Deterministic Beliefs Research Articles

Jāḥiẓian Negotiations: The Image of the Rāfiḍa in Al-Jāḥiẓ’s Corpus

ABSTRACT This article examines how the littérateur and theologian al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 869) portrayed the Imāmī community (Rāfiḍa) in terms of both its theological views and its social practices. In addition to their early date and unique beauty, Jāḥiẓ’s texts are unparalleled records of doctrinal debates and sociological insights. What emerges from his writings on the Rāfiḍa is an image of a community of simple-minded fanatics. On the one hand, the Imāmīs adhere to anthropomorphic and deterministic beliefs and are blind followers of authority. On the other hand, they are passionate believers who strongly stand in solidarity with one another. This, for Jāḥiẓ, explains their coalition with the superficial traditionalists against the rationalist Muʿtazila. The article is a stage in a larger monograph project.

From the FORUM Archive: Developing Teaching Free from Ability Labelling: Back Where We Started?

This piece from the FORUM archive offers an early account of the Learning Without Limits project at Cambridge University Faculty of Education that is dedicated to developing approaches to teaching and learning that do not rely on determinist beliefs about fixed 'ability' and/or intelligence.

Human values and basic philosophical beliefs

ObjectivesWe present the first investigation into the relationship between basic human values and two core lay-belief systems: Free-Will and Mind-Body beliefs. MethodsWe gathered data from two samples (Total N = 509) responding to measures on basic human values, mind-body beliefs, and free-will beliefs. ResultsWe found that basic values were substantially related to lay-perceptions about mind-body distinctions and beliefs about free-will. Specifically, we found that Self-Enhancement and Conservatism values were positively related to Monist and Deterministic Beliefs. Interestingly, we found that participants that endorsed Self-Enhancement and Conservatism values were more likely to integrate opposing beliefs and also endorsed Dualistic and Free-Will beliefs, albeit to a lesser extent. Finally, we found that Openness was positively related to both beliefs about mind-body Emergentism and Free-Will. ConclusionsOverall, our study provides new insights for linking philosophy and psychology, specifically by linking lay philosophical attitudes high-level abstract beliefs and how they may be linked to motivational goals.

Interactive Beliefs about Genes and Behavior Predict Improved Sun Protection Following Melanoma Genetic Counseling.

Little is known about how members of cancer-prone families think about genetic determinism and whether personal behavior can amplify or counter genetic risk for disease. Understanding how people think about the impact of personal behavior on disease risk may inform communications about genetic risks and their management. We assessed three sets of beliefs about the impact of behavior on genetic risk-interactive (unhealthful behaviors can amplify genetic risk), subtractive (healthful behaviors can reduce genetic risk), and deterministic (genes primarily determine health outcomes)-among 114 unaffected members of melanoma-prone families receiving genetic counseling (51.6% men, average age = 35.3). We examined whether these beliefs predicted changes in perceived control, motivation to manage melanoma risk, and sun-protection behavior one year later. Participants strongly endorsed interactive and subtractive beliefs, but not deterministic beliefs. These beliefs generally did not change, even among those who received positive CDKN2A/p16 genetic test results conferring up to 76% lifetime melanoma risk. Controlling for age, sex, education, skin type, and genetic test result, interactive beliefs predicted sustained increases in perceptions of personal control, motivation to reduce sun exposure, use of multiple sun-protection methods, and reduction in objectively assessed tanning at the wrist one year following genetic counseling. Subtractive beliefs predicted increased personal control, motivation to manage risk, and sunscreen use, while deterministic beliefs were generally unrelated to outcomes. Among people at highly elevated hereditary cancer risk, beliefs that unhealthful behaviors can amplify genetic risk seem to be especially motivating of behavioral risk-reduction efforts.

Dante and Cecco d’Ascoli on Love and Compulsion: The Epistle to Cino,Io sono stato, the Third Heaven

AbstractArguing that Dante ultimately views compulsion in the erotic sphere as part and parcel of compulsion in the properly philosophical sphere, aka determinism, this article traces Dante’s variable thinking on this core issue as he veers from a moralistic view in the Vita Nuova to a more “scientific” view in the third epistle and again to a moralistic view in the Commedia (whose circle of lust boasts, in the wind that buffets the lustful, an example of compulsion borrowed from Nicomachean Ethics 3.1). The philosopher and astrologer Cecco d’Ascoli is a contemporary witness to the philosophical importance of these issues: in his philosophical poem Acerba, Cecco attacks Dante’s love poetry for harboring deterministic belief.

