A Flight of Fancy on The Tangled Wing or How Not to Argue for More Women in Positions of Power

ABSTRACT Numerous attempts have been made recently to argue from premises about 'human nature' to conclusions about social policy. This essay offers a critique of one such attempt, Melvin Konner's argument from the fact that women are more nurturing and less aggressive than men, to the claim that the world would be safer if women rather than men had control over the world's armaments, especially nuclear weapons (and thus they ought to occupy positions of power). I claim that the argument is badly flawed at several points, and that as such, it does not advance but impedes the movement towards equal access to governmental positions.     

Creativity Through a Lens of Social Responsibility: Implicit Theories of Creativity with Korean Samples

Implicit theories of creativity have been the subject of increased research interest in recent years. These investigations are motivated by the observation that an individual's creative activities are guided by personal definitions rather than professional theories, which may be very different. Cross-cultural studies of implicit creativity theories are rare, yet they can add significantly to our knowledge of how creativity is viewed across cultures. The nature of 428 Koreans' implicit creativity theories were identified in a prestudy, and the structure of 478 Koreans' ratings of the indicated behaviors was analyzed in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, 211 participants evaluated the creativity of 44 hypothetical profiles based on the results of the first experiment. Results provide evidence that Korean conceptions of creativity are similar to Western conceptions, although Koreans may emphasize negative behaviors and personality characteristics (e.g., deviance) to a greater degree. When asked to use their implicit theories to evaluate the creativity of hypothetical profiles, Korean adults strongly emphasized specific cognitive, personality, and motivational aspects of creativity over noncognitive aspects (e.g., perseverance, independence).     

Self‐esteem and caregiving in romantic relationships: Self‐ and partner perceptions

Self‐esteem may be associated with romantic partners' experience of emotional support and caregiving. Using a sample of 6,385 heterosexual couples in committed relationships gathered from the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE) data set (see www.relate‐institute.org ), structural equation modeling was used to compare two actor–partner interdependence models examining the associations between both partners' self‐esteem and perceptions of partner caregiving responsiveness (i.e., accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement). Male and female self‐esteem was significantly related to partners' caregiving responsiveness while controlling for family‐of‐origin attachment experiences and relationship stability. Female self‐esteem was also significantly associated with females' caregiving responsiveness. These findings yield important implications, demonstrating that higher self‐esteem may be associated with improved caregiving behaviors between romantic partners. Relevant implications and future research directions are discussed.