Celebrating 50 Years of Service: A Conversation With Mary Thomas Burke

Mary Thomas Burke, known affectionately to many in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the surrounding communities as “Sister,” has devoted over 50 of the past years of her life to service. In this interview, she explores the paths that her service endeavors have followed, the influences and turning points in her life, and shares her insights on achieving balance in service and in life.     

THE PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A MALE ANORECTIC3

The author describes the way in which a male anorexic patient came to be understood in once‐weekly psychotherapy. The findings are similar to recent psychoanalytic ones about female anorectics, but add that he was preoccupied with display and that there was an erotised transference in the oral mode. Of two major themes, the first was a food obsession; the food was felt concretely to be the mother as in a symbolic equation, and the conflict about eating represented a wish for and fear of fusion with her. The second major theme concerned exhibition; the self, as seen in two screen memories, was felt to be uncomfortably on show. Meanwhile the patient was preoccupied with a self‐displaying maternal object, which was prominent in the transference. This perception of the object served as a defence against envy, although the defensive aspect may have been added to by an actual experience of a mother who functioned operatively, giving food rather than loving attention. The patient employed primary‐process thinking defensively against selfobject differentiation, which would have excited further awareness both of envy and of the real deficiencies of his primary objects. The author raises the possibility that the anorexia functioned as a perversion, binding and organising the core complex about fusion.     

Effects of Electronic Monitoring Types on Perceptions of Procedural Justice,Interpersonal Justice,and Privacy1

Electronic performance monitoring and control systems (EPMCSs) are raising fairness and privacy concerns in many organizations. Researchers typically have treated different types of EPMCSs as equal, yet various EPMCS types (e.g., computer monitoring, eavesdropping, surveillance) may exert differential influences on fairness and privacy perceptions. In this study, 246 participants read scenarios describing different technologies for evaluating performance. Results indicated that EPMCS types significantly influenced perceptions of procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and privacy. Computer monitoring was perceived as the most procedurally just; but traditional direct observation by a supervisor without electronic monitoring was perceived as the most interpersonally just, and the least invasive in terms of privacy. These findings suggest that employers should be cautious in the type of monitoring used.     

Rethinking Gibbard’s Riverboat Argument

According to the Principle of Conditional Non-Contradiction (CNC), conditionals of the form “If p, q” and “If p, not q” cannot both be true, unless p is inconsistent. This principle is widely regarded as an adequacy constraint on any semantics that attributes truth conditions to conditionals. Gibbard has presented an example of a pair of conditionals that, in the context he describes, appear to violate CNC. He concluded from this that conditionals lack truth conditions. We argue that this conclusion is rash by proposing a new diagnosis of what is going on in Gibbard’s argument. We also provide empirical evidence in support of our proposal.     

Cross‐cultural differences in emotion suppression in everyday interactions

Previous research suggests that in collectivistic cultures, people tend to suppress their emotions more than in individualistic cultures. Little research, however, has explored cross‐cultural differences in emotion regulation in everyday interactions. Using a daily social interaction method, we examined whether people from collectivistic backgrounds (Chinese exchange students and immigrants from the Moluccas, Indonesia) living in the Netherlands differed from those from individualistic backgrounds (Dutch natives) in emotion suppression during everyday interactions. We also examined whether this depended on their relationship with the interaction partner(s). We found that Chinese participants suppressed positive and negative emotions more than Dutch and Moluccan participants and that this was related to differences in interdependent and independent self‐construal across the samples. We also found that Chinese participants suppressed positive emotions less in interactions with close others, whereas Dutch participants suppressed negative emotions more with non‐close others. No such differences were found for Moluccans. Our findings support the idea that people from collectivistic cultures suppress emotions more than those from individualistic cultures, but they also suggest that this depends on who the interaction partner is. Furthermore, they suggest that emotion suppression may change when people with collectivistic backgrounds have been raised in individualistic cultures.     

Decomposing filial piety into filial attitudes and filial enactments

In an attempt to explore the attitude-behaviour relationship, the present study examined the mixed findings from research on filial piety by differentiating filial attitudes from filial behaviours. The Filial Behaviour Scale was developed to tap the behavioural manifestations of filial piety, and its nomological network was established in two Chinese contexts, Hong Kong and Beijing. In addition to filial attitudes, we used values, social beliefs, and self-construals to explain filial behaviours. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that the value factor of conservation and the social axiom of reward for application predicted filial behaviour above and beyond filial attitudes; an interdependent self-construal moderated the effect of cultural group on filial behaviour. Gender and regional differences in filial piety were also examined. Males were found to score higher on filial attitudes, but not significantly higher on filial behaviours. Regional differences existed in filial behaviours, but not in filial attitudes, with Mainland Chinese displaying a higher level of filial behaviours than their Hong Kong counterparts. These identified differences suggest the importance of differentiating filial attitudes from filial behaviours in future attempts to understand Chinese filiality.     

Medical Disaster: Why Ken Mattingly Can’t Have Measles in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Apollo 13</Emphasis>

The film Apollo 13 depicts denial of illness and refusal of health care as key components of American masculinity. In the film, male astronauts and mission controllers deny vulnerability to measles and to urinary infections, as well as the need to sleep, to prove their manliness. This is symbolized by their ridicule of flight surgeon Dr. Chuck. Conversely, the astronauts’ wives are depicted admitting vulnerability, especially insomnia. Thus, the film exploits and reinforces existing strands of American culture that view admission of illness and help-seeking as appropriate for women but not men, reinforcing denial and noncompliance as desirable male behaviors.     

Performance perceptions and self-focused attention predict post-event processing after a real-life social performance situation

Background and Objectives: Cognitive approaches to social anxiety suggest that an excessive brooding about one's performance in a social situation (post-event processing; PEP) is involved in the maintenance of anxiety. To date, most studies investigating PEP were conducted in laboratory settings. The present study sought to replicate previous findings on predictors of PEP after a naturalistic social performance situation. Methods: Sixty-five students, who had to give an evaluated presentation for credits, completed measures of trait social anxiety. Immediately after their presentation, participants rated state anxiety and attentional focus during the presentation, and provided an overall evaluation of their performance. One week after the presentation, they rated PEP during the preceding week, and reappraised their performance. Results: Regression analyses demonstrated that the performance ratings after and self-focused attention during the presentation were unique predictors of PEP over and above the effects of trait and state anxiety. There was no evidence that PEP was associated with a biased recall of individual performance evaluations. Conclusions: The results support cognitive theories that emphasize the importance of negative self-perceptions in the development of social anxiety and related processes, and underline self-focused attention and self-evaluative processes as important targets during treatment.