Are Nonfatal Suicide Attempts Instrumental in Achieving Personal and Interpersonal Goals?

This study focused on the well-being of the survivors of suicide attempts and the well-being of their interpersonal relationships after the attempt. The data came from a sample of 392 college students from 10 Muslim majority countries who reported having attempted suicide in the last 4 years. Suicide was conceptualized as a goal-directed behavior embedded in a sociocultural context and motivated by personal or interpersonal goals. We tested a process that linked culturally shaped self-construal to the postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being. We posited that this process would operate through the attitudes towards suicide, motives for suicide, the strength of the intention to die. Our model indicated that the acceptability of suicide was positively associated with escape motives, and this association was even stronger for the individuals with interdependent self-construals. Escape motives were negatively associated with postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being, but communication motives were not associated with these outcomes. We also found evidence that having an interdependent self-construal might be beneficial for postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being. Our results further suggested that the postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being of highly interdependent individuals may depend on the interpretation of their act of suicide by their close others.     

A last defence: the negotiation of blame within suicide notes

This paper presents a discursive analysis of 172 suicide notes left by 120 suicide victims. Instead of searching for the underlying psychological reasons for suicide in the content of notes, we argue that such notes should be viewed as acts of communication which serve to manage the blame accorded to both author and recipients of the suicide note. Consequently notes may provide evidence of socially shared beliefs as to when suicide is more or less acceptable. The analysis largely confirms this approach. It is found that matters relating to blame are referred to more frequently than any other issue (87% of notes). The precise arguments which are used to justify the actions of both self and others are then described in detail and some evidence is provided that the nature of these arguments may vary as a function of the social position of the author and also the identity of the recipient. The implications of these findings, and for a general use of a discursive approach to suicide, are then discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Social Roles and Personality Motives on Autobiographical Memory

In the present study we examined how agentic and communal social roles and personality motives were related to the quality (including emotions and agentic and communal themes) and cognitive structure (differentiation and integration) of women's autobiographical memories. One hundred twenty-seven college-aged women were asked to describe a personal memory after being randomly assigned to either agentic or communal task conditions. In the agentic task condition, participants completed a creative building task alone, and in the communal task condition, participants completed the same task with a confederate. Personality motives were measured by both explicit (self-report) and implicit (TAT stories) measures. Following the task, participants wrote about an autobiographical experience in which they were in either agentic or communal social roles. Linear multiple regression analyses indicated that participating in an agentic task, as compared to a communal task, was related to the inclusion of fewer agentic themes as well as to a higher frequency of shame and anger words in autobiographical memories. Congruence between social roles and implicit personality motives (e.g., an agentic task assignment and high agentic motives) yielded less negatively laden autobiographical memories than incongruence between social roles and personality motives (e.g., an agentic task assignment and high communal motives). Furthermore, participants who scored high on both explicit agentic and communal motives included more positive emotion words in their memories than did other groups.     

Gender Differences in Interest and Knowledge Acquisition: The United States,Taiwan, and Japan

The relationship between interest and knowledge was investigated in a representative sample of 11th grade students from cultures that differ in the strength of their gender-role stereotypes and their endorsement of effort-based versus interest-based learning. Among 11th graders from the United States (N = 1052), Taiwan (N = 1475), and Japan (N = 1119), boys preferred science, math, and sports, whereas girls preferred language arts, music, and art. General information scores were comparable across the three locations; however, boys consistently outscored girls. Gender and interest in science independently predicted general information scores, whereas gender and interest in math independently predicted mathematics scores. Cultural variations in the strength of the relationship between gender, interest, and scores indicate that specific socialization practices can minimize or exaggerate these gender differences.     

Implicit Motives and Sexual Conservatism as Predictors of Sexual Behaviors

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to provide an assessment of the relationship between the two most important implicit motives and the most frequently studied sexual behaviors. A community sample of 102 men and 92 women completed measures of implicit power and affiliation-intimacy motives, sexual conservatism, social desirability, and sexual behavior. For men, high power motivation was positively associated with the number of sexual partners and the frequency of sex. There was an interaction between sexual conservatism and power motivation in women. For women low in sexual conservatism, high power motivation was positively associated with the number of sexual partners and with earlier initiation to intercourse and oral sex. There were few associations between affiliation-intimacy motivation and sexual behaviors; however, women high in this motive reported later initiation to oral sex.     

Cross-Cultural Reactions to Academic Sexual Harassment: Effects of Individualist vs. Collectivist Culture and Gender of Participants

Male and female university students from the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Ecuador, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Turkey read a standardized scenario in which a male professor was accused of sexually harassing a female graduate student. Respondents from individualist countries judged the professor to be guilty of sexual harassment more often than did those from collectivist countries. Women rendered significantly more guilty judgments and assigned more severe punishments to the accused professor than did men. Implications for the individualist–collectivist classification system and cross-cultural research are discussed.     

