Mixing against culture vs mixing against nature: ontologization of prohibited interethnic relationships

In this paper, we develop the theory of ontologization: Social representations that prevent members of minority and majority groups who are living in contact with each other to mingle. The process of ontologization consists of separating some humans from their own species, and anchoring them in another environment, that of an animal, for example. We propose that underlying the famous slogan “equal but separate” is the social representation of interracial mixing as a “counter‐nature” phenomenon. It is predicted that a sexual relationship between people of different “races” leads to a greater degree of ontologization, and, as such, this miscegenation will be explained in terms of biologistic thinking, like an instinctive nature or atavistic animal impulse. An experiment (N = 360) features the case of a woman who, though already in a stable relationship, is unfaithful to her partner. In a 2×3 factor design, the ethnic‐national identity of this woman (in‐group: Spanish/Italian vs out‐group: Senegalese) and the ethnic‐national identity of her lovers (in‐group: Spanish/Italian vs out‐group: Rumanian vs out‐group: Senegalese) were manipulated. In general, results fit the hypothesis of ontologization in interracial conditions better, rather than the customary in‐group favouritism and/or out‐group discrimination bias. We then go on to discuss the way in which a biologistic way of thinking enables a differentiation at the human level, in terms of culture groups and nature groups, in “races,” so that an interracial sexual relationship is seen as evidence of a wild and irrepressible impulse, which stigmatizes the people involved in these relationships.     

Psychological dimensions and patterns in writings of critics1

Seventy-nine articles by critics in children's literature were described by rater-analysts as projective expressions of personality. A cluster analysis of manifest content concerns, implicit needs, and critical stances produced four clusters: elucidation, appreciation, challenging, and upholding of standards. When the articles were plotted on a “map of criticism,” with the elucidation and appreciation dimensions as coordinates, style of criticism was found to vary from one area of the map to another. Articles from diagonal quadrants had attributed to them characteristics approximating the Jungian functions: thinking-feeling and intuition-sensation. Articles high on challenging and upholding also had distinctive characteristics. The distribution of articles on the map was associated with occupation, sex, and age of the critics. Criticism and related discursive writing seem to reflect personality in important and pervasive ways. An understanding of their connotations may be a useful tool in personality and social psychology. However, personality information from the critics themselves is obviously needed.     

Lives of women who became autonomous

We examine the lives and growth processes of women who have achieved considerable development of personality. Subjects of study are seven women in a longitudinal sample who, at ages 42-45, are classified by the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test at the highest ego-levels. As a way of describing their lives, all seven are analyzed in terms of Levinson's model of male development, one case is presented in terms of Gilligan's model of female development, another in terms of Loevinger's general model, and linkages among theories are observed. Characteristics of Loevinger's autonomous stage are illustrated and the extent to which they are gender-related is discussed. Findings show that women with very different personalities, problems, and ways of life can attain a high level of ego-development; that their lives tend not to have been orthodox or easy; and that theories of adult development are useful but uneven in application.     

The "CEO" of women's work lives: how Big Five Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Openness predict 50 years of work experiences in a changing sociocultural context

Few long-term longitudinal studies have examined how dimensions of personality are related to work lives, especially in women. We propose a life-course framework for studying work over time, from preparatory activities (in the 20s) to descending work involvement (after age 60), using 50 years of life data from the women in the Mills Longitudinal Study. We hypothesized differential work effects for Extraversion (work as pursuit of rewards), Openness (work as self-actualization), and Conscientiousness (work as duty) and measured these 3 traits as predictor variables when the women were still in college. In a prospective longitudinal design, we then studied how these traits predicted the women's subsequent work lives from young adulthood to age 70 and how these effects depended on the changing sociocultural context. Specifically, the young adulthood of the Mills women in the mid-1960s was rigidly gender typed and family oriented; neither work nor education variables at that time were predicted from earlier personality traits. However, as women's roles changed, later work variables became related to all 3 traits, as expected from current Big Five theory and research. For example, early personality traits predicted the timing of involvement in work, the kinds of jobs chosen, and the status and satisfaction achieved, as well as continued work participation and financial security in late adulthood. Early traits were also linked to specific cultural influences, such as the traditional feminine role, the women's movement, and graduate education for careers.