Publications

Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection

jcacioppo — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT

John T. Cacioppo's groundbreaking research topples one of the pillars of modern medicine and psychology: the focus on the individual as the unit of inquiry. By employing brain scans, monitoring blood pressure, and analyzing immune function, he demonstrates the overpowering influence of social context—a factor so strong that it can alter DNA replication. He defines an unrecognized syndrome—chronic loneliness—brings it out of the shadow of its cousin depression, and shows how this subjective sense of social isolation uniquely disrupts our perceptions, behavior, and physiology, becoming a trap that not only reinforces isolation but can also lead to early death. He gives the lie to the Hobbesian view of human nature as a "war of all against all," and he shows how social cooperation is, in fact, humanity's defining characteristic. Most important, he shows how we can break the trap of isolation for our benefit both as individuals and as a society.

Source: Loneliness

Cognitive load selectively interferes with utilitarian moral judgment

admin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Abstract: Traditional theories of moral development emphasize the role of controlled cognition in mature moral judgment, while a more recent trend emphasizes intuitive and emotional processes. Here we test a dual-process theory synthesizing these perspectives. More specifically, our theory associates utilitarian moral judgment (approving of harmful actions that maximize good consequences) with controlled cognitive processes and associates non-utilitarian moral judgment with automatic emotional responses. Consistent with this theory, we find that a cognitive load manipulation selectively interferes with utilitarian judgment. This interference effect provides direct evidence for the influence of controlled cognitive processes in moral judgment, and utilitarian moral judgment more specifically.

Source: ScienceDirect

Political Polarization in the American Public

sabrams — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Abstract: For more than two decades political scientists have discussed rising elite polarization in the United States, but the study of mass polarization did not receive comparable attention until fairly recently. This article surveys the literature on mass polarization. It begins with a discussion of the concept of polarization, then moves to a critical consideration of different kinds of evidence that have been used to study polarization, concluding that much of the evidence presents problems of inference that render conclusions problematic. The most direct evidence—citizens' positions on public policy issues—shows little or no indication of increased mass polarization over the past two to three decades. Party sorting—an increased correlation between policy views and partisan identification—clearly has occurred, although the extent has sometimes been exaggerated. Geographic polarization—the hypothesized tendency of like-minded people to cluster together—remains an open question. To date, there is no conclusive evidence that elite polarization has stimulated voters to polarize, on the one hand, or withdraw from politics, on the other.

Source: Annual Reviews

On searching compressed string collections cache-obliviously

agupta — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Abstract: Current data structures for searching large string collections either fail to achieve minimum space or cause too many cache misses. In this paper we discuss some edge linearizations of the classic trie data structure that are simultaneously cache-friendly and compressed. We provide new insights on front coding [24], introduce other novel linearizations, and study how close their space occupancy is to the information-theoretic minimum. The moral is that they are not just heuristics. Our second contribution is a novel dictionary encoding scheme that builds upon such linearizations and achieves nearly optimal space, offers competitive I/O-search time, and is also conscious of the query distribution. Finally, we combine those data structures with cache-oblivious tries [2, 5] and obtain a succinct variant whose space is close to the information-theoretic minimum.

Source: Portal

Forgotten but not gone: The recall and recognition of self-threatening memories

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Abstract: When people selectively forget feedback that threatens the self (mnemic neglect), are those memories permanently lost or potentially recoverable? In two experiments, participants processed feedback pertaining either to themselves or to another person. Feedback consisted of a mixture of positive and negative behaviors exemplifying traits that were both central and peripheral to participants’ self-definition. In Experiment 1, participants exhibited poorer recall for, but unimpaired recognition of, self-threatening feedback (i.e., negative, central, self-referent), relative to both self-affirming feedback (positive, central, self-referent) and other-relevant feedback (positive/negative, central, other-referent). In Experiment 2, participants who had experienced ego-deflation, but not ego-inflation, exhibited mnemic neglect for recall, but not for recognition. Both experiments imply that, even after being self-protectively neglected, self-threatening memories can still be retrieved.

Source: ScienceDirect

Enlightened Nation Building: The "Science of the Legislator" in Adam Smith and Rousseau

rph — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Abstract: Rousseau is famous as an advocate of the politics of "denaturing." But attention to his conception of the "science of the legislator," as developed in the Geneva Manuscript and his writings on Poland and Corsica, reveals a more moderate approach to statecraft. Here Rousseau claims that legislative science requires tempering commitment to principles of political right with sensitivity to actual political conditions—a claim that importantly and unexpectedly parallels the better known account of the science of the legislator developed by Adam Smith. In comparing these conceptions, this article draws three conclusions: first, Smith's and Rousseau's shared moderation reveals their common commitment to accommodating the passions and prejudices of modernity; second, their fundamental difference concerns not practical legislative methods but rather differing conceptions of natural justice and political right; and finally, their prudential approach to legislation helps clarify the specific types of "moderation" and "intelligence" required of contemporary nation builders.

Source: Wiley InterScience

Ideology and intuition in moral education

Jesse Graham — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Abstract: We propose that social psychological findings on the intuitive bases of moral judgment have broad implications for moral education. The “five foundations theory of intuitive ethics” is applied to explain a longstanding rift in moral education as an ideological disagreement about which moral intuitions should be endorsed and cultivated. The Kohlbergian moral reasoning side has sought to limit the domain of moral education to Harm and Fairness-related moral concerns, whereas character education approaches have tried also to cultivate intuitions concerning the Ingroup, Authority and Purity foundations. Recent attempts to merge the two lines of moral education have not fully addressed this ideological rift, for example by delineating how a single approach could reconcile opposing group- and individual-focused conceptions of moral education. We conclude that psychological research on moral intuition offers a descriptive account of human morality that reveals problems with attempts to create a normative basis for moral education from either side of the ideological divide.

