Assessing pavlov’s impact on the American conditioning enterprise

In this article, the visibility of Pavlov and of Watson in American psychology are compared, and the periods of their respective influence are specified with greater precision than is afforded by merely impressionistic methods. The author also critically examines the possibility that the early history of the American classic-conditioning enterprise involved a succession of two phases: a Watsonian/speculative phase and a Pavlovian/empirical phase. In conclusion, the author assesses the possibility that the publication of Pavlov’sConditioned Reflexes (1927) “stimulated” scholarly work on Pavlovian conditioning, and finds this proposition lacking empirical support.     

Sowing Patriotism,But Reaping Nationalism? Consequences of Exposure to the American Flag

The American flag is a frequently displayed national symbol in the United States. Given its high visibility and importance, the present research examines the consequences of exposure to the flag on Americans' sense of national attachment. We hypothesized that the flag would increase patriotism, defined as love and commitment to one's country, and nationalism, defined as a sense of superiority over others. Two experimental studies supported the idea that the American flag increased nationalism, but not necessarily patriotism. The discussion focuses on the practices surrounding the American flag and its implications for the reproduction of American national identity.     

Korsgaard’s Constitutivism and the Possibility of Bad Action

Neo-Kantian accounts which try to ground morality in the necessary requirements of agency face the problem of “bad action”. The most prominent example is Christine Korsgaard’s version of constitutivism that considers the categorical imperative to be indispensable for an agent’s self-constitution. In my paper I will argue that a constitutive account can solve the problem of bad action by applying the distinction between constitutive and regulative rules to the categorical imperative. The result is that an autonomous agent can violate the categorical imperative in so far as it amounts to a regulative rule of morality; however, an agent cannot call into question the categorical imperative as a constitutive rule of the practice of morality without losing her or his identity as a moral agent. The paper then compares this approach to bad action with the one Korsgaard provides and outlines also a new way of grounding the categorical imperative.     

Sikh millennials of the ‘kirtan generation’ in the making of an ‘American Sikhism’

ABSTRACT

This essay focuses on the millennial generation of Sikhs in the United States. Based on extended ethnographic research in Sikh communities, the author explores the role of Sikh millennials in the making of an ‘American Sikhism’, the contours of which are taking shape having followed after the explosive growth of gurdwara communities – and the educational, social, and other resources they provide – which were largely made possible by the affluence of Sikh communities beginning with the previous ‘Brain Drain’ generation. In particular, the author discusses this ‘kirtan generation’ of Sikhs, educated in gurdwara schools, and their growing leadership of Sikh communities.     

Alfred Schutz’ Theory of Communicative Action

This paper addresses the notion of communicative action on the basis of Alfred Schutz’ writings. In Schutz’ work, communication is of particular significance and its importance is often neglected by phenomenologists. Communication plays a crucial role in his first major work, the Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt from 1932, yet communication is also a major feature in his unfinished works which were later completed posthumously by Thomas Luckmann: The Structures of the Life World (1973, 1989). In these texts, Schutz sometimes refers to “communicative action,” and he comes to ascribe a crucial role to communication within the domain of the life world he calls everyday life. Based on Schutz’ texts, I shall first attempt to critically reconstruct the defining features of his notion of communication and communicative action. As a result, it emerges that Schutz’ notion of communication, particularly in its early incarnation, seems to be, at first glance, characterized by a dichotomy between virtual communication, that is communicative action in a narrow sense, and non-virtual communication. As I want to show with respect to the seemingly established dichotomous distinction between “mediated” and “immediate social action,” Schutz himself started to overcome this dichotomy. Based on this thesis, I will try to sketch a basic outline of a theory of communicative action, a theory less formulated by Schutz’ than built on Schutz’ writings. As the idea of communicative action, and particularly the transgression of the distinction between mediated and immediate action, affects the very structures of the life-world described by Schutz and Luckmann, I will ultimately demonstrate that any mundane phenomenology of the life-world requires a triangulatory method.     

Addressing Unintended Consequences of Gender Diversity Interventions on Women’s Sense of Belonging in STEM

Sex Roles - Validated interventions that increase bias literacy (i.e., knowledge of gender bias) and decrease sexism are critical to addressing pervasive gender biases in science, technology,...     

