Who is dominating the Dutch neighbourhood? On the role of subsyllabic units in Dutch nonword reading

To assess the role of the subsyllabic units onset-nucleus (ON; spark) and rime (spark) in Dutch visual word recognition, we compared lexical decisions to four groups of nonwords in which the existence of ONs and rimes was orthogonally manipulated. Nonwords with existent ONs and/or rimes were rejected more slowly and less accurately. ON and rime neighbours thus influence Dutch nonword reading to the same extent. Simulations with the interactive activation model (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981) revealed that this model with left-to-right coded representations could not replicate the effects found in the lexical decision data whereas an adapted version with representations of onset, nucleus, and coda could. Effects of the larger units ON and rime emerged from activation patterns created by the smaller units onset, nucleus, and coda.     

Beyond the Dutch “Multicultural Model”

The Netherlands has been internationally known for its multicultural approach to immigrant integration. The aim of this article is to delve into the “coproduction” by researchers and policy makers of this so-called Dutch “multicultural model”. As this article shows, researchers and policy makers have in The Netherlands been joined in several discourse coalitions. Indeed, one of these discourse coalitions supported an integration paradigm with multicultural elements, but at least two other types of discourses can be identified in The Netherlands, one of more liberal–egalitarian nature and one more assimilationist. In spite of the persistent image of The Netherlands as a representative of the multicultural model, it is in fact this multiplicity of discourses that characterizes the Dutch case. Moreover, labeling Dutch integration policies as “multiculturalist” has to be understood as a performative act by both politicians and scholars who disapprove of Dutch integration policies. In that sense, the retrospective labeling of policies as multiculturalist is a very specific kind of coproduction of a policy frame.     

First steps in developing the Dutch version of the Bayley III: Is the original Bayley III and its item sequence also adequate for Dutch children?

The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development [Bayley III, Bayley, N. (2006). The Bayley scales of infant and toddler development. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation] is currently developed and exclusively normed for American children. In this study, the appropriateness of the Bayley III item content and item sequence for Dutch children was evaluated. The translated version, the Bayley-III-NL was evaluated in two phases. In phase 1 (N = 100), analyses showed that overall the item content seemed to be appropriate for Dutch children. In addition, the item sequence was found to be suitable for Dutch children. After phase 1, small adaptations were made to the instructions of a few items based on the experiences of the examiners to improve standardization in performance. In phase 2 (N = 400), the findings of phase 1 were confirmed in a larger sample. It is concluded that Dutch norms can be based upon the current version of the Bayley-III-NL.     

Implications of the Dutch Book: Following Ramsey��s axioms

The Dutch Book Argument shows that an agent will lose surely in a gamble (a Dutch Book is made) if his degrees of belief do not satisfy the laws of the probability. Yet a question arises here: What does the Dutch Book imply? This paper firstly argues that there exists a utility function following Ramsey’s axioms. And then, it explicates the properties of the utility function and degree of belief respectively. The properties show that coherence in partial beliefs for Subjective Bayesianism means that the degree of belief, representing a belief ordering, satisfies the laws of probability, and that coherence in preferences means that the preferences are represented by expected utilities. A coherent belief ordering and a utility scale induce a coherent preference ordering; a coherent preference ordering induces a coherent belief ordering which can be uniquely represented by a degree-of-belief function. The preferences (values) and beliefs are both incoherent or disordered if a Dutch Book is made.     

Beholding the beholder: The reception of “Dutch” painting

While a lucid and understandable interpretation can be given for most pictures, typically Dutch paintings (i.e. seventeenth-century genre and still-life pictures) seem to allow for or even demand some measure of freedom for the beholder. The cause of this ambiguity lies in the typically Protestant disregard for works of art and in a concomitant characteristic of these works: they address the viewer in an ethical manner.In memoriam Sixten Ringbom, 1935-1992     

Exploring the Social Origins of Dutch Mothers’ Ideal Family Lives

This paper examines how Dutch mothers’ ideal family lives (traditional, adaptive or egalitarian) have been formed in interaction with other people, an assumption that is central to socialization theories. With nominal regression analysis of data from a representative survey in 2010 among 935 Dutch mothers, we analyse various social influences on a mother’s current ideal family life. As hypothesized, the results show that a mother endorses a more egalitarian ideal family life if she recalls the gender role specific parental message ‘you should work in order to be financially independent of others’. Additionally, if the respondent recalls a positively work orientated mother at the age of 12 years, she has now as an adult more egalitarian ideals compared to daughters who recall a more home orientated mother or who have no memories of their mothers in that respect. We also show that as expected in the hypotheses 3 and 4, that Dutch mothers who have perceived career support by her partner and from people at work have now more egalitarian ideal family lives. Mothers’ current ideals are thus formed and further developed within prior social bonds. Moreover, mothers’ ideal family lives seem not only dependent on their current labour market behaviour, but to some degree resistant to change. However, the results must be interpreted with care because of the cross-sectional research design and the use of retrospective questions.     

