The publication of Salomon Reinach's ‘Orpheus’ and the question of Christian origins

A covert reason for the decline of ritual wailing among Yemenite-Jewish women in Israel is the community's memory of its stay in Yemen as a period of ‘exile’ manifested in dhimmi status. According to respondents’ oral history, Jewish lamentation was exploited by members of the majority Muslim population to compel Jews – mostly men – to wail in honor of Muslim dead. The article makes its main contribution by revealing this historical episode and analyzing the standing of women's lamentation in the context of religio-political tension. The respondents' narrative reveals that although the wailers mitigated the humiliating effects of this spectacle, the appropriation of their community custom impaired Jewish men's gender status and ability to perform religious differentiation. This, coupled with changes caused by their relocation to Israel, has made women's lament the commemoration of a practice that evokes shame among members of this community, abetting its decline in the past decade.     

Great expectations for Ara Norenzayan's Big Gods

In Big Gods (2013), Ara Norenzayan argues that the rise of large-scale societies was made possible by an extension of small-scale religious prosociality, presided over (and enforced) by Big moralizing watchful Gods. While religious prosociality is, of course, a redundant characterization of any small-scale religious group, it is doubtful that its extension can account for the historical emergence of large-scale societies, nor can cooperation be explained as an effect of surveillance. Rather, the archaeological and historical record indicates that such large-scale expansions of human societies are better explained by economic factors, political power, and/or military force. Difficulties with Norenzayan's theory are explored and several alternative theories to his ‘neglect of history’ are suggested.     

Understanding intuition and how the mind works

The associations between maternal reports of positive marital quality (i.e., positive emotional expressions, constructive conflict, and mothers’ marital satisfaction) and 3–6-year-olds’ (N = 62) positive peer relations were examined as a function of child temperament and gender. Although a zero-order correlation indicated that marital quality was unrelated to peer relations, a regression analysis indicated that high levels of positive marital quality were associated with more positive peer relations for preschoolers low in effortful control, but not for those high in effortful control. In addition, a moderating effect of gender revealed that the relationship between marital quality and positive peer relations was positive for girls but negative for boys. However, positive emotionality did not moderate the relations among marital quality and peer relations. The present study provides important preliminary findings that highlight the need for further study of the significance of positive marital relations for child development.     

Future ethics: risk,care and non-reciprocal responsibility

As the number of intrinsically unknowable technologically produced risks global society faces continues to grow, it is evident that the question of our responsibilities towards future people is of urgent importance. However, the concepts with which this question is generally approached are, it is argued, deficient in comprehending the nature of these risks. In particular, the individualistic language of rights presents severe difficulties. An alternative understanding of responsibility is required, which, it is argued, can be developed from phenomenological and feminist concepts of care. Such concepts privilege an understanding of human beings that is primarily relational rather than individualistic, and show that responsibility is, in the first place, about connection rather than respecting separation. Care, by opening up for us an understanding of the diversity of values that are constitutive of a worthwhile life, also connects us to the future as the future of care. As such, it provides us with ethical resources that can guide us in the face of uncertainty, including general principles of action and the desire for institutions that can articulate them.     

The paradox of power sharing: Participative charismatic leaders have subordinates with more instead of less need for leadership

Although charismatic and participative leaders have been noted for their positive effects on criteria such as performance, job satisfaction, and commitment, few studies have looked at the relations with subordinates' leadership needs. In this study, the relations between charismatic and participative leadership, team outcomes, and a team's need for leadership were investigated. The sample consisted of South Pacific CEOs and their top-level management teams from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. Results showed that charismatic leadership was related to both group-level need for leadership and positive team outcomes. However, team outcomes did not mediate the relations between leadership and a team's need for leadership. Additionally, a moderator effect was found between participative leadership and charismatic leadership in explaining a team's need for leadership, implying that teams of subordinates with participative charismatic leaders need more instead of less leadership from their CEOs.     