‘New Rules for Labour Immigration’: Delving into the 2008 Swedish Reform of Labour Migration and Its Effects on Migrants’ Well-Being

I have investigated the nature of the transformation triggered by the reform of labour mobility entitled ‘New Rules for Labour Immigration’, introduced in Sweden in 2008, and its impact on migrants’ well-being. By applying the methodology of the ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ approach (Bacchi 2009), I show that the problem at which the reform was aimed is represented as a shortage of skills and labour. I argue that such a representation and the silences it invokes are underpinned by the paradigms of managed migration and of neoliberalism, thus marking a discontinuity in the political rhetoric of universalism which had been endorsed by Sweden since the beginning of the 1970s. I contend that such a formulation of the problem assumes and entails a conceptualisation of migrants as factors of production. This formulation stands in sharp opposition to the one advanced by the Human Development and Capability Approach to migration (UNDP 2009) which recognises migrants as human beings, endowed with capabilities, aspirations, and agency. Such reification of migrants implies that the reform regulates the stay of immigrants in Sweden with the purpose of maximising their contribution to Swedish economic growth, thus putting them in a vulnerable position which is likely to reduce their capability for work (Bonvin 2009).     

Tracking the Emotional Cost of Immigration: Ethno-religious Differences and Women’s Mental Health

The challenges of the settlement process can at times give way to persistent feelings of sadness, loneliness, and despair for immigrant women. Based on analysis of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, this article shows that immigrant women’s self-reported experiences of mental health vary at arrival and over the course of the settlement process because of the intersection of pre- and post-migration factors. The results show how ethnic origins and religious differences intersect with women’s main activities in Canada and influence multiple mental health trajectories. Immigrant women strategically pursue different post-migration pathways because some are more likely to find the social interactions of employment contexts emotionally distressing while for others shouldering responsibilities for full-time care work in the home leads to mental health problems. Still others who study to retrain or get a Canadian degree find the experience detrimental to their emotional health. However, these very same activities can be conducive to mental well-being for women with different ethno-religious backgrounds. The results illustrate that the intersection of ethnicity, religion, and gender in a stratified Canadian society is complex and produces a range of mental health outcomes. Concerns are raised about the high emotional toll of racialized Canadian workplaces and the stress that some employed Muslim women report. An awareness of influences on immigrant women’s mental health can assist employers and public service providers as well as members of cultural associations and religious groups in providing appropriate social support for them in the early months and years after arrival.     

Social Comparison as the Thief of Joy: Emotional Consequences of Viewing Strangers’ Instagram Posts

This experiment investigates the emotional consequences of viewing strangers’ positive posts on Instagram. From a social comparison perspective, strangers’ positive posts on social media are expected to negatively affect viewers’ emotions. From an emotional contagion perspective, strangers’ positive posts should positively affect viewers’ emotions. The current lab experiment examines both the social comparison and the emotional contagion perspective while taking individual differences into account. Participants viewed positive, neutral, or no posts of confederates. In support of the social comparison perspective, individuals who tend to compare themselves to others reported lower positive affect if they had viewed positive posts than if they had viewed neutral or no posts. In support of the emotional contagion perspective, individuals who tend not to engage in social comparison reported higher positive affect after viewing positive posts than after viewing neutral or no posts. These findings indicate that individual differences in processing tendencies lead people to respond to social information on social media in opposite ways.     

South American Evangelicals’ Re-conquest of Europe

This article focuses on networks of South-American preachers, led by charismatic characters such as the Argentinean pastor Carlos Annacondia, who export themselves not only to countries within the Americas but also to Europe. The prevailing justification among Latin-American Evangelicals for undertaking this ‘reverse mission’ (Freston) is in the view that especially the ‘old’ Roman Catholic Europe is spiritually ‘cooled down’ and that the time is ripe for re-evangelizing it. This study analyzes the way in which network-based charismatic entrepreneurship has encouraged transnational imaginaries of re-conquering Europe spiritually, more specifically in terms of the meanings the members of these networks attribute to the ‘spiritual re-conquest’. I conclude by suggesting that, similar to flows from other regions in the global South, such as Africa, the much vaunted ‘reverse mission’ to Europe is vested with meanings that transcend the spiritual re-conquest as such. In the case of Latin America, this article argues, the chief motivation is symbolic: to strengthen the status of local churches and their leaders against the backdrop of a highly competitive religious market on the Latin-American sub-continent.     