The Measurement and Interpretation of Organizational Climate

This study describes the development and application of a new organizational climate instrument, the Survey of Organizational Characteristics (SOC). The participants in the development phase were 94 master's of business administration students, and the participants in the validation phase were 77 medical professionals: 24 medical faculty, 17 postdoctoral students, and 36 medical technicians. The final instrument consisted of 8 relatively independent scales with alpha coefficients based on the combined sample ranging from .77 to .98, and with 6 coefficients that were higher than .90. Validity hypotheses based on a priori knowledge about the 3 medical groups were for the most part well substantiated, although the small sample of postdoctoral students was a limitation. In relation to the findings, an attempt was made to clarify and perhaps narrow several of the conceptual and methodological gaps that persist between organizational climate and organizational culture.     

Children's Perception of Parental Empathy as a Precursor of Children's Empathy in Middle and Late Childhood

The present study investigated the relationship between children's self-concepts and evaluations of parent figures. The subjects were elementary school children (352 males and 280 females; Grades 5 through 10) who came from intact families, divorced families, or families in which one or both parents had died. Significant relationships were obtained between children's self-concept ratings and their evaluations of their natural father and mother for both intact and divorced families. This relationship was not significant, however, for families in which a parent had died. Furthermore, children's self-ratings were not significantly correlated with their evaluations of stepparents.     

The (Gendered) Construction of Diagnosis Interpretation of Medical Signs in Women Patients

Medicine maintains a distinction between the medical symptom -- the patient'ssubjective experience and expression, and the privileged medical sign -- the objective findings observable by the doctor. Although the distinction is not consistently applied, it becomes clearly visible in the undefined, medically unexplained disorders of women patients. Potential impacts of genderized interaction on the interpretation of medical signs are addressed by re-reading the diagnostic process as a matter of social construction, where diagnosis results from human interpretation within a sociopolitical context. The discussion is illustrated by a case story and empirical evidence of the gendering in the doctor-patient relationship. The theoretical analysis is supported by semiotic perspectives of bodily signs, feminist theory on experience, and Foucault'sideas about medical perception and gaze, and concludes that a medical diagnosis is seldom a biological fact, but the outcome of a process where biological, cultural and social elements are interwoven. Further deconstruction of the chain of signs from a feminist perspective, assigning validity to the voice of the woman patient, might broaden the understanding of women'shealth, illness and disease.     

阿拉伯语言教学中要重视伊斯兰文化的培养

阿拉伯语言与伊斯兰文化是彼此独立,而又相互联系的,阿拉伯语言是伊斯兰文化的重要组成部分,同时又是伊斯兰文化的载体。培养起伊斯兰文化意识,它可以使我们从字词、句子、语篇等不同层面上分析中阿习惯思维方式的差异,以及在语言上的表现。阿拉伯语言与伊斯兰文化尤如鱼水关系,阿拉伯语言教学如果离开了其特定的伊斯兰文化,意义也就失去了其应有的价值。     

Revolutions, Samurai, and Reductons: The Parodoxes of Change and Continuity in Iran and Japan

This paper assesses policies for managing cultural diversity in Iran and Japan, with particular focus on the treatment of women as a cultural minority. Following social reducton theory, the distinction between rates of cultural change at macro- and microlevels is highlighted. It is argued that macro political and economic changes have taken place fairly rapidly, but micro changes in everyday social practices have changed much more slowly. The latter, it is argued, are structured by social reducton systems, which can act to slow down societal change. This insight is used to cast light on the situation of women and other minorities in North America.     

Women and the Art of Peacemaking: Data from Israeli-Palestinian Interactive Problem-Solving Workshops

Are women “natural” peacemakers? If so, is this because of natural inclinations to avoid conflict or to engage in tough discussions? Are there particular skills in which women excel that make them more likely than their male counterparts to be able to build relational bridges, to facilitate negotiations, and to reduce tensions? After a review of the literature on gender differences in such skills, a systematic comparison of interaction quality is made between two Israeli-Palestinian interactive problem-solving workshops that differed only in gender composition. A third Israeli-Palestinian workshop that involved female political elites is also examined for subsequent changes in the conflict relationship or for changes in political activity. The implications of different repertoires of skills for altering political processes are discussed.     

健康的现代诠释:基于农村流动人口的研究

现代语境里的健康不仅指涉生理与心理健康,社会与文化健康亦为不可或缺的维度,以农村流动人口为研究对象,结合健康这一研究主体,既对健康予以现代诠释,又对农村流动人口给以高度人文关注,力使他们在健康的现代话语中逐步向新市民转型。     

Attitudes to Marriage and Sexual Behaviors: A Survey of Gender and Culture Differences in China and United Kingdom

This paper reports a survey carried out among 505 university students in China and 338 students in the United Kingdom. The survey included questions on attitudes toward mate-selection preferences, marriage, and sexual behavior. The findings show that traditional values in mate-selection preferences persist more in China than in the United Kingdom and indicate that, despite a profound social revolution over the last two decades, a relatively conservative sexual culture still exists in China today. Traditional morality and attitudes prevail especially among women. Gender and culture differences are discussed.     

