The development of the political philosophy of Merleau-Ponty

This article follows the development of Merleau-Ponty’s political philosophy from his 1947 text, Humanism and Terror, through a number of essays in the Adventures of the Dialectic, to the Preface to Signs published in 1959. It shows the process by which Merleau-Ponty escaped the “grip of marxism” as a philosophy of history. It notes the link between his philosophy of history and the concrete historical events of his times, particularly the Russian Revolution and its degeneration into Stalinism. It suggests a certain analogy between Merleau-Ponty’s reflection on the October Revolution and Kant’s reflection on the French Revolution. The notion of the universal class of the proletariat is the guiding thread in the analyses of both Merleau-Ponty’s proximity to marxism and the process by which he frees himself from its grip. We observe the role that this concept plays in Humanism and Terror and in the essays on Weber and Lukacs in the Adventure of the Dialectic where we eventually see its dissolution. It is argued that Merleau-Ponty arrives at a new conception of historical meaning which is neither totalizing or empiricist. The paper concludes by presenting an outline of the direction that his philosophy of history took after he extricated himself from marxism. This new philosophy took the form of a critical reflection on the role of the “notion of the hero” in 20th century political philosophy in general, particularly in Heidegger and Sartre.

The Factor Structure of Global Self-Esteem among Adolescents and Adults

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965). Despite its frequent use, the factor structure of the RSES remains unclear. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the CFA approach to analyzing multitrait–multimethod data were used to evaluate eight competing models of the factor structure of the RSES. The models were evaluated within three diverse samples and two follow-up surveys. The results of this study indicate that the RSES is a unidimensional construct that is contaminated by a method effect primarily associated with negatively worked items. These results were found in both adolescents and adults. Moreover, the results found support for the hypothesis that the method effects diminish with increased verbal ability. The theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of short-term crowding on aggression in captive groups of pigtail monkeys (macaca nemestrina)

Agonistic behaviors of 14 groups of pigtail monkeys were monitored under 2 spatial conditions, normal living space and half that amount of space. Aggression occurred less frequently in the crowded than in the relatively less crowded condition. The results of this study resemble those of some analogous research on human children, and they suggest that nonhuman primate models of crowding stress and aggression may be especially appropriate.     

Do you two know each other? Transitivity, homophily, and the need for (network) closure

The authors investigate whether need for closure affects how people seek order in judging social relations. In Study 1, the authors find that people who have a high need for closure (NFC) were more likely to assume their social contacts were connected to each other (i.e., transitivity) when this was not the case. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors examine another form of order in network relations--racial homophily--and find that high-NFC participants were more inclined to believe that 2 individuals from the same racial category (e.g., African American) were friends than two racially dissimilar individuals. Furthermore, high-NFC individuals were more likely to make errors when judging a racially mixed group of people; specifically, they recalled more racial homophily (racially similar people sitting closer together) than had actually appeared.     

Leadership style and regulatory mode: Value from fit?

In this article, we consider the relationship between regulatory orientation and transformational leadership. Specifically, we propose that the effectiveness of transformational leadership depends on followers’ regulatory mode—the manner in which they pursue goals. Based on regulatory fit theory ([Higgins, 2000] and [Higgins, 2002]), we hypothesize that transformational leadership will be more effective in increasing motivation and eliciting positive evaluations from people with more of a locomotion mode (those who focus on movement from one state to another) rather than people with more of an assessment mode (those who make comparisons and judgments before acting). We find support for these ideas using data collected from a survey of executives and two original experimental designs, one in which regulatory mode is measured as a chronic disposition and the other in which it is situationally induced.     

An exploration of an integrated counselling and coaching approach with distressed young people

This mixed methods study explored the effectiveness and experience of an integrated counselling and coaching approach with young people. An effectiveness study allocated 80 young people aged between 13 and 25 years from four Youth Information Advice and Counselling Services centres in England to two groups: an integrated counselling and coaching group, based on the Personal Consultancy (PC) model, and a humanistic counselling group. Self-report measures of distress were administered at baseline and endpoint. Findings of the quantitative analysis showed that although baseline distress levels between groups were equivalent, post-intervention levels were significantly lower in the integrated group. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of qualitative experiences from five young people from the integrated group explored possible reasons for these results. Five master themes emerged: making sense of past, present and/or future, developing a sense of agency, management of affect, enhancing interpersonal relationships and development of self. Findings indicated that young people responded well to the integrated treatment; attending to intra-psychic issues alongside their developmental challenges seemed to have a beneficial effect on their sense of agency in particular. In conclusion, PC may be an effective means of reducing distress in young people.     

Brief Report: Promoting Postformal Thinking on the Job: A Protocol for Interpersonal Conflict Resolution Training

In this paper, we discuss the relevance of training in the constructive resolution of interpersonal conflicts that occur at work. Research indicates that such conflicts may be a source of stress for adults, particularly young adults who have just entered the workforce. We present a training protocol in constructive conflict resolution that has been adapted for application to work-related conflicts. Most conflict resolution training protocols for use in the workplace focus on resolving company-wide problems. We do not know of any that focus on individual conflicts between employees, while emphasizing skills that may offer some benefits for the development of postformal thinking. Postformal thinking has been postulated as relevant to becoming an expert in one’s chosen profession. We present this protocol to stimulate ideas on how to further develop and refine training efforts for working adults in conflict resolution.     

Cumulative culture and future thinking: Is mental time travel a prerequisite to cumulative cultural evolution?

Cumulative culture denotes the, arguably, human capacity to build on the cultural behaviors of one's predecessors, allowing increases in cultural complexity to occur such that many of our cultural artifacts, products and technologies have progressed beyond what a single individual could invent alone. This process of cumulative cultural evolution underlies human cultural success and has enabled us to reach and inhabit some of the most inhospitable environments on this planet. Why humans, but not other animals, have exhibited a cultural explosion has caused much deliberation. The human propensity to imitate, teach, “mind-read” and cooperate have all featured prominently in accounts of the prerequisites for cumulative culture. However, this may not represent the complete picture. In this article we consider whether there exists a link between future thinking, specifically prospective mental time travel, and the observed distribution of cumulative culture.