Autonomy and Interdependence in Japanese and American Mother–Toddler Dyads

This study investigated two hypotheses: (a) Japanese mother-toddler dyads will work together more interdependently than American mother-toddler dyads; (b) American toddlers will act more autonomously than Japanese toddlers. The hypotheses were investigated using videotapes of 10-minute shape-fitting interactions of 12 Caucasian American and 12 Japanese national mothers visiting the United States and their 24- to 31-month-olds (matched by mean age, gender and birth order). A significant MANOVA and subsequent stepdown analyses revealed: (a) that Japanese mothers more frequently assisted their toddlers in fitting a shape before the toddlers had tried to fit the shape on their own (interdependence); (b) that American toddlers did not attempt to fit more shapes on their own (autonomy); and (c) that more American toddlers left the task than did Japanese toddlers (autonomy). The results indicate greater interdependent task-engagement among Japanese mother-toddler dyads. Greater autonomy on the part of American dyads was evident not in how they did the task, but rather in toddlers choosing to leave the assigned task. Discussion focuses on the implications of these nationality differences for understanding possible differences in early socialization.     

Critical Legal Studies and argumentation theory

Critical Legal Studies poses a direct and expressed challenge to the basic tenets of American legal education and scholarship. Critical Legal Studies postulates that law is not a scientific exercise involving the application of objective principles, but rather a creative process involving the selection of conflicting rules which has the effect of reinforcing the existing political order. In an effort to explain the contribution of Critical Legal Studies to argumentation theory, this essay briefly discusses the role of legal reasoning in the American legal system, describes and critiques Legal Positivism, lays the intellectual foundation for Critical Legal Studies, and considers the implications that this conception of jurisprudence has for argumentation theory.     

Is this a good time? Political activism and other in the temenos

This paper discusses raciality and Africanist culture as elements of the analytical clinical experience. The history of American Jungian psychology, and its relationship with the African diaspora, is reviewed with a perspective that seeks to deepen understanding of racism as an aspect of psychoanalytical institutional life. An attempt to separate political activism from the clinical setting is explored with consideration of the necessary intertwining relationship between socialization, racial identity and racism. Diversity and inclusion are becoming cultural signature markers of clinical work with individuals who have oftentimes, within the psychoanalytical clinical setting, been described due to ethnicity, as other. Political activism such as the Black Lives Matter movement stretches consciousness towards an insistence that blackness matters, skin colour matters and the lives of Africanist individuals matter. This paper reflects on cultural racial identity, the influence of politics on the individual, and the effects of these on the analytical relationship.     

Racial and cultural in-betweenness meet in the consulting room: the case of ‘Anna’

An upper-middle-class black woman, who grew up adapting to a white-dominated environment, entered the consulting room of a multicultural ‘white-passing’ analyst, and here unique emotional experiences were reflected in dream images of racial disorganization, internal racism, and identity confusion. While sorting through the analysand’s internal dynamics, the external world erupted in May 2020 with the murder of George Floyd, catapulting both analysand and analyst (and the nation) into a transformative confrontation with their mutual, deep-seated woundings of American racial and cultural inequities. The analysand’s racial complexity directly impacted the analyst’s ‘white-passing’ privilege, bringing into question established classifications of American whiteness. Overlapping dynamics and experiences as ‘in-betweeners’ and ‘outsiders’ – a black woman subsumed by a white-dominated society and an immigrant refugee acculturated to American life – provided a common exilic ground for mutual understanding and mirroring. The analyst explores the racial and multicultural straddling that served as a lens into the analysand’s fragmented racial identity during the eruption of American racial unrest.     

Go Set a Watchman: revealing phantom narratives and shattering projections in the era of Black Lives Matter

Harper Lee’s novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, are examined through the lens of reader-response theory and the Jungian concept of the cultural complex or phantom narratives. Socio-historical context includes the American civil rights movement of the 60’s as well as Black Lives Matter. The clinical and institutional implications are briefly considered.     

