Hegemonic masculinity versus a caring masculinity: Implications for understanding primary caregiving fathers

Recently, there has been a growing interest in what is positioned as a new form of masculinity arising from the increase in fathers as primary caregivers. This new form is referred to as a “caring masculinity” and is theorised as a radical shift away from traditional or hegemonic forms of masculinity. This paper critically examines the fathering literature, focusing specifically on how primary caregiving fathers navigate social norms with regard to masculinity. The paper concludes that there is a complex interplay between expectations of a traditional, provider father and a new and involved father. It is argued that ideas surrounding a caring masculinity are better understood as a broadening of hegemonic masculinity, rather than an entirely new or distinct form.     

The supramodal brain: implications for auditory perception

ABSTRACT

The perceptual brain is designed around multisensory input. Areas once thought dedicated to a single sense are now known to work with multiple senses. It has been argued that the multisensory nature of the brain reflects a cortical architecture for which task, rather than sensory system, is the primary design principle. This supramodal thesis is supported by recent research on human echolocation and multisensory speech perception. In this review, we discuss the behavioural implications of a supramodal architecture, especially as they pertain to auditory perception. We suggest that the architecture implies a degree of perceptual parity between the senses and that cross-sensory integration occurs early and completely. We also argue that a supramodal architecture implies that perceptual experience can be shared across modalities and that this sharing should occur even without bimodal experience. We finish by briefly suggesting areas of future research.     

No compelling evidence for a bilingual advantage in switching or that frequent language switching reduces switch cost

Participants completed three cued-switching tasks, responded to two category-fluency probes, two letter-fluency probes, and two probes to alternate between two targets. Correlations across the three cued-switching tasks were significant for both switching costs and mixing costs. The bilingual advantage hypothesis was tested both by forming language groups and treating bilingualism as a continuous variable. No bilingual advantages were observed. In verbal-fluency monolinguals generated more correct responses but the bilingual disadvantage on the category task was not reduced in the letter-fluency scores. The bilingual disadvantage was eliminated when the groups were matched on vocabulary size. The verbal-fluency measures obtained when participants alternated between targets weakly correlated with the switching-costs obtained in the cued-switching tasks.     

Willingness to date across race: differences among gay and heterosexual men and women

Willingness to date members of other races was examined among 200 men with same-sex dating preference (n = 100) and opposite-sex dating preference (n = 100), and 200 women with same-sex dating preference (n = 100) and opposite-sex dating preference (n = 100) who were randomly selected from an Internet dating web site. Overall, results indicated a greater willingness among gay participants than heterosexual participants to date people of other races. A 2 (Sex) x 2 (Sexual Orientation) analysis of variance showed an interaction, with lesbian women more willing to date other races than gay men, while among heterosexual participants men were more willing than women to date other races. The role of mate selection theory, and the importance of the status afforded various races in U.S. society, were applied to interpret people's willingness to date other races.     

The Disappearance of Adulthood

In 1982, Neil Postman wrote The Disappearance of Childhood. In that work, Postman recounted the invention of childhood in the modern world and its demise at the hands of, among other things, the electronic media (principally television). In Postman’s view, television had transformed education into ‘edutainment.’ The implications of this loss were devastating. Taking up where Postman left off I wish to reexamine his claim and amend and update his thesis by suggesting that, after the latest electronic turn, we now live in societies where a meaningful conception of adulthood is disappearing. It is disappearing, in part, because of an impoverished conception of citizenship. Yet it is additionally undermined because, claims to the ascendancy of the ‘knowledge worker’ notwithstanding, the fundamental connection between education and employment is unraveling. In this climate, the purposes of education are constantly queried and scrutinized as its telos is redefined by criteria external to the practice of education: cost-effectiveness, value-for-money, and so on. I suggest that only be reclaiming a meaningful conception of adulthood can education be defended and only by so doing can individuals hope to understand the world around them.     

Mug book exposure effects: Retroactive interference or criterion shift?

The purpose of this research was to test whether delay between a mug book task and a lineup task moderates a simple mug shot exposure effect. Following the witnessing of a simulated theft, participants searched either a small, large or no mug book. Participants then viewed a lineup that contained either the perpetrator or an innocent replacement; the lineup occurred either immediately after viewing the mug book or 48 hours later. There were fewer suspect identifications and more lineup rejections in the mug book conditions than the no mug book control; this was explained in terms of the criterion for making choices carrying over from the mug book to the lineup. There was qualified support for delay moderating the mug book exposure effect. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Camping Programs for Children with Chronic Illness as a Modality for Recreation, Treatment, and Evaluation: An Example of a Mission-Based Program Evaluation of a Diabetes Camp

Summer camps have been recognized as a valuable means of delivering services to children with chronic illnesses. Although these camps exist in abundance across the United States, they have been largely underrepresented in the clinical psychology literature. Particularly, there is a staggering discrepancy between the number of camps in existence and the number of published articles pertaining to the systematic evaluation of these camps. We outline the potential benefits of camping programs for children who are chronically ill, describe the importance of systematically evaluating them, and provide a model for this evaluative process. We describe an evaluation of a diabetes summer camp and present implications of this study for camp decision makers and clinical psychologists working in pediatric medical settings.