Ambivalence in Older Parent–Adult Child Relationships: Mixed Feelings,Mixed Measures

This research compared direct and indirect measures of ambivalence, 2 commonly used strategies for measuring intergenerational ambivalence between older parents and their adult children. Directly and indirectly measured ambivalence, corresponding to felt and potential manifestations of the construct, were contrasted with each other and across generations. Data were derived from 253 older parent–adult child dyads participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in 2005. Direct and indirect measures of ambivalence were moderately correlated with each other within each generation. Children expressed greater indirect ambivalence than their parents but were no different than their mothers or fathers in their levels of direct ambivalence. Multivariate regression analyses examining the relationship between each type of ambivalence with individual and relationship characteristics found differences in associations across equations. The results suggest that direct and indirect measures are related but represent 2 distinct conceptions of ambivalence. This research highlights the challenges in understanding the full complexity of intergenerational relations and suggests that both generational perspectives be considered in future research.     

(Re)constructing Family Images: Stepmotherhood Before Biological Motherhood

Strong cultural values and ideals attached to women in families deem the role of stepmother as inferior to that of biological mother. Although biological motherhood is celebrated, stepmotherhood is stigmatized, and women who wish to become mothers but become stepmothers prior to having biological children may grieve the loss of images surrounding normative ideals of creating a family. Using a feminist family science approach, the purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore the experiences of women without children in their transition to stepmotherhood. Interviews with 23 stepmothers (aged 26–47) revealed that women engaged in an internal process of creating and then adjusting personal images of family life to accommodate their new family circumstances. The process of (re)constructing family images had implications for later adjustment to stepmotherhood. Notions of the motherhood hierarchy emerged to depict the unique experiences of women who became stepmothers prior to having biological children.     

Comic revisions? Motherhood and women’s comedy in contemporary Germany

Maternal stereotypes and the realities of mothering are prominent themes in Anke Engelke’s Ladykracher and Martina Hill’s Knallerfrauen, two of the most popular sketch shows in twenty-first-century Germany. This article relates their success to social anxieties about motherhood, which Engelke and Hill illuminate through the theme of their sketches as well as through their very use of comedy to do so. I begin by using close-readings of Ladykracher and Knallerfrauen to illuminate the political potential of the sketch form to challenge maternal myths and articulate taboo feelings such as maternal ambivalence. I then consider the innovation of these maternal sketches in view of traditional theories of comedy, which paradoxically draw their imagery from the realm of the maternal even though they discount real women and mothers as comic agents. I argue that the maternal sketches of Engelke and Hill are thus doubly subversive, challenging maternal taboos as well as the discursive and generic norms they sustain.     

提高地方人大常委会会议审议质量的思考

地方人大常委会是地方人大常委会代表人民行使国家权力最基本、最主要的形式。因此,在新形势下,探索研究怎样提高地方人大常委会会议审议质量,坚持和完善人民代表大会制度,加强国家地方权力机关对“一府两院”依法行政和民主法制监督,联系人民代表、人民群众,是推进社会主义政治文明建设健康发展和经济社会全面发展的迫切需要,也是实现全面建设小康社会的重要保证。必须从精选议题、依法审议、督促落实三个方面提高地方人大常委会会议审议质量。     

Cambodian Refugee Families: Impacts of Immigration-Related Stressors on Intergenerational Relationships

The purpose of this study was to elucidate Cambodian refugees’ perceptions of immigration-related stressors and their impacts on intergenerational relations during the processes of immigration and settlement. We used narrative analysis to evoke older immigrants’ voices as they transitioned to the United States. Thirty-one Cambodian immigrants were interviewed using open-ended interview guides informed by ethnographic tenets of data collection. Participants expressed (a) changes in family structure and elder isolation and (b) intergenerational ambivalence and elder’s dependence on adult children as products of immigration-related stressors. Implications of these results for refugee and immigrant mental health research are discussed.     

“科技异化”释义

异化本身是一个发展的概念。“异化”与“对象化”、“外化”、“物化”是有区别的。“科技异化”概念,是对马克思异化概念的引申和发展,科技异化是与“科技代价”、“科技负面效应”、“科技价值两重性”既有区别又有联系的不同概念,不能混淆。     

双重性——巴赫金狂欢诗学的基本哲学立场

在狂欢诗学理念下,双重性既是同一事物相反两极属性的对照共生,又是具有不同属性事物之间的正反对照共存。它与德国古典哲学中对立统一思想的区别在于:对立统一观是一种预设的抽象的观念形态,双重性思想则是对西方实存的鲜活的文化形态的具体体验和把握。巴赫金对狂欢节的非官方色彩的甄别,对民间诙谐文化的价值判断,对狂欢节的世界感受的阐释,对广场语言的辨识,对狂欢化文艺作品诸要素的分析,无不闪耀着双重性思想的光辉。双重性在巴赫金狂欢诗学中具有哲学方法论的意义。     

Metaphors for mental distress as an aid to empathy: looking through The Bell Jar

This paper makes a case for the value of using metaphors when attempting to describe and understand extreme mental states. Examples of metaphors are given from practice, literature, myth and the visual arts and, in particular, a close reading of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1986). Commentary on and criticism of The Bell Jar are cited that highlight the value of this work as an aid to insight into how those in mental distress might feel. The nature and importance of accurate empathy is discussed, as is the difficulty of getting the balance right in empathic responses. Case studies linking theory and practice are cited. The hopes, ambivalence and displacement of the person seeking help are discussed, as are different ways of attempting to provide help. The paper concludes by emphasising the multi-faceted presentations of self by both caring professional and service user and the importance of recognising the subtleties of these in the context of the would-be therapeutic relationship.