Do Patriotic Ties Limit Global Justice Duties?

Some theorists who accept the existence of global justice duties to alleviate the condition of distant needy strangers hold that these duties are significantly constrained by special ties to fellow countrymen. The patriotic priority thesis holds that morality requires the members of each nation-state to give priority to helping needy fellow compatriots over more needy distant strangers. Three arguments for constraint and patriotic priority are examined in this essay: an argument from fair play, one from coercion, another from coercion and autonomy. Under scrutiny, none of these arguments qualifies as successful.     

Do Social Bonds Matter for Emerging Adults?

The extent to which social bonds and turning points influence criminal activity has been the focus of much empirical research. However, there have been few empirical studies exploring social bonds and turning points and offending for those who have experienced emerging adulthood, a recently identified stage of the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health we examined if indicators of social bonds and turning points were predictors of criminal offending. Several of the turning points and social bonds included in these analyses were found to influence decreases in criminal offending for a cohort of emerging adults. We extend previous research by examining the influence of social bonds and turning points on patterns of criminal offending during emerging adulthood.     

Do Parental Influences Matter? A Reply to Halverson

ABSTRACT Halverson (1988) raises many objections to the retrospective method, but only some of them are applicable to our study (McCrae & Costa, 1988), further, Halverson fails to distinguish between random error and bias in retrospective data We argue that retrospective accounts can provide one useful source of evidence when the probable effects of biases are taken into account The small associations between recalled parent-child relations and adult personality that we reported were probably exaggerated rather than masked by retrospective bias, we took this into account in reaching our conclusions Rather than dismiss the method, psychologists should question the entrenched belief that child-rearing is a major determinant of adult personality
Tram up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it—Proverbs 22 6     

Is Patriotism an Associative Duty?

Associative duties—duties inherent to some of our relationships—are most commonly discussed in terms of intimate associations such as of families, friends, or lovers. In this essay I ask whether impersonal associations such as state or nation can also give rise to genuinely associative duties, i.e., duties of patriotism or nationalism. I distinguish between the two in terms of their objects: the object of patriotism is an institutionalized political community, whereas the object of nationalism is a group of people who share a common identity, often grounded in a belief in shared history, and an aspiration for collective self-government together. I explore three arguments for the thesis that a special concern for one’s polity and fellow-citizens, or one’s nation and co-nationals, is an associative duty: from reciprocity, from collective self-determination, and from the well-being of compatriots or co-nationals. I argue that the relationship among compatriots is a more plausible contender for generating associative duties than the relationship among co-nationals, although even in this case there are questions whether these are genuinely associative duties, or simply special duties. Although the relationship among co-nationals is a less plausible contender for associative duties, the well-being argument does apply to the relationship among both co-nationals and compatriots. I also suggest that there is a certain privileging of the status quo in the way that associative duties arguments work, because they tend to operate from existing relations and associations.     

Do Applicants' Perceptions Matter? Investigating Reapplication Behavior Using Fairness Theory

This study used a fairness theory approach to examine a link between applicants' perceptions and their actual reapplication behavior. We suggested that applicants who do not receive job offers form ‘Would’ counterfactuals based on perceived performance and ‘Should’ counterfactuals based on two procedural justice rules (job relatedness and opportunity to perform). Participants (N=542) were applicants for a United States federal government position. After not being hired in the initial selection process, 9% of the applicants reapplied for the job the following year. We found some support for the hypothesized interactions. The job relatedness–perceived performance interaction was not significant, but the opportunity to perform–perceived performance interaction was. Opportunity to perform had a stronger influence when perceived performance was higher.     

Assessing Training Needs: Do Work Experience and Capability Matter?

Despite the crucial nature of needs assessment in training design and development, very little empirical work examining factors that influence such ratings has been undertaken. We investigated the impact of individuals' levels of work experience, self-efficacy, and skill proficiency on their subsequent ratings of training needs. Our results indicate that self-efficacy and skill proficiency are positively related to importance and frequency ratings for both skills and job tasks. However, when considered collectively, skill proficiency was a more potent influence, suggesting that an individual's actual capability may have a greater impact on ratings of training needs than his or her perceived capability (i.e., self-efficacy). Implications for future research and training needs assessment practice are discussed.     

Predicting Objectification: Do Provocative Clothing and Observer Characteristics Matter?

This study provides empirical evidence for the objectification of women and unearths factors that increase objectification. Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) suggests that women from Western cultures are the targets of male gaze. Although this seems self-evident from a look at the media, little empirical evidence exists to document the phenomenon or unravel underlying processes. Undergraduate female participants (N = 82) from the Midwestern part of the United States rated three photographs of well-known female Olympic athletes shown either provocatively dressed or in sport-appropriate outfits. Results showed that when shown provocatively attired the women were objectified. Furthermore, participants’ own levels of social physique anxiety were significant predictors of objectification. Sexism and trait objectification were not significantly related to ratings. This research was funded in part by a grant from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Research Council.     

Do Social Connections and Hope Matter in Predicting Early Adolescent Violence?

