An Introduction to Issues of Gender in Stalking Research

Stalking research has increased substantially in the past 20?years. This special issue is intended to contribute to this literature by using gender as a focus point in 1) applying new theoretical perspectives that incorporate the role of gender to the study of stalking perpetration (Davis et al. 2010; Duntley and Buss 2010), 2) addressing divergent findings regarding gender in experiences of victims (Sheridan and Lyndon 2010) and perpetrators (Thompson et al. 2010), and 3) furthering the study of how gender influences perceptions of stalking (Cass and Rosay 2011; Dunlap et al. 2011; Sinclair 2010; Yanowitz and Yanowitz 2010). To place this special issue in context of the current state of knowledge on gender and stalking, we review the state of the existing research as it relates to the domains covered by articles present in this issue.     

Gender Rules: Same- and Cross-Gender Friendships Norms

We examined the relationships between gender and attitudes towards same- and cross-gender friendship norms for a sample of 269 West Coast, U.S., college students. Participants evaluated violations of friendship norms described in vignettes in which the friend’s gender was experimentally manipulated. Women differentiated more between types of violations in their evaluations than did men. There also were several significant gender differences in approval of norm violations. As expected, women tended to have relatively high expectations of their friendships in situations involving trust and intimacy, likely resulting from the high value they placed on affiliation and emotional closeness. Women were more disapproving than men of a friend who canceled plans or failed to come to their defense publicly. Men and women judged a woman who betrayed a secret more harshly than a man. Generally, expectations for cross-gender, versus same-gender, friends were more similar than different; there were no significant cross-gender interactions, with one exception. Men were particularly less approving of a male, as compared to a female, friend who kissed them in a greeting. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of respondents (81.6%) reported that men and women can be friends. A minority of women were cautious in their responses, with women (18.5%) more apt to reply “maybe,” than men (9.9%). Overall, these findings provided evidence that gender, rather than cross-gender, norms primarily influenced friendship evaluations, and demonstrated that even a subtle manipulation of gender can trigger gender stereotypes. They suggested, too, that women may hold their friends to stricter “rules” than men.     

Students' Journey Through a Trauma Studies Educational Program: A Northern Irish Perspective

This article presents the findings of a qualitative research study that explored the experiences of part-time students who completed a BSc(Hons) trauma studies program in Northern Ireland. Data collection involved semistructured interviews with seven students. Findings indicated a journey through the program during which students experienced both challenges and opportunities for development. Such challenges included responses to emotive content and barriers to sharing in classroom-based dialogues. Moreover, participants felt the program enhanced their knowledge as well as the supportive services they provided to those who had experienced a trauma. Findings suggest that participants who had experienced a personal trauma appeared to be drawn to this program.     

Regina Jonas: forgetting and remembering the first female rabbi

Regina Jonas (1902–44), who was ordained in Germany in 1935, is now widely recognised as the world's first female rabbi. However, for almost 50 years after her death at Auschwitz in 1944, she was given very little, if any, public recognition. Based on archival research, interviews and critical engagement with secondary literature, this paper investigates a range of explanations why Jonas was nearly lost to historiography. It also considers the circumstances of the rediscovery of this controversial figure in the early 1990s and explores how she is remembered today. This paper raises important issues in relation to historiography and the connection between processes of remembering, forgetting and identity formation, particularly in relation to the history of the ordination of female rabbis and the history of Jewish communities in Germany.     

Moral expressivism and sentential negation

This paper advances three necessary conditions on a successful account of sentential negation. First, the ability to explain the constancy of sentential meaning across negated and unnegated contexts (the Fregean Condition). Second, the ability to explain why sentences and their negations are inconsistent, and inconsistent in virtue of the meaning of negation (the Semantic Condition). Third, the ability of the account to generalize regardless of the topic of the negated sentence (the Generality Condition). The paper discusses three accounts of negation available to moral expressivists. The first—the dominant commitment account—fails to meet the Fregean Condition. The two remaining accounts—commitment semantics and the expression account—satisfy all three conditions. A recent argument that the dominant commitment account is the only option available to expressivists is considered and rejected.     

The development and psychometric evaluation of the Brief Resilient Coping Scale

This article introduces the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), a 4-item measure designed to capture tendencies to cope with stress in a highly adaptive manner. Two samples of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (ns = 90 and 140) provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the BRCS. The BRCS has adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Convergent validity of the scale is demonstrated by predictable correlations with measures of personal coping resources (e.g., optimism, helplessness, self-efficacy), pain coping behaviors, and psychological well-being. Resilient coping, as assessed by the BRCS, also buffers the effects of high levels of arthritis-related and non-arthritis-related stressors on depressive symptoms. The sensitivity of the BRCS to changes associated with a cognitive-behavioral intervention is also demonstrated. The BCRS may be useful for identifying individuals in need of interventions designed to enhance resilient coping skills.     

Mask-dependent attentional cuing effects in visual signal detection: the psychometric function for contrast

A spatial-cuing paradigm was used to test the hypothesis of Carrasco, Penpeci-Talgar, and Eckstein (2000) that the mask-dependent cuing effects found in visual signal detection by Smith (2000a) were caused by submaximal activation of the transient-orienting system. Mask-dependent cuing was found with a range of stimulus contrasts with pure peripheral cues and with the mixed central-peripheral cues of Smith (2000a), contrary to the predictions of the submaximal activation hypothesis. The use of a pedestal detection task to control spatial uncertainty showed that the cuing effect was due to signal enhancement. A model of mask-dependent cuing is described, which assumes that attention affects the rate of information accumulation from the display and that masks limit the visual persistence of the stimulus. The model correctly predicts differential mask dependencies in sensitivity for detection and discrimination and the associated patterns of response times.     

Families of Children in Pain: Are Attachment and Sensory Processing Patterns Related to Parent Functioning?

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Effective parent functioning is a key predictor of functional outcomes for children with persistent pain. It is therefore important to identify factors that...