Making gender matter: the role of gender-based expectancies and gender identification on women's and men's math performance in Sweden

It is well established that an emphasis on gender differences may have a negative effect on women's math performance in USA, Germany and the Netherlands. It has further been found that an individual's identification with the stereotyped group may moderate effects of negative stereotypes. The present study investigated how gender-based expectancies affected the math performance of women and men in Sweden, a nation with a smaller gender gap than in other countries, and a strong cultural emphasis on gender equality. Participants, 112 female and 74 male undergraduate math students from Swedish universities, completed a difficult math test in which their gender was either linked to their test performance or not. Men performed better than women when gender was made relevant among participants who did not see their gender as an important aspect of their identity, while participants high in gender identification were unaffected by gender identity relevance. Moreover, the gender relevance manipulation affected men's performance more than women's. The results deviate from findings on US samples, indicating that the role of group identification as a moderator of stereotype-based expectancy effects is complex, and that factors in the cultural context may interact with individual differences in identification to determine the impact of negative stereotypes.     

Exposure to Violence, Support Needs, Adjustment, and Motivators Among Guatemalan Humanitarian Aid Workers

Indigenous aid workers carry out the majority of humanitarian aid work, yet there is little empirical information available on their support needs in different contexts. Focus groups (N = 26: Study 1) and a survey (N = 137; Study 2) were conducted with Guatemalan aid workers to explore their exposure to violence, posttraumatic stress symptoms, burnout, support needs, and motivators. Participants reported experiencing an average of 13 events of community violence and 17% reported symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Direct community violence exposure and levels of emotional exhaustion were positively related to PTSD symptoms, while levels of personal accomplishment were inversely related to PTSD symptoms. Expressed support needs, motivators and rewards for aid work in the face of adversity are also reported as potential protective factors for further exploration. Implications for training and support of aid workers in similar contexts are also suggested.     

Serum testosterone,cortisol, glucose,and ethanol in males arrested for spouse abuse

Concentrations of ethanol, testosterone, cortisol, and glucose were determined in serum obtained from 16 males taken into police custody after incidents of spouse abuse. The mean blood ethanol level at the time of arrest was 33.3 ± 2.6 mM. Serum testosterone levels were significantly lower and cortisol levels higher at the time of police intervention (within 1 hour of the incident) compared to control data collected later from the subjects when sober. Offenders did not differ from a group of nonviolent pub patrons at similar blood ethanol levels (35.9 ± 4.5 mM) with respect to serum testosterone, cortisol, or glucose, but their sober state cortisol and glucose concentrations were significantly higher compared to a control group of nonalcoholic men. Intoxication or acute hormonal changes were thus not specifically associated with violent behaviour. Provocative cues, however, may have been more frequent in the offender families, as Straus Conflict Tactics data showed that offenders and victims resorted to verbal aggression significantly more often than control families. The significantly elevated cortisol and glucose concentrations in offenders when sober compared to nonviolent controls could be viewed as direct effects of life stress, or as indirect effects of stress mediated by learned escape drinking. Excessive drinking as well as spouse abuse could be maladaptive coping strategies that principally serve to maintain the status quo, physiologically as well as psychologically. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Visual consciousness: dissociating the neural correlates of perceptual transitions from sustained perception with fMRI

To investigate the possible dichotomy between the neurophysiological bases of perceptual transitions versus sustaining a particular percept over time, an fMRI study was conducted with subjects viewing fragmented pictures. Unlike most other perceptually unstable stimuli, fragmented pictures give rise to only one perceptual transition and a continuous period of sustained perception. Earlier research is inconclusive on the subject of which anatomical regions should be attributed to what temporal aspect of perception, and the aim of the present study was to shed more light on the subject. In this study occipitotemporal and fronto-parietal regions were found to be activated for both aspects. However, regions in the medial-temporal lobe were activated specifically for transitions, whereas medial and dorsolateral prefrontal regions were activated specifically for sustained perception. These results provide further support for the theory that the initial creation of perceptual awareness and upholding perceptual awareness over time are separate processes involving different brain regions.     

