TREATING TRANSGENDERED CHILDREN: CLINICAL METHODS AND RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY

Bruce Lincoln suggests that myth is “that small class of stories that possess both credibility and authority” (1992, 24). When studying the history of mythology we find that myths often are understood as something other people have—as if the group in question possesses the truth while others live by falsehoods. In examining contemporary North American society, we can see how Judeo‐Christian narratives structure popular and medical discourses regarding sex and gender. The idea that humans are born into male and female, and male and female only, is a deeply held belief—so much so that it appears as fact rather than belief. Anthropologists such as Serena Nanda and Will Roscoe have documented the cross‐cultural and historical “gender variants” who exist in societies where three or more genders are the norm. The origin of the belief in two sexes could well be the opening verses of Genesis where the origin of the human species is described in bipolar, dimorphic forms: “… in the image of God He created them; male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27 NRSV). In the article I explore the mythology that underlies the clinical management of transgender children.     

Ideological differences in attitude and belief similarity: distinguishing perception and reality

ABSTRACT

Attitude and belief similarity have long stood as topics of inquiry for social psychology. Recent research suggests that there might be meaningful differences across people in the extent to which they perceive and actually share others’ attitudes and beliefs. I outline research examining the relationship between political ideology and the perception and reality of attitude similarity. Specifically, I review research documenting that (a) conservatives perceive greater ingroup similarity than do liberals, (b) conservatives overestimate and liberals underestimate ingroup similarity, (c) liberals and conservatives both underestimate similarity to outgroup members, and (d) liberals possess more actual ingroup similarity than do conservatives on a national level. Collectively, this review contributes to understanding how political ideology relates to (perceived) attitude similarity.     

新编中国基督教通史的几点看法

从20世纪90年代以来,笔者所见国内外发表的论述有关中国基督教史研究状况的文章有10多篇①。这些文章对笔者写作本文多有启发,如比利时钟鸣旦教授撰写的《基督教在华传播史研究的新趋势》,旨在以近年来重要的范式变换为出发点,分梳剖析基督教在华传播史研究领域内新近出现的一些趋势;香港建道神学院邢福增博士撰写的《近代中国基督教史的研究趋向——以美国及台湾为例》一文,从较宏观的角度回顾并评检美国及中国台湾地区在近代中国基督教史方面的研究范式转换和趋向,提出了建立“中国基督教史学统”的观点。不过,这些文章虽然也涉及如何编撰中国基督教通史的问题,但并非从多角度专门论述编撰规范问题。本文在参考相关论述的基础上,经过认真考虑,提出从指导思想、研究方法、体裁与体例、内容与分期、文献资料、语言及翻译问题、编写队伍等7个方面思考编撰中国基督教通史的规范问题的建议,以期引起进一步讨论。     

The story of this special issue on critical perspectives in work and organizational psychology

In this editorial, we tell the story of how the Special Issue on Critical Perspectives in Work and Organizational Psychology (CWOP) came about, how it fits within the broader agenda of building a critical community within Work and Organizational Psychology, and how future research and thought may be inspired by the collection of critical papers related to work and organizational psychology. We introduce the term “criticalizing” as a key concept in how the Special Issue was developed by the editorial team and the authors. Criticalizing moves beyond fixed static notions of “critical” scholarship toward a process of engaging in more fluid, expansive, and creative perspectives on the scholarship within work and organizational psychology. We illustrate how the set of papers within the Special Issue engages in such criticalizing of the field and offer new ways of thinking about and researching relevant topics in work and organizational psychology.     

Book Review

Books Reviewed:
Stanley A. Renshon (ed), One America: Political Leadership, National Identity, and the Dilemmas of Diversity     

Resolving the small-pockets problem helps clarify the role of education and political ideology in shaping vaccine scepticism

Understanding the factors associated with vaccine scepticism is challenging because of the ‘small-pockets’ problem: The number of highly vaccine-sceptical people is low, and small subsamples such as these can be missed using traditional regression approaches. To overcome this problem, the current study (N = 5,200) used latent profile analysis to uncover six profiles, including two micro-communities of vaccine-sceptical people who have the potential to jeopardize vaccine-led herd immunity. The most vaccine-sceptical group (1.14%) was highly educated and expressed strong liberal tendencies. This group was also the most sceptical about genetically modified crops and nuclear energy, and most likely to receive news about science from the Internet. The second-most vaccine-sceptical group (3.4%) was young, poorly educated, and politically extreme (both left and right). In resolving the small-pockets problem, the current analyses also help reconcile competing theoretical perspectives about the role of education and political ideology in shaping anti-vaccination views.