"Outsider Within" the Firehouse: African American and White Women Firefighters

Prior findings regarding (a) the subordination of African American women firefighters through imposed exclusion, (b) expanded definitions of tokenism and workgroup composition, and (c) the omnirelevance of race/ethnicity in Black women's perceptions of work experiences are extended to White women firefighters. A nationwide sample of 24 White women firefighters completed a 20-page survey and 1 hr interview developed from these previous findings. Both groups experienced insufficient instruction, hostility, silence, hyper-supervision, lack of support, and stereotyping and supportive as well as strained relationships with coworkers. Specific enactments of these global commonalties often varied along racial/ethnic lines. The present data, which start with the experiences of Black women then examine the experiences of White women, model an important methodological approach for understanding difference.     

Ethnicity in America and feeling "American"

Ethnic group acculturation remains a concern in the United States today. In the present study, the authors explored the extent to which members of three ethnic groups (White American women, African American women, and Cuban American women) perceived themselves to be "American," how much each group felt that its members were perceived as being American by White Americans, and how these perceptions related to beliefs about their own group's economic and social status. The results showed that African Americans felt American but felt that they were not perceived as such by White Americans. African Americans also reported feeling economically and socially excluded. In contrast, Cuban Americans reported neither feeling they were American nor believing they were perceived as such by White Americans, but feelings of inclusion increased with length of residence. Implications of these results for the common ingroup identity model are discussed.     

折射人类堕落的镜子:约瑟夫·德·梅斯特论美洲“野蛮人”

在近代欧洲人对于社会和文明的反思中,美洲"野蛮人"是作为"他者"而存在的.对于约瑟夫·德·梅斯特而言,借助"野蛮人",他反驳了卢梭、伏尔泰、狄德罗、布丰等启蒙思想家,强调<旧约>所载历史的真实性,论述了人的双重本性,并进而讨论了文明化的问题.通过这些论述,他试图警告法国乃至欧洲的文明社会正面临野蛮化的危险,并试图指出真正的文明化力量.     

The psychohistorical roots of the American "Tea Party" Movement

Extreme resistance to governmental taxation and authority is derived, according to Freud's theory of anal characterology, from premature and harshly coercive toilet training, in which a child is forced unfairly and against its will to surrender the products of his eliminations (which represent money, among other things, in the unconscious) to parental authority. Among these individuals anal eroticism plays a significant role in the psychogenesis of paranoia and conspiracy theorizing, which may represent a defense mechanism erected against repressed fears of passive submission.     

美国"反膜拜团体"的近况和随想

我有机会以宗教研究员身分两次随团访美,考察美国民间反膜拜教派的情况,获益匪浅.一次是2000年6月10日至22日,参加中国学者代表团出席在佛罗里达的首府奥兰多召开的"解析膜拜团体与新宗教运动"国际学术研讨会,同时访问了旧金山、华盛顿、明尼河波利斯等,与各地美中友好协分会、曼斯非尔中心、明尼苏迪大学中国研究中心等单位多次座谈;另一次是同年10月17日至30日,参加中国科协专家代表团,进行科技文化交流,拜访了纽约华人领袖,访问俄亥俄州"深泉治疗和咨询中心",并参观了纽约、西非冬、洛杉矶等地的社区,侧重了解"法轮功"在美国基层社会的活动现状.     

"Men of Stone and Children of Struggle": Latin American Liberationists at the End of History

This article critiques the political theory of Latin American liberationists and suggests a theological source of resistance to the regnant capitalist order. Drawing on the work of Raymond Williams, the liberationists' commitment to "politcs as statecraft," manifest originally in the hopes of seizing the state and more recently in the praise of an emergent civil society, is shown to be unable to resist "paranational hyper capitalism." Instead, liberationists should reconsider the church as a "public", as a social, political, economic formation in its own right. Toward this end they might learn from the Christian base communities.     

Culture and context: East Asian American and European American differences in P3 event-related potentials and self-construal

Research has demonstrated differences in social and cognitive processes between East Asians and European Americans. Whereas East Asians have been characterized as being more sensitive to situational context and attending more to the perceptual field, European Americans have been characterized as being more focused on the object and being more field independent. The goal of the present experiment was to investigate differences in neural responses to target objects and stimulus context between East Asian Americans and European Americans using a three-stimulus novelty P3 event-related potential design. As hypothesized, European Americans displayed relatively greater target P3 amplitudes, indexing attention to target events, whereas East Asian Americans displayed relatively greater novelty P3 amplitudes, indexing attention to contextually deviant events. Furthermore, the authors found that interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between culture and the novelty P3. These findings identify a specific pattern of neural activity associated with established cultural differences in contextual sensitivity.     

