The human newborn’s umwelt: Unexplored pathways and perspectives

Historically, newborns, and especially premature newborns, were thought to “feel nothing.” However, over the past decades, a growing body of evidence has shown that newborns are aware of their environment, but the extent and the onset of some sensory capacities remain largely unknown. The goal of this review is to update our current knowledge concerning newborns’ perceptual world and how ready they are to cope with an entirely different sensory environment following birth. We aim to establish not only how and when each sensory ability arises during the pre-/postbirth period but also discuss how senses are studied. We conclude that although many studies converge to show that newborns are clearly sentient beings, much is still unknown. Further, we identify a series of internal and external factors that could explain discrepancies between studies, and we propose perspectives for future studies. Finally, through examples from animal studies, we illustrate the importance of this detailed knowledge to pursue the enhancement of newborns’ daily living conditions. Indeed, this is a prerequisite for assessing the effects of the physical environment and routine procedures on newborns’ welfare.     

The End of the Supersensory World’s Mythology: Marx’s Ontological Revolution and Its Contemporary Significance

The whole of Western metaphysics, particularly Platonism, sets up a partition between the sensory world and the supersensory world, laying the foundation for the mythology of the supersensory world. After Descartes set contemporary metaphysics on its course, Feuerbach became the first to attack the essence of the supersensory world on an ontological level and to transfer the criticism of theology to that of metaphysics in general. While in the final analysis Feuerbach’s criticism fails, Marx’s revolution appeals to the ontological notion of “sensory activity” or “objective activity” (i.e., practice), the core of which rests in piercing and overturning the fundamental framework of contemporary metaphysics—“the immanence of consciousness.” It is this ontological revolution which reveals the camouflage of the supersensory world’s mythology (i.e., ideology) and which simultaneously establishes a solid foundation for the critical analysis of the latter. Marx’s “science of history” is based on this foundation and develops from it.     

The Relationships Among Parental Anxiety, Parenting, and Children’s Anxiety: The Mediating Effects of Children’s Cognitive Vulnerabilities

Theoretical models have emphasized the roles played by parental anxiety and behavior in the development of childhood anxiety problems. Little is known regarding the differential impacts of mothers and fathers or regarding the processes that mediate these influences. The present study examines the relationships between maternal and paternal trait anxiety, overprotection, and emotional support on the one hand and anxiety symptoms in children on the other hand. This study also explores the mediating role of children’s cognitive vulnerabilities to anxiety disorders in the relationship between parental variables and children’s anxiety. A sample of 80 children and their parents (fathers and mothers), selected from an initial screening of 905 school-aged children, participated in this study. The results indicate that both parents had unique influences on children’s anxiety symptoms: maternal trait anxiety and paternal overprotection and concern were found to independently and positively contribute to children’s anxiety. Furthermore, children’s interpretative biases mediated the relation between maternal trait anxiety and children’s anxiety symptoms. The results of this study underline the importance of considering both paternal and maternal factors in the development of children’s anxiety problems. These findings also have implications for theoretical models of the etiology of anxiety and for the treatment of these problems in children.     

Victimized Children’s Adjustment Difficulties: The Role of Parenting Styles and Parents’ Childhood Peer Victimization Status

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of parents’ childhood victimization status in the associations among parenting styles and victimized children’s depression and anxiety. Participants were 203 parents (86% mothers; M age = 43.75, SD = .76) and their children in the fourth or fifth grade (n = 203; 56% female; M age = 9.74, SD = .34). Children completed measures on peer victimization, their perceptions of their parents’ parenting styles, depression, and anxiety, while parents completed a measure on their childhood peer victimization while in elementary school. Parents’ childhood peer victimization status moderated relationships among authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and victimized children’s adjustment difficulties. These findings highlight the importance of considering parents’ experience of childhood peer victimization and its impact on their parenting styles and their children’s adjustment difficulties.     

