Wittgenstein and Irigaray: Gender and Philosophy in a Language (Game) of Difference

Drawing Wittgenstein's and Irigaray's philosophies into conversation might help resolve certain misunderstandings that have so far hampered both the reception of Irigaray's work and the development of feminist praxis in general. A Wittgensteinian reading of Irigaray can furnish an anti-essentialist conception of “woman” that retains the theoretical and political specificity feminism requires while dispelling charges that Irigaray's attempt to delineate a “feminine” language is either groundlessly Utopian or entails a biological essentialism.     

Black Battered Women: A Review of Empirical Literature

The authors review and discuss five areas of the empirical research on Black battered women: incidence, social support networks, psychological profile, responses to battering, and use of services. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Dyke Methods or Principles for the Discovery/Creation of the Withstanding*

Alarmed by the domination inherent in the patriarchal idea of truth, the author sketches principles that allow her to develop accounts of reality—to “do theory”—without implying that others should agree. This epistemological setting supports differences among wimmin that are expressed in different understandings of the world; it also supports agreement.     

THE CORE SELF-EVALUATIONS SCALE: DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE

Despite an emerging body of research on a personality trait termed core self-evaluations, the trait continues to be measured indirectly. The present study reported the results of a series of studies that developed and tested the validity of the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES), a direct and relatively brief measure of the trait. Results indicated that the 12-item CSES was reliable, displayed a unitary factor structure, correlated significantly with job satisfaction, job performance, and life satisfaction, and had validity equal to that of an optimal weighting of the 4 specific core traits (self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, neuroti-cism, and locus of control), and incremental validity over the 5-factor model. Overall, results suggest that the CSES is a valid measure that should prove useful in applied psychology research.     

IN SEARCH OF THE KINGDOM: THE SOCIAL GOSPEL,SETTLEMENT SOCIOLOGY,AND THE SCIENCE OF REFORM IN AMERICA'S PROGRESSIVE ERA

This critical narrative history examines the development of sociology in the United States during what has come to be labeled as the Progressive Era, roughly the years from the 1890s to World War I. Despite the label, this era was defined as much by social problems associated with industrialization, urbanization, and immigration as by the growth of its cities and the wealth of its capitalists. We explore the roots of American sociology in the transition of protestant theology from Calvinism to its reformation in the social gospel, the simultaneous development of settlement houses, and the “creation” of sociology as the science of reform.