The Structure of Justification

The paper explores a structural account of propositional justification in terms of the notion of being in a position to know and negation. Combined with a non-normal logic for being in a position to know, the account allows for the derivation of plausible principles of justification. The account is neutral on whether justification is grounded in internally individuated mental states, and likewise on whether it is grounded in facts that are already accessible by introspection or reflection alone. To this extent, it is compatible both with internalism and with externalism about justification. Even so, the account allows for the proof of principles that are commonly conceived to depend on an internalist conception of justification. The account likewise coheres both with epistemic contextualism and with its rejection, and is compatible both with the knowledge-first approach and with its rejection. Despite its neutrality on these issues, the account makes propositional justification luminous and so is controversial. However, it proves quite resilient in the light of recent anti-luminosity arguments

Respect

Becker (1974) introduced to modern economics the idea that others care about what others think about them and derived many useful insights from this assumption. But he did not provide a very complete description of the general equilibrium of an economy in which people both demand respect from and supply respect to others. This paper analyzes the equilibrium price of respect, showing how it depends on the distribution of material endowments and discussing whether we would expect that, as society gets richer, the market for respect becomes more or less important. It explains why a demand for respect is a human universal in terms of Becker's observation that this helps to provide insurance where markets are absent. Although the demand for respect is universal, the activities that command respect have enormous cultural diversity - the paper explains how there can be many Nash equilibria if respect is withheld from those who violate prescribed behaviour. Finally the paper discusses where, in a modern economy, respect is demanded and supplied arguing it is primarily bundled up with other goods and services because of the nature of the costs of supplying it.Respect, Status, Pro-Social Preferences

Alexithymic traits, mental and physical health, and early-life adversity – FinnBrain birth cohort study

