Attribute and Responsibility Framing Effects in Television News Coverage of Poverty1

This study looks at how television news may contribute to inaction toward the poor through the attribute and responsibility framing of poverty stories. Participants were shown 1 of 4 news presentations on poverty. The news presentations depicted the poor as either primarily Black or primarily White, and framed poverty stories either episodically or thematically. Individuals shown presentations depicting the poor as White felt stronger that too little was being spent on poverty programs and were more likely to take a flyer about volunteering with a poverty charity than were participants shown presentations depicting the poor as Black. This pattern of results was found for both White and Black participants. No effects were found based on the responsibility framing.     

Factors Affecting Reported Rates of Self-Injury*

ABSTRACT: The magnitude of variation in reported rates of self-injury suggests that factors other than actual incidence affect these rates. Factors that relate to the scope of the reporting network and to the intensity of contacts within this network are examined in detail to determine their effect on the reporting process. Differences in study design and reporting procedures are found to explain most of this variation and suggest the need for standardized techniques in studying the epidemiology of self-injury.     

Religious competence and individuality: three studies in the Roman Empire

Abstract

The theme of individuality and individualisation in religious contexts in the fairly remote past is perhaps best viewed as a heuristic device whose main value, at least in the context of Graeco-Roman history, is to question the excessive dominance of a model of religious action as essentially collective, which is perhaps proximately Durkheimian but in the Classical field goes back ultimately to early scholarship on ancient Judaism. Terminology is a basic problem in this context. Religious individuality can be defined as the construction of personal religious achievement or the practice of mastery defined by sui generis rules. In the case of the Roman Empire, five types of such achievement have been suggested: pragmatic; moral; competitive; representative; or exemplary/ reflexive. All these distinguishable types of individuality are linked, at least indirectly, to the complex and highly differentiated social, political, economic and moral structures of the Empire. Specifically religious individuation emerges only with the development of religion as a distinctive field of (social) action and thus the possibility of specifically religious distinction. If sustained over the long term, any such achievement is to be seen as individualisation under ancient conditions. This article briefly explores three types of religious distinction based on a conviction and lived practice of such individualised competence: the figure of the Weberian mystagogue in his Mediterranean forms; the figure of the practitioner skilled in Graeco-Egyptian ‘magic’; and the idealised figure of Pythagoras as projected by Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean life (c.300 CE).     

Including Early Modern Women Writers in Survey Courses

There are many reasons to include texts written by women in early modern philosophy courses. The most obvious one is accuracy: women helped to shape the philosophical landscape of the time. Thus, to craft a syllabus that wholly excludes women is to give students an inaccurate picture of the early modern period. Since it seems safe to assume that we all aim for accuracy, this should be reason enough to include women writers in our courses. This article nonetheless offers an additional reason: when students are exposed to philosophical texts written by women, they learn that women have been, are, and can be philosophers. Given how underrepresented women are in philosophy, this finding is significant. If we aim to change the face of philosophy—so that it includes more women—we must include texts written by women in our syllabi. The article considers various obstacles faced by those who work to respond to this call to action.     

Mirror self-recognition in gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): a review and evaluation of mark test replications and variants

Animal Cognition - Mirror self-recognition (MSR), widely regarded as an indicator of self-awareness, has not been demonstrated consistently in gorillas. We aimed to examine this issue by setting...