We tested relationships between social connections, hope, and violence among young adolescents from socially distressed urban neighborhoods, and examined whether relationships between adolescents' family and school connectedness and violence involvement were mediated by hopefulness. Data were from middle school students involved in the Lead Peace demonstration study. The sample (N = 164) was 51.8% female; 42% African American, 28% Asian, 13% Hispanic, and 17% mixed race or other race; average age was 12.1 years; 46% reported physical fighting in the past year. In multivariate models, parent-family connectedness was protective against violence; school connectedness was marginally protective. Hopefulness was related to lower levels of violence. The relationship between school connectedness and violence was mediated by hopefulness; some evidence for mediation also existed in the family-parent connectedness and violence relationship. Findings warrant continued exploration of hopefulness as an important protective factor against violence involvement, and as a mediator in relationships between social connections and violence involvement.     

Environmental Refugees: What Rights? Which Duties?

It is estimated that there could be 200 million‘environmental refugees’ by the middle of this century. One major environmental cause of population displacement is likely to be global climate change. As the situation is likely to become more pressing, it is vital to consider now the rights of environmental refugees and the duties of the rest of the world. However, this is not an issue that has been addressed in mainstream theories of global justice. This paper considers the potential of two leading liberal theories of international justice to address the particular issues raised by the plight of potential and actual environmental refugees. I argue that neither John Rawls’s ‘Law of Peoples’ approach nor Charles Beitz’s `cosmopolitanism' is capable of providing an adequate account of justice in this context. Beitz’s theory does have some advantages over Rawls’s approach but it fails to take proper account of the attachment that some people have to their own ‘home’. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Correlates of Employment Among Welfare Recipients: Do Psychological Characteristics and Attitudes Matter?

This study examines whether and how a wide range of potential barriers to work,including psychological characteristics and attitudes, are associated with current employment in a recent sample of welfare recipients in Michigan (N = 672). Psychological factors include measures of depressive symptoms, work attitudes, and perceived risks associated with leaving welfare. Over and above demographic, economic, and contextual factors, positive psychological characteristics and attitudes were found to be moderately associated with currently being employed. Implications for welfare-to-work programs and policy are discussed.     

Contextualization of Survey Data: What Do We Gain and Does It Matter?

Survey research designs that integrate contextual data have become more prevalent in recent decades, presumably to enable a more refined focus on the person as the unit of analysis and a greater emphasis on interindividual differences due to social forces and contextual conditions. This article reviews varied approaches to contextualizing survey data and examines the value of linking two data sources to respondent information: interviewer ratings and neighborhood information (measured via census tracts). The utility of an integrative approach is illustrated with data from the Health and Retirement Study. The results reveal modest gains by using a contextualized approach but also demonstrate that neglecting contextual factors may lead to misdirected substantive conclusions, especially for older racial and ethnic minorities. To enhance the ecological validity of survey data, investigators should select theoretically-meaningful contextual data for specific research questions and consider cross-level interactions.     

What Is Conventionalism about Moral Rights and Duties?

A powerful objection against moral conventionalism says that it gives the wrong reasons for individual rights and duties. The reason why I must not break my promise to you, for example, should lie in the damage to you—rather than to the practice of promising or to all other participants in that practice. Common targets of this objection include the theories of Hobbes, Gauthier, Hooker, Binmore, and Rawls. I argue that (1) the conventionalism of these theories is superficial; (2) genuinely conventionalist theories are not vulnerable to the objection; and (3) genuine moral conventionalism is independently plausible.     

Does Maintenance Treatment Matter?

This study examined the effects of a two-year maintenance treatment assessed at 1 and 2 years following Parent–child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). Sixty-one of 100 clinic-referred children (M age?=?4 years, 4 months) originally diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) completed the standard treatment and were then randomized to PCIT maintenance treatment (MT) or to an assessment-only follow-up condition (AO). Rating scale and observational measures from fathers, mothers, and children were collected before and after standard treatment and at one- and two-year follow-up assessments. Maintenance treatment involved monthly telephone contacts from the original therapist focused on relapse prevention based on principles of PCIT. At the two-year follow-up, MT families showed few changes from post-treatment, as expected. However, the expected decrements for AO control families were not seen. Few differences between MT and AO were found at either follow-up assessment, and there were no significant differences in the rates of change during follow-up. The maintenance of gains among AO families may have resulted from the continuous enhancement of standard treatment or from inadvertent reinforcement for maintenance provided by the assessments of change alone.     

Does Teaching Experience Matter?

49 pairs of counselors with and without teaching experience were asked to rate their relationships with others and their ability to perform certain school-related and guidance tasks. The pairs were obtained from throughout the United States. Counselor educators were asked to identify pairs who had graduated from their institution, were of the same sex, and were working in approximately the same situation. Ratings were then obtained using a mailed questionnaire. The major findings were: (1) After counselors had been on the job for 8 weeks or more they perceived no difference in their relationships with others in the school. (a) Counselors with teaching experience had significantly higher ratings of their ability to perform 4 of the 6 routine school tasks listed. (3) No significant differences were found in ratings of their ability to perform guidance tasks with the exception of providing vocational information. Counselors with teaching experience had higher ratings in this area.