The Emergence of Eric: Co-Therapy in the Treatment of a Family with a Disabled Child

This paper focuses on the problem of socialization of the disabled child within his family. For the family of the disabled child, socialization is doubly challenging; the family must teach its child not only how to be human, but also how to be disabled in the larger society. Often families of disabled children need help in enhancing their child's participation in family life — a critical aspect of socialization. One highly effective means of assisting families in this task is the use of family therapy. A case study is included to illustrate the use of family interviewing with a congenitally blind adolescent boy. Two therapists — a rehabilitation counselor (who is blind) from a state agency serving blind children^a and a social worker from a child guidance agency^b— collaborated in working with the family, which included a mother, father, their congenitally blind thirteen-year-old boy, and his two sighted brothers. The authors conclude that the child's family is the most potentially powerful resource for the successful habilitation of the disabled child into larger society and postulate family treatment as an effective means of attaining this end.     

QUO VADIS,SYSTEMS THOUGHT?

Abstract. Progress in general systems theory has been slow. Three recent books in the field reflect both the hopes and continuing frustrations of systems advocates. Frustrations include the widespread perception that systems theory is a kind of gnostic redemption, an abstract program to be administered by an elite cadre of experts for the sake of integrating knowledge and reorganizing society. This mechanistic understanding generates a resistance which could be countered by a more open and organic model of human systems. The ambiguity of systems thought lies ironically in its ability to embrace both of these images within its conceptual scheme.     

SOCIALIZATION IN TRADITIONAL SOCIETY: A CHALLENGE TO PSYCHOLOGY

This paper discusses problems of Third-World psychology and its potential relevance for development. Child socialization in the traditional society is discussed as an example of a problem area where psychology could have an impact in the Third World. Specifically, the concept of autonomy is analyzed within the context of socialization as an illustration of the difficulty faced in the unquestioned application of Western psychology in non-Western society. Some of the findings of the cross-cultural Value of Children Study are examined as a case in point. On the basis of the above discussions, a challenge to psychology is put forward both for its own sake as a science of human behavior and also for the sake of humanity.     

Immigration in Italy: Between Economic Acceptance and Political Rejection

Italy, especially in its richer regions and cities, is experiencing a profound contradiction in its relationship with the immigrant component of its population: it is becoming even more multi-ethnic in terms of the number of residents (5.3 million), participation in the labor market (more than 3 million), transitions to self-employment (213,000 business owners), and immigrant students in schools (about 670,000). In their cultural representations, Italians tend to deny this reality. They do not want multi-ethnic cities. Faced with the widespread use of a workforce of regular and irregular immigrants, in families and enterprises of the urban economy, the prevailing opinion rejects the idea of giving a place to immigration in the nation’s social organization, and this position is strengthened by political forces and media that reflect and exacerbate the reaction. Immigrants seem to be accepted, perhaps, on an individual plane, where they have a name and a definite place in society—helpful, modest, possibly invisible. They are frightening when they become visible communities, when they settle in urban settings, when they look for places and opportunities for socialization. Italian society, as a result of tensions between markets, politics, and culture on the issue of immigration, is facing a dilemma: how to reconcile interests and feelings, head and heart, individuals and communities: how to rebuild sufficient social cohesion in a society that is increasingly differentiated and heterogeneous.     

The holistic paradigm

Our present age is characterized by rapid processes of social transformation due to the rise of the systems sciences, computers and information technology. Part I of this paper distinguishes two perspectives for an interpretation of the ongoing evolution of our society as influenced by these newer developments in science and technology. From a structural perspective we argue that they have not created a society with entirely new structures, but just an expansion and intensification of the organizational‐technical systems which have typified the technological society since the Industrial Revolution. From a worldview perspective on our society we conclude that “systems rationalism” reinforces the prevailing technical worldview which fosters a progressive technical control and streamlining of society and human adaptation to its framework.     

