Career Development From Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood Insights From Information Technology Occupations

Career development theories suggest that social-contextual experiences are influential in individuals' career interests, aspirations, and skill development and may be a source of gender and ethnic differences in certain career fields. In this mixed methods study, we examine the supportive and obstructive career-related experiences of 13 men and 13 women (modal age 25). Interviews focused primarily on the pathway toward or away from an information technology (IT) career. Thematic coding indicated that parents were mostly supportive, while experiences in school and work occasionally made individuals reconsider their career plans. Social influences often changed developmentally as participants entered full-time jobs. Gendered participation in IT was often attributed to women's perception that it is a male-oriented field.     

Responsibility for believing

Many assume that we can be responsible only what is voluntary. This leads to puzzlement about our responsibility for our beliefs, since beliefs seem not to be voluntary. I argue against the initial assumption, presenting an account of responsibility and of voluntariness according to which, not only is voluntariness not required for responsibility, but the feature which renders an attitude a fundamental object of responsibility (that the attitude embodies one’s take on the world and one’s place in it) also guarantees that it could not be voluntary. It turns out, then, that, for failing to be voluntary, beliefs are a central example of the sort of thing for which we are most fundamentally responsible.     

Reliability and validity of three screening measures of borderline personality disorder in a nonclinical population

This study explored reliability and validity of three self-report screening measures of borderline personality disorder (BPD): the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features Scale (PAI-BOR; Morey, 1991), Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4-BPD scale (PDQ4-BPD; Hyler, 1994) and Mclean Screening Instrument for BPD (MSI-BPD; Zanarini et al., 2003). Participants (N = 523) were drawn predominantly from community and student populations. All three measures were internally consistent. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the PAI-BOR did not support Jackson and Trull’s (2001) six-factor structure or Morey’s (1991) four-factor structure. The three measures converged highly, despite the broader theoretical basis of the PAI-BOR. Expected demographic differences on the measures supported construct validity, and concurrent validity in relation to theoretical-related criteria was also supported. Only the PAI-BOR and PDQ4-BPD showed incremental validity in predicting specific criteria, although, the amount of unique variance predicted was small.     

Do Muslims in Germany Really Fail to Integrate? Muslim Integration and Trust in Public Institutions

Multivariate analysis of 2008 data from the German Social Survey (ALLBUS) provides firm evidence on the basis of one important dimension of political integration??individuals?? trust in the political system??that Muslims are integrating well into German society. The results are significant despite controls for multiple indicators of respondents?? social capital, socioeconomic status, post-material views, ideological position, partisan support for parties in power, assessment of government performance, interest in politics, and amount of television viewing. Furthermore, Muslims?? level of religiosity does not influence their level of political trust. The findings raise new questions about integration in that the significantly lower levels of political trust found among non-Muslims may negatively affect their views of government and its efforts to respond to Germany??s Muslim population. Skepticism and distrust of government by non-Muslim ethnic Germans may undermine important programs designed to bridge the actual value and cultural differences which remain the source of the ignorance that fuels prejudice and discrimination.     

Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling (Person, Culture, and Religion Group, American Academy of Religion, November 18, 2005)

This article summarizes the method of pastoral assessment and theological reflection detailed in Shared Wisdom, with particular attention to pastoral counselors’ countertransference or intersubjective “use of the self” as a tool for empathic understanding of clients. A model of multiplicity of mind, subjectivity, and God is advanced in contrast to more traditional views. The article concludes with an appeal for messiness, complexity, and kenosis in both psychology and theology.Pamela Cooper-White is Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and recipient of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors’ 2005 National “Distinguished Achievement in Research and Writing” Award. She is the author of four books: Many Voices: Pastoral Psychotherapy and Theology in Relational Perspective (forthcoming, Fortress, 2006), Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling (Fortress, 2004), The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response (Fortress, 1995) which won the 1995 Top Ten Books award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and Schoenberg and the God Idea (UMI Research Press, 1985). An Episcopal priest and pastoral psychotherapist, Cooper-White is certified as a clinical Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and serves as Co-Chair of the Person, Culture, and Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion.     