Beliefs in Free Will Versus Determinism: Search for Meaning Mediates the Life Scheme–Depressive Symptom Link

A life scheme can be understood as the cognitive representation of individuals’ life events and their goal attainment in the past and future. We conceptualize beliefs in free will and determinism as two life schemes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between beliefs in free will and determinism, search for meaning, and depressive symptoms. While belief in free will uniquely and negatively predicted depressive symptoms, deterministic belief was uniquely and positively associated with depressive symptoms. Moreover, a multiple mediation model revealed that beliefs in free will and determinism were indirectly associated with increased depressive symptoms via their positive relations with search for meaning. These findings are discussed in view of the relationship between inconsistent life schemes and the need to search for meaning, as well as the mediating role of the search for meaning.

An exploration of the use of ABLe by educational psychologists to promote universal inclusive practice in primary school classrooms in one local authority in Scotland

In Scotland, an increasing amount of emphasis is being placed on creating inclusive learning environments to meet the needs of all learners. An inclusion pedagogy requires a focus on all children in a classroom and a rejection of deterministic beliefs of ability. The current study examined the use of Addressing Barriers to Learning (ABLe), an inclusive practice resource developed and promoted by Dundee City Council Educational Psychology Service (DEPS). 11 educational psychologists (EPs) took part in a survey exploring their views surrounding the impact and process of using ABLe. Qualitative thematic analysis identified three key themes (Staff engagement, role of the EP, future needs) and six sub-themes (staff resistance, within-child conceptualisations, professional dialogue, evidencing impact, accessibility and format, and staged approach to implementation). The findings suggest that successful implementation of ABLe is facilitated by the collaborative coaching of inclusive pedagogy and functional links to the National Practice Model.

Model Predictive Control with a Visuomotor System for Physics-based Character Animation

This article presents a Model Predictive Control framework with a visuomotor system that synthesizes eye and head movements coupled with physics-based full-body motions while placing visual attention on objects of importance in the environment. As the engine of this framework, we propose a visuomotor system based on human visual perception and full-body dynamics with contacts. Relying on partial observations with uncertainty from a simulated visual sensor, an optimal control problem for this system leads to a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process, which is difficult to deal with. We approximate it as a deterministic belief Markov Decision Process for effective control. To obtain a solution for the problem efficiently, we adopt differential dynamic programming, which is a powerful scheme to find a locally optimal control policy for nonlinear system dynamics. Guided by a reference skeletal motion without any a priori gaze information, our system produces realistic eye and head movements together with full-body motions for various tasks such as catching a thrown ball, walking on stepping stones, balancing after being pushed, and avoiding moving obstacles.

Two Dogmas of Biology

The problem with reductionism in biology is not the reduction, but the implicit attitude of determinism that usually accompanies it. Methodological reductionism is supported by deterministic beliefs, but making such a connection is problematic when it is based on an idea of determinism as fixed predictability. Conflating determinism with predictability gives rise to inaccurate models that overlook the dynamic complexity of our world, as well as ignore our epistemic limitations when we try to model it. Furthermore, the assumption of a strictly deterministic framework is unnecessarily hindering to biology. By removing the dogma of determinism, biological methods, including reductive methods, can be expanded to include stochastic models and probabilistic interpretations. Thus, the dogma of reductionism can be saved once its ties with determinism are severed. In this paper, I analyze two problems that have faced molecular biology for the last 50 years—protein folding and cancer. Both cases demonstrate the long influence of reductionism and determinism on molecular biology, as well as how abandoning determinism has opened the door to more probabilistic and unconstrained reductive methods in biology.

Weight Stigma Reduction and Genetic Determinism.

One major approach to weight stigma reduction consists of decreasing beliefs about the personal controllability of—and responsibility for—obesity by educating about its biogenetic causes. Evidence on the efficacy of this approach is mixed, and it remains unclear whether this would create a deterministic view, potentially leading to detrimental side-effects. Two independent studies from Germany using randomized designs with delayed-intervention control groups served to (1) develop and pilot a brief, interactive stigma reduction intervention to educate N = 128 university students on gene × environment interactions in the etiology of obesity; and to (2) evaluate this intervention in the general population (N = 128) and determine mechanisms of change. The results showed (1) decreased weight stigma and controllability beliefs two weeks post-intervention in a student sample; and (2) decreased internal attributions and increased genetic attributions, knowledge, and deterministic beliefs four weeks post-intervention in a population sample. Lower weight stigma was longitudinally predicted by a decrease in controllability beliefs and an increase in the belief in genetic determinism, especially in women. The results underline the usefulness of a brief, interactive intervention promoting an interactionist view of obesity to reduce weight stigma, at least in the short term, lending support to the mechanisms of change derived from attribution theory. The increase in genetic determinism that occurred despite the intervention’s gene × environment focus had no detrimental side-effect on weight stigma, but instead contributed to its reduction. Further research is warranted on the effects of how biogenetic causal information influences weight management behavior of individuals with obesity.

