Social categories in the making: construction or recruitment?

Real kinds, both natural and social categories, are characterized by rich inductive potential. They have relatively stable sets of conceptually independent projectable properties. Somewhat surprisingly, even some purely social categories (e.g., ethnicity, gender, political orientation) show such multiple projectability. The article explores the origin of the inductive richness of social categories and concepts. I argue that existing philosophical accounts provide only a partial explanation, and mechanisms of boundary formation and stabilization must be brought into view for a more comprehensive account of inductively rich social categories.

     

MATERNAL TRAUMA AFFECTS PRENATAL MENTAL HEALTH AND INFANT STRESS REGULATION AMONG PALESTINIAN DYADS

We examined how diverse and cumulated traumatic experiences predicted maternal prenatal mental health and infant stress regulation in war conditions and whether maternal mental health mediated the association between trauma and infant stress regulation. Participants were 511 Palestinian mothers from the Gaza Strip who reported exposure to current war trauma (WT), past childhood emotional (CEA) and physical abuse, socioeconomic status (SES), prenatal mental health problems (posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms), and perceived stress during their secondtrimester of pregnancy as well as infant stress regulation at 4 months. While all trauma types were associated with high levels of prenatal symptoms, CEA had the most wide‐ranging effects and was uniquely associated with depression symptoms. Concerning infant stress regulation, mothers’ CEA predicted negative affectivity, but only among mothers with low WT. Against hypothesis, the effects of maternal trauma on infant stress regulation were not mediated by mental health symptoms. Mothers’ higher SES was associated with better infant stress regulation whereas infant prematurity and male sex predisposed for difficulties. Our findings suggest that maternal childhood abuse, especially CEA, should be a central treatment target among war‐exposed families. Cumulated psychosocial stressors might increase the risk for transgenerational problems.     

Explanatory power of extended cognition

I argue that examining the explanatory power of the hypothesis of extended cognition (HEC) offers a fruitful approach to the problem of cognitive system demarcation. Although in the discussions on HEC it has become common to refer to considerations of explanatory power as a means for assessing the plausibility of the extended cognition approach, to date no satisfying account of explanatory power has been presented in the literature. I suggest that the currently most prominent theory of explanation in the special sciences, James Woodward's contrastive-counterfactual theory, and an account of explanatory virtues building on that theory can be used to develop a systematic picture of cognitive system demarcation in the psychological sciences. A major difference between my differential influence (DI) account and most other theories of cognitive extension is the cognitive systems pluralism implied by my approach. By examining the explanatory power of competing traditions in psychological memory research, I conclude that internalist and externalist classificatory strategies are characterized by different profiles of explanatory virtues and should often be considered as complementary rather than competing approaches. This suggests a deflationary interpretation of HEC.     

Intentional concepts in cognitive neuroscience

In this article, I develop an account of the use of intentional predicates in cognitive neuroscience explanations. As pointed out by Maxwell Bennett and Peter Hacker, intentional language abounds in neuroscience theories. According to Bennett and Hacker, the subpersonal use of intentional predicates results in conceptual confusion. I argue against this overly strong conclusion by evaluating the contested language use in light of its explanatory function. By employing conceptual resources from the contemporary philosophy of science, I show that although the use of intentional predicates in mechanistic explanations sometimes leads to explanatorily inert claims, intentional predicates can also successfully feature in mechanistic explanations as tools for the functional analysis of the explanandum phenomenon. Despite the similarities between my account and Daniel Dennett's intentional-stance approach, I argue that intentional stance should not be understood as a theory of subpersonal causal explanation, and therefore cannot be used to assess the explanatory role of intentional predicates in neuroscience. Finally, I outline a general strategy for answering the question of what kind of language can be employed in mechanistic explanations.     

The Negative Association of Obesity with Subjective Well-Being: Is it All About Health?

