Changing the Rules of Play

Social processes like voting procedures, debates, etc. depend crucially on the precise rules which define them. This rule sensitivity is illustrated by two examples, in the case of preference aggregation by the parliamentary debate concerning the German capital, and in the case of judgement aggregation by the doctrinal paradox or discursive dilemma. Using social choice functions and the theory of mechanism design, one can formulate what it means for a particular set of rules to be correct under a given game-theoretic solution concept. Furthermore, it is argued that in particular methods from logic and computer science are useful to describe and reason about the rules of play in a precise manner.     

Counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning: some implications for practice

This paper explores counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning. Previous experiences may create distortions in meaning-making perspectives, distortions that create templates for evaluating future experience. These templates act as barriers to being open to experience; thus there is an inability to learn from experience. The process of therapy can provide a learning milieu for the exploration and working through of these barriers, with a potential outcome of a return to learning from experience. It is suggested here that intrinsic to the learning milieu created in therapy there are elements of significant, transformative and emotional learning. Therapy is thus a reparative discourse that facilitates a return to learning from experience. A deconstruction of this concept is provided here as a way of developing the exploration of counselling and psychotherapy as a form of learning.     

State mood,task performance,and behavior at work: A within-persons approach

We examine the intra-individual relationships between state mood and the primary components of the individual-level criterion space (task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and work withdrawal) as they vary within the stream of work. Using experience-sampling methods, 67 individuals in a call center responded to surveys on palmtop computers at random intervals 4–5 times each day for 3 weeks (total N = 2329). These data were matched to objective task performance obtained from organizational call records (total N = 1191). Within-persons, periods of positive mood were associated with periods of improved task performance (as evidenced by shorter call time) and engaging in work withdrawal. Trait meta-mood moderated these relationships. Specifically, individuals who attended to their moods had a stronger relationship between mood and speed of task performance (call time) and individuals able to repair their mood cognitively evidenced a weaker relationship between mood and withdrawal. Implications and the use of within-persons designs are discussed.     

Social Categorization and the Perception of Groups and Group Differences

The classification of human beings into distinct groups is a fundamental feature of social perception. Problematic phenomena, such as prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup conflict, are commonly traced back to categorization. We explore the minimal conditions under which categorization occurs and the basic mechanisms by which it affects cognition and behavior. We show that comparisons between groups are not necessary for categorization, reveal the conditions under which people overestimate or underestimate differences between groups, and sketch a model showing how social categorization gives rise to differences in the evaluation of ingroups and outgroups and to differences in the accuracy of judgments of ingroups and outgroups. We conclude with reflections on intergroup conflict and the role of moral judgment in such conflicts.     

Measurement of self-evaluative motives: a shopping scenario

To develop measures of consumers' self-evaluative motives of Self-verification, Self-enhancement, and Self-improvement within the context of a mall shopping environment, an initial set of 49 items was generated by conducting three focus-group sessions. These items were subsequently converted into shopping-dependent motive statements. 250 undergraduate college students responded on a 7-point scale to each statement as these related to the acquisition of recent personal shopping goods. An exploratory factor analysis yielded five factors, accounting for 57.7% of the variance, three of which corresponded to the Self-verification motive (five items), Self-enhancement motive (three items), and Self-improvement motive (six items). These 14 items, along with 9 reconstructed items, yielded 23 items retained and subjected to additional testing. In a final round of data collection, 169 college students provided data for exploratory factor analysis. 11 items were used in confirmatory factor analysis. Analysis indicated that the 11-item scale adequately captured measures of the three self-evaluative motives. However, further data reduction produced a 9-item scale with marked improvement in statistical fit over the 11-item scale.     

Murder and faith: a reflected case study of pastoral interventions in traumatic grief

Pastoral response to death in the family of a congregate is familiar terrain for most ministers. Pastors are often called upon to pray for the sick, comfort the bereaved, and preside at memorial services and graveside gatherings. While most get some orientation in the work of death and dying in seminary, few are prepared to minister effectively to church members who suffer traumatic bereavement caused by human-perpetrated violence. This paper describes the power of facilitated cathartic narrative, bearing witness, and reflective meaning-making in a case study involving a pastor, his wife, and the grief-stricken widow of a murdered comrade in ministry.     

Muslim veil as politics: political autonomy, women and Syariah Islam in Aceh

This article examines the interlinking of political autonomy, Syariah law and women in contemporary Aceh. Looking at Aceh’s historical precedents, current sociocultural and political developments cannot be seen as manifestations of Islamic revival. It would be misleading to look at the implementation of Syariah Islam in general and the enforcement of veiling in particular as signs of the radicalization of Islam. Islam in Aceh has always had political meanings. It shapes an identity characterized by a long collective history of rebellion against foreign oppression and repression. The revival however is seen in notions of gender dominance and order, which have profound consequences for women’s lives. Using articles from 2005 to 2006 in Serambi, a locally published newspaper in Aceh, an assessment is made of how Syariah Islam has affected women’s lives.

Assessment of Discipline Styles Among Parents of Preschool Through School-Age Children

The Parenting Scale (D.S. Arnold, S.G. O'Leary, L.S. Wolff, & M.M. Acker, 1993) is a self-report measure of parenting practices that has demonstrated sound psychometric properties when used with the parents of young children. However, less is known about the use of this measure with parents of older children. This study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Parenting Scale in a normative sample of parents with children 2–12 years old. Findings reveal that the psychometric properties remain strong among the parents of elementary school children, with minimal differences in scores as a function of children's age. However, the data suggest that the factor structure may differ from that proposed by the authors. Although statistically significant correlations with ADHD symptoms were revealed, the magnitude of these correlations was relatively small. Suggestions for future research and clinical use of this scale are discussed.     

Growing Up as a European? Parental Socialization and the Educational Divide in Euroskepticism

Research consistently shows that individuals with higher levels of education express lower levels of Euroskepticism. This relationship has been explained by values and skills acquired in education and by higher labor-market competitiveness. While these explanations assume a causal impact of education, previous research uses cross-sectional data. This is problematic, as students self-select into education. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, it provides a better test of the causal effect of education on Euroskepticism by using data from the Swiss Household Panel (1999–2011) that allow analyzing how Euroskepticism changes as students move through education from the age of 13 years onwards. Second, it advances theory by highlighting the role of parental socialization in explaining Euroskepticism. We argue that children of higher educated parents select into higher education and take over the pro-European attitudes of their parents. We find a strong educational divide in Euroskepticism. However, longitudinal analyses show no change in Euroskepticism as individuals pass through education. Supporting the parental-socialization hypothesis, parental Euroskeptic attitudes and education explain changes in youngsters' Euroskepticism. The results suggest that, rather than a genuine education effect, differences between educational groups are mostly a result of self-selection due to family background.