Alexithymia is a personality construct first identified in hospitalized psychosomatic patients. It is characterized by difficulties in identifying (DIF) and describing (DDF) feelings, an externally oriented, or concrete and pragmatic thinking style (EOT), as well as a scarcity of fantasy and imagination. Alexithymia has been associated with increased psychiatric and somatic morbidity across diagnostic categories, as well as increased markers of physiological stress. The etiology of alexithymia is unclear although childhood environmental influences are likely to play a role in it. Several studies imply that alexithymia is a heterogeneous phenomenon with possible subtypes that have differential associations with mental health and emotion regulation. This dissertation is part of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, in which we analyzed a large sample of fathers and mothers and compared their alexithymic traits with mental and physical health outcomes, as well as self-reported early-life adversities in childhood. Our results support the hypotheses of the existence of two alexithymia subtypes: One characterized by high levels of DIF, as well as increased depressive and anxiety symptoms; and another characterized by high levels of EOT, exhibiting lower psychiatric symptomatology. However, EOT, even while not increasing the risk for mood or anxiety symptoms, was associated with increased substance use in men, and a higher BMI and higher prevalence of gestational diabetes in women. In pregnant women, alexithymic traits, and especially the dimension of DIF, was additionally associated with higher hair cortisol concentrations during late pregnancy, indicating heightened levels of chronic stress. Regarding early-life adversity, we showed that alexithymia was specifically related to childhood experiences of emotional neglect and was associated with adult attachment insecurity. These findings show that alexithymic traits have differential associations with psychiatric symptomatology, substance use and metabolic health. Importantly, they show that many of these associations are independent of mood and anxiety. Findings on early-life adversity in alexithymia imply that depression with concurrent alexithymia may represent a specific subtype of depression, treatment of which may benefit from a focus on childhood emotional neglect and attachment insecurity.Aleksitymia kuvaa moniulotteista persoonallisuuden piirteistöä, jonka tunnusmerkkejä ovat vaikeudet tunteiden tunnistamisessa ja ilmaisussa, mielikuvituksen köyhyys sekä ulkokohtainen ajattelutyyli, jossa kiinnostus sisäiseen maailmaan ja tunteisiin on vähäistä. Aleksitymia on liitetty moniin somaattisiin ja psyykkisiin terveysongelmiin, sekä fysiologiseen stressiin. Useat tutkimukset viittaavat siihen, että aleksitymiaa ei voida pitää yksiulotteisena ilmiönä, vaan sillä on useita alatyyppejä, joilla saattaa olla erilaisia vaikutuksia terveyteen ja tunnesäätelyyn. Aleksitymian syntymekanismit ovat edelleen epäselviä, mutta lapsuuden ympäristöllä ja vastoinkäymisillä ajatellaan olevan merkittävä rooli sen kehittymisessä. Tämä tutkimus on osa FinnBrain syntymäkohorttitutkimusta. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu suuresta otoksesta isiä ja äitejä. Tutkimme tässä populaatiossa aleksityymisten piirteiden yhteyttä fyysiseen terveyteen, mielenterveyteen sekä lapsuuden vastoinkäymisiin. Löydöksemme tukevat hypoteeseja aleksitymian kahdesta alatyypistä: Ensimmäistä alatyyppiä luonnehtivat subjektiivinen vaikeus tunnistaa ja ilmaista tunteita, sekä lisääntynyt masennus- ja ahdistuneisuusoireisto. Toisessa alatyypissä korostuneempana on ulkokohtainen ajattelutyyli, eikä siihen liity lisääntynyttä psykiatrista oireilua. Ulkokohtainen ajattelutyyli kuitenkin lisäsi alkoholin ja tupakan kulutusta miehillä, sekä oli yhteydessä ylipainoon ja raskausdiabetekseen naisilla, riippumatta samanaikaisista masennus- ja ahdistusoireista. Raskaana olevilla naisilla aleksitymia oli lisäksi yhteydessä korkeampiin hiusten kortisolitasoihin, mikä viittaa krooniseen stressiin. Lapsuuden vastoinkäymisten osalta löydöksemme viittaavat siihen, että aleksitymia on yhteydessä lapsuuden emotionaaliseen vaille jäämiseen sekä kiintymyssuhdeongelmiin. Löydökset korostavat aleksitymian monimuotoisuutta, ja osoittavat, että aleksitymian eri ulottuvuudet ovat yhteydessä erilaisiin terveysongelmiin sekä päihteidenkäyttöön. Nämä yhteydet ovat lisäksi riippumattomia samanaikaisista masennus- ja ahdistuneisuusoireista. Löydökset liittyen lapsuuden vastoinkäymisiin aleksitymian taustalla korostavat emotionaalisen vaille jäämisen ja kiintymyssuhdeongelmien tärkeyttä, ja voivat auttaa uusien hoitomuotojen kehittämisessä psykiatrisille potilaille, joilla on aleksityymisiä piirteit

Occupational therapists’ judgement of referral priorities: Expertise and training

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The British government currently requires mental health services to be targeted at the most needy (Department of Health, 1999). For occupational therapy services, where service demand far exceeds service availability, skill in referral prioritisation is essential. The studies in this thesis describe how experienced occupational therapists’ referral prioritisation policies were used to successfully educate novices. 40 British occupational therapists’ referral prioritisation policies were modelled using judgement analysis. Individuals’ prioritisation decisions were regressed onto 90 referral scenarios to statistically model how referral information had been used. It was found that the reason for referral, history of violence and diagnosis were most important. The occupational therapists’ capacity for self-insight into their policies was also examined by comparing statistically modelled policies derived from their behaviour with their subjective view of their cue use. Self-insight was found to be moderate (mean r = 0.61). A Ward’s cluster analysis was used on the statistically modelled policies to identify if subgroups of therapists had differing referral prioritisation policies. Four clusters were found. They differed according to several factors including the percentage of role dedicated to specialist occupational therapy rather than generic work. The policies that led to more of an occupational therapy role were found to give particular importance to the reason for referral and the client’s diagnosis. The occupational therapy professional body supports this latter method of working as it has recommended that occupational therapists should use their specialist skills to ensure clients’ needs are met effectively. Therefore the policies that focussed on clients’ occupational functioning were used to train the novices. Thirty-seven students were asked to prioritise a set of referrals before and after being shown graphical and descriptive representations of the policies. Students gained statistically significant improvements in prioritisation. Students’ pre-training policies were found to be those of generic therapists; a method of working that has been found to be leading to reduced work satisfaction and burnout (Craik et al.1998b). The training is therefore needed to ensure undergraduate occupational therapy students develop effective referral prioritisation skills. This will help to ensure that clients’ needs are met most effectively and work stress is reduce