In this paper we examine whether health status and functional capacity explain the fact that obese individuals report significantly lower levels of subjective well-being. We use comprehensive measures of body composition such as waist circumference, body fat percentage, and lean body mass along with body mass index. All these are measured by health professionals in a population-based sample. When controlling for health and functional status, we find very limited evidence for any independent influence of obesity on subjective well-being. This implies that the adverse effects of obesity on health and functioning are the primary explanation for the observed negative relationship between obesity and subjective well-being.     

Digit ratio and risk taking in post-menopausal Finnish women

Although an indicator of prenatal testosterone (PT), 2D:4D ratio, has been extensively studied in the domain of financial risk taking, other domains of risk have received less attention. It is thought that elevated levels of PT relate to more masculinised behaviours, including increased risk taking propensity. In this study, we report negative findings with regards to health (average weekly drinking and daily smoking) and sexual (lifetime number of sexual partners) risk in a sample of post-menopausal Finnish women (N = 146–262). Our results suggest that PT may not masculinise health and sexual risk taking in women, at least at an older age.     

Caregiving representations in war conditions: Associations with maternal trauma,mental health,and mother–infant interaction

Risk features in mothers’ caregiving representations remain understudied in dangerous environments where infants most urgently need protective parenting. This pilot study examines the feasibility of a novel coding system for the Parent Development Interview (PDI) interview (ARR, Assessment of Representational Risk) in assessing 50 war-exposed Palestinian mothers’ caregiving representations. First, we explored the content and structure of risks in the representations. Second, we examined associations between the high-risk representations, mothers’ pre- and postnatal exposure to traumatic war events (TWE), depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and self-rated emotional availability (EA) with their 1-year-old infants. Following three dimensions of high-risk caregiving representations were identified: self/dyadic dysregulation, unavailable, and fearful. Mothers’ prenatal depressive symptoms were associated with dysregulating and fearful representations, and their postnatal PTSD with fearful representations. TWE were not associated with the high-risk representations. Moreover, mothers of boys reported more fearful representations, and mothers with financial difficulties reported more unavailable representations. TWE and high-risk representations were not associated with EA. However, qualitative analysis of the representations indicated risks in the mother–infant relationship. Further, older mothers and mothers with postnatal PTSD reported lower EA. Cultural variance in caregiving representations and the use of self-report measures among traumatized mothers are discussed.     

Boredom and despair in rural Egypt

Boredom is a key experience in the lives of many young people in contemporary rural Egypt. With its calm, predictable rhythm of life offering little excitement and surprises, village life is intrinsically monotonic. But monotony as such does not necessarily bore people. It is turned into intense boredom and despair by the presence of strong but unfulfilled aspirations for a better and more exciting life. Boredom and attempts to escape it form an experience and a discourse of life that stand in a strong albeit often unstated contrast to the ideology of Islamic revival. With the stated purposeless and pointlessness of the discourse on boredom, not only the forms of entertainment, but also the very position of entertainment towards the grand projects of religious revival and nationalist progress appears in a different light that fits in neither the secularist tradition of arts and entertainment nor their revivalist contestation and reinterpretation.

Trauma and autobiographical memory: contents and determinants of earliest memories among war-affected Palestinian children

The contents of earliest memories (EM), as part of autobiographical memory, continue to fascinate scientists and therapists. However, research is scarce on the determinants of EM, especially among children. This study aims, first, to identify contents of EM of children living in war conditions, and, second, to analyse child gender, traumatic events and mental health as determinants of the contents of EM. The participants were 240 Palestinian schoolchildren from the Gaza Strip (10–12 years, M?=?11.35, SD?=?0.57; 49.4% girls). They responded to an open-ended EM question, and reported their trauma exposures (war trauma, losses and current traumatic events), posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms and psychosocial well-being, indicating mental health. The EM coding involved nature, social orientation, emotional tone and specificity. Results showed, first, that 43% reported playing or visiting a nice place as EM, and about a third (30%) traumatic events or accidents (30%) or miscellaneous events (27%). The individual and social orientation were almost equally common, the emotional tone mainly neutral (45.5%), and 60% remembered a specific event. Second, boys remembered more EM involving traumatic events or accidents, and girls more social events. Third, war trauma was associated with less positive emotional tone and with more specific memories.