Framing heterosexism in lesbian families: a preliminary examination of resilient coping1

The goals of this study are to examine the kinds of difficulties children face vis‐à‐vis heterosexism, how families help their children cope with these difficulties, and how coping leads to children's resilience. The experiences of six daughters of lesbian parents, ranging in age from 7 to 16, were empirically investigated through semi‐structured interviews with parents and children. Analysis included open and focused coding. Results suggest heterosexism is evident, but does not seem to negatively impact children's development. Themes include: how parents prepare their children to deal with heterosexism and how parents and children cope with incidents. Results elucidate the findings of previous studies, call for more qualitative research, and suggest future research directions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impulsivity as a predictor of smoking and alcohol consumption

This prospective study examined the relationships between impulsivity, smoking and alcohol use in a large non-clinical sample of 601 men and 4832 women working in 12 Finnish hospitals. Data on impulsivity, smoking and alcohol consumption were collected by two questionnaires with a two-year interval. At baseline, impulsivity was associated with smoking and alcohol use. After controlling for baseline smoking, impulsivity predicted increased number of cigarettes smoked per day in women (p=0.08), but not in men. After controlling for alcohol use at baseline, impulsivity predicted increased alcohol consumption similarly in both genders (p<0.01). Higher impulsivity was also associated with increased likelihood of taking up smoking or becoming a heavy drinker (p<0.05). This evidence suggests that impulsivity contributes to increasing health risk behaviours.     

Parental styles in prospective fathers: A research carried out using a semistructured interview during pregnancy

Recent reviews on research into fathers consistently have drawn attention to the increased knowledge and thinking of the multifaceted, complex, and changing nature of fathers' role. Paternal involvement has been studied with reference to a number of variables, including personality, attitudes, and family structure. The concept of “understanding mental states” and of mentalization and the notion and working definition of Reflective Self Function, as devised by Fonagy and colleagues, seem to have important implications for paternal and parental involvement, and for normal development of the infant–caretaker relationship. The aim of our research was to broaden current knowledge and thinking about fathering during pregnancy by investigating how 112 prospective fathers are involved in the transition to fatherhood and how they are able to reflect on their experience. Our aim was to identify parental styles according to May's concepts and to rate Reflective Self Function in The Clinical Interview for Parents During Pregnancy [Colloquio per Genitori in Gravidanza (CGG)]. The CGG is a semistructured clinical interview devised with the most recent psychoanalytic views on mental representations taken into account and is aimed at investigating feelings and attitudes toward the baby, the couple's inner and subjective world. Our results highlighted the complexity of paternal involvement in pregnancy and its relation with Reflective Self Function. Specific relations also were found between Reflective Self Function and the three styles of detachment/involvement identified by May. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Religious teaching and political context: the case of Cyprus

In this article I aim to explore some philosophical issues involved in teaching religion in Cyprus and suggest some preconditions in order for this teaching to be sensitive to the multicultural character of the island and conducive to the vision of reconciliation and reunification. First, I shall clarify some particularities of the political problem of Cyprus, since many misconceptions obscure the understanding of the real stakes at issue, having crucial repercussions for demarcating the role of religious belief. For the Cyprus problem has been misconceived by many people as a kind of religious and ethnic conflict, thus raising various kinds of false dilemmas and expectations in relation to the local religions (Christian Orthodoxy and Islam) and their future cultivation in the schools of the two communities. I shall attempt to ‘put the record straight’ in a way, showing that the Cyprus issue is not reducible to the religious difference of the peoples involved, and suggest what I believe is the real challenge now regarding the teaching of religion in this part of the world.

The independence treaties left Cypriots—particularly Greek Cypriots—with a political half‐life. If the NATO allies thought the contrived constitutional arrangement would enable the two communities to live peacefully together, they were badly mistaken. (O’Malley & Craig, 2002 O’Malley, B. and Craig, I. 2002. The Cyprus conspiracy: America, espionage and the Turkish invasion, New York: I. B. Tauris Publishers.  [Google Scholar], p. 87)     

Moral psychology of nursing robots: Exploring the role of robots in dilemmas of patient autonomy

Artificial intelligences (AIs) are widely used in tasks ranging from transportation to healthcare and military, but it is not yet known how people prefer them to act in ethically difficult situations. In five studies (an anthropological field study, n = 30, and four experiments, total n = 2150), we presented people with vignettes where a human or an advanced robot nurse is ordered by a doctor to forcefully medicate an unwilling patient. Participants were more accepting of a human nurse's than a robot nurse's forceful medication of the patient, and more accepting of (human or robot) nurses who respected patient autonomy rather than those that followed the orders to forcefully medicate (Study 2). The findings were robust against the perceived competence of the robot (Study 3), moral luck (whether the patient lived or died afterwards; Study 4), and command chain effects (Study 5; fully automated supervision or not). Thus, people prefer robots capable of disobeying orders in favour of abstract moral principles like valuing personal autonomy. Our studies fit in a new era in research, where moral psychological phenomena no longer reflect only interactions between people, but between people and autonomous AIs.     

Compensatory and non‐compensatory multidimensional randomized item response models

Randomized response (RR) models are often used for analysing univariate randomized response data and measuring population prevalence of sensitive behaviours. There is much empirical support for the belief that RR methods improve the cooperation of the respondents. Recently, RR models have been extended to measure individual unidimensional behaviour. An extension of this modelling framework is proposed to measure compensatory or non‐compensatory multiple sensitive factors underlying the randomized item response process. A confirmatory multidimensional randomized item response theory model (MRIRT) is proposed for the analysis of multivariate RR data by modelling the response process and specifying structural relationships between sensitive behaviours and background information. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to estimate simultaneously the parameters of the MRIRT model. The model extension enables the computation of individual true item response probabilities, estimates of individuals’ sensitive behaviour on different domains, and their relationships with background variables. An MRIRT analysis is presented of data from a college alcohol problem scale, measuring alcohol‐related socio‐emotional and community problems, and alcohol expectancy questionnaire, measuring alcohol‐related sexual enhancement expectancies. Students were interviewed via direct or RR questioning. Scores of alcohol‐related problems and expectancies are significantly higher for the group of students questioned using the RR technique. Alcohol‐related problems and sexual enhancement expectancies are positively moderately correlated and vary differently across gender and universities.     

Locke’s Children? Rousseau and the Beans (Beings?) of the Colonial Learner

Rousseau’s story about Emile having his first moral lesson in property rights by planting beans in a garden plot has educationally been discussed from various perspectives. What remains unexplored in such readings, however, is the connection of the theory of the natural learner with the Lockean rationalization of appropriation of land through cultivation. We will show that this connection forms the subtext of the ‘beans’ episode and grounds the rich and complex textual operations that give to the episode a strong political character. The aim is to unearth the common, colonial cause that the ideas of the natural learner, property as original relation to land and contractuality may make in Locke-inspired, early modern pedagogy and to explore the ambivalences in Rousseau’s text that are thus created.