ACCEPTABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS FOR SCHOOL REFUSAL: EVALUATIONS BY STUDENTS,CAREGIVERS, AND PROFESSIONALS

Summary . School refusal is a debilitating condition that may be treated in various ways. This study examined the acceptability and perceived effectiveness of alternative treatments for school refusal. A total of 376 people comprising students, parents, and professionals, were required to evaluate several treatment options in relation to a vignette. Despite its potential aversiveness, behavioural management was the most acceptable treatment approach followed, in order, by home tuition with psychotherapy, hospitalisation, and medication. A strong positive relationship was found between acceptability and perceived effectiveness.     

WISDOM,MODERATION, AND ELENCHUS IN PLATO'S APOLOGY

Abstract: This article contends that Socratic wisdom (sophia) in Plato's Apology should be understood in relation to moderation (sophrosune), not knowledge (episteme). This stance is exemplified in an interpretation of Socrates' disavowal of knowledge. The god calls Socrates wise. Socrates holds both that he is wise in nothing great or small and that the god does not lie. These apparently inconsistent claims are resolved in an interpretation of elenchus. This interpretion says that Socrates is wise insofar as he does not believe himself to know what he does not know. Whether one knows is demonstrated through elenchus, which moderates between knowledge claims. Thus, elenchus is productive of a kind of wisdom even if it does not produce knowledge. This claim, if true, forms a suitable basis for Socrates' defense of himself. That it does so serves as further evidence for the interpretation of sophia as sophrosune.     

THE MEDIATION OF RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION STRATEGIES BY LANGUAGE VARIABLES AND ACTIVE-PASSIVE PARTICIPATION

This investigation attempted to confer resistance to persuasion by inoculating people with either supportive, refutational, or combination pretreatment messages. Following inoculation, subjects either passively received a high or low intense attack message or actively encoded a message of high or low intensity. As predicted, there was a significant interaction between type of attack and level of language intensity. Discussion centered on the effects of language intensity as a mediator of attitude change in yet another persuasive paradigm.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL FIELD STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL DISCRIMINATION TOWARD MUSLIM JOB APPLICANTS

Integrating justification-suppression and stereotype content models of prejudice, this research examines religious discrimination in employment settings. In the first study, confederates dressed in either Muslim-identified or nonreligious attire, who either did or did not provide stereotype-inconsistent information, applied for retail jobs. No differences emerged with regard to interview offers between job applicants dressed in traditional Muslim attire and those in the control condition. However, interactions were shorter and rated (by confederates, observers, and naïve coders) as more interpersonally negative when applicants wore Muslim attire and did not provide stereotype-inconsistent information than when applicants wore nonreligious attire. Similarly, results from a second experimental study in which participants rated fictitious Muslim or non-Muslim job applicants suggest that reactions were most negative toward Muslim applicants who did not provide stereotype-inconsistent information. Together, these findings suggest that justification-suppression and stereotype content models are complementary, and that Muslims may face challenges to employment that reflect a lack of acceptance of this religious identity.