MORAL JUDGMENT : A CULTURAL AND SUBCULTURAL COMPARISON WITH SOME PIAGET'S RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS

Le jugement moral: comparaison interculturelle et sous-culturelle avec les conclusions de Piaget. — L'article comporte une revue des recherches faites par L'A. sur certains aspects du développement moral et une comparaison avec les résultats de Piaget et de Harrower dans le même domaine. Les Ss. sont des enfants et des adolescents de 3 à 21 ans. L'âge mental dans le groupe le plus âgé qui se compose de sujets retardés, est comparable à celui des enfants d'environ 9 ans, L'A. utilise la méthode clinique et deux des histoires de Piaget, ainsi que deux autres histoires du même type. Deux d'entre elles sont relatives a la distinction entre L'intention et le résultat d'une action, les deux autres à la dépendance vis-à-vis de L'adulte et à la réciprocité avec les pairs. Les données de L'A. montrent que les théories de Piaget au sujet des stades du jugement moral sont universellement vraies dans les sociétés occidentales, mais que L'âge auquel un nouveau stade est atteint dépend de facteurs culturels et sous-culturels, comme la nationalité, la classe sociale d'origine, L'éducation religieuse, la mentalité. Les résultats ne confirment pas la conclusion de Piaget selon laquelle un enfant doit avoir atteint le stade de L'indépendance vis-à-vis des adultes et de la réciprocité avec les pairs avant de pouvoir juger en toute maturité des motifs et des résultats des actions.     

Costs and benefits in hunter-gatherer punishment

Hunter-gatherer punishment involves costs and benefits to individuals and groups, but the costs do not necessarily fit with the assumptions made in models that consider punishment to be altruistic--which brings in the free-rider problem and the problem of second-order free-riders. In this commentary, I present foragers' capital punishment patterns ethnographically, in the interest of establishing whether such punishment is likely to be costly; and I suggest that in many cases abstentions from punishment that might be taken as defections by free-riders are actually caused by social-structural considerations rather than being an effect of free-rider genes. This presentation of data supplements the ethnographic analysis provided by Guala.     

Two mutations preventing PDZ-protein interactions of GluR1 have opposite effects on synaptic plasticity

The regulated trafficking of GluR1 contributes significantly to synaptic plasticity, but studies addressing the function of the GluR1 C-terminal PDZ-ligand domain in this process have produced conflicting results. Here, we resolve this conflict by showing that apparently similar C-terminal mutations of the GluR1 PDZ-ligand domain result in opposite physiological phenotypes during activity- and CamKII-induced synaptic plasticity.     

Do criminal offenders specialize in crime types?

A common misconception exists that criminal offenders specialize in types of crime, such as serial murders, domestic violence, and sex offenses. This article explores the research on specialization in general criminal offenders, domestic violence offenders, and sex offenders. This review finds that although there are a few specialists, the majority of criminal offenders are generalists who exhibit wide versatility in offending. The implications for legal and mental health policies are discussed.     

Behavioral objectives in training for competence in the administration of individual intelligence tests

Competency standards are important to school psychology training, and this study demonstrates, in the area of individual intelligence test administration, how competency standards can be implemented. The study sets up behavioral objectives, determines what training is required for specified levels of mastery, and shows what specific training procedures contribute to the achievement of competency.     

Hume's Foundational Project in the Treatise

In the Introduction to the Treatise Hume very enthusiastically announces his project to provide a secure and solid foundation for the sciences by grounding them on his science of man. And Hume indicates in the Abstract that he carries out this project in the Treatise. But most interpreters do not believe that Hume's project comes to fruition. In this paper, I offer a general reading of what I call Hume's ‘foundational project’ in the Treatise, but I focus especially on Book 1. I argue that in Book 1 much of Hume's logic is put in the service of the other sciences, in particular, mathematics and natural philosophy. I concentrate on Hume's negative thesis that many of the ideas central to the sciences are ideas that we cannot form. For Hume, this negative thesis has implications for the sciences, as many of the texts I discuss make evident. I consider and criticize different proposals for understanding these implications: the Criterion of Meaning and the ‘Inconceivability Principle’. I introduce what I call Hume's ‘No Reason to Believe’ Principle, which I argue captures more adequately the link Hume envisions between his logic, in particular his examination of ideas, and the other sciences.     

Bulimia—Its dynamics and treatment: The case of an adolescent male

Male bulimics are rare. Through the analysis of a case of an adolescent man, the causation of this eating disorder from the viewpoint of both nature and nurture is explored. How the pathology develops from defects in early object relationships is explained in detail. Treatment strategies and practical use of the information gleaned are fully elaborated. This is a pragmatic and helpful paper for clinicians on all levels.     

On the importance of avoiding shortcuts in applying cognitive models to hierarchical data

Psychological experiments often yield data that are hierarchically structured. A number of popular shortcut strategies in cognitive modeling do not properly accommodate this structure and can result in biased conclusions. To gauge the severity of these biases, we conducted a simulation study for a two-group experiment. We first considered a modeling strategy that ignores the hierarchical data structure. In line with theoretical results, our simulations showed that Bayesian and frequentist methods that rely on this strategy are biased towards the null hypothesis. Secondly, we considered a modeling strategy that takes a two-step approach by first obtaining participant-level estimates from a hierarchical cognitive model and subsequently using these estimates in a follow-up statistical test. Methods that rely on this strategy are biased towards the alternative hypothesis. Only hierarchical models of the multilevel data lead to correct conclusions. Our results are particularly relevant for the use of hierarchical Bayesian parameter estimates in cognitive modeling.