Apologizing is a common social practice that has received a considerable amount of attention from sociologists, psychologists, and linguists. Absent from such discussions is an analysis of the moral functions of an apology. In this essay, I examine the moral aspects of apologizing, considering its impact on those who offer the apology, the recipient of the apology, and relevant communities.I begin with an analysis of the concept of an apology, building on the work of various social scientists. Discussion is then limited to apologies offered in response to a violation of moral standards as I focus on three specific types of situation. Apologies offered in the context of the criminal justice system are interesting for several reasons. We find here, for instance, that the public has a strong interest in offender apologies. Furthermore, apologies offered in this context are related to issues of compensation and punishment, topics that have received quite a bit of attention from philosophers. Apologies offered by groups, and those which are offered to groups, are also given attention in this essay. These are of particular philosophical interest insofar as they involve the ascription of actions, beliefs, etc., to groups. Those problems are merely mentioned, not resolved, in this essay. What is of particular interest with regard to morality is the sheer size of apologies involving groups. The harm that governments are capable of inflicting, for example, is enormous with respect to both numbers of people involved and severity of harm. Yet the distant, impersonal nature of dealing with an agent which is "the government" makes dealing with moral wrongdoing especially difficult. Further complications arise as we try to grapple with historical acts of injustice, acts of destruction that were engaged in many years ago but have a lingering impact on society today.This essay only begins a discussion of the topic, citing a few of the more salient features of the moral functions of apologizing in these contexts. It is hoped that those who are interested in the way morality is played out at a social 11

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Multiple sources of resistance are present in the healthcare environment to comprehensive assessment and intervention efforts in regard to sexuality. The authors survey both the diversity of needs and values presented by consumers, and encourage providers to equip themselves educationally, emotionally and ethically so that they can deliver relevant, holistic services to consumers.

Word length (two, three, four, and five letters) and exposure time (25, 50, and 100 msec) effects on visual half-field recognition performances were studied in a bilateral word presentation paradigm. Significant right-field recognition superiority (RFRS) obtained for all length-exposure time conditions except that for two-letter words exposed for 100 msec. RFRS was significantly greater for each of the two longer word lengths than for the two shorter lengths and for the 25-msec exposures than for the 50-or lOO-msec exposures. The magnitude of RFRS was substantially correlated with a "perceptual difficulty" measure (the ratio of the number of milliseconds available for viewing to the number of letters to be viewed). Results were seen as compatible with a hemispheric asymmetry hypothesis and a differential half-fields masking susceptibility mechanism.Research on lateral visual half-field (VHF) recognition efficiency differences for letter and word stimuli has established that (1) unilateral stimulus presentation yields a right visual half-field (RVF) recognition superiority (Mishkin & Forgays, 1952;Heron, 1957; Bryden, 1966;McKeever, 1971; and others); (2) bilateral presentation, with fixation controlled, yields a RVF recognition superiority of greater magnitude than obtained in unilateral presentation (McKeever,

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