Human rights and correctional clinical practice

The formulation of human rights theory and policies represents an ethical advance and promises to supply a framework for resolving ethnic, social, and individual conflicts. Ethics is essentially a means for coordinating the conflicting interests of peoples and nations and human rights provide a strong foundation to do this in multiple domains. Our aim in this paper is to apply a human rights perspective, in association with a justifying theory and set of goods, to the correctional arena. First, we discuss the definition of human rights, their proper analysis and justification. We then apply the results of our discussion to the assessment, treatment, and monitoring of offenders. Finally, we consider the policy, research, and intervention implications of a human rights perspective for correctional practitioners.     

Values and learning approaches of students at an international university

This study indicates that values are statistically significant precursors to approaches to learning in a cohort of predominantly Bulgarian, German and Romanian students studying at a German university where the language of instruction in all subject areas is English. Values have been measured with the Portrait Values Questionnaire (Schwartz et al. 2001), and approaches to learning have been assessed by the Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 1987). The relationships between values and approaches to learning have been estimated by canonical correlation analysis. Results of the analysis suggest that values can be linked to learning approaches in a situation where students have left their home countries to undertake tertiary studies in a new social, cultural and educational environment. Four distinct pairings between values and learning approaches emerge whereby: (a) self-aggrandisement is linked to the achievement learning variable, (b) conservatism relates to the surface learning variable, (c) self-directedness is linked to the deep learning variable and (d) benevolent change is related to the learning strategies variable. The analyses for this research were conducted while the second author was a visiting scholar at the Flinders University Institute of International Education in Adelaide, South Australia. The assistance of Professor John Keeves in the implementation and interpretation of additional statistical analyses is gratefully acknowledged.     

Imagining human enhancement: whose future,which rationality?

This article critically evaluates bettering human life. Because this involves lives that do not exist yet, the article investigates human eugenics and enhancement through the social prism of ‘the imaginary’ (defined ‘as a set of assumptions and concepts for thinking and speaking about human enhancement and its future direction’) [1]. “Exploring basic assumptions underlying the idea of human enhancement” investigates underlying assumptions and claims for human enhancement. Firstly, human eugenics and enhancement entangles a factual as well as a normative claim about what improvement/betterment maybe constitutive of. Secondly, claims about what a better life is, is often a future orientated claim about whether certain kinds of life that do not exist yet should ever exist. Moral images of thought are introduced and how they work to make normative judgments about lives that do not exist. This implicates the moral problem of difference, where an image of a ‘better’ life—classically expressed in eugenics as a ‘superior’ and/or ‘normal’ life—necessarily entails inferiority and/or deviance from a norm. “Moral imagination in contemporary fiction and the history of old eugenics”, introduces moral images in history of eugenics and demonstrates how examples fall foul of the problem. “The new (liberal) eugenics and the moral image of therapy” examines progress in contemporary debates, the move from authoritarian to non-authoritarian eugenics (human enhancement), and how, to some extent, this has solved the problem of difference, through liberal defence of personal choice. “The heart of the eugenic issue” suggests that personal choice in liberal non-authoritarian eugenics is not immune to basic drive behind all eugenic arguments; desire as lack which is expressed as the continual dissatisfaction of not having our future expectations met.

Financial aspirations,financial success,and overall life satisfaction: who? and how?

Nickerson et al. (2003, Psychological Science 14, pp. 531–536) demonstrated in a longitudinal study that the negative relation between aspirations for financial success and subjective well-being found by other researchers was mitigated by high household income. The present study first refined the analysis in Nickerson et al. (2003) and then explored two additional issues: (a) who aspires to financial success? and (b) how is financial success achieved? Analysis indicated that individuals with strong financial aspirations are socially inclined, confident, ambitious, politically conservative, traditional, conventional, and relatively less able academically, but not psychologically distressed. Financial success is achieved via the job and, for women only, via marriage. Financial aspirations influence job income both by influencing choice of occupation and by influencing job income within occupation; however, achieving financial success depends on having the personal resources to do so. Women with strong financial aspirations tend to marry for money (or money-making potential) regardless of their work status; men with strong financial aspirations do not.     

