A cross-cultural study on surrogate mother's empathy and maternal–foetal attachment

BackgroundTraditional and gestational surrogate mothers assist infertile couples by carrying their children. In 2005, a meta-analysis on surrogacy was conducted but no study had examined empathy and maternal–foetal attachment of surrogate mothers. Assessments of surrogate mothers show no sign of psychopathology, but one study showed differences on several MMPI-2 scales compared to a normative sample: surrogate mothers identified with stereotypically masculine traits such as assertiveness and competition. They had a higher self-esteem and lower levels of anxiety and depression.Research objectiveTo determine if there is a difference in empathy and maternal–foetal attachment of surrogate mothers compared to a comparison group of mothers.MethodsThree groups of European traditional and gestational surrogate mothers (n = 10), Anglo-Saxon traditional and gestational surrogate mothers (n = 34) and a European normative sample of mothers (n = 32) completed four published psychometric instruments: the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (empathy index), the Hospital Anxiety and Depressions Scale and the MC20, a social desirability scale. Pregnant surrogate mothers filled the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (n = 11). Statistical non-parametric analyses of variance were conducted.FindingsDepending on cultural background, surrogate mothers present differences in terms of empathy, anxiety and depression, social desirability and quality of attachment to the foetus compared to a normative sample.ConclusionsEnvironment plays a role for traditional and gestational surrogacy. Surrogate mothers of both groups are less anxious and depressed than normative samples. Maternal–foetal attachment is strong with a slightly lower quality of attachment. Surrogate mother's empathy indexes are similar to normative samples, sometimes higher.     

A Commentary on “Gender Perspectives in Cross-Cultural Couples”

This commentary expands on Kellner’s article by discussing clinical practice with Asian and Euro-American couples. Differences in Western and traditional Asian cultural expectations around intimacy and styles of emotional expression can often lead to misunderstanding among couples. Therapy can also be a challenge for couples when they do not share the same first language. A therapist who only speaks English can inadvertently create an alliance with the partner whose first language is English. On the other hand, bilingual therapists who use both English and an Asian language in the session can face challenges differentiating their roles as a therapist versus a translator. Case illustrations are presented to illustrate these challenges.

Using GIS in community design charrettes: Lessons from a Japan–U.S. collaboration in earthquake recovery and mitigation planning for Kobe

Charrettes have become popular in the urban design field, especially for use among multidisciplinary teams of professionals and non-professional community stakeholders seeking to incorporate a rich array of expertise in short visioning activities. Geographic Information Systems are among the technologies with potential to provide sophisticated spatial information to charrette participants efficiently. This article reports on a charrette carried out jointly by teams from Kobe University and the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, using GIS to inform urban design in three neighborhoods affected by the Great Hanshin–Awaji Earthquake of 1995 in Kobe, Japan. The article describes the charrette itself, and discusses the utility of GIS, given the challenges of disaster recovery in a context of undeveloped institutions for public participation, and with participants of different linguistic and educational backgrounds. In combination with electronically storable drawing technology, GIS proved useful in enlarging the multidisciplinary and cross-cultural reach of urban design; in incorporating new layers of pre-prepared expert data, and in combining such data with dynamically-generated “advice maps” and design ideas. For GIS-based charrettes to become more widely useful in community-scale design in Japan, however, additional property-scale data need to be available.     

中国英语与中西文化交流

“中国英语”是英语语言在中国文化环境下成长起来的一种比较特殊的语言现象,从文化语言学的角度来看,这种英语的存在不仅必要,而且有其合理的一面。从语言和文化的关系,中英两种文化的差异与交流等方面来探讨这种英语的形成与发展。     