You focus on the forest when you're in charge of the trees: power priming and abstract information processing

Elevated power increases the psychological distance one feels from others, and this distance, according to construal level theory, should lead to more abstract information processing. Thus, high power should be associated with more abstract thinking-focusing on primary aspects of stimuli and detecting patterns and structure to extract the gist, as well as categorizing stimuli at a higher level-relative to low power. In 6 experiments involving both conceptual and perceptual tasks, priming high power led to more abstract processing than did priming low power, even when this led to worse performance. Experiment 7 revealed that in line with past neuropsychological research on abstract thinking, priming high power also led to greater relative right-hemispheric activation.     

Life, death and (inter)subjectivity: realism and recognition in continental feminism

I begin with the assumption that a philosophically significant tension exists today in feminist philosophy of religion between those subjects who seek to become divine and those who seek their identity in mutual recognition. My critical engagement with the ambiguous assertions of Luce Irigaray seeks to demonstrate, on the one hand, that a woman needs to recognize her own identity but, on the other hand, that each subject whether male or female must struggle in relation to the other in order to maintain realism about life and death. No one can avoid the recognition that we are each given life but each of us also dies. In addition, I raise a more general, philosophical problem for analytic philosophers who attempt to read Continental philosophy of religion: how should philosophers interpret deliberately ambiguous assertions? For example, what does Irigaray mean in asserting, ‘Divinity is what we need to become free, autonomous, sovereign’? To find an answer, I turn to the distinctively French readings of the Hegelian struggle for recognition which have preoccupied Continental philosophers especially since the first half of the last century. I explore the struggle for mutual recognition between women and men who must face the reality of life and death in order to avoid the projection of their fear of mortality onto the other sex. This includes a critical look at Irigaray’s account of subjectivity and divinity. I turn to the French philosopher Michèle Le Doeuff in order to shift the focus from divinity to intersubjectivity. I conclude that taking seriously the struggle for mutual recognition between subjects forces contemporary philosophers of religion to be realist in their living and dying. With this in mind, the lesson from the Continent for philosophy of religion is that we must not stop yearning for recognition. Indeed, we must even risk our autonomy/divinity in seeking to recognize intersubjectivity.     

What's to Fear from Immigrants? Creating an Assimilationist Threat Scale

We argue that cultural threat, stressed in recent studies of anti-immigrant sentiment, is properly measured in the U.S. case as "assimilationist threat": a resentful perception that immigrants are failing to adopt the cultural norms and lifestyle of their new homeland. We explore the meaning and form of assimilationist threat in the minds of Americans through an analysis of four focus groups, two in Los Angeles, CA, and two in Columbus, OH. Using information from the focus groups, we develop and test a set of survey questions covering three dimensions of immigrants' commitment to their new country: language, productivity, and citizenship. We produce a summary scale of assimilationist threat that can be used by other researchers seeking to understand the causes and consequences of anti-immigrant sentiment.     

Sex-role imitation in children: Effects of sex of child,sex of model,and sex-role appropriateness of modeled behavior

The qualifying influence of the sex-role appropriateness of observed behavior on children's same-sex imitation was investigated. In each of two studies employing a 2×2×2 design, girls and boys observed a live male or female model display appropriate (to the child's sex) or inappropriate behavior. Results that were consistent in both studies indicated an interaction between sex of child and appropriateness. Boys imitated less when exposed to the inappropriate than to the appropriate sequence. An interaction between sex of child and sex of observer was obtained on only one measure in Experiment I (girls responded more quickly to a female than to a male model). In this study, girls also displayed greater opposite-sex imitation than boys; in Experiment II, there were no differences between boys and girls in either same- or opposite-sex imitation. The results are discussed with regard to the same-sex hypothesis and the differential impact of sex-role factors on boys and girls.The authors wish to thank the children, parents, and staff of Forest Park Elementary School for their participation and cooperation in the conduct of this study. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Paul H. Daby, Principal. The contribution of the undergraduate models and experimenters is also acknowledged.     

A New Dog-Image

Marie-Louise Von Franz: Every time one feels he has acquired a certain inner balance, a firm standpoint, something happens from within or without to throw it over again. This force always comes through the fourth door, which cannot be shut. There one has to succumb, one has to suffer defeat in order to develop further. The inferior function is the ever-bleeding wound of the conscious personality, but through it the unconscious can always come in and so enlarge consciousness and bring forth a new attitude. (1971, p. 54)