Spatial reorientation: the effects of space size on the encoding of landmark and geometry information

The effects of the size of the environment on animals’ spatial reorientation was investigated. Domestic chicks were trained to find food in a corner of either a small or a large rectangular enclosure. A distinctive panel was located at each of the four corners of the enclosures. After removal of the panels, chicks tested in the small enclosure showed better retention of geometrical information than chicks tested in the large enclosure. In contrast, after changing the enclosure from a rectangular-shaped to a square-shaped one, chicks tested in the large enclosure showed better retention of landmark (panels) information than chicks tested in the small enclosure. No differences in the encoding of the overall arrangement of landmarks were apparent when chicks were tested for generalisation in an enclosure differing from that of training in size together with a transformation (affine transformation) that altered the geometric relations between the target and the shape of the environment. These findings suggest that primacy of geometric or landmark information in reorientation tasks depends on the size of the experimental space, likely reflecting a preferential use of the most reliable source of information available during visual exploration of the environment.     

关于青年军人生活目标价值观的访谈研究

以军校青年教师、部队青年专业技术干部、基层部队青年干部、军校生长干部学员、基层部队战士为被试,采用访谈法,研究被试的生活目标价值观,结果发现：被试无论是对价值观、生活目标价值观概念的理解,还是对生活目标价值观影响因素等问题的解释,都呈现出多元发散的趋势,在青年军人应当具有什么样的生活目标和个人应当拥有什么样的生活目标上也存在明显的差异。但青年军人的生活目标价值观从总体上看是积极向上的。     

论社会主义核心价值体系基本内容的层次结构

社会主义核心价值体系的基本内容是一种结构性存在,它所包含的四个方面的基本内容具有不同的性质,其中,马克思主义指导思想是导向性内容,中国特色社会主义共同理想是目标性内容,以爱国主义为核心的民族精神和以改革创新为核心的时代精神是情感性和动力性内容,社会主义荣辱观是基础性内容。从层次结构上看,社会主义核心价值体系所包含的四个方面的基本内容,从最低层次到最高层次,构成一个逻辑严谨、层次分明、由高到低、由理论到实践、由思想到行为的整体性框架结构,而每一层次也有着自身的层次结构特点。     

道家文化精神对山东新时期小说的影响

道家文化偏重于个体精神的超越和自由,在人与社会、人与自然关系上,强调人与自然的一体性,注重人的自然本性,其对于社会文化的批判着重于批判社会文化观念对人的自然本性的异化。道家自然人性论及其对人性异化现象的批判、道家人与自然一体观念对山东新时期小说创作具有重要影响。     

Coordination and movement pathology: models of structure and function

Here we consider the role of abstract models in advancing our understanding of movement pathology. Models of movement coordination and control provide the frameworks necessary for the design and interpretation of studies of acquired and developmental disorders. These models do not however provide the resolution necessary to reveal the nature of the functional impairments that characterise specific movement pathologies. In addition, they do not provide a mapping between the structural bases of various pathologies and the associated disorders of movement. Current and prospective approaches to the study and treatment of movement disorders are discussed. It is argued that the appreciation of structure–function relationships, to which these approaches give rise, represents a challenge to current models of interlimb coordination, and a stimulus for their continued development.     

Communication Rights in a Divided World

This article explores the implications of advances in communication technology for communication rights and the political, economic, and cultural challenges at global, national, and local levels. It argues that digital transformation cannot be left to market forces or to a benign vision of a world in which all governments are sufficiently liberal minded to permit dissent and peaceful revolution. Rather, digital transformation needs to be driven by the needs of peoples and communities who help construct communication and information ecosystems that are firmly rooted in principles of justice, freedom, equality, and mutual solidarity. To that extent, people and communities must be enabled to reach their own consensuses around their needs and what should be done, and they must be regularly and constructively consulted by those charged with implementing, regulating, and monitoring such ecosystems.