Sober adolescence–Predictor of psychosocial maladjustment in young adulthood?

We have explored how age at first intoxication with alcohol relates to mental health, social integration and adjustment to the adult role. The data stem from a longitudinal representative study of 2000 Norwegians. The sample was assessed at ages 19–22, 21–24 and 25–28. Among females, only early intoxication was related to young adult symptoms of poor mental health. A U-shaped association between intoxication debut and psychological problems was revealed among males, implying that both early and late beginners had more such problems than those who had followed the mainstream. These associations persisted without change over time. However, males who remained abstainers in adulthood were psychologically healthy, but they showed indications of a delayed entry into the adult role. Male late beginners were also somewhat reluctant to adopt adult role-behaviors. Thus, getting drunk for the first time in mid-adolescence seems to be an ingredient in the normal developmental process in young males.     

HOLDING ONE ANOTHER (WELL, WRONGLY, CLUMSILY) IN A TIME OF DEMENTIA

Abstract: This essay takes a close look at a species of care that is particularly needed by people with progressive dementias but that has not been much discussed in the bioethics literature: the activity of holding the person in her or his identity. It presses the claim that close family members have a special responsibility to hold on to the demented person's identity for her or him, and offers some criteria for doing this morally well or badly. Finally, it considers how even those with dementia can hold others in their identities, and suggests that this kind of holding too can have great moral worth.     

Severity of initiation revisited: Does severity of initiation increase attractiveness in real groups?

In the Netherlands, two longitudinal fieldstudies (N=202 and N=46) were conducted on the relationship between severity of initiation and group attractiveness. Study 1 represents a severe initiation, Study 2 a more mild one. In these two different field ‘conditions’ we aimed to test the dissonance interpretation of the effects of a severe initiation (Aronson & Mills, 1959) and a positive correlation between severity of treatment of the initiated novices and group attractiveness was expected (hypothesis 1). Further, we expected that feelings of frustration and anger would mediate this relationship (hypothesis 2). On the other hand, our affiliation–attraction hypothesis either predicted a positive correlation between companionship (Rook, 1987) and group attractiveness, irrespective of severity (hypothesis 3), or that companionship would mediate the severity–attraction relationship (hypothesis 4). In both studies, LISREL path analyses only supported hypothesis 3. Contrary to hypothesis 1, severity experienced during the early stages of the initiation correlated with feelings of frustration and loneliness (Study 1), or depressive mood (Study 2). These feelings lasted throughout the initiation and lowered the liking for the group. Results are discussed in terms of newcomers' decisions to leave or to join the group, determined by (i) the exchange and fate control relationship between the leadership and the newcomers; (ii) the severe treatment of newcomers as a selection device and (iii) companionate exchanges among the initiated newcomers as a basis for ingroup formation. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE SELF AND THE OTHERS: COMMON TOPICS FOR HUSSERL AND WITTGENSTEIN

Several commentators have argued that Husserl's phenomenological project is compromised or even destroyed by Wittgenstein's critical inquiries into our use of psychological concepts. In contrast to oppositional interpretations, this paper explicates certain crucial connections between Husserl's phenomenology and Wittgenstein's late thinking—shared views that concern the embodied nature of selfhood and our relations to other selves. In line with certain recent contributions, I argue that there are important similarities between Husserl's analysis of these phenomena and Wittgenstein's remarks on our use of language and that these connections, when noticed and explicated, can help us avoid simplified, barren contrasts and get clear about our actual philosophical alternatives.     

Cutting Motherhood in Two: Some Suspicions Concerning Surrogacy

Surrogate motherhood—at least if carefully structured to protect the interests of the women involved—seems defensible along standard liberal lines which place great stress on free agreements as moral bedrocks. But feminist theories have tended to be suspicious about the importance assigned to this notion by mainstream ethics, and in this paper, we develop implications of those suspicions for surrogacy. We argue that the practice is inconsistent with duties parents owe to children and that it compromises the freedom of surrogates to perform their share of those duties. Standard liberal perspectives tend to be insensitive to such considerations; we propose a view which takes more seriously the moral importance of the causal relationship between parents and children, and which therefore illuminates rather than obscures the stake that women and children have in surrogacy.     

Achievement Goals,Physical Self‐Concept,and Social Physique Anxiety in a Physical Activity Context1

Three studies tested relations between self‐related constructs and approach and avoidance achievement goals in a health‐related physical activity context. Physical self‐concept was hypothesized to be positively related, and social physique anxiety to be negatively related, to approach goals in physical activity. Achievement goals were also expected to mediate relations between the self‐related constructs and behavior. Structural equation models supported the hypothesized pattern of effects in a physical activity context (Study 1). The model for physical activity was invariant across collectivistic and individualistic cultures (Study 2). Relations between physical self‐concept, social physique anxiety, and achievement goals were stronger among regular gym and fitness center users than among nonusers (Study 3). The findings are discussed in relation to achievement goal theory.