Using Force: Australian Newspaper Depictions of Contacts Between the Police and Persons Experiencing Mental Illness

The media creates and sustains knowledge about socially relevant issues such as crime, mental illness, and policing. Past research suggests that while the media portrayal of the police is undoubtedly complex, their portrayal of people experiencing mental illness remains mainly negative. The depiction of their encounters in the mass media is of considerable interest because of the influential role the media has on public opinion and debate; however, there is a lack of current research in this area. This study aimed to examine media items in the major newspapers across Australia between January 2006 and December 2007 (n = 77) to investigate their portrayal of this interface. The dominant themes encountered in the initial analysis depicted people experiencing mental illness as dangerous and a threat to the public, where the mental health system has failed to manage them adequately. Further analyses found that people experiencing mental illness were stigmatised in a third of the media items reviewed and were represented significantly more negatively in these encounters than the police. Implications of these findings and some suggestions regarding possible strategies that could improve socially responsible media reporting and public discourse on mental illness are proposed.     

Between National Pride and the Scientific Success of “Others”: The Case of Polish Press Coverage of Nanotechnology, 2004–2009

Research on the media representations of nanotechnology have flourished during the last decennium. However, most of the projects were focused on Western Europe and North America, especially the English speaking countries. This paper aims to move the focus towards Poland - a Central European country that has not been studied in this context before. This study looks at the frames, themes and tone used in the Polish coverage of nanotechnology between 2004 and 2009. Other issues, such as main actors in the debate or articles?? geographical focus have also been considered.     

Eye color Predicts Disagreeableness in North Europeans: Support in Favor of Frost (2006)

The current study investigates whether eye color provides a marker of Agreeableness in North Europeans. Extrapolating from Frost’s (2006) research uncovering an unusually diverse range of hair and eye color in northern Europe, we tested the hypothesis that light eyed individuals of North European descent would be less agreeable (a personality marker for competitiveness) when compared to their dark eyed counterparts, whereas there would be no such effect for people of European descent in general. The hypothesis was tested in Australia to provide consistent environmental conditions for both groups of people. Results support the hypothesis. Implications and conclusions are discussed.     

Fight Islamophobia in Europe? Less Islam and Muslims and More Citizenship!

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the overmediatization of Islam and Muslims in Europe has only worsened the perception of them and relationships with them. Communities have been stigmatized by the media because of inappropriate behaviours attributable to many players in the game. All this fear of Islam (Islamophobia) has increasingly transformed into an attitude of rejection towards this paradoxically close and distant Other, which has become a sort of “enemy.” Islam is essentially perceived through the claims of a quite visible minority who believe they have the potential to call into question “European values” (to be defined) in the name of their faith, which is considered by some as aggressive and in search of conquest.This article proposes a change of focus towards being more creative when speaking about Muslims and favouring a more civic approach. Before being Muslims, they are people who enjoy a legal framework that assures them of their dignity and their individual freedom in exchange for fulfilling their civic duties towards the State and their fellow citizens.     

The lay of the land: European career research and its future

Over the past two decades, career research in Europe has developed into a dynamic discourse of its own. However, few if any considerations deal with its future development. Against the backdrop of the unique European context consisting of specific European macro‐themes, its methodological heritage and the current research landscape, this conceptual paper outlines core dimensions of a future agenda for European career research. They include units of analysis with varying degree of social complexity, the underlying scientific concern, thematic foci stemming from the European situation, and the role of time. This devises a ‘research space’ providing orientation for future career research in Europe. Concluding, the article touches on contributions of the European career discourse to its global counterpart.     

Commentary: Why Do Research on Spirituality and Health, and What Do the Results Mean?

I address two related questions in this article. First, why conduct research on religion/spirituality (R/S) and health? Second, what are the dangers of misinterpreting or misapplying the results from such research? If relationships are found, so what? What is the practical value or clinical relevance of such information? Why should investigators spend time and scarce financial resources to explore such connections? What might health care professionals do differently as a result? How would people live their lives differently in light of such information? Questions like these need solid answers for the field to continue to move forward. Related to the "So what?" question is the issue of how results from research in this area are translated into popular understanding and application. After discussing why conducting research on religion and health is important, I identify a recently published research report that focuses on the relationship between R/S and self-control, an article that received considerable media press coverage. I present the results reported by the authors of this study and then examine a column written about the study that appeared in the New York Times. Finally, I explore what the findings mean, how the media portrayed the findings, and problems that might result depending on how people applied those findings.     

Disability and employment – overview and highlights

Due to the expected decline in the working-age population, especially in European countries, people with disabilities are now more often recognized as a valuable resource in the workforce and research into disability and employment is more important than ever. This paper outlines the state of affairs of research on disability and employment. We thereby focus on one particular group of people with disabilities, that is to say people with mental disabilities. We define disability according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of the World Health Organization, by that recognizing that disability results from the interaction of person and environment. Key issues, including the complexity of defining disability, the legal situation in Europe and North America concerning disability at work, and barriers and enablers to employment, are discussed. For each of the topics we show important findings in the existing literature and indicate where more in-depth research is needed. We finalize with a concrete research agenda on disability and employment and provide recommendations for practice.     

