Taking Confucian Thought Seriously for Contemporary Society: Rejoinder to Lauren Pfister,Ronnie Littlejohn,and Li Chenyang

This rejoinder focuses on a few points of disagreement that I have with Li Chenyang, Ronnie Littlejohn, and Lauren Pfister regarding their critical comments on my book Reconstructionist Confucianism. In response to Pfister’s concerns, I point out that my book attempts to base on classical, rather than other, Confucian sources in order to reconstruct the Confucian virtue-based, ritual-guided, and family-oriented view of life for contemporary society. In appreciating Littlejohn’s suggestion on Confucian environmentalism, I contend that a kind of Grand View Garden as we find in the Dream of Red Mansion would be a typical Confucian garden, manifesting the Confucian ideal of a family-oriented way of life that holds in harmonious relations with the rest of nature under the direction of the cosmic principles. Finally, I offer detailed replies to Li’s series of challenges to my view on li 禮, arguing for the essential constitutive nature of the Confucian rituals.     

Anscombe,Zygotes, and Coming‐to‐be

In some quarters, it is held that Anscombe proved that a zygote is not a human being on the basis of an argument involving the possibility of identical twins, but there is surprisingly little agreement on what her argument is supposed to be. I criticize several extant interpretations, both as interpretations of Anscombe and as self‐standing arguments, and offer a different understanding of her conclusion on which the non‐specificity of creation processes and their goals is at issue.     

Buyers Versus Sellers: How They Differ in Their Responses to Framed Outcomes

Consumers’ reactions to a difference in price can depend on how it is framed. If buyers interpret paying $60 rather than $65 as getting a $5 discount, then they are likely to consider paying $60 to be a gain and paying $65 to be a nongain. Alternatively, if they interpret having to pay $65 rather than $60 as incurring a $5 penalty, then they may consider paying $60 to be a nonloss and paying $65 to be a loss. Similarly, sellers can also experience gains, nongains, nonlosses, and losses. This article suggests that buyers are prevention focused and consequently place a greater emphasis on loss‐related frames, whereas sellers are promotion focused and place a greater emphasis on gain‐related frames. Therefore, for equivalent positive outcomes, buyers feel better about nonlosses, but sellers feel better about gains. For equivalent negative outcomes, buyers feel worse about losses, but sellers feel worse about nongains. These effects, however, disappear when there is little motivation to process information about the monetary transaction.     

Responses to Allen,Appiah, and Lawson

In my Responses, I take up the various definitional and justificatory challenges that Anita Allen, Anthony Appiah and Bill Lawson raise to my defense of affirmative action and I try to build bridges and remove the apparent disagreements between our views. In the process, I have found a way to replace race-based affirmative action with a non-race-based program which retains all the benefits that a race-based program can provide and secures additional benefits as well.     

Implementation of a Trauma-Specific,Evidence-Informed Treatment for Adolescents: Two Cases Highlighting How to and How Not to Integrate

The clinical team at an urban trauma clinic sought to evaluate a protocol representing an integration of empirically validated treatment components to address trauma sequelae among female adolescents with a history of physical and/or sexual abuse. PARTNERS with teens is an exposure-based, trauma-specific cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol. Specifically, PARTNERS integrates engagement strategies, cultural sensitivity, and elements of motivational interviewing, dialectical behavior therapy, and family-based parent and communication training in order to reduce symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression and improve affect regulation among economically disadvantaged, multiracial/ethnic adolescents. This paper describes two cases that represent both treatment success and failure in treatment integration, specifically in negotiation of caregiver resistance, adolescent safety concerns, and ongoing interpersonal crises. Results illustrate how treatment components were emphasized and incorporated differentially throughout treatment as a function of case conceptualization. Successful implementation of treatment resulted in reductions in PTSD, depression, externalizing behaviors, and emotion dysregulation. In contrast, failure to effectively reconcile different philosophies and techniques within the treatment model to address challenges in engagement and motivation, inconsistent caregiver involvement, and trauma-related conflicts in the dyad, contributed to disengagement from treatment and persistence of trauma sequelae. Treatment outcome across these two cases is discussed as a function of how well the philosophies and techniques of different adolescent specific treatment components are integrated; directions for future research and training are discussed.     

Teachers' Responses to Bias in the Classroom: How Response Type and Situational Factors Affect Student Perceptions

College students frequently encounter prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes, but there is no research on effective teacher responses to classroom bias. Three studies examined students' perceptions of teacher responses to bias in the classroom. Study 1 experimentally manipulated the level of bias expressed and the teacher's response. Students perceived responding to bias as more effective than ignoring bias. Study 2 demonstrated that students perceive differences in the intensity of common responses to bias. Study 3 manipulated if bias occurred publicly or privately and if the target of bias was present or not, and students evaluated teacher responses of differing intensity for their effectiveness in achieving specific goals. The results provide evidence for the efficacy of matching responses to specific goals.