Multirater assessment of creative contributions to team projects in organizations

This study examined the convergent and construct validity of ratings of individual creative contributions in a team context. A sample of 201 employees and supervisors, working on 26 team projects, completed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and rated themselves and their teammates monthly on a single item measuring creative contributions to the project. The convergent validity of the ratings was supported because there was consistency among other ratings of the same targets and among different types of ratings (peer, supervisor, and self ratings) of the same targets. The construct validity of the ratings was partly supported because there were positive associations between individuals' peer-rated creativity and their Extraversion, and between individuals' self-rated and supervisor-rated creativity and their Openness to Experience. From peers and the self, women had lower creativity ratings than men, but other ratings were not influenced by the gender of the judge or the difference in gender of the target–judge dyad. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Perceptions of sugar mommy practices in South Africa

The study sought to explore sugar mommy practices regarding their occurrence, acceptability as well as perceived reasons why older women and younger men enter into sugar mommy relationships. An exploratory qualitative study involving 135 participants from 11 diverse focus groups in terms of age, gender (females=27%) and geotype throughout the nine South African provinces was conducted. Data on the participants’ views, opinions and experiences of sugar mommy practices were collected using focus group interviews. The data were thematically analyzed. The study found that sugar mommy practices were prevalent in South Africa. The perceived reasons for acceptability were: love, survival, and correctness. Perceived reasons why older women have sexual relationships with younger men included: sexual fulfilment, domination, reduction of stress, physical attraction, procreation, lack of self-control, youthful feeling, migrancy, difficulty in finding partners of compatible age and young men being seen as not demanding. Perceived reasons why younger men have sexual relationships with older women included: material gain, reduction of stress, being enticed, rejection by women of compatible age, peer influence and belief that older women are purer. Given the increase in sugar mommy practices, which may have significant implications for the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, it is necessary to understand the underlying perceptions of these practices, in order to develop culturally relevant and socially acceptable intervention programmes.     

The death of an alleged heretic,Richard Hunne (d.1514), explained

Abstract

On 4 December 1514, a suspect heretic named Richard Hunne died while being held in Lollards Tower, the bishop of London’s prison in Old St Paul’s. The discovery of Hunne’s body, hanged, provoked sharp dissension between Church and State while also triggering an anticlerical backlash among London’s citizenry in the years preceding the Reformation. This study will consider if Hunne’s death was murder, as John Foxe, the martyrologist, subsequently insisted, or suicide, as claimed by the church authorities and by Thomas More in his later published treatment of the affair. A definitive answer to this question has eluded historians for 500 years, but here a new explanation, judicial but bungled torture, is suggested as the key to this death in custody.     

翻译训练对大学生心理词汇概念间联系的影响

采用词汇联想实验,通过两项实验探讨了翻译训练对大学生心理词汇概念联结的影响。结果表明：①翻译专业大学生的母语心理词汇与二语心理词汇概念联系特性存在显著差异,相对于母语,二语的概念联系较多受语音和字形等非语义联系的影响;②翻译训练和实践可促进大学生英语心理词汇的语义联结,减弱英语词汇语音和字形等语言形式的影响;③翻译训练和实践对大学生心理词汇的主题关联联系意识的促进效应高于对其分类学意识的促进效应。     

The role of self-regulation strategies and self-efficacy perceptions in successful weight loss maintenance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the self-regulatory strategies which people use to lose, maintain, or manage their weight, and to assess their self-efficacy perceptions to implement these strategies. Thirty-three (N = 33) undergraduate college students were divided into three groups based on their past weight loss experience and confirmed by their current Body Mass Index: (a) overweight participants who tried but failed to lose weight, (b) participants who used to be overweight but lost significant weight and kept it off for at least six months, and (c) participants with an optimal weight. All participants were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA and correlation analyses. Participants who used self-regulatory strategies such as goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, environmental structuring, time management, social assistance and information seeking were better able to maintain or lose weight. Overweight participants reported significantly less strategy use than participants who had lost weight or who had a healthy weight. In addition, overweight participants had lower self-efficacy perceptions about implementing strategies than did healthy weight participants or participants who had successfully lost weight. Finally, a path analysis revealed that participants who reported high self-efficacy perceptions and applied their strategies persistently in the face of difficulties were more likely to successfully manage their weight.