大学生社会化辅导的必要性——大学生与社会人员的差异研究

毕业生走向社会,适应与否,会严重影响到大学生的心理健康。而作为其影响因素——人性哲学观的不同会对大学生的社会化尤其是就业产生很大的影响,本文使用Wrighsman的人性哲学量表调查了苏州部分学校的大学生和社会一些参与工作的人员,发现大学生与参加工作的社会人员在独立性、人性的理性与意志力、人性的复杂几个方面存在显著的差异,这可能是我们在大学生走向社会前给其辅导的内容之一。大学教育者在大学生走向社会前应该对其进行社会化方面的辅导,了解作为学生与社会可能存在的差异,提前做好心理准备,以减少其由于社会化不良带来的各种负面影响。     

The discipline encounter: Contemporary issues

The central message of this essay is that neither extreme position in the reincarnated discipline controversy offers parents an efficacious model of child rearing today, any more than it did 30 years ago when the authoritative model was developed as a viable alternative to both the conservative (authoritarian) model and the liberal (permissive) model. Each extreme contains its germ of truth — the liberal permissive model, that autonomy and self-will are to be cultivated, not punished; the conservative authoritarian model, that discipline, sometimes confrontational or punitive, is required to socialize the child's self-indulgent willfulness. But each polarized model demonizes the other, and both fail to distinguish between mitigated and unmitigated agency, equating self-assertive individuality with unbridled aggression and egoism. The development of optimal competence in children requires the cultivation of the ability to disobey and accept unpleasant consequences, as well as to comply with legitimate authoritative directives. Because socialization represents the accommodative force in society, the disciplinary encounter, indeed socialization itself, has limited (although necessary) objectives.     

Evolutionary possibilities: Can a society be constrained so that “the good” self-organizes?

Can a human society be constrained in such a way that self-organization will thereafter tend to produce outcomes that advance the goals of the society? Such a society would be self-organizing in the sense that individuals who pursue only their own interests would none-the-less act in the interests of the society as a whole, irrespective of any intention to do so. The paper sketches an agent-based model that identifies the conditions that must be met if such a self-organizing society is to emerge. The model draws heavily on an understanding of how self-organizing societies have emerged repeatedly during the evolution of life on Earth. The model demonstrates that the key enabling requirement for a self-organizing society is ‘consequence-capture’. Broadly this means that all agents in the society must capture sufficient of the beneficial (and harmful) consequences of their actions for the goals of the society. ‘Consequence-capture’ can be organized in a society by appropriate management (systems of evolvable constraints) that suppresses free riders and supports pro-social actions. In human societies these constraints include institutions such as systems of governance and social norms. If a self-organizing society is to emerge, consequence-capture must apply to all agents in the society, including those involved in the establishment and adaptation of institutions. If this is achieved, the result will be a fully self-organizing society in which the interests of all agents (including individuals, firms, multi-national corporations, political organizations, institutions and governments) are aligned with the interests of the society as a whole.     

The orientation of evolution and the intellect

Prediction has been central in the development of both science and society. Chaos theory, however, has given rise to the widespread belief that in all but the most stable situations prediction of the future is impossible. But this belief is contradicted by theory and findings over many years of the psychology of prediction as well as by the findings of the new field of chaos psychology and the experience of entrepreneurs in business and political leaders. At stake is a belief central to an enormous body of “law” in all scientific fields as well as to business, political, and governmental managers and leaders concerned with governance of economic and political systems in a time of global social chaos. At its core, the problem is a critical one for the development of a General Evolution Theory that can span the findings of natural science and social science to find “laws” consonant with systems requirements at both pre‐human and human evolutionary levels. This paper analyzes the problem in terms of chaos theoretical views of the limits of predictability, evidence from the fields of psychology and brain research of human predictive abilities that transcend these limits, and the practical consequence of a resolution of this conflict for science and society.     

Between Baghdad and Birmingham: Minorities--Christian and Muslim

This paper deals with majority-minority relations that very much condition relations between Muslims and Christians. The first part gives some factual data about Muslim minorities in Europe and Christian minorities in Muslim countries and makes some comparisons between their situations at present. The second part questions the very idea of speaking of Muslims and Christians in terms of majority and minority, since this imposes a political scheme on human reality, neglecting existing diversities within the communities and in the relations between them. More important questions are: what have Muslims and Christians done with their religions in minority and majority situations? How can a model of participation in civil society replace the traditional Middle Eastern model of social separateness with religiously justified antagonisms? How can the positive potential of minorities be better appreciated? The author pleads for practical realism and enlightened participation instead of fixing and quantifying Muslim and Christian religious communities as closed social entities.     

