Local Solidarity

In this article I am particularly interested in the question of solidarity within the boundaries of one's own country. I discuss a qualified beneficence requirement, which claims that we ought to prevent something very bad from happening if it is in our power and if we can do it without sacrificing anything morally significant. I also discuss a fair-share principle, according to which, in Liam B. Murphy's version, "the sacrifice each agent is required to make is limited to the level of sacrifice that would be optimal if the situation were one of full compliance". I argue that the qualified beneficence requirement is reasonable only in the proximity of the one who needs help. When there is no proximity we ought to be guided by a fair-share principle. I also argue that there is an intimate relation between the fair-share principle and the welfare-state ideology.     

Minority representation,tokenism, and well-being in army units

Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the US Army and women are moving into more combat roles. This puts minority soldiers at risk for being underrepresented in their work units. Tokenism theory predicts that when a work group has less than 15% representation in a social group, the numerically underrepresented minority (i.e., token) members are subject to three disadvantages: higher visibility, informal isolation, and role encapsulation. In the Army, where many companies contain small numbers of women and racial minorities, some soldiers may face additional stressors and constraints. We explored psychosocial, organizational, and health outcomes of all identifiable token women (N = 4,425) and Black soldiers (N = 5,040). Tokens were remarkably similar to non-tokens and majority soldiers on outcomes such as coping skills, adaptability, organizational trust, sleep, substance use, and pain. The intersection of token status in terms of race and gender was not related to any appreciable differences. One potential explanation is the shared Army culture that emphasizes group unity and the importance of the mission above individual characteristics and goals. The Army depends on cohesion, organizational identification, and commitment to the group in order to reduce stress and anxiety, and to maximize combat performance. For soldiers who have internalized this culture, it could be easier to see past individual differences such as gender and race and identify others in the unit as fellow soldiers primarily.     

Green Keynesianism: Bringing the Entrepreneurial State Back in(to Question)?

Since the global financial crisis of 2007/8, proliferating calls for a Keynesian Green New Deal have cast the publicly (and environmentally) minded state as a necessary driver of technological innovation and social transformation, while, vice versa, innovation has moved to political centre-stage. The history and genesis of this particular Green Keynesian paradigm illustrate that some of its most high-profile proponents selectively and problematically frame twentieth-century Keynesianism and the ‘public good’. It is important to examine critically the calls for an ‘entrepreneurial state’ in which Green Keynesian ideas are mobilized in support of an agenda for continued and accelerated development of commercially focused, privately developed green technologies. The entrepreneurial state represents a neoliberal re-appropriation of Green Keynesianism, where dominant financial actors (in Silicon Valley, as opposed to on Wall Street) are tapped as the visionaries who can and should set our collective innovation agenda. Although there is a need for large-scale, coordinated techno-social efforts to address climate change, supporting ‘green’ innovation cannot simply be framed as maximizing ‘innovation’ while taking the ‘state’ for granted. Instead, it must entail a careful assessment of the specific trajectories of innovation being enabled and the underlying socio-natures that they maintain and promote. Science and technology studies (STS)-informed analysis allows, and compels, asking how socio-technological innovation and their constitutive power relations are crucially interrelated, making the reshaping of the state—still the primary institution and system of social relations of collective governance—a core but neglected political, technological and ecological project of our time, with a key role for STS.     

Mental verb input for promoting children's theory of mind: A training study

An experimental study investigated the effect of the type of mental verb input (i.e., input with think, know, and remember) on preschoolers’ theory of mind development. Preschoolers (n = 72) heard 128 mental verb utterances presented in video format across four sessions over two weeks. The training conditions differed only in the way the mental verbs were presented: the form (statement or question), the referent (first person or other person), and the interaction style (overheard or interactive). Children who overheard the characters discussing the mental states of someone else, either in statement or question form, significantly improved in their false belief understanding. These experimental findings demonstrate mental verb utterances about other people, even when not directed to the child, scaffold children's attention to differing perspectives, thus more efficiently promoting some aspects of their ToM development.     