Are sales as we know it dying … or merely transforming?

The world of sales research continues to transform as we move more into the world of social media. This article briefly examines a historical examination of sales research by decade and then presents a model of sales research needs going forward based on how social media is being implemented by selling and buying organizations. The model assumes that the selling process is incorporated within a social media world and elements within the model include the salesperson and sales center, the buyer and buying center, the use of artificial intelligence, the teleselling unit, the interaction between marketing and sales departments, and the methods of selling. Discussion follows the model, focusing on how social media is being used among and between units in the selling process. The discussion unfolds on three key parts of the sales equation: (1) the sales organization, (2) the buying organization, and (3) the interaction between marketing and selling departments. Research questions follow each of the three discussion sections.     

ENVISIONING JEWISH CENTRAL EUROPE: FRIEDRICH TORBERG,THE AUSTRIAN ÉMIGRÉS,AND JEWISH EUROPEAN HISTORY

This essay uses the Viennese remigré writer and journalist, Friedrich Torberg (1908–1979), his Austrian Jewish cohort, and their invented “Central Europe” and “Austrian Literature” to argue for a paradigmatic shift in émigré historiography. The cosmopolitan narrative predominating in émigré historiography has marginalized traditional Judaism. By shifting the focus from the German to the Austrian émigrés, and from the European nation state to the Austrian Empire, historians can reclaim traditional Jewish culture and pluralize the hegemonic narrative. Late imperial Austria, constitutionally federalist and ethnically and culturally diverse, made room for a Jewish national culture in ways that Germany did not. The Austrian émigrés shaped visions of Central Europe that foregrounded Jewishness and provided wider space for Jewish life than comparable visions of leading German émigrés. Yet, even Austrian émigré visions remained largely incognizant of rabbinic culture, the core of traditional Jewish life. To make traditional Jews agents of Jewish European history, European historiography must now move to incorporate rabbinic culture.     

Europe 2020 Strategy and Citizens’ Life Satisfaction

The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the Europe 2020 Strategy approach might guide policymaking toward citizens’ life satisfaction. We find that the Member States closer to attaining the Europe 2020 targets report higher levels of satisfaction. That is, Europe 2020 Strategy, as a set of public policies, is aligned with people’s life satisfaction. In addition, and given the current context of rising economic and social inequalities in the European Union and their negative consequences for people’s well-being, we study whether an “inequality-extended Europe 2020 Strategy”, incorporating more specific targets for inequalities, is more aligned with European’s life satisfaction. Results show that inequality-extended Europe 2020 Strategy is more associated with life satisfaction than Europe 2020 Strategy. Thus inequalities do matter to European citizens and a refinement of the Europe 2020 Strategy could enhance the effectiveness of its programs.     

Students without borders? Migratory decision-making among international graduate students in the U.S.

Katalin Szelényi suggests that the less-developed a country is internationally, the more elites of such a country choose to move internationally in their educations and careers. Her research on different graduate student nationalities in the U.S. (presented here) is the basis of her suggestion. She adds that it is no surprise the North Africans and Latin Americans one meets in finance or the media in London are from relatively elite backgrounds—one has to be an elite in these countries to have the chance to move. This is not the case with nationals from the more highly developed countries, where mobility opportunities are more broadly shared and where people who move internationally have made much more marginal, risky, career decisions compared to those in nationalized careers from welfare-states with stable pay-offs at home. Szelenyi also reviews in depth the brain drain/gain/circulation question, which is the biggest single area of research on skilled migrants. This is because of its sharp policy implications in developing countries in terms of economic development and political stability. Such fears of the developmental costs of “brain drain” assume a zero-sum game in which sending countries lose as the developed world creams off the best and the brightest. Szelényi, however, questions the notion that it is always the best and the brightest who move.     

Content Hungry: How the Nutrition of Food Media Influences Social Media Engagement

What motivates people to consume and engage with food media on social networks? We adopt an evolutionary lens to suggest that the valence of people’s affective state varies by the implied caloric density of food media, which has a direct impact on social media engagement. First, we analyze a catalog of Buzzfeed’s Tasty videos based on nutritional content derived from the dish’s ingredients and find that visualizing caloric density (i.e., calories per serving) positively influences likes, comments, and shares on Facebook. We then replicate this phenomenon in an experiment, providing preliminary evidence for the role of affect as an explanatory mechanism. We conclude by isolating the role of affect with a classic misattribution task, which attenuates the elevated engagement resulting from exposure to calorie-dense food media. These findings contribute to the dialogue on the antecedents of social media engagement and offer implications for content developers, advertisers, consumer health advocates, and policymakers.     

