Women's mental health: coping mechanisms in the context of poverty

This study explored the coping mechanisms of women from an economically disadvantaged community in a South African setting. Data on symptoms of depression, prevalence of ego-resilience and demographics were collected from 60 women (African women aged 20–78 years) using a survey and individual interviews. The quantitative data were analysed using the Spearman's correlation coefficient and Mann–Whitney-U tests, while thematic analysis was used for the qualitative component. The results indicated protective factors of inner strength, peer relationships, religion and music, and community group participation as coping mechanisms for depressive symptoms in resource scarce environments. A sense of purpose was found in caring for children, and social participation was a crucial support mechanism.     

Act with authority: Romantic desire at the nexus of power possessed and power perceived

The social psychological literature and the evolutionary literature on power suggest different routes by which power might inspire romantic desire: the former highlights the appealing actions of the powerful, whereas the latter demonstrates that people desire powerful individuals upon learning of those individuals' powerful status. We predicted that, in an initial face-to-face interaction, both elements must align for the powerful to inspire romantic desire. In a live mixed-sex interaction, participants experienced the most romantic desire for an opposite-sex target who (a) actually possessed power and (b) was perceived by the participant to possess power. This interaction was mediated by observable behavior—the extent to which the target controlled the conversation and was given legitimacy by the group—indicating that the powerful do not behave powerfully around unaccommodating subordinates. Power manipulations implemented in only one person's mind may not approximate how power functions in real social interactions.     

Suffering and sanctification: The religious context of Battered Women's Syndrome

Women who are physically and mentally abused by their partners have been described as suffering from Battered Women's Syndrome. An element of Battered Women's Syndrome is repeatedly returning to the abusive relationship, putting oneself at risk for further harm. Clinical case studies suggest that women who are strongly religious may believe it their duty to remain in abusive relationships to honor their marriage vows or to demonstrate their faith. This paper explores the basis of those beliefs and advocates a counseling perspective that frees abuse sufferers from a sense of obligation to their victimizers.     

Hercules furens and war: on Abravanel’s courtly context

Scholarship on Abravanel has largely ignored the courtly context and milieu to which Abravanel himself regularly draws attention. The logic seems to that the court is the contrary to the spiritual or simple life, and, indeed, the vast majority of the approximately two to three hundred essays and other works devoted to Abravanel concentrate almost exclusively on the intellectual themes found in Abravanel’s Hebrew writings. In his epistles, however, the courtly context is clearly evident, as this essay will now show, pointing to how this milieu affected, or intertwined with, Abravanel’s cultural outlook. It will also discuss the relationship between this context and ideas, as well as the forms Abravanel elected in which to present them in writing.     

Beyond contact: intergroup contact in the context of power relations

This work investigated how group-based power affects the motivations and preferences that members of advantaged and disadvantaged groups bring to situations of contact. To measure the preferred content of interactions, desires to address particular topics in intergroup contact were assessed for both experimental groups (Study 1) and real groups (Study 2). As predicted, across both studies, the desire to talk about power was greater among members of disadvantaged than of advantaged groups. This difference was mediated by motivation for change in group-based power. Study 2 further demonstrated that more highly identified members of disadvantaged groups wanted to talk about power more. Members of advantaged groups generally preferred to talk about commonalities between the groups more than about group-based power, and this desire was greater with higher levels of identification. However, perceiving that their group's advantage was illegitimate increased the desire of advantaged group members to address power in intergroup interactions.     

Engendering authority in the group

In this paper I analyse ways of thinking about authority relations in groups. As a specific example of more general processes I discuss the gendering of power and authority within group processes. Using vignettes from an experiential women's group, I attempt to identify and evaluate available ways of conceiving power relationships between women in groups (sister-sister; mother-daughter; the masquerade, the androgyne, honorary man, the father of whatever sex, and the lesbian). From this the paper calls, first, for a move away from treating gender as the primary organizer of difference in order to address the diverse and intersecting forms of power relations operating within groups and, second, to broaden consideration of women's positions within dyadic and group processes beyond the current (conventionally de-sexualized) maternal metaphor. It is argued that attending in these ways to sexed/gendered relations within groups offers vital resources towards theorizing and exploring the group body, whereby the group is conceived of as composed of embodied minds structured not only around gender but also by relations of class, ‘race’ and sexuality. This approach therefore envisages group psychotherapies as providing psychic surfaces between familial and broader cultural relations in which transformative group relations can be prefigured.     

