A Tale of Two Perspectives: How Psychology and Neuroscience Contribute to Understanding Personhood

Empirical science, such as psychology and neuroscience, employ diverse methods to develop data driven models and explanations for complex phenomena. In research on the self, differences in these methods produce different depictions of persons. Research in developmental psychology highlights the role of intuitive beliefs, such as psychological essentialism and intuitive dualism, in individuals’ singular, cohesive, and stable sense of self. On the other hand, research in neuroscience highlights the decentralized, distributed, multitudes of neural networks in competition making selves, with arguments around whether the interpretation of these data imply that the self is somehow fundamental and special to human functioning. In this paper, Iexplore these discrepant pictures of the self to advance understanding about personhood. Specifically, Isuggest that these divergent pictures of self from psychology and neuroscience have the potential to inform philosophical and theological discussions around personhood by anchoring models of persons in empirical data. Likewise, Iexplore the opportunity for philosophy and theology to inform and enhance scientif ic research on the self by critiquing scientif ic bias and construct development as well as highlighting potential limits in understanding selves with empirical models

Folk moral relativism

It has often been suggested that people’s ordinary folk understanding of morality involves a rejection of moral relativism and a belief in objective moral truths. The results of six studies call this claim into question. Participants did offer apparently objectivist intuitions when confronted with questions about individuals from their own culture, but they offered increasingly relativist intuitions as they were confronted with questions about individuals from increasingly different cultures or ways of life. In light of these data, the authors hypothesize that people do not have a fixed commitment to moral objectivism but instead tend to adopt different views depending on the degree to which they consider radically different perspectives on moral questions. [NOTE: This is a reprint of Sarkissian et al 2011

Gut Feeling in Small Design Consultancies

A participatory study of product design teams in six design consultancies in the north west of the UK is described. Prior research indicates that designers and new product developers often attribute the term ‘Gut Feeling’ (GF) to decision-making that is perceived as difficult to articulate and typically outside acknowledged causal models. From the use of participant-observation to elicit detailed hindsight narratives, the notion of GF appears to be systemic within the early stages of the design development process. GF use represented the synthesis of causal and effective knowledge. Its value impacted new product design and development

Career counselling and sustainable decent work: Relationships and tensions

The concept of decent work is intuitively desirable, an ideal to strive for, and a human right. Awareness of the decent work agenda has been raised in career counselling and is posing challenges about what role, if any, career counselling can play towards the achievement of sustainable decent work for all. Feeding into the social justice values of career counselling, the decent work agenda has drawn considerable attention. To date, however, limited suggestions have been provided about career counselling’s potential contribution toward the achievement of decent work for all, the focus of this special issue. In this article we consider the contexts of decent work, career counselling, and social justice and the relationships and tensions between them. In particular, we raise questions about what exactly is being asked of career counselling in the promotion of decent work. In view of proponents of the decent work agenda in career development questioning whether decent work is achievable for many people, especially in developing countries, the purpose of this article is to consider the potential role of career counselling in the contemporary and emerging labour market. Keywords: career counselling; decent work; social justice; sustainable wor

Power, Responsibility & Wisdom: Exploring the Issues at the Core of Ethical Decision-Making and Leadership

Decision-making ostensibly requires the exercise of Power. But that use of Power must be counterbalanced with Responsibility in order to make good decisions. Infusing Wisdom into the decision-making process necessarily incorporates an ethical component and involves both the identification and evaluation of relationships. Wise decision-making, therefore, requires the application of Wisdom which transcends simple, short-lived factual proficiency. It is this careful weighing of Wisdom, Power, Knowledge, and Responsibility which must guide our business leaders and be taught to our business students

Understanding the “gut instinct” of expert coaches during talent identification

Coaches are an integral part of talent identification in sport and are often used as the “gold standard” against which scientific methods of talent identification are compared. However, their decision-making during this process is not well understood. In this article, we use an ecological approach to explore talent identification in combat sports. We interviewed twenty-four expert, international-level coaches from the Olympic disciplines of boxing, judo, and taekwondo (age: 48.7 + 7.5 years; experience: 20.8 + 8.3 years). Findings indicated that when coaches identify talent they rely on “gut instinct”: intuitive judgements made without conscious thought, used to direct attention to particular athletes or characteristics. Our analysis revealed four major contributors to coaches’ intuition: experiential knowledge, temporal factors, seeing athletes in context, and what can be worked with. Our findings demonstrate that i) athlete selections may be influenced by the coaches’ perceived ability to improve certain athletes (rather than solely on athlete ability); and ii) “instinctual” decisions are the result of years of experience, time spent with the athlete, and the context surrounding the decision. Based on these findings, we recommend that future research focuses on the duration and conditions that are required for coaches to confidently and reliably identify talented athletes

Folk Moral Relativism

It has often been suggested that people's ordinary understanding of morality involves a belief in objective moral truths and a rejection of moral relativism. The results of six studies call this claim into question. Participants did offer apparently objectivist moral intuitions when considering individuals from their own culture, but they offered increasingly relativist intuitions considering individuals from increasingly different cultures or ways of life. The authors hypothesize that people do not have a fixed commitment to moral objectivism but instead tend to adopt different views depending on the degree to which they consider radically different perspectives on moral questions

A new direction for public understanding of science: toward a participant-centered model of science engagement.

Engaging the public with science is not an easy task. When presented, scientific findings, public health recommendations, and other scientific information filter through the personal values, beliefs, and biases of members of the public. Science communicators must contend with these differences in order to be effective in cultivating a public understanding of science. Given the importance of scientific understanding for living well in a complex world, increasing science understanding through science engagement is imperative. The field of public engagement with science is dichotomized by a public information deficit approach and a contextualist approach. The deficit approach prizes the factual content of science, its epistemic authority, and its communication to the public while the contextualist approach recognizes the sociocultural embeddedness of science in society, how science is received by publics, and how local knowledges intersect with science. I contend both approaches are incomplete, and I put forth a synthesis. My approach, the participant-centered model of science engagement, incorporates the factual content of science and its epistemic authority, but in a way that is sensitive to context. I argue for a deliberative democratic approach to public engagement with science and articulate a model inspired by learner-centered approaches to teaching in the formal education literature. I outline and assess six participant-centered strategies along with recommendations for particular practices associated with each

Towards understanding intuition and reason in paranormal beliefs

Peer reviewe