Consequences For Others Research Articles

Using the PET Assessment Instrument to Help Students Identify Factors that Could Impede Moral Behavior

We present an instrument developed to explain to students the concept of the personal ethical threshold (PET). The PET represents an individual’s susceptibility to situational pressure in his or her organization that makes moral behavior more personally difficult. Further, the PET varies according to the moral intensity of the issue at hand, such that individuals are less vulnerable to situational pressure for issues of high moral intensity, i.e., those with greater consequences for others. A higher PET reflects an individual’s greater likelihood of adhering to the morally correct path, even in the face of high situational pressures (personal costs) and low moral intensity (collective importance). PET questionnaires were completed by 506 students representing eight business schools throughout the United States. Relationships between respondents’ PET and their gender, age, and major field of study, as well as the geographical location of their school, are explored. Results indicate that older students have higher PETs and that students attending schools in the northeastern part of the United States have lower PETs. These findings are discussed. It is argued that the PET instrument can be used to help students identify organizational pressures and intrapersonal processes that can impede their moral behavior in organizations.

Psychosis-proneness and socially relevant reasoning

Reasoning biases have been suggested as having a role in the formation and maintenance of delusions, in particular when the content is personal or social. The present study investigated whether biases when making logical inferences about neutral and personally relevant statements may be seen in individuals hypothetically prone to psychosis. Sixty-one participants completed a multi-dimensional measure of psychosis-proneness (Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences) and a conditional inference task. It was found that highly anhedonic participants made more invalid inferences both when reasoning about the consequences of others' emotions and implications for their own self-state. Impulsive Non-conformity was also associated with poor reasoning when ‘deducing consequences from others emotions’. The findings suggest that individuals with impulsive and/or anhedonic traits may tend to ignore alternative information when reasoning about personally relevant emotional statements leading to poorer reasoning.

A Coalition of Coalitions: International Cooperation Against Terrorism

The term “coalition against terror” is commonly used, but is fundamentally misleading. Multiple coalitions against terror exist in different issue areasincluding military, financial, law enforcement, intelligence, and reconstruction. These coalitions are independent of each other, and yet inextricably linked, both enabling and constraining each other's actions. Actions taken by the military coalition can undermine the intelligence coalition, for example, by destroying documents and other information during attacks. Overlapping membership may also cause challenges, for countries who disagree with the approach of one coalition many restrict their cooperation with the others. A successful counterterror strategy must account for the interactions of the various coalitions, understanding how actions taken in one area may cause tradeoffs and unintended consequences in others.

Relationships between leader reward and punishment behavior and subordinate attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors: A meta-analytic review of existing and new research

Despite decades of research on the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and employee attitudes, perceptions, and performance, no comprehensive examination of these relationships has been reported in the literature. This paper reports the results of two studies that address this issue. In the first study, data from 20 new samples were gathered on the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and some criterion variables that have not been examined extensively in previous research. In the second study, a meta-analytic review was conducted incorporating both the new and existing research in order to provide estimates of the bivariate relationships between these leader behaviors and a variety of employee criterion variables across 78 studies containing 118 independent samples. Results of regression analyses designed to control for the effects of the other leader behaviors showed that: (a) the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and employee attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors were more functional when the rewards or punishments were administered contingently than when they were administered non-contingently, and (b) these leader reward and punishment behaviors were strongly related to two variables (employees’ perceptions of justice and role ambiguity) that were expected to be key mediators of the relationships between these leader behaviors and the employee criterion variables. In addition, meta-analytic evidence from longitudinal studies suggested that the same leader behavior can be a cause of some employee criterion variables, and a consequence of others. Implications of these findings for future research in the area are discussed.

The therapeutic potential of drugs that target cannabinoid receptors or modulate the tissue levels or actions of endocannabinoids.

There are at least 2 types of cannabinoid receptor, CB(1) and CB(2), both G protein coupled. CB(1) receptors are expressed predominantly at nerve terminals and mediate inhibition of transmitter release, whereas CB(2) receptors are found mainly on immune cells, their roles including the modulation of cytokine release and of immune cell migration. Endogenous agonists for cannabinoid receptors also exist. These "endocannabinoids" are synthesized on demand and removed from their sites of action by cellular uptake and intracellular enzymic hydrolysis. Endocannabinoids and their receptors together constitute the endocannabinoid system. This review summarizes evidence that there are certain central and peripheral disorders in which increases take place in the release of endocannabinoids onto their receptors and/or in the density or coupling efficiency of these receptors and that this upregulation is protective in some disorders but can have undesirable consequences in others. It also considers therapeutic strategies by which this upregulation might be modulated to clinical advantage. These strategies include the administration of (1) a CB(1) and/or CB(2) receptor agonist or antagonist that does or does not readily cross the blood brain barrier; (2) a CB(1) and/or CB(2) receptor agonist intrathecally or directly to some other site outside the brain; (3) a partial CB(1) and/or CB(2) receptor agonist rather than a full agonist; (4) a CB(1) and/or CB(2) receptor agonist together with a noncannabinoid, for example, morphine or codeine; (5) an inhibitor or activator of endocannabinoid biosynthesis, cellular uptake, or metabolism; (6) an allosteric modulator of the CB(1) receptor; and (7) a CB(2) receptor inverse agonist.

