Gender Differences in Memory Perspectives: Evidence for Self-Objectification in Women

This study tests Fredrickson and Roberts' (1997)assertion that cultural practices of sexuallyobjectifying women's bodies socialize women tointernalize an observer's perspective on their physicalselves. Autobiographical memories can contain imagesfrom two perspectives: the original, first personperspective (field images) and that of an outsideobserver (observer images) (Nigro and Neisser, 1983). We collected autobiographical memories for eventsin general and for specific, potentially objectifyingsituations from a predominantly European-American sampleof 138 female and 104 male students at a private university. Results demonstrated that femaleparticipants reported more observer imagery than maleparticipants both for memories in general and formemories of certain situations wherein women are likely to be sexually objectified. Women's and men'semotional responses to these situations were alsodifferent, with women reporting more negative affect,including shame and anxiety, and less positiveaffect.     

Dating Relationships and the Demand/Withdraw Pattern of Communication

This study examines whether afemale-demand/male-withdraw pattern occurs in datingrelationships and whether this response increases duringdiscussions of difficult topics. One hundred and eightindividuals (women = 60, men = 48) currently in a datingrelationship completed the Communication PatternsQuestionnaire, Short Form (CPQSF) regarding either adifficult or nondifficult discussion. The racialcomposition of the undergraduate student population at thetime the study was conducted was 68.8% Caucasian, 8.9%Hispanic, 8.9% International, 6.0% African American,5.6% Asian American, and 1.8% Native American (data on socioeconomic status were unavailable).Results show that dating couples do employ apredominantly female-demand/male-withdraw pattern, whichincreases in response to difficult discussions. However, this study also found that many dating couplesemployed male-demand/female-withdraw or equaldemand/withdraw patterns. Post hoc tests also showedthat couples exhibiting eitherfemale-demand/male-withdraw or male-demand/female-withdraw patterns weremore ingrained in specific negative behavior patterns,employed more demand/withdraw behaviors, and exhibitedless positive behaviors than couples with an equal demand/withdraw pattern.     

Encouraging counsellor reflection

The evolution of an 'attributes checklist' tool for assisting counsellor development is described. The attributes relate to characteristics of case-notes that indicate evidence of counsellor reflection and consideration of the counselling process. The checklist was initially tested among a sample of 19 counsellors employed by an organisational EAP and was subsequently refined. The final checklist tool was found to be both usable and useful in differentiating 'process' from 'content' notes. The purpose of the checklist tool is not to enable quantitative assessment of counsellor notes, but rather to facilitate counsellor development within a professional supervisory relationship. The findings of the study are discussed, and suggestions for future research in this area are made.     

Suicide and Attachment: Fear of Abandonment and Isolation from a Developmental Perspective

Suicide risk has been found to be associated with particular attachment styles. The purpose of this paper is to discuss suicide risk in terms of family dynamics, and the development of attachments with others. Theories of suicide and development, including those by Freud, Erikson, Bowlby, Richman, and Kaplan, and their clinical implications, are discussed. Literary works by Kafka and Plath are also discussed in the context of suicide and attachment. It is concluded that families characterized by excessive enmeshment and/or detachment often produce an atmosphere of isolation and intolerance which increases suicide risk.     

Should We Teach Patriotism?

This article examines a particular debate between Eamonn Callan and William Galston concerning the need for a civic education which counters the divisive pull of pluralism by uniting the citizenry in patriotic allegiance to a single national identity.The article offers a preliminary understanding of nationalism and patriotism before setting out the terms of the debate. It then critically evaluates the central idea of Callan that one might be under an obligation morally to improve one's own patriotic inheritance, pointing to the ineliminable tension between the valuation of one's own patria by its own terms and a detached critical reason.It concludes by suggesting that we are, in advance of our education, members of a particular patria and that any education must be particularistic. Finally, the danger is noted of presuming that, in each case, there is a single, determinate national tradition.     

Agency And Consciousness

In Intentionality and other works, John Searle establishes himself as a leading defender of the view that consciousness of what one is doing is always a component of one’s action. In this paper I focus on problems with Searle’s view to establish that there are actions in which the agent is not at all aware of what she is doing. I argue that any theory that misses this sort of action keeps us from important insights into autonomy, self-knowledge and responsibility. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Animalism versus Lockeanism: No Contest

In 'Animalism versus Lockeanism: a Current Controversy', The Philosophical Quarterly , 48 (1998), pp. 302–18, Harold Noonan examined the relation between animalist and neo-Lockean theories of personal identity. As well as presenting arguments intended to support a modest compatibilism of animalism and neo-Lockeanism, he advanced a new proposal about the relation between persons and human beings which was intended to evade the principal animalist objections to neo-Lockean theories. I argue both that the arguments for compatibilism are without force, and that Noonan's new neo-Lockean proposal is inadequate.
email : david.mackie@oriel.oxford.ac.uk     

The Reduction of Adverse Impact in an Employment Setting Using a Short-Term Memory Test

Research suggests that less adverse impact should result from the use of employment tests assessing memory abilities than is obtained from tests assessing cognitive abilities. To test the application of this principle, a Short-Term Memory test and a Reading Comprehension test were administered as part of a selection battery for entry level police. Subjects were 1423 police officer applicants for a Midwestern city in the U.S. The results for the overall sample showed a smaller standardized difference between the scores of Blacks and Whites on the Short-Term Memory test than on the Reading Comprehension test, a difference which was further reduced when a subsample of Blacks and Whites was created which had been matched on gender, years of education and age.     

Mentoring Relationship Closures in Big Brothers Big Sisters Community Mentoring Programs: Patterns and Associated Risk Factors

Previous research suggests that early mentoring relationship (MR) closures may have harmful consequences for the health and well‐being of youth participating in community‐based mentoring programs. However, knowledge of the factors that lead some MRs to close early has been slow to emerge. This study examined patterns and correlates of early versus on‐time MR closures among 569 youth participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters community mentoring programs. Thirty‐four percent of youth experienced an early MR closure prior to the end of the program's 12 month period of commitment. The probability of closure was highest at 12 months into the MR. Early closures were positively associated with youth gender (girls), behavioral difficulties, and match determination difficulties. Early and on‐time closures were associated with youth extrinsic motives for joining the program. Early MR closures were negatively associated with youth perceptions of parent emotional support, parent social support, high quality MR, weekly contact in MR, and parent support of the MR. Implications for programming are discussed.     

Self-reflection and the temporal focus of the wandering mind

Current accounts suggest that self-referential thought serves a pivotal function in the human ability to simulate the future during mind-wandering. Using experience sampling, this hypothesis was tested in two studies that explored the extent to which self-reflection impacts both retrospection and prospection during mind-wandering. Study 1 demonstrated that a brief period of self-reflection yielded a prospective bias during mind-wandering such that participants’ engaged more frequently in spontaneous future than past thought. In Study 2, individual differences in the strength of self-referential thought — as indexed by the memorial advantage for self rather than other-encoded items — was shown to vary with future thinking during mind-wandering. Together these results confirm that self-reflection is a core component of future thinking during mind-wandering and provide novel evidence that a key function of the autobiographical memory system may be to mentally simulate events in the future.