Responsibility and Justice: A View Across Cultures

A psychological theory needs both universal and specific components in order to describe and predict human behaviour across cultures. It is argued that the purpose of conducting cross-cultural studies is not merely to demonstrate cultural variations in human behaviour, but also to build better universal laws so that we can generalize from culture to culture. From this cross-cultural point of view, the six papers of this special issue are discussed. The distinction between individualism and collectivism, as an example, is evaluated in relation to a specific case—Japanese culture—and a few observations are made, including the suggestion that variances associated with within-culture sources are often larger than between-culture variances. Finally, the implications of cross-cultural studies in a rapidly changing world are discussed.     

The Perry Scheme: Across Cultures, Across Approaches to the Study of Human Psychology

This paper presents a series of five studies conducted between the year 1994 and the year 2000. A common goal shared by all five studies is to validate the Perry scheme as measured by the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory. Involved in the studies were 2,269 (937 males, 1321 females, and 11 did not indicate gender) students from 12 universities in three cultures. All research participants responded to the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory. Participants from one of the studies also responded to the Study Process Questionnaire. Still, participants from another one of the studies also responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory. Three of the major findings are: (1) the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory has reasonably good reliability and good internal and external validity, (2) the cognitive-developmental pattern of the mainland Chinese students was opposite to that described by Perry, and (3) the cognitive-developmental pattern described by Perry was not identified in either of the two U.S. samples. Recommendations were made as they relate to future studies using the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory.     

Roles,Responsibility, and Accounts Across Cultures

In research on the attribution of responsibility, increasing attention is being paid to the fact that responsibility judgments are social negotiations, not just the cognitions of isolated individuals. In this negotiating process, accounts, including excuses and justifications, may diminish or even eliminate responsibility for wrongdoing. This paper presents a perspective on responsibility attribution and reviews recent literature on accounts. It emphasizes the way in which aspects of social roles—specifically, the solidarity or closeness of the parties and their hierarchical or equal status—may affect the choice and effectiveness of accounts. A second theme is the way in which the impact of various accounts may vary across cultures: In this case, the United States vs. Japan. We pay special attention to differences between roles and between cultures in use of three accounts: denial (e.g. “I didn't do it”); consensus (e.g. “everyone does it”); and apology. The paper draws on pilot research carried out in the U.S. and Japan. Results showed that solidarity, hierarchy, and culture each affected the use of accounts, but sometimes in complex ways. We conclude by offering speculations and suggestions for future cross-cultural research into the social psychology of attributing responsibility and offering accounts.     

Explaining Choices in Procedural and Distributive Justice Across Cultures

A previous study (Leung, Bond, & Schwartz, 1990) established that an expectancy-valence model could be used effectively to explain behaviours in three social domains both within and across cultures. In this study the model was applied to the domains of resource allocation and conflict resolution in order to pinpoint which expectancies and which valences were carrying the explanatory weight of the respondents' behavioural strategies. For both Israeli and Hong Kong students the expectancies and, less strongly, the valences tapping harmony and performance quality were important for resource allocation; those tapping animosity reduction and process control, for conflict resolution. Suggestions were offered for broadening the net of explanatory constructs for future work aimed at specifying subjective factors associated with justice-related behaviours.     

Confidence to Foster Across Cultures: Caregiver Perspectives

It is important to understand how cultural values, beliefs and traditions of foster parents are related to placement success because a substantial proportion of children in care come from culturally diverse backgrounds. In the present study participants were asked about resources they saw as necessary to improve their confidence fostering children from culturally diverse backgrounds. Sixty-one foster parents from a central Canadian province participated in a telephone interview that included the question: “what would help you feel more confident about fostering children with different values, beliefs and traditions?” A total of 35 unique responses were obtained and grouped together by 13 foster parents. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were used to analyze the grouping data. Foster parents described six themes: understanding different cultures, training, self awareness, agency support, open discussion and community services. There were several similarities and differences between the perspectives of foster parents interviewed and the literature. Implications for future research are discussed.     