Two Interpretations of “Justification” in the New Testament Reflections on Galatians 2:15-21 and James 2:21-25

The terminology of righteousness and justification is found in several parts of the New Testament, with a clear preponderance in Paul's letters, especially Romans and Galatians. The only other two documents with a comparatively high percentage of such terminology are Matthew and James, not only with regard to the noun and the adjective but also to the causative verb .1 1. I have tried to assemble and assess the Matthean evidence in: “Die Gerechtigkeitstradition im Matthäus-Evangelium,” ZNW 80 (1989): 1–23. The general kinship between Matthew and James is sketched in my commentary Der Brief des Jakobus (ThHK 14; Leipzig: EVA, 2001) 43. Studies on the Theology of Paul contain longer passages on “justification by faith” of course.2 2. For instance, James D.G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Edinburgh: Clark, 1998), § 14. It should not be forgotten, however, that, as the Dead Sea Scrolls re-documented, the Jewish tradition was well aware of the notion of “justified by grace”.3 3. Siegfried Schulz, “Zur Rechtfertigung aus Gnaden in Qumran und bei Paulus,” ZThK 56 (1959): 155–185; Otto Betz, “Rechtfertigung in Qumran,” in Rechtfertigung (ed. Johannes Friedrich et al.; Tübingen: Mohr, and Göttingen: V&;R, 1976), 17–36; Frank-Lothar Hossfeld, “Gedanken zum alttestamentlichen Vorfeld paulinischer Rechtfertigungslehre,” in Worum geht es in der Rechtfertigungslehre? Das biblische Fundament der “Gemeinsamen Erklärung” von katholischer Kirche und Lutherischem Weltbund (QD 180; ed. Thomas Söding; Freiburg: Herder, 1999), 13–26 (on Pentateuch and Psalms). Cf. J. Louis Martyn, Galatians (AB 33A; New York: Doubleday, 1997), 264–268 (“A Jewish-Christian Tradition About Rectification”). The New Testament authors took over both the terminology and theological implications from the Jewish heritage.4 4. Not from Greek and Roman; this is opinio communis today. This is certainly true for Paul but not necessarily so for James. Rather, it seems that James reacts to a tradition which has its roots in early Christianity, more precisely in Paul (we shall resume that item later). In both cases, the authors do not explain the terminology of justification and righteousness. They adopt it from their antecedents and add their understanding from their own vantage points. Their interpretations, and this is the major point of the present contribution, use language from other backgrounds; the language is in both cases of a personal nature. This fact implies that, for them, the traditional terminology was no longer sufficient to express what was actually meant.     

The form of the soul ― on the body in Freud’s psychoanalysis

To formulate the problem of the relation between body and soul in terms of how one should understand the relation between consciousness and the brain, or in terms of explaining how mind can arise out of matter, is a modern and far from innocent tendency that has instigated the whole spectrum of theories and answers suggested by the philosophy of mind of the so-called Analytic tradition during the 20th century. During the last 5 decades, we have seen a number of attempts at incorporating Freud into this discussion about the relation between body and soul. In this article, the author develops an argument according to which the philosophy of mind of the Analytic tradition is not really an appropriate intellectual environment for Freud´s theory of the body and its constitutive rôle. Rather, we should turn to phenomenology and transcendental philosophy where the body is thematized, not in terms of matter taken to give rise to consciousness in an empirical sense, but rather in terms of the “lived body” that is taken, in a transcendental sense, to constitute the organization of meaning in our conscious and our unconscious psychological life. On the basis of an outline of this phenomenological theory, the author argues that Freud, most of all in his theory of psychosexual development, thematizes the body as the form of the soul.     

Some thoughts on happy and unhappy love

The subjective nature of love and happiness makes it difficult to examine them objectively. Outlining the purpose of human life as the search for happiness and the avoidance of suffering, Freud began the systematic study of the psychology of love. His most enduring contribution was the discovery of the link between adult and infantile love. Oedipal love gives us the feeling of certainty about what true love is. Mutuality and positive reciprocity are the secret of happy love. Love is a strong motivational drive in life, a force for psychosocial development and a central interest for humanity. It has a remarkable power for the enhancement of integration. Love is a simultaneous attempt to find something new and re-find something old. The author examines which psychological factors lead to a happy result and what factors lead to failure.