Political reconciliation at the level of global governance1

This article applies the idea of political reconciliation to current debates on the role and legitimacy of global governance. My underlying thesis is that the idea of reconciliation fits better with the non-ideal circumstances of global injustice. To this end, I will first of all develop a three-tiered model of political reconciliation and introduce the related concept of restorative justice. I will then look at some of the most obvious forms of international and global injustice – historical injustice, economic exploitation, and political domination – and argue that a normative theory of political reconciliation provides better proposals for feasible global governance reforms than do theories of corrective, retributive, or distributive justice. Finally, I will make a few comments on the role of political philosophy as a medium of ‘narrative reconciliation’.     

Maternal personality, parenting cognitions, and parenting practices

A community sample of 262 European American mothers of firstborn 20-month-olds completed a personality inventory and measures of parenting cognitions (knowledge, self-perceptions, and reports about behavior) and was observed in interaction with their children from which measures of parenting practices (language, sensitivity, affection, and play) were independently coded. Factor analyses of the personality inventory replicated extraction of the 5-factor model of personality (Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). When controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, the 5 personality factors qua variables and in patterns qua clusters related differently to diverse parenting cognitions and practices, supporting the multidimensional, modular, and specific nature of parenting. Maternal personality in the normal range, a theoretically important but empirically neglected factor in everyday parenting, has meaning in studies of parenting, child development, and family process.     

Family functioning and eating attitudes and behaviors in at-risk early adolescent girls: The mediating role of intra-personal competencies

The relation between perceived family functioning, intra-personal competence, and eating attitudes and behaviors was examined in a sample of at-risk, ethnically diverse, early adolescents. Both family functioning and intra-personal competencies were related to eating attitudes and behavior. However, adolescent intra-personal competence, defined as self-control, negative, and positive coping, mediated the relationship between family functioning and eating attitudes and behaviors. Results suggest that by early adolescence, important aspects of family environment have consolidated into individual differences in competence and/or personality. Results are discussed within a developmental framework emphasizing the influence of the family on adolescent psychosocial development. The implications of these data for prevention and intervention with at-risk adolescent girls are also discussed. This work was supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, NIH, under Grant DA 07031, to Thomas J. Dishion. Appreciation is expressed to the parents and adolescents who participated in this study, as well as the staff at the Project Alliance office in Portland.     

Food intake with an antiobesity drug (sibutramine) versus placebo and rorschach data: a crossover within-subjects study

We related the effect of the satiety enhancing drug sibutramine (Meridia, Reductil) on food intake to Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 1991, 1993) personality factors. A placebo-controlled crossover, within-subjects design (n = 36) was used. Food intake after 2 weeks in the sibutramine and placebo conditions was assessed with a test meal using the VIKTOR (Cabmek, Stockholm, Sweden) setup, a computerized eating monitor. Building on baseline VIKTOR measurements, we had earlier studied the microstructure of eating (Elfhag, Barkeling, Carlsson, & Rossner, 2003). In this study, a model including Afr, MOR, and Populars could explain the variance in the effect of sibutramine. Sibutramine may reduce food intake in single test meals for participants whose appetite is prompted by external stimuli including food cues, suggested by the Affective ratio. Distress related to the body in obesity seen in damaged self-imagery (MOR) and adjustment to social expectations (Populars) could also have a moderating effect on the participants' consumption of test meals in an experimental design. Bodily concern (An + Xy) was also related to sibutramine response in univariate analyses.     

The dispositional inference strikes back: situational focus and dispositional suppression in causal attribution

The authors propose that correction of dispositional inferences involves the examination of situational constraints and the suppression of dispositional inferences. They hypothesized that suppression would result in dispositional rebound. In Study 1, participants saw a video of either a free or a forced speaker. Participants shown a forced speaker later made stronger dispositional inferences about a 2nd, free speaker than control participants did. Study 2 provided evidence for higher rebound among participants who reported trying harder to suppress dispositional inferences during the 1st video. In Study 3, participants were asked to focus on situational constraints or to avoid thinking about the speaker's characteristics. Only the latter instructions led to a dispositional rebound. These data support the view that the correction of dispositional inferences involves 2 processes that lead to distinct consequences in subsequent attribution work.     

How heritable is empathy? Differential effects of measurement and subcomponents

Empathy is an important psychological concept influencing social interaction. However, knowledge about its etiological components is still scarce. Estimates for the heritability of empathy range between 0 and 70 % depending on the sample, method of measurement, and level of aggregation. In this study, we investigated the heritability of empathy using an extended twin design. We employed the self-report questionnaire Interpersonal Reactivity Index and an emotion recognition task (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test). N = 742 twins and non-twin siblings were investigated. For affective empathy and the behavioral paradigm, we found heritability estimates between 52 and 57 %. For cognitive empathy, genetic variance was smaller (27 %), indicating that the heritability of empathy depends on the measured subcomponent, which could be relevant for intervention programs like empathy or compassion trainings. Environmental influences on empathy are mainly effects of non-shared environment, which is an important finding for our understanding of the development of empathy.     

Antidiscrimination Laws and Social Research on Disability: The Minority Group Perspective

In recent years, assessments of the difficulties confronting disabled persons have been altered both by the passage of antidiscrimination laws and by an emerging minority group model, based on a sociopolitical definition of disability, that has challenged studies shaped by the functional limitations paradigm. Unlike the latter orientation, the sociopolitical definition indicates that stigmatizing attitudes are the primary source of discrimination against disabled individuals. Both legal scholars and behavioral scientists also have neglected attitudinal research that seems at least comparable to the evidence cited by the Supreme Court to support the Brown decision. Further investigations based on the postulates of the minority group model and the concept of aesthetic anxiety may provide a means of combatting the effects of unconscious aversion toward disabled people in the courts.     

The spirited, the observant, and the disheartened: social concepts of optimism, realism, and pessimism

The social concepts of optimism, pessimism, and realism were investigated by assessing the prototypical acts (thoughts, feelings, goals, and actions) that laypersons assign to optimists, pessimists, and realists responding to a controllable and an uncontrollable situation. Optimists and realists, but not pessimists, were seen as adjusting their behavior to the situation. However, whereas optimists were characterized by flexibility in thoughts and feelings but invariance in goals and actions (i.e., they pursued their goals in both controllable and uncontrollable situations), the act profiles assigned to realists varied on all of these dimensions. The profile assigned to pessimists was characterized by cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral invariance, encompassing negative construals of the situation, giving up, and a focus on distress.