Dewey in Postwar-Italy: The Case of Re-Education

After the end of the Second World War, Italy was thefirst Axis country (followed by Germany and Japan), toundergo a process of ``reeducation' by the alliedtroops, focusing initially on the education system.Under the direction of American scholars and schoolinnovators, school syllabi and textbooks wererewritten in order to replace the ideologicalindoctrination exerted by the Fascist regime from 1923to 1943 with democratic ideas. This articlereconstructs different phases of the influence of JohnDewey's progressive education in Italy. This influencewas predominant in policy and experimental schools, aswell as in educational theory in the periodimmediately following the War, but it was almosteliminated from policy documents in a restorativebacklash of the Cold War. From the sixties on however,Dewey's pedagogical thinking, which never lost groundwithin the liberal, laicist and Marxist circles,gradually and selectively regained influence inpolicies and reforms.     

The role of familiarity in implicit memory effects: the case of exemplar activation

The present study investigates how person‐based representations stored in memory can influence subsequent information processing, depending upon subjective states during recollection of those representations. The experiment consisted of two phases. In the first phase, participants incidentally learned the gender category membership of various exemplars. Exemplars were presented in the form of forename–surname associations. In the second phase, the same surnames were used as primes in a name‐completion task. Results showed that the influence of the primes differed in relation to the exemplars' status in memory, as assessed by a recognition memory task. Only when the surnames looked familiar, but were not identifiable, an implicit effect of the exemplars' original category membership emerged, selectively influencing gender congruent name‐completions. Results are discussed in terms of attribution processes underlying the importance of the feelings of familiarity, and the need to devote more attention to the study of phenomenological factors in human memory. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Criterion Validity of the Rorschach Developmental Index With Children

The Rorschach Developmental Index (DI) is a composite measure of psychological development. The aim of this study was to examine the criterion validity of the DI by investigating its relationship with age, nonverbal intelligence, and the impact of institutionalization in a sample of Brazilian children. The sample included 231 children, ages 7 to 11, who were either living with their families or in an institutionalized setting. The results indicated that the DI is strongly associated with nonverbal intelligence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that 71% of the variability in the DI was associated with nonverbal intelligence, whereas age explained only 2%. Moreover, the DI scores and nonverbal intelligence scores were significantly lower for children living in institutionalized settings. The DI appears to be effective in assessing various levels of psychological development, especially when expressed in cognitive ability. The DI was developed in the United States, and this study suggests that the DI can be adapted to diverse cultures, regions, or languages.     

Animalizing the disadvantaged,mechanizing the wealthy: The convergence of socio‐economic status and attribution of humanity

Differences between groups in socio‐economic status (SES) are becoming more salient nowadays. In this context, we examined the animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization that both low and high‐SES groups may experience respectively by conducting three studies. In study 1, we manipulated the SES of two fictitious groups (low vs. high‐SES) and measured the humanity ascribed to them. Results showed that the low‐SES group was animalized in comparison with the high‐SES group, which was mechanized. In study 2, we manipulated the humanity of two fictitious groups by describing them as animals or machines and measured the perceived SES of the groups. Participants tended to attribute lower SES to the group described as animals and higher SES to the group described as machines. Finally, in study 3, we used an Implicit Association Test to replicate the results of studies 1 and 2. Taken together, these studies show that low‐SES groups are considered as animal‐like whereas high‐SES groups are seen as robot‐like. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to the justification of income inequality within our society.     

Automatic Associations and Conscious Attitudes Predict Different Aspects of Men’s Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Harassment Proclivities

Intimate partner violence against women (IPV) and sexual harassment are both widespread. Research on their causes and attitudinal correlates has rarely examined implicit, automatic cognitive associations related to the partner (in IPV aggressors) or to women (in sexual harassment offenders). The aim of the present research was to study these implicit associations in 129 male German students. Participants completed scales of hostile sexism (HS), masculine gender role stress (MGRS), short-term (STMO) and long-term mating orientation (LTMO), and proclivity to both IPV and sexual harassment. Next they performed a primed lexical decision task that measured whether concepts of violence, power, hostility, and sexuality were differentially associated with representations of women, men, and the participant’s own intimate partner. Results showed that implicit associations of own partner with violence as well as hostility were generally high but did not correlate strongly with the proclivity measures. Furthermore, the proclivity measures were positively predicted by HS, MGRS, and STMO, whereas LTMO negatively predicted IPV proclivity. Practice implications point to the need to address early socialization processes that may shape men’s negative associations with female partners. Some strategies to prevent and reduce these types of implicit associations are discussed.

     

Teachers’ sense of responsibility for educational outcomes and its associations with teachers’ instructional approaches and professional wellbeing

Teachers’ formal accountability and duties have been the focus of high-stakes educational reforms, for instance in the context of national accountability systems. Yet, teachers’ sense of personal (rather than formal) responsibility and willingness to assume responsibility for their teaching and students remains an understudied area. The main purpose of this study was to investigate contextual and person-specific predictors of teachers’ sense of personal responsibility, as well as the potential implications of teachers’ personal responsibility for their instructional approaches and wellbeing. A path analysis indicated that high school teachers (n = 287) who felt responsible for their teaching and students reported higher levels of work engagement and job satisfaction than less responsible teachers, and were more likely to endorse mastery-oriented instructional practices that emphasized student effort, task mastery, and individual growth. Teachers’ perceptions of their school’s social climate (teachers’ evaluations of their relationships with students), their sense of teaching self-efficacy, and incremental beliefs of intelligence emerged as positive predictors of teacher responsibility. Teacher responsibility partially mediated the positive effects of these predictors on teachers’ wellbeing and mastery-oriented instructional practices. The results suggest that both contextual (e.g., school climate) and person-specific (e.g., self-efficacy) factors can contribute to teachers’ sense of personal responsibility, and that responsibility, in turn, can have positive implications for teachers’ wellbeing and instructional practices. Directions for future research and practical implications are considered.