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Social learning is likely to include affective processes: it is necessary for newcomers to discover what value to attach to objects, persons, and events in a givensocial environment. This learning relies largely on the evaluation of others’ emotional expressions. This study has two objectives. Firstly, we compare two closely related concepts that are employed to describe the use of another person’sappraisal to make sense of a given situation:socialappraisal andsocial referencing. (...) We contend thatsocial referencing constitutes a type ofsocialappraisal. Secondly, we introduce the concept of affectivesocial learning with the hope that it may help to discriminate the different ways in which emotions play a critical role in the processes of socialization. (shrink)

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We comment on two articles onsocial referencing andsocialappraisal. We agree with Walle, Reschke, and Knothe’s argument that at one level of analysis,social referencing andsocialappraisal are functionally equivalent: In both cases, another person’s emotional expression is observed and this expression informs the observer’s own emotional reactions and behavior. However, we also agree with Clément and Dukes’s view that, there is an important difference betweensocial referencing andsocial (...)appraisal. We also argue that they are likely to occur at different stages of emotion process. (shrink)

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We are encouraged by the attention paid to fundamental aspects relating to the interpersonal functions of emotion. In continuing this discussion, we consider two arguments used to distinguishsocial referencing andsocialappraisal, namely the role of ostension and the absence of prior appraisals of the individual. We contend that neither element is essential tosocial referencing.

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The comment discusses the common ground and differences of the contribution of Walle, Reschke, and Knothe, as well as that of Clément and Dukes in their efforts to conceptually connect an important concept from infancy research, namely that ofsocial referencing, with an important one from emotion research on adults, that ofsocialappraisal. The distinction betweensocial referencing and affective observation under the generic concept ofsocialappraisal could be worthwhile for differentiating implicit (...) and explicit impacts of a model’s behavior on a child’s emotional development. (shrink)

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Music can infect us. In the dominant approach, music contaminates listeners through emotional mimicry and independently of valueappraisal, just like when we catch other people’s feelings. Musical contagion is thus considered fatal to the mainstream view of emotions as cognitive evaluations. This paper criticizes this line of argument and proposes a new cognitivist account: the value metaphor view. Non-cognitivism relies on a contentious model of emotion transmission. In the competing model (socialappraisal), we catch people’s emotions (...) by appraising value through their emotional expressions.Socialappraisal debunks the main motivation for non-cognitivism and offers fruitful insights into musical contagion. Combining it with metaphor theory, I claim that musical contagion involves experiencing the music as a metaphor for emotions and values. Just like people infect us as we appraise value through their emotional expressions, music contaminates listeners because they hear it metaphorically-as some emotional expression and hereby appraise it metaphorically-as some value. As infectious music “sounds like” emotions and values, cognitivism is safe. (shrink)

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Discursive deference in the governance of science and technology is rebalancing from expert analysis toward participatory deliberation. Linear, scientistic conceptions of innovation are giving ground to more plural, socially situated understandings. Yet, growing recognition ofsocial agency in technology choice is countered by persistently deterministic notions of technological progress. This article addresses this increasingly stark disjuncture. Distinguishing between “appraisal” and “commitment” in technology choice, it highlights contrasting implications of normative, instrumental, and substantive imperatives inappraisal. Focusing on (...) the role of power, it identifies key commonalities transcending the analysis/participation dichotomy. Each is equally susceptible to instrumental framing for variously weak and strong forms of justification. To address the disjuncture, it is concluded that greater appreciation is required—in both analytic and participatoryappraisal—to facilitating the opening up of governance commitments on science and technology. (shrink)

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Group-based emotions have been conceptualised as being rooted in perceivers'social identity. Consistent with this idea, previous research has shown thatsocial identity salience affects group-based emotions, but no research to date has directly examined the role of group-based appraisals in comparison with individual appraisals. In the present studies, we measured group-based appraisals through a thought-listing procedure. In Experiment 1, we explicitly reminded people of their group identity, which led to the predicted change in group-based anger. This effect (...) was mediated by group-based appraisals. In Experiment 2, participants either discussed a group-relevant scenario in small groups or a related topic irrelevant to the group. The group-relevant condition not only led to stronger indignation but the perceived presence of group-based appraisals was also related to participants' reports of indignation. These results provide further evidence for the importance of group-based appraisals as components of group-based emotions. (shrink)

