Broadcasting of violence on Spanish television: a quantitative panorama

A quantitative analysis of broadcasted violence by the main television (TV) channels transmitting for Madrid (Spain) was carried out using a novel method that randomly selects fragments of delimited duration from TV broadcasts. The device selects acts of aggression shown in those TV extracts, and classifies them according to their type. There was a high incidence of aggressive acts, especially physical (particularly leading to death), in TV fiction: films, serials and promos. The device also allowed examination of the prominence of aggression in children's programs, as well as showing minimal variation in the number of aggressive acts over screened time intervals. The pattern of the collected data suggests that the broadcasting of violence on TV emphasizes the conflicting elements of social reality, reproducing it in fiction, news reports and children's shows. Aggr. Behav. 32:137–145. 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION,HEALING, AND ALTRUISM: INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM

This essay introduces the five articles that follow, whose aim is to show how altruism emerges out of spiritual transformation and is integral to healing process in four kinds of ritual healing systems—popular, folk, an indigenous religious healing tradition, and complementary and alternative medicine represented by consciousness transformation movements. In this introduction I situate these largely marginalized religious and spiritual practices within the context of the religion‐science discourse, which has focused for the most part on the relationship between the established, mainstream religions and the dominant biomedical system. Antecedents of two of these types of religious practices, Spiritism and consciousness transformation movements, were part of the development of the psychological sciences in the nineteenth century but lost ground in the twentieth. Despite discrimination and persistent negative attitudes on the part of the established religions and biomedicine, these healing traditions have not only survived through the twentieth century but appear to have gained both followers and interest in the twenty‐first. In future decades, at least for complementary and alternative medical practices and perhaps also for spirit healing centers, there may be a reversal in status through greater acceptance of their unique combination of scientific and religious perspectives.     

The Unhappy Marriage of Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics

The proposal that care ethic(s) (CE) be subsumed under the framework of virtue ethic(s) (VE) is both promising and problematic for feminists. Although some attempts to construe care as a virtue are more commendable than others, they cannot duplicate a freestanding feminist CE. Sander‐Staudt recommends a model of theoretical collaboration between VE and CE that retains their comprehensiveness, allows CE to enhance VE as well as be enhanced by it, and leaves CE open to other collaborations.     

Assessment of sensory substitution prosthesis potentialities in minimalist conditions of learning

Pattern recognition with a prosthesis substituting vision by audition was investigated. During 15 1‐hour sessions, nine blindfolded sighted subjects were trained to recognise 2D patterns by trial and error. In addition to a global assessment, recognition of pattern element nature (vertical bars, horizontal bars…), element size and element spatial arrangement were independently assessed for each pattern. Influence of experimental parameters (complexity level of patterns, exploration number of a pattern) on recognition was studied. Performances improved over sessions. As a rule, patterns element nature was less well recognised than element size and spatial arrangement. Experimental parameters influenced pattern recognition performance. Results are discussed in relation with auditory and visual perception as well as in the perspective to implement a learning protocol for future users of prosthesis. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

狂便谈禅,悲还说梦--龚自珍佛教思想管窥

龚自珍堪称近代中国思想解放的精神先驱.当激进的改革要求遭受挫折后,龚自珍便将沉沉心事投向了佛学.佛学赋予的智慧和普渡众生的济世观念使龚自珍受益颇深,一方面既找到了一种崇高的精神依托,另一方面同样也可以借此学说以申张自己励志改革的决心.在龚自珍那里,佛学兼具理性与信仰的双重情感,它具有宗教性,但更是龚自珍批判礼教、倡导经世致用之学的理论渊源之一.而这一自佛学中吸取营养的学术风气后来渐至发扬光大,终于形成了一股强大的社会改良思潮,也开启了近代佛学的思辨之路.     

哈尼族村社祭司——咪谷

咪谷是哈尼族社会生活中重要角色人物。他既是自然属性的人,又是神灵的化身;他曾经既是行政首长,又是宗教祭司;他是做人的楷模,是村寨生活精神的象征,是人生价值的追求目标。本文阐述咪谷产生的历史背景及条件的基础上,阐明咪谷与莫批在哈尼族社会中地位和不同作用,提出了咪谷精神在当今构建和谐村社中具有重要的现实意义。     

咒语的本源、演变、基本特征以及与祷词、神谕的区别

巫术与神灵崇拜仪式中出现的仪式语言有咒语、祷词与神谕。在现代社会尚存的以民俗信仰为主的中国本土传统的宗教仪式中,三种仪式语言往往连用或混杂在一起,而咒语的情况最为复杂。原始形态的咒语源自巫术活动中的语言灵力崇拜,而在后世有各种与神灵崇拜相结合的形态。依照咒语形成的原理和基本特征,可以判别具体仪式中咒语的灵力构成形态。根据三种仪式语言的性质、特征的差异,以及所用词句的不同,可以将三者加以比较细致的区分,借此可以明了特定仪式的超自然力崇拜的具体状况。     

The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities on Companies With Bad Reputations

Based on theories of attribution and suspicion, three experiments highlight the mediating role of perceived sincerity of motives in determining the effectiveness of CSR activities. CSR activities improve a company's image when consumers attribute sincere motives, are ineffective when sincerity of motives is ambiguous, and hurt the company's image when motives are perceived as insincere. Variables affecting perceived sincerity include the benefit salience of the cause, the source through which consumers learn about CSR, and the ratio of CSR contributions and CSR‐related advertising. High benefit salience of the cause hurts the company, in particular when consumers learn about it from a company source. This backfire effect can be overcome by spending more on CSR activities than on advertising that features CSR.     

Country‐of‐Origin Influences on Product Evaluations: The Impact of Animosity and Perceptions of Industriousness Brutality on Judgments of Typical and Atypical Products

When a product's country of origin has a reputation for manufacturing high‐quality products, there may be a positive impact on product judgments. If people feel animosity toward a country as a result of its political or social policies, they may react negatively to the products it produces. These opposing effects may depend in part on the subset of country‐relevant knowledge that is accessible in memory at the time of judgment. When a product was not one on which Germany or Japan had built its reputation for manufacturing high‐quality products, associating the product with these countries increased its evaluations when industriousness had been activated as part of an unrelated experiment. However, when concepts associated with brutality had been primed, the product's country of origin had a negative effect on judgments. When the product was typical of those manufactured in the country, however, identifying its country of origin increased product evaluations regardless of whether industriousness or brutality had been primed. Thus, animosity toward a product's country of origin had an adverse effect on reactions to it only if the product was not one on which the country's reputation was based.