Priming determinist beliefs diminishes implicit (but not explicit) components of self-agency.

Weakening belief in the concept of free will yields pronounced effects upon social behavior, typically promoting selfish and aggressive over pro-social and helping tendencies. Belief manipulations have furthermore been shown to modulate basic and unconscious processes involved in motor control and self-regulation. Yet, to date, it remains unclear how high-level beliefs can impact such a wide range of behaviors. Here, we tested the hypothesis that priming disbelief in free will diminishes the sense of agency, i.e., the intrinsic sensation of being in control of one’s own actions. To this end, we measured participants’ implicit and explicit self-agency under both anti-free will and control conditions. Priming disbelief in free will reduced implicit but not explicit components of agency. These findings suggest that free will beliefs have a causal impact on the pre-reflective feeling of being in control of one’s actions, and solidify previous proposals that implicit and explicit agency components tap into distinct facets of action awareness.

Congruence-Incongruence Patterns in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Couples' Genetic Determinist Beliefs and Perceived Control over Genes: Implications for Clinical and Public Health Genomic Communication.

Genomics makes possible the isolation of multiple genes as co-factors that increase, but do not determine, risk for many adult-onset medical conditions, including alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Those diagnosed with an adult-onset medical condition, such as AATD, are often married and make decisions about testing and care as a couple. We examined genetic essentialist and threat beliefs, focusing on beliefs about the genetic contribution to disease susceptibility and severity, as well as perceptions of control related to genes and health for married couples (N =59), in which one spouse has been tested for genetic mutations associated with AATD. The intraclass correlation for spouses' beliefs about genetic essentialism was strong and statistically significant, but the associations for their other beliefs were not. Incongruence between AATD participants and their spouses regarding genes' influence on disease severity directly related to incongruent perceptions of control and genetic contribution to disease susceptibility. Results revealed an inverse relationship to AATD participants' perceptions of behavioral control and a direct relationship to their beliefs about genes' influence on disease severity. This suggests a pattern of incongruence in which AATD participants have low levels of perceived control over genes' influence on health and high levels of perceived genetic influence on disease severity compared to spouses. With public health communication efforts lagging behind the science of genomics, insights regarding the congruence or incongruence associated with married couples' beliefs about genes' influence on disease afford pathways to guide clinical and public health communication about genomics.

The influence of high-level beliefs on self-regulatory engagement: evidence from thermal pain stimulation.

Determinist beliefs have been shown to impact basic motor preparation, prosocial behavior, performance monitoring, and voluntary inhibition, presumably by diminishing the recruitment of cognitive resources for self-regulation. We sought to support and extend previous findings by applying a belief manipulation to a novel inhibition paradigm that requires participants to either execute or suppress a prepotent withdrawal reaction from a strong aversive stimulus (thermal pain). Action and inhibition responses could be determined by either external signals or voluntary choices. Our results suggest that the reduction of free will beliefs corresponds with a reduction in effort investment that influences voluntary action selection and inhibition, most directly indicated by increased time required to initiate a withdrawal response internally (but not externally). It is likely that disbelief in free will encourages participants to be more passive, to exhibit a reduction in intentional engagement, and to be disinclined to adapt their behavior to contextual needs.

The “Missing Heritability” of Psychiatric Disorders: Elusive Genes or Non-Existent Genes?

The psychiatric genetics field is currently undergoing a crisis due to the decades-long failure to uncover the genes believed to cause the major psychiatric disorders. Since 2009, leading researchers have explained these negative results on the basis of the “missing heritability” argument, which holds that more effective research methods must be developed to uncover presumed missing genes. According to the author, problems with the missing heritability argument include genetic determinist beliefs, a reliance on twin research, the use of heritability estimates, and the failure to seriously consider the possibility that presumed genes do not exist. The author concludes that decades of negative results support a finding that genes for the major psychiatric disorders do not appear to exist, and that research attention should be directed away from attempts to uncover “missing heritability” and toward environmental factors and a reassessment of previous genetic interpretations of psychiatric family, twin, and adoption studies.

Modal structure in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five

The article analyses modal structure (tense, polarity) in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five within the framework of Systemic-Functional Grammar. The analysis of the Mood element shows the prevailing pattern to be past positive; the use of present tenses embodies Vonnegut's specific non-linear concept of time. Similarly, the absence of negative polarity builds the deterministic belief that pervades the novel.

Continuity, contingency and context: Bringing the historian's cognitive toolkit into university futures and public policy development

This paper explores the affinities between the cognitive approaches of historical study and those of strategic foresight, specifically, scenario planning, drawing out their capacity to problematise perceived certainties and challenge deterministic beliefs. It suggests that “thinking with history” has the potential to enhance strategic understanding and decision-making. Two high-level decision-making contexts – university executives and Government Departments – are then discussed with regards to the barriers to such strategic thinking. The paper draws on a wider research project exploring the role for historical thinking in public policy development.

