Emotion and Action

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question whether and in what sense emotions might be said to provide reasons for actions or to rationalize them. This requires that one have a picture of the causal structure of actions that is sufficiently detailed for one to see how emotions can impinge on the proc-ess of action production. I present a two-tiered model of action explanation and try to exploit this model in a tentative account of the modes of in-volvement of emotions in the explanation of action. In particular, I examine in what sense emotions can be said not just to explain actions, but also to rationalize them

How voluntary are minimal actions ?

This book chapter aims at exploring how intentional a piece of behavior should be to count as an action, and how a minimal view on action, not requiring a richly intentional causation, may still qualify such a behavior as voluntary

REFRAMING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR AND/OR FEELINGS DISORDERS: WHAT EDUCATIONAL THERAPISTS, SPECIAL EDUCATORS AND COUNSELORS SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

In this paper, the authors have chosen to take a closer look at a socio-emotional behavioral condition known as Inappropriate Behavior or Feelings Disorder (IBFD) which is listed in the Educator’s Diagnostic Manual of Disabilities and Disorders (EDM; Pierangelo & Guiliani, 2007). The term (or IBFD for short) used in this diagnostic manual is not found anywhere in the current literature including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). According to the EDM, under the IDEA 2004 enactment, it is one of the criteria for the classification of Emotional Disturbance (ED): “inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances” (p.163), and it covers social, emotional, physical and psychological aspects of behavior or feelings. Hence, the term Inappropriate Behavior or Feelings Disorder is coined from this particular IDEA statement of criterion and, in turn, it is used only in the EDM multi-level coding system. The authors argued the need for educational therapists, special educators and counselors to reframe their current understanding of the IBFD, whose symptoms are similar to disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), within the context of the cognition-conation-affect-sensation (CCAS) framework as they continue to observe, record and evaluate the condition in terms of its core symptoms seen, measured and/or profiled before the diagnostic term IBFD is applied under the EDM code ED3.00.   Article visualizations

The interplay between structure and agency in shaping the mental health consequences of job loss

Main themes that emerged from the qualitative exploration of the psychological distress of job loss included stress, changes to perceived control, loss of self-esteem, shame and loss of status, experiencing a grieving process, and financial strain. Drawing on two models of agency we identified the different ways workers employed their agency, and how their agency was enabled, but mainly constrained, when dealing with job loss consequences. Respondents’ accounts support the literature on the moderating effects of economic resources such as redundancy packages. The results suggest the need for policies to put more focus on social, emotional and financial investment to mediate the structural constraints of job loss. Our study also suggests that human agency must be understood within an individual’s whole of life circumstances, including structural and material constraints, and the personal or interior factors that shape these circumstances.The authors acknowledge support from the National Health and Medical Research Council Capacity Building Grant (324724). The research was supported by the SA Department of Health and the SA Department of Families and Communities through the Human Services Research and Innovation Program (HSRIP), and the Australian Research Council Linkage Program (LP0562288), with the Department of Health (DOH) serving as Industry Partner. Professor Fran Baum was supported by an ARC Federation Fellowship and Drs Newman and Ziersch by the SA Premier’s Science and Research Fund

Introducing disappointment dynamics and comparing behaviors in evolutionary games : Some simulation results

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe paper presents an evolutionary model, based on the assumption that agents may revise their current strategies if they previously failed to attain the maximum level of potential payoffs. We offer three versions of this reflexive mechanism, each one of which describes a distinct type: spontaneous agents, rigid players, and 'satisficers'. We use simulations to examine the performance of these types. Agents who change their strategies relatively easily tend to perform better in coordination games, but antagonistic games generally lead to more favorable outcomes if the individuals only change their strategies when disappointment from previous rounds surpasses some predefined threshold.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Motivational and Situational Aspects of Active and Passive Social Media Breaks May Explain the Difference Between Recovery and Procrastination

Students frequently multitask with social media (SM) during self-study. Such social media multitasking (SMM) has the potential either to support wellbeing by acting as a recovery activity or subvert it by acting as a procrastination activity. It is currently unclear which specific SM behaviours and related factors push SMM towards recovery or procrastination. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 undergraduates to explore which SMM behaviours and factors led to recovery or procrastination. We found that both active and passive SM breaks have the potential to be recovery or procrastination activities. Whether a SM break becomes a recovery or procrastination activity partly depends on its automaticity and situational SM factors. This paper contributes empirical evidence that supports emerging criticism of an existing simplistic understanding of the relationship between active/passive SM use and wellbeing, and demonstrates how a richer model can inform the design of technologies that support better SM breaks

Autonomy as license to operate: establishing the internal and external conditions of informed choice in marketing

The assumption that consumers voluntarily accept or decline marketing offerings provides the ethical justification that gives marketing as a social system its license to operate. Consumer autonomy is, therefore, the key ethical principle of marketing in capitalistic economies. However, even in domains with extensive regulatory frameworks and advanced market conditions, consumers are often ill-informed or underinformed. The resultant lack of epistemic confidence diminishes consumers’ ability to make informed choices. At the same time, consumers are by default exposed to promotional content designed to persuade them to accept marketing offerings. This threatens personal autonomy. We develop a concept of consumer autonomy which marketing regulations should protect and promote to enhance informed decision-making. We design autonomy to be robust in situations where individuals are exposed to persuasive attempts to influence them to choose a specific course of action. As such, our concept of autonomy is applicable to a range of contexts beyond marketing where it is necessary to balance external influences and individual autonomy

'Surely the most natural scenario in the world’: Representations of ‘Family’ in BBC Pre-school Television

Historically, the majority of work on British children’s television has adopted either an institutional or an audience focus, with the texts themselves often overlooked. This neglect has meant that questions of representation in British children’s television – including issues such as family, gender, class or ethnicity - have been infrequently analysed in the UK context. In this article, we adopt a primarily qualitative methodology and analyse the various textual manifestations of ‘family’, group, or community as represented in a selected number of BBC pre-school programmes. In doing so, we question the (limited amount of) international work that has examined representations of the family in children’s television, and argue that nuclear family structures do not predominate in this sphere