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.     

Development and test of a model of interdisciplinary competencies

Interdisciplinary work offers both innovative potential and challenges in collaboration. The present paper summarizes three studies intended to foster a psychological, competency-focused understanding of interdisciplinary work. In a qualitative interview study (Study 1) with expert practitioners of interdisciplinarity, we used the critical incident technique to explore which individual competencies support interdisciplinary collaborations and improve innovative outcomes. Focusing on competencies specific to interdisciplinarity, we derived a four-dimensional model. In Study 2, we tested the model dimensions (1) initiative for exchange, (2) target group-specific communication, (3) knowledge integration, and (4) reflection in a quantitative survey study among N = 315 employees who were experienced in interdisciplinary work using exploratory structural equation modelling. Finally, in Study 3, we studied the convergent and divergent validity of interdisciplinary competencies as well as their role in predicting team outcomes. Here, a dyadic sample of N = 448 target persons and N = 153 interdisciplinary colleagues were surveyed. We discuss possible applications for the new model of interdisciplinary competencies and the developed self-report instrument.     

Relationships among Personal Life Stories,Vicarious Life Stories about Mothers and Fathers,and Well-being

We examined whether vicarious life stories about mothers and fathers differed in their relationships with personal life stories and well-being. Seventy-six emerging adults completed scales measuring well-being and described three chapters in their personal, mothers’, and fathers’ life stories. Chapters were self-rated and content coded for emotional tone and positive/negative person change. Characteristics of personal life stories were positively correlated with characteristics of vicarious life stories for mothers and fathers. Personal life stories were higher on positive person change than vicarious life stories about mothers and fathers. Higher well-being was related to rating all three life stories as more positive, but results for content coding were more mixed. The results indicate that vicarious life stories for mothers and fathers are related in similar ways to personal life stories and well-being.     

Two good reasons to say ‘change!’ – ensemble representations as well as item representations impact standard measures of VWM capacity

Visual working memory (VWM) is a central bottleneck in human information processing. Its capacity is most often measured in terms of how many individual‐item representations VWM can hold (k). In the standard task employed to estimate k, an array of highly discriminable colour patches is maintained and, after a short retention interval, compared to a test display (change detection). Recent research has shown that with more complex, structured displays, change‐detection performance is, in addition to individual‐item representations, supported by ensemble representations formed as a result of spatial subgroupings. Here, by asking participants to additionally localize the change, we reveal indication for an influence of ensemble representations even in the very simple, unstructured displays of the colour‐patch change‐detection task. Critically, pure‐item models from which standard formulae of k are derived do not consider ensemble representations and, therefore, potentially overestimate k. To gauge this overestimation, we develop an item‐plus‐ensemble model of change detection and change localization. Estimates of k from this new model are about 1 item (~30%) lower than the estimates from traditional pure‐item models, even if derived from the same data sets.     

Exhaled breath analysis in evaluation of psychological stress: A short literature review

Physiological stress is pervasive in today's society. Its detection is normally performed through several unobtrusive methods, driving both caregivers and patients to take measures to reduce the burden of this condition on human health. Among the methods for assessing stress, exhaled breath analysis represents a non‐invasive, real‐time alternative to classic laboratory tests. Therefore, a literature review was performed to assess the presence of altered parameters, related to psychological stress, in exhaled breath. Most studies in our review measured nitric oxide (NO), whose concentration was often correlated, either positively or negatively, with psychological stress, with reasonable scientific support. Other compounds (isoprene, terpene and so on) were rarely studied and with mixed evidence. Further investigations are needed to elucidate the involvement and the pathophysiological role of NO in stress, possibly including a greater number of individuals, as sample size actually represents the main limitation of the work published to date.