The Development of Internal State Language during the Third Year of Life: A Longitudinal Parent Report Study

Children's talk about the mind has been scarcely studied in non‐English speakers. For this reason, this longitudinal study documents age‐related changes in German‐speaking children's internal state language. At 24, 30 and 36 months, children were administered general language tests and their internal state vocabulary levels were obtained via parental report. The developmental transition from a vocabulary rich in physiological, perceptual and desire terms to a vocabulary rich in a wider range of mental concepts confirmed previous research with French‐speaking and English‐speaking children and research in children's internal state comprehension. Further, children's category scores proved to be developmentally stable. Finally, with increasing age, children's category scores became more specifically related to each other, independent of general language skills. The results are discussed in regard to the universality of children's talk about the mind. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Internal State Language with Their Young Children: An Examination of Gender Differences During an Emotions Task

The current study examined gender differences in mothers' and fathers' internal state language (ISL), children's use of ISL, and whether ISL was related to parents' ratings of the children's social skills. Fifty‐seven (28 boys, 29 girls) toddler/preschool children (M age = 32.5 months, SD = 5.38 months) were observed separately with their mothers and fathers in their homes while they discussed pictures of children's facial expressions of emotions. Parents completed a questionnaire concerning their child's social–emotional behaviours (i.e. BASC‐2). Parents used more ISL with sons compared with daughters, and sons used more ISL with mothers than with fathers. No overall differences were found between mothers' and fathers' ISL. Children's social skills as rated by mothers were predicted by mothers' ISL comments, whereas children's social skills as rated by fathers were predicted by children's age and fathers' ISL clarifications. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conceptualizing and Measuring Global Interpersonal Mistrust-Trust

Abstract

Global interpersonal mistrust is conceptualized as a general mistrust of the motives of others in situations related to one's well-being: a general tendency to view others as mean, selfish, malevolent, or unreliable people who are, thus, not to be depended on to treat one well. The authors developed an 18-item unidimensional self-report inventory measuring interpersonal mistrust as a negative cognitive orientation toward others. The measure comprises items describing perceptions of specific hypothetical interpersonal situations rather than items asking respondents to describe their own general behavior. The measure was reliable and evidenced construct validity in a heterogeneous sample of Australians.     

Work-Family Conflict,Locus of Control,and Women's Weil-Being: Tests of Alternative Pathways

Abstract

The author tested for the 3 possible pathways (i.e., direct, moderator, and mediator effects) in which locus of control can influence the relationship between work-family conflict and well-being. The author predicted that work-family conflict would be negatively correlated with well-being. In a sample of 310 Malaysian employed women with families, work-family conflict was a significant predictor of both job satisfaction and distress–negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to symptoms of distress. More important, the results provided support for the effects of all 3 pathways of control on the relationship between work-family conflict and well-being, depending on the outcome measure: For job satisfaction, locus of control had direct effects, acted as a partial mediator, and played a significant moderating role. In contrast, only the direct effect of locus of control predicted distress. The author discusses those findings with reference to the literature on work-family conflict, locus of control, and the issue of stress-distress specificity.     

Threat to Ethnic Identity: The Experience of White Afrikaans-Speaking Participants in Postapartheid South Africa

Abstract

The dismantling of apartheid and the postapartheid dispensation had far-reaching implications for all the citizens of South Africa. In an urban sample of White Afrikaans-speaking South Africans (Afrikaners) in postapartheid South Africa, the authors investigated perceptions of threat to ethnic identity, as well as correlates of those perceptions. The respondents experienced threat on 2 levels: The 1st was distinctive continuity, the concern that their ethnic group would not continue as a distinctive group in society. The 2nd was the evaluative dimension of ethnic identity (i.e., well-being), the concern that group membership would no longer contribute to positive self-esteem. The respondents experienced greater threat on the 2nd level, reflecting predominantly negative experiences as White Afrikaans-speaking persons in postapartheid South Africa. A high threat perception on the 2nd level was associated with (a) a perception of other groups' negative evaluations of their ethnic group, (b) negative attitudes toward political changes, and (c) perceptions of illegitimacy and instability of the postapartheid political system. The respondents who felt that Afrikaners would not continue as a distinctive group in society had a more positive attitude toward the sociopolitical changes, did not show strong ethnic identification, and had a negative collective self-esteem. They were also politically more liberal. Those findings are discussed in relation to theoretical expectations.     

Being Forgotten: Implications for the Experience of Meaning in Life

ABSTRACT

Two studies investigated the effects of being forgotten on the target of memory. In Study 1, undergraduate women (N = 96) who had completed a lab session two days prior, were randomly assigned to be remembered, forgotten, complimented, or to a control group. In the absence of effects on mood or social self-esteem, being forgotten resulted in lower meaning in life. In Study 2, participants (N = 47) who had completed a group exercise were informed two days later that no one remembered them, that everyone remembered them, or that no one wanted to work with them. Being forgotten led to lower meaning in life than being remembered but did not differ from being excluded. Being forgotten may be considered a type of incipient ostracism that influences meaning in life but not mood or state social self-esteem.