Ways of thinking about being: Explorations in ontology

This paper briefly explores Merleau-Ponty's notions of body subject and flesh in order to draw out some of the implications of his work for an understanding of key aspects of non-Western worldviews, notably that of Australian aboriginal people. Focusing specifically on the concept of materiality, I argue that its elaboration as flesh in Merleau-Ponty's work constitutes an important conceptual link with non-atomistic accounts of being and world, accounts characteristic of some indigenous peoples. Writing as a non-aboriginal and a relative newcomer to the study of aboriginal beliefs, I address the issue of possible contributions such understandings may make to solutions to problems we face in future both as individuals and as educators.     

Overcoming the Problems of ‘Difference’ in Education: Empathy as ‘Intercorporeality’

In this paper I am concerned with the notion of empathy and its capacity for overcoming the problem of difference in social life. The concept of empathy has a long history in the Western philosophic tradition but has become discursively submerged in recent times. I am particularly interested in what philosophies of the body may contribute to our understanding of empathy. Psychoanalytic feminism provides some insights. However I identify Merleau-Ponty's conception of body-subject and the intersubjective encounter as offering a potentially more fruitful account of empathy.     

Self-enhancement by social comparison: a prospective analysis

A longitudinal investigation showed that self-enhancement by social comparison (assessing whether people perceive themselves more positively than they perceive others) was prospectively related to an increase in self-reported adjustment, controlling for the effects of narcissism. Better adjustment, including higher self-esteem, was not prospectively related to an increase in self-enhancement. The investigation also included a diary period, allowing the assessment of intrasubject covariation between daily reports of self-esteem and daily reports of perceived challenge and daily events (positive or negative). High (compared to low) self-enhancers were less likely to report lower self-esteem under higher challenge and less likely to report higher self-esteem under positive events.     

The cross-modal matching of brightness to loudness by children

According to Stevens' explanation of cross-modal matching, the recruitment-like effects of masking seen in intramodal loudness judgements should be reflected in a brightness-to-loudness matching task. In an experiment with child observers, this failed to occur. The results are explicable in terms of category mediation of the cross-modal, but not the intramodal, task. In support of this account, it is shown that cross-modal judgements are unaffected by explicit category mediation. However, intramodal judgements, explicitly mediated in the same way, produce a pattern of results similar to those obtained in the cross-modal task. The experiments suggest that cross-modal matching does not provide a useful test of loudness recruitment in the bilaterally hearing impaired.     

Narcissism and well‐being: A longitudinal perspective

This study used a longitudinal design to examine both concurrent and prospective relations between narcissism and several indicators of well‐being in a non‐clinical population. Consistent with previous research, the concurrent analyses showed that (1) narcissism was related to greater well‐being with self‐esteem fully mediating the association, and (2) narcissism was related to greater self‐esteem contingency on negative interpersonal events. The prospective analyses showed that greater well‐being predicted an increase in narcissism; however, higher narcissism did not predict changes in well‐being. Lower affective reactivity to negative interpersonal events also predicted an increase in narcissism. The “would‐be” narcissist appears to be a person reporting feeling well and not overly concerned by an aversive social environment. However, narcissism does not appear to predict future benefits for one's well‐being. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Warm and homely or cold and beautiful? Sex differences in trading off traits in mate selection

Prior research and theory suggest that people use three main sets of criteria in mate selection: warmth/trustworthiness, attractiveness/vitality, and status/resources. In two studies, men and women made mating choices between pairs of hypothetical potential partners and were forced to make trade-offs among these three criteria (e.g., warm and homely vs. cold and attractive). As predicted, women (relative to men) placed greater importance on warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources in a potential mate but less importance on attractiveness/vitality. In addition, as expected (a) ratings of ideal standards partly mediated the link between sex and mate choices, (b) ideal standards declined in importance from long-term to short-term relationships, with the exception of attractiveness/vitality, and unexpectedly, (c) sex differences were higher for long-term (compared to short-term) mate choice. Explanations and implications are discussed.     

Emerging perspectives on customer relationships,interactions and loyalty in Irish retail financial services

• This paper presents the key findings in relation to current consumer perspectives on the role of relationships, the nature of loyalty and types of customer interaction from an in‐depth qualitative consumer study of Irish retail banking.
• Although the literature proposes that the RM approach is particularly applicable to the financial services sector, the research findings identify key supply and demand‐related changes within Irish financial services and raise questions as to the appropriateness of general RM theory to the current nature of interaction between consumers and their financial suppliers.
• Key customer factors such as low involvement, apathy and dissatisfaction have resulted in much apparent customer loyalty actually being spurious. More important for customers in this study was how convenient the bank was for their lifestyle.
• In an age in which increased depersonalisation and automation impact upon the nature of consumer‐supplier interaction and service delivery, it would appear that the concepts of relationship and loyalty need to be fundamentally re‐examined and their role and relevance within current retail financial services re‐appraised.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.