A Study of Suicide and Socioeconomic Factors

The topic of suicide has long been an important socioeconomic issue studied in many countries. Suicides inject an atmosphere of unrest into society, and media attention furthers that social uneasiness. From the viewpoint of economics and management, suicide is a waste of human resource: it decreases the labor force in society and deteriorates human capital. This paper provides a series of analyses of suicide rate based on theoretical reasoning and empirical approaches. Aggregate data from G7 countries are obtained and stacked into panel data for analysis. Data are collected for different age groups. Even though suicide issues have been extensively discussed in the past, newly developed econometric tools are applied to her. Beyond previously recognized relationships between economic factors and suicide rates findings include that unemployment strikes men more than women in terms of psychological pressure: for middle age or older women, unemployment may even be positive for the entire family; and female labor force participation exerts pressure on male counterparts and increases its suicide rate. As a result, a low income family with an unemployed man and an employed woman is at high risk for adult male suicide.     

Shaking hands with a computer: an examination of two methods of organizational newcomer orientation

The current study investigated the effects of using a computer-based orientation program on organizational socialization and attitudinal outcomes. In a quasi-experimental field study, 261 newcomers either participated in a group, social-based orientation session or an individual, computer-based orientation session. Consistent with hypotheses, results indicated that participation in the computer-based orientation session led to lower levels of socialization in the more socially rich content areas, whereas the more information-based content areas were not affected. Levels of socialization mediated the effects of computer-based orientation on the more distal attitudinal outcomes of affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Computer-based orientation participation also negatively affected supervisor ratings of socialization. The results demonstrate the importance of newcomer orientations and socialization outcomes during organizational entry and that training method can be an important moderator of orientation practices.     

Marx's genealogy of the idea of equality

Contrary to egalitarian readings of both Marx's critique of capitalist society and its replacement by communist society, his lack of commitment to the idea of equality has been emphasized. I argue that Marx's statements concerning the idea of equality, and especially how it would represent an inappropriate norm for genuine communist society, are ultimately to be explained in terms of its relation to the exchange value that governs acts of commodity exchange. Marx wants to show how general recognition of the idea of equality and the legal and political forms that it assumes have their origin in the way in which exchange value has come to dominate social relations, leading human beings to develop an abstract conception of themselves, others and how the world ought to be that is incompatible with the goals of communist society.     

Number versus continuous quantity in numerosity judgments by fish

A fundamental question in human cognition is how people reason about space. We use a computational model to explore cross-cultural commonalities and differences in spatial cognition. Our model is based upon two hypotheses: (1) the structure-mapping model of analogy can explain the visual comparisons used in spatial reasoning; and (2) qualitative, structural representations are computed by people’s visual systems and used in these comparisons. We apply our model to a visual oddity task, in which individuals are shown an array of two-dimensional images and asked to the pick the one that does not belong. This task was previously used to evaluate understanding of geometric concepts in two disparate populations: North Americans, and the Mundurukú, a South American indigenous group. Our model automatically generates representations of each hand-segmented image and compares them to solve the task. The model achieves human-level performance on this task, and problems that are hard for the model are also difficult for people in both cultures. Furthermore, ablation studies on the model suggest explanations for cross-cultural differences in terms of differences in spatial representations.     

Reality construction at the family/society interface: the internalization of family themes and values

An important component of the socialization function of the family continues to be the preparation of the young for integration into society. Empirical data, particularly from therapeutic settings, indicate that some children are notably well prepared for the world outside their families, while others have hardly been prepared at all. Adolescence is typically the time when these coping skills are most obvious. This paper addresses the issue of socialization of the young for participation in society. Building upon the "family theme" motif, the family is viewed as a micro-society. The issue of congruence between family themes and societally shared meanings is considered, utilizing ideas from the social construction of reality theories of Berger and Luckmann (1966). Three ideal-types of family themes are developed relative to their external world meanings. Previous work on family themes typically has failed to deal with the interpretative function of family meanings. How the family "explains" the family-external meanings is addressed.     

