Family Communication about Donor Conception: A Qualitative Study with Lesbian Parents

In this qualitative study of 10 lesbian couples who built their families through anonymous donor conception, we explore how lesbian parents experience communication about the donor conception within the family. While for these families “disclosure” of donor conception is often seen as evident, the way parents and children discuss this subject and how this is experienced by the parents themselves has not received much research attention. To meet this gap in the literature, in‐depth interviews with lesbian couples were conducted. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis showed that this family communication process can be understood within the broader relational context of parent–child relationships. Even though parents handled this family communication in many different ways, these were all inspired by the same motives: acting in the child's best interest and—on a more implicit level—maintaining good relations within the family. Furthermore, parents left the initiative for talking about the DC mostly to the child. Overall, parents aimed at constructing a donor conception narrative that they considered acceptable for both the children and themselves. They used different strategies, such as gradual disclosure, limiting the meaning of the donor, and justifying the donor conception. Building an acceptable donor conception narrative was sometimes challenged by influences from the social environment. In the discussion, we relate this qualitative systemic study to the broader issues of selective disclosure and bidirectionality within families.     

The organization and dissolution of semantic-conceptual knowledge: Is the ‘amodal hub’ the only plausible model?

In recent years, the anatomical and functional bases of conceptual activity have attracted a growing interest. In particular, Patterson and Lambon-Ralph have proposed the existence, in the anterior parts of the temporal lobes, of a mechanism (the 'amodal semantic hub') supporting the interactive activation of semantic representations in all modalities and for all semantic categories. The aim of then present paper is to discuss this model, arguing against the notion of an 'amodal' semantic hub, because we maintain, in agreement with the Damasio's construct of 'higher-order convergence zone', that a continuum exists between perceptual information and conceptual representations, whereas the 'amodal' account views perceptual informations only as a channel through which abstract semantic knowledge can be activated. According to our model, semantic organization can be better explained by two orthogonal higher-order convergence systems, concerning, on one hand, the right vs. left hemisphere and, on the other hand, the ventral vs. dorsal processing pathways. This model posits that conceptual representations may be mainly based upon perceptual activities in the right hemisphere and upon verbal mediation in the left side of the brain. It also assumes that conceptual knowledge based on the convergence of highly processed visual information with other perceptual data (and mainly concerning living categories) may be bilaterally represented in the anterior parts of the temporal lobes, whereas knowledge based on the integration of visual data with action schemata (namely knowledge of actions, body parts and artefacts) may be more represented in the left fronto-temporo-parietal areas.     

Reciprocal Relations Between Emotional Self‐Efficacy Beliefs and Ego‐Resiliency Across Time

The present study examined the longitudinal relations of adolescents' self‐reported ego‐resiliency to their emotional self‐efficacy beliefs in expressing positive emotions and in managing negative emotions as they moved into early adulthood. Participants were 239 females and 211 males with a mean age of 17 years (SD = .80) at T1, 19 years (SD = .80) at T2, 21 years (SD = .82) at T3, and 25 years (SD = .80) at T4. A four‐wave cross‐lagged regression model and mediational analyses were used. In a panel structural equation model controlling for the stability of the constructs, reciprocal relationships across time were found between ego‐resiliency and emotional self‐efficacy beliefs related to the expression of positive emotions and to the management of negative emotions. Moreover, the relation between ego‐resiliency assessed at T1 and T3, and ego‐resiliency assessed at T2 and T4, was mediated through emotional self‐efficacy beliefs (at T2 and T3, respectively), and vice versa. The posited conceptual model accounted for a significant portion of variance in ego‐resiliency and has implications for understanding the development of ego‐resiliency.     

Disorders of classificatory activity in aphasia

Two nonverbal tasks of classificatory activity ("class inclusion" and "class intersection") were administered to 46 aphasics, 28 normal controls, 19 nonaphasic left-brain-damaged and 17 right-hemisphere-damaged patients in order to study if aphasic patients are more impaired than nonaphasic brain-damaged patients on these two tasks of elementary logic and if a relationship exists within the aphasic patients between inability to perform the tasks of classifiactory activity and impairment of the semantic-lexical level of integration of language. Results were for the most part in line with expectations because aphasics scored worse than normal controls and nonaphasic brain-damaged patients (even if the difference reached the level of statistical significance only on the test of "class intersection") and within the aphasic patients the worst results were obtained by subjects presenting clear signs of semantic-lexical disintegration.     

Intercession as Political Ministry: Re‐Interpreting the Priesthood of All Believers

This paper seeks to develop a distinctly civic understanding of ‘the priesthood of all believers’ by highlighting its intercessory character. First, in conversation with Christof Gestrich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I will draw out the vicarious and representative dimensions of a priestly ministry that is rooted in Christ's atoning intercession. I will then show how this understanding of the general priesthood opens up interesting opportunities for dialogue with Danielle Allen's account of ‘sacrifice’ as a core democratic practice. Not only will her proposal help me refine my account of Christian priestly existence, but the latter will also amplify some Christological resonances in Allen's proposal.     

Time and defeasibility in FIPA ACL semantics

Inferences about speech acts are often conditional, non-monotonic, and involve the issue of time. Most agent communication languages, however, ignore these issues, due to the difficulty to combine them in a single formalism. This paper addresses such issues in defeasible logic, and shows how to express a semantics for ACLs in order to make non-monotonic inferences on the basis of speech acts.