Gender Awareness Inventory-VA: A Measure of Ideology,Sensitivity, and Knowledge Related to Women Veterans' Health Care

Within the Veterans Health Administration, it has become increasingly important to assess health-care workers' attitudes toward and beliefs about female patients, sensitivity to the unique needs of female patients, and knowledge about women veterans and the programs and services available to them. The current study describes the development of the Gender Awareness Inventory-VA, an instrument that assesses 3 components: gender-role ideology, gender sensitivity, and knowledge among health-care staff. Data were drawn from various samples of Veterans Health Administration employees in a large geographical region (overall N > 1,100; nationally, this population includes roughly 37% minorities). In a series of psychometric inquiries, evidence for reliability and validity was established, and preliminary evidence was provided for the instrument's underlying factor structure.     

Gendered Division of Childrearing: Ideals,Realities, and the Relationship to Parental Well-Being

Recent cultural expectations about fathers' involvement in childrearing may have changed more rapidly than fathers' behaviors, creating discrepancies between parenting ideals and realities that can generate tensions in family life. In this study, a 1999 national probability sample of 234 married parents, both mothers and fathers expressed strongly egalitarian ideals that fathers should be equally involved in child-rearing across five nurturant domains—discipline, emotional support, play, monitoring, and care-giving—as well as in financial support. In contrast, mothers perceived much less father involvement in actual parenting than fathers perceived—especially in disciplining and providing emotional support for their children. Ideal–actual discrepancies were related to well-being: if fathers were seen as less than ideally involved in nurturant parenting, parents reported more stress and fathers who perceived greater than ideal father involvement in financial support were more likely to say the division of household labor was unfair to the mother. Ideal–actual gaps differed for mothers and fathers and were sometimes differentially related to well-being. For example, less than ideal father involvement in disciplining children was associated with mothers' higher stress levels, and the discrepancy in expectations about father involvement in play and monitoring children was correlated with mothers' increased feelings of unfairness in the household division of labor. On the other hand, fathers who felt an ideal–actual gap in disciplining children almost always felt overly involved in discipline and were less likely to report that the division of labor in the household was unfair to their spouses.     

Gender Differences in Coping Styles of Chinese Military Officers Undergoing Intensive Training

This study investigated gender differences in anxiety and coping styles under the stress of intense military training. We surveyed Chinese female (n = 470) and male (n = 379) military officers who were surveyed during the third month of a 10-month intensive training program. Results indicated that state and trait anxiety were highly correlated in both women and men. In general, female officers had higher levels of anxiety, greater negative coping tendencies, and less perceived self-efficacy than their male counterparts. When compared with the norm, both women and men had significantly more positive coping strategies. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed factors that influenced male and female state anxiety. Avoidance, which was chosen by women more often than men, in general was less useful for female officers. The most common positive coping style for female officers was problem solving, whereas for men it was help seeking. We suggested that even female officers with lower mental health levels than their male counterparts made active cognitive changes to their coping styles when undergoing intense military training.     

The bioethics of care: widows, monastics, and a Christian presence in health care.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with vocations to the Christian religious orders of the West in marked decline, an authentic Christian presence in health care is threatened. There are no longer large numbers of women willing to offer their life labors bound in vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, so as to provide a real preferential option for the poor through supporting an authentic Christian mission in health care. At the same time, the frequent earlier death of men leaves a large number of widows, some in need of care and some able to provide care. Drawing on the role of widows sketched in 1 Timothy 2, one can envision Christian widows entering a life of prayer and service in health care settings. As female monastics, such widows could reintroduce a salient Christian presence in health care. How one ties this response to the message of 1 Timothy 2 will depend on one's understanding of the status of Scripture, the significance of tradition, the nature of theological epistemology, the meaning of theology, the nature of the Church, and the ontology of gender. The position taken on these issues will define the character of a Christian bioethics of care.     

郑玄“以易笺诗”考论

在中国《诗经》学史上,郑玄的《毛诗传笺》久负盛名。尤其是他利用由古代礼义与礼例对《诗》作了制度化的研究,一直被认为是孔子以来说《诗》的重要发展。然而,作为郑玄《诗》学中不可或缺的重要组成部分学的"以易笺诗",却常为世人所忽略。本文通过对《郑笺》与《易注》的梳理与论证,指出郑玄以《周易》卦爻象与《易传》笺《诗》,虽然大多是片断的,不连贯的,有的甚至是随文引申有感而发,但是他借助《周易》话语,运用当时的社会观念和理论表述自己对《诗》的理解,丰富和深化了《诗》学的"比兴"手法、"天命"观念与讽喻功能,为我们展示了汉代《诗》学研究的新思路和新动向。