Irrational action and irrational belief

Many philosophers agree with Socrates that it is not possible to perform an akratic action consciously and freely. They take this view because they assimilate the internal irrationality of such a performance to the internal irrationality of drawing a theoretical conclusion which contadicts one's premisses. This article develops some arguments against that assimilation. The extreme cost of theoretical self-contradiction is forming the belief both that something is so and that it is not so. This is impossible for anyone who understands what he is doing, and the impossibility can be explained: nothing could conceivably make such a conjunction of beliefs true. But the conjunction of a value-judgement judgment and an action that gets against it is different. Although it too is internally irrational, there is no property like truth which the value-judgement and his action ought both to possess, but cannot both possess. This article proposes a different model for akratic action, which might serve as a basis for disagreement with Socrates' view of it.     

Inequalities among lower bounds to reliability: With applications to test construction and factor analysis

A chain of lower-bound inequalities leading to the greatest lower bound to reliability is established for the internal consistency of a composite of unit-weighted components. The chain includes the maximum split-half coefficient, the lowest coefficient consistent with nonimaginary common factors, and the lowest coefficient consistent with nonimaginary common and unique factors. Optimization theory is utilized to determine the conditions that are requisite for the inequalities. Convergence proofs demonstrate that the coefficients can be attained. Rapid algorithms obtain estimates of the coefficients with sample data. The theory yields methods for splitting items into maximally similar sets and for exploratory factor analysis based on a theoretical solution to the communality problem.     

Beyond Defiance: An Augmented Investment Perspective on Creativity

An investment perspective on creativity, proposed 30 years ago, no longer seems adequate, nor do various revisions of the model made since then. The world, or at least the way many people experience it, has changed and so have the challenges for creativity. In particular, creativity is being used to increasingly greater effect in negative ways and in ways that lack integrity with respect both to internal coherence and external correspondence to the world. To understand creativity and adequately teach it, people need to take into account its positivity and its integrity with respect to internal coherence and external correspondence.     

Formal aspects of Legal reasoning

This paper discusses the functions of deductive justification in ideal reconstructions of judicial reasoning. It departs from the point of judicial reasoning: explaining and justifying the judicial decision. It argues that deductive validity is not enough for good judicial argument. On the other hand, deductive justification is necessary, not only for easy cases but for hard cases as well. It draws some consequences for the concept of jumps in legal reasoning and for the traditional distinction between internal and external justification.     

医德形成:外在强制与内在自觉

作为一种职业道德，医德的形成需要有一个过程。首先要以普通人或一般人的本质特性，即人是一个自由的有意识的存在者为前提条件。根据现代人的道德状况，将医德的形成分为两种路径，即医德形成的一般途径：靠制度约束的外在强制；医德形成的根本途径：对医生美德的内在自觉。     

Psychological Reactance: Factor Structure and Internal Consistency of the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance

Abstract

Psychological reactance, the theory that people resist attempts to constrain either their thoughts or their behaviors (J. W. Brehm, 1966), has been an influential concept in social psychology. In an attempt to measure reactance, J. Merz (1983) developed the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance (QMPR). Subsequent researchers (S.-M. Hong & R. Ostini, 1989; R. K. Tucker & P. Y. Byers, 1987) have debated both the exact factor structure and the psychometric stability of the QMPR. In the present study, 898 undergraduates completed the QMPR. Factor analysis suggested that psychological reactance is multidimensional. The authors found 3 factors underlying the QMPR, but the QMPR provided unreliable estimates for each of those factors. According to the results, the QMPR as currently written is psychometrically unsatisfactory.     

Orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortex functioning in Parkinson's disease: neuropsychological evidence

A recent paper (Zald & Andreotti, 2010) reviewed neuropsychological tasks that assess the function of the orbital and ventromedial portions of the prefrontal cortex (OMPFC). Neuropathological studies have shown that the function of the OMPFC should be preserved in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) but becomes affected in the advanced stages of PD. This pattern has also been suggested by studies that have shown that dopaminergic drugs impair the performance of early PD patients in OMPFC tasks that involve reinforcement learning but enhance the performance of advanced PD patients. Based on these empirical findings, we reviewed the neuropsychological evidence of OMPFC functions in PD patients to test two hypotheses regarding the following: (1) OMPFC functions at different stages of PD; (2) different effects of dopaminergic drugs on OMPFC functions based on PD stage and task demand. We focused our review only on the neuropsychological tasks that were specific and sensitive to the functions of the OMPFC and that were adopted at different stages of PD, such as reversal learning tasks, the Iowa Gambling Task and the affective Theory of Mind task. We found robust empirical evidence that in early PD, OMPFC functions are preserved and dopaminergic drugs result in a detrimental effect when the task involves reinforcement learning. Further studies are needed to verify the status of OMPFC functions in non-demented, advanced PD and to describe the longitudinal course of OMPFC functions in this clinical population.     

依恋类型对主动遗忘的影响

成人依恋可以在依恋回避和依恋焦虑两个维度进行分析。不安全依恋的个体在依恋关系中持续感受到一种不安全感,因此个体往往采用心理防御策略来摆脱这种不安全感。对于许多不愉快的事件,个体常常也会采用类似的防御策略进行抑制,以减少自身的消极体验。主动遗忘是指个体有意识地避免回想某一目标对象而导致的遗忘现象,其可能与高回避个体的停用策略十分相似。为探讨对于依恋相关的记忆内容,高回避个体是否能够成功进行主动遗忘以规避负面情绪,或是防御失败引起依恋系统激活,反而更多回忆起相关记忆内容,本实验采用Think/No-Think(TNT)范式进行研究,以依恋相关故事作为对被试的依恋启动操作,设计了2(启动:依恋启动vs.依恋未启动)×3(主动遗忘:Think vs.No-Think vs.Baseline)×2(依恋维度得分:高vs低)混合设计研究不同依恋类型主动遗忘能力的影响。实验结果显示,TNT操作与回避类型与启动操作的交互作用显著,高依恋回避个体在受到依恋相关启动时表现出优秀的主动遗忘能力,而在未受到启动时则不能有效地遗忘依恋相关负性词对; 而低依恋回避个体则表现相反,在受到启动材料威胁时无法成功主动遗忘,而在未受启动条件下可以成功遗忘要求内容。对于不同焦虑类型的被试来说,其主动遗忘能力与启动操作无关,高焦虑类型被试表现出更强的主动遗忘能力,并从依恋内部工作模型角度进行了分析。     

THE PATIENT'S OBJECTS IN THE ANALYST'S MIND

In every analysis, the analyst develops an internal relationship with the patient's objects—that is, the people in the patient's life and mind. Sometimes these figures can inhabit the analyst's mind as a source of data, but at other times, the analyst may feel preoccupied with or even invaded by them. The author presents two clinical cases: one in which the seeming absence of a good object in the patient's mind made the analyst hesitate to proceed with an analysis, and another in which the patient's preoccupation with a “bad” object was shared and mirrored by the analyst's own inner preoccupation with the object. The use and experience of these two objects by the analyst are discussed with particular attention to the countertransference.