Advancing our understanding of intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior

This commentary reviews the major findings of this set of 4 papers on intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior; it identifies strengths and remaining challenges, and discusses potential policy implications of the research. As a group, these researchers have raised the methodological bar for future work in this area, using prospective designs with multiple informants and methods to test the influences of G2 parenting and adolescent antisocial behavior in mediating continuity between G1 parenting and G3 early disruptive behavior. The pattern of findings is discussed with respect to gender of G2 and social context. The inherent challenges of conducting intergenerational research are also highlighted, within the context of offering recommendations for improving future intergenerational investigations and their feasibility.     

20世纪中国儒学研究的回顾与反思

在 2 0世纪 ,儒学遭遇到空前的危机与严峻的挑战 ,也面临着重建与复兴的历史机遇。百年儒学演进及儒学研究的历史大致经历了五个阶段 ,在“古今中西之争”及中国文化现代化的思潮中 ,儒学并没有“博物馆化” ,儒学的命运大致经历了受到怀疑、批判、解构、重新诠释后成为现代思想学术形态 ,或获得创造性转换 ,以至汇入多元的世界文化大流之中的历程。 2 0世纪与 2 1世纪之交 ,儒学不仅是“文化中国”、“全球伦理”建设的重要精神资源 ,也是“文明对话”的重要角色 ,对 2 0世纪儒学研究的回顾与反思 ,既是历史性的课题 ,也是一项具有现实性、前瞻性的课题。     

Rescher's Metaphilosophy

Books reviewed in this article:
Nicholas Rescher, Philosophical Standardism
Nicholas Rescher, The Strife of Systems
Nicholas Rescher, A System of Pragmatic Idealism. Vol. III, Metaphysical Inquiries     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Jonathan Lear, Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul
John P. Burgess and Gideon Rosen, A Subject with No Object; Strategies for Nominalistic Interpretation of Mathematics
Stewart Shapiro, Philosophy of Mathematics: Structure and Ontology
Patrick Grim, Gary Mar and Paul St. Denis, The Philosophical Computer
Noël Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art
Robert Eliot, Faking Nature: The Ethnics of Environmental Restoration     

Extension of Luria's Psycholinguistic Studies in Poland

One of Luria's basic interests was the organization of human cognitive processes, and thinking in particular. He believed that language and thought are closely related, and hence the manner in which we speak reflects the way we think. To verify this assumption, he and his collaborators performed a number of interesting psycholinguistic experiments with subjects of various ages and cultural backgrounds. The tasks used made the evaluation of both receptive and expressive language possible. The Narrative Ability Test described here stems from Luria's observations to a considerable degree. The test was administered to preschool children (N = 106), schoolchildren (N = 143), adolescents (N = 89), adults (N = 126), and older persons (N = 175). Findings of the 20-year studies with normal and deviant populations indicate close relationships among thought, language, and self-control. It was found that difficulty in developing narratives corresponds with a disability to process complex information. Correlations between narrative skills and age, sex, and social background were also noted.     

Comorbidity in schizophrenia: A prognostic study of personality disorders in recovered and non-recovered schizophrenia patients

Symptoms and outcome in schizophrenia are heterogeneous. Part of the variation in outcome might be due to the coexistence of other forms of psychopathology. In the present study the prevalence of personality disorders in a group of recovered and non-recovered schizophrenia patients was focused to examine the prognostic implications of comorbidity for the outcome of the disorder. The results showed no significant differences in prevalence of personality disorders in the two groups at first admission to the hospital, but the difference at the time of interview was close to significance. Emotional and conduct difficulties in adolescence were significantly more prevalent in the non-recovered group. Schizoid features and emotional and conduct disorders in childhood were also more often reported among the non-recovered subjects. The results confirm that comorbidity contributes to the variation in outcome for schizophrenia patients, but does not confirm its prognostic significance.     

Effects of Conflict Resolution Training Integrated Into a High School Social Studies Curriculum

Abstract

The authors examined the effectiveness of conflict resolution and peer mediation training among California high school students. The authors randomly assigned 2 of 4 classes to receive 5 weeks of conflict resolution and peer mediation training integrated into the required social studies curriculum. The remaining 2 classes studied the same social studies curriculum for an identical amount of time (105 min every other day) without conflict resolution and peer mediation training. The authors investigated 2 issues. The 1st was the effectiveness of the conflict resolution and peer mediation training. The trained students, compared with the untrained students, learned the integrative negotiation and peer mediation procedures better, applied the procedures more completely, chose an integrative over a distributive approach to negotiation, and developed more positive attitudes toward conflict. The 2nd issue was the impact of the training program on academic achievement. Integrating conflict resolution and peer mediation training into an academic course promoted higher achievement, greater long-term retention of the academic learning, and greater transfer of academic learning in social studies to language arts.     

The study of American religion: looming through the glim

The study of American religion has been expanding to include new perspectives, previously neglected characters, and new geographic insights, driven by critical reflection on the assumptions and ideologies that historically have shaped the field, such as its focus on institutions, doctrines, and texts, its nationalistic westward-expansion historical narrative, and its Protestant biases. The past two decades have seen illuminating work emerge on race and gender, popular culture, class, and the marketplace. But we need to push beyond filling in gaps in the historical record to engage methodological and theoretical concerns in the academic study of religion. Exploring the development of theories of religion in the context of global networks of exchange shaped by 19^th-century seafarers is one example of how Tom Tweed's recent call in this journal for a geographic and temporal expansion of the study of religion in America might raise new questions and perspectives for the field.     

Affective atmospheres of weapons technologies: The case of battle drones,combat fighters and bodies in contemporary German geopolitics

Using the example of the defense and security sector at the Innovation and Leadership in Aerospace aviation fair in Berlin, this paper interrogates how the presentation of weapons technologies at German security and aviation fairs produces a/effects that influence the body and serve to legitimize political decisions. It examines to what extent the body becomes the site of geopolitical negotiation via affective atmospheres and how different scales interact within this process. First, I argue that affective connections between weapons technologies and spectators are essential for legitimizing warfare technologies. Second, I argue that affects of weapons technologies are subject to ambivalence and ambiguity, and that they are to be understood as entangled with other affects in the same body. Third, I argue that affects become effective across material and spatial scales. Drawing on geographic work on affective atmospheres, debates in intimate geopolitics and feminist science and technology studies, the paper contributes to critical geopolitics by unpacking the role of affective dimensions in naturalizing the development and acquisition of weapons technologies. In doing so, it also contributes to debates on the methodological operationalization of theories of affect and to emotional geographies of (in)security.