Birobidzhan in Khrushchev’s Thaw: the soviet and the western outlook

The present article looks into the little-researched period in the nine-decade long history of the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), which is still present atavistically in the administrative-territorial structure of contemporary Russia. The region in the Siberian Far East, better known by the name of its main town, Birobidzhan, never turned into what it was supposed to be, namely the centre of Jewish life in the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, while being demographically and culturally insignificant, the low-statused JAR played a key and essentially detrimental role in determining the entitlements that the Jews had in the Soviet pecking order. The government consistently used the Birobidzhan-centered model of Jewish life as an instrument for justifying internationally its active assimilationist policy. In the 1950s, rumours – first about the liquidation of Jewish autonomy and then about a planned expulsion of Jews to the JAR – attracted the attention and concern of the foreign press and Jewish organizations. International pressure forced Moscow to modify its Jews-related policy, but changed little in the JAR. The 1959 census revealed 14,269 Jews in the JAR’s population. Compared with 1939, the number of Jews in the region had decreased almost by a fifth. This decline continued in the coming years.     

The Role of Anger in the Biased Assimilation of Political Information

Political psychologists have established that politically motivated reasoning is a common phenomenon; however, the field knows comparatively less about the psychological mechanisms that drive it. Drawing on advances in the understanding of the relevance of emotion to political reasoning and behavior, we argue that anger likely plays a major role in motivating individuals to engage in the biased assimilation of political information—an evaluative bias in favor of information that bolsters one's views and against information that undercuts them. We test this proposition with two online studies, the second of which includes a quasi‐representative sample of Americans. The studies support our expectations. Individuals felt more negative emotions toward arguments that undermined their attitudes and positive emotions toward arguments that confirmed them; however, anger was nearly alone in fueling biased reactions to issue arguments.     

维度比较:个体内不同领域的比较

维度比较是指个体将自身某一目标领域的能力与自身标准领域的能力相比较的过程,它是继社会比较和时间比较之后又一重要比较方式。当比较领域性质差异较大,即当比较领域之间进行"远比较"时,会发生强烈的对比效应。随着比较领域性质差异逐渐缩小,即当比较领域之间进行"近比较"时,对比效应会逐步减小,甚至会发生同化效应。维度比较和社会比较都对自我概念具有显著影响,但社会比较的作用明显大于维度比较。未来研究应考虑进一步扩展维度比较的应用范围、加强和其它比较方式的整合、改善其研究方法。     

Assimilative and Accommodative Integration: The Basic Dialectics

Two basic styles in psychotherapy integration can be described, in which respectively the assimilative or the accommodative mode of proceeding preponderate. The first is chosen by those who wish to keep a firm grounding in any one theoretical system, into which they incorporate perspectives or practices from other schools, reinterpreted and reformulated in their own terms. The second is favored by those who prefer to practice eclectically, without worrying too much about the contradictions and incompatibilities among the different approaches. The latter therapists can remain at this purely eclectic level, or move on towards a proper integration. In this case the integration does not usually happen on the base of a preferred system, as in theoretical integration, but rather follows the line of the common factors approach. This integration mode has a prevalent accommodative character. It points to a basic structure that is common to the different methods, and becomes clearer the more the relation is freed of the constriction of theoretical models. An attempt is made to show the substantial complementarity and the dialectical relation that links the two fundamental modes of psychotherapy integration.     

英汉双语者二语口语产生中音韵编码过程的同化机制

本研究运用事件相关电位技术, 结合时空微态分割分析法, 考察英汉双语者二语口语产生过程中音韵编码过程的同化与顺应机制。研究中采用图词干扰即时命名任务, 比较英汉双语者的汉语产生过程中音韵编码的加工单元与汉语母语者的汉语产生过程还是与英语母语者的英语产生过程的特点类似。反应时结果发现汉汉组、英汉组与英英组都出现显著的音节效应。事件相关电位的结果发现英汉双语者的汉语产生过程中出现了音素效应, 与其英语产生过程的特点类似, 音素效应在英语和汉语的产生过程中都出现在图画呈现后的200~250 ms之间, 而汉语母语者的汉语产生过程中仅发现了音节效应, 出现在250~300 ms之间。时空微态分割分析发现英汉双语者在汉语产生的音韵编码过程与英语母语者在英语产生过程所对应的脑电微态成分相同, 仅在持续时间上存在显著差异; 其微态成分不同于汉语母语者的汉语产生过程。上述结果表明英汉双语者汉语产生的音韵编码过程与英语作为母语时的产生过程相似, 而与汉语作为母语时的产生过程不同。英汉双语者的汉语产生过程采用了母语同化机制。     