Cultivating Critical Self-Reflection in an International Context: The Development of an American Studies Curriculum in Turkey

Many literature professors in the U.S. strive to foster skills of critical self-reflection: we ask students to be responsible to textual evidence, historical context, and the implications of the interpreter's acts. Recent teaching also stresses the transnational contexts for literary expression and interpretation. But what happens when these pedagogical practices are transported to classrooms abroad? This essay addresses this broad question through the problem of developing an American Studies curriculum in Turkey. The authors outline the conceptual genealogy of departments of "American Culture and Literature" in Turkey and then relate it to narratives of emergence for American Studies in the U.S. and other countries. The authors then discuss the evolution of the curriculum they revised. They conclude by assessing the outcome, especially noting the difficulty of cultivating critical self-reflection in a social and institutional setting that has few of the safeguards for freedom of expression found in the U.S.

The Liberal Case for Humanitarian Intervention

Introduction In this chapter I argue that humanitarian intervention is morally justified in appropriate cases. The argument centrally rests on a standard assumption of liberal political philosophy: a major purpose of states and governments is to protect and secure human rights, that is, rights that all persons have by virtue of personhood alone. Governments and others in power who seriously violate those rights undermine the one reason that justifies their political power, and thus should not be protected by international law. A corollary of the argument is that, to the extent that state sovereignty is a value, it is an instrumental, not an intrinsic, value. Sovereignty serves valuable human ends, and those who grossly assault them should not be allowed to shield themselves behind the sovereignty principle. Tyranny and anarchy cause the moral collapse of sovereignty. I supplement this argument with further moral assumptions. The fact that persons are right-holders has normative consequences for others. We all have (1) the obligation to respect those rights; (2) the obligation to promote such respect for all persons; (3) depending on the circumstances, the obligation to rescue victims of tyranny or anarchy, if we can do so at a reasonable cost to ourselves. The obligation in (3) analytically entails, under appropriate circumstances, the right to rescue such victims – the right of humanitarian intervention. Because human rights are rights held by individuals by virtue of their personhood, they are independent of history, culture, or national borders.

Emotional Consequences of Categorizing Victims of Negative Outgroup Behavior as Ingroup or Outgroup

This research examined whether people experience anger after perceiving intentional and unfair behavior of an outgroup which has negative consequences for others, but not for themselves. It was predicted that such outgroup behavior causes anger in the observer, dependent on the categorization of the victims as part of its own group or as part of another group. Participants were primed with information that made either differences or similarities between them and the victims salient, after which they were confronted with negative behavior of an outgroup. Results confirmed the prediction that the same information concerning unfair and intentional behavior of an outgroup harming others led to more anger in the observer when the victims were perceived as ingroup rather than outgroup. Moreover, anxiety was not affected by perception of victims as part of the ingroup or outgroup, suggesting that specific emotions rather than just negative affect were influenced.

Shared Risks and Research Dilemmas on a Peace Brigades International Team in Sri Lanka

Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a nongovernmental organization that provides nonviolent protective accompaniment in situations of severe political violence for local activists under threat. PBI team members function as unarmed bodyguards, attempting to deter violence by their presence or to document it and raise the costs to the transgressors if the deterrence fails. Blending ethnographic research of PBI with simultaneous service on a PBI team in Sri Lanka created a host of ethical quandaries and dilemmas. This article explains and analyzes some of these problems, including the use of politically sensitive research material, participation in team meetings and team decisions with life-threatening consequences for others, the acceptance of a salary from the organization under study, and embracing or refusing risks as a participant observer/team member who had more than one agenda.

