Not all gifts are good: The potential practical costs of motivated gifts

People rely on support from others to accomplish mundane and momentous tasks. When asking for assistance, is it beneficial to incentivize a helper by offering a motivated gift (i.e., a gift with the hope of getting support in return)? Six studies (N > 2,500) examine the frequency and potential costs of motivated gifts. In Study 1, a third of Americans indicated that they had given a motivated gift at least once, while nearly two‐thirds believed they had received one. In Studies 2a–d, most participants who imagined receiving a motivated gift before a favor request reported lower willingness to help and anticipated satisfaction from helping than participants who imagined simply being asked for a favor. Finally, Study 3 replicates these findings with actual help provided among friends in a laboratory setting. Findings suggest that motivated gifts are relatively common but may sometimes undermine the assistance that people hope to receive.     

Bad gifts,community standards,and the disciplining of Theravāda monks

ABSTRACT

The act of giving is among the most fundamental acts within the Buddhist world, particularly in the Theravāda communities of Southeast Asia. In many of these communities, lay followers give food and other dāna (merit-making gifts), providing monastics with the ‘requisites’ that they need to survive. Yet there is relatively little discussion within Buddhist or scholarly communities about what should be given, with formulaic lists representing the majority of discussions about these gifts. However, sometimes, the gifts given to monastics are not always appropriate, even bad. What to do in those cases is not always clear. In this article, I explore the ways in which monks in Thailand and Southwest China think about gifts that are not good. What becomes clear is that, despite the prevailing view that discipline is a universal process based on the vinaya (disciplinary code of Buddhism), monks have different views about what constitutes a ‘bad gift’ and what to do about it. I argue that paying attention to bad gifts allows us to see that lay communities have significant voice—although this is often implicit rather than explicit—about what constitutes ‘proper’ monastic behavior.     

Gifts bestowed, gifts withheld. Assessing psychological theory with a Kochian attitude

Sigmund Koch, along with several members of his generation, insisted on a critical and self-critical stance toward psychological theory. Blending critique and possibility, Koch and others focused on the intricate links between theory and practice, morals and values, and the actual, although usually unacknowledged, choices open to theorists. An examination of "theory biographies" heightens appreciation of the legacy of such analyses as well as the positive promise of a Kochian perspective on psychological studies.     

Parting gifts: termination rituals in group therapy

A patient's termination from group therapy is a powerful experience for the departing patient, the therapist, and all group members. Unless the feelings evoked are channeled into constructive expression, they may undermine this potentially valuable phase of both the departing patient's group treatment and the life of the group as a whole. A termination ritual, styled by a particular patient according to his or her own need, therapy goals, and personality may help the patient achieve a more clearly defined sense of self. The authors suggest that the group therapist's careful attunement to and thorough exploration of the significance of any termination ritual or gift will help to extract maximum therapeutic benefit for the departing member and the group as a whole.     

The gifts of allurement: anti-conversion legislation,gift-giving,and political allegiance in South Asia

ABSTRACT

The last decade has seen an escalation of various acts of anti-conversion legislation in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and in different states of India. Several scholars comment that the upsurge of anti-conversion legislation can be linked to the ascension of religious nationalism in India and Sri Lanka, yet recent trends indicate that such laws are also proposed by moderate political forces. What is notable about this anti-conversion legislation is that it criminalizes ‘improper’ conversions along the lines of force, fraud, and allurement/inducement. While Article 18(2) of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) protects against coercion, and thus forcible conversions, and while the concepts of force and fraud are already covered by the penal codes of the respective countries, the remaining element of controversy of anti-conversion legislation is that of allurement and/or inducement. ‘Allurement’ is defined as the offer of any temptation for the purpose of converting a person professing one religion to another religion, in the form of: “(i) any gift or gratification whether in cash or kind, (ii) a grant of any material benefit, whether monetary or otherwise, (iii) the grant of employment or grant of promotion in employment” (Owens 2006–2007, 337). Yet, despite critical remarks from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, that these anti-conversion proposals are vague in their formulations and may lead to religious persecution, the legislative attempts are persistent in their demand to criminalize the allegedly religious gifts of allurement. This article argues that the rationale behind anti-conversion legislation stems from a threefold objective: (1) the dislike of gifts from the religious Other in particular and proselytization in general, (2) legislation as a regulating mechanism of majority religious bodies vis-à-vis religious minorities, (3) anti-conversion laws demanding the complicity of the state in relation to the majority religions, accentuating state patronage as a tacit form of state religion bill.     

Born a pastor,being a woman: biographical accounts on gendered religious gifts in the Diaspora

Women’s presence in Pentecostal leadership positions has slowly increased over the past decades, which raises new questions on the reconfiguration of gender roles and its relationship with religious doctrines. Based on empirical research, this article examines the construction of female leadership and religious authority within Pentecostal churches in a diasporic context. We draw upon biographical narratives of six female Pentecostal pastors—three African and three Latin American—who are leaders in Pentecostal churches in Spain. Our aim is to understand which conditions allowed these women to obtain positions of leadership in a mainly male dominated Pentecostal milieu and analyse the discursive articulation of Pentecostal conservative views on gender issues with local dynamics in the construction of female religious authority. The article shows that the authority of these women within the church realm is forged and legitimated through a religious narrative, one that empowers them as religious leaders without challenging their (and other women’s) subaltern role in the domains of social and family life.     

