How Can We Love Our Enemies When We Kill Our Friends? Shifting the Theological Debate Over Violence

Violence is often thought of in terms of intentional, discrete actions, and in the debate between so-called “neo-Anabaptists” and “neo-Augustinians” this has often been the focus, especially around actions like policing and war. However, this idea of violence is insufficient and, intentionally or not, obfuscates forms of violence like the “slow violence” of destructive economic arrangements that harm not only enemies but friends as well. Through an investigation of the apparel industry this article addresses the too-narrow understandings of violence that implicate theologians themselves in the “systemic” and “slow” violence inflicted through exploitative economic arrangements and systematic environmental degradation. The violence of the contemporary political economy compounds exponentially when one considers not only the human costs of global industry but also the toll it takes on the planet, which in turn affects the world’s poorest people no matter their geographic location or type of work. How might various sides of the more traditional argument find common ground for doing justice around these forms of violence in which they already daily participate, rather than giving the majority of attention to actions taking place periodically (or speculating about violence that may not even happen)? In short, violence is not just the realm of militaries, it is the reality of our global political economy, and this must be addressed by theologians of all types and traditions.     

The Value of Values for Understanding Organizational Life: Editor’s Introduction to the Lead Article

In this introduction to the lead article on “Values at Work”, I summarize key points made in the lead article and its commentaries including those relating to the mechanisms and boundary conditions of value–behavior relationships. I highlight links with the organizational and management literature, which pays increasing attention to the role of values in organizations. I note that there are many synergies yet to be explored between, on the one hand, work on values traditionally rooted in social and cross-cultural psychology and as represented by the lead article and commentaries and, on the other hand, management and organizational research. One example is research on the values of strategic leaders and considering values as decision-making standards that can shape organizations and their management.     

Analyzing the latent factor structure of self-regulation in preschoolers: New directions regarding a differentiation of cool self-regulation

ABSTRACT

Self-regulation in preschool-aged children is a much-researched topic, but there are still disagreements regarding the dimensionality of the construct. Most studies distinguish between hot and cool self-regulation and consider self-regulation as two-factorial. Hot self-regulation tasks refer to the ability to adapt appropriately to emotional stimuli, while cool self-regulation tasks are emotionally neutral. Our study contributes to the understanding of self-regulation at preschool age and reveals new insights concerning a more differentiated view of cool self-regulation. With a total sample of 434 preschool-aged children, we conducted confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses that demonstrated a three-factorial solution. In accordance with the variables that determined the factor structure, we inferred one hot and two cool self-regulation dimensions. We identified a time component in task scoring as a potential reason for the differentiation in cool self-regulation. The novelty of our findings and study limitations are considered.     

Advancing the Applied Psychology of Inclusion and Diversity: A Special Issue by Fons van de Vijver

This introduction to the special issue outlines key issues in research on inclusion—as the process of recognizing an individual’s needs for both belonging and distinctiveness. Whereas past research often focuses on diversity in relation to discrimination, this special issue attempts to offer a positive lens and asks how we can build inclusive societies. The answers range from emphasizing similarities based on multiple group memberships (intersectionality); creating inclusive workplaces by nurturing leadership that is authentic, respectful, creating belonging and valuing individuals’ unique contributions (ideas, skills, etc.); to developing bridging social capital as a means of cultural integration (vs. separation). The methodological approaches employed by the contributions in this special issue include an experimental vignette study, comparative studies of different ethnicities within a country and cross-culturally comparative work spanning multiple countries. The special issue is dedicated to the memory of Fons van de Vijver, who had initiated the special issue and sadly died last year.