Source: IngentaConnect

Metrics of science

jcacioppo — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Assessments of science are important for many different reasons. For individuals early in their careers, metrics of scientific work can provide valuable feedback about where they stand and the progress they have made. For faculty seeking to hire another member of their department, such metrics can simplify the task of wading through hundreds of applications to identify a subset of applicants to interview. For departmental chairs, these metrics may influence annual raises and the allocation of scarce departmental resources. For university administrators, these metrics help identify faculty who warrant promotion and tenure. For scientific societies, these metrics influence he selection of award recipients across the course of careers. For funding agencies, both public and private, assessments of science help identify areas of progress and vitality that may warrant additional resources. For legislative bodies and boards of directors, measures of science provide a means of documenting performance, ensuring accountability, and evaluating the return on their research investment. Measures of science also can be used for a variety of other purposes, such as identifying the structure of science, the impact of academic journals, influential fields of research that warrant funding or support, and factors that may contribute to the likelihood of discoveries.

Source: APS Observer

The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits

vtiberius — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

What can we do to live life wisely? You might think that the answer would be to think and reflect more. But this is not Valerie Tiberius's answer. In her view, when we really take account of what we are like - when we recognize our psychological limits - we will see that too much thinking and reflecting is bad for us. Instead, we need to think and reflect better. This means that we need to develop wisdom: we need to care about things that will sustain us and give us good experiences, we need to have perspective on our successes and failures, and we need to be moderately self-aware and cautiously optimistic about human nature. Further, we need to know when to think about our values, character, and choices, and when not to. A crucial part of wisdom, Tiberius maintains, is knowing when to stop reflecting and get lost in the experience. <i>The Reflective Life</i> also considers the issue of how to philosophize about how to live. A recent trend in moral philosophy has been toward what is sometimes called "empirically informed ethics." This methodology has not yet caught on in normative ethics, primarily because we cannot conclude anything about what ought to be the case from the facts about what is. Tiberius agrees that this leap should be avoided, but argues that empirical psychology can inform our philosophical theories in interesting ways.

Source: Google Books

Towards Formalizing the Observed Behavior of Choice

smousavi — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Abstract: Formulating the problem of compound lotteries, which marks the origination of expected utility theory (EUT), has generated a stream of formal work in the field of economics decision making. Where subjective EUT determines the rational choice, exploring the process of choice and observed use of heuristics fall into the domain of bounded rationality. We review an axiomatization of bounded rationality, introduce a phenomenon that it cannot account for, and juxtapose two process models based on similarity for compound lotteries. We argue that an alternative framework based on an underemployed philosophical theory of inquiry promises more fruitful approach to theorizing choice.

Source: SEDSCI

Measuring the lexical semantics of picture description in aphasia

jkgordon — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Individuals with non-fluent aphasia have difficulty producing syntactically laden words, such as function words, whereas individuals with fluent aphasia often have difficulty producing semantically specific words. It is hypothesised that such dissociations arise, at least in part, from a trade-off between syntactic and semantic sources of input to lexical retrieval. The aims of this study were (a) to identify quantitative measures of the semantic content of narrative for people with aphasia that are reliable indicators of semantic competence, independent of overall aphasia severity; (b) to determine whether these measures distinguish between fluent and non-fluent aphasia; and (c) to assess whether individuals with fluent and non-fluent aphasia show a trade-off between measures of syntactic and semantic production. The study gathered connected speech samples from 16 participants with aphasia, 8 fluent and 8 non-fluent, and analysed the samples’ semantic sufficiency. The results show some evidence for a trade-off between syntactic and semantic inputs to word retrieval, at least among non-fluent participants. The heavy-light verb ratio provides information about semantic specificity, beyond what is provided by the CIU (correct information unit) or TTR (type-token ratio) measures.

Taking a closer look: On the operation of nonconscious impression formation

mferguson — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

In this article, we analyzed the information processing that underlies nonconscious impression formation. In the first experiment (Experiment 1), the nonconscious activation of the impression formation goal led to a faster analysis of the trait implications of behaviors, compared with a control group. In Experiment 2, participants who were nonconsciously primed with an impression formation goal were more likely than those in a control condition to form associations in memory between behaviors and implied traits. In Experiment 3, nonconsciously primed participants were more sensitive than those in a control condition to whether inconsistent trait information was relevant or irrelevant to the actor’s disposition. Moreover, in Experiments 2 and 3, those with a nonconscious goal showed just as much evidence of impression formation as those who were consciously and intentionally trying to form an impression. Implications for nonconscious goal-pursuit and impression formation are discussed.

Why Heuristics Work

matthew — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

The adaptive toolbox is a Darwinian-inspired theory that conceives of the mind as a modular system that is composed of heuristics, their building blocks, and evolved capacities. The study of the adaptive toolbox is descriptive and analyzes the selection and structure of heuristics in social and physical environments. The study of ecological rationality is prescriptive and identifies the structure of environments in which specific heuristics either succeed or fail. Results have been used for designing heuristics and environments to improve professional decision making in the real world.

Free Will in Scientific Psychology

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Some actions are freer than others, and the difference is palpably important in terms of inner process, subjective perception, and social consequences. Psychology can study the difference between freer and less free actions without making dubious metaphysical commitments. Human evolution seems to have created a relatively new, more complex form of action control that corresponds to popular notions of free will. It is marked by self-control and rational choice, both of which are highly adaptive, especially for functioning within culture. The processes that create these forms of free will may be biologically costly and therefore are only used occasionally, so that people are likely to remain only incompletely self-disciplined, virtuous, and rational.