Beware of mereologists bearing gifts: prolegomena to a medical metaphysics

This essay considers implications of formal mereologies and ontologies for medical metaphysics. Edward Fried’s extensional mereological account of the human body is taken as representative of a prominent strand in analytic metaphysics that has close affinities with medical positivism. I show why such accounts fail. First, I consider how Fried attempts to make sense of the medical case of Barney Clark, the first recipient of an artificial heart, and show that his analytic metaphysical categories do not have the right kind of fit with the case. A proper medical metaphysic should involve a richer two way dialogue with medicine, and it should not just “apply” formal accounts worked out in other settings. Second, I argue that any effort to account for real wholes with extensional mereological sums requires all sorts of ad hoc, supplementary mechanisms that do the real work, and the full repertoire of these mechanisms involves inconsistencies and semantic shifts. Finally, I consider an alternative strand of work on non-extensional whole/part relations that is closer to medicine and that can deepen reflection on some core problems in bioethics, for example, associated with the determination of death when an organism ceases to function as a whole. In addition to the utility such formal ontologies have for addressing traditional problems such as the determination of death, philosophers of medicine should appreciate the increasingly influential role such formal tools are playing in the development of data system ontologies. Assumptions integral to these ontologies have far reaching implications for the way future research and practice in medicine will be conducted, and much greater critical reflection is needed on the full range of issues associated with the development and use of such medical ontologies.     

The socialization of the gifts of tongues and healing in Mexican Pentecostalism

Mexican Pentecostalism emphasizes both speaking in tongues and faith healing as religious manifestations which believers should have. Although they are considered to be given by the Holy Spirit, these practices imply a socialization with the collective of followers. The analysis of pentecostal groups in the urban environment of Mexico City and in the rural Totonac Indian communities shows that these religious practices and beliefs are very similar in the two areas mentioned. It is necessary for the pentecostal believer to learn the ‘proper’ way to speak in tongues and to heal the sick, in order to separate followers from other religions which compete with pentecostalism by offering ritual possession and alternative forms of curing human suffering. In Mexico, popular spiritualism, the Catholic charismatic movement and traditional Indian curers all offer direct competition for pentecostalism. The religious mobility further complicates this situation. The important role of public discourse and testimony is also dealt with here.     

Hidden gifts of love: A clinical application of object relations theory

Using an extended clinical example, the author applies aspects of Kleinian, Fairbairnian, and Bionian theory to demonstrate how individuals may come to hide away feelings of both love and aggression. In the clinical material presented, a version of a schizoid retreat was understood as a pervasive response to trauma. The author attempts to explore more specifically the nature of a ‘traumatizing outer world’ ( Guntrip, 1969 ) and how these experiences cause an individual to retreat and undermine movement toward healthy adult dependency. An understanding of these dynamics helps inform the psychoanalytic treatment process and can serve as a type of roadmap in navigating through challenging transference–countertransference enactments.     

Funding orphanages on donations and gifts: Implications for orphans in Ghana

Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a growth in the number of children who need formal alternative care. One of the principal factors contributing to this is orphanhood. While most orphans live with their extended families, many end up in privately-run orphanages that operate outside of the government's regulation and funding. Without government assistance and being the most costly care option, the orphanages have to come up with mechanisms to get the finances that they need. However, relatively little evidence exists on the funding streams of orphanages in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on the literature from Ghana and other low-income countries, the study explores the funding of orphanages and its implications for orphans in Ghana. The evidence from the literature shows that the funding for most orphanages comes from donations by private organisations and individuals, mostly from the developed world. This funding system is generally unsustainable and carries negative ramifications for the social-emotional progress and rights of orphans residing in orphanages, such as abuse, unnecessary institutionalisation, and stigma. Policy and practice recommendations include increasing government's subsidy to the orphanages, regulating donations to and volunteering in orphanages, and helping unlicensed orphanages to transition to the provision of family-strengthening services.     

A narrative of my passion: Discovering spiritual gifts through a journey of physical illness

This essay is a reflection on the various insights gleamed from a physical illness. The author reflects upon her experiences, in light of the religious, theological, and spiritual perspectives of her Christian faith.     

All gifts large and small: toward an understanding of the ethics of pharmaceutical industry gift-giving

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the ethical acceptability of physicians receiving gifts from drug companies. Professional guidelines recognize industry gifts as a conflict of interest and establish thresholds prohibiting the exchange of large gifts while expressly allowing for the exchange of small gifts such as pens, note pads, and coffee. Considerable evidence from the social sciences suggests that gifts of negligible value can influence the behavior of the recipient in ways the recipient does not always realize. Policies and guidelines that rely on arbitrary value limits for gift-giving or receipt should be reevaluated.     

All gifts large and small: toward an understanding of the ethics of pharmaceutical industry gift-giving

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the ethical acceptability of physicians receiving gifts from drug companies. Professional guidelines recognize industry gifts as a conflict of interest and establish thresholds prohibiting the exchange of large gifts while expressly allowing for the exchange of small gifts such as pens, note pads, and coffee. Considerable evidence from the social sciences suggests that gifts of negligible value can influence the behavior of the recipient in ways the recipient does not always realize. Policies and guidelines that rely on arbitrary value limits for gift-giving or receipt should be reevaluated.     

You can't always get what you want: effortful control and children's responses to undesirable gifts

This study examined individual differences in children's regulation of emotional expression after receiving desirable and undesirable gifts. Effortful control, the ability to suppress a dominant response in favor of a subdominant one, was measured using a battery of behavioral tasks. Reactions to the gifts were videotaped, and emotional expression was coded. Age predicted effortful control, but not emotional displays. Effortful control predicted similarity of children's displays of positive affect after receiving the two gifts. Specifically, children high in effortful control showed similar amounts of positive affect after receiving the desirable and undesirable gifts, whereas children low in effortful control showed less positive affect after receiving the undesirable gift than after receiving the desirable gift. Results are discussed in terms of temperament and the development of socially appropriate expressive behavior.