Fatores de risco associados aos problemas dos leitões na fase de creche em rebanhos da região Sul do Brasil

Um experimento de pesquisa epidemiológica observacional foi realizado em 65 rebanhos da região Sul do Brasil, com o objetivo de identificar o conjunto de fatores de risco que melhor explicam a ocorrência de problemas com os leitões na fase de creche. Em cada rebanho acompanhou-se um lote de leitões durante as primeiras três semanas após o desmame, sendo avaliadas variáveis ligadas às instalações, à nutrição, ao manejo, ao ambiente e à saúde dos leitões. Na análise estatística dos dados foram utilizados métodos descritivos e multidimencionais. As variáveis objetivas usadas para descrever os problemas dos leitões na fase de creche foram: ganho de peso diário, coeficiente de variação do peso dos leitões aos 21 dias após o desmame, ocorrência de diarréia no lote, taxa de mortalidade e o uso de medicamentos curativos contra diarréia. Com essas variáveis elaborou-se uma variável sintética que discriminava as granjas em três categorias: boas, intermediárias e ruins. Dentre as variáveis explicativas, foram identificados 10 fatores de risco que melhor discriminaram os rebanhos estudados quanto a ocorrência de diarréia, mortalidade e desempenho dos leitões na fase de creche. Com isso, foi possível elaborar o perfil de granjas com alta tendência de apresentarem problemas com os leitões na fase de creche. Conclui-se que em muitos rebanhos da região Sul do Brasil existem vários fatores de risco que favorecem a ocorrência de problemas com os leitões na fase de creche, alguns deles sendo conseqüência da fase de maternidade.

Earning difficulties

Many people with learning disabilities have been disadvantaged by the introduction of the national minimum wage, according to a new study by MENCAP. While many people with learning disabilities have benefited from the statutory minimum wage, MEN-CAP claims there have been adverse consequences for others for whom employers have specifically created jobs mainly for therapeutic reasons. Several of these jobs have now either disappeared or people’s hours have been reduced. MENCAP also claims that employers are unwilling to employ people with learning disabilities on a trial basis because of the legislation. On a brighter note, MENCAP’s survey revealed that employers are more willing to consider taking on a person through supported employment schemes. However, the availability of places across the country is patchy and is a long way from meeting the needs of the learning disabled community. MENCAP would like to see the government carry out a larger study to examine the impact of the national minimum wage on people with learning disabilities. It would also like to see an increase in the amount of income support that is disregarded in order to encourage more people to undertake work. A copy of Minimum Wage: Making It Work, is available from MENCAP headquarters at 123 Golden Lane, London EC1Y 0RT.

Effects of other-profitability and self-profitability on evaluative judgements of behaviours

Behaviours are judged by their causes (i.e. the actor's intentions) as well as by their consequences. The present study focuses on the effects of the latter. Subjects judged behaviours that were either socially good, socially bad, competent, or incompetent. The consequences of the behaviours were either (a) personal consequences for the actor, (b) interpersonal consequences for others, or (c) not mentioned. Behaviours with interpersonal consequences were judged more extremely than with personal consequences. When no consequences were mentioned, the behaviours were rated similarly as in the condition with interpersonal consequences. These effects emerged regardless of behaviour valence (positive versus negative) and dimension (social versus competence-related). The results suggest that others' behaviours are judged primarily by their interpersonal implications, and that observers take the perspective of those whose outcomes may be affected by the actor.

MEANINGS AND ATTITUDES TOWARD END-OF-LIFE PREFERENCES IN ISRAEL

Thirty-six elderly people in Israel were interviewed concerning their meanings and attitudes toward end-of-life preferences. The phenomenological analysis method resulted in the identification of six meaning themes and a continuum of favorable to unfavorable attitude positions for each meaning theme. The combination of meaning themes and attitude positions produced 4 patterns of perspectives toward euthanasia, as well as a more holistic and integrative cultural dimension that was labeled Israeli ego integrity. The 6 meaning themes were (a) moral perspectives, (b) religious beliefs, (c) mental and physical suffering, (d) family and community implications, (e) gaining control by willingness to trust others, and (f) previous experiences with death. The 4 patterns of perspectives toward euthanasia emphasized consequences for others, religious perspectives, concerns for personal suffering, and concerns for moral choice. The extensive diversity in the meaning-attitude perspectives from a small sample of elderly people suggested challenges for Israeli policy in regard to legalizing the living will to respect patients' rights to make end-of-life decisions.

Siegel superparticle, higher-order fermionic constraints, and path integrals

We study a Siegel superparticle moving in R 4 4 flat superspace. Canonical quantization is accomplished yielding the massless Wess-Zumino model as an effective field theory. The path integral representation for the corresponding superpropagator is constructed and proven to involve the Siegel action in a gauge-fixed form. It is shown that higher-order fermionic constraints intrinsic in the theory, though being a consequence of others in d = 4, make a crucial contribution to path integral.