Ecology of Wisdom: Writings by Arne Naess

admin — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

A founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess' has produced articles on environmentalism that have provided unmatched inspiration for ecologists, philosophers, and activists worldwide. This collection amasses a definitive group of Naess' most important works in which he calls for nonviolent, cooperative action to protect the Earth. Rich with observations, insights, and anecdotes, Naess' writings draw from Eastern religious practices, Gandhian nonviolent direct action, and Spinozan unity systems. Playful and compassionate in tone, "Ecology of Wisdom" showcases Naess' exceptional enthusiasm, wit, and spiritual fascination with nature, while educating each of us about the steps we must take to rescue the planet and illuminating the relevance of this important environmental advocate.

Applying (and Resisting) Peer Influence

matthew — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Scholars of various kinds long have documented the great degree to which people are influenced by similar others. Indeed, the opinions, experiences and behaviors of friends, neighbors and coworkers can provide an invaluable gold mine of persuasive resources. But even savvy executives can fail to appreciate the full power of peer influence - or they might neglect to anticipate its unintended consequences.

Consider, for example, managers who are responsible for shaping or enforcing policy within an organization. They will frequently call attention to a problem behavior, such as supply room theft, by depicting it as regrettably frequent. Although such admonitions might be well-intentioned, the communicators have missed something critically important: Within the lament of "Look at all the people who are doing this undesirable thing" lurks the powerful and undercutting disclosure "Look at all the people who are doing it." And in trying to alert people to the growing occurrence of a problem - which could be anything from expense account padding to safety violations - managers can inadvertently make it worse. After the Internal Revenue Service announced that it was going to strengthen the penalties for tax evasion because so many citizens were cheating on their returns, tax fraud actually increased in the following year.

But that's not the only type of mistake that managers regularly make. Indeed, a more subtle problem occurs when they fail to recognize how peer influence is affecting their own decisions. Such situations can be particularly dangerous, leading people to do exactly what they shouldn't, all because they inadvertently have listened to the wrong voices. Thus, when trying to solve a problem, managers should resist the tendency (and the conventional wisdom) to start by casting the widest net possible and then later discounting information that isn't relevant. The potential pitfall of that approach is that it inserts the filtering process too late, after any irrelevant data might have already had a subconscious impact on a person's decision making.

Source: MIT Sloan Management Review

The Fascination of Wisdom: Its Nature, Ontogeny, and Function

matthew — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Wisdom has intrigued both scholars and laypersons since antiquity. On the one hand, its seemingly thereal yet obvious qualities are timeless and universal. On the other hand, these same qualities are evolving and responsive to historical and cultural change. Novel societal and personal dilemmas emerge over time, and the ways and means to deal with recurring dilemmas are revisited and updated with prudence.

Building on philosophical analyses of the role of theoretical and practical wisdom in good conduct and judgment about life matters, psychologists have begun to apply scientific methods to questions about the nature, function, and ontogeny of wisdom. We outline these research directions and focus on the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, which was one of the first attempts to bring wisdom into the laboratory. Future research on wisdom would profit from interdisciplinary collaboration and creative application of new methods drawn from developmental, social, and cognitive psychology.

Sovereignty, God, State and Self

jelshtain — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT

One of America's foremost political theorists explores the connections between our political and ethical convictions, changing forever the way we understand the notion of "sovereignty."

Throughout the history of human intellectual endeavor, one concept has cut across arenas as diverse as theology, political thought, and psychology: sovereignty. From earliest Christian worship to the revolutionary ideas of Thomas Jefferson and Karl Marx, from the feminist movement of the 1970s to the dramas that unfold on the Oprah Winfrey Show today, debates about sovereignty--complete independence and self-government-- have dominated our history.

In this seminal work of political history and political theory, Jean Bethke Elshtain examines the origins and meanings of "sovereignty" as it relates to all the ways we attempt to explain our world: God, state, and self. Examining the early modern ideas of God which formed the basis for the modern paradigm of the sovereign state, Elshtain carries her research one step further, making the unprecedented claim that political theories of state sovereignty fuel contemporary understandings of sovereignty of the self--in other words, when we understand why we have the politics we have, we will understand what makes humans tick. The implications of Elshtain's monumental thesis suggest that self-sovereignty underpins the bedrock on which human communities are sustained.

Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Mechanism: Experiments on Folk Intuitions

enahmias — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 05:00:00 GMT

It seems that people—from philosophers to scientists to journalists to the ordinary “folk” we have surveyed—share the intuition that “if our brain makes us do it, then we aren’t morally responsible.” We think that this intuition runs deep and that it is driven by people’s tendency to view a reductive, mechanistic explanation of behavior as inconsistent with a mentalistic (or intentional) explanation—in the psychological language of thoughts, desires, and plans. Because people also tend to ascribe free will and moral responsibility only to agents whose actions can be understood in terms of their mental states, people tend to see reductive mechanism as incompatible with free will and moral responsibility. That is, we think that most ordinary folk have intuitions about freedom and responsibility that accord with a position we will call Mechanism Incompatibilism (MI), that free will and moral responsibility are incompatible with reductive mechanism.

We take it to be a separate question whether most people express intuitions that accord with the position at the heart of philosophical debates about free will, what we will call Pure Incompatibilism (PI), the view that determinism is incompatible with free will and moral responsibility. Mechanism Incompatibilism is a distinct position from Pure Incompatibilism. One could, for instance, hold that MI is true but PI is false. Indeed, we think it is likely that most people have intuitions that indicate an acceptance of MI but not of PI. If this is true, it would be easily overlooked, since most people conﬂate determinism with mechanism. This conﬂation of mechanism with determinism would also provide an explanation for the common claim that PI represents the commonsensical and intuitive position, a claim we think is false. One way to examine the relevance of determinism and mechanism to people’s judgments about free will and moral responsibility is to present them with agents in a range of scenarios, varied according to whether determinism and/or mechanism holds in the scenario, and examine their judgments about the agents’ freedom and responsibility. The experiments we describe in this paper were developed to test folk intuitions about free will and moral responsibility in this way.

