Violence, Cultural Display and the Suspension of Sexual Prejudice

Prejudice and violence directed against gay men, lesbians and other sexual groups have been viewed as ubiquitous and relatively fixed phenomena in contemporary societies. This perspective must be reconciled with the increased depiction of marginal sexualities and commercial ‘queering’ of mainstream media and popular culture. This paper presents and discusses data from two sources. Firstly, interviews conducted with self-identifying heterosexuals at the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) parade suggest attendance and participation can occur through a widely enjoyed public display and the temporary suspension of sexual prejudice in such specific carnivalesque occasions. Secondly, gay and lesbian responses to an internet-based questionnaire concerning perceptions and experiences of safety and hostility at this and similar other public events, suggest an undercurrent of threat and incivility, especially in the post-event context. These data sources are not directly compared but analysed in a complementary way to throw new light on how different groups view and experience this event. Our findings reflect how sexual prejudice is a shifting and contradictory collective social practice.     

A multistream model of visual word recognition

Four experiments are reported that test a multistream model of visual word recognition, which associates letter-level and word-level processing channels with three known visual processing streams isolated in macaque monkeys: the magno-dominated (MD) stream, the interblob-dominated (ID) stream, and the blob-dominated (BD) stream (Van Essen & Anderson, 1995). We show that mixing the color of adjacent letters of words does not result in facilitation of response times or error rates when the spatial-frequency pattern of a whole word is familiar. However, facilitation does occur when the spatial-frequency pattern of a whole word is not familiar. This pattern of results is not due to different luminance levels across the different-colored stimuli and the background because isoluminant displays were used. Also, the mixed-case, mixed-hue facilitation occurred when different display distances were used (Experiments 2 and 3), so this suggests that image normalization can adjust independently of object size differences. Finally, we show that this effect persists in both spaced and unspaced conditions (Experiment 4)—suggesting that inappropriate letter grouping by hue cannot account for these results. These data support a model of visual word recognition in which lower spatial frequencies are processed first in the more rapid MD stream. The slower ID and BD streams may process some lower spatial frequency information in addition to processing higher spatial frequency information, but these channels tend to lose the processing race to recognition unless the letter string is unfamiliar to the MD stream—as with mixed-case presentation.     

Validity of the Short Form of the Parenting Stress Index for Fathers of Toddlers

We examined the psychometric properties of two scales of the parenting stress index-short form (PSI-SF) in a low-income sample of fathers of toddlers. The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the parental distress and parent–child dysfunctional interaction subscales were assessed for 696 fathers in a multi-site study of Early Head Start. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) compared the fit of the developer recommended two-factor scales with five-factor scales theoretically derived and supported with mothers. Our results suggested that two subscales from the PSI-SF were reliable and valid for this sample of racially diverse, low-income fathers of toddlers. However, these subscales capture multiple dimensions of parenting stress and results also supported the use of more narrowly defined aspects of parenting stress that included general distress, distress specifically related to parenting demands, problematic interactions of the father–toddler dyad, perceptions of the child, and parental perceptions of self as a parent. These unidimensional scales may prove useful in research and clinical activities by allowing researchers to elucidate the mechanisms through which stress impacts parenting and permitting clinicians information to develop more targeted interventions for young children and their families.     

A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF INTERACTIVE EFFECTS BETWEEN COMMON CLASSROOM CONTINGENCIES AND METHYLPHENIDATE

To assess the drug—behavior interaction effects with an 8-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, common classroom antecedent (e.g., seating arrangement) and consequent (e.g., peer prompts) stimuli were alternated within a school day while drug conditions (methylphenidate vs. placebo) were alternated across days. The results suggested that peer attention maintained disruptive behavior when methylphenidate was absent but not when it was present.     

Habituating effects of nonhydrational oral stimulation on ingestive behaviors

The role of oral stimulation in the control of ingestive behavior was investigated using an airlicking procedure. It was hypothesized that the oral experience of airlicking would inhibit subsequent ingestive activity (water intake), possibly via an habituation process as suggested by recent research (Swithers, 1996). Rats were implanted with gastric cannulas and trained to lick at a stream of air. Experimental conditions con-sisted of combinations of airlicking and intragastric hydration followed by oral intake of water. In support of the main hypothesis, airlicking did reduce subsequent ingestive activity. While the role of habituation was not tested directly, the results lend support to the proposal that oral stimulation does control ingestion, and this control could act through an habituation process.     

Decisions at the end of life: Catholic tradition.

Medical decisions regarding end-of-life care have undergone significant changes in recent decades, driven by changes in both medicine and society. Catholic tradition in medical ethics offers clear guidance in many issues, and a moral framework accessible to those who do not share the same faith as well as to members of its faith community. In some areas, a Catholic perspective can be seen clearly and confidently, such as in teachings on the permissibility of suicide and euthanasia. In others, such as withdrawal of nutrition and hydration, the Church does not yet speak with one voice and has not closed out the discussion. Yet, it is not in the teaching on individual issues that a Catholic moral tradition offers the most help and comfort, but in its account of what it means to lead a life in Christ, and to prepare for a Christian death. As in the problem of pain and suffering, it is the spiritual support more than the ethical guidance that helps both patients and physicians bear the unbearable and fathom the unfathomable.     

Theoretical Conundrum: The Politics and Science of Theorizing Authoritarian Cognition

The historical development of the four main theories which have attempted to explain the relationship between cognitive style and ideological content—i.e., authoritarianism, extremism theory, context theory, and value pluralism theory—is analyzed from a rhetorical perspective. The discussion focuses on the manner in which the tensions between theoretical universalism and political critique have been "resolved" by theorists working in different historico-political contexts. While both these scientific and political values have been of central concern in theorizing the link between cognitive style and content, they are deeply incompatible because it is not possible to establish a fixed relationship between a personality dimension and the changing beliefs associated with different ideologies across time and place. This has prompted theorists aiming for universalistic accounts to define ideological orientation in terms of psychological processes rather than content, which, in turn, has compromised the critical potential of their theory. The paper concludes that the historical development of the literature may be understood in terms of dilemmatic counter-themes which, under different political circumstances, have been resolved in novel ways.