To "Correlate Psychology and Social Ethics": Gordon Allport and the First Course in American Personality Psychology

ABSTRACT This article explores the historical origins of what is widely regarded as the “first course in American personality psychology”: Gordon Allport's 1925 course entitled “Personality: Its Psychological and Social Aspects.” It argues that the professional focus and disciplinary context of Allport's course were much more complicated than is generally believed. Far from being a completely novel and distinctively psychological venture, Allport's course drew upon the moral concerns and the pedagogical and discursive practices of Harvard's Department of Social Ethics. Allport's course on “Personality” represented a subtle attempt to bring Victorian concerns with character development together with the newly emerging ideal of objectivity.     

Predictors of suicidal ideation among "at risk" cocaine-using African American women

The focus of this study was to identify factors that differentiate women drug abusers who had experienced suicidal ideation from those who did not. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 221 cocaine-using women in Atlanta, GA, 88 (39.8%) of whom reported thinking about committing suicide at least once during the 90 days prior to interview and 133 (60.2%) of whom did not. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify predictors of suicidal ideation, and post hoc goodness-of-fit tests were conducted to assess the robustness of final models derived. Model 1 excluded all psychosocial functioning measures and Model 2 included these items. Both models showed that suicidal ideation was more common among women who were unemployed, had been abused sexually, engaged in sexual relations to cope with stresses, or had less helpful relatives. In addition, Model 1 revealed a heightened risk for women experiencing financial problems and those who had a previous mental health diagnosis, whereas Model 2 showed an elevated risk among women who experienced anxiety and those who had lower levels of self-esteem. These findings suggest the need for prevention and intervention programs that target at-risk women, and for such programs to include an emphasis on suicidal ideation in addition to focusing on risk factors that are addressed more commonly.     

Evaluation of "the incredible years" in Sweden: the transferability of an American parent-training program to Sweden

Structured parent training has been proven to be effective in reducing disruptive behavior problems (DBP) in children. Most of the programs that are used in Sweden have their origin in North America, and there is an ongoing debate over the transferability to Sweden of manual-based programs developed in other contexts. The goal of the present study was to study effectiveness of the Incredible Years parent-training program (IY), developed in the US, in regular clinical work in Sweden, using a randomized controlled design. Parents of 62 four to eight-year-old children diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder participated in the study. Parents of 38 children were assigned to parent training (PT) and 24 to a waiting list (WL). The results indicate that the IYS retains the positive effects on children's disruptive behavior problems when translated and transferred to Swedish. There was a statistically significant difference in reduction of DBP in children between the groups in favor of the PT. The improvement in the PT group was sustained at the one-year follow-up. The improvement also, at least to some extent, generalized over time to the school context. There was also a statistically significant difference in mothers' report of pre to post change in parenting alliance between the PT and WL groups. The IYS program was appreciated and well received by the participating mothers.     

The "model minority" and their discontent: examining peer discrimination and harassment of Chinese American immigrant youth

Using an ecological framework, the authors explore the reasons for peer discrimination and harassment reported by many Chinese American youth. They draw on longitudinal data collected on 120 first- and second-generation Chinese American students from two studies conducted in Boston and New York. Our analyses suggested that reasons for these experiences of harassment lay with the beliefs about academic ability, the students' immigrant status and language barriers, within-group conflicts, and their physical appearance that made them different from other ethnic minority or majority students. Implications and future research are also discussed.     

A gower maneuver: the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities' resolution of the "Taking Stands" debate

The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities debated for several years about whether it should adopt positions and, if so, on what range of issues. The membership recently approved an amendment to its bylaws permitting the Society to adopt positions on matters related to academic freedom and professionalism but not on substantive moral and policy issues. This resolution is problematic for a number of reasons, including the lack of a categorical difference between these types of claims and the Society's inability to speak on behalf of patients and research subjects. The implementation of the amendment also raises several issues. The Society will need to refrain from speaking too specifically and to articulate the responsibilities of its members. If the Society fails to address these concerns, it runs the risk of denigrating its public image and that of the profession.