Reconsidering The Love of Art: Evaluating the Potential of Art Museum Outreach

ABSTRACT

Art museums have long been identified as bastions of social and cultural exclusion. This conclusion was best evidenced by the large-scale 1967 French study by Bourdieu and Darbel demonstrating the exclusionary nature of The Love of Art. However, in recent years there have been increasing efforts to reach out to a broader range of visitors beyond conventional audiences. The present study investigates the impacts of an outreach program at a U.K. art museum, which sought to engage socially excluded young mothers. This study uses ethnographic research methods on a longitudinal basis to develop qualitative insights about the program seeking to mitigate cultural exclusion. Although the study's findings uphold many longstanding critiques of art museums’ conventional approaches, the study also indicates that carefully designed outreach activities can overcome such limitations and enhance cultural engagement. Thus, art museums’ limited appeal is tied to problematic public engagement practices that can be changed.     

Parental Emotional Response to Children’s Traumas

To better understand how parents react to their child’s trauma exposure and evaluate whether different reactions are related to different types of traumas, 120 parents (79.2% mothers, 18.3% fathers, 2.5% other caregivers) were asked about their emotional reactions related to their child’s self-reported worst trauma. Emotional reactions were assessed with the Parental Emotional Reactions Questionnaire (PERQ). Parents reported high levels of distress and guilt. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between type of trauma and parents’ overall emotional reactions. Parental distress was equally endorsed among the different trauma groups. Parents of children who experienced intrafamilial violence and extrafamilial sexual abuse reported the highest levels of guilt, and child exposure to intrafamilial violence was associated with higher levels of parental shame.     

Psychosocial and Behavioural Assessment of Chronic Pain: Recommendations for Clinicians and Researchers

Abstract

A variety of methods have been developed for the assessment of chronic benign pain. In research or in clinical practise, choosing an adequate measurement technique can be a laborious task. This article has two main purposes: to report on some basic features to consider when selecting assessment instruments, and to present a review of some psychosocial and behavioural measurement methods for the assessment of chronic benign pain. The selected methods have, with one exception, been evaluated on Swedish chronic pain populations and are used in international pain research. In conclusion, we recommend the use of psychometrically sound instruments, and that the purposes for use of a measure have to be thoroughly considered in advance. We also emphasize that in clinical practise, each separate measure must be interpreted in a wider context, where clinical findings and judgements are considered as a whole. In addition, none of the single reviewed assessment techniques can replace the communication between the patient and the clinician.     

Through two lenses: A cultural–developmental approach to moral psychology

This paper proposes a cultural–developmental approach to moral psychology. The approach builds on and synthesizes findings from different research traditions, including the cognitive-developmental, domain, two orientations, three ethics, and moral identity traditions. The paper introduces a conception termed a cultural–developmental template. The template charts developmental patterns across the life course for moral reasoning in terms of the three Ethics of Autonomy, Community, and Divinity. The template, however, is not one-size-fits-all. Its general developmental patterns accommodate to the different constellations of Ethics held by culturally diverse peoples. From the present theoretical proposal follows a set of specific research expectations as well as a set of broader research implications for how to conduct research on morality from the vantage points of both culture and development. These expectations and implications include consideration of moral emotions, definitions of morality, and cultural variation in the life course itself.     

Thinking in Picture

Abstract :  We live today in a highly visual culture. Therefore, the author asserts that the use of visual images in preaching is an appropriate response of the church to the challenge of communicating the gospel in our pervasively visualized world. In making this argument, the author reviews the uses of art in the church's historical life, sets forth three theological assumptions that can ground such practice and urges a complementarity of words and images in homiletical practice. Words alone can be used to exclude people (e.g. doubters and heretics) from the embrace of the gospel. Images alone can be so all-inclusive in their meaning that they lead to superstition and idolatry. Words and images used together can communicate a holistic gospel to holistic hearers.