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A growing public awareness of the potential negative impacts of corporate activities on the natural environment and society compels large companies to invest increasing resources in the communication of their responsible conduct. This article employsAppraisal theory in a comparative analysis of BP’s and IKEA’s 2009social reports, each company’s record of their non-financial performance. The main objective is to explore how, throughAppraisal resources, BP and IKEA construct their corporate identity and relationship with their stakeholders. The (...) analysis reveals two markedly different approaches to the construction of a responsible corporate identity. While BP deploys interpersonal resources to portray itself as a trustworthy and authoritative expert, IKEA discloses itself as a sensitive and caring corporation, engaged in a continual effort to improve. These differences are interpreted in light of the legitimization challenges the two companies face. (shrink)

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The notion of a constitutive lack, which formed the ambivalent initial framework of Western metaphysics, marks the contemporary attempt to think anew thesocial and the subject. While metaphysics had difficulties to justify ontologically the event of sociality and was tempted to construct a closed subjectivity, post-metaphysical thought by contrast justifies often the sociality of a non-identity. The presuppositions of Orthodox-Christian theology allow us to think of subjectivity and sociality in terms of a different ontology, elaborating a new synthesis (...) between anthropology and eschatology, within which the subject can emerge as radical sociality and natal receptivity, as free and true in its very relationality. The most profound and acute intellectual demands of our present time could then meet central notions of the Orthodox-Christian heritage and point at the perspective of a new historical encounter, which enriches both traditions by mutually engaging to each others fundamental experiences. (shrink)

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Emotional expressions constitute a rich source of information. Integrating theorizing on attribution,appraisal processes, and the use of emotions associal information, we examined how emotional expressions influence attributions of agency and responsibility under conditions of ambiguity. Three vignette studies involving different scenarios indicate that participants used information about others’ emotional expressions to make sense of ambiguoussocial situations. Expressions of regret fueled inferences that the expresser was responsible for an adverse situation, whereas expressions of anger fueled (...) inferences that someone else was responsible. Also, expressions of anger were interpreted as a sign of injustice, and expressions of disappointment increased prosocial intentions (i.e., to help the expresser). The results show that emotional expressions can help people understand ambiguoussocial situations by informing attributions that correspond with each emotion’s associatedappraisal structures. The findings advance understanding of the ways in which emotional expressions help individuals understand and coordinatesocial life. (shrink)

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This work offers a philosophicalappraisal of accounts ofsocial justice in health care. By analyzing and comparing seven different accounts, it shows what is involved in advancing such an account and discloses what is involved in providing a moral justification, identifying a tripartite interplay among moral accounts, theories, and perspectives regarding the proper allocation of health care. Based on a distinction between substantive and procedural accounts of justice in health care allocation, it concludes that the prospect of (...) agreement regarding substantive accounts of health care justice is unlikely. This study illustrates that it is moral perspectives, rather than moral theories, that are foundational to accounts of justice in health care. A moral perspective includes the complete content of a morality lived by a group of people, while a moral theory identifies general statements formulatable within a moral perspective, a moral account restructures in a systematic way a moral perspective regarding a domain of issues, such as that of justice in health care. Although a moral theory contributes to an account a general framework that arranges moral commitments into a discursive system, only a full-bodied moral perspective can provide a moral account the substance that it needs. Through closely looking at various moral perspectives embodied by different accounts of just health care, it becomes clear that disagreements in morality are extensive and deep. It is impossible to justify a particular substantive account of just health care without begging the question. Finally, a theoretical reconstruction of Singapore's Confucian moral perspective regarding health care justice is provided so as to offer a picture of a quite different theoretical foundation as well as a substantively different moral perspective from those that are often taken for granted in the West. It shows that moral perspectives are different from people to people, from community to community. A successful account of just health care will thus require more than what can be drawn from theories of justice. (shrink)

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Social psychologists have found that stereotypes correlate with moral judgments about agents and actions. The most commonly studied stereotypes are race/ethnicity and gender. But atheists compose another stereotype, one with its own ignominious history in the Western world, and yet, one about which very little is known. This project endeavored to further our understanding of atheism as asocial stereotype. Specifically, we tested whether people with non-religious commitments were stereotypically viewed as less moral than people with religious commitments. (...) We found that participants’ moral appraisals of atheists were more negative than those of Christians who performed the same moral and immoral actions. They also reported immoral behavior as more consistent for atheists, and moral behavior more consistent for Christians. The results contribute to research at the intersection of moral theory, moral psychology, and psychology of religion. (shrink)

