The Empathetic Soldier

ABSTRACT

Empathy’s relation to the conduct of war is ambiguous. It is mentioned sporadically in international relations theory and, perhaps surprisingly, in official military doctrine. Yet empathy’s role in the military profession remains obscure, partly because it sits uneasily in military culture. Many military professionals struggle with how it is to be integrated with other, more clearly martial, virtues. Add to this struggle the confusion over what empathy actually is, and it quickly becomes easier to dismiss it or keep it at the fringes of consideration. It is my intent to clarify the concept of empathy in light of recent scholarship, and then to show the relevance of empathy to the tactical and strategic demands of war. Empathy bolsters soldiers’ understanding of human actors in the operational environment and it improves soldiers’ overall intentions. These benefits derive from the nature of empathy as an understanding of another’s experience, including emotions, beliefs, perspectives, or intentions, and the incorporation of this knowledge into further deliberation, especially important moral judgments.     

Territorial sense of community,ethnic prejudice and political orientation

This research focused on territorial sense of community and ethnic prejudice. In particular, we related these two constructs and investigated their relationship to individual characteristics (personal political orientation, contact with immigrants, etc.) and community‐level ones (such as ethnic composition and the political orientation of the local government). Two studies were conducted in four small towns in central and southern Italy. For each study, 160 people were contacted. The instruments used were a questionnaire, the Italian Sense of Community Scale and the Blatant Prejudice Scale. The results showed that territorial sense of community is not related to ethnic prejudice or to the ethnic heterogeneity of the territory. It was also found that people with right‐wing political sympathies revealed higher levels of prejudice than people with left‐wing sympathies. Finally, in a town with a stable and consolidated left‐wing orientation of the local government we found, when the influence of personal political orientation was controlled for, lower levels of prejudice than in a town with a right‐wing orientation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

肢体严重毁损伤保留与否的循证思考

肢体严重毁损伤的修复是当今医学领域的一个研究热点.从循证医学角度对肢体严重毁损伤的保肢与截肢提出思考并加以阐述,同时结合当前我国医疗环境提出一些这方面的倡议.     

The Relation of Personal Epistemology to Parenting Style and Goal Orientation in College Mothers

This study sought to establish the relevance of mothers’ epistemic beliefs to their parenting style and preferred academic goals for their child. College mothers (N = 163) from primarily working class families completed a variety of self-report measures including a modified version of Schommer’s [(1990). Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 498–504] Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, the Parental Attitudes Questionnaire-Revised [Reitman, Rhode, Hupp, & Altobello (2002). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 24(2), 119–127], and several goal orientation scales. Results indicated that a view of learning as effortful and under the learner’s control and a view of knowledge as actively constructed were associated with an authoritative parenting style and with a preference for their child to focus on learning, improvement, and effort in approaching academic tasks. By contrast, a view of learning as quick, straightforward, relatively passive and as based in innate constraints and a view of knowledge as consisting of discreet, unambiguous facts were associated with authoritarian and permissive styles and the adoption of performance goals for one’s child. Portions of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Atlanta, April, 2005.     

Flow at Work: Evidence for an Upward Spiral of Personal and Organizational Resources*

The present 2-wave study among 258 secondary school teachers investigates the relationship between personal and organizational resources on the one hand, and work-related flow on the other hand. On the basis of Hobfoll’s (1988) conservation of resources theory, Bandura’ social cognitive theory (1997; 2001), and Fredrickson’s (1998) “broaden-and-build” theory of positive emotions, we formulated two hypotheses: (1) personal resources (i.e., self-efficacy beliefs) and organizational resources (including social support climate and clear goals) facilitate work-related flow (work absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation); and (2) work-related flow has a positive influence on personal and organizational resources. The results of a series of structural equation modeling analyses offer clear support for both hypotheses. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. *This research was supported by a grant from the Bancaixa Foundation (#11232.01/1) and the Spanish Ministry of Science & Technology (CICYT #SEC2000-1031).     

我国资源物权立法的生态伦理考量

人际伦理观下的资源物权立法的理论与实践局限,导致了人与资源的紧张关系。资源物权立法应凸现生态伦理观的价值取向,并具体贯彻生态限制、可持续发展的资源利用、环境权限制以及强化资源物权的生态义务等原则。加强生态伦理观的价值取向在我国资源物权立法中的渗透力度,确立有关资源物权立法的一般生态原则,为防止生态伦理成为生态乌托邦,特别应将资源物权的生态义务类型化、内化。     

护士工作应激与倦怠的关系

依据Maslach等的理论构想,利用中式工作倦怠量表和工作应激问卷,通过对175名护士的调查,考察工作应激与倦怠之间的关系。结果表明,奖赏不足和价值观冲突对耗竭具有显著的预测作用;工作负荷、缺乏控制和共同体瓦解对人格解体具有显著的预测作用;共同体瓦解对成就感降低具有显著的预测作用。     

‘If that's what I need,it could be what someone else needs.’ Exploring the role of attachment and reflective function in counselling psychologists' accounts of how they use personal therapy in clinical practice: a mixed methods study

Empirical evidence supporting the inclusion of mandatory training therapy for therapists is sparse. We present results from a mixed methods study designed to interrogate how counselling psychologists' attachment status and levels of reflective function (RF) intersect with how they experience, recall and describe using personal therapy in clinical practice. Results suggest that securely-attached, or earned secure participants with ordinary or marked levels of RF used their therapy to manage feelings evoked by difficult or challenging clients. Insecurely-attached participants with lower levels of RF found therapy valuable in terms of behavioural modelling, but not in managing complex process issues. Negative case analysis found that high levels of RF may not be uniformly advantageous for therapists. The study concludes with a brief discussion of issues relating to epistemology, validity and reflexivity.     

JOHN HAUGHT—FINDING CONSONANCE BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE

John Haught has awarded the debates between religion (Christianity in particular) and science a central place in his ongoing corpus of work. Seeking to encourage and enhance the conversation, Haught both critiques current positions and offers his own perspective as a potential ground for continuing the discussion in a fruitful manner. This essay considers Haught's primary criticisms of the voices on both sides of the debate which his work connotes as polarizing or conflating the debate. It also extrudes from Haught's work themes that provide alternative visions. The essay concludes with two questions for further consideration.     

Une étude sur le rôle modérateur des traits de personnalité sur la relation entre les conditions de l’organisation du travail et la détresse psychologique

This study is about psychological distress lived by Canadian workers. Only a few studies considered personal traits in the comprehension of this phenomenon. This study aims to determine the moderator role of self-esteem, the sense of control and the sense of cohesion on the relation between the work organization conditions and psychological distress. Some longitudinal data (n=7338 workers) coming from five cycles (1994-2003) of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) have been used to complete some multilevel analysis (n1=time and n2=individual). The results indicate that the sense of control and the sense of cohesion play a moderator role on the relation between some of the work organization conditions and the level of psychological distress.