Three studies tested the hypothesis that existential threats will be negatively associated with attitudes toward different kinds of freedom. Existential threats experienced as Death Anxiety and Belief in a Dangerous World were negatively associated with attitudes toward Freedom To behave in a desired manner and positively associated with the idea...
Empathy is considered a significant motivator of prosocial behavior. Increasing evidence suggests that feelings of personal distress associated with empathy may be stronger or weaker according to the form of perspective taking that an empathizer utilizes. The aim of the present study was to further quantify the stress consequences and...
One's ability to determine the cause and effect nature events is important for navigating within the social realm. However, the ability to determine these relationships is not always as clear. According to Weary and Edwards (1996) causal uncertainty (CU) is the result of an individual perceiving themselves as someone who...
Synthesizing perspectives from Bruner (1957), and the Mind Only School of Buddhism, the current study examined the effect of a persons’ own behavior on knowledge activation. Both social cognitive psychology and the Mind Only School posit that perception is based on previously learned knowledge. Knowledge is accumulated through an individual’s...
Interweaving perspectives from both social cognitive psychology and Tibetan Buddhism, the present study examined common and differential effects of two styles of meditation: Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) and mindfulness meditation (MM). Psychological theories of construct accessibility postulate that cognitive constructs activated frequently are more readily available for processing stimuli. Researchers in...
Both Buddhist and psychological theory postulate that present actions will influence future perceptions, judgments, and behaviors in a concordant manner. While Buddhists explain these effects in the context of karmic theory, psychologists consider these effects of construct activation and chronic construct accessibility. The present study sought to apply social psychological...
Although the question of free will has persisted throughout the history of philosophy as an important metaphysical consideration, rarely does the inquiry include empirical evidence from other disciplines concerned with human behavior. In this interdisciplinary paper, I combine the wisdom of psychologists, metaphysicians, and philosophers of science to comment on...
Meditation research in recent decades has disproportionately focused on the Buddhist derived practice of “mindfulness” meditation while leaving most other Buddhist meditation practices unstudied. The current study seeks to remedy this homogeneity through the adaptation of a novel meditation practice used in Tibetan Buddhism to affect motivation. We explored traditional...
The basic objective of this investigation was to identify and to
examine factors determining the volume of imports of inshell and shelled
Brazil nuts in major importing countries: the United States, the
Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom.
The approach followed involved the construction and analysis of
an...