Women as authority figures: The use and nonuse of authority

This paper reports the results of two experiments designed to investigate the effect of sex-role stereotypes on evaluations of authority figures. Female and male subjects read short accounts of various situations in which an authority figure confronted a subordinate who had transgressed in some way and then evaluated the authority figure on a variety of dimensions. Sex of the authority figure and of the subordinate were varied factorially. In Experiment 1, where the authority figure took a hard line with the transgressing subordinate, it was found that a female authority figure being firm with a male subordinate was evaluated most negatively. In Experiment 2, where the authority figure was lenient with the subordinate, it was found that a female authority figure being lenient with a female subordinate was evaluated most negatively. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Accessing the particular from the general: The power of distinctiveness in the context of organization

Recall is inversely related to the number of items sharing a cue. The limiting case of unique cue-target relationships supports extremely high levels of recall, particularly when the cue is self-generated. This fact is incongruous with the importance assigned to the construct of organization in memory theory. Further, self-generated unique cue-target relationships tend to be idiosyncratic, implying that the power of unique cues should be limited to cases of self-cued memory. The experiments presented here suggest a role for organization that reconciles the fact of unique cue effectiveness with the importance of organization to memory. Two new findings are reported: Unique cue production enhances target encoding; and general cues can access particular encodings. The data are further tribute to the importance of simultaneous organizational and distinctive processing and recommend a new perspective on the function of organization in memory.     

Questioning authority in the psychoanalytic classroom

Psychoanalytic educators today, like their predecessors who trained them, struggle to maintain respect for and make use of candidates' various kinds of professional expertise while offering instruction in "the subject." But unlike their predecessors, today's educators teach in the wake of various challenges to authority and knowledge in recent decades from across the disciplines. Some of the most important work of teaching in this context begins when teachers recognize that they have assumed the position of objectivity in the classroom--that they have closed down the possibilities for open discussion--and figure out (with and in front of their students) what to do next.     

Questioning the psychoanalyst's authority

Sources of the trend to question not just the analyst's authority to interpret, but the analyst's use of authority in general, are explored. Out of a wish to circumvent the potentially detrimental effects an analyst's interpretations can have on patients, certain psychoanalysts have modified their analytic techniques with an eye to downplaying the role of their authority. When taken to extremes, this has led analysts to act as if they have little to offer patients in the way of an alternative point of view, and to privilege patients' accounts and interpretations by treating them as if they were objectively true. It is argued that one need not go so far in order to protect patients from the analyst's less than careful use of authority. It is argued further that the judicious use of authority remains an indispensable tool in helping to ready the patient's mind for a consideration of constructs different from those on which the patient has always relied. Finally, becoming comfortable with the aggressive aspect of the use of one's authority may determine the extent to which one is willing to employ one's authority with patients.     

正义的战争与战争的正义——关于战争伦理的反思

War can be defined as organized political violence among two or more nations. In accordance with the purpose, processes and results of war, the ethics of war generally comprises three aspects: right ethics, action ethics and duty ethics. The most important issue in ethics of war is “justice”. “Justice” and “injustice” as a conceptual pair do not prescribe the objective character of war but rather convey a subjective attitude and ethical position that have the potential to compel a populace to either support or oppose a war. Translated by Zuo Gaoshan and Xi Yunpeng from Lunlixue Yanjiu 伦理学研究 (Studies in Ethtics), 2005, (6): 43–48     

Kantian constructivism and the authority of others

I argue that Christine Korsgaard's Kantian constructivism cannot accommodate our obligations to others. Because she holds that all of our obligations are grounded in our obligating ourselves, she is committed to the view that our obligations to others are grounded in corresponding obligations to ourselves. Yet this conclusion is objectionable on substantive moral grounds. The problem is that she embraces an egocentric conception of authority, on which we originally have the authority to obligate ourselves whereas others only have the authority to obligate us because we grant it to them. The solution is to adopt a more thoroughly social conception of authority and autonomy.     

Sexual harassment of women professors by students: Exploring the dynamics of power,authority, and gender in a university setting

Although much research on sexual harassment within the academy has been concerned with how prevalent this problem is, it continues to be very narrow in its scope by focusing almost entirely on the abuse directed toward subordinates. This study explores the sexual harassment of women professors by students to gain insight into how widespread the problem is, and to understand better how both gender and status define an individual's vulnerability to sexual harassment. Survey data from 208 female instructors employed at a major university revealed that women professors experience a variety of behaviors, mostly from male students, which range from sexist comments to sexual assault. Furthermore, most professors perceive such behaviors to be sexual harassment, despite the professor's formal power. Generally, women professors are able to deal effectively with these situations, usually by confronting the individual directly or trying to avoid the student, at least in relatively minor instances of sexual harassment.     

Externalism and first-person authority

Externalism in the philosophy of mind is threatened by the view that subjects are authoritative with regard to the contents of their own intentional states. If externalism is to be reconciled with first-person authority, two issues need to be addressed: (a) how the non-evidence-based character of knowledge of one's own intentional states is compatible with ignorance of the empirical factors that individuate the contents of those states, and (b) how, given externalism, the non-evidence-based character of such knowledge could place its subject in an authoritative position. This paper endorses a standard strategy for dealing with (a). The bulk of the paper is devoted to (b). The aim is to develop an account of first-person authority for a certain class of intentional states that is capable of explaining (1) why knowledge of one's own intentional states is peculiarly authoritative, and (2) why such authority is compatible with externalism.