A Swedish validation of the Berlin Numeracy Test

Recent research has highlighted the importance of considering an individual's level of numeracy, that is their numerical abilities, in a vast variety of judgment and decision making tasks. To accurately evaluate the influence of numeracy requires good and valid measures of the construct. In the present study we validate a Swedish version of the Berlin Numeracy Test (Cokely, Galesic, Schulz, Ghazal & Garcia‐Retamero, 2012). The validation was carried out on both a student sample and a sample representative of the Swedish population. The Swedish BNT showed sound psychometrical properties in both samples. Further, in both samples the BNT had satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity when correlating with other measures of numeracy, while not being significantly related to measures of personality. With respect to predictive validity the results indicated divergent patterns in the two samples. In the student sample, participants scoring highest on the BNT outperformed those in the other three levels, which did not differ in performance. In contrast, in the population sample participants scoring lowest on the BNT performed worse than those in the other three levels, which did not differ in performance. Taken together, however, the results suggest that the Swedish version of the BNT should be considered a valid measure of numeracy in both Swedish student and population representative samples.     

Family size and psychological functioning in the Orthodox Jewish community

Caring for children is a known psychosocial stressor; however, its effects on psychological functioning may have substantial cross-cultural variance. We explored relationships between family size and a variety of psychological outcomes among Orthodox Jews in four separate studies: (1) an international treatment-seeking sample (n?=?82), (2) a community sample from Canada (n?=?226), (3) an out-patient clinical sample from greater New York (n?=?82), and (4) a large dyadic sample of Israeli couples (n?=?789). Surprisingly, results suggested that family size was not associated with greater stress, anxiety, depression, global functioning, family functioning, family communication, family satisfaction, or even parenting stress. It is possible that the high religious value placed on family life as well as structural adaptions in families buffer against potential stressors associated with child rearing, and further research on these potential effects is warranted.     

Denominational Variations Across American Jewish Communities

This article explores the Jewish identity of different Jewish denominational identification groups using the Decade 2000 Data Set with its 19,800 interviews of Jewish households in 22 American Jewish communities. We relate the Jewish identity of individuals in each denominational group (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform/Reconstructionist) to the denominational composition of the community. Communities are clustered via k‐means cluster analysis based on their denominational profiles. We examine the extent to which individual Jewish identification varies by the denominational composition of the community in which an individual resides, finding that considerable variation exists in Jewish identity measures depending on the type of denominational profile that exists in the individual's community. That is, Orthodox Jews, for example, behave differently in a community with a significant Orthodox population than in a community with few Orthodox, but many Reform Jews. Implications for Jewish communities, as well as for the broader interreligious community, are considered.     

Association of Depressive Symptomatology and Elder Mistreatment in a U.S. Chinese Population: Findings From a Community-Based Participatory Research Study

Elder mistreatment (EM) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study is to examine the association between depressive symptoms and EM in a U.S. Chinese population. A community-based participatory research approach was implemented to partner with the Chicago Chinatown population. Self-reported EM was assessed using a modified Vulnerability to Abuse Screening Scale instrument. Depressive symptomatology was assessed using the short form Geriatric Depression Scale. Exact logistic regression was used to assess these associations. Of the 78 participants, mean age was 74.8 (SD = 7.8) years and 52.6% were women. EM was reported in 20.5% of participants. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, higher numbers of depressive symptoms were independently associated with increased risk of EM (Exact OR, 1.99, 95% CI [1.23, 3.41]). Interaction terms analyses suggest that higher educational levels might buffer the risk of EM associated with depressive symptoms. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these findings in this U.S. Chinese population.     

Examining the factor structure of the Psychological Mindedness Scale in the Japanese population through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses

Psychological mindedness (PM) is a psychological construct that represents the tendency and ability to understand the relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behavior. This study examined the statistical properties, particularly the factor structure, of the Psychological Mindedness Scale (PMS) in a non‐clinical Japanese sample through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The relationship between PMS and depression was also examined for predictive validity. The results suggested that the PMS tested on a Japanese sample contains the following four factors: (a) belief in the benefits of discussing one's problems; (b) access to feelings; (c) openness to new ideas and capacity to change; and (d) interest in the meaning and motivation of own and others' behavior. Whereas the total PM score and Factors 2 and 3 had negative correlations with depression, there was a positive correlation between Factor 4 and depression. The 4‐factor structure of the scale is deemed to be applicable to the Japanese population.     