Sales profession and professionals in the age of digitization and artificial intelligence technologies: concepts,priorities, and questions

Recognizing the rapid advances in sales digitization and artificial intelligence technologies, we develop concepts, priorities, and questions to help guide future research and practice in the field of personal selling and sales management. Our analysis reveals that the influence of sales digitalization technologies, which include digitization and artificial intelligence, is likely to be more significant and more far reaching than previous sales technologies. To organize our analysis of this influence, we discuss the opportunities and threats that sales digitalization technologies pose for (a) the sales profession in terms of its contribution to creating value for customers, organizations, and society and (b) sales professionals, in terms of both employees in organizations and individuals as self, seeking growth, fulfillment, and status in the functions they serve and roles they live. We summarize our discussion by detailing specific research priorities and questions that warrant further study and development by researchers and practitioners alike.     

Religiosity,Secular Participation,and Cultural Socialization: A Case Study of the 1933–1942 Urban English Cohort

The nature of secularization is of enduring interest in the social science of religion. Numerous recent papers have established downward cohort trends as characterizing religious change. We examine potential mechanisms by assessing cultural participation and secular engagement during the formative period of one cohort. We provide estimates of active and nominal religiosity, nonreligion and religious belief for those born between 1933 and 1942, using multiple surveys fielded between 1957 and 2018. We model the association between religiosity and secular cultural and social participation for this cohort in 1957, then examine how cultural socialization in childhood relates to religiosity in their later adulthood using surveys fielded between 2005 and 2007. Increased secular competition is found to be associated with less active religiosity. These trends were underpinned by an ethic of increasing autonomy for the young. We conclude by affirming the link between increasing secular competition, long-run modernization, and changing cultural socialization.     

SHIFT WORK RELATED TO JOB ATTITUDES,SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL BEHAVIOR: A STUDY OF NURSES AND INDUSTRIAL WORKERS1

The present study investigates the relationship between shift schedules and mental health, job satisfaction, social participation, organizational commitment, anticipated turnover, absenteeism and tardiness among nurses (N=440) in two hospitals and among rank-and-file workers (N=383) in a manufacturing organization. Results are generally supportive of the model which projected that workers on fixed work schedules (high routine-oriented) would be better off than workers on rotating work schedules (low routine-oriented) in terms of mental health, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and social participation. In addition, workers on fixed shift schedules are found to be lower on anticipated turnover, absenteeism and tardiness than workers on rotating shift schedules. Six potential moderators: age, marital status, place of socialization, cultural background, seniority and respondent's sex, were measured and their association with these relationships analyzed. Results are discussed in the light of the previous empirical evidence.     

A Radical Notion of EmbeddednessA Logically Necessary Precondition for Agency and Self-Awareness

The aim of this essay is to establish the logically necessary preconditions for the existence of self-awareness in an artificial or a natural agent. It examines the terms agent , situated , embodied , embedded , and representation as employed ubiquitously in cognitive science, attempting to clarify their meaning and the limits of their use. It discusses the minimal conditions for an agent's environment constituting a 'world' and rejects most, though not all, types of virtual world. It argues that to qualify as genuinely situated an agent should function in real time within the dynamic world we inhabit, or some close simulacrum of it. It shows that embodied agents will possess or evolve local coordinate systems, or points of view, locating, identifying, and interacting with objects relative to their current position in space-time, and it discusses various types of embodiment, arguing that most current situated and embodied systems are too limited to be candidates for even the most minimal claim to self-identity. It argues that a truly autonomous agent has to be active in its participation with the world, able to synthesize and order its internal representations from its own point of view, and that to do this effectively the agent will have to be embedded. To this end it proposes a six-point definition of embeddedness. Ultimately it argues for a philosophical-cum-cognitive-science model of the self that satisfies essential elements of both sets of definitions of the term.     

PERSONAL PARTICIPATION: Michael Polanyi, Eric Voegelin, and the Indispensability of Faith

In this paper I focus on the central role faith plays in the thought of Polanyi and Voegelin. I begin by indicating how both find the modern conception of scientific knowing seriously wanting. What Polanyi terms “objectivism” and Voegelin calls “scientism” is the modern tendency to reduce knowledge to only that which can be scientifically demonstrated. This errant view of knowledge does not occur in a vacuum, though, and both men draw a connection between this and the political pathologies of the twentieth century. I then show the complementary ways in which these two thinkers believe recovery is possible: an epistemological solution encompassed in Polanyi's personal knowledge and an ontological reorientation that is the core of Voegelin's insistence that we must recover an awareness of human participation in transcendent reality.