Ignoring God Triune? The Doctrine of the Trinity in Dutch Theology

This article presents an overview of Dutch trinitarian theology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It will become clear how and why leading Dutch theologians either ignored the doctrine, or used it for their own purposes, or uttered critical reservations regarding its sense and significance. After having reviewed the ways in which this majority of Dutch theologians has dealt with the doctrine, some notable constructive exceptions are explored. In conclusion, the authors raise the question as to Low Dutch theology might, starting from its own tradition, catch up with the recent international and inter-denominational tendency towards a well-developed trinitarian theology.     

Resilience of the Childhood Origins of Dutch Mothers’ Gender Role Attitudes

Based on qualitative analysis of 39 in depth interviews with Dutch mothers, this paper firstly explores if differences in primary socialization are relevant to an understanding of Dutch mothers’ current diverse (personal) gender role attitudes. Secondly, it addresses the interplay of a mother’s own gender role attitude and those of her partner and peers. The findings reveal that Dutch mothers’ current diverse gender role attitudes have origins in the transmission of different mental and verbal parental, especially maternal, symbols. Egalitarian mothers often recall a strong mother-figure, the verbal persuasion of economic independence and/or particular non-traditional upbringing matters that appealed to their logic of being financially independent. The memories of traditional/adaptive mothers rather stand out for the resignation of unpaid tasks by their own mothers, and the absence of parental encouragement to consider their professional life. The findings further indicate that in childhood originated aspects of mother’s personal gender role attitude continue to shape the character of mother’s behavior and new social relationships.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the MMPI–2 Restructured Clinical Scales in Two Dutch Samples

In this article, we evaluate internal validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability of the MMPI–2 Restructured Clinical (RC) scales in the Dutch MMPI–2 normative sample (N = 1,244) and a Dutch outpatient psychiatric sample (N = 1,066). We pay special attention to a critique regarding construct drift of RC3 and the redundancy of the RC scales with existing MMPI–2 scales. The results indicate that the RC scales in both samples show comparable or better internal consistencies than the Clinical scales. Also, in both samples, the RC scales demonstrate lower scale-level intercorrelations than the Clinical scales. As to the structural characteristics, principal component analysis of the RC scales provided a clearer pattern than an analysis of the Clinical scales. Furthermore, mean raw scores on the RC scales for men in the Dutch normative sample corresponded highly with those in the U.S. normative sample except for RC2 and RC4. Less correspondence was found for women. Overall, we conclude that the RC scales show satisfactory reliability and promising internal validity in our Dutch samples. We suggest that U.S. validation studies on the RC scales may be generalized to the Dutch-language version of the MMPI–2 RC scales.     

“When is my Dutch good enough?” Experiences of refugee women with Dutch labour organizations

The basic assumption in the Dutch dominant discourse on integration is that knowledge of the Dutch language when combined with education is the key factor for integration into society. The aim of this article is to show how female refugees who have completed higher education in the Netherlands experience the process of integration into the Dutch labour market through contacts with and in Dutch organizations. We situate the narratives of these women in the broader discursive context of the Netherlands and show what these experiences can tell us about the policies and debates on integration in the Netherlands.     

Reaching the Limits of Secularization? Turkish‐ and Moroccan‐Dutch Muslims in the Netherlands 1998–2006

This research note focuses on Muslim minorities living in a secular context, the Netherlands. The question is whether mosque attendance among Turkish‐ and Moroccan‐Dutch changed between 1998 and 2006, testing mechanisms of religious decline and religious vitality. Elaborating on previous research of the same Muslim groups, this study examines a longer time span and adds contextual‐level explanations. Whereas previous research reported a linear trend towards secularization over time and over generations, in recent years the trend has become more complex. The revival of religious attendance among the second generation is most striking. Forces of secularization such as educational attainment and generational replacement gradually lose their predictive power. Over time, processes of secularization are therefore not inevitable.     

The split professional identity of the chaplain as a spiritual caregiver in contemporary Dutch health care: are there implications for the United States?

The professional identity of the chaplain in Dutch health care institutions is in need of a new theoretical underpinning. The continued employment of the "spiritual caregiver," as the professional is called in the Netherlands, may be at stake. In former days, she or he was primarily a religious office holder fulfilling ecclesiastical functions. Against the background of secularization and individualization of religions and worldviews, the spiritual caregiver now turns more and more into an existential counselor, focusing on the search for meaning and life-orientation of all the clients/patients/residents, irrespective of their religion or philosophy of life. This brings along the need for a conceptualization of spiritual care. What is the spiritual caregiver's particular contribution to care and treatment, compared to that of, for instance, psychotherapists and social workers? What are the specific aims, methods, and key images of the profession? This brief communication sketches the specific context in which the Dutch spiritual caregiver has to work and the identity dilemmas he or she faces.     

