Influence of Gun Ownership on Social Inferences About Women and Men1

In the past gun ownership was primarily a male-only phenomenon. There has been, however, an increase among American women in gun purchasing largely for purposes of self-defense. In the first study we examined the consequences of women and men owning handguns, versus not doing so, for social perception. Given that gun ownership is stereotype inconsistent for women but not for men, such a violation of expectancies was expected to have a greater impact on inferences about women than men. Subjects believed that women who owned handguns would possess masculine physical characteristics, although they were not perceived as losing feminine body attributes per se. Women who owned guns tended to be perceived as less likely to occupy female stereotypic social roles, while men who owned a weapon were perceived as more likely to do so. Men who owned a handgun were perceived as less likely to possess socially desirable male stereotypic traits, although women with a handgun gained in this respect. In the second study where a community sample was employed, the main pattern of outcomes was replicated. Affective reactions toward male and female gun owners were similar, and less positive than for persons who do not own guns. Individuals with both positive and negative attitudes toward guns displayed the same pattern of inferences based on gun ownership and target gender. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for social judgment and stereotype use.     

Using the sixth sense: The place and relevance of language in counselling

Counsellors' primary skills, apart from listening to clients' words, lie in responding with well-chosen words. Ideal counsellors say just the right thing, at just the right time, in just the right way. It is suggested that emphasising how words relate to cognitive, emotional and relationship events can take counselling on to new ground. In addition to felt experience being in sight, sound, feeling, smell and taste, language itself is posited as a 'sense' through which we perceive, and are joined to, our environment. From the starting point that counsellors use words to heal, attention is paid to how wrong words injure clients, how words are a major component in making relationships, and how they create and define felt experiences. 'Metaphorical schemas' are posited as bases for shaping felt experience. These schemas are a theory of subjectively felt emotion and cognitive understanding.     

Adults' evaluations of children caring for a baby: The effects of gender and behavior

In this study adult subjects evaluated the behavior of a 5- or 8-year-old child interacting with his or her baby “sibling.” The adults saw a 5-minute videotape in which the child interacted in a minimal or active fashion with the baby. The eight tapes consisted of all possible combinations of older child and infant sex and behavior style. The adults evaluated the active interaction with the infant very differently than the minimal interaction, but found each behavioral style equally typical of girls and boys in this age range. The active children were seen as more positive, more expressive, more intstrumental, more active, and more tender. The gender of the subject and older child played small roles in some of the evaluations.     

Introducing an existential-phenomenological approach: Basic phenomenological theory and research–Part I

What is often referred to as the existential approach to counselling and psychotherapy may be defined as the application of existential-phenomenological philosophy towards psychotherapeutic ends, in which individual practitioners choose how to apply their readings of the leading authors. The first of this two-part exposition introduces a form of ‘experiential’ philosophy called phenomenology, a regular experiential method that is in many ways antithetical to the conventional scientific approach. This first paper concentrates on one of the many successive definitions of phenomenology given by Husserl, the philosopher of science, in 1927, with help from his ex-student Heidegger. In the second paper, phenomenology is brought to bear on human experience, and it is Heidegger in Being and Time who added it to the writings of the earlier existentialists Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; to produce existential psychology and philosophy. Also in the second part, three forms of existential therapy are briefly mentioned. This first paper introduces a handful of key ideas for counselling psychologists, and illustrates how philosophical work is an inherent part of life, as well as the production and use of psychological knowledge.     

Elements of a counter‐exhibition: Excavating and countering a Canadian history and legacy of eugenics

Into the Light, a recently mounted collectively curated museum exhibition, exposed and countered histories and legacies of 20th‐century “race betterment” pedagogies taught in Ontario's postsecondary institutions that targeted some groups of people, including Anishinaabe, Black, and other racialized populations, and disabled and poor people, with dehumanizing ideas and practices. This article advances understandings of the transformative potential of centralizing marginalized stories in accessible and creative ways to disrupt, counter, and draw critical attention to the brutal impacts of oppressive knowledge. The “counter‐exhibition” prioritized stories of groups unevenly targeted by such oppression to contest and defy singular narratives circulating in institutional knowledge systems of what it means to be human. The authors draw on feminist, decolonial and disability scholarship to analyze the exhibition's curation for the ways it collectively and creatively: (1) brought the past to the present through materializing history and memory in ways that challenged archival silences; and (2) engaged community collaboration using accessible, multisensory, multimedia storytelling to “speak the hard truths of colonialism” (Lonetree) while constructing a new methodology for curating disability and access (Cachia). The authors show how the exhibition used several elements, including counter‐stories, to end legacies of colonial eugenic violence and to proliferate accounts that build solidarity across differences implicated in and impacted by uneven power (Gaztambide‐Fernández).     

Intergenerational and Partner Influences on Fathers’ Negative Discipline

Recent studies have found significant but relatively modest associations in parenting across generations, suggesting additional influences on parenting beyond experiences in the family of origin. The present prospective, cross-generational study of at-risk men (Oregon Youth Study) focuses on fathers' negative discipline practices with their 2- to 3-year-old children. The theoretical model is based on a dynamic developmental systems approach to problematic family functioning, which points to the importance of developmental systems, including family risk context and key influential social interactional systems, and emphasizes influence that is directly pertinent to the outcome of interest. Path modeling indicated that the men's poor and harsh discipline practices were predicted by partners' problem behavior (substance use and antisocial behavior) and negative discipline practices, as well as by poor discipline experienced in the family of origin; men's own problem behavior, ages at which they became fathers, and family socioeconomic status were controlled. Findings indicate the importance of focusing on influence dynamics across parents.     

Withdrawal From Coparenting Interactions During Early Infancy

This study examines early withdrawal in the coparenting system, and the utility of a brief problem‐solving discussion about coparenting responsibilities as a means for evaluating such withdrawal. One hundred and fifteen couples were evaluated both prenatally and at 3 months postpartum. During prenatal assessments, parents rated their personalities and completed marital assessments. After the baby arrived, they completed a negotiation task in which they discussed disputes about parenting roles and responsibilities, and interacted together with the baby in a triadic play assessment. Fathers' but not mothers' withdrawal during coparenting negotiations was associated with greater disengagement and less warmth during triadic play and with fathers' feelings that mothers did not respect their parenting. Fathers' but not mothers' withdrawal during coparenting negotiations was also forecast by low ego resilience and by an increase in depressive symptomatology during the postpartum. As the negotiation task appeared to be an effective provocateur of withdrawal when confronting coparenting disagreement, it may prove useful for eliciting this aspect of coparental process in work with couples.