Punishment and Transformation

2020 ◽  
pp. 230-253
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lackey
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Epistemic Rationality ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Natural Life

This chapter argues that the possibility of transformations and transformative experiences shows that strict, long-term punishments are epistemically irrational. Since the rationality of punishment must be sensitive to the mental states of the person being punished, including their mental states after the time of the punishable act, the possibility of radical changes makes it irrational to punish a person in a way that precludes considering future evidence about these changes. Since strict, long-term punishments, such as sentences of natural life without the possibility of parole, do just this, such punishments always run afoul of the demands of epistemic rationality.

Hypocrisy and Consequentialism

Utilitas ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldon Soifer ◽  
Béla Szabados
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

Consequentialism has trouble explaining why hypocrisy is a term of moral condem-nation, largely because hypocrites often try to deceive others about their own selfishness through the useof words or deeds which themselves have good consequences. We argue that consequentialist attempts to deal with the problem by separating the evaluation of agent and action, or by the directevaluation of dispositions, or by focusing on long-term consequences such as reliability and erosion of trust, all prove inadequate to the challenge. We go on to argue, however, that a version of consequentialism which values the fulfilment of desires, rather than mental states, is able to explain why hypocrisy is generally wrong, and indeed can do so better than its Kantian rivals.

Deterioration and the long term prisoner: a descriptive analysis of Myra Hindley

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Mark Pettigrew
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Prison Sentence ◽  
Female Prisoner ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Life Without Parole ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Natural Life

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore supposed inevitable personal decline for long-term prisoners, particularly those serving a sentence of life without parole. Design/methodology/approach – Using the prison records of a life without parole sentenced prisoner. Findings – Findings suggest that prisoner deterioration is not inevitable in a whole life prison sentence. Research limitations/implications – Findings are based on one account, of a female prisoner. Practical implications – Distinct services and support are required for those with a natural life prison sentence. Originality/value – To date, there is limited research of prisoners serving life without parole, particularly the mental health implications of denying a prisoner future parole.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WORK WITH THE CONVICTS’ SERVING PUNISHMENT IN A SPECIAL REGIME COLONY

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-116
Author(s):  
Олеся Николаевна Ежова
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Motivation To Change ◽  
Penal Colony ◽  
Psychological Assistance ◽  
Future Loss ◽  
High Level

В статье рассматривается проблема готовности к освобождению осужденных, которым судом назначено наказание в виде пожизненного лишения свободы, а также лицам, которым смертная казнь в качестве помилования заменена на этот вид наказания, с учетом того что в настоящее время у многих осужденных наступило право на условно-досрочное освобождение, которое вызывает много вопросов, связанных с критериями оценки личности этих осужденных и мерами, направленными на подготовку их к освобождению. Анализируются трудности, с которыми сталкивается психологическое сопровождение этой категории осужденных: проблемы установления психологического контакта (вынужденный контакт); дефицит времени (Правила внутреннего распорядка) для оказания индивидуальной и групповой психологической помощи; необходимость обеспечения безопасности при работе с ними; отсутствие у осужденных мотивации изменяться, а также к совместной работе с психологом; негативные эмоциональные состояния и высокий уровень конфликтности среди осужденных. Характеризуются психические состояния, которые испытывают эти осужденные на различных этапах отбывания наказания в исправительной колонии особого режима (агрессивность, высокий уровень конфликтности, отсутствие перспектив на будущее, утрата смысла в жизни). Анализируются объективные и субъективные факторы, влияющие на личность осужденного в течение длительного срока отбывания наказания, и факторы, от которых зависит готовность этих осужденных к освобождению. На основании анализа данной проблемы делаются выводы о том, что особое внимание следует уделять не только профессиональной подготовке пенитенциарных психологов, но и их психологической готовности работать с этой категорией осужденных. The article is about the problem of the readiness to release convicts who have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court, as well as to persons for whom the death penalty has been replaced by this type of punishment as a - early release, which raises many questions related with the criteria for assessing the personality of these convicts and measures aimed at preparing them for release. The difficulties faced by the psychological support of this category of convicts are analyzed: problems of establishing psychological contact (forced contact); lack of time (internal regulations) for the provision of individual and group psychological assistance; the need to ensure safety when working with them; convicts' lack of motivation to change, as well as to work together with a psychologist; negative emotional states and a high level of conflict among convicts. The mental states that these convicts experience at various stages of serving their sentences in a special regime penal colony are characterized (aggressiveness, high level of conflict, lack of prospects for the future, loss of meaning in life). The objective and subjective factors influencing the personality of the convict during a long term of serving the sentence, and the factors on which the readiness of these convicts to release depends are analyzed. Based on the analysis of this problem, it is concluded that special attention should be paid not only to the professional training of penitentiary psychologists, but also to their psychological readiness to work with this category of convicts.

