Disability and social protection in Latin American countries

This article aims to compare and analyse the different models used to define and understand disability in the legislation on disability and social protection in five Latin American countries. Five countries with different structure and historical development of social protection systems were selected (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico) and a thematic analysis of 75 legal documents was conducted. The results demonstrate a contradiction between definitions and perspectives used to understand and establish strategies to include disabled people. Indeed, the five countries have used an International Classification of Functionings, Health and Disability perspective in their legislation on disability, but an individual perspective for the social protection legislation. The article offers insight into the inherent tensions presented in such models given the legislative and policy framework around them and reflects on the impact this has for implementation.     

Genetic and environmental effects on sexual excitation and sexual inhibition in men

The Sexual Inhibition and Sexual Excitation Scales (SIS/SES) measure the propensity for sexual inhibition and excitation in men. According to the theoretical model underlying the SIS/SES, sexual response and associated behavior depend on dual control mechanisms in the brain involving the balance of excitatory and inhibitory systems which impinge on sexual response. Previous research with the SIS/SES has indicated one higher-order excitatory factor and two higher-order inhibitory factors affecting sexual response. The present study analyzed the item structure and the psychometric properties of the instrument in a population based sample of Finnish male twins (N = 1,289), and, including 37 out of 45 items of the original scales, estimated the heritability of and the environmental influences on the excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms. The twin correlations and the structural equation modeling suggested modest heritability for both inhibitory mechanisms. Sexual excitation, in contrast, was not influenced by genetic effects and similarities between twins for this mechanism seemed to be caused by the common environment of the twins.     

Relationship Churning,Physical Violence,and Verbal Abuse in Young Adult Relationships

Young adults' romantic relationships are often unstable, commonly including breakup –reconcile patterns. From the developmental perspective of emerging adulthood exploration, such relationship “churning” is expected; however, minor conflicts are more common in churning relationships. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (N = 792), the authors tested whether relationship churning is associated with more serious conflict, such as physical violence and verbal abuse. Couples who were stably broken up (breakup only—no reconciliation) were similar to those who were stably together in their conflict experiences. In contrast, churners (i.e., those involved in on/off relationships) were twice as likely as those who were stably together or stably broken up to report physical violence and half again as likely to report the presence of verbal abuse in their relationships; this association between churning and conflict held net of a host of demographic, personal, and relationship characteristics. These findings have implications for our better understanding of unhealthy relationship behaviors.     

Evidence-Based <Emphasis Type="Italic">Practices</Emphasis> Do Not Exist

The original process model of evidence-based practice (EBP) is described, and contrasted with the empirically supported treatments (EST) initiative which designated selected interventions as meeting some evidentiary benchmark (e.g., supported by two-well-designed randomized controlled trials). EBP does not utilize lists of ESTs, and designating a given psychotherapy as empirically supported is actually antithetical to the EBP decision-making process. Much of the resistance to EBP within social work may be attributable to confusion between EBP as it was originally conceived as a mutual decision-making process occurring between the clinician and the client, and the promulgation of lists of EST and the subsequent urging that social workers select their psychotherapies from such lists. The latter is not scientifically justifiable, nor does it taken into account other variables crucial to EBP, such as professional values, clinical expertise, client preferences and values, and available resources. EBP as it was originally conceived has much to add to the practice of clinical social work.     

The Development of Dynamic Facial Expression Recognition at Different Intensities in 4- to 18-Year-Olds

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the intensity of emotion expression on children's developing ability to label emotion during a dynamic presentation of five facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness). A computerized task (AFFECT—animated full facial expression comprehension test) was used to display facial emotion expressions as animations with four levels of intensity (35, 50, 75, and 100 percent). In this study, which employed a cross-sectional design, 240 participants from 4 to 18 years completed the AFFECT. Results indicated that recognition ability developed for each of the emotions, with the exception of disgust, over the age range tested. Girls were more accurate than boys, especially for anger and disgust expressions. Recognition accuracy was found to increase as a function of the intensity of emotional expressions.     

Emotional and Sexual Infidelity Offline and in Cyberspace

This study investigated how men and women perceive online and offline sexual and emotional infidelity. Undergraduates from a large university in Northern Ireland participated in the study. It was found that men, when forced to decide, were more upset by sexual infidelity and women by emotional infidelity. It was also found that men were more likely to believe that women have sex when in love and that women believe that men have sex even when they are not in love. It was not, however, found that either men or women believed that having cybersex implied the other was also in love or that being in love online implied they were having cybersex. These results are explained through a social‐cognitive lens.     

From Damsels in Distress to Sexy Superheroes

Video games are an important form of media that have the potential to impact gender role attitudes. Sexist portrayals of characters may affect gender behaviors and attitudes. As such, it is important to discover how characters, particularly females, are portrayed in video games. The current study examined video game magazines analyzing the portrayal of female video game characters and how this portrayal has changed in the last twenty years. Results indicate a growing trend toward a decreased benevolent sexism portrayal and an increase in a hostile sexism portrayal over time.     

Gender Gaps in Educational Attainment in Less Developed Countries

Conventional wisdom holds that gender gaps in schooling favoring males in developing countries generally are large, though probably declining. In this article we re‐examine recent gender gaps in schooling in the developing world and come to a more nuanced characterization of their nature, which suggests that the developing countries are becoming more like the developed countries, with gender gaps that increasingly favor, rather than discriminate against, females. Using data from 38 countries with multiple Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine how the gender gaps in current school enrollment and grade completion emerge across the educational life course from age 6 to 18. We also examine how these age‐specific measures have changed over time, comparing the periods 1990–99 and 2000–06. Our analyses indicate that among children who have ever attended school, girls younger than 16 years of age have equal or greater schooling progress than boys of the same age in all regions of the developing world.     

‘It was about claiming space’: exposure to Asian American studies,ethnic organization participation,and the negotiation of self among southeast Asian Americans

Despite the growing number of Asian American Studies (AAS) programs and Asian ethnic organizations across colleges and universities since the 1970s, surprisingly little empirical research examines the role of these aspects of higher education on Asian American identity. How do the roles of AAS curriculum and Asian American student organizations (Asian American activities) influence southeast Asian American college students’ ethnic and panethnic identity formation? Drawing on 50 in-depth interviews of 1.5 and second-generation college-educated Asian Americans, this study finds that the exposure to Asian American activities shapes respondents’ racial and ethnic identity construction. Specifically, the exposure to Asian American activities: (1) evokes an informed assertion of a contextual panethnic identity; (2) serves to trigger an assertion of a hyphenated American identity; and lastly, (3) plays a direct, but differing, instrumental role on identity construction among different Asian American sub-ethnic groups.     

"There Must Be a Reason": Osama, Saddam, and Inferred Justification

One of the most curious aspects of the 2004 presidential election was the strength and resilience of the belief among many Americans that Saddam Hussein was linked to the terrorist attacks of September 11. Scholars have suggested that this belief was the result of a campaign of false information and innuendo from the Bush administration. We call this the information environment explanation. Using a technique of "challenge interviews" on a sample of voters who reported believing in a link between Saddam and 9/11, we propose instead a social psychological explanation for the belief in this link. We identify a number of social psychological mechanisms voters use to maintain false beliefs in the face of disconfirming information, and we show that for a subset of voters the main reason to believe in the link was that it made sense of the administration's decision to go to war against Iraq. We call this inferred justification : for these voters, the fact of the war led to a search for a justification for it, which led them to infer the existence of ties between Iraq and 9/11.