Local communities responding to ecological challenges—A psycho‐social approach to the Natura 2000 Network

The institutionalization of biodiversity conservation through legal instruments has led to mixed reactions at both the individual and community levels, with conflict and resistance co‐existing with support. The overall purpose of this paper is to describe how rural communities living in areas included in the Natura 2000 Network of protected sites, where local practices of land use are regulated by new legal directives, receive biodiversity conservation goals. Previous studies suggest that this reception is strongly shaped by place identification, but their contradictory results demand further clarification. This study examines the role of psycho‐social variables identified by previous studies as potentially relevant moderators of identification: (a) Vested interest in natural resources, (b) evaluation of the designation process of protected areas and (c) institutional trust. It further extends previous research by analysing the support given to contextually relevant ecological practices. Results reveal a positive link between place identification and attitudes in the high vested interest condition and show that support for conservation practices is better predicted in the high vested interest and low trust conditions. The discussion focuses on the relevance of analysing contextually relevant psycho‐social moderators when attempting to understand how local communities' relation with biodiversity conservation is affected by legislative innovation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is it always fallacious to derive values from facts?

Since the time of David Hume, many philosophers have held that there is a logical Is/Ought gap. According to the doctrine of the Is/Ought gap, there are no valid (i.e., non-fallacious) arguments from purely factual premises about whatis the case to moral or normative conclusions about whatought to be. Occasionally, this doctrine has been challenged, but frequently it has been accepted without argumentation. Charles Pigden has recently argued for a logical Is/Ought gap on the grounds of the conservativeness of logic. I offer a counter-example which shows that Pigden's argument is unsound and that there need be no logical gap between Is-premises and an Ought-conclusion. My counter-example is an argument which is logically valid, has only Is-premises and an Ought-conclusion, and does not purport to violate the conservativeness of logic. Moreover, my argument does not rely, as other alleged counter-examples do, on controversial assumptions from Aristotelian biology about natures or ends, or about institutions such as promise-making.     

Révision de la loi bioéthique : les dangers de l’autoconservation des ovocytes pour convenance personnelle

Legalization of self-conservation of ovocytes for personal convenience is considered by the second article of the bioethics legislative proposal, adopted by French National Assembly. This practice is aiming to allow men and women to keep their gametes for the purpose of a subsequent medically assisted procreation. Does this new liberty risks to take away a human's individual liberty and more specifically a women's one? Indeed, to legalize self-conservation of ovocytes for personal convenience means to extend the message whereby a woman could delay her maternity. The result would be an implicit pressure: as it becomes medically possible to privilege first of all a career and then to envisage maternity, woman seeking high performance must necessarily choose it. This technique could therefore hide a clear-cut decline for women's rights, again confronted with a cornelian choice, a family or a career.     

“美即好”？颜值对工作幸福感的“过不及”效应

本文基于资源保存理论,考察职场中颜值影响工作幸福感的机制及边界,对1079份配对数据的多项式层级回归分析发现：颜值对工作幸福感有倒U型的影响,颜值中等偏上（6.88）的员工有最强的工作幸福感;不同职场类型中颜值的影响效应存在差异,在高要求-高控制的职场中,颜值对工作幸福感的曲线效应最强;分配公平感在上述影响路径和交互效应起中介作用。结论对人力资源管理和面孔吸引力理论具有积极贡献。     

An experimental analysis of electricity conservation procedures

Daily electricity consumption of four families was recorded for 106 days. A reversal design, consisting of various experimental conditions interspersed between repeated baseline conditions, was used. During experimental conditions, daily prompts (written conservation slogans attached to front doors) and/or daily feedback (daily kilowatts consumed and daily cost information) were in effect. Maximum consumption occurred during the initial baseline; minimum consumption occurred during different experimental conditions for different families. The mean decrease from the maximum to the minimum for all families was 35%. Reversals in consumption were demonstrated in three families, although successive baselines tended to decrease. No clear differences in effectiveness between prompting and feedback conditions were apparent. The procedures used resulted in considerable dollar savings for the families.     

Why do leaders engage in destructive behaviours? The role of leaders’ working environment and stress

Complementing previous research on antecedents of destructive leadership, we examined the role of work stressors in the emergence of active and passive destructive leadership behaviours. Building on conservation of resources theory, we examined direct and indirect relations between leaders’ perceptions of workload, role ambiguity and intragroup conflict on ratings of their own destructive leadership, as well as mediating paths through perceived stress. We used a two-wave survey design consisting of a random sample of 1311 managers. Structural equation modelling revealed that work stressors were only related to passive forms of destructive leadership, whereas personality was related to both active and passive forms of destructive leadership. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Averting the Tragedy of the Commons: Using Social Psychological Science to Protect the Environment

ABSTRACT— Many local and global environmental challenges are tragedies-of-the-commons dilemmas in which private and collective interests are frequently at odds. Recent developments in social psychological theory and research suggest that in such commons dilemmas people are not just motivated by narrow (economic) self-interest but that they also consider the broader implications of their decisions for others and for the natural environment. Based on a core-motives analysis, I identify four necessary components for designing interventions to protect the environment: (a) information, (b) identity, (c) institutions, and (d) incentives, and discuss their utility and the feasibility of incorporating them.     

The Impact of Resource Loss and Critical Incidents on Psychological Functioning in Fire-Emergency Workers: A Pilot Study

The relationship between critical incident exposure and resource loss, as conceptualized by Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, in predicting later psychological outcome (e.g., depressive symptoms, anger expression, and state anger) was examined in a sample of 150 fire-emergency workers from a Fire Department in a mid-sized, midwestern city. Additionally, a measure of critical incidents (Critical Incidents Inventory) was developed, and preliminary data on its validity are presented. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that fire-emergency workers' exposure to critical incidents was directly related to their report of depressive symptoms, outward expression of anger, and state anger. Additionally, results indicated that fire-emergency workers' resource loss was strongly related to their psychological outcome. Results also suggest that resource loss may mediate the impact of critical incident stress exposure on depressive symptoms and the outward expression of anger. These results offer support to applying COR theory to populations under extreme stress.     

After the storm: enduring differences in mother-child recollections of traumatic and nontraumatic events

Despite a growing literature on the collaborative reminiscing of mothers and children, little is known about the kinds of things mothers and children discuss as they recollect shared traumatic experiences. Do mother-child recollections of a traumatic event differ from their recollections of more benign events? To address this question, mother-child dyads (N=29) discussed a traumatic event, namely a devastating tornado, and two nontraumatic events (one that preceded and one that followed the tornado). Each dyad discussed all three events 4-months post-tornado and again 6 months later. Whereas conversations about both event types (traumatic and nontraumatic) varied with children's age, dyads' recollections of the tornado were significantly longer, more narratively coherent, and more complete than their recollections of nontraumatic events. These differences largely endured over the 6-month retention interval.     

“We may be pirates,but we are not protesters”: Identity in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Radical activist organizations face the complex task of managing their identity so as to draw political attention but also to appear legitimate and thus gain public support. In this article we develop a picture of the identities of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) members, a group mostly known for their direct action against whaling, via a thematic analysis of material from the SSCS website and interviews with SSCS members. In online commentary, founder Captain Paul Watson establishes several deliberately paradoxical notions of who the Sea Shepherds are. We relate these identity statements to interviews with core activists to examine how they manage the identity conflicts resulting from the group identity, such as being seen as “pirates” and “hard lined vegans.” We found that SSCS positions themselves as a diverse and unstructured organization, yet distinctively passionate and willing to take action where others will not. The implications of this research are discussed in relation to the importance of understanding the constraints and conflicts around political activist identities.