Improving Flood Risk Communication by Focusing on Prevention‐Focused Motivation

This article proposes an approach to flood risk communication that gives particular emphasis to the distinction between prevention and promotion motivation. According to E. Tory Higgins, the promotion system and the prevention system are assumed to coexist in every person, but one or the other may be temporarily or chronically more accessible. These insights have far‐reaching implications for our understanding of people's reasoning about risks. Flood risk communication framed in terms of prevention involves the notions of chance and harm, woven into a story about particular events that necessitate decisions to be more careful about safety issues and protect one's family and oneself from danger. The article describes how the insights worked out in practice, using a flood risk communication experiment among a sample from the general population in a highly populated river delta of the Netherlands. It had a posttest‐only control group design (n = 2,302). The results showed that risk communication had a large effect on the participants’ responses and that this effect was higher among chronic prevention‐focused people than among others. Any information that increased the fit between a prevention‐framed message and a person's chronic prevention motivation produced stronger situationally induced, prevention‐focused responses. This may significantly improve communication about risks. In contrast, the notion of water city projects, featuring waterside living, had more appeal to promotion‐focused people.     

学习动机内化的理论反思与教育启示

揭示学习动机的内化规律和特点,有助于提升学生的学习效果,实现教育的目标。通过对现有学习动机理论及其应用研究的梳理,论证了依靠外部教育资源的有效设置来满足学生的基本需求,是促进动机内化的关键。在借鉴西方先进学习动机理念与模式的基础上,为我国学校教育的发展变革提供了一定的参考。     

Social ties, task-related communication and first job performance of young engineers

This study investigated the relationships among social ties, task-related communication, and first industrial job performance of a group of young engineers by utilizing a cooperative (coop) engineering program as a natural study. The coop arrangement allowed the researcher to examine the work behavior of these young engineers with similar academic training who were working on comparable work assignments in the same set of organizations.The study found that the job performance of the coop engineers was related to the pattern of work- related communication but not the total number of contacts. Specifically, high performance new engineers were integrated more broadly into the interpersonal communication networks than low performance new engineers. Moreover, high performance new engineers exhibited communication patterns similar to those of high performance veteran engineers working on similar types of technical work. Social ties with the company staff was found to be related positively with job performance, but social ties with other coop engineers was found to be related negatively with job performance, a result which challenges an implicit assumption often made by researchers and managers about the organizational socialization of newcomers. Overall, this study provides an integrative framework for relating social ties and communication as key factors for understanding the job performance of young engineers and presents a methodology for assessing their organizational assimilation.     

对“科学传播”概念的若干分析

本文对学术界关于“科学传播”概念争论中所涉及的一些问题进行了讨论, 给出了关于“科学传播”概念的基本描述。本文认为, 科学传播是“指科技知识信息通过跨越时空的扩散而在不同个体间实现知识共享的过程”, 包括专业交流、科技教育、科学普及、技术扩散等四个基本方面。     

丁玲早期小说的女性处境与叙事策略

丁玲早期小说作品以自己独特的"个性命题",在"五四"以来一直属于统治地位的男性话语世界中注入了"第二性"的声调.她以自己的整个文本作为一个作者话语,通过对其笔下的女性处境的描绘,同当时的社会思潮、社会声音进行"对话",形成了自己独特的叙事策略.     

"入世"与我国企业战略内核的进阶--核心竞争能力的视角

本文以我国加入WTO作为企业发展的环境变化背景,通过解析和应用企业核心竞争能力的思想内涵,探索我国企业发展战略内核的演化过程.文章首先分析指出,企业核心竞争能力的思想为企业揭示出企业在市场中的竞争优势并不是简单的产品市场竞争优势,而是包括制度、组织形式以及技术等层次在内的多种竞争优势的整合.根据回顾文献,并结合20多年的中国经济改革,文章将我国企业在宏观经济改革背景中的发展路径,折射到核心竞争能力的思想框架中,进行记录和分析,归纳整理出企业的发展路径是在政府主导型的制度变迁作用下,逐渐打破封闭体系,走向开放体系的过程;战略内核经历了从简单的重视规模到突出机制,再到加强灵活性,面对"入世"的制度现实,正日益注重发展和规范的互动效应演进过程.