Female religious leadership in Switzerland: norms,power, and money

Women’s access to positions of leadership in religions is a highly contested issue in Western societies, both inside religions themselves and in societal discussions of religion. Reliable data on actual female leadership are, however, scarce, especially in European countries and regarding minority religions. This article describes and explains statistically the normative openness of congregations to female leadership as well as the actual existence, position, and financial remuneration of female leaders across the whole range of religious traditions in Switzerland. The study is based on data from the representative National Congregations Study of 2008/2009. Our results show that, despite considerable normative openness, female spiritual and administrative leadership remains scarce in most religious traditions. The highest percentage of female spiritual leaders can be found in the milieu of alternative spirituality, followed by the Reformed congregations. A generally high percentage of female leadership can be found on administrative boards. It is only leadership positions in certain Christian traditions (Reformed, Catholic, Evangelical-classical) that are normally remunerated for women; many other traditions do not have female leadership or, as in the case of the milieu of alternative spirituality, such leadership positions are not remunerated.     

The Privilege of the Present: Time and the Trace from Heidegger to Derrida

ABSTRACT

One of the starting points of Derrida’s deconstruction is the idea that metaphysics is dominated by an ontological primacy of the present. It is well known that Derrida took up this thesis of the ‘privilege of the present’ in metaphysics from Heidegger. However, this thesis is mentioned without being developed by Heidegger. What is the meaning of this ontological position? How did it originate? Should we try to go beyond it? And if so, how? In this paper, I would like to start out from Heidegger’s view that the understanding of Being, in the metaphysical tradition, is dominated by the ontological primacy of the present: according to this approach, which goes back to Aristotle’s theory of substance (ousia), Being means constant presence; only that which is constantly present really exists. I will then show that Heidegger himself, in his conception of the past, has renewed the privilege of the present, favoring the ‘having been’ (Gewesenheit) over the past as ‘by-gone-ness’ (Vergangenheit). Finally, I will show how Derrida’s concept of trace may help us to go beyond the privilege of the present.     

Asynchronous stimulus presentation in visual extinction: A psychophysical study

Patients showing visual extinction as a consequence of a unilateral brain lesion can correctly detect a single stimulus in either hemifield but fail to detect the contralesional stimulus (or at least process the stimulus less efficiently) when it is presented simultaneously with an ipsilesional stimulus. In an attempt to uncover the nature of the underlying deficit, some studies have manipulated the temporal characteristics of stimulus presentation. Contra- and ipsilesional stimuli with different stimulus onset asynchronies are typically used. In the present study, visual extinction was investigated in a group of left neglect patients (N=10) using a psychophysical paradigm with different stimulus onset asynchronies of target and distractor stimuli presented in different hemifields. Contrast thresholds for a target grating were determined with the target either in isolation or in the presence of an irrelevant distractor grating. When target and distractor gratings were presented simultaneously, neglect patients showed a significant extinction effect, i.e., a significant interference from the right hemifield distractor with left hemifield contrast sensitivity. When the right hemifield distractor preceded the left hemifield target stimulus by 250 ms, two different patterns of results were observed in the neglect patients. Five patients showed a significant improvement compared to the simultaneous presentation condition, five other patients showed a significant increase of the extinction effect. The results suggest that different underlying mechanisms, maybe due to different lesion locations, can cause extinction in neglect patients.     

Effect of marital satisfaction on self-regulation efforts in couples: Value of heart rate variability measurements

This study explored self-regulatory efforts during the viewing of couple interactions and their association with relationship satisfaction. High-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) was measured for each participant during a video recall of a recent couple interaction to quantify the self-regulatory processes governed by parasympathetic activity. Among 30 couples, HF-HRV was measured continuously during three specific periods to explore its change over time using a video-recall procedure: (1) resting state; (2) viewing of couple interactions (expressing daily life situations and conflictual interactions); and (3) recovery. Results of multilevel models revealed a u-shaped pattern of HF-HRV responses for men and women across the three periods with a nadir at the midway through the process. This pattern of physiological change (vagal suppression) reflects a flexible response to a stressful situation. Nevertheless, the pattern of physiological responses varied according to the level of relationship satisfaction. Men who were more satisfied in their couple relationship presented greater vagal suppression than dissatisfied men. In contrast, no significant HF-HRV changes were found in women over the different periods of the video-recall procedure and no moderating effect of relationship satisfaction. We discuss the different patterns of physiological responses observed both for men and women in terms of interindividual variability according to the level of their relationship satisfaction. The present study highlights the important role of relationship satisfaction in regulatory processes.     

Come with me: experimental evidence for intentional recruitment in Tonkean macaques

Animal Cognition - Recruitment is a process by which animals can initiate collective movements: the action of an individual prompts conspecifics to follow. Although it has been hypothesized that...