JOB INSECURITY,STRESS AND GENDER

This study examined the complex relationships between gender, job insecurity and job-related stress. Previous findings have suggested that men experience greater job insecurity than women, and are more vulnerable to job-related stress. The current study tested the hypothesis that the gender ideology of employees moderates the effect of gender on job insecurity and stress. Data were obtained by questionnaires from a sample of 203 married employees. The results showed that traditional men experience greater job insecurity than traditional women. However, as hypothesized, egalitarian men and women exhibited similar degrees of job insecurity. Furthermore, job insecurity in traditional men and in egalitarian men and women was related to loss of control stress, financial stress and stress expressions at home, whereas traditional women were relatively protected from job-related stress. These findings illuminate the important moderating role played by gender ideology in the relationships between gender, job insecurity and stress.     

Gendered Pathways to the Political: The Political Participation of Women Factory Workers in Mexico*

Objectives. The objective of this article is to analyze the mobilization factors available within and without international factories that do and do not contribute to political participation of employees, hypothesizing that the quantity, type, and causal linkages will vary by gender. Methods. Using original survey data of factory employees (N=402) in multiple sectors and regions in Mexico, I test common explanations as to how the factory experience stimulates and stifles the political participation of women employees, exploring whether the causal linkages between the workplace and political engagement are the same for women and men. Results. Contrary to some of the recent research that reveals men to be more politically engaged than women in the Mexican population overall, my data show that among factory workers there is rough parity between men's and women's levels of political engagement. A distinction of note, controlling for other variables, female employees are more likely than male employees to engage in informal political activities. Conclusion. The international factory experience appears to have a limited “egalitarian” effect. The distribution of factors leading to political mobilization for women and men is not equal, yet women are able to translate a distinct set of factors into participation.     

Intimate Partner Violence and Social Relational Theory: Examining the Influence of Children and Important Others on Mothers' Transition Out of Violent Relationships

Interviews with survivors of intimate partner violence were conducted to gain information on the transition from violent relationships to new non‐violent relationships. A subset of this data was re‐analysed using Social Relational Theory to gain further insight into the roles of children and important others who were identified as impacting this transition for mothers who had exited violent relationships. This paper reviews two major themes discovered during the SRT analysis that were inherent in the women's experiences: (i) agency of children, family, peers and community and (ii) power. In addition, this paper suggests implications for research, intervention and psychotherapeutic practice.     

Learning Skinner’s Verbal Operants: Comparing an Online Stimulus Equivalence Procedure to an Assigned Reading

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of an online stimulus equivalence procedure to that of an assigned reading when learning Skinner’s taxonomy of verbal behavior. Twenty-six graduate students participated via an online learning management system. One group was exposed to an online stimulus equivalence procedure (equivalence group) that was designed to teach relations among the names, antecedents, consequences, and examples of each elementary verbal operant. A comparison group (reading group) read a chapter from a popular textbook. Tests for the emergence of selection-based and topography-based intraverbal responses were then conducted, as were tests for generalization and maintenance. Overall, results suggest that the online equivalence procedure was not significantly more effective in promoting topography-based responses than the assigned reading. However, performance on selection-based tests was enhanced by the online equivalence procedure as was performance on topography-based tests when participants were required to provide operant names in response to consequences or examples. On average, the equivalence group performed at a level that was 10 percentage points (i.e., a full letter grade) above that of the reading group. The viability of the equivalence-based procedure is discussed in relation to the assigned reading.     

Facebook or loss of face?

Based on paradigmatic claims of group dynamics as well as experiences in group dynamic training groups and discussions with students and trainers, in reflexive form we deal with the dialectic of direct and indirect communication and its influence on the identity formation of young people. We are concentrating on the connection between border-limiting globalisation, an identity search in the jungle of self-optimisation possibilities and the role of the virtual, indirect communication, when it is about to develop the greatest possible degree of affiliation in the greatest possible freedom and the desire for individuality which overexert the world wide web. We are not focussing that much on the characteristics of the generations “why” or “what” – this discussion can be critically connoted as well as being described as a hype – we are more interested in the historic, socio-political and economic background which control and influence our communication processes and therefore these developments, especially in the group dynamic context deserve increased attention.     

The quiet before the storm: anticipating developments in synthetic biology

Synthetic biology aims at designing biological systems, at building ‘living machines’. The emergence of synthetic biology has reignited the cycle of public debate. The old biotechnology debate is being reiterated and the controversies are deepened. The societal debate follows the technological hype cycle. A new technology with a high visibility and high expectations also raises high controversies. For synthetic biology, this hype is currently near its peak and the first signs of disillusionment are getting visible. In policy development, on the other hand, synthetic biology is in the early stages. Governments examine the need for adaptations to existing regulatory frameworks. There is a gap between the visibility of the technological developments and policy formulation. This gap is crucial for technology assessment: while the hype in public attention is over, essential policy steps are taken. In order to close this gap, technology assessment needs to facilitate the societal–ethical debate when media attention, and thus the visibility of the technological developments, declines.