Religion and action control: Faith-specific modulation of the Simon effect but not Stop-Signal performance

Previous findings suggest that religion has a specific impact on attentional processes. Here we show that religion also affects action control. Experiment 1 compared Dutch Calvinists and Dutch atheists, matched for age, sex, intelligence, education, and cultural and socio-economic background, and Experiment 2 compared Italian Catholics with matched Italian seculars. As expected, Calvinists showed a smaller and Catholics a larger Simon effect than nonbelievers, while performance of the groups was comparable in the Stop-Signal task. This pattern suggests that religions emphasizing individualism or collectivism affects action control in specific ways, presumably by inducing chronic biases towards a more “exclusive” or “inclusive” style of decision-making. Interestingly, there was no evidence that religious practice affects inhibitory skills.     

Educating the Muslim minority in Western Thrace

A large-scale, interdisciplinary Project for Reform in the Education of Muslim Children (PEM) in Western Thrace, Greece, was implemented during the years 1977–2004. Although PEM was a specifically educational project entailing teaching Greek as a second language, development of educational materials, teacher training and academic outcome, it was bound to involve identity issues and directly or indirectly embrace the entire Thracian community. A historical and socio-political background is provided in order for the reader to understand the way power is negotiated between majority and minority and the controversies that characterize educational policy and instructional practices in such a context of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity.     

Understanding Motor Awareness Through Normal and Pathological Behavior

ABSTRACT— Data on patients with localized brain damage and on neurologically intact subjects show that normal motor control depends on the functionality of a chain of neurobiological events. These events, through the activation of internal representations of the desired, predicted, and actual condition of one's body with respect to the external world, contribute to the construction of conscious knowledge of voluntary actions and to self-awareness.     

The Santa Clara Ethics Scale

Pastoral Psychology - Ethics and ethical decision-making are important for well-functioning communities and societies, including college campuses. Yet, there are very few high quality,...     

Foreign and domestic company attractiveness to host national employees in Japan: A person–organization fit and image theory perspective

This study contributes to research on organizational attractiveness and human resource management (HRM) by drawing on image theory to examine the effect of organizational characteristics (foreign vs. domestic company country‐of‐origin, HRM practices, organizational culture, and work environment) on organizational attractiveness perceptions by host country national (HCN) employees. Drawing on person–organization fit theory, we also examine the moderating effects of HCNs' demographic characters (age and gender), work‐related skills (English proficiency and international experience), and value orientations (individualism and risk aversion) between the relationship of these organizational characteristics and organizational attractiveness. A between‐subject scenario‐based experiment with 800 HCN employees in Japan suggest that not the company country‐of‐origin, but the local adaptation of organizational culture, HRM practices, and work environment influence HCNs' organizational attractiveness perceptions. HCNs' demographic characteristics, work‐related skills, and value orientations had moderating effects between these organizational characteristics and organizational attractiveness perceptions.     

Linguistic Integration—Valuable but Voluntary

Over the last decade, states have increasingly emphasised the importance of integration, and translated it into legal regulations that demand integration from immigrants. This paper criticises a specific aspect to this development, namely the tendency to make permanent residency dependent on language skills and, as such, seeks to raise doubts as to the moral acceptability of the requirement of linguistic integration. The paper starts by arguing that immigrants after a relatively short period of time acquire a moral claim to permanent residency in their host country. Accordingly, states may not limit residency at their discretion. Nevertheless, three arguments may seem promising for defending the requirement of linguistic integration: (a) that the immigrants’ moral claim conflicts with a stronger moral claim on the part of the larger society, and this makes an infringement of the immigrants’ claim proportionate; (b) that language requirements may be legally demanded as a precondition for permanent residency for the immigrants’ own sake; and (c) that language requirements are defensible, as far as immigrants may be understood to have consented to such regulation upon entry to the country. This paper argues that all three must be rejected.

     

Self‐esteem and anxious responses to partner feedback: Parsing anticipatory and consummatory anxiety

We hypothesized that people with lower self‐esteem (SE) may perceive feedback from romantic partners in threatening ways and display maladaptive reactions during these events. Although prior research suggests that SE is mostly unrelated to emotional reactions to partner feedback, we predicted that differences in anxious emotion exist, but emerge before the feedback is delivered, at anticipation. We evaluated these predictions through a series of studies in which participants received feedback from ongoing and ostensible dating partners. As in prior research, SE was unrelated to anxiety at feedback delivery. In contrast, and consistent with predictions, participants with lower SE anticipated feeling more anxious when receiving positive and negative feedback. These results are discussed in the context of broader relationship dynamics.     

Discrimination based on gender and ethnicity in English and Polish housing markets

Discrimination in the housing market is associated with decreased social integration and is costly at both social and individual levels. Here, we studied discrimination in English and Polish housing markets. In line with previous research, we expected ethnic‐ and gender‐based discrimination to occur in both housing markets. Conducting a preregistered field experiment of discrimination in the housing market, we sent e‐mails with inquiries about advertisements for 960 rentals in England and Poland. Inquiries were signed with Arabic‐, English‐, or Polish‐sounding male and female names. As a measure of discrimination, we calculated the proportion of answers that we received. In the English housing market, there was no statistically significant difference between the proportions of responses received for inquiries signed with Arabic, English, or Polish male or female names. In the Polish housing market, we received fewer responses to inquiries signed with Arabic male names than inquiries signed with any other names. The study shows discrimination against Arabic men in the Polish housing market, but there was no evidence of ethnic‐ or gender‐based discrimination in the English housing market. The results are discussed against the subordinate male target hypothesis as well as the current social and political situations in both countries.     

Putting the “We” Into Well‐being: Using Collectivism‐Themed Measures of Well‐Being Attenuates Well‐being's Association With Individualism

Studies repeatedly have documented that societal well‐being is associated with individualism. Most of these studies, however, have conceptualized/measured well‐being as individual life satisfaction—a type of well‐being that originates in Western research traditions. Drawing from the latest research on interdependent happiness and on family well‐being, we posit that people across cultures pursue different types of well‐being, and test whether more collectivism‐themed types of well‐being that originate in Confucian traditions also are associated with individualism. Based on data collected from 2,036 participants across 12 countries, we find support for the association between individual life satisfaction and individualism at the societal level, but show that well‐being's association with individualism is attenuated when some collectivism‐themed measures of well‐being are considered. Our article advances knowledge on the flourishing of societies by suggesting that individualism may not always be strongly linked with societal well‐being. Implications for public policies are signaled.