“MASTERY REGAINED”—ISRAELI JEWISH SOVEREIGNTY AND SPACE IN THE ISRAELI NOVEL 1967–1973

This article identifies key characteristics of sovereign Israeli Jewish identity and its relationship with space in Israeli novels and novellas published between 1967 and 1973, in the context of the complicated dialogue between these texts and Israeli public discourse. Interacting with their contemporary public discourse, the canonical novels and novellas of the period—Michael Sheli [My Michael] by Amos Oz (1968), Nemalim [Ants] by Yitzhak Orpaz (1968), and Hapardes [The Orchard] by Benjamin Tammuz (1972), create an Israeli space in which a Jewish sovereign is surrounded and threatened by an Arab enemy, and as a precondition to his survival, must renew his sovereignty and declare a state of emergency to confirm it. As opposed to the besieged space constructed in contemporary discourse and in these canonical novels, David Shahar's novels of the period construct a fluid space in which contrasting identities can shift and replace each other with no existential threat.     

Exploration of values: Israeli teachers’ professional ethics

The main purpose of this study was to explore Israeli teachers’ professional ethics and values using the Facet Theory (Guttman in Psychmetrika 33:469–506, 1968). Since Israel does not have a teachers’ code of ethics, such exploration can be a basis for constructing one. The study is mainly exploratory, and the main hypotheses that guided the study were based upon universal structure of values (Pakizeh et al. in J Exp Soc Psychol 43(3): 458–465, 2007 Schwartz, in Advances in experimental social psychology. Academic Press, San Diego, 1992), and were examined using a mapping sentence. The initial findings showed the data deployment on the SSA map exhibits both a radial and an angular form in a Radex configuration. Israeli teachers believe that professional ethics is based on conditioned values. The variables in the SSA map appear in a radial configuration forming three concentric circles: personal values, social values, and universal values. The components representing the code of ethics were deployed in an angular form showing three elements: professionalism, reliability and honesty, and decency.     

Cultural modulations of space–time compatibility effects

The representation of elapsing time may require spatial attention. In certain circumstances, this spatial representation develops from left to right. This is suggested by a performance advantage in responding short with the left hand and long with the right hand (spatial–temporal association between response codes [STEARC]). The present study tests whether one possible determinant of the directionality of the STEARC effect is cultural. In particular, we investigated whether reading/writing habits can affect STEARC direction by administering a visual time judgment task to Italian participants, who were exposed to a left-to-right reading/writing system, and Israeli participants, who mainly used a right-to-left system. The Italian participants showed a left-to-right STEARC effect, while this effect was not present in the Israeli group. The study demonstrates that cultural habits can influence the way in which spatial attention supports the representation of time, similar to the pattern found in other nonspatial domains such as numbers.     

Burden and Growth during COVID-19: Comparing Parents of Children with and without Disabilities

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it have had a disproportionate impact on families with young children, especially with disabilities....     

Optimism buffers the detrimental effect of negative self-perceptions of ageing on physical and mental health

Objectives: First, to replicate previous findings on the detrimental effect of negative self-perceptions of ageing (SPA) on physical health outcomes and to expand them to the prediction of mental health; second, to test whether an optimistic outlook to the future can buffer the effect of negative SPA on physical and mental health outcomes.

Design: Data for this study comes from the 2008 and 2011 waves of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS; n?=?6205), a population-based representative survey of adults aged 40–85?years. Mean age of the participants was 61.50 (±12.1), 49.5% were women.

Main Outcome Measures: Self-rated health, physical functioning and depressive symptoms.

Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated that negative SPA predicted deterioration in the three health outcomes over a three-year period, controlling for demographics and illnesses. The most remarkable finding is the interaction with optimism: People who were prepared for physical losses (negative SPA), and who were nevertheless optimistic, were better able to maintain better physical functioning, and lower depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: A multidimensional perspective on ageing, considering both gains and losses at the same time, seems to be best for the maintenance of good health. Individual and societal positive views of ageing should be encouraged.     

Changes over time from baseline poor self-rated health: For whom does poor self-rated health not predict mortality?

The aim of this study was to understand for whom and why poor self-rated health (SRH) is a less valid predictor of longevity or future health by examining the predictors of decline in health among people with poor baseline SRH. The sample included 409 participants in the Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study of the old–old (75+) in Israel, who were self-respondents and rated their health as poor at baseline and their status was known at follow-up 3.5 years later: deceased/moved to proxy interview/remained in poor SRH/or improved SRH. Baseline measures included self-reported medical status, physical, cognitive, psychological and social functioning. Findings showed that less decline in health was predicted by less difficulty in physical and cognitive functioning at baseline and by a more active physical and social life, after controlling for socio-demographics. Most of the predictors retained a unique contribution in a multivariate model, suggesting that engagement in meaningful activities serves as an indicator of better health and longer survival even within a group of old–old people in poor health. It may reflect greater social support, contribute to fitness and/or provide a sense of mastery, which could explain similar findings regarding gender and race/ethnicity groups for whom SRH is a less potent predictor of mortality.     

Adaptive Model Checking

We consider the case where inconsistencies are present betweena system and its corresponding model, used for automatic verification.Such inconsistencies can be the result of modeling errors orrecent modifications of the system. Despite such discrepancies,we can still attempt to perform automatic verification. In fact,as we show, we can sometimes exploit the verification resultsto assist in automatically learning the required updates tothe model. In a related previous work, we have suggested theidea of black box checking, where verification starts withoutany model, and the model is obtained while repeated verificationattempts are performed. Under the current assumptions, an existinginaccurate (but not completely obsolete) model is used to expeditethe updates. We use techniques from black box testing and machinelearning. We present an implementation of the proposed methodologycalled AMC (for Adaptive Model Checking). We discuss some experimentalresults, comparing various tactics of updating a model whiletrying to perform model checking.     

Rape Myths and Social Distance Toward Sex Offenders and Victims among Therapists and Students

This study was designed to investigate the relationships between gender role stereotypes, rape myths, and social distance from sex offenders and sex crime victims among students and therapists. A Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, an Attitude Variables Questionnaire, and a Social Distance Scale were administered to 125 female social science students and 51 female therapists. The findings validated our hypothesis: traditional gender role attitudes and belief in rape myths were positively related to social distance. Although therapists were willing to be in social contact with both victims and offenders to a much greater degree than were students, both groups expressed a decline in willingness to have social contact with victims and offenders, especially when the relationships were closer and more intimate. It seems that three decades after the first studies of rape myths, prejudices and stereotypes concerning rape and rape victims still exist.     

Age differences in motivational orientation toward physical activity: an application of social-cognitive theory

According to social-cognitive theory, an individual's motivation to engage in physical activity is based on three postulates: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and self-evaluated satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The purpose of the present study was to examine age, gender, level of education, and level of activity in relation to those postulates in 2,298 Australians aged between 18 and 78. The authors conducted regression analyses for self-efficacy and for outcome expectations as dependent variables; age, gender, education level, and level of physical activity served as independent variables. Chi-square analyses assessed differences in the health incentive to exercise, the perceived level of activity, and the perceived level of fitness. Results indicated significant age differences on all variables. The older individual felt lower self-efficacy in relation to physical activity and expected fewer benefits from participating in physical activity. However, older individuals who engaged in physical activity rated themselves as more active and fit than nonexercisers of their same age and gender. Physical activity and level of education were positively correlated with self-efficacy, and men were more efficacious than women were. The implications are that interventions aimed at increasing participation in physical activity should take into consideration differences in incentives.