Explosive Population Growth in Tropical Africa: Crucial Omission in Development Forecasts—Emerging Risks and Way Out

Our article draws attention to a crucial factor frequently omitted from the global development agenda, namely the explosive population growth inevitably expected in Tropical Africa in the nearest decades as a result of the region's laggardness in fertility transition. Population doubling (or even tripling) in the next decades can seriously undermine the development prospects of Tropical African countries and lead to sociopolitical destabilization or even large-scale violent conflicts with possibly global consequences. Bringing down the population growth rates (mainly through substantially reducing the fertility rates) appears to be crucial for the achievement of the 1977 “Goals for Mankind,” as well as the Millennium Development Goals, and, as we proceed to show, can be most effectively achieved through substantially increasing female secondary education, which, in turn, should be achieved by introducing compulsory secondary education and making it the first-rate development priority.     

Perception of the Minority's Collective Identity and Voting Behavior: The Case of the Palestinians in Israel

Abstract

The author investigated how Palestinian (n = 130) and Jewish (n = 153) Israeli university students perceived the collective identity of the Palestinian minority in Israel. The Palestinian and Jewish respondents perceived the “identity space” of the minority as linear, or bipolar, with 1 pole defined by the national (Palestinian) identity and the other defined by the civic (Israeli) label. The Palestinian respondents defined their collective identity in national (Palestinian, Arab) and integrative (Israeli-Palestinian) terms; the Jewish respondents perceived the minority's identity as integrative (Israeli-Palestinian). Different political outlooks among Palestinian respondents were related to their identification with the civic (Israeli) identity but not to their identification with the national (Palestinian) identity. In contrast, different political outlooks among Jewish respondents were related to their inclusion, or exclusion, of the national (Palestinian) component in their definition of the minority's identity. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of a minority acculturation model (J. Berry, J. Trimble, & E. Olmedo, 1986).     

Jewish women in intercommunal political movements in colonial Morocco

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to study Jewish participation in intercommunal – Muslim, Jewish, Christian – Moroccan women’s organizations that promoted national Moroccan socio-political aims, and to analyze their origins, effects, demise and memory. The paper focuses on a unique organization - Union des Femmes marocaines (Union of Moroccan Women) – which, for almost ten years during the colonial period, had carried out intercommunal work for shared Moroccan causes. The study reveals that during the period that intercommunal women’s associations operated (1943–1952), they were first French-oriented and dealt with issues considered, from a gendered perspective, to be within women’s domain (i.e. helping the poor and needy, doing charity, fighting for women’s education), but from 1947, they “Moroccanized” and worked towards general political Moroccan aims. The paper refers to a relatively unknown chapter in Moroccan history, and opens a new perspective of the Moroccan identity of Jews before their massive emigration from the country.     

State resident volunteering and health are unrelated when neuroticism is controlled: Nomothetic evidence using the 50 states of the USA as analytical units

ABSTRACT

This research challenges the claim that engaging in formal volunteering improves health. Using data for the 50 American states pertaining to 2015–2016, multiple regression equations with differing control and entry order demonstrated the capacity of state resident neuroticism to eliminate relations between state volunteering rates and state health outcomes. In Study 1, with state SES, White population percent, urban population percent, and health environment considered and controlled, volunteering accounted for 11.5% of state health variance. However, with neuroticism entered between the demographic controls and volunteering, neuroticism accounted for 18.0% but additional variance accounted for by volunteering was reduced to 0.7%. Similarly, in Study 2, with data for those 65 and older, the results were replicated. It is speculated that higher neuroticism produces social anxiety that discourages volunteering and fosters poorer health at both the individual and the state level for the general population and for those 65 and over.     

THE UNIVERSALITY OF JEWISH ETHICS: A Rejoinder to Secularist Critics

Jewish ethics like Judaism itself has often been charged with being "particularistic," and in modernity it has been unfavorably compared with the universality of secular ethics. This charge has become acute philosophically when the comparison is made with the ethics of Kant. However, at this level, much of the ethical rejection of Jewish particularism, especially its being beholden to a God who is above the universe to whom this God prescribes moral norms and judges according to them, is also a rejection of Christian (or any other monotheistic) ethics, no matter how otherwise universal. Yet this essay argues that Jewish ethics that prescribes norms for all humans, and that is knowable by all humans, actually constitutes a wider moral universe than does Kantian ethics, because it can include non-rational human objects and even non-human objects altogether. This essay also argues that a totally egalitarian moral universe, encompassing all human relations, becomes an infinite, totalizing universe, which can easily become the ideological justification ( ratio essendi ) of a totalitarian regime.