What's to Fear from Immigrants? Creating an Assimilationist Threat Scale

We argue that cultural threat, stressed in recent studies of anti-immigrant sentiment, is properly measured in the U.S. case as "assimilationist threat": a resentful perception that immigrants are failing to adopt the cultural norms and lifestyle of their new homeland. We explore the meaning and form of assimilationist threat in the minds of Americans through an analysis of four focus groups, two in Los Angeles, CA, and two in Columbus, OH. Using information from the focus groups, we develop and test a set of survey questions covering three dimensions of immigrants' commitment to their new country: language, productivity, and citizenship. We produce a summary scale of assimilationist threat that can be used by other researchers seeking to understand the causes and consequences of anti-immigrant sentiment.     

我们时代的境遇——临床诊疗行为中的医患文化冲突

就临床诊疗工作中的医患文化冲突问题,从何谓文化冲突、它的行为表现、文化冲突的原因等方面进行了探讨,从认知、情感、社会心理、环境变迁、价值观多元等社会文化的层面来认识和分析医患之间的复杂关系,并就正确看待和弱化医患文化冲突提出了意见。     

试论金州区新型农村合作医疗管理模式

建立和完善新型农村合作医疗制度是新时期农村卫生工作的重要内容.金州区在新型农村合作医疗管理中,探索出一条自己的模式.这种模式既有可资借鉴的地方,如管理与监督分离、多方参与、服务方便快捷等;也存在着不少问题,如群众对农村合作医疗仍存在认识上的误区、用药品种太少、报销比例太低;经办人员的编制等.建议政府制定政策要有持续性和稳定性,广泛宣传,提高参合农民健康意识;增加基本药物目录的范围,适当情况下,可采取二次救助;确定合适编制,建立一支稳定、高效的新型农村合作医疗管理队伍.     

汉易卦气学的理论原理

汉易卦气学中阴阳二气消长运行的原理保留了先秦《易传》和《礼记.月令》中尊重自然规律的思想,同时也发展了《月令》中的阴阳灾异思想;天人感应的原理是源自《洪范》“五事”“五征”思想,而于战国后期以来被加以充分发挥并在技术上加以细化的天人感应论;五行生克原理是用来说明造成某种灾异的具体原因的,对卦气占筮体系的建立有重要作用;由五行生克理论派生的五行运数理论,主要被用于讲王朝兴衰更替问题,阴阳二气消长运行的理论对于气论哲学的发展还是有积极影响的。天人感应理论有为人道正义寻求支撑的意义,但卦气学繁复的技术细节冲淡了这种意义,而用五行运数理论解释世运兴衰朝代更替,在本质上与天人感应学说是有矛盾的。     

“Strength and Safety in Numbers”: A Theoretical Perspective on Group Influences on Approach and Avoidance Motivation

This paper presents a theoretical framework that advances current understanding of motivational and affective causes and consequences of small group processes and behaviors. Theories on the approach and avoidance systems of motivation state that these systems are active in the presence of potential positive or negative outcomes, respectively. In many instances, groups are associated with rewards and are perceived to facilitate positive outcomes (“strength in numbers”), and are a source of security and thought to reduce the occurrence of negative outcomes (“safety in numbers”). Accordingly, group membership and interaction should impact activation of group members’ approach and avoidance motivation systems. Thus, systematic group influences on mood, information processing, perceptions, attention, and behavior should be expected. The integration of approach and avoidance theories with small group research can potentially broaden our knowledge of the group experience, and lead to a theoretical framework for investigations of goal-directed behaviors in group settings.     