scholarly journals Le funzioni metacognitive nei pazienti con disturbi del comportamento alimentare. Uno studio sul trattamento di gruppo psicodinamico

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Prestano ◽  
Viviana Cicero ◽  
Salvatore Gullo ◽  
Grazia Alcuri ◽  
Gianluca Lo Coco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Group Treatment ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Mental States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Control Data ◽  
Group Sessions ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

There is an emerging empirical evidence that patients with eating disorders have severe metacognitive concerns, i.e. ability to reflect on mental states. This single-case study aims to explore the relationship between limited metacognition and eating symptoms in six patients who attended a long-term group treatment. This study also aims at analysing the change of patients metacognition over the course of treatment. All the patients were female, with a mean age of 17 years. Three patients have a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, and three have a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa. The group treatment was delivered in a outpatient clinic of the hospital of Acireale (CT). The SVaM (Carcione et al., 1997) was used to measure metacognition of patients, by analysing the transcripts of group sessions. The preliminary findings, which included the first year of the group treatment (N=27 group sessions) showed that metacognitive dysfunctions more evident concern Understanding One's Own Mind and Mastery. The first concerns abilities to reflect on the own mental states; the second concerns ability of regulation and control. Data show that patients don't present failures in the Understanding Other's Minds. The study has not identified meaningful differences between anorexic patients and bulimic patients.

scholarly journals The Cognitive Philosophy of Reflection

Erkenntnis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Stephens ◽  
Trond A. Tjøstheim
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Restricted Sense ◽  
Separate Form ◽  
Hilary Kornblith

Abstract Hilary Kornblith argues that many traditional philosophical accounts involve problematic views of reflection (understood as second-order mental states). According to Kornblith, reflection does not add reliability, which makes it unfit to underlie a separate form of knowledge. We show that a broader understanding of reflection, encompassing Type 2 processes, working memory, and episodic long-term memory, can provide philosophy with elucidating input that a restricted view misses. We further argue that reflection in fact often does add reliability, through generalizability, flexibility, and creativity that is helpful in newly encountered situations, even if the restricted sense of both reflection and knowledge is accepted. And so, a division of knowledge into one reflexive (animal) form and one reflective form remains a plausible, and possibly fruitful, option.

Androgens Modulate Brain Networks of Empathy in Female-to-Male Transsexuals: An fMRI Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Ye ◽  
Robert Kopyciok ◽  
Bahram Mohammadi ◽  
Ulrike M. Krämer ◽  
Claudia Brunnlieb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Social Relation ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Hormonal Treatment ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Fmri Study

Women show higher sensitivity than men to emotional and social cues and are therefore better in showing empathy with others and in deciphering other’s intentions and mental states. These sex differences have been linked to hormonal levels. However, it remains unclear how hormones modulate neural mechanisms underlying empathic processes. To assess effects of chronic hormonal treatment, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used in a group of female-to-male transsexuals before and during androgen therapy and a group of female and male controls while they watched pictures portraying emotionally negative or neutral situations (emotional content) involving one or two persons (social relation). Before therapy, the medial superior frontal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus showed greater activations for emotional than neutral stimuli. The posterior superior temporal sulcus showed greater activations for emotional vs. neutral stimuli and for social relations relative to pictures of single persons. Long-term androgen administration reduced the pSTS activity in response to emotional stimuli as well as its response to social relation. More importantly, the functional connectivity among frontal, temporal and striatal regions was weakened while the connectivity among limbic regions was strengthened as the androgen level increased during hormone therapy. This pattern of change was similar to the sex difference observed between female vs. male controls. Thus, making a brain more male by the application of androgens not only reduced the activity of a core neural hub but also markedly altered the organization of the brain network supporting emotional and social cognitive processes related to empathy and mentalizing.

scholarly journals Effect of Brief Open Monitoring Mindfulness Mediation on Theory of Mind

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piyush Parimoo ◽  
Shivani Sharma ◽  
Navneet Chopra
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Minute Duration ◽  
Long Term Experience