Between Imposing One’s Will and Protecting Oneself. Narcissism and the Meaning of Life among Dutch Pastors

In contemporary culture, narcissism is an important and common personality trait. This trait is very significant for the meaning people experience in their lives. This article deals with an inquiry into the relationship between narcissism and the meaning of life among pastors. Narcissism is further specified into several dimensions (centripetal narcissism, centrifugal narcissism, isolation and self-satisfaction) and the significance of these dimensions is examined for two central dimensions of the attribution of meaning (frame of reference and fulfilment). The article discusses the significance of the relationship between narcissism and meaning for the professional performance of pastors. Hessel J. Zondag is lecturer in the psychology of religion at the Theologische Faculteit Tilburg in the Netherlands. His teachings and research interests are psychology of religion, cultural psychology, and pastoral psychology. Currently he conducts research to the functions of narcissism in contemporary culture, especially the effects of narcissism on functioning of pastors. Recent publications have appeared in Pastoral Psychology, Journal of Psychology & Theology, and Review of Religious Research.     

Teasing ‘Islam’: ‘Islam’ as the Other Side of ‘Tolerance’ in Contemporary Dutch Politics

This article deals with the role of ‘Islam’ in contemporary Dutch political discourses on tolerance. I will show how Islam is described as an ideology (and not as a religion) competing with liberal values. I argue that political disputes are not at all about Islam as a living religion, but about ‘Islam’ as a culturally presumed menace to, or negative projection of, dominant Dutch imaginaries, such as tolerance and free speech, that are taken as elementary conditions for a liberal democratic state. The first part of this article deals with the staging and development of ‘Islam’ in Dutch politics since the 1970s. Part two develops a theoretical understanding of the framing of ‘Islam’ as the opponent of ‘tolerance’ and argues that this position shows a typical modern stance.     

Is Dutch native English? Linguistic analysis by 2-month-olds

A variant of the non-nutritive habituation/dishabituation sucking method was used to test 2-month-old English infants’ perception of languages. This method tests for the spontaneous interest of the baby to a change in the stimulus. English and Japanese were clearly discriminated. The difference between French and Japanese was equally clearly not of interest to babies using this procedure, the babies behaving as though both languages were classified simply as ‘foreign’. In order to further specify babies’ representation of native and foreign language, we used Dutch, which shares a number of suprasegmental features with English. The results from our last 2 experiments indicate that a portion of our 6–12 week-old babies consider Dutch as native, suggesting that we tapped in a transition period where the babies are still refining the suprasegmental specification of their native language.     

Agrammatic sentence production: is verb second impaired in Dutch?

This study investigates effects of verb movement in nine Dutch-speaking agrammatic aphasics. According to linguistic theory, in verb second languages such as Dutch and German, the verb remains in its clause-final base position in embedded clauses, whereas it moves to second position in main clauses. In recent linguistic accounts of agrammatic sentence production, it has been suggested that the production of sentences with moved verbs is relatively difficult. However, we argue that evidence provided by previous studies on this matter is inconclusive. An experiment is reported in which the production of both types of clauses is compared. No evidence is found that sentences with moved verbs are relatively difficult to produce. In fact, there was a tendency for the base order sentences to be harder. Implications of these findings for theories of normal and agrammatic sentence production are discussed.     

Predictors of Dutch and Finnish Children’s Satisfaction with Schooling

Considerable research has shown that there are clear links among satisfaction with schooling, overall life satisfaction, and physical and psychological well-being. In this investigation, we expand on that line of research by identifying the predictors of overall satisfaction with schooling of 331 Dutch and Finnish pupils aged 6–13. Similar to previous research, student age, student gender, and teacher likeability were strong predictors of students’ overall satisfaction with schooling. New findings from this investigation were that teacher gender and class size were significant predictors of overall satisfaction with schooling.     

Would we rather lose our life than lose our self? Lessons from the Dutch debate on euthanasia for patients with dementia

This article reviews the Dutch societal debate on euthanasia/assisted suicide in dementia cases, specifically Alzheimer's disease. It discusses the ethical and practical dilemmas created by euthanasia requests in advance directives and the related inconsistencies in the Dutch legal regulations regarding euthanasia/assisted suicide. After an initial focus on euthanasia in advanced dementia, the actual debate concentrates on making euthanasia/assisted suicide possible in the very early stages of dementia. A review of the few known cases of assisted suicide of people with so-called early dementia raises the question why requests for euthanasia/assisted suicide from patients in the early stage of (late onset) Alzheimer's disease are virtually non-existent. In response to this question two explanations are offered. It is concluded that, in addition to a moral discussion on the limits of anticipatory choices, there is an urgent need to develop research into the patient's perspective with regard to medical treatment and care-giving in dementia, including end-of-life care.     

Psychometrics and Validity of the Dutch Experiences in Close Relationships–Revised (ECR–r) in an Outpatient Mental Health Sample

The Experiences in Close Relationships–Revised (ECR–r) is a self-report instrument to assess adult attachment style that seems to have appropriate psychometric qualities. The ECR–r has been most widely studied in student and community samples. In this study we report factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of the Dutch translation of the ECR–r in an outpatient mental health sample (N = 262). The original factor structure could satisfactorily be replicated, the reliability of the ECR–r was also stable over time, and there was good evidence for its construct validity.