An Intersectional Analysis of Television Narratives of African American Women with African American Men on “the Down Low”

The controversial phenomenon of “the down low” has created fear and suspicion of male sexual partners among many African American women. Being on the down low refers to men that lead seemingly heterosexual lives, yet secretly have sex with other men. Popular media have portrayed this topic more widely in more recent years and generally focus on African Americans. Two popular television shows, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Girlfriends, have dedicated episodes centering heterosexual African American women partnered with African American men on the down low. The popular television film, Cover, features an African American woman who learns her husband secretly has affairs with other men. Black feminist thought provides an intersectional frame for analyzing the content of these portrayals of Black women in relationships with men on the down low. The analysis demonstrates that the down low associates more affluent African Americans with socially deviant behavior and issues, such as hyper-sexuality and HIV/AIDS. Further, they show newer interpretations of African American women “in love and in trouble” and that African American men often have to disguise and remain silent about their sexuality to garner acceptance into their communities.     

Al-Ghazali’s Position on the ‘Second Proof’ of the ‘Philosophers’ for the Eternity of the World,in the First Discussion of the Incoherence of the Philosophers

In the Incoherence of the Philosophers, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) raised objections against the doctrine of the ‘philosophers’ (represented chiefly by al-Farabi and Ibn Sina) on 20 specific points. In the first, and longest discussion, he examines and rebuts four of their proofs of the pre-eternity of the world—that is, that the universe as a whole had no beginning but extends perpetually into the past. Al-Ghazali rejects that doctrine. But his own position on the issue does not become clear until he discusses the philosophers’ ‘second proof.’ In this paper, I will examine the relevant text of the Incoherence of the Philosophers, in order to clarify the nature of Al-Ghazali’s position in relation to the second proof. I will explain why Al-Ghazali cannot adopt what I refer to as the ‘naïve’ theological position, according to which God temporally preceded the world. Instead, Al-Ghazali concurs with the philosophers that time is the measure of motion, but he asserts that time was created with the world, both having a beginning before which there was no time. God, on the other hand, is not temporally prior to the world, but neither is he simultaneous, as the second proof supposes. As timelessly eternal, God bears no temporal relation to the world at all. In conclusion, I describe what I refer to as a naïve philosophical position, which is entailed by the second proof, but distinct from both Al-Ghazali’s position and that adopted by Ibn Rushd in his critique of Al-Ghazali in the Incoherence of the Incoherence. I argue that this naïve philosophical position (and thus, the second proof) is incoherent.     

Increasing Pre-service Teachers’ Use of Differential Reinforcement: Effects of Performance Feedback on Consequences for Student Behavior

Significant dollars are spent each school year on professional development programs to improve teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. The usefulness of these programs can be measured by the consistent application (i.e., implementation integrity) of skills which were taught in the training sessions. This study assessed the integrity with which pre-service teachers used a differential reinforcement of alternate behavior (DRA) strategy taught to them during their student teaching experience. Seven student teachers in general education settings participated. Teaching assignments ranged from early elementary through high school in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Intervention consisted of a 1-h workshop and individual feedback meetings following direct classroom observation. Results showed that (a) student teachers increased their number of correct DRA responses as measured by accurate teacher feedback to students, and (b) students showed increased hand-raising and decreased talk-outs. Implications for helping pre-service general education teachers to teach more consistently and effectively in inclusive settings are discussed.     

International Genetic Counseling Students’ Perspective on Their Training Experience in the United States

International students face social, psychological and academic challenges upon moving to a foreign country to pursue higher education. Clinical disciplines such as genetic counseling present additional challenges adapting to an unfamiliar health care system and different interactions and expectations with patients and colleagues. This study used semi-structured interviews to identify challenges that international genetic counseling students face during training in the United States. Eight international genetic counseling alumni who graduated from U.S.-accredited programs were interviewed. Participants stated that the U.S. academic system was unfamiliar—class participation and paper-writing required the greatest adjustment. There was a need for help in understanding social norms in academic settings. Clinically, they were unfamiliar with the dynamics and communication style of U.S. families. Non-native English speakers experienced greater difficulty in all areas. Most participants reported that they were uncomfortable asking for help in transitioning to life, study and work. Participants identified mentorship programs for international students as potentially useful in clarifying expectations in academic and clinical settings. These results may assist international students preparing to study genetic counseling in the U.S. and may help genetic counseling training programs identify the academic and clinical challenges faced by international students.