Lower income Hindu women's attitude towards abortion: a case study in urban India

After a brief discussion of Hindu views on abortion as reflected in classical Hindu philosophical and religious texts, this article examines, from an interdisciplinary perspective, current social attitudes towards abortion among lower-income Hindu women in Calcutta and attempts to identify the reasons for the striking disparity between traditional and modern Hindu views. Does Hindu dharma have the regulatory power it wielded in the past? What accounts for the changing face of mores in urban centers like Calcutta? These and related issues are the focus of this essay.     

Effect of Stroke on Joint Control during Reach-to-Grasp: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

We investigated changes in control of inter-segmental dynamics underlying upper extremity dyscoordination caused by stroke. Individuals with stroke and healthy individuals performed a natural reach-to-grasp movement. Kinetic analysis revealed that both groups rotated the shoulder by muscle torque and used interaction torque to rotate the elbow. However, individuals with stroke used interaction torque less than healthy individuals, actively suppressing a substantial portion of it. This resulted in inefficient use of active control and dyscoordination of the upper extremity. The degree of interaction torque suppression and inefficiency of active control at the elbow positively correlated with stroke severity. The increased interaction torque suppression can be a strategy used by individuals with stroke to compensate for deficient feedforward control of this torque.     

Barriers to forgiveness

Society generally encourages individuals to forgive their transgressors because forgiveness can yield many psychological, physiological, and social benefits (Exline & Baumeister, 2000 ). Nevertheless, victims face barriers to forgiving others, and other people face obstacles that prevent them from encouraging victims to forgive. We aim to provide insight into the various barriers that deter forgiveness by examining the role of the various parties involved—victims, transgressors, and uninvolved third parties—in creating barriers to forgiveness. We contend that beliefs held by these various parties significantly reduce the likelihood that victims will forgive their transgressors. By identifying how these beliefs impede forgiveness, we can begin to understand more fully why convincing victims to forgive is often a challenge. In our discussion, we also suggest ways by which victims, transgressors, and third parties can overcome these barriers to forgiveness.     

Forgiven But Not Forgotten: Covert Uncertainty in Overt Responses and the Paradox of Defection‐Despite‐Trust

Despite the widespread belief that trust is a critical determinant of loyalty, empirical and anecdotal evidence calls into question the real‐world robustness of the trust–loyalty link. An important reason for the fuzzy nature of the trust–loyalty link may be the fuzzy nature of trust itself. That is, stated trust judgments embody both a magnitude dimension (i.e., the position along a favorable‐unfavorable continuum) and an uncertainty dimension (i.e., the lack of conviction with which the judgment is held). We investigated this possibility using data pertaining to consumers’ reactions to a service failure and the provider's success in responding to their complaints. We found that the interplay between dissatisfaction with the complaint handling and past experience simultaneously influences trust magnitude and trust uncertainty. However, these two dimensions of trust are shaped by different underlying processes. Finally, uncertainty dampens the impact of stated trust on loyalty.     

Salesperson time perspectives and customer willingness to pay more: roles of intraorganizational employee navigation,customer satisfaction,and firm innovation climate

This research aims to fill a critical gap in the sales literature by proposing a relationship-based model of customer willingness to pay more, involving salesperson time perspectives (i.e., long-term perspective and short-term perspective), intraorganizational employee navigation, and customer satisfaction with the salesperson. We also examine the moderating role of firm innovation climate. Multisource survey data were collected from 204 salespeople in a business-to-business sales context along with external ratings from customers of these salespeople three months later. The findings indicate that both long- and short-term perspectives have positive effects on intraorganizational employee navigation and customer satisfaction, which, in turn, positively affect customer willingness to pay more. In addition, short-term perspective has a stronger impact than long-term perspective on intraorganizational employee navigation. Further, the effect of long-term perspective on customer satisfaction is strengthened by the innovation climate of the firm, whereas the effect of short-term perspective on customer satisfaction is weakened by it.     

Shedding light on the graph schema: Perceptual features versus invariant structure

Most theories of graph comprehension posit the existence of a graph schema to account for people’s prior knowledge of how to understand different graph types. The graph schema is, however, a purely theoretical construct: No empirical studies have explicitly examined the nature of the graph schema. We sought to determine whether graph schemas are based on perceptual features or on a common invariant structure shared between certain graph types. We isolated the process of activating the graph schema by presenting the graphs to participants in pure and mixed blocks. Any differences in reaction time between the blocks could be attributed to loading the appropriate schema. Results from a series of experiments using five types of graphs suggest that graph schemas are based on the graphical framework, a common invariant structure among certain types of graphs.     

Eastern Concepts of Love: A philosophical reading of Narada Bhakti Sutra

Bhakti has been an all-pervasive concept in the philosophical and religious traditions of India. The origin of bhakti can be traced in the Vedas wherein the root-word bhaj and various synonyms appear and in that point in time no distinction was made between secular (prema) and religious love (bhakti). Narada Bhakti Sutra (NBS) is a premier treatise on the nature of bhakti that emphasizes the connection between bhakti and prema and treats the age-old enigma about the nature of love in an original fashion. NBS has usually been interpreted in a theistic manner, often with theistic interpolations into the text. This paper interprets NBS with a philosophical approach to discover its unique insights on the perennial philosophical issue, namely, ‘what is love?’ and shows that NBS harks back to the age of the Vedas in which secular love and religious love were inter-twined.