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Regulating affective responses to acute stress has the potential to improve health, performance, and well-being outcomes. Using the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat as an organizing framework, we review how appraisals inform affective responses and highlight research that demonstrates how appraisals can be used as regulatory tools. Arousal reappraisal, specifically, instructs individuals on the adaptive benefits of stress arousal so that arousal is conceptualized as a coping resource. By reframing the meaning of signs of arousal that accompany stress, it (...) is possible to break the link between stressful situations, and malignant physiological responses and experiences of negative affect. Applications of arousal reappraisal for academic contexts and clinical science, and directions for future research are discussed. (shrink)

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This study examines the micro-level consequences of perceived corporatesocial responsibility and hypothesizes that perceived CSR affects the perception-emotion-attitude-behavior sequence. We hypothesized that perceived CSR affects organizational pride, affects affective commitment, and enhances the employees’ creative behaviors by using the lens ofappraisal theory of emotion. This study also hypothesizes that the association of perceived CSR and employee creative behaviors is serially mediated by OP and AC. The time-lagged data were collected from employees of only those companies participating (...) in CSR activities to analyze the sequential mediation effect. We have tested the hypotheses of this study through Hayes approach. Results showed that perceived CSR kindles the employees’ creative behaviors. Furthermore, “organizational pride” and “affective commitment” serially mediate the association of perceived CSR and ECB. Hence, the hypothesized perception-emotion-attitude-behavior model received a significant support and demonstrated that micro-level positive consequences of CSR could be created through emotional, attitude, and behavioral mechanisms. The organization should promote their CSR activities using documentaries and contents to improve their perception of environmental andsocial issues, and it enhances employees’ pride and creativity. (shrink)

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"Reason is not passion's slave." Rather, the author argues, reason appraises the cultural appropriateness of passion, thus directing our attitudinal behaviour. He refutes those theories of value which correspond philosophically to societies described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: societies of "honour without virtue, reason without wisdom, pleasure without happiness." His argument, which takes into account traditional philosophic positions, is divided into five parts: Attitudes, Evaluation, Characterization, Culture, Morality.

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The psychosocial impacts of natural disasters are associated with the triggering of negative and positive responses in the affected population; also, such effects are expressed in an individual and collective sphere. This can be seen in several reactions and behaviors that can vary from the development of individual disorders to impacts on interpersonal relationships, cohesion, communication, and participation of the affected communities, among others. The present work addressed the psychosocial impacts of the consequences of natural disasters considering individual effects via (...) the impact of trauma and community effects, through the perception ofsocial well-being, the valuation of the community and thesocial exchange of emotions. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between individual reactions (i.e., intensity of trauma) and the evaluation ofsocial and collective circumstances (i.e.,social well-being) after the earthquake of 27F 2010 in Chile, through collective-type intervention variables not used in previous studies (i.e.,social sharing of emotions and communityappraisal). For this purpose, a descriptive,ex postfacto correlational and cross-sectional methodology was carried on, with the participation of 487 people affected by the 2010 earthquake, 331 women (68%) and 156 men (32%), between 18 and 58 years old (M= 21.09;SD= 5.45), from the provinces of Ñuble and Biobío, VIII region, Chile. The measurement was carried out 4 years after the earthquake and the results show that greater individual than collective involvements were found, mainly in the coastal zone of the region. The mediation analysis showed that the relationship between the intensity of the trauma andsocial well-being occurs through a route that considerssocial sharing of emotions and communityappraisal. These results indicate that the overcoming of individual affectations to achievesocial well-being occurs when in the immediate post-disaster phases the affected communities activate shared emotional and cognitive processes, which allow them to jointly face subsequent threats and abrupt changes. (shrink)

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Emotions are believed to converge both through emotional mimicry andsocialappraisal. The present study compared contagion of anger and happiness. In Experiment 1, participants viewed dynamic angry and happy faces, with facial electromyography recorded from the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii as emotional mimicry. Self-reported emotional experiences were analyzed as emotional contagion. Experiment 2 manipulatedsocialappraisal as the gaze of expression toward the target. The results showed that there was emotional contagion for angry and (...) happy expressions both in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. Experiment 1 indicated an overt mimicry pattern for happy faces, but not for angry faces. Experiment 2 found an influence ofsocialappraisal on angry contagion but not on happy diffusion. The two experiments suggest that the underlying processes of emotional mimicry andsocialappraisal are differentially relevant for different emotional contagion, with happiness processing following a mimicry-based path to emotional contagion, and anger processing requiringsocialappraisal. (shrink)

