The Making of Female Presidents and Prime Ministers: The Impact of Birth Order, Sex, of Siblings, and Father-Daughter Dynamics

Although research into the factors that may affect male achievement of political leadership is relatively robust, very few studies on the making of female presidents and prime ministers exist. This paper examines the literature on birth order, sex of siblings, and parent-daughter dynamics to see whether the findings for male political leaders—that first-born individuals will be overrepresented as compared with later-born siblings—also hold for female ones. Two other hypotheses were tested concerning differences in birth order and sex of siblings between female political leaders and a larger sample of women. A review of the literature on parent-daughter dynamics suggests that this may be another important variable for future research into explanations for the success of women who achieve senior-level positions of power. The findings suggest that first-born women, like first-born men, are overrepresented among political leaders; that first-born women are overrepresented among female political leaders as compared with their numbers in a larger sample population; and that fewer female political leaders have an older brother than would be expected to occur in a larger sample population. The last finding applies only for women who come to power in the period 1960–1989, not those who gained office more recently.     

Critical thinking in North America: A new theory of knowledge,learning, and literacy

The pace of change in the world is accelerating, yet educational institutions have not kept pace. Indeed, schools have historically been the most static of social institutions, uncritically passing down from generation to generation outmoded didactic, lecture-and-drill-based, models of instruction. Predictable results follow. Students, on the whole, do not learn how to work by, or think for, themselves. They do not learn how to gather, analyze, synthesize and assess information. They do not learn how to analyze the diverse logic of the questions and problems they face and hence how to adjust their thinking to those problems. They do not learn how to enter sympathetically into the thinking of others, nor how to deal rationally with conflicting points of view. They do not learn to become critical readers, writers, speakers and listeners. They do not learn how to use their native languages clearly, precisely, or persuasively. They do not, therefore, become literate, in the proper sense of the word. Neither do they gain much in the way of genuine knowledge since, for the most part, they could not explain the basis for what they believe. They would be hard pressed to explain, for example, which of their beliefs were based on rational assent and which on simple conformity to what they have been told. They have little sense as to how they might critically analyze their own experience, or identify national or group bias in their own thinking. They are much more apt to learn on the basis of irrational than rational modes of thought. They lack the traits of mind of a genuinely educated person: intellectual humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, and faith in reason.Happily, there is a movement in education today striving to address these problems in a global way, with strategies and materials for the modification of instruction at all levels of education. At its foundation is an emerging new theory of knowledge, learning, and literacy, one which recognizes the centrality of independent critical thinking to all substantial learning, one which recognizes that higher-order, multilogical thinking is as important to childhood as to adult learning, and as important to foundational learning in monological as in multilogical disciplines. This educational reform movement is not proposing an educational miracle cure, for its leading proponents recognize that many social and historical forces must come together before the ideals of the critical thinking movement will become a full academic reality. Schools do not exist in a social vacuum. To the extent that the broader society is uncritical so, on the whole, will be society's schools. Nevertheless, the social conditions necessary for fundamental changes in schooling are increasingly apparent. The pressure for fundamental change is growing. Whether and to what extent these needed basic changes will be delayed or side-tracked, thus requiring new periodic resurgences of this movement, with new, more elaborate articulations of its ideals, goals, and methods — only time will tell.     

Common sense as an ingredient of the self and the community

The new situation in Europe, as exemplified in Germany, calls for a common consciousness, one traditionally characterized as sensus communis or common sense. Kant organized his ruminations on common sense — specifically, the logical common sense — around three maxims: enlightenment, the extended way of thinking and the consistent way of thinking. These are here described with an eye to their consequences for the issues of identity, community and pedagogy.     

The Sense of Agency and the Search for a Narrative in Acute Psychosis

The search for a narrative in acute psychosis exists but the result of this search can be insufficient because the stories available do not sufficiently capture the pre-narrative quality of personal experience, and hence the sense of agency may be diminished. The context of reflexivity is lost when a subjugating story blocks an individual off from making a choice from among a multiplicity of stories. Psychosis can also be an escape in order to maintain a sense of agency. When the patient has trouble in creating meaning through narrative action, the aim of therapy and treatment is to open a channel through which the pre-narrative quality of life can become narrated, to create a multiplicity of stories, and so offer the possibility of choice in the construction of a narrative identity.     

有无二胎与父母教养能力感的关系:头胎子女亲子依恋的调节作用

研究选取650名中小学生为研究对象,采用父母教养能力感量表和亲子依恋安全性问卷,考察了有无二胎与父母教养能力感的关系,并探讨了头胎子女的父子依恋和母子依恋在有无二胎与父母教养能力感关系中的调节作用。研究发现：（1）二胎家庭中父母的教养能力感高于独生子女父母的教养能力感;（2）头胎子女的母子依恋能够调节有无二胎与父母教养能力感的关系：对于高母子依恋组的被试而言,有无二胎无法预测父母教养能力感,而对于低母子依恋组的被试来说,有无二胎能显著正向预测父母教养能力感。而父子依恋的调节作用不显著。结果表明,对高母子依恋群体而言,有无二胎不影响父母教养能力感,而对于低母子依恋群体来说,家庭中有二胎会促进父母教养能力感的发展。