The mere acceptance effect : Can it influence responses on racial implicit Association Tests?

msargent — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 05:00:00 GMT

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is designed to measure the strength of mental association between each of a pair of target categories (e.g., Black vs. White) and each of a pair of attributes (e.g., negative vs. positive). Recent work on the mere acceptance effect shows that, if one of the categories is the focus of attention, then an apparent preference for the focal category can emerge on the IAT, even when no such preference actually exists. It has been suggested that mere acceptance could influence responding on names-based racial IATs, perhaps leading to an exaggeration of anti-Black/pro-White bias. Whether such IATs can be influenced by a mere acceptance effect is unknown, though. By manipulating whether "Black" or "White" was the focal category on a names-based racial IAT, the present studies addressed this very issue. The results were consistent with the operation of mere acceptance effects, but not effects large enough to fully explain the appearance of bias on the IAT.

Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized

matthew — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

For thirty years, Robert J. Sternberg has been among the most vocal critics of narrow conceptions of intelligence. In Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized Sternberg critically reviews and summarizes the best research available on human intelligence. He argues that any serious understanding of intelligence must go beyond the standard paper and pencil tests currently in use. In addition to analytical and quantitative abilities, a theory of intelligence must take account of peoples' creative abilities - their ability to go beyond given information and imagine new and exciting ways of reformulating old problems. It must also take into account peoples' ability to weigh options carefully and act prudently. Understanding one's own intellectual shortcomings and learning how to overcome, Sternberg argues, is just as important as developing one's strengths. As he weaves his way through decades of important research on these questions, Sternberg develops a vision of human intelligence that is far more nuanced and accurate than anything previously offered. Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized is essential reading for psychologists, cognitive scientists, educators, and organizational researchers.

Robert J. Sternberg is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Tufts University. Prior to being at Tufts, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, Professor of Management in the School of Management, and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise at Yale University. This center, now relocated to Tufts, is dedicated to the advancement of theory, research, practice, and policy advancing the notion of intelligence as developing expertise, as a construct that is modifiable and capable, to some extent, of development throughout the lifespan. Author of over 1,100 articles, chapters, and books, Sternberg's research focuses on intelligence, creativity, and wisdom, and he has studied love and close relationships as well as hate.

The Role of the Situation in Leadership

matthew — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Leadership depends on the situation. Few social scientists would dispute the validity of this statement. But the statement can be interpreted in many different ways, depending, at least in part, on what one means by leadership. This article begins with a definition of leadership and a brief description of 3 historically important theories of leadership. The most recent of these, contingency theories, is argued to be most consistent with existing evidence and most relevant to professional practice. The Vroom, Yetton, and Jago contingency models of participation in decision making are described in depth, and their work provides the basis for identifying 3 distinct ways in which situational or contextual variables are relevant to both research on and the practice of leadership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

Promoting More Integrative Strategies for Leadership Theory-Building

matthew — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

The agenda for theory and research in the field of leadership studies has evolved over the last 100 years from focuses on the internal dispositions associated with effective leaders to broader inquiries that include emphases on the cognitions, attributes, behaviors, and contexts in which leaders and followers are dynamically embedded and interact over time. Leadership theory and research has reached a point in its development at which it needs to move to the next level of integration--considering the dynamic interplay between leaders and followers, taking into account the prior, current, and emerging context--for continued progress to be made in advancing both the science and practice of leadership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

On the automatic evaluation of end-states

mferguson — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

The author's research examined automatically activated attitudes toward desired end-states. Across 4 studies, participants' automatic attitudes toward goals (i.e., thinness, egalitarianism) significantly predicted their goal pursuit, including behaviors, intentions, and judgments. Such attitudes predicted behavior and judgments that are difficult to monitor and control (i.e., restrained eating, subtle prejudice), but not judgments that are easy to monitor and control (i.e., blatant prejudice). Automatic attitudes toward goals also possessed unique predictive validity compared with explicit measures of motivation and with automatic attitudes toward more physical, "graspable" objects. The findings are discussed with regard to the predictive validity of automatic attitudes, the use of automatic attitudes toward goals as an implicit measure of motivation, and the role of automatic evaluative processes in goal-pursuit and self-regulation.

Vienna in the Age of Uncertainty: Science, Liberalism, and Private LIfe

dcoen — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This book uses the story of an important intellectual family, the Exners, to shed light on the science, politics, intellectual thought, and culture of fin-de-siècle (end of century) Vienna. Coen focuses on the family’s value of uncertainty, contradicting the general assumption that certainty was considered the ultimate goal of knowledge in this society. She is also concerned with how family life influences intellectual life, particularly in the case of the Exners, although her observations also apply to Austrian modern society generally. The end result of this narrative is a comprehensive analysis of knowledge’s new social place in Austrian liberalism.

The wisdom hierarchy: representations of the DIKW hierarchy

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This paper revisits the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy by examining the articulation of the hierarchy in a number of widely read textbooks, and analysing their statements about the nature of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. The hierarchy referred to variously as the 'Knowledge Hierarchy', the 'Information Hierarchy' and the 'Knowledge Pyramid' is one of the fundamental, widely recognized and 'taken-for-granted' models in the information and knowledge literatures. It is often quoted, or used implicitly, in definitions of data, information and knowledge in the information management, information systems and knowledge management literatures, but there has been limited direct discussion of the hierarchy. After revisiting Ackoff's original articulation of the hierarchy, definitions of data, information, knowledge and wisdom as articulated in recent textbooks in information systems and knowledge management are reviewed and assessed, in pursuit of a consensus on definitions and transformation processes. This process brings to the surface the extent of agreement and dissent in relation to these definitions, and provides a basis for a discussion as to whether these articulations present an adequate distinction between data, information, and knowledge. Typically information is defined in terms of data, knowledge in terms of information, and wisdom in terms of knowledge, but there is less consensus in the description of the processes that transform elements lower in the hierarchy into those above them, leading to a lack of definitional clarity. In addition, there is limited reference to wisdom in these texts.