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Social referencing informs and regulates one’s relation with the environment as a function of the perceived appraisals ofsocial partners. Increased emphasis on relational andsocial contexts in the study of emotion makes this interpersonal process particularly relevant to the field. However, theoretical conceptualizations and empirical operationalizations ofsocial referencing are disjointed across domains and populations of study. This article seeks to unite and refine the study of this construct by providing a clear and comprehensive definition (...) ofsocial referencing. Our perspective presentssocial referencing andsocialappraisal as coterminous processes and emphasizes the importance of a relational and interpersonal approach to the study of emotion. We conclude by outlining possible lines of research on this construct. (shrink)

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This article elaborates a conceptual framework to systematize the epistemic evaluation ofsocial systems. This framework can be used to structure an evaluation or to characterize and assess existing ones. The article then uses the framework to assess four representative evaluations of think tanks. This meta-evaluation exemplifies how the framework can play its structuring role. It also leads us to general conclusions about the existing evaluations of think tanks. Most importantly, by focusing on the organizational level, existing evaluations miss (...) factors that are situated at the network and ecosystemic levels and that significantly determine how well think tanks serve society in producing and disseminating knowledge relevant to public policy. This conclusion suggests the need for epistemic evaluations of think tank ecosystems. (shrink)

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Research Ethics Committees or Institutional Review Boards are rapidly becoming indispensable mechanisms in the overall workings of university institutions. In fact, the ethical dimension is an important aspect of research governance processes present in institutions of higher learning. However, it is often deemed that research in thesocial sciences do not require ethicalappraisal or clearance, because of the alleged absence of harm in conducting such research. This is an erroneous and dangerous assumption given that research in (...) class='Hi'>social sciences poses various and complex dilemmas related to ethics. The article aims to gauge the importance of ethicalappraisal at a particular institution of higher learning’s Faculty of Humanities. This is done by scrutinising its defunct REC, and the views that Heads of Departments of the Faculty have of ethics in research and the need for ethicalappraisal by this REC. Finally, some suggestions are made to proceed to review and restructure the current REC with the ultimate objective to make it functional again. It was found that the development and discussion around ethics in research and ethicalappraisal are part of a much needed thrust to sensitise the entire Faculty and the institution on the widespread beneficial repercussions of ethical awareness in research and beyond. (shrink)

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This paper makes three important points regarding socially responsible investing. First, the current methodology involving SRI fund divestiture of the securities of firms that engage in socially irresponsible activity often results in unacceptable unintended consequences. Second, in many cases the proper methodology for SRI funds may be purposely to include the securities of such firms in the portfolio in an effort to internalize socially irresponsible interfirm spillovers. Finally, that SRI fund managers may be able to bound their performance by organizing (...) as closed-end funds subject to takeover and liquidation if the stated socially responsible objectives are not met. (shrink)

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This article offers anappraisal of thesocial ministry of Pentecostal churches through fellowship, healing and livelihood creation in the township communities of the city of Tshwane. In meeting this aim the discussion advances a thesis of these churches as agents ofsocial support and survival of the downcast. In particular, the article attempts to show how these churches exert themselves towards establishing not only moral responsibility, but also a context where the weakest and the least privileged (...) can learn how to survive. The squatter camp people are unique with the special challenges requiring distinctive consideration. Pentecostal churches believe that the lost people matter to God and are of importance to their congregations as well. The backyard Bible study ministries and mutual cooperation strategies are employed for mutual support. Making use of the existing empirical research data and available literature will show how Pentecostal churches in the townships support the laity and community in times of need. (shrink)

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This paper reports the first empirical investigation of the hypothesis that epistemic appraisals form part of the structure of concepts. To date, studies of concepts have focused on the way concepts encode properties of objects and the way those features are used in categorization and in other cognitive tasks. Philosophical considerations show the importance of also considering how a thinker assesses the epistemic value of beliefs and other cognitive resources and, in particular, concepts. We demonstrate that there are multiple, reliably (...) judged, dimensions of epistemicappraisal of concepts. Four of these dimensions are accounted for by a common underlying factor capturing how well people believe they understand a concept. Further studies show how dimensions of conceptappraisal relate to other aspects of concepts. First, they relate directly to the hierarchical organization of concepts, reflecting the increase in specificity from superordinate to basic and subordinate levels. Second, they predict inductive choices in category-based induction. Our results suggest that epistemic appraisals of concepts form a psychologically important yet previously overlooked aspect of the structure of concepts. These findings will be important in understanding why individuals sometimes abandon and replace certain concepts; whysocial groups do so, for example, during a “scientific revolution”; and how we can facilitate such changes when we engage in deliberate “conceptual engineering” for epistemic,social, and political purposes. (shrink)