Queer Theology and Social Transformation Twenty Years after Jesus ACTED UP†

Published in 1993, Goss's Jesus ACTED UP was one of the first attempts to articulate both a radical queer theology and a mission of mainstream social transformation. The subsequent 20 years have revealed gaps between the two, precisely as mainstream LGBT politics has embraced (or perhaps exploited) religion. I focus on four tensions for those straddling the scholarship/activism lines. First, what we are doing: queer theology, and academic discourse generally, value that which is nuanced and complex; mainstream activism prefers the simple and clear. Second, what we want: radical liberation requires systemic change, while mainstream activism works pragmatically and incrementally within the system. Third, who we are: queer theory and theology emphasize the socially constructed and mutable natures of the subject, but mainstream social transformation has “won” with essentialism (“Born This Way,” love is love, etc.). Fourth, what about God: the queer, ironic, eroticized God of queer theology remains, thus far, incomprehensible in the public square where only the unreconstructed God is known. These tensions have erupted in numerous political and social contexts in the two decades since Bob Goss tried to bring radical theology and mainstream activism together, though I conclude by noting that only now might the public square be ready for what he and other queer theologians have to offer.     

Seek,and You Will Find: The Influence of Expectations on Evaluations of Physical Activity

Despite hundreds of studies on the effects of expectations on evaluations, few commentaries have focused on summarising the relevance of these findings for physical activity pursuits. Moreover, a parsimonious framework on the nature of these relationships in physical activity is yet to be developed. Such a framework is important given the significance of physical activity evaluations in predicting future physical activity participation. Based on existing models on persuasion, it is premised that the self can be persuaded by one's own expectations about physical activity and that such persuasion can support or refute those expectations. Which of these effects are created, and the extent of one's psychological and physical involvement in the creation of physical activity evaluations, is likely to hinge on motivation and ability to confirm or disconfirm expectations. Evidence from related bodies of literature is presented to support the primary tenets of the model, which is termed the expectation‐to‐evaluation model, and recommendations for practitioners and future research are offered.     

Latino Religious Affiliation and Ethnic Identity

Despite the pervasiveness of Catholicism among Latinos, studies reveal an increasing shift toward Protestantism. Examining the relationship between religion and ethnicity, we explore homeland language use as a core ethnic marker using a survey from the Pew Hispanic Center. Results reveal that Catholic Latinos are significantly more likely to use Spanish at home, even after controlling for other key variables. In response, we posit that Latino Catholicism and Protestantism entail significantly different religiosities in both home and host countries that impact Latino ethnic identification and its markers such as language use. Catholicism displays a higher level of inculturation in the sending country and greater overt institutional acceptance of ethnic culture in host countries. Protestantism in Latin America breaks with localized religiosity and traditions, and U.S. Protestant congregations may de‐emphasize ethnic culture in their theologies and worship. Hence, Latino Catholicism acts as a bridge to homelands and reinforces ethnic salience, thereby supporting continued Spanish use at home. In contrast, Protestants embrace a reorienting religiosity that often presides over ethnic identification, decreasing the salience of homeland cultural markers.     

Evaluating the Character of People Who Insult the Nation: Implications for Immigrant Integration

We examine immigrant integration by analyzing how natives evaluate immigrants' character. Most literature examines how natives distinguish between immigrants with different levels of assimilation, which is best suited to identifying integration boundaries between different types of immigrants. We shift the analysis and examine the boundary between immigrants and natives, which measures integration by the extent to which immigrant status is relevant for character evaluations. We compare how natives respond to national insults that come from immigrants as opposed to natives. We focus on insulting the nation because it highlights the salience of national identity and clarifies the importance of group boundaries. We measure responses to national insults with vignette experiments from three original surveys in the United States. Our results are consistent with situationist theories of interpersonal interactions because they suggest that character evaluations are more dependent on the situational distinction between people who do and do not insult the nation than the demographic distinction between whether the insult comes from a native or immigrant. These findings have multiple implications for our understanding of national identity, immigrant integration, and immigrant‐native boundaries.