ON THE PRAGMATICS OF SOCIAL THEORY: THE CASE OF ELIAS'S “ON THE PROCESS OF CIVILIZATION”

This paper proposes a new approach to the study of sociological classics. This approach is pragmatic in character. It draws upon the social pragmatism of G. H. Mead and the sociology of texts of D. F. McKenzie. Our object of study is Norbert Elias's On the Process of Civilization. The pragmatic genealogy of this book reveals the importance of taking materiality seriously. By documenting the successive entanglements between human agency and nonhuman factors, we discuss the origins of the book in the 1930s, how it was forgotten for 30 years, and how in the mid‐1970s it became a sociological classic. We explain canonization as a matter of fusion between book's material form and its content, in the context of the paperback revolution of the 1960s, the events of May 1968, and the demise of Parsons’ structural functionalism, and how this provided Elias with an opportunity to advance his model of sociology.     

Detecting Perceiver Expectancies: The Role of Perceiver Distraction in Spontaneously Triggering Identity Negotiation

To examine whether social interaction processes can trigger naturally-occurring identity negotiation, the current research manipulated perceiver distraction and valence of perceivers' expectations about targets. Nondistracted perceivers corrected their behaviors and impressions for the influence of their expectancies. Distracted perceivers corrected their overt information-gathering behaviors, but appeared to exhibit their biases in subtle ways. Targets detected distracted perceivers' negative expectancies, and showed signs of engaging in identity negotiation processes by behaving contrary to their perceivers' expectancies. The results suggest that distraction may facilitate the emergence of subtle expectancy-biased perceiver behaviors, and may trigger targets to intuitively engage in identity negotiation processes.     

Leaps of faith: the role of religious development in recovering integrity among Jewish alcoholics and drug addicts

In the present study we investigated the association between religiosity and schizotypy in teenagers. The Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity (Francis &; Stubbs, 1987) and the Multidimensional Schizotypal Traits Questionnaire (Rawlings &; MacFarlane 1994) were completed by 492 school pupils ranging in age from 13 to 18. It was found that higher scores on the Francis scale were associated with higher scores on the perceptual aberration subscale and lower scores on the impulsive nonconformity and magical ideation subscales. However, when the analysis was repeated for girls and boys separately we found that the association with magical ideation was unique to boys and the association with impulsive nonconformity was unique to girls. Certain associations seem to be sex specific. Also, although our data suggest that in some respects religiosity might be an index of psychosis proneness, in other respects it would seem that religiosity is associated with psychological well-being.     

Community Psychology and Global Climate Change: Introduction to the Special Section

Global climate change is not just a distant environmental or future problem but a crisis that has a clear human face already causing the suffering of millions around the globe. It is an issue of high relevance for community psychologists and the communities we work with but has received little attention within the field of community psychology. This special section is intended to promote more thinking and dialogue on this important topic. Six articles are presented that feature both theoretical consideration and empirical research related to global climate change and related environmental issues.     

Pressure and perverse flights to familiarity

Under pressure, people often prefer what is familiar, which can seem safer than the unfamiliar. We show that such favoring of familiarity can lead to choices precisely contrary to the source of felt pressure, thus exacerbating, rather than mitigating, its negative consequences. In Experiment 1, time pressure increased participants' frequency of choosing to complete a longer but incidentally familiar task option (as opposed to a shorter but unfamiliar alternative), resulting in increased felt stress during task completion. In Experiment 2, pressure to reach a performance benchmark in a chosen puzzle increased participants' frequency of choosing an incidentally familiar puzzle that both augured and delivered objectively worse performance (i.e., fewer points obtained). Participants favored this familiar puzzle even though familiarity was established through unpleasant prior experience. This "devil you know" preference under pressure contrasted with disfavoring of the negatively familiar option in a pressure-free situation. These results demonstrate that pressure-induced flights to familiarity can sometimes aggravate rather than ameliorate pressure, and can occur even when available evidence points to the suboptimality of familiar options.     

What do mothers know? Maternal knowledge of child development

Maternal knowledge of child development has been shown to affect how mothers raise their children and the environments they provide. This study examines maternal knowledge of child development and whether level of knowledge varies by content area. Additionally, this study explored maternal characteristics that predict knowledge levels globally and by content area. Low‐income women (N = 203) in the waiting room of an obstetric clinic (n = 97) and pediatric clinic (n = 106) in a southern state were asked to complete questionnaires on typical child development and demographic characteristics. Overall, women correctly answered 65% of the criterion‐referenced knowledge questions. Mothers lacked the most knowledge about infant sleep patterns and developmental ability of 6‐month‐old infants. Maternal education, race, number of children, and assistance with childcare were significantly related to maternal knowledge. Identifying gaps in maternal knowledge and characteristics that correspond to knowledge deficits provides insight into how best to tailor educational interventions for mothers. ©2005 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

患者知情同意权实现的伦理思考与法律保护

随着医学科学的发展,患者的知情同意已是医学实践的一个基本伦理观念和原则,但是,它的实现不仅需要道德规范的约束,而且还需要法律的保护.     

Online and offline social networks: Use of social networking sites by emerging adults

Social networking sites (e.g., MySpace and Facebook) are popular online communication forms among adolescents and emerging adults. Yet little is known about young people's activities on these sites and how their networks of “friends” relate to their other online (e.g., instant messaging) and offline networks. In this study, college students responded, in person and online, to questions about their online activities and closest friends in three contexts: social networking sites, instant messaging, and face-to-face. Results showed that participants often used the Internet, especially social networking sites, to connect and reconnect with friends and family members. Hence, there was overlap between participants' online and offline networks. However, the overlap was imperfect; the pattern suggested that emerging adults may use different online contexts to strengthen different aspects of their offline connections. Information from this survey is relevant to concerns about young people's life online.     

SCIENCE‐AND‐RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY/THEOLOGY DIALOGUE: WHAT FOR AND BY WHOM?

In recent years the science‐and‐religion/spirituality/theology dialogue has flourished, but the impact on the minds of the general public, on society as a whole, has been less impressive. Also, religious believers and outspoken atheists face each other without progressing toward a common understanding. The view taken here is that achieving a more marked impact of the dialogue would be beneficial for a peaceful survival of humanity. I aim to argue the why and how of that task by analyzing three possible purposes of the dialogue and their logical interdependence, suggest conceivable improvements of the quality and extent of the current efforts toward a negotiated action plan, and consider an enlargement of the circle of the actors involved. The dialogue that has been carried on between science and religion/spirituality/theology could be expanded and usefully applied to some major problems in the present world.