Navigating Social Class Roles in Community Research

This paper describes the first author's attempt to collect data in a homeless shelter without attending to her role in the social class hierarchy of the organization. The author's egalitarian approach towards the homeless clients, and her lack of involvement in "staff-only" activities, transgress the social class norms within the organizational structure. While the author is successful in gaining the trust of the homeless clients, her approach alienates shelter staff, especially those in the higher echelons of the social hierarchy. The concepts of classism, world views, and Social Identity Theory, are utilized to discuss the dilemma faced by researchers who want to challenge, or work outside, a setting's status quo.     

Cultural Diversity and Patients with Reduced Capacity: The Use of Ethics Consultation to Advocate for Mentally Handicapped Persons in Living Organ Donation

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - Living organ donation will soon become the source of the majority of organs donations for transplant. Should mentally handicapped people be allowed to donate,...     

New York City young adults’ psychological reactions to 9/11: findings from the Reach for Health longitudinal study

This research examines psychological distress among 955 economically disadvantaged New York City residents surveyed during high school and again after the September 11th terrorist attacks (9/11), when they were young adults. As part of the longitudinal Reach for Health study, young adult surveys were conducted from 6–19 months post-9/11 (average 8 months), providing opportunity to assess types of exposures and psychological distress, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, hopelessness, and anger. Regressions of psychological distress on 9/11 exposure were performed, controlling for high school distress, prior exposure to violence victimization, and socio-demographic characteristics. Exposure to 9/11 was positively associated with anger, hopelessness, and PTSD symptoms and a measure of global distress. The relationship was greater among women for PTSD symptoms. Although those who reported high school distress also reported more distress in young adulthood, prior psychological distress did not moderate the relationship between exposure and psychological outcomes. Greater exposure is related to distress among those who, during high school, reported lower distress, as well as among those who reported prior greater distress.     

Hispanic and non-Hispanic children's performance on PASS cognitive processes and achievement

Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the United States. Hispanic children typically come from working class homes with parents who have limited English language skills and educational training. This presents challenges to psychologists who assess these children using traditional IQ tests because of the considerable verbal and academic (e.g., quantitative) content. Some researchers have suggested that intelligence conceptualized on the basis of psychological processes may have utility for assessment of children from culturally and linguistically diverse populations because verbal and quantitative skills are not included. This study examined Hispanic children's performance on the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS; [Naglieri, J.A., and Das, J.P. (1997). Cognitive Assessment System. Itasca, IL: Riverside.]) which is based on the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) theory of intelligence. The scores of Hispanic (N = 244) and White (N = 1956) children on the four PASS processes were obtained and the respective correlations between PASS and achievement compared. Three complementary sampling methodologies and data analysis strategies were chosen to compare the Ethnic groups. Sample size was maximized using nationally representative groups and demographic group differences were minimized using smaller matched samples. Small differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic children were found when ability was measured with tests of basic PASS processes. In addition, the correlation between the PASS constructs and achievement were substantial for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic children and were not significantly different between the groups.     

New challenges for professional counsellors: The higher education international student population

Using a 50-item, self-report questionnaire, 640 international students enrolled at an urban university campus provided needs assessment data based on the geographical region of their country of origin. Additionally, the students’ perceptions regarding changes they experienced since coming to the United States are also reported. The authors conclude with a discussion of the study's implications for professional counsellors in higher education. Recommendations are proffered for the mental health services and programs needed by this special population of students based on the information obtained from the investigation.     

On Being Lutheran In A Religiously Plural World

Abstract : For those of us who are self‐consciously Lutheran, the reality of contemporary religious pluralism engenders important theological questions. The thesis of this essay is that “being Lutheran” within the context of contemporary religious pluralism requires the creation of “Lutheran identity” that is pluralistic in structure, while simultaneously avoiding either theological exclusivism or theological inclusivism. The implications of this thesis are that (1) dialogue with the religious traditions of the world is of primary importance for thinking Lutherans, and (2) the church's witness and mission needs to be reconfigured in light of the practice of interreligious dialogue.     

团队异质性研究回顾与展望

从团队异质性的分类与测量、异质性的结果变量、异质性研究中的调节变量等方面阐述了团队异质性研究的成果和进展,并在此基础上讨论了未来研究的趋势和发展方向。未来的团队异质性研究需要对不同维度的异质性的交互作用进行分析;其次,异质性研究不仅要关注易观察特质的异质性,同时也需关注深层特质的异质性;最后,需要综合组织的背景,在更大的范围内研究异质性的影响     

Evidencing superdiversity in the census and beyond

Abstract

Starting from the proposition, in both my own work and that of Steve Vertovec, that there is something about superdiverse neighbourhoods or societies that is qualitatively different from those that are merely diverse, this paper asks whether it is possible to identify religious superdiversity within quantitative population data, such as the census in England and Wales, in order to test such a proposition. In doing this the paper will ask whether it is possible to find any evidence for superdiversity, as Vertovec defines it, in data sets such as the census and whether such data can help to identify where to set the boundary between ‘diversity’ and ‘superdiversity’. The paper will then explore what would need to be measured in order to designate an area as superdiverse in religious terms and whether the census data can offer any material that can be used for this purpose. The author concludes by suggesting that we need a range of methods, both quantitative and qualitative, to define any area as superdiverse and that it is only in this way that we can begin to test the kind of hypothesis offered by the author at the start of the paper.     

The Epistemic Criterion: A Response to Michael Hand

This article is a response to Michael Hand’s critique in this issue of my response to his use of the epistemic criterion as the sole means for identifying whether or not an issue should be identified as controversial. I argue that he has misunderstood my intention in suggesting that I was seeking to replace the epistemic criterion. Rather my purpose was to challenge his over-confidence in the decisiveness of reason and to temper his use of the epistemic criterion by suggesting it needed to embrace ethical concerns.     

Global ethics: dimensions and prospects

Global ethics is an emerging discipline which has not yet reached maturity. The main tasks before it to gain maturity are: first, to achieve a greater integration of various domains of enquiry all of which are concerned with global normative issues. At a general level this includes integrating global ethics with cosmopolitanism, global justice and human right discourse. At the level of areas of concern, there needs to be greater integration of various areas such as development, trade, environment and climate change. And it must grapple with the question of diversity within universality: how far can diversity of practices be accommodated within a culturally sensitive universal framework? Second, there is the question of finding a shared normative framework with respect to the diverse worldviews that may lie behind this: what degree and kind of convergence/consensus are worth working for? Third, there is the task of creating the conditions for its own wider acceptance, which should include taking the idea of global citizenship seriously.