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The study examines a model proposing relationships between personal values, positive (i.e., benefits) and negative (i.e., threats)appraisal of immigrants, andsocial contact. Based on a values-attitudes-behavior paradigm, the study extends previous work on personal values and attitudes to immigrants by examining not only negative but also positiveappraisal and their connection withsocial contact with immigrants. Using a representative sample of 1,600 adults in the majority population in Israel, results showed that higher preference for anxiety-avoidance (...) values (self-enhancement and conservation) was related to higher levels of perceived threat and lower levels of benefit, while higher preference for anxiety-free values (self-transcendence and openness to change) was related to higher levels of perceived benefits and lower levels of threat. Greater opportunities for contact and perceived benefits and lower levels of threats were related to moresocial contact. The model showed good fit across the total sample, and across four diverse immigrant groups in Israel (diaspora immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Western countries, and asylum seekers). In line with a Stereotype Content Model, which suggests that group-specific stereotypes are related tosocial structural characteristics of the group, associations between variables differed by group. Results strengthen a theoretical conceptualization that posits an indirect relationship between personal value preferences and behavior through groupappraisal. They highlight the importance of comprehensive conceptualizations including both positive and negativeappraisal of immigrants, which take into account the way different groups may be appraised by the majority population. (shrink)

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In our attempt to distinguish two types ofsocialappraisal, we clarify the “knower–learner” relationship in affectivesocial learning, underline the important role that affective observation may have in acculturation processes, and highlight some potential consequences for the recent debate on the benefits of child-directed learning.

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We examinedsocial facilitation and emotional convergence in amusement, sadness, and fear in dynamic interactions. Dyads of friends or strangers jointly watched emotion-eliciting films while they either could or could not communicate nonverbally. We assessed three components of each emotion (expressions, appraisals, and feelings), as well as attention to andsocial motives toward the co-participant. In Study 1, participants interacted through a mute videoconference. In Study 2, they sat next to each other and either were or were not (...) separated by a partition. Results revealed that facilitation and convergence are not uniform across different emotions and emotion components. Particularly strong supporting patterns emerged for the facilitation of and convergence in smiling. When direct interaction was possible (Study 2), friends showed a general tendency for strong convergence, with the exception of fear-related appraisals. This suggests that underlying processes of emotional contagion andsocialappraisal are differentially relevant for different emotions. (shrink)

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This article discusses contemporarysocial psychological approaches to (a) thesocial relations and appraisals associated with specific emotions; (b) other people’s impact onappraisal processes; (c) effects of emotion on other people; and (d) interpersonal emotion regulation. We argue that single-minded cognitive perspectives restrict our understanding of interpersonal and group-related emotional processes, and that new methodologies addressing real-time interpersonal and group processes present promising opportunities for future progress.

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This paper presents a new approach to the demarcation ofsocial emotions, based on their dependence onsocial appraisals that are designed to assess events bearing onsocial concerns. Previous theoretical attempts to characterizesocial emotions are compared, and their inconsistencies highlighted. Evidence for the present formulation is derived from theory and research into links between appraisals and emotions. Emotions identified associal using our criteria are also shown to bring more consistent consequences for (...) class='Hi'>social behavior than nonsocial emotions. We conclude by considering ways of validating and refining our classification. (shrink)

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Moral appraisals are found to be associated with a person’s individual differences (e.g., political ideology), and the effects of individual differences on language use have been studied within the framework of the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). However, the relationship between one’s moral concern and the use of language involving morality onsocial media is not self-evident. The present exploratory study investigated that relationship using the MFT. Participants’ tweets and self-reported responses to the questionnaire were collected to measure the degree (...) of their appraisals according to the five foundations of the MFT. The Japanese version of the Moral Foundations Dictionary (J-MFD) was used to quantify the number of words in tweets relevant to the MFT’s five moral foundations. The results showed that endorsement of the Fairness and Authority foundations predicted the word frequency in the J-MFD across all five foundations. The findings suggest that the trade-off relationship between the Fairness and Authority foundations plays a key role in online language communication. The implications and future directions to scrutinize that foundation are discussed. (shrink)

