The Human Condition and the Gift: Towards a Theoretical Perspective on Close Relationships

Hannah Arendt’s exposition of the human condition provides the basic framework for a theoretical perspective on close relationships. According to Arendt, the human condition is comprised of three modes of activity: labor, work, and action. Labor is need-driven behavior, work concerns goal-directed activity and the fabrication of things, and action involves the mutual validation of unique individuals. Within this framework, the gift is the means by which relational ties are made concrete. I propose a model of gift-giving organized by two axes: whether or not the partner is singularized by the gift and whether or not the gift is given with an expectation of a return gift. I then apply this model to the three modes of the human condition.

A Genome‐Wide Scan for Eysenckian Personality Dimensions in Adolescent Twin Sibships: Psychoticism,Extraversion, Neuroticism,and Lie

ABSTRACT We report the first genome‐wide scan of adolescent personality. We conducted a genome‐wide scan to detect linkage for measures of adolescent Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie from the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Data are based on 1,280 genotyped Australian adolescent twins and their siblings. The highest linkage peaks were found on chromosomes 16 and 19 for Neuroticism, on chromosomes 1, 7, 10, 13 m, and 18 for Psychoticism, and on chromosomes 2 and 3 for Extraversion.     

The “Religiously Mediated Change” of 11 Gay Men: A Case of Unexceptional Sublimation

This article addresses the current controversy in churches concerning homosexuality, especially the claim that the sexual orientation of homosexual males may be changed through religious interventions. Following personal accounts of the uses of “religiously mediated change” discourse in discussions of homosexuality in mainstream Protestant churches, the article focuses on the frequently cited article by Pattison and Pattison (1980) that evaluates 11 white males “who claimed to have changed sexual orientation from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality through participation in a Pentecostal church fellowship” (p. 1553). We evaluate the article in terms of its research design, findings, and conclusions; discuss its claim that the men “changed” in light of Freud’s concept of the sublimation of socially unacceptable psychic energies; and assess the Pentecostal church’s contention that homosexuality is an expression of psychological immaturity. We conclude that in light of the fact that the sublimation of sexual desires and impulses is a common experience among men, and homosexuality is not an expression of psychological immaturity, “religiously mediated change” discourse needs to go beyond claiming that change is possible and present a convincing argument that the change, if effected, will have demonstrable benefits to humanity that would not be realizable if the change did not occur.     

Measuring students' attitudes toward college education's role in addressing social issues

As service-learning projects have spread throughout academia, efforts to assess the service-learning experience have assumed a greater importance. The BERSI scale (Business Education's Role in addressing Social Issues) was developed as a measure of business students' attitudes toward social issues being addressed as part of a business education. As such, it was intended to be useful in assessing attitudinal outcomes of service learning. In order for the BERSI to be useful for nonbusiness students, the scale would need to be reconceptualized and revalidated. This study modified the BERSI items with a focus on college students in general rather than business students, making the resulting scale, College Education's Role in addressing Social Issues (CERSI), potentially helpful to service-learning researchers in a broader setting. The CERSI scale was then validated using standard techniques and normative data were reported.     

Why Do People Stay in Hateful Relationships? The Concept of Malignant Vindictiveness

Why do couples remain in hateful relationships? This article defines theoretically rigorous ways of viewing partners who stay together despite severe strife. A case presentation shows how a relationship of two people, each with his or her character structure and idealized image, creates interpersonal conflict because of opposing demands each makes on self and other. Such conflict requires radical defensive measures including alienation, idealization, and externalization that increase tensions. A vicious circle of malignant vindictiveness cements the relationship. Increasing implacability in the relationship is understood through Horneyan categories of interlocking idealized images, hurt pride reactions, and the externalizing process.

     

Applying Continuity Theory to Older Adult Friendships

Continuity theory provides a rationalization for understanding older adult friendships. Older adults do not have to anticipate disengagement but can exercise their choice to actively participate in establishing and maintaining friendship structures. The role of friend is one a person can choose to maintain. Friendships are dynamic and progress on a continuum with beginnings, periods of endurance and change, and endings. Continuity theory provides ways to understand why particular people have developed and adapted distinct friendship and social support networks. This insight provides social service professionals, gerontologists, and family members ways to enable older adults to remain in their communities longer and maintain support stability.     

Tragic Dilemmas and the Priority of the Moral

My purpose in this paper is to argue that we are not vulnerableto inescapable wrongdoing occasioned by tragic dilemmas. I directmy argument to those who are most inclined to accept tragicdilemmas: those of broadly Nietzschean inclination who reject``modern moral philosophy' in favor of the ethical ideas of theclassical Greeks. Two important features of their project are todeny the usefulness of the ``moral/nonmoral distinction,' and todeny that what are usually classified as moral reasons always oreven characteristically ``trump' nonmoral reasons in anadmirable agent's deliberations.I show critics of modern moral philosophy such as BernardWilliams that their acceptance of tragic dilemmas underminestheir project of denying the moral/nonmoral distinction and thepriority of moral reasons. The possibility of tragic dilemmasrequires an account of practical deliberation in which moralreasons appear as already in-force obligations, with blame andguilt ready to be invoked, while nonmoral reasons appear as merereasons. This makes moral reasons importantly different fromnonmoral reasons in how they achieve their deliberative weight,and also makes them characteristically weightier. Thus,accommodating tragic dilemmas reinforces the moral/nonmoraldistinction and the priority of moral reasons, the very thingsthese critics want to deny. By accepting the possibility oftragic dilemmas, these critics are undermining their own project.The standard normative theories are dead set against tragicdilemmas, and the critics of modern moral philosophy shouldreject tragic dilemmas for the good of their project. Thus we allshould reject tragic dilemmas.