Trait-Based Perspectives of Leadership.

matthew — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

The trait-based perspective of leadership has a long but checkered history. Trait approaches dominated the initial decades of scientific leadership research. Later, they were disdained for their inability to offer clear distinctions between leaders and nonleaders and for their failure to account for situational variance in leadership behavior. Recently, driven by greater conceptual, methodological, and statistical sophistication, such approaches have again risen to prominence. However, their contributions are likely to remain limited unless leadership researchers who adopt this perspective address several fundamental issues. The author argues that combinations of traits and attributes, integrated in conceptually meaningful ways, are more likely to predict leadership than additive or independent contributions of several single traits. Furthermore, a defining core of these dominant leader trait patterns reflects a stable tendency to lead in different ways across disparate organizational domains. Finally, the author summarizes a multistage model that specifies some leader traits as having more distal influences on leadership processes and performance, whereas others have more proximal effects that are integrated with, and influenced by, situational parameters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

Plumbing the Depths: A Recovery of Natural Law and Natural Wisdom in the Context of Debates About Evolutionary Purpose

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Deane-Drummond argues that the theological traditions of natural law and wisdom offer helpful meeting points in discussions about evolutionary "purpose" and contingency in relation to theological purpose, and serve to form the basis for a theology of nature. Natural law offers a way of describing the ordered action of God toward complexity in a contingent world without using the language of either "design" or "progress." The theological tradition of wisdom as implicit in the natural world, learned in the human community, and received as gift of grace offers a further means of interconnecting biological reality with spiritual experience, while retaining distinctions. Wisdom and natural law intersect inasmuch as natural law is participation in Eternal Wisdom, although the latter makes sense only from the prior perspective of faith.

Social Intelligence, Human Intelligence and Niche Construction

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This paper is about the evolution of hominin intelligence. I agree with defenders of the social intelligence hypothesis in thinking that externalist models of hominin intelligence are not plausible: such models cannot explain the unique cognition and cooperation explosion in our lineage, for changes in the external environment (e.g. increasing environmental unpredictability) affect many lineages. Both the social intelligence hypothesis and the social intelligence-ecological complexity hybrid I outline here are niche construction models. Hominin evolution is hominin response to selective environments that earlier hominins have made. In contrast to social intelligence models, I argue that hominins have both created and responded to a unique foraging mode; a mode that is both social in itself and which has further effects on hominin social environments. In contrast to some social intelligence models, on this view, hominin encounters with their ecological environments continue to have profound selective effects. However, though the ecological environment selects, it does not select on its own. Accidents and their consequences, differential success and failure, result from the combination of the ecological environment an agent faces and the social features that enhance some opportunities and suppress others and that exacerbate some dangers and lessen others. Individuals do not face the ecological filters on their environment alone, but with others, and with the technology, information and misinformation that their social world provides.

Sages at the Games: Intellectual Displays and Dissemination of Wisdom in Ancient Greece

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This paper explores the role the Panhellenic centers played in facilitating the circulation of wisdom in ancient Greece. It argues that there are substantial thematic overlaps among practitioners of wisdom (sigma omicron phi omicron l), who are typically understood as belonging to different categories ( such as presocratics, sophists, poets, et al.). By focusing on the presence of sigma omicron phi omicron l at the Panhellenic centers in general, and Delphi in particular, we can acquire a more accurate picture of the particular expertise they possessed, and of the range of meanings the Greeks attributed to the word sigma omicron phi l alpha. This approach seeks to challenge the conventional categories of modern scholarship and to offer a broader and more inclusive interpretive framework in its stead.

One such thematic overlap is the way in which many sigma omicron phi omicron l are described as exerting an almost uncanny, yet highly conventional ability to attract listeners and enchant them with their verbal performances. There is plenty of material to support the view that sigma omicron phi omicron l through tapping into the repository of s.f D a that Delphi constituted and by aligning themselves with its authority, were seen as themselves being a conduit for a similar type of charismatic speech.

A Systems Model of Leadership: WICS

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This article reviews a systems model of leadership. According to the model, effective leadership is a synthesis of wisdom, creativity, and intelligence (WICS). It is in large part a decision about how to marshal and deploy these resources. One needs creativity to generate ideas, academic (analytical) intelligence to evaluate whether the ideas are good, practical intelligence to implement the ideas and persuade others of their worth, and wisdom to balance the interests of all stakeholders and to ensure that the actions of the leader seek a common good. The article relates the current model to other extant models of leadership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychosocial Development and Leader Performance of Military Officer Cadets

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Efforts to educate and develop future military officers aim to produce highly competent, ethical and effective leaders to serve the nation. But while there is general agreement about desired outcomes, the underlying developmental processes associated with these outcomes are not well understood. How do we grow such leaders? This paper reports on a longitudinal study of West Point college students over four years, addressing three questions: (1) do military officer-cadets grow or change in their basic level of psychosocial development [Kegan, R. (1982). The Evolving Self- Problem and Process in Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.], (2) is the level of psychosocial development related to performance as leaders, and (3) do activities in high school predict later psychosocial development? Two groups of cadets were studied from their freshman or sophomore year to their senior year at the academy. Results show significant positive developmental growth over time for 47% of study participants, with most of this growth occurring from sophomore to senior year. Furthermore, psychosocial development predicts several peer, subordinate and supervisor ratings of cadet performance as leaders during the upperclass junior and senior) years, a time when cadets take on substantial leadership roles. In addition, early performance ratings by high school teachers, as well as active participation in high school extracurricular activities both predict psychosocial development levels for freshman and sophomores. These findings lend support to Kegan's theoretical model, and suggest that greater attention be paid to these basic processes of human psychosocial development that can influence leader performance in important ways. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pattern and Variable Approaches in Leadership Emergence and Effectiveness

