Thinking for Tomorrow: reflections on Avner de-Shalit

ABSTRACT According to Avner de-Shalit, our relationship with future generations is one of obligation based on welfare rights, not on basic human rights. This is because welfare rights derive from a shared community, and because we and future generations are members of the one 'transgenerational'community. I argue that although it is correct to ground our relations to possible future people in the concept of community, it is wrong to think that rights-talk of any kind is an adequate articulation of that sense of community. To present the issue of our relationship with future generations in terms of a choice between human rights and welfare rights misrepresents the nature of reasoning on these sorts of concerns. In a properly developed communitarian position there is a model of philosophical reasoning that can better articulate and interpret our intuitions about community in general and about our relations to potential future people in particular. Furthermore, such articulations can give those intuitions persuasive force.     

Meat Label Information: Effects of Separate Versus Conjoint Presentation on Product Evaluation1

Consumers want more information about the food they consider buying. One way to provide such information is via food labeling, but not all label information can be used effectively. We tested how information on actual meat labels from a supermarket environment analysis was evaluated against a realistic new label when labels were seen separately vs. in a conjoint (simultaneous) presentation. Participants (M = 24 years; 49% women) evaluated how much money they would pay for identical meat products with different label information. Conjoint presentation of labels led to opposite product rankings compared to separate presentations in some conditions (preference‐reversal effect). We discuss the importance of food labels that provide transparent, evaluable information for supporting informed, responsible meat product decisions.     

UNDERSTANDING THE DETERMINANTS OF EMPLOYER USE OF SELECTION METHODS

This study uses national probability data from over 3,000 employers to examine why employers differ in their use of employee selection methods. Although the research on employee selection is voluminous, there have been only a handful of studies that look at the employers' selection decisions. In contrast to those other studies, we focus on characteristics of work as predictors of firms' decisions regarding selection practices. Beyond the relationship to the overall extent of selection methods used, we argue that specific work characteristics will affect the use of specific types of selection methods. We find, for example, that the greater the skill requirements of a position, the more likely that the establishment will use those types of selection methods that tap into the ability and skills of the applicants, namely, academic achievement and test performance. Discussion and suggestions for future research are offered.     

On the psychodynamics of collecting1

The urge to collect is a ubiquitous phenomenon which has anthropological, sociobiological and individual psychodynamic roots, but occurs far more frequently among men than women. The author examines the reasons for this gender difference and defi nes systematic collecting to distinguish it from addictive, obsessive and messy collecting, and from related phenomena such as perversion. The mode of collecting and choice of object are important indicators as to the unconscious psychodynamics of a collector and offer opportunity to describe his structural level. Collecting ranges across a broad spectrum, from an ego‐syntonic integrated mode, i.e. sublimation, to a neurotic defence against pre‐oedipal or oedipal traumas and confl icts. Alongside this drive‐theoretical approach, object and Kleinian theory are also applied to the understanding of collecting. Collecting represents a specifi c form of object relating and way of handling primary loss trauma, which is different from addiction, compulsion, or perversion. Under certain circumstances collecting can also result in a successful Gestalt or way of life. The paper concludes with a case study showing how collecting develops from a pre‐oedipal to a more integrated oedipal mode during the course of the analysis, which is refl ected in changes in the transference.     

Perceiving concealment in relationships between parents and adolescents: Links with parental behavior

Although concealment in relationships is commonplace, little is known about its implications for the target of concealment. Two large‐scale studies among adolescents and their parents tested the central hypothesis that parents’ perception of child concealment predicts poorer parenting behaviors toward their child. Further, we investigated whether actual child concealment adds to the prediction of parenting behaviors through an interaction with parental perception of concealment. Study 1 yielded evidence for the hypothesized link, which was independent of actual concealment. Study 2 largely replicated these results for perceptions of both concealment and lying while controlling for perceptions of disclosure. Overall, these results suggest that parents’ perception of child concealment coincides with poorer parenting behaviors, regardless of actual child concealment.