부모의 방임행동, 아동의 비합리적 신념이 아동의 분노표현방식에 미치는 영향

This study examined the effect of parents` neglect behavior and children`s irrational beliefs on children`s anger expression style. The participants were 379 5th and 6th grade elementary school children. The major findings were as follows. Children tended to perceive higher levels of their parents` cognitive and emotional neglect than physical and home environmental neglect. Boys perceived higher levels of their parents` physical, supervisory and home environmental neglect than girls, and girls showed higher level of excessively self-expecting belief than boys. There were statistically significant correlations between the parents` neglect behavior, their child`s irrational beliefs and anger expression style. A regression analysis showed that parents` physical and cognitive neglect were predictors of children`s anger control. Children`s excessive apprehension and avoidance beliefs were the best predictors of children`s anger-in, while children`s deterministic belief was the best predictor of children`s anger-out. Parents` physical neglect behavior appeared to be powerful predictor.

Statistical inference for food webs with emphasis on ecological networks via Bayesian melding

AbstractQuantifying activities in a food web or ecological network, and related aspects of dependence, has largely been either descriptive or deterministic. Although schemes exist for assessing the reliability of such quantification, many are far from being statistical in nature. Statistical modeling approaches are explored, with a focus on the ecosystem aspects of a food web. By employing Bayesian melding, we provide a new statistical inferential approach for understanding ecological networks in the context of mass balance. Our approach embodies the traditional deterministic views on network relations, yet it is developed on the basis of proper statistical inference that allows the estimation of physical quantities and probabilistic assessment of the estimation. We describe our approach, and illustrate it with a mass balance dataset. The practical advantage of our approach is a more realistic understanding of the network by incorporating natural measurement variability into deterministic beliefs about the relationships among measurements. The resulting inference thus forms a more honest representation of the true state of nature, and provides a formal assessment of balance before data are passed on to later stages of an ecological network analysis (ENA). We also demonstrate that general Bayesian inference for ENA can yield new ecological insight that may not be available through standard classical inference. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Causal beliefs about obesity and associated health behaviors: results from a population-based survey

BackgroundSeveral genetic variants are associated with obesity risk. Promoting the notion of genes as a cause for obesity may increase genetically deterministic beliefs and decrease motivation to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Little is known about whether causal beliefs about obesity are associated with lifestyle behaviors. Study objectives were as follows: 1) to document the prevalence of various causal beliefs about obesity (i.e., genes versus lifestyle behaviors), and 2) to determine the association between obesity causal beliefs and self-reported dietary and physical activity behaviors.MethodsThe study data were drawn from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). A total of 3,534 individuals were included in the present study.ResultsOverall, 72% of respondents endorsed the belief that lifestyle behaviors have 'a lot' to do with causing obesity, whereas 19% indicated that inheritance has 'a lot' to do with causing obesity. Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that the belief that obesity is inherited was associated with lower reported levels of physical activity (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77-0.99) and fruit and vegetable consumption (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.76-0.99). In contrast, the belief that obesity is caused by lifestyle behaviors was associated with greater reported levels of physical activity (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.03-1.62), but was not associated with fruit and vegetable intake (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.90-1.28).ConclusionsCausal beliefs about obesity are associated with some lifestyle behaviors. Additional research is needed to determine whether promoting awareness of the genetic determinants of obesity will decrease the extent to which individuals will engage in the lifestyle behaviors essential to healthy weight management.

Characteristics of users of online personalized genomic risk assessments: Implications for physician-patient interactions

PurposeTo evaluate what psychological and behavioral factors predict who is likely to seek SNP-based genetic tests for multiple common health conditions where feedback can be used to motivate primary prevention. MethodsAdults aged 25–40 years who were enrolled in a large managed care organization were surveyed. Those eligible could log on to a secure study Web site to review information about the risks and benefits of a SNP-based genetic test and request free testing. Two primary outcomes are addressed: accessing the Web (yes or no) and deciding to be tested (completed a blood draw at the clinic) ResultsThose considering genetic susceptibility testing did not hold genetically deterministic beliefs (0.42 on scale of 0 [behavior] to 1 [genetic]) but believed genetic information to be valuable and were confident they could understand such information. Individuals who believed it important to learn about genetics (odds ratio = 1.28), were confident they could understand genetics (odds ratio = 1.26), and reported the most health habits to change (odds ratio = 1.39) were most likely to get tested. ConclusionsIndividuals who present to health care providers with online genetics information may be among the most motivated to take steps toward healthier lifestyles. These motives might be leveraged by health care providers to promote positive health outcomes.