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This study examined variable and pattern approaches to studying the influence of individual differences on both leadership emergence and leader effectiveness. Emergent leaders were identified and then followed for 9 months of effectiveness data gathering. Bivariate correlation and regression analyses were complemented by person-based analyses. Results showed that the same pattern of individual differences (high intelligence, high dominance, high general self-efficacy, and high self-monitoring) was associated with both leadership emergence and leader effectiveness. Persons scoring high on the set of individual difference variables emerged as leaders, were promoted to leadership positions, and were rated by their superiors as effective leaders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

Measuring the Character Strength of Wisdom

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

This study examined the psychosocial correlates and psychometric properties of the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) (Webster, 2003 a). Seventy-three men and 98 women ranging in age from 17-92 years (Mean age = 42.77) completed an expanded, 40-item version of the SAWS, the Loyola Generativity Scale, and the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale. A new definition of wisdom is provided which is operationalized with the SAWS. Results indicated that the SAWS has excellent reliability (test-retest =.838; Cronbacb's Alpha =.904). Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analyses confirmed the five hypothesized dimensions of wisdom and the total SAWS score correlated in predicted directions with gencrativity (r(169) =.448; p <.0 1) and attachment avoidance (r(169) = -.239, p <.0 1) demonstrating construct validity.

Divine Wisdom and Dolorous Mysteries: Habsburg Marian Devotion in Two Motets from Monteverdi's 'Selva Morale et Spirituale' (Claudio Monteverdi)

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Despite recent scholarly interest in Monteverdi's Selva morale et spirituale (1641), many aspects of this large, complex print remain enigmatic, and the intended context for much of the music in the collection has long been a matter of pure conjecture. Yet two of the most anomalous features of the Selva morale, the solo motets Ab aeterno ordinata sum and Pianto della Madonna, can now be placed into the context of the Habsburg court in Vienna during the reign of Ferdinand III (1637-57).

A qualitative investigation of eminent therapists' values within psychotherapy: Developing integrative principles for moment-to-moment psychotherapy practice

heidilevitt — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Ample empirical research on values has demonstrated that clients' values tend to become increasingly like those of their therapist during therapy. There is little research, however, on how therapists negotiate value conflicts and the role of values in therapy. In order to better understand this process, 14 expert psychotherapists from four major psychotherapy orientations were interviewed about their use of values in the psychotherapeutic change process. A grounded theory analysis was conducted leading to an integrative understanding of how expert therapists from different orientations conceptualize the relationship of values and change in therapy and how they work with values in sessions. Based on this analysis, four transtheoretical principles were generated that can be applied to training and practice and used to inform research on psychotherapy process and integration.

Close Calls and the Confident Agent: Free Will, Deliberation, and Alternative Possibilities

enahmias — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 05:00:00 GMT

Two intuitions lie at the heart of our conception of free will. One intuition locates free will in our ability to deliberate effectively and control our actions accordingly: the ‘Deliberation and Control’ (DC) condition. The other intuition is that free will requires the existence of alternative possibilities for choice: the AP condition. These intuitions seem to conflict when, for instance, we deliberate well to decide what to do, and we do not want it to be possible to act in some other way. I suggest that intuitions about the AP condition arise when we face ‘close calls,’ situations in which, after deliberating, we still do not know what we really want to do. Indeed, several incompatibilists suggest such close calls are necessary for free will. I challenge this suggestion by describing a ‘confident agent’ who, after deliberating, always feels confident about what to do (and can then control her actions accordingly). Because she maximally satisfies the DC condition, she does not face close calls, and the intuition that the AP condition is essential for free will does not seem to apply to her. I conclude that intuitions about the importance of the AP condition rest on our experiences of close calls and arise precisely to the extent that our deliberations fail to arrive at a clear decision. I then raise and respond to several objections to this thought experiment and its relevance to the free will debate.

Orchestrating Multiple Intelligences

smoran — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:00:00 GMT

Education policymakers often go astray when they attempt to integrate multiple intelligences theory into schools, according to the originator of the theory, Howard Gardner, and his colleagues. The greatest potential of a multiple intelligences approach to education grows from the concept of a profile of intelligences. Each learner's intelligence profile consists of a combination of relative strengths and weaknesses that interact with one another. A multiple intelligences approach to education requires that teachers construct rich experiences--activities in which students can engage with the material personally rather than just absorb it in an abstract, decontextualized way. These rich experiences enable students with many different intelligence profiles to learn in their own ways. The article provides examples from the classroom, from an interactive museum in Denmark, and from Gardner's Harvard Project Zero.

What clients find helpful in psychotherapy: Developing principles for facilitating moment-to-moment change

heidilevitt — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Clients who had completed psychotherapy were interviewed about the significant experiences and moments they recalled within their sessions. These interviews were analyzed using grounded theory, creating a hierarchy of categories that represent what clients find important in therapy. From the hermeneutic analysis of the content of these categories, a list of principles was constructed to guide the moment-to-moment process of psychotherapy practice. The authors respond to the call for qualitative outcome studies and demonstrate how qualitative psychotherapy research can lead to empirically derived principles that then can become the foundation of future research and psychotherapy integration efforts.

Politics and Persons

jelshtain — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

The author discusses the role of politics in human activities. She explores several views on politics. She looks at the political interpretations of notable political thinkers, such as Plato and Aristotle. She traces the historical origins of the denial of human nature. She stresses that people are beings who can be called to high purpose and claimed by low desire.

