When to intervene and take a stand: Evaluating bystander roles in intergroup name-calling contexts

Children (n = 121, M = 9.86 years, SD = 0.64) and adolescents (n = 101, M = 12.84 years, SD = 0.69) evaluated proactive and passive bystander behaviour to intergroup name-calling (N = 222, 54% female). Scenarios depicted ingroup perpetrators and outgroup victims who were from a stigmatized group (ethnicity) or a non-stigmatized group (school affiliation), with bystanders depicted as being proactive (intervening to help) or passive (failing to challenge the aggression), counter to their own group's norm. Children and adolescents personally evaluated proactive bystanders more favourably than passive bystanders. However, adolescents, more than children, expected their peers to be more positive about proactive bystanders than passive bystanders in the stigmatized context. Results are discussed in terms of the complexities of bystander decisions and implications for anti-bullying interventions.     

Monarchism,national identity and social representations of history in Indonesia: Intersections of the local and national in the sultanates of Yogyakarta and Surakarta

In the young state of Indonesia, old local authorities like sultanates have reasserted themselves. This reemergence of localized authority does not necessarily conflict with nation building. Survey research among adult samples (N = 399) in the neighbouring sultanates of Yogyakarta and Surakarta found that social representations of history were implicated in the relationship between monarchism and national identity. In Yogyakarta (but not Surakarta), a positive intersection between local and national representations of history was found: events and people associated with the sultanate were also regarded as instrumental to the birth of the nation. In Yogyakarta, support for the sultanate was higher than in Surakarta: respondents argued that Yogyakarta had the culture and history required to justify status as a special autonomous region. In Yogyakarta but not Surakarta, monarchism was positively related to national identity and trust in national democratic political institutions. The intersection between local and national representations of history, especially concerning the instrumentality of the local monarchy in giving birth to the nation in Yogyakarta, created historical continuity/positive intersectionality where the superordinate nation and the local monarchy are networked in a system of power and meaning that lends trust in democratic institutions from monarchism, and strengthens national identity.     

Commanding good and prohibiting evil in contemporary Islam: cases from Britain, Nigeria, and Southeast Asia

This paper examines the concept of (public) sin as well as efforts to counteract sin from the perspective of Islam. The understanding that hisba, the prohibition of vice and enjoining of virtues, are a responsibility of both the state and the community is common in historical and contemporary Muslim societies. Where the state cannot or does not provide means for countering (public) sin, the perception for some Muslims is that the responsibility on the community and individuals to do so increases. Based on ethnographic research in Britain, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, the paper highlights examples of how sin has been defined amongst Muslim communities as well as the methods and rationales given to justify the forbidding of sin as a collective and communal public obligation. As the world becomes more integrated, there is growing concern amongst Muslim communities that sin is becoming the norm, leading society to degeneracy, that people who would not have otherwise sinned are influenced to do so. Common features in forbidding sin across Muslim communities have appeared, often focusing on what are seen as moral issues such as dress codes, music, gambling, alcohol, smoking, and the mixing of men and women in public. The forbidding of sin has resulted in attempts to introduce “Shari’a Zones” in some predominantly Muslim areas of London, whilst in Indonesia, this has given rise to the Islamic Defenders Front and in some Northern Nigerian states to the reintroduction of the criminal codes of the Shari’a.     

Do social comparisons in academic settings relate to gender and academic self-confidence?

This paper reports the development of an Academic Social Comparison Scale (ASCS) to measure students’ tendencies to socially compare themselves with other students in an educational setting. The 27-item ASCS was then measured in relation to academic self-confidence in a sample of University students, using the Individual Learning Profile (ILP) scale. The study found that making downward academic social comparisons was not very commonly reported and did not relate to academic confidence in any domain measured. Confidence in numeracy, speaking, and hard IT were, however, significantly lower in those students who tended to make more upward social comparisons. The results also showed that the less students reported that they socially compared in general, the more confident they were in reading, writing, and time management. All three subscales of the ASCS showed good reliability when tested 6–9 weeks later. The ASCS showed that female students tended to make more upward academic social comparisons and less downward academic comparisons than male students. In domains such as reading and writing people’s confidence was higher if they made fewer academic social comparisons (irrespective of direction), and gender was not an important factor. Results also showed that academic confidence was neither higher nor lower in students who reported making more downwards academic comparisons. This study demonstrates the negative impact on confidence of upward social comparisons, and introduces a social comparison questionnaire specifically tailored for measuring people’s tendencies to make social comparisons in the academic domain.     

An Investigation of Religion and Spirituality of Sexual Minorities in the United States: Exploring Perceptions,Intrinsic Religiosity,and Outness to Religious Communities

We investigated how sexual minority participants in the United States (N = 217; M age = 36.36 years) viewed organized religion and their relationships with a higher power. In addition, we examined the associations between levels of outness in religious communities, internalized heterosexism (IH), intrinsic religiosity, and depression. Open-ended responses revealed that views of organized religion fell into three categories—negative (57.9%), positive (9.1%), and ambivalent (33%)—and participants reported a variety of relationships to a higher power—existing relationship (61.5%), no relationship (19%), fractured relationship (4.6%), and some who felt unsure (10.8%). Participants with greater outness to a religious community reported less IH and higher intrinsic religiosity. Also, outness to a religious community moderated the association between IH and depression, such that there was not a significant association between IH and depression for individuals with low levels of outness. However, at average to high levels of outness, there was a significant association between IH and depression.     

Metaplasticity rendered visible in paint: How matter ‘matters’ in the lifeworld of Human action.

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Recent theoretical and philosophical movements within the study of material culture are more carefully attending to the variety of ways in which human...