Effects of Behavioral Causes and Consequences on Person Judgments

Two scenario studies address the effects of the consequences of an actor's behavior as a function of behavioral causes (dispositional, situational) and behavior valence. In Experiment 1, the behaviors were likeability related. As predicted, inferences were more extreme when the behaviors produced consequences for others than when they did not affect others-but only when the behaviors were likeable. In Experiment 2, the behaviors were ability related. Only incompetent behaviors were judged more extremely when they affected others. A parallel pattern of findings emerged for the effects of causes. Judgments were more extreme for dispositional than for situationally caused behaviors but only when the behaviors were likeable or incompetent. Thus, inferences of likeable and incompetent behaviors were affected by causes and consequences, but dislikeable and competent behaviors were perceived as informative regardless of their causes and consequences.

UK mental health policy can alter the stigma of mental illness

Society has always needed scapegoats. Mentally ill people living in the community are the most recent, but unlikely to be the last, in a long line of minority groups that society seeks to blame for its problems.1 Unfortunately there is more than a grain of truth in the public perception that mental illnesses are both unpleasant for the sufferer and can have damaging consequences for others.

Negativity and potency effects in impression formation

This study examined the combined effects of likeability-related and potency-related information in an impression formation setting, using a 2 (likeability of target behaviour: high/low) x 2(potency: high/low) design. Presumably, the behaviour of a strong, dislikeable person can produce more severe consequences than the behaviour of a weak, dislikeable or a strong, likeable person and, consequently, should be perceived as more informative. As predicted, judgements of the target person's likeability and potency indicated that (a) dislikeable behaviour carries more weight in likeability judgements when it co-occurs with strong than with weak behaviour, and that (b) strong behaviour carries more weight in potency judgements when it co-occurs with dislikeable than with likeable behaviour. These results suggest that the informativeness of behaviour is not only a function of its perceived causes (i.e. underlying dispositions) but also of its potential consequences for others.

Population Communications International: Its role in family planning soap operas

In order to motivate people to use available family planning (FP) services Population Communications International (PCI) uses entertainment mass media to promote the small family ideal open family communications and enhance the status for women (to bolster their ability to decide to use FP). In this work PCI emphasizes the importance of understanding and working with the cultural context in which family size decisions are made. In order to reach large numbers of people social marketing campaigns must emphasize the personal benefits of limiting family size and of child spacing as well as the relative safety of modern contraceptive methods as compared to frequent childbearing. PCIs Mass Media Communications Program trains television producers and writers in developing countries in the Miguel Sabido methodology for promoting social development through entertainment serial dramas (soap operas). This methodology based on the theory that people learn new attitudes and behaviors by observing them and their consequences in others and then by trying them involves the development of fictional characters who are "good" and are always rewarded who are "bad" and are always punished who are "uncertain" and act as identification characters for the audience and who evolve from "bad" or "uncertain" to "good." Members of the audience bond with these characters and follow a clearly understood process of vicarious identification. A secondary effect occurs as the audience is stimulated to discuss the dramas with friends and neighbors. The use of serial dramas to combine motivation and information has led to significant impacts in such social development areas as literacy reproductive health family communications and family planning in Mexico Kenya and India. The essential components of such a program are to 1) attract a large audience 2) emphasize cultural archetypes and stereotypes 3) represent emotions 4) promote socially desirable values and 5) promote a vehicle for social learning. PCI has longterm plans for programs in India Latin America Pakistan the Philippines Kenya Nigeria Tanzania and China. Unless people are motivated to adopt small family norms humanity will be faced with the traditional methods of limiting population: war starvation and the maltreatment of women and children.

Behavioral Analysis of Separation-individuation Conflict in the Spouse of an Alzheimer's Disease Patient

This paper conceptualizes separation-individuation conflicts in caregivers as behavior under the dual control of the nonverbal and verbal antecedents and consequences of others, (e.g., care receiver and professional staff) and the dysfunctional self-rules of the caregiver. Two types of treatment are described, in the context of a case study, that address each of two types of controlling events. The first type of treatment involved changing the care receiver's problem behaviors by training the nursing home staff in applied behavior analysis procedures. The second type involved teaching the caregiver to critically examine her self-rules by more accurately describing her own and others' behavior.

From Balance to Concert: A Study of International Security Cooperation

International anarchy and the security dilemma make cooperation among sovereign states difficult. Transformations of balance-of-power systems into concerts tend to occur after large antihegemonic wars. Such wars undermine the assumptions supporting a balance-ofpower system and alter the actors' payoffs in ways that encourage cooperation. The logic developed in “Cooperation under the Security Dilemma” holds: largely because of the increased costs that will be incurred if the grand coalition breaks up, states have greater incentives to cooperate with each other, fewer reasons to fear the consequences of others' defections, and fewer reasons to defect themselves. Cooperation is further facilitated by mechanisms that increase each state's ability to see what others are doing, and to gain “timely warning” of the possibility that the others will defect.