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Starting from the interactional assumption ofappraisal theories, the present study aimed to identify situation-specific individual differences and their personality correlates for the anger-relevant appraisals of threat to self-esteem, other-blame, and frustration. Participants engaged in a directed imagery task of descriptions of unpleasant situations after which they reported on the appraisals, and were administered measures of potentially relevant dispositional characteristics. The results demonstrated situation-specific individual differences in threatened self-esteem and other-blame, which showed differential relationships with dispositional variables. Threat to (...) self-esteem was related to an unstable self-esteem, neuroticism, and BIS sensitivity in unpleasant evaluative situations, whereas it was related to feeling lowlily valued by others in non-evaluative situations. Other-blame was found to be related to an unstable self-esteem, BIS sensitivity, and neuroticism when someone else is responsible, whereas it was related to interpersonal distrust and low perceivedsocial esteem when oneself or the circumstances are responsible. Individual differences in frustration were found to generalise across contexts, and were primarily related to BIS sensitivity. (shrink)

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Construal-level theory emphasizes that representing events at greater spatial, temporal,social, or hypothetical distance results in processing information at high construal levels (more conceptual, abstract). We posit that psychological distance and construal level are somewhat separable constructs, and can have different effects on emotion, and therefore, emotion regulation. We argue that psychological distance influences emotionalappraisal, such that increasing distance results in lower emotion intensity, which can be leveraged to down-regulate emotions. However, we consider construal level a mindset, (...) which can occur with either high or low psychological distance. Furthermore, we argue that compared with psychological distance, construal level has a more nuanced relationship with emotion, and changing construal level for the purpose of changing emotion also requires considering the construal level of one's emotion-regulation goals. (shrink)

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One staple of living in our information society is having access to the web. Web-connected devices interpret our queries and retrieve information from the web in response. Today’s web devices even purport to answer our queries directly without requiring us to comb through search results in order to find the information we want. How do we know whether a web device is trustworthy? One way to know is to learn why the device is trustworthy by inspecting its inner workings, 156–170 (...) 1995; Humphreys 2004, Episteme, 6, 221–229 2009). But ordinary users of web devices cannot inspect their inner workings because of their scale, complexity, and the corporate secrecy which enshrouds both the procedures by which the devices operate and the companies that make them. Further piling on this predicament, authors have criticized web technology on the grounds that the invisibility of the web devices’ inner workings prevents users from critically assessing the procedures that produce a given output, in some cases, barring users from fulfilling their epistemic responsibilities, 343–355 2010; Miller and Record Episteme, 10, 117–134 2013). I consider four broad kinds of reasons which we can acquire without inspecting the inner workings of black-boxed technology: individual understanding, expert testimony, testing through experience, andsocial vetting; and show how each is a viable method of appraising black-boxed technology. By deploying these methods, we can remain responsible inquirers while nonetheless benefitting from today’s epistemic resources on the web. (shrink)

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Employability is an important issue in the labor context. Currently, the European Union presents employability as the path to full employment and active citizenship, and a strategy to reduce unemployment and poverty. This study develops and validates an EmployabilityAppraisal Scale. Specifically, we propose a multidimensional employability scale that analyzes both individual indicators and personal circumstances from the Bioecological Model of Employability. The EmployabilityAppraisal Scale (EAS) assesses personal andsocial dimensions of employability. It was developed and (...) tested using data from 489 people from a very heterogeneous sample (precarious workers, professionals, prisoners, long-term unemployed, socially excluded, etc.). Results provide evidence for the multi-dimensional structure and validity of the EAS. This scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure employability, and it provides criteria for interpreting scores. Finally, we present theoretical and practical implications of the EAS forsocial and labor integration, job transition, and career development. Our findings have positive implications for identifying effectiveness indicators in training programs, and they contribute to designing intervention policies to increase employability. (shrink)

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This paper will discuss why and howsocial network sites ought to be used in surrogate decision making (SDM), with focus on a context like Singapore in which substituted judgment is incorporated as part of best interest assessment for SDM, as guided by the Code of Practice for making decisions for those lacking mental capacity under the Mental Capacity Act (2008). Specifically, the paper will argue that the Code of Practice already supports an ethical obligation, as part of a (...) patient-centred care approach, to look for and appraisesocial network site (SNS) as a source of information for best interest decision making. As an important preliminary, the paper will draw on Berg’s arguments to support the use of SNS information as a resource for SDM. It will also supplement her account for how SNS information ought to be weighed against or considered alongside other evidence of patient preference or wishes, such as advance directives and anecdotal accounts by relatives. (shrink)