从社会正义迈向生态正义:社会工作的理论拓展与范式转移

传统社会工作"人在环境中"的"环境"概念常常指服务对象所处的社会环境,很大程度上忽略了对人与自然环境关系的重视。本文认为,在恶化的自然环境不断给人类社会带来一系列灾难性后果的时代背景下,社会工作专业应体现出与时俱进的学科品质,将"生态环境"之维带回社会工作,重新解读和修正主流社会工作关于"人在环境中"这一核心理论与实践议题的认知及其实践范式。进而,本文结合当前的生态发展议题,尝试从理论的生态转向、教育体系的重构、参与生态环境治理的实践能力提升,以及社会工作社会属性的专业本质重塑等方面提出社会工作积极回应生态文明建设的可能路径,这在一定程度上是对绿色社会工作理论范式的初步探索。     

The University and Social Justice

Considerations of social justice pertain to universities with respect to reserved spaces for applicants from disadvantaged groups, targeted hiring, differential student fees or faculty workloads and salaries, and similarly contested matters. This paper displaces debates over what constitutes just allocation of university resources from those over theories of justice in general to those about alternative visions of the proper goal of universities. To this end, educational and democratic theories of John Dewey are drawn on as an alternative to elitist conceptions and the implications of these competing viewpoints for specific justice-related issues are explicated.     

The Social Influence Model: A Social Psychological Approach to Counseling

Social influence theory suggests that counseling is an interpersonal influence process. This article reviews the literature on the model and suggests future directions for research.     

正义:社会正义和全球正义

<正>义是理念,理念在历史中显示。非正义是与正义相关而不是相反的概念,它指的是各种事态。鉴于非正义所指事态的多样性,正义理念可被赋予以下内容:个体的基本权利必须被保护和行使;在某时期的实际条件下,这些权利的诸意蕴必须在国家和全球的层面上被诉求和实行。正义由此显示为一个元-原则,并在社会正义和全球正义中得到充实。当前,自由市场和人权的结合加剧了社会和全球非正义,加剧了国家之间和内部业已存在的经济不平等。保护作为清晰思考和界定的基本人权是走出当前困境的出路。     

Risk Factors for Adolescent Marijuana Use Across Cultures and Across Time

An integrated analysis of the data from 3 different studies was conducted to examine the early psychosocial predictors of later marijuana use among adolescents. Longitudinal analysis of interview data was performed. The data used in the analysis were derived from (a) a sample of 739 predominantly White adolescents representative of the northeastern United States, (b) a sample of 1,190 minority adolescents from the East Harlem section of New York City, and (c) a sample of 1,374 Colombian adolescents from two cities in Colombia. South America. In 2 of the samples, participants were interviewed in their homes, and in the 3rd study, participants were assessed in school. The predictors included a number of variables from (a) the personality domain, reflecting the adolescents' conventionality and intrapsychic functioning; (b) the family domain, representing the parent-child mutual attachment relationship and parental substance use; (c) the peer domain, reflecting the peer group's delinquency and substance use; and (d) the adolescents' own use of legal drugs. The dependent variable was adolescent marijuana use. The results of the analysis demonstrated remarkable consistency in the risk and protective factors for later marijuana use across the 3 samples, attesting to the robust nature of these predictors and their generalizability across gender, time, location, and ethnic/cultural background. These findings have important implications for designing intervention programs. Programs aimed at preventing adolescent marijuana use can be designed to incorporate universal features and still incorporate specific components that address the unique needs of adolescents from different groups.     

Neuroscience and Criminal Justice: Introduction

This special issue of The Journal of Ethics is devoted to ethical considerations of the use of neuroscience in the criminal justice system. In this introduction, an overview is provided of the different topics dealt with in the volume.     

Public Lab: Community-Based Approaches to Urban and Environmental Health and Justice

This paper explores three cases of Do-It-Yourself, open-source technologies developed within the diverse array of topics and themes in the communities around the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab). These cases focus on aerial mapping, water quality monitoring and civic science practices. The techniques discussed have in common the use of accessible, community-built technologies for acquiring data. They are also concerned with embedding collaborative and open source principles into the objects, tools, social formations and data sharing practices that emerge from these inquiries. The focus is on developing processes of collaborative design and experimentation through material engagement with technology and issues of concern. Problem-solving, here, is a tactic, while the strategy is an ongoing engagement with the problem of participation in its technological, social and political dimensions especially considering the increasing centralization and specialization of scientific and technological expertise. The authors also discuss and reflect on the Public Lab’s approach to civic science in light of ideas and practices of citizen/civic veillance, or “sousveillance”, by emphasizing people before data, and by investigating the new ways of seeing and doing that this shift in perspective might provide.     

责任观的中西文化比较研究

责任是人们社会生活中极其重要且必不可少的要素之一。该文首先比较了中西文化对“责任”的不同界定,提出“责任”的两层主要含义：对过失的归因和承担义务。在此基础上,从责任归因模式、内外归因、成败归因等维度比较了中西文化中责任观的异同,并探讨了责任观差异的社会文化根源。