Cluster requiem and the rise of cumulative growth theory

Industry cluster theory has been the predominant model guiding economic development policy throughout the world for nearly two decades. As appealing as the cluster approach has been to regional scientists and policy makers it suffers from a number of theoretical and empirical shortcomings, including an inability to explain economic dispersion and the presence of high-growing firms that thrive in non-clustered industries and locations. This dissertation tracks the growth and survival of a cohort of more than 300,000 establishments operating in Pennsylvania during the 1997-2007 period. It reveals that firm characteristics are 10-times more powerful than industry and cluster characteristics, and 50-times more powerful than location characteristics, in explaining and predicting establishment-level growth and survival. It also finds a Power Law is present in the distribution of establishment growth, indicating that a sub- set of businesses systematically accumulate a disproportionate share of employment growth. Roughly 1% of establishments created 169% of all net new jobs added in the state over a ten- year period. Growth is further concentrated among businesses that are able to sustain growth over multiple years. This suggests that the principal driver of regional growth is cumulative firm growth – the accumulation of a disproportionate amount of growth among a small number of firms through sustained expansion over multiple years. I conclude that the path to building better theory and more effective development policies is one that explicitly links regional growth to the growth of firms. Such an approach should focus on endogenous firm dynamics rather than exogenous heuristics such as industry and location

The Education of the Whole Man

The Education of the Whole Man is essentially two books in one volume. The first is a general treatise. This book opens with a challenge to Borsodi’s Indian friends. They must choose a national destiny: Gandhi or Western industrialization. The second section addresses the problem of education in 30 chapters. There are many forms of education: Physical education, emotional education, perceptual education, introspection education, axiological education, volitional education, etc. But these are not different things. They are part of a whole. There are stages of development, from infancy through age twelve, sixteen, eighteen, higher education, adult education. Chapter by chapter Borsodi explores each of these topics

The Education of the Whole Man

The Education of the Whole Man is essentially two books in one volume. The first is a general treatise. This book opens with a challenge to Borsodi’s Indian friends. They must choose a national destiny: Gandhi or Western industrialization. The second section addresses the problem of education in 30 chapters. There are many forms of education: Physical education, emotional education, perceptual education, introspection education, axiological education, volitional education, etc. But these are not different things. They are part of a whole. There are stages of development, from infancy through age twelve, sixteen, eighteen, higher education, adult education. Chapter by chapter Borsodi explores each of these topics.https://research.library.kutztown.edu/solbooks/1000/thumbnail.jp

Are there positive outcomes in older adult health, wellbeing and quality of life post-driving cessation? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The purpose of the current study was to establish if there were meaningful subgroups of ceased older drivers who experience positive health, wellbeing and quality of life post driving cessation and if so, what may be some of the factors that characterise those subgroups. Most of the research to date has consisted of identifying negative outcomes post driving cessation, such as poor physical and mental health. There has been limited research into the factors that may lead to positive outcomes in health, wellbeing and quality of life post driving cessation, and the literature that is available is qualitative in nature and drawn from suburban and urban areas of Canada, Australia and Detroit. Therefore, the current study utilised data from the Health, Work and Retirement (2016) study to determine if the 127 participants who had identified as being past drivers were able to be split into meaningful subgroups that differed regarding health, wellbeing and quality of life. Hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering techniques were utilised to establish and refine the subgroups based on health, wellbeing and quality of life variables. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric testing were utilised to characterise the subgroups. There were a range of subgroups that had different outcomes regarding health, wellbeing and quality of life, with experiences ranging from poor to positive outcomes. The Economic Living Standard Index and Social Provisions Scale had the greatest impact on cluster membership. Future research would be of benefit to understand which factors impact positive outcomes when transitioning from driver to non-driver. Further understanding of these factors, including economic living standard and social connectedness, will guide future interventions targeted at achieving positive outcomes, ultimately encouraging continued quality of life and wellbeing well beyond driving cessation