From the article: To our ancient, medieval, and early modern forebears, the idea that one might construct a vision of politics without making necessary reference to the subject of politics—the human being in his or her capacity as citizen or subject—would have been a source of amazement. From Plato on, political philosophers linked the well-being and justice of the citizen to the well-being and justice of the state, or, alternatively, they made arguments against such a linkage. Some saw politics as the way human beings (usually the male citizen) completed and fulfilled their natures. Others construed politics as the means whereby certain natural human dispositions and drives were curbed, quelled, or transformed lest human beings descended to, or remained in, a horrible state of nature—portrayed most vividly in the lurid prose of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, chapter 13, published originally in 1651.

In recent years, however, it has become the trendy thing to deny the reality of a human nature altogether. This argument holds that what we call human nature is more or less arbitrary and is specific to a cultural moment. What we call human nature is “constructed,” we are told, and there is nothing “natural” about it for there is nothing “natural” at all. The “natural” no less than the “conventional” or “cultural” is a human invention and a class of names by which we denote certain of our own constructed “realities.” Philosophers would call this radical nominalism. For the purpose of this discussion, we can just note this tendency, remark on how extreme it is and the way it throws out both baby and bathwater where the centuries-old consideration of persons and politics is concerned. Over the course of his brilliant career, Don Browning has moved closer to the classical formulations on “nature” and the centrality of nature to culture.

One reason for repudiating any notion of “the natural” lies in the fact that for us late-moderns (or postmoderns, as some would have it), the world is a vast set of Tinkertoys that we construct as we see fit. We repudiate the notion that anything sets limits or boundaries for us, that anything at all is simply given and cannot be altered, manipulated, or eliminated through acts of human will. Because speaking of human nature suggests givenness—whether “hardwired” or more elastic—we cavil at the very idea. We want to be in full control. What is interesting about all this is that, even as our preoccupation with our constructed selves seems boundless, our interest in, and engagement with, politics is very far down the list of what calls upon our time, attention, and care: or so it is for the vast majority. I am not suggesting that politics should always be primus inter pares among human activities or that we are committing some grave error; rather, I am pointing to the interesting fact that we are drowning in the sea of “self” while politics is high and dry—a terrain that we might jump ashore to visit from time to time but that has nothing significant at all to tell us, to compel us, or to challenge us—whether in the direction of amplifying latent human possibilities and enabling us to know a good in common we cannot know alone or, alternatively, in the direction of curbing and chastening our pridefulness, our anxieties, and our cruelties. Politics is at best a nuisance, but we are the centers of our own quite decidedly unpolitical universes.

Knowledge and imagination in fiction and autobiography

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Autobiographies are particularly interesting in the context of moral philosophy because they offer us rare and extended examples of how other people think, feel and reflect, which is of crucial importance in the development of phronesis (practical wisdom). In this article, Martha Nussbaum's use of fictional literature is shown to be of limited interest, and her arguments in Poetic Justice against the use of personal narratives in moral philosophy are shown to be unfounded. An analysis of Aristotle's concept of mimesis shows that Nussbaum's claims for fictional literature also apply to personal narratives. A case is then made for the importance of personal narratives in developing practical wisdom, and three sub-genres of autobiography are discussed: (1) the confession, (2) the apology and (3) the testimonial. These sub-genres exemplify some of the unique features of personal narratives.

Wonder and Wisdom: Conversations in Science, Spirituality and Theology

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Contemporary debate suggests that religious belief defies 21st century science and knowledge. Yet in her new and thought-provoking book, Celia Deane-Drummond explores the twin themes of wonder and wisdom and examines their importance in tracing a spirituality that is informed both from the perspective of science and theology. Touching on the origin of the cosmos, examining Darwinian evolutionary theory, the role of God as creator and the role of neuroscience in human nature and religious experience, Deane-Drummond considers in an accessible way how wonder and wisdom might offer deeper understanding between science and religion, raising stimulating questions on the kind of spirituality that might emerge.

Innovation in Wild Bornean Orangutans (Pongo Pygmaeus Wurmbii)

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

In most studies to date, innovations were studied if their origination was witnessed or if they arose in response to a pronounced environmental change, making it difficult to generalize. In this study, we use an operational definition developed by Ramsey et al. (MS) to design a procedure for recognizing the standing repertoire of innovations (in the sense of behaviors) in a natural population. The data were derived from an intensive field study of orangutans at Tuanan, Borneo. The main recognition criteria are (1) the incomplete geographic prevalence of the behavior, (2) identified causes of its absence in a population or an individual, and (3) comparison with the incidence of the behavior among captive orangutans. Using this procedure, we recognized 19 innovations at Tuanan and 43 for orangutans in general. Cumulative curves of number of innovations indicated that the total number of innovations observed at Tuanan remained stable after some 3,000 hours of observation, and is thus adequate for comparison with other studies. Additionally, an individual's repertoire size remained stable after ca 1,000 hours. The results showed that innovations are found in multiple domains (subsistence, comfort. and social communication), and that innovations that are performed more often are more likely to reach cultural status in a population. Across populations, innovations that increase comfort are less likely to become cultural than those that serve subsistence or are used in communication. Orangutan and chimpanzee innovation repertoires do not show significant differences across the three domains. Systematic comparisons across sites and with captivity will make it possible to validate the approach.

Music in the Service of Counter-Reformation Politics: The Immaculate Conception at the Habsburg Court of Ferdinand III (1637-1657)

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

During the tumultuous final decade of the Thirty Years War, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III used music as an important tool to further his religious and political agendas. Using the political ramifications of the emperor's public devotion to the Immaculate Conception as a frame of reference, this article presents two case studies in which meaning is teased out of Marian motets written by the imperial court composer Giovanni Felice Sances and by Ferdinand III himself. In the first study, a motet by Sances with a seemingly generic text is shown to present important Habsburg messages through the composer's powerful music; the second study examines the incorporation of music within the Emperor's most important religious-political ceremony in the face of a Swedish siege in 1645. In both cases not only does the imperial court context provide insights into the music, but the music also sheds light onto how Ferdinand III was able to steer successfully through the war despite military defeat.

