Mindfulness-based stress reduction effects on moral reasoning and decision making

Previous research has demonstrated that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) improves psychological functioning in multiple domains. However, to date, no studies have examined the effects of MBSR on moral reasoning and decision making. This single group design study examined the effect of MBSR on moral reasoning and ethical decision making, mindfulness, emotion, and well-being. Additionally, we investigated whether there was an association between the amount of meditation practice during MBSR and changes in moral reasoning and ethical decision making, emotions, mindfulness, and well-being. Results indicated that MBSR was associated with improvements in mindful attention, emotion and well-being. Further, amount of meditation practice was associated with greater improvement in mindful attention. Two-month follow-up results showed that, MBSR resulted in improvements in moral reasoning and ethical decision making, mindful attention, emotion, and well-being. This study provides preliminary evidence that MBSR may potentially facilitate moral reasoning and decision making in adults.     

Relations between theory of mind,mental state language and social adjustment in primary school children

The present study investigated the concurrent relations between theory of mind (ToM), mental state language (MSL) and social adjustment (assessed in terms of emotional instability, prosocial behaviour and aggressiveness) in a sample of 150 children between 8 and 11 years of age. The results showed no correlation between the performance on false belief tasks and the frequency of MSL in a narrative task. False belief understanding was unrelated with all measures of social adjustment, whereas the children’s use of MSL was negatively correlated with emotional instability and aggressiveness, above and beyond the influence of receptive language ability. These findings suggest that having a ToM ability is different from spontaneously using it during non-interactive narrative tasks, and that the two ToM measures are differently related to social competence in primary school children.     

Passion or Perjury: Center or Circumference?

Are all transcendental claims a lost cause because they can have no objective empirical truth? Or does the transcendent still move among us as immanent, and, if so, how so? The question of ultimacy and the validity of the symbolic is considered through the views of Paul Ricoeur and Carl Jung.     

Morality in Children's Worlds – Rationality of Thought or Values Emanating from Relations?

The topic of this article is morality among pre-school children.Two different theories of morality, morality as lived and morality asrationality of thought, are analyzed with a special view to exploringtheir respective consequences for doing research on small children'smorality. Children's lived morality is then interpreted and discussed interms of rights.     

A Social Psychological Approach to Enduring Rivalries

The recent scholarly work on the concept of enduring rivalries offers a promising way to examine strategic interaction among dyads of states over extended periods of time. A focus on rivalry, and on the mechanisms that provide for such interaction, may offer a way to bridge existing theories of international relations that rely exclusively on structure or process. Unfortunately, the potential for theory-building has not been fully realized because research into rivalry has tended to be inductive. This paper seeks to rectify that problem by situating the rivalry concept within a social psychological approach to international relations. The rivalry concept is appropriately located in a theoretical approach that views the international system as a social system where actors are conditioned by mechanisms of competition and socialization.     

Wickedness,Idleness and Basic Income

Res Publica - This paper critically analyses the position that basic income schemes foster idleness and thereby create harm. The view is based on an alleged empirical link between idleness and...     

Migration and Cultural Orientation: An Empirical Test of the Psychoanalytic Theory in Chinese Americans

The psychoanalytic literature suggests migration entails an intra-psychic challenge of separation–individuation that necessitates the assistance of internal and external objects. While this has been illustrated by anecdotal data and clinical case material, it has not been previously tested in the general migrant community. This study examined three Chinese-American groups who varied in the availability of external objects (i.e., primary caretakers) and stability and solidity of internal object and self representations due to varying developmental stages at the time of migration, and assessed whether, as predicted by some psychoanalytic writers, they would have differential need to embrace their native culture to support their transition. Results showed that unaccompanied minors who migrated without their parents during adolescence evidenced a stronger Chinese cultural orientation than both accompanied minors who migrated with their parents during childhood (perhaps due to less access to external objects) and unaccompanied adults who migrated without their parents during adulthood (perhaps due to less well internalized objects), lending empirical support for the psychoanalytic postulation. Implications of the findings for future research and intervention are discussed.     

和而不同,相辅相成——制度与道德相关性的哲学辨析

在社会发展实践中,制度与道德之间有着相互交叉、相互促进、相互转化的错综复杂的关系。制度的生成、演化、运行背后有着强烈的道德意蕴,道德本身所具有的规范性也不可避免地体现出制度的色彩。制度的道德依托使得制度的价值指向更加积极和明确,道德的制度支持则会促进道德的有效实现和践履。但制度和道德毕竟是各自独立的范畴,有着各自内涵的确定性,不能不适当地淡化两者之间的差别,两者之间是互补而不是替代的关系。     

医学职业精神视域下的医学生诚信教育研究

开展医学生诚信教育,是培养高素质的医学人才的关键环节,是构建和谐医患关系的基础。从医学职业精神的专业视角分析了诚信的科学内涵及作用,并提出了加强医学生诚信教育,培养医学职业精神的对策建议。     

Acculturative Stress,Parental and Professor Attachment,and College Adjustment in Asian International Students

This study examined parental and professor attachment as buffers against acculturative stress and as predictors of college adjustment of 210 Asian international students (AISs). Moderated hierarchical regression analyses revealed that acculturative stress negatively and secure parental and professor attachment positively predicted academic integration. Secure professor attachment positively predicted grade point average. Mother attachment may buffer against acculturative stress on academic integration; father attachment may exacerbate it. Counselors may use these findings to enhance AISs' attachment functioning for their college adjustment. Este estudio examinó el apego parental y el apego al profesor como protectores contra el estrés aculturativo y como indicadores de adaptación al entorno académico en 210 estudiantes internacionales asiáticos (AIS, por sus siglas en inglés). Los análisis de regresión jerárquica moderada revelaron que el estrés aculturativo fue un indicador negativo de integración académica, mientras que el apego parental y el apego al profesor fueron indicadores positivos. El apego seguro al profesor fue un indicador positivo de la media de las calificaciones académicas. El apego materno puede proteger contra el estrés aculturativo en la integración académica; el apego paterno puede agravarlo. Los consejeros pueden usar estos descubrimientos para enfatizar el funcionamiento del apego en los AIS para su adaptación al entorno académico.