Women as victims of corporate crime: A call for research on a neglected topic

Criminologists have paid less attention to white‐collar than to street crime, to victims than to offenders, and to women than to men, either as victims or as offenders. In fact, we have been unable to locate even a single study that focuses specifically on women as victims of corporate crime. We present several case studies that indicate that women are indeed often victimized by corporate activities. We argue that research on this topic is both necessary and timely. Feminist analysis may explain why little attention has been paid to this issue so far and also provides a theoretical framework for future research.     

Consequentializing and Underdetermination

The paper explores a new interpretation of the consequentializing project. Three prominent interpretations are criticized for neglecting the explanatory dimension of moral theories. Instead, it is argued that consequentializing leads to a phenomenon that is structurally analogous to one in science—the underdetermination of theory by evidence. This provides important insights into the consequentializing debate, and advances our general understanding of the moral domain.     

Object detection in natural scenes: Independent effects of spatial and category-based attention

Humans are remarkably efficient in detecting highly familiar object categories in natural scenes, with evidence suggesting that such object detection can be performed in the (near) absence of attention. Here we systematically explored the influences of both spatial attention and category-based attention on the accuracy of object detection in natural scenes. Manipulating both types of attention additionally allowed for addressing how these factors interact: whether the requirement for spatial attention depends on the extent to which observers are prepared to detect a specific object category—that is, on category-based attention. The results showed that the detection of targets from one category (animals or vehicles) was better than the detection of targets from two categories (animals and vehicles), demonstrating the beneficial effect of category-based attention. This effect did not depend on the semantic congruency of the target object and the background scene, indicating that observers attended to visual features diagnostic of the foreground target objects from the cued category. Importantly, in three experiments the detection of objects in scenes presented in the periphery was significantly impaired when observers simultaneously performed an attentionally demanding task at fixation, showing that spatial attention affects natural scene perception. In all experiments, the effects of category-based attention and spatial attention on object detection performance were additive rather than interactive. Finally, neither spatial nor category-based attention influenced metacognitive ability for object detection performance. These findings demonstrate that efficient object detection in natural scenes is independently facilitated by spatial and category-based attention.     

The rich are different: Unravelling the perceived and self‐reported personality profiles of high‐net‐worth individuals

Beyond money and possessions, how are the rich different from the general population? Drawing on a unique sample of high‐net‐worth individuals from Germany (≥1 million Euro in financial assets; N = 130), nationally representative data (N = 22,981), and an additional online panel (N = 690), we provide the first direct investigation of the stereotypically perceived and self‐reported personality profiles of high‐net‐worth individuals. Investigating the broad personality traits of the Big Five and the more specific traits of narcissism and locus of control, we find that stereotypes about wealthy people's personality are accurate albeit somewhat exaggerated and that wealthy people can be characterized as stable, flexible, and agentic individuals who are focused more on themselves than on others.     

Short-term memory after all: comment on Sederberg, Howard, and Kahana (2008)

P. B. Sederberg, M. W. Howard, and M. J. Kahana have proposed an updated version of the temporal-context model (TCM-A). In doing so, they accepted the challenge of developing a single-store model to account for the dissociations between short- and long-term recency effects that were reviewed by E. J. Davelaar, Y. Goshen-Gottstein, A. Ashkenazi, H. J. Haarmann, and M. Usher (2005). In this commentary, the authors argue that the success of TCM-A in addressing the dissociations is dependent not only on an episodic encoding matrix but--critically--also on its implicit use of a short-term memory store--albeit exponential rather than buffer-like. The authors also highlight some difficulties of TCM-A in accounting for these dissociations, and they argue that TCM-A fails to account for critical data--the presentation-rate effect--that dissociates exponential and buffer-like models.     

Religious Schools and Discipline

Recently there has been a growing interest in faith-based schools (see e.g. The Times , No. 67060, 2 December 2001, pp. 1, 4). Politicians have indicated a willingness to support such schools on the assumption that religion may make a positive contribution to schooling. It is not at all self-evident that there is a clear inter-relationship between religion and education on which the assumption can be grounded. In what follows I shall seek to explore one sphere in which religion can have a bearing on schooling, notably on its understanding and practice of discipline. Before the specifically religious impact can be explored, the complex nature of discipline and reward/punishment in school is examined. The philosophy of behaviourism is rejected as inadequate for the processes of education, not least because of the insights of Nietzsche and Plato. The analysis leads to the identification of three very distinct forms of discipline, namely, authoritarian, moral and 'Socratic'. Whilst in practice schools may resort to all three, they would not necessarily do so in a coherent way as the authoritarian and moral forms of discipline are, in important respects, incompatible. The understanding of what religion is, is also shown to be of a varied nature. Differing views and features of religion can serve to reinforce the school as an authoritarian, moral or 'Socratic' community. Whilst the inherent authoritarianism of religion and the ethical dimension of religion are well known, a 'Kierkegaardian' view of religion would have strong affinities with 'Socratic' discipline and help to support the view of the school as a community for all.     

Temperance: with a consideration of evil,violence, and pedagogy

The article investigates the meaning of temperance by noting some cultural assumptions, raising the question as to why this classical virtue has largely disappeared from modern ethical discourse. By means of some historical notes temperance is identified as the unifying virtue in the person and in society. In its Christian form it is related to love of the transcendent goal of human life. By being similarly goal driven, education should consider the cardinal virtues and celebrate them through worship.     

On Being Rejected: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Research on Rejection

ABSTRACT— This article presents the first meta-analysis of experimental research on rejection, sampling 88 studies. The results are consistent with a needs account, which states that rejection frustrates basic psychological needs, but not with a numbness account, which states that rejection causes physical and emotional numbness. Rejection moderately lowers mood ( d =−0.50) and self-esteem ( d =−0.70), but does not decrease arousal or flatten affect. Both belonging ( d = 0.69) and control ( d = 1.16) are frustrated by rejection. Aggressive responses to rejection, considered paradoxical by some, appear to be due to attempts to gain control; measures that contrast belonging and control ( d =−1.17) cause antisocial responding, whereas measures that do not allow for control to be restored cause prosocial responding ( d = 1.21). These findings suggest that rejection makes individuals feel bad—ready to act to restore control or belonging—and that they will prioritize restoring control even if it requires being antisocial.     

Gender stereotypes and power: Perceptions of the roles in violent marriages

Men are generally observed to exercise more power than women within the marriage relationship. One way of expressing such power is through the roles in violent marriages, in which the man is usually the more powerful, violent person and the woman is the less powerful, abused person. This research tested the hypothesis that roles differing in power can explain why men are believed to be high in agency and women to be high in communion. Agency involves both positive traits (self-assertiveness) and negative traits (motivated to master and subjugate others); communion involves positive traits (accommodation and concern for others) as well as negative traits (excessive selflessness and vulnerability). College students rated stimulus persons on the gender stereotyped traits. In one condition, the husband was described as violent towards his wife, and in another condition, the traditional power relationship was reversed and the wife was described as violent towards her husband. On both the positive and negative traits, violent women and men were perceived as high in agency and low in communion. Abused men and women were seen as high in positive communion and low in positive agency, although the abused woman was lower in positive agency than her male counterpart. For abused women and men, the hypothesized results were found for negative agency, but not all of the expected findings were obtained for negative communion. The sex differences that were found could be explained by differences in the perceived physical aggression inflicted by violent men and women.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1991 annual meetings of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, and the Association for Women in Psychology, Hartford, CT. I would like to express my appreciation to Carl F. Wiedemann for his statistical advice.