The socialization of emotion by parents: Following Saarni’s legacy

Abstract

In 1985, Carolyn Saarni and Michael Lewis published the landmark book, The Socialization of Emotions. In launching the focused study of emotion socialization, then guiding the field with her insights and observations for more than 3 decades, Saarni fostered the current vibrancy of the study of parents’ emotion socialization. In this paper, I begin by summarizing Saarni’s perspective on emotion socialization by parents. I then illustrate how her work has influenced, and continues to inform, many aspects of emotion socialization research by myself and others, as well as our understanding of the intricate and nuanced exchanges between children, parents and culture that serve to foster the emotional development of children. Emotion socialization is at once ubiquitous and subtly complex, and our deepening insights into its many forms and faces are themselves a tribute to Saarni’s ongoing legacy to the field.     

Forgiveness: The Victim’s Prerogative

Abstract

This article explores and offers a qualified defence of the claim that the entitlement to forgive a wrongdoer belongs to the victim of the wrong. A summary account of forgiveness is given, followed by arguments in favor of the victim’s prerogative to forgive. Primary, or direct victims are then distinguished from secondary and tertiary ones, which point to a plurality of prerogatives to forgive. In cases of conflicts between these prerogatives it is emphasized that special care should be taken to protect the primary victim’s entitlement, without giving an absolute and exclusive status to the latter prerogative. Grounds for limiting the primary victim’s prerogative regarding forgiveness include (a) cases where harm to secondary and/or tertiary victims are greater than the harm resulting from the original wrong committed against the primary victim, (b) the social dimensions of the elements of forgiveness, and (c) the need for self-forgiveness when a repentant wrongdoer is not forgiven by any of the victims. The practical significance of these arguments are illustrated by considering the criticism that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission have forgiven perpetrators in ways that inappropriately pre-empted the primary victims’ entitlement to forgive.     

Promoting Optimal Parenting and Children’s Mental Health: A Preliminary Evaluation of the How-to Parenting Program

Parenting quality is widely accepted as a primary predictor of children’s mental health. The present study examined the effectiveness of a parenting program in fostering optimal parenting and child mental health. The selected program was How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk (How-to Parenting Program). This program was selected because its content corresponds closely to what the parenting style literature suggests is optimal parenting (i.e., includes structure, affiliation and autonomy support). Eleven groups of six to twelve parents were conducted in 7 local grade schools. The program, offered by two trained leaders, consisted of eight weekly sessions and taught a total of 30 skills. A total of 82 parents completed questionnaires both prior to and after the program. Participants’ children between eight and 12 years old (N = 44) completed questionnaires at school, at both assessment points. Repeated measures ANOVAs using parent reports indicated that structure, affiliation and autonomy support were increased after the program, compared to baseline. The level of child internalizing and externalizing problems also decreased significantly. Importantly, children reports confirmed that parental autonomy support increased from pre to post-test and child-reported well-being improved as well. The preliminary evidence from this pre-test versus post-test repeated measures design suggests that the How-to Parenting Program is effective in improving parenting style and in promoting children’s mental health and that future evaluation research examining the potential of this program is warranted.     

The Impact of Parent Empowerment in Children’s Mental Health Services on Parenting Stress

Emotional and behavioral (EB) problems in children are associated with increased perceptions of strain in parenting. Among children receiving services, parenting stress has been linked to initiating services for their children, and may strain the relationship between parent and child. In contrast, parental engagement and empowerment in services is an important quality indicator for positive treatment outcomes. However, no known studies have examined the association between parent empowerment in their child’s services and their perceptions of stress related to parenting a child with significant mental health needs. Further, no studies have explored whether empowerment moderates the relationship between the child’s symptoms and parental perceptions of stress. The current study examined the impact of child EB problems and parent empowerment on parenting stress. Among a sample of 525 parents of children receiving school-based services for disruptive behavior disorders, child EB problems significantly predicted parenting stress. Parent empowerment also correlated with lower parenting stress, as hypothesized. Although parent empowerment was not found to moderate the relationship between child symptomatology and parenting stress, the relationship between parent empowerment and parenting stress differed based on child gender and age. Parent empowerment was associated with lower parenting stress more for parents of females and younger children than for parents of males and older children.     

