Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences: Editorial Introduction

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences -     

Parent-Adolescent Relationship and Adolescent Psychological Functioning among African-American Female Adolescents: Self-Esteem as a Mediator

African-American female adolescents living in urban areas are at increased risk for adverse adjustment outcomes. The present study accomplished two goals. First, the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship across age groups was examined for differences among younger (i.e., 12'14) versus mid-range (i.e., 15'16) versus older (i.e., 17'18) adolescents. Second, self-esteem was examined as a possible mediator of the relationship between the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent psychological functioning in a sample of 608 African-American urban adolescent females. With regard to developmental shifts in the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, midrange adolescents reported a significantly poorer relationship with their mother than older adolescents. Results also indicated that self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between parent-child relationship and adolescent psychological functioning. Mental health professionals can broaden their interventions that aim to improve adolescent psychological functioning by either focusing on the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship or adolescent self-esteem.     

作为体验实践的同感与同情——现象学分析与佛教教义之比较

众所周知，胡塞尔对交互主体性的分析是以同感为基础的。现在，这样一种同感经验在胡塞尔那里被描述为，它既涉及我们身体所特有的空间性，也涉及两个身体的一种时间结对、以及从我们的心理状态向他人心理状态的一种独特想象的转化。我想把对他人的这样一种多层次的经验，与大乘佛教传统中的一些教义(首先出现于印度，而后传到西藏)对同情经验的描述方式作一个比较。实际上，在这种教义体系中被非常具体地加以描述的“tonglen”实践(西藏人这样称呼)，就其植根于身体中并使时间同步而言，尤其是就想象被考虑的方式而言，都以多种形式回应着胡塞尔的同感经验。在生活空间、时间和想象等方面，通过比较这两者的实践与理论，我们将能估价它们的亲和性、它们的差异，进而最终说明它们如何才能相互启发，甚至相互促进。     

A converso confraternity in Majorca: La Novella Confraria de Sant Miquel

After their forced conversion during the anti-Jewish violence of August 1391, Majorcan conversos could no longer avail themselves of the social structures that provided for their welfare as members of the aljama. Rather than joining existing confraternities, which were the main purveyors of social welfare in Christian society, in 1404, conversos formally established a confraternity of their own. Its statutes, translated here in an Appendix, reveal both Jewish and Christian precedents in provision for the poor, the sick and for burial. These applied not only to members, but to all Majoran conversos. While the suspicions or hostility of Old Christians may have deterred conversos from seeking membership in their institutions, the converso confraternity was essentially a formalization of a community that was already bound together by pre-baptismal networks and relationships and which was addressed as a corporate entity by the Crown and creditors of the former aljama. The very establishment of Sant Miquel, as the converso confraternity was called, coupled with an absence of ritual injunctions among its statutes, supports the hypothesis that the first generations of conversos continued in the same relationships and customs as when they were Jewish. The confraternity offered a space in which these conversos could retain vestiges of their Jewish identity while situating themselves in the ambit of Christian culture, thus setting a new social referent for future generations.     

SAMHSA philosophy and statement on ethical principles

As the major federal agency responsible for improving the delivery and effectiveness of substance abuse and mental health services to the American public, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is aware that its programs deal with especially sensitive issues. As a national leader in advancing effective services to persons with addictive and mental disorders, SAMHSA has stewardship over important interventions affecting personal, community, institutional, and social values. Inherent in SAMHSA's mission and goals is a commitment to protect and promote the human, civil, and legal rights and moral freedoms of those individuals and groups who participate in SAMHSA-funded activities and to demonstrate that Agency policies and procedures are congruent with publicly acceptable ethical principles and standards of conduct. A foundation of mutual trust between SAMHSA officials and participants as well as sensitivity to issues of public accountability will hasten and strengthen progress toward this shared vision.     

Parents' predictions of their children's perceptions of family relations

Thirty children from 15 families were administered the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test. Their parents then assigned test responses as they imagined their children had. With only two exceptions, both involving first born boys, parents predicted their children's responses beyond chance expectation. However, significant discrepancies were found between children's responses and their parents' predictions. Parents tended to overestimate their own centrality in the family perceptions of their children, particularly perceptions involving negative feelings, and to underestimate children's negative feelings involving their siblings.     

Selective attention in cerebral palsied and normal children

Noninstitutionalized, educable retarded, spastic cerebral palsied children of two mental age (MA) levels were compared with normal MA controls on a task measuring selective attention and were not found deficient in selective attention. For both the cerebral palsied and the normals there was an increase in selective attention efficiency with an increase in MA. The results support the position that MA rather than chronological age or IQ is the important variable in determining selective attention performance. The results do not support the attention-deficit theory; they do support the argument that institutionalization has a negative affect on attention. The effects of brain damage and retardation on selective attention ability were discussed.Thanks are expressed to Eleanor Rennie, Head Teacher, Robert Massie, Supervisor of Special Education, and E. F. DeFord, Assistant Director, Department of Research for the Richmond Public Schools, Richmond, Virginia. Appreciation is also given to Scott Hamrick, Principal, Jackson Via Elementary School, Charlottesville, Virginia. Susan Autrey is also thanked for assistance in data collection.