Risk and resilience: Dual effects of perceptions of group disadvantage among Latinos

Several decades of research on the psychology of minority status has yielded highly discrepant findings. Substantial research suggests that perceptions of discrimination are linked to inferior self-regard and poor mental health, whereas other studies indicate that perceptions of discrimination are protective of global self-esteem. We tested a theoretical model of the combined (negative/positive) effects of perceived group disadvantage on self-esteem among Latinos. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that perceptions of group disadvantage were indirectly related to self-esteem through two principal pathways. The total (direct and indirect) effect on self-esteem was not significant, suggesting that, among Latinos, the deleterious consequences of perceived belonging to a devalued and disadvantaged group were fully counterbalanced by the positive effects of intervening variables. More complex models may be needed to characterize fully the self-protective and detrimental consequences of perceived group disadvantage among Latinos.     

Fostering Contact After Historical Atrocities: The Potential of Moral Exemplars

Intergroup contact is a known remedy for complicated intergroup relations. At the same time, contact is rare in postconflict settings. In the present article, we examine whether exposure to narratives about moral exemplars (i.e., members of a perpetrator group who acted morally and in opposition to the passivity or aggression displayed by majority) could increase openness to contact among historical adversaries. In Study 1 (N = 73), presenting members of a historical perpetrator group with information about ingroup moral exemplars led to a decrease of prejudice towards individuals from a historical victim group, which, in turn, resulted in higher openness to contact with them. In Study 2 (N = 100) and 3 (N = 92), exposure to narratives about outgroup moral exemplars in a historically victimized group increased openness to contact with members of a perpetrator group. These effects were mediated by a decrease in prejudice (Studies 2 and 3) and by an increase in trust towards historical perpetrators (Study 2).     

The Effect of Group Polarization on Opposition to Donald Trump

Using focus groups, we examined support and opposition for Donald Trump prior to the 2016 presidential election. When ingroup members participate in discussion, this conversation alone typically strengthens and intensifies members’ initial attitudes. We used a pre‐ to post‐focus‐group questionnaire to assess attitudes toward Trump, his campaign, and policies. We argue that group polarization influenced people’s opinions about Trump such that attitudes became more extreme after discussion with like‐minded individuals. We report changes for Trump nonsupporters for which group polarization occurred on attitudes toward illegal immigration, political correctness, the military, women, and veterans after the group discussion. For each, level of support for Trump’s views decreased. To further explore potential psychological mechanisms associated with group polarization, we employed network science methods to examine the structure of the language associated with these issues and identify potential drivers of attitude change. Results provide some support for a common mechanism for group polarization, which may be driven by language dynamics specific to individual attitudes.     

THE COLLECTIVE CHARACTERS OF RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS

Our primary aim in this article is to advocate for the interdisciplinary study of the collective character traits of local religious congregations, taking as our focal example local Christian congregations. It should be clear that such study presently lies on the frontier of interdisciplinary religious studies. Yet, as we will attempt to show in the first section, the way has been paved for the study of such collective character traits through salient developments within several academic disciplines in recent decades. This frontier, in other words, is open for exploration, and there are available tools that can help us explore it. We will illustrate how such exploration may be undertaken fruitfully in the second section by focusing on two distinct kinds of virtuous collective character traits of Christian congregations: traits that enable a congregation to fulfill its distinctive role in the missio Dei, and traits that enable a congregation's members to flourish in their interpersonal relationships. In each case, we will identify a candidate collective virtue of the relevant type, discuss its nature from philosophical and theological perspectives, and, drawing on relevant empirical research, provide reason for thinking that applying empirical methods to it can yield additional insights about its value.     

Single‐item big five ratings in a social network design

To develop and validate an ultra‐short measure to assess the Big Five in social network designs, the unipolar items of the Ten‐Item Personality Inventory were adapted to create a bipolar single‐item scale (TIPI‐r), including a new Openness item. Reliability was examined in terms of the internal consistency and test–retest stability of self‐ratings and peer‐rating composites (trait reputations). Validity was examined by means of convergence between TIPI‐r and Big Five Inventory (BFI) scores, self‐peer agreement and projection (intra‐ individual correlation between self‐ and peer‐ratings). The psychometric quality of the TIPI‐r differed somewhat between scales and the different reliability and validity criteria. The high reliability of the peer‐rating composites motivates to use the TIPI‐r in future studies employing social network designs. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.