Background: The ability to infer and understand the mental states of others termed as Theory of Mind, is an intrinsic part of social interaction. Most efforts have been made to study disorders related to ToM i.e. depletion in ToM and considerably less is known about variables that may enhance ToM. Further, effects of meditation have been studied extensively in domains of Attention and Emotional regulation, yet only few studies have studied effect of meditation on ToM. In current study, brief intervention methodology was used to access effects of meditative practice on Theory of Mind. Two groups were formed, first group consisted of subject who were treated with a particular type of meditation termed as mindfulness or mindful mediation or open-monitoring mindfulness mediation and second group was treated with a pseudo meditation. Treatment used was of 20-minute duration in both groups and subjects of both groups were without any prior long term experience in any form of meditation. Result: After that subject participated in a ToM experiment called YONI task, to access any changes in their ability to do ToM, for both cognitive ToM and affective ToM. The results indicated that brief OM mindfulness meditation enhanced both Cognitive ToM and Affective ToM.

scholarly journals STUDY OF EFFECT OF MEDITATION ON GALVANIC SKIN RESPONSE IN HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. R. Pavani ◽  
Dr. Akshay Berad
Keyword(s):  
Galvanic Skin Response ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Exclusion Criteria ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Positive Effect

Meditation practices mainly change functions through autonomous nervous systems, which links brain and body. Meditation is a technique of yoga practiced in India over thousands of years. Long term yogic practices have shown improvement in cardiovascular functions.OM chanting meditation is a concentrative type of meditation involving focusing of attention on breath. The research was conducted with the purpose to study the effect of meditation on galvanic skin response (GSR). 30 healthy individuals in age group 18-20 were selected. The study group is selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. GSR recording was taken for period of 3 minutes  3 days such reading were taken  and average of these 3 readings was taken as pre test GSR value. Then subjects were instructed about how to do OM meditation for 30 minutes daily for 3 month. Last 3 days of 3 month meditation the GSR values were recorded and considered as post test GSR values. It is seen that GSR value increased after 3 months of regular meditation. This increase was statistically significant P= 0.0419. There is a significant positive effect of meditation (Om chanting) on galvanic skin response (GSR). GSR can be used as a physiological measure in the study of different emotional and mental states Key words: Meditation, GSR.

scholarly journals Competitive Altruism, Mentalizing, and Signaling

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 272-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Repeated Game ◽  
Good Genes ◽  
Private Monitoring ◽  
Competitive Altruism ◽  
Costly Signal

One explanation of altruism is that it arises from “mentalizing,” the process of understanding the mental states of others. Another is based on sexual selection: altruism is a costly signal of good genes. This paper shows that these two arguments are stronger together in that altruists who can mentalize have a greater advantage over nonaltruists when they can signal their type, even though these signals are costly, when such signaling allows better matching opportunities. Finally, it shows how mentalizing leads to higher payoffs for both partners in a long-term relationship, modeled as a repeated game with private monitoring. (JEL C73, D64, D82)

scholarly journals The impact of telephone crisis services on suicidal users: a systematic review of the past 45 years

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Assing Hvidt ◽  
Thomas Ploug ◽  
Søren Holm
Keyword(s):  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Crisis Services ◽  
Long Term Follow Up ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Telephone Crisis

Purpose – Telephone crisis services are increasingly subject to a requirement to “prove their worth” as a suicide prevention strategy. The purpose of this paper is to: first, provide a detailed overview of the evidence on the impact of telephone crisis services on suicidal users; second, determine the limitations of the outcome measures used in this evidence; and third, suggest directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach – MEDLINE via Pubmed (from 1966), PsycINFO APA (from 1967) and ProQuest Dissertation and Theses (all to 4 June 2015) were searched. Papers were systematically extracted by title then abstract according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings – In total, 18 articles met inclusion criteria representing a range of outcome measures: changes during calls, reutilization of service, compliance with advice, caller satisfaction and counsellor satisfaction. The majority of studies showed beneficial impact on an immediate and intermediate degree of suicidal urgency, depressive mental states as well as positive feedback from users and counsellors. Research limitations/implications – A major limitation pertains to differences in the use of the term “suicidal”. Other limitations include the lack of long-term follow-up and of controlled research designs. Future research should include a focus on long-term follow-up designs, involving strict data protection. Furthermore, more qualitative research is needed in order to capture the essential nature of the intervention. Originality/value – This paper attempts to broaden the study and the concept of “effectiveness” as hitherto used in the literature about telephone crisis services and offers suggestions for future research.

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