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The World Conference on Human Rights that was held in Vienna in 1993, marked an important beginning in the recognition of reproductive and sexual rights as human rights. Among other goals, the Vienna Conference sought to end gender discrimination in all its manifestations; gender-based violence, sexual harassment, and sexual exploitation. However, the turning point for the development of reproductive and sexual rights was the consensus that emanated from the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, and (...) the Fourth World Conference on Women in held in Beijing 1995 as evidenced by the programs for action that were adopted.The Cairo Conference defined reproductive health as “a state of complete physical, mental andsocial well-being and not merely the absence of infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.”. (shrink)

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Starting from the perspective ofsocial perception of voluntary employee green behavior and studies on the attribution of VEGB, we explore the phenomenon that employees can show different perceptions and behavioral responses to VEGB according to their attribution to VEGB. We served to examine the hypotheses. The results of a two-wave study show that when employees believe VEGB is motivated by instrumental concerns, VEGB is more likely to evoke a low level of warmth and competence, which produces less green (...) advocacy. However, if employees believe VEGB is motivated by moral reasons, VEGB is more likely to prompt more warmth and competence perceptions and elicit greener advocacy from employees. In addition, theoretical and practical contributions are discussed. (shrink)

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Two varieties of constructivism are distinguished. In part 1, the psychological or “radical” constructivism of von Glasersfeld is discussed. Despite its dominant influence in science education, radical constructivism has been controversial, with challenges to its principles and practices. In part 2,social constructivism is discussed in the sociology of scientific knowledge.Social constructivism has not been primarily concerned with education but has the most direct consequences in view of its challenge to the most fundamental, traditional assumptions in the (...) philosophy of science and to the practice of science itself. (shrink)

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Social capital is frequently offered up as a variable to explain such educational outcomes as academic attainment, drop-out rates and cognitive development. Yet, despite its popularity amongstsocial scientists,social capital theory remains the object of some scepticism, particularly in respect of its explanatory ambitions. I provide an account of some explanatory options available tosocial capital theorists, focussing on the functions ascribed tosocial capital and on how these are used as explanatory variables in (...) educational theory. Two of the most influential writers in this field are Coleman and Bourdieu. I explore their commonalities and differences, both in respect of their writing and in respect of some of the many theorists they have influenced. I argue thatsocial capital theorists have made substantial progress in responding to sceptically minded critics, but that significant questions remain, especially about the success of the more ambitious explanatory variants as these apply to educational outcomes—functional explanation in particular. Functional explanation, and its association with Bourdieu, is discussed in ‘Bourdieu and functional explanation’; thereafter I discuss the more modest ambition of identifying the functions associated withsocial capital. In ‘Coleman, intergenerational closure and educational outcomes’ I show how Coleman provides resources for revealing howsocial structure features insocial explanation in an educational context, and in ‘Inequality, class and ethnicity’ I suggest that some of the questions raised in his account are most satisfactorily responded to by educational theorists who adopt Bourdieu’s emphasis onsocial class and inequality. (shrink)

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Emotional experiences typically labelled “being moved” or “feeling touched” may belong to one universal emotion. This emotion, which has been labelled “kama muta”, is hypothesised to have a positive valence, be elicited by sudden intensifications ofsocial closeness, and be accompanied by warmth, goosebumps and tears. Initial evidence on correlations among the kama muta components has been collected with self-reports after or during the emotion. Continuous measures during the emotion seem particularly informative, but previous work allows only restricted inferences (...) on intra-individual processes because time series were cross-correlated across samples. In the current studies, we instead use a within-subject design to replicate and extend prior work. We compute intra-individual cross-correlations between continuous self-reports on feeling moved and (1) positive and negative affect; (2) goosebumps and subjective warmth and (3) appraisals of closeness and morality. Results confirm the predictions of kama muta theory that feeling moved by intensified communal sharing cross-correlates with appraised closeness, positive affect, warmth and (less so) goosebumps, but not with negative affect. Contrary to predictions, appraised morality cross-correlated with feeling moved as much as appraised closeness did. We conclude that strong inferences on emotional processes are possible using continuous measures, replace earlier findings, and are largely in line with theorising. (shrink)