GM Crops in Hungary: Comparing Mass Media Framing and Public Understanding of Technoscientific Controversy

In Hungary, there has been limited public debate about genetically modified crops, unlike in some Western countries. The mass media has published little to inform Hungarian lay people about genetically modified (GM) crops or their relevance to the country. Nevertheless, the media did convey some general impressions, mainly from within an Anti-GM Threat framing of the issue. This mass media frame was evident in lay focus group discussions—e.g. GM crops branded a food risk, general focus on risks, health risk identified as important risk, foreign companies regarded as source of the problem and as being ‘just out for profit’, image of corn, rhetoric of deterioration, etc. This overlap supports theories which suggest that media framings provide a resource which can be appropriated for public understanding. At the same time, however, dominant media framings were also mentioned only vaguely or in a somewhat modified way. Other issues raised in the media framing, not resonating with wider cultural themes, were absent from focus group discussions (e.g. environmental concerns). And participants were also able to rely on other conversational resources (analogous reasoning and cultural themes) to formulate some additional issues beyond the media reportage.     

The Association Between Age and Ethics-Related Issues in Using Social Media for HIV Prevention in Peru

Little research has focused on the ethical issues around using social media for HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries, such as Peru. This study surveyed participants from the HOPE social media HIV intervention in Peru to assess their experiences and perceptions of ethical issues in the study and the impact of age on their experiences and perceptions. This study found that, compared to younger participants, older participants were more likely to express higher levels of understanding of the consent form and trust that other participants were real. Older participants also reported being less likely to benefit from learning about their HIV status. Findings suggest that age plays a role in participants’ experiences in a social-media-based HIV intervention.     

Interregional and intraregional variability of intergroup attitudes predict online hostility

To what extent are intergroup attitudes associated with regional differences in online aggression and hostility? We test whether regional attitude biases towards minorities and their local variability (i.e. intraregional polarization) independently predict verbal hostility on social media. We measure online hostility using large US American samples from Twitter and measure regional attitudes using nationwide survey data from Project Implicit. Average regional biases against Black people, White people, and gay people are associated with regional differences in social media hostility, and this effect is confounded with regional racial and ideological opposition. In addition, intraregional variability in interracial attitudes is also positively associated with online hostility. In other words, there is greater online hostility in regions where residents disagree in their interracial attitudes. This effect is present both for the full resident sample and when restricting the sample to White attitude holders. We find that this relationship is also, in part, confounded with regional proportions of ideological and racial groups (attitudes are more heterogeneous in regions with greater ideological and racial diversity). We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these relationships, as well as the dangers of escalating conflict and hostility when individuals with diverging intergroup attitudes interact. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

The perception of digital objects and their impact on development

Clinical work with adolescents and young people over the last decade has indicated that an intense relationship to digital objects was a major aspect of their mental lives. Digital objects have become embedded, inextricably, within our psychology, emphasising the earliest drives and phantasies at some moments, yet giving rise to less familiar phenomena at other times. The aim of this paper is to consider how the rise in digital media and social networking is impacting upon the lives of young people and influencing the course of their development, with particular reference to the impact of visual media within social networks and how this has a distinct influence on mental functioning. In attempting to describe these processes, it is hoped that we can become more able to accompany younger or older people in their exploration of the digital world, which will be as important to them in their future adult lives as their mastery of the physical, external world was in early childhood. The need is pressing, since access to the digital world has significantly increased through the use of mobile, connected devices, and the further evolution of new technologies, such as ‘the internet of everything’ and ‘wearable tech’, are almost upon us.     

抑郁症患者的语言使用模式

语言使用模式能反映心理状态和精神病理学特征。抑郁症患者与健康人群的语言使用模式存在差异, 识别抑郁症患者的语言使用模式有助于抑郁症的预测和诊断。传统的心理学研究和基于社交媒体的研究均表明, 抑郁症患者更多地使用第一人称单数代词和消极情绪词, 更少地使用第一人称复数代词和积极情绪词。基于社交媒体的研究进一步发现了一些抑郁个体日常生活中的其他语言标志。建议未来的研究进一步确认更具抑郁特异性的语言标志, 并进一步探索语言标志与抑郁症状间的理论联系。     

Muslims in europe: History revisited or a way forward?

While the immigration and settlement of Muslims in western Europe can be traced back over several centuries, the settlement which has taken place since 1945 has created a substantial challenge to traditional European and Muslim ways of life and identity. A major change is taking place around the growth of a generation of young people born and brought up in Europe. Their attitudes and responses to their circumstances are not uniform, and a typology is suggested. At the same time, post‐Communist eastern Europe has again opened questions of the relationship between religion, ethnicity and nation in ways which western Europe may now be echoing in its new cultural plurality.     

Together towards Life

Which are the convincing ways of evangelism in the secular, multicultural countries of western Europe? Does the new mission affirmation Together towards Life offer relevant contributions to this debate? This article explores recent developments in western Europe. It starts by reviewing the secular nature of these countries and then explains how migration has tested the secularization thesis. The transformation of western European cultures from secular toward secular/multi‐religious reopens the debate on secularism and religion. The article also reflects on the question of what the central ideas in the new mission affirmation – the affirmation of life, the power of the Holy Spirit, mission from the margins, and authentic evangelism as discipleship – may mean in these changing secular cultures. The author concludes that discipleship, provided it is authentic, may help to move beyond the apparent contradictions between secularism and religion and may help to find new ways of bringing forth the good news.