Why do some observations lead to broad generalizations whereas other observations do not have as much influence on people's beliefs? One principle of evaluating evidence is the diversity principle, which states that more diverse evidence should lead to stronger inferences than a narrow sample of evidence. For example, if you see someone repeatedly acting aggressively while giving lectures, you ...

At the heart of debates over underlying causes of autism is the “Kanner hypothesis” that autistic deficits in social reciprocity, and a cognitive/perceptual „style‟ favouring detail-oriented cognition, co-vary in autistic individuals. A separate line of work indicates these two domains are normally distributed throughout the population, with autism representing an extremity. This realisation br...

A.N. Prior’s (1960) famous counterexamples to ethical autonomy involve cases where nonnormative premises entail a normative conclusion. Consider, for example, a normative claim N and a non-normative claim M. If N v M is non-normative, then the non-normative ~M & (N v M) entails the normative N. If the disjunction is normative, then it is entailed by the non-normative M. The entailments are impe...

It is argued that the distinction between the normative and the descriptive interpretation of norm sentences can be regarded as a distinction between two kinds of utterances. A norm or a directive has as its content a normative proposition. A normative (performative) utterance of a normative proposition in appropriate circumstances makes the proposition true, and an assertive (descriptive) utte...

Norms have been considered an attractive means for the regulation of the dynamics of multi systems (MAS). Typically, it is left for the individual agents to apply (general) norms to the particular concrete situations that arise during the operation of the system. This paper summarises our work on situated normative infrastructures for multi-agent systems, which aim to facilitate the operational...

This study addresses ways in which inmates at the only maximum-security prison for women in Neuse City (in the northeastern United States) redefine their social world in order to survive incarceration. An aim of the project is to engage in theory building in order to examine the experiences of a world that is “lived in the round.” A life in the round is a public form of life. It is a lifestyle ...

This paper investigates the extent to which differences in people’s socio-political attitudes and behaviours are underpinned by individual characteristics. Two groups of volunteers: (a) an Iranian sample that have been resident in UK for less than two years, and (b) a British sample, took part in this study. A series of validated scales was used to examine differences in levels of empathy, theo...

Background: Neuroticism is one of the serious mental health problems of people. No study has been conducted on the impact of identity issues in the treatment of neurotic people. Objectives: This study aims to formulate, design, and investigate the effect of identity-based psychodrama educational program on identity styles and neuroticism. Materials & Methods: This research was a quasi-experim...