Was Aristotle right about moral decision-making? Building a new empirical model of practical wisdom.

This article presents the development and validation of the Short Phronesis Measure (SPM), a novel tool to assess Aristotelian phronesis (practical wisdom). Across three studies, using large, nationally representative samples from the UK and US (demographically matched to census data), we employed a systematic and rigorous methodology to examine the structure, reliability, and validity of the SPM. In Study 1a, exploratory factor analysis identified ten distinct, internally reliable components of phronesis, challenging the traditional four-component Aristotelian model.

Do Histories of Painful Life Experiences Affect the Expression of Empathy Among Young Adults? An Electroencephalography Study.

Previous research suggests that prior experience of pain affects the expression of empathy. However, most of these studies attended to physical pain despite evidence indicating that other forms of pain may also affect brain activity and emotional states in similar ways. To address this limitation, we compared empathic responses of 33 participants, some of whom had experienced a personal loss, across three conditions: observing strangers in physical pain, psychological pain, and a non-painful condition.

Validity study using factor analyses on the Defining Issues Test-2 in undergraduate populations.

Introduction: The Defining Issues Test (DIT) aimed to measure one's moral judgment development in terms of moral reasoning. The Neo-Kohlbergian approach, which is an elaboration of Kohlbergian theory, focuses on the continuous development of postconventional moral reasoning, which constitutes the theoretical basis of the DIT. However, very few studies have directly tested the internal structure of the DIT, which would indicate its construct validity.

Adolescents' application of the virtues across five cultural contexts.

Little is known about adolescent applications of the virtues such as honesty, responsibility and courage across different cultural contexts. Using the Adolescent Intermediate Concepts Measure we analyze samples of adolescents (ages 12 to 20; N = 9,112) from 5 contexts: North Macedonia, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Across samples, adolescents provide evidence of developmental growth in the ability to apply virtue concepts as assessed by responses to dilemma-based situations.

Play and video effects on mood and procedure behaviors in school-aged children visiting the pediatrician.

This study examines how different types of activities, including medical play, typical play, and videos, affect the mood and behaviors of children visiting a pediatric office. Seventy-two school-aged children visiting a pediatrician's office were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: medical play, medical information video, typical play, and nonmedical information video control. Children completed a mood self-report measure and their behaviors were recorded during triage by nurses.

Chronic sodium nitrite therapy augments ischemia-induced angiogenesis and arteriogenesis.

Chronic tissue ischemia due to defective vascular perfusion is a hallmark feature of peripheral artery disease for which minimal therapeutic options exist. We have reported that sodium nitrite therapy exerts cytoprotective effects against acute ischemia/reperfusion injury in both heart and liver, consistent with the model of bioactive NO formation from nitrite during ischemic stress. Here, we test the hypothesis that chronic sodium nitrite therapy can selectively augment angiogenic activity and tissue perfusion in the murine hind-limb ischemia model.

The role of authoritarianism, perceived threat, and need for closure or structure in predicting post-9/11 attitudes and beliefs.

The authors examined relationships among authoritarianism, personal need for closure or structure, perceived threat, and post-9/11 attitudes and beliefs. Participants were 159 undergraduate students in the Southeastern United States. The authors collected data 1 week before the U.

Is political conservatism synonymous with authoritarianism?

The authors performed 2 studies that tested the distinction between conservative political ideology and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Across these studies, moderate relationships emerged between RWA and our measures of cognitive rigidity, whereas the relationship between rigidity and mainstream conservative ideology was not as strong. The authors used partial-correlation and path analyses to assess the possibility that RWA mediates the relationship between (a) cognitive rigidity and (b) mainstream conservative attitudes and self-identified conservatism.