Viewpoint: The Economics of Hunter-Gatherer Societies and the Evolution of Human Characteristics

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

We argue for attention to the evolutionary origins of economic behavior. Going beyond this, we argue that the economy of hunting and gathering was the context in which evolution shaped human characteristics that underlie modern economic behavior. We first reconsider the basic biological question of why aging occurs at all. We then illustrate the usefulness of considering foraging economics by asking why it is biologically advantageous for humans to live long after their reproductive career is over. Further, we argue that foraging economics would have led to the simultaneous exaggeration of intelligence and of longevity that is characteristic of humans.

Living Precisely in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

dcoen — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Vienna’s Institute of Experimental Biology, better known as the Vivarium, helped pioneer the quantification of experimental biology from 1903 to 1938. Among its noteable scientists were the director Hans Przibram and his brother Karl (a physicist), Paul Kammerer, Eugen Steinach, Paul Weiss, and Karl Frisch. The Vivarium’s scientists sought to derive laws describing the development of the individual organism and its relationship to the environment. Unlike other contemporary proponents of biological laws, however, these researchers created an explicitly anti-deterministic science. By “laws” they meant statistical regularities or “patterns.” They interpreted their experimental results in ways that forged a “third way” between determinism and pure spontaneity, aiming to capture the complexity of the interaction between the organism and its environment. This common feature of their research was made possible by the availability at the Vivarium of the latest in climate-control technology and of methods borrowed from statistical physics. The deeper roots of this search for a “third way” lay, I suggest, in the shared educational, social, and aesthetic experiences of the laboratory’s workers.

What Cultural Primatology Can Tell Anthropologists About the Evolution of Culture

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

This review traces the development of the field of cultural primatology from its origins in Japan in the 1950s to the present. The field has experienced a number of theoretical and methodological influences from diverse fields, including comparative experimental psychology, Freudian psychoanalysis, behavioral ecology, cultural anthropology, and gene-culture coevolution theory. Our understanding of cultural dynamics and the evolution of culture cannot be complete without comparative studies of (a) how socioecological variables affect cultural transmission dynamics, (b) the proximate mechanisms by which social learning is achieved, (c) developmental studies of the role of social influence in acquiring behavioral traits, and (d) the fitness consequences of engaging in social learning.

Using the Concept of Wisdom to Enhance the Expression of Wisdom Knowledge: Not the Philosopher’s Dream but Differential Effects of Developmental Preparedness

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

In this study, the authors explored whether wisdom-related performance could be enhanced by an instruction referring to the abstract concept of wisdom ("try to give a wise response"). The authors used three levels of activation of the concept of wisdom as well as intelligence-activation and control conditions in a heterogeneous sample of three age groups (N = 318). Results showed no general effect of the wisdom-concept instructions but did show an aptitude (resource) treatment interaction: Participants high in preparedness resources associated with wisdom exhibited some gains, whereas the performance of resource-low participants actually declined after the instruction. Implications and consequences with respect to ways of enhancing the expression of wisdom-related knowledge are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution: Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, and the Cultivation of Virtue

mljones — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Amid the unrest, dislocation, and uncertainty of seventeenth-century Europe, readers seeking consolation and assurance turned to philosophical and scientific books that offered ways of conquering fears and training the mind—guidance for living a good life. <i>The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution</i> presents a triptych showing how three key early modern scientists, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Gottfried Leibniz, envisioned their new work as useful for cultivating virtue and for pursuing a good life. Their scientific and philosophical innovations stemmed in part from their understanding of mathematics and science as cognitive and spiritual exercises that could create a truer mental and spiritual nobility.nbsp; In portraying the rich contexts surrounding Descartes’ geometry, Pascal’s arithmetical triangle, and Leibniz’s calculus, Matthew L. Jones argues that this drive for moral therapeutics guided important developments of early modern philosophy and the Scientific Revolution.

Folk Fears about Freedom and Responsibility: Determinism vs. Reductionism

enahmias — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT

My initial work, with collaborators Stephen Morris, Thomas Nadelhoffer, and Jason
Turner (2005, 2006), on surveying folk intuitions about free will and moral responsibility was designed primarily to test a common claim in the philosophical debates: that ordinary people see an obvious conflict between determinism and both free will and moral responsibility, and hence, the burden is on compatibilists to motivate their theory in a way that explains away or overcomes this intuitive support for incompatibilism. In surveys of non-philosophers, we consistently found that the majority responded that agents in deterministic universes do act of their own free will and are morally responsible. That is, we found that most ordinary folk do not seem to find incompatibilism intuitive or obviously correct.

Our results have been challenged in various ways, especially by Shaun Nichols, who suggests that, in certain conditions, most people express incompatibilist and libertarian intuitions. In this paper I will offer some alternative interpretations of Nichols’ experimental results and then present new experiments whose results suggest alternative psychological mechanisms are driving some of the conflicting results of folk surveys. My goal is to bolster the claim that most people’s pre-philosophical intuitions do not pick out determinism as a threat to free will and moral responsibility, but instead ordinary people fear that certain reductionistic or mechanistic descriptions of decision-making and action conflict with freedom and responsibility. I believe that intuitive support for incompatibilism derives in large part from presenting determinism in a way that co-opts these fears of reductionism. Put simply: the most intuitive pre-philosophical view is that free will and responsibility are possible so long as our conscious deliberations, plans,
and decisions make the right sort of causal contribution to our actions, so any thesis that suggests our actions are caused by processes that bypass our conscious mental life is intuitively threatening to freedom and responsibility. I will conclude with a brief discussion of the various conflicting intuitions the nascent experimental work has uncovered, conflicts that potentially help to explain the enduring nature of philosophical debates about free will.

(Introduction, edited)