The Contemporary Study of Religion,Society and Politics in Russia: A Scholar’s Reflections1

Over the past decade, religious issues in France have come to the fore in the public debate. The 1905 law on the separation of church and state structures the concept of ‘laïcité’ as a configuration for the treatment of religions in France. This political and media debate has highlighted the representative institutions of mainstream religions in France, including the Orthodox Church. Obliged to take a position, both collectively with other religious actors and individually, Orthodoxy in France seems to be only marginally affected by this controversy. However, through press releases, memos, articles in the national press and online resources, the Orthodox Church has appropriated the issue of ‘laïcité à la française’. Behind these different messages lie the issues of the place of Orthodoxy in the French religious landscape and the (suspected) resistance of Orthodoxy against secularising forces in the minority context of the diaspora in Western Europe. Orthodoxy in France constitutes a key element of identity for the national Orthodox communities of the diaspora. Laïcité shapes and to a large extent justifies the anticanonical compromise of the ecclesiological treatment of the Orthodox communities in the diaspora, which are grouped by ethnicity. In this context, I assess how the legal and societal contexts of laïcité influence the main configurations of Orthodoxy in France, in terms of relations with the public authorities, relations with other religions and confessions, and the inter-Orthodox situation.     

Multiple Cultures,Multiple Selves,and Analytic Influence: A Response to Goldin’s “The Storied Self”

Using a dynamic systems contextual model, I expand Daniel Goldin’s ideas about narrative and the “storied self.” I identify two issues that are key to the development of a coherent life story: first, the identification and integration of the multiple psychic self-states and external cultures with which and in which people live, and second, the meeting and melding of important minds in the person’s environment.     

Fischer’s Way: The Next Level

I present an analogy between analytic philosophy and a particular sort of computer game, and analyze some aspects of John Martin Fischer's My Way in the light of this analogy. I set out the different levels of the free will question, and explore how well Fischer does on them. On the compatibility level, he succeeds, in my view, in confronting the "metaphysical challenge" and the "manipulation challenge", but does less well with the "moral arbitrariness challenge". The compatibilist perspective captures only part of the moral and personal truth on the compatibility issue, and is shown to be inherently shallow. On the next levels we see that Fischer confronts particular dangers: the very virtues that make his minimalist position so resilient on the second (compatibility) level, render it too impoverished when it comes to the third, which asks about the very importance of taking moral responsibility seriously. Connecting to other positions (such as P.F. Strawson's version of naturalism) may be an imperative, but would also be risky. Likewise, on the fourth level, where we confront the difficulty of deciding how to deal with the previous conclusions, it is doubtful how well Fischer can do, given his previous philosophical commitments.

The Brothers Karamazov: Dostoevskij’s Hosanna

The novel The Brothers Karamazov shows the spiritual rebirth of man and society. At first the world of the town Skotoprigon’evsk is depicted as heathen and even demonic, where everyone is in search of earthly justice, forgetting about love and losing a connection to God; here the theme of orphanhood is dominant. The second half of the novel is dominated by the image of the Holy Trinity, the symbol of mutual love and unity. The human world, according to Dostoevskij, cannot be divided into adults and children, the guilty and the innocent, insofar as all can freely participate in the redemption of humanity’s sin (like Christ, the paragon of innocence). If all people are God’s children, death does not have power over them. Upon completing his final novel Dostoevkskij wrote: “my Hosanna has passed through a big crucible of doubt.” The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoevskij’s Hosanna. Translated by Robert Bird     

Analyse qualitative de la dynamique identitaire socioprofessionnelle. Deux parcours contrastés par l’individualisation sociale

We will explore possible changes that may occur in the socio-professional identity construction, in terms of social individualization (Ehremberg, 1999). To achieve this, we conducted extensive interviews IMIS (Zavalloni, 2007), with two contrasted subjects, by age and experience. The results show different social dynamics, but the stability of psychological processes of identity, in relation with the self-project (Barber et al., 2006) and the capability-system (Costalat-Founeau, 2009), in a quest for recognition (Honneth, 2007).