Media exposure and language for toddlers from low-income homes

In the current study, we examined whether the quantity of toddlers’ exposure to media was related to language skills and whether meeting the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations of limiting media exposure to one hour or less per day was related to language skills. We examined these associations in a sample of toddlers (N = 157) living in low-income homes. Toddlers were about two years of age (M = 28.44 months, SD = 1.48 months) during the first visit when parents reported on toddlers’ exposure to media in the home. Toddlers were about three years of age (M = 33.61 months, SD = 1.06 months) during the second visit when direct measures of toddlers’ expressive and receptive language and receptive vocabulary skills were completed. Controls were child gender, race, mothers’ education, marital status, work status, and center-based child care. Results indicated that more frequent exposure to media was related to lower expressive language, but not receptive language or receptive vocabulary. The predictor of AAP recommendation was not significantly related to any child language outcomes. These results suggest that media exposure may be related to the displacement of language-enhancing activities during a critical time for toddlers’ language development. However, the AAP media recommendation of one hour may not be related to language development.     

On the Concept of Fair Competition Prevalent in Today’s European Soccer Leagues

The notion of competition depicted in sport literature appears to be inconsistent with the goals of current European soccer competitions. This paper examines two misconceptions of fair competition which are prevalent in these competitions. First, it aims at refuting the view that professional soccer only requires some basic equality of chances beyond the differences in players’ skills and managers’ knowledge of game strategy. In other words, it refutes the view that professional soccer only demands a notion of fair competition understood as fair play. Second, the paper also aims at refuting the view that fair competition, in professional soccer, is simply a matter of financial viability. Hence, it calls for both genuine legal and ethical reforms, since professional soccer competition requires a notion of equality as both a goal and a right. Such a notion, we argue, must conceive of the differences in players’ skills and managers’ knowledge of game strategy as one of the primary factors in establishing a platform founded in fair competition. Therefore, this paper calls for a radical change of attitude toward or a radical approach to fair competition among European sport fans, policy-makers, and administrators.     

Examining Leadership With American Counseling Association Presidents: A Grounded Theory of Leadership Identity Development

In a grounded theory study, the authors examined the leadership identity development of 12 past presidents of the American Counseling Association. Using individual interviews, the authors identified 3 interactional themes that form a theoretical framework for leadership identity development: (a) influence, motivation, and support to lead; (b) leadership skills; and (c) reinforcing experiences. Implications for counselors and counselor educators are offered.     

Contextualizing the Concept of Intersectionality: Layered Identities of African American Women and Gay Men in the Black Church

The multicultural concept of intersectionality is applied to understanding the challenges that are often faced by African American women and gay men in the traditional Black church. This article highlights the complexities of addressing the counseling needs of individuals with layered identities, particularly sexual orientation, gender, and religious ideology. Implications for multicultural pedagogy and assisting African American clients with intersecting identity issues are discussed. El concepto multicultural de interseccionalidad se aplica a la comprensión de los problemas afrontados con frecuencia por mujeres afroamericanas y hombres gays afroamericanos en la iglesia negra tradicional. Este artículo destaca las complejidades de abordar las necesidades en consejería de individuos con identidades estratificadas, especialmente respecto a orientación sexual, sexo e ideología religiosa. Se discuten las implicaciones para la pedagogía multicultural y para la asistencia a clientes afroamericanos con problemas de identidades interseccionales.     

Views of Aging African American Women: Memories Within the Historical Context

This article examines the generational experiences of older African American women using case studies of two women born in 1911. Through the telling of their life stories, these women recount their memories of their own lives. By viewing their life histories within the larger historical context, we gain a clearer understanding of their life experiences and their perspectives as older African American women. These women lived through the Jim Crow era of blatant racial discrimination and segregation in the South and raised their children in this environment. The segregation statutes, or Jim Crow laws, were the public symbols and constant reminders of the subordinate position assigned to African Americans, and the code lent the sanction of law to a racial separation that extended to churches, schools, housing, jobs, eating and drinking. Using a lifecourse perspective, the past is viewed within the context of the present, considering historical and cohort factors that have affected the life situation of individuals. Through the women's telling of their life stories, they outline the chapters of their lives and describe how their experiences have made them the strong older women they are today and helped shape their values.