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Steven Pinker presents four ideals of Enlightenment in his popular book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. He argues his case brilliantly and convincingly through cogent arguments in a language comprehensible to the reader of the present century. Moreover, whether it is reason or science or humanism or progress, he defends his position powerfully. He justifies his views by citing 75 graphs on the upswing improvement made by humanity in terms of prosperity, longevity, education, equality of (...) men and women, health, political freedom and medical breakthroughs. Though Pinker makes an excellent case for the positive contributions of Enlightenment; however he ignores the negative aspects that are responsible for causing a great schism between the white race and others who are black and brown. The paper highlights some of these negative comments made by such Enlightenment thinkers as Montesquieu, Voltaire, Chambers, Down and Down and others. Through their literary and scientific writings, these scholars and researchers downgraded the black and brown races, thus causing a rift that led to slavery, colonialism and apartheid. The paper reveals these negative aspects ignored by Pinker in his otherwise well-researched book on Enlightenment. Since Pinker presents a one-sided case by including only the positive contributions of Enlightenment, I recommend that he should write a sequel to his present work outlining the negative aspects responsible for numerous political,social and environmental problems facing humanity today. By using dialectical logic in place of logic of contraries, he might be able to synthesize both the positive and negative aspects of Enlightenment. He can then argue that humanity might be propelled to make progress more efficiently at a faster pace toward humanism and world peace. (shrink)

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In the twenty-five years since philosophers began to bemoan ‘the dreariness of aesthetics’, students in Wittgenstein's wake have done a great deal to eliminate the grounds of the complaint. Unfruitful essentialist theories have been largely displaced by the vigorous, if somewhat uncontrolled, growth of an enterprise which attempts to characterize and explicate aesthetic phenomena outside the desert of definition. The resulting view portrays typically aesthetic concepts as being indivisibly characterizing and evaluative, relativistic in application, necessarily linked to human attitudes, irreducible (...) to non-aesthetic concepts, and yet as havingsocial conditions which make them capable of intersubjective comparison and test. These characteristics are usefully summarized in saying that aesthetic concepts are concepts ofappraisal. The theory of aestheticappraisal discussed here is clearly incompatible with views which postulate dichotomies between objectivity and subjectivity, fact and value, and it is quite analogous to ‘descriptivist’ theories in ethics which reject these absolute distinctions. Moral examples are thus often useful for explicating the notion of aestheticappraisal and the theory embodying that notion likewise has an important bearing on contemporary controversies in ethics. (shrink)

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When we appraise others as talented or virtuous, we esteem them: we register admiration of their traits and virtues. It is generally believed that, unless they involve a violation of respect, distributions of esteem are not a concern from the point of view of justice. In this paper, I want to dispute this commonly-held view. I will argue that attributions of esteem can become problematic when a particular trait becomes such a uniquely relevant source ofsocial esteem in a (...) community that its absence becomes a reason to regard others as less than full members of the community. For instance, in contemporary capitalist societies those perceived as lacking certain socially valued traits and unable or unwilling to make certain kinds of contribution to the community, such as those who are unemployed or have committed criminal offences, are widely disesteemed and also regarded as inferior qua members of the community by others. From the fact that they fail to possess particular qualities a broader negative judgment of their ability to contribute to the community is inferred. Moreover, their failure to gain esteem in these pervasive domains eclipses their possession of other esteem-worthy traits as well as other positive contributions they might have made to society. This perception of inferiority renders it impossible for them to live on equal terms with other citizens. I argue that as egalitarians we should oppose these distributions of esteem. (shrink)

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Despite the growing importance of ‘social value’ as a central feature of research ethics, the term remains both conceptually vague and to a certain extent operationally rigid. And yet, perhaps because the rhetorical appeal ofsocial value appears immediate and self-evident, the concept has not been put to rigorous investigation in terms of its definition, strength, function, and scope. In this article, we discuss how the anthropological concept of liminality can illuminatesocial value and differentiate and reconfigure (...) its variegated approaches. Employing liminality as a heuristic encourages a reassessment of how we understand the mobilization of ‘social value’ in bioethics. We argue thatsocial value as seen through the lens of liminality can provide greater clarity of its function and scope for health research. Building on calls to understandsocial value as a dynamic, rather than a static, concept, we emphasize the need to appraisesocial value iteratively throughout the entire research as something that transforms over multiple times and across multiple spaces occupied by a range of actors. (shrink)

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