversial, and it is not clear whether all forms of discrimination are morally bad; nor is it clear why objectionable cases of discrimination are bad. In this paper I address these issues. First, I offer a taxonomy of discrimination. I then argue that discrimination is bad, when it is, because it harms people. Finally, I criticize a rival, disrespect-based account according to which discrimination is bad regardless of whether it causes harm.     

A daily diary investigation of self-reported alcohol-related direct and indirect aggression

Research supports the relationship between alcohol use and direct aggression, however, scant research has examined the association between alcohol use and indirectly aggressive behavior. Further, extant research has relied on retrospective reporting of behaviors, which may be subject to recall bias. The daily diary methodology enables the assessment of both the between- and within-subject variation, as well as reduces the likelihood of biased reporting. Consequently, the current study utilized a daily diary design to examine (a) associations between daily alcohol use and alcohol-related aggressive behaviors (i.e., direct and indirect); and (b) the co-occurrence of alcohol-related direct and indirect aggression. Participants were 105 (80% female) college student drinkers. Students completed baseline questionnaires and up to 14 consecutive, daily surveys regarding their previous day alcohol use, alcohol-related direct aggression, and alcohol-related indirect aggression. Findings revealed that alcohol use was associated with same day alcohol-related direct and indirect aggression, after controlling for baseline alcohol use. Self-reported alcohol-related direct aggression was more likely to occur on days in which self-reported alcohol-related indirect aggression occurred, after controlling for dispositional aggression, trait self-control, and baseline alcohol use. Results of the study suggest that, similar to alcohol-related direct aggression, alcohol use is associated with an increased likelihood of alcohol-related indirect aggression. Further, the co-occurrence of alcohol-related indirect and direct aggression supports that individuals may be engaging in multiple types of aggressive behaviors. Findings extend previous cross-sectional and qualitative research suggesting that indirect aggression may co-occur, perhaps increasing in severity.