Intergenerational solidarity: the paradox of reciprocity imbalance in ageing welfare states

In this article a new theoretical framework is applied to a research field that is somewhat fragmented, namely that of intergenerational solidarity in ageing welfare states. Inspired by utilitarian considerations many scholars tend to problematize the lack of reciprocity characterizing intergenerational exchanges. As some generations are longer old and more numerous they may receive excessive state‐administered support of the younger generations, especially in a democratic setting. However, in reality there is limited empirical evidence of intergenerational conflict and theoretical explanations of this paradox are rare. An integrated and dynamical approach that incorporates Durkheim's solidarity theory, Honneth's intersubjective recognition theory, and the current work on reciprocal exchange is necessary in order to understand the survival of intergenerational solidarity in ageing welfare states. According to this model reciprocal recognition leading to the empathization of exchanges is the driving force of intergenerational solidarity in a prefigurative and democratized culture where the status of the young has risen dramatically. Hence, we come to the paradoxical conclusion that attempts to preserve intergenerational solidarity by openly denouncing excessive transfers and trying to bypass them institutionally sometimes might be counterproductive because they may erode their empathic underpinnings.     

The therapist as selfobject

In the treatment of severely disturbed patients in private practice, the author discovered that a shift from a traditional analytic approach to one that utilized self-psychological concepts produced improved success in the outcomes of treatment. These patients included those with narcissistic and borderline pathology in addition to substance abuse. All the patients had histories of one or more previous treatments.     

人际沟通与企业间关系:心理契约的中介作用

如何分析并揭示企业间关系质量的影响机制是管理学关心焦点。本文通过引入传统文献所忽视变量,形成以人际技能、心理契约和关系质量为核心的新企业间关系分析框架,并通过199个中国企业间采购关系数据进行了验证。结果表明:人际技能对心理契约的交易建构和关系建构具有显著正向影响,特别是移情和反馈;心理契约交易建构和关系建构对持续采购和采购比例具有显著正影响;心理契约对人际技能和关系质量具有一定的中介作用。研究结果对于相关的理论发展和管理实践具有一定的启示作用。     

寓情于教——情感因素在外语教学中的作用

人们对于外语学习中的认知能力做过很多调查研究,但对于情感因素所起的作用并未引起充分的重视。本文旨在从学生的情感因素对外语学习的影响入手,分析几种情感因素,如焦虑、动机、自尊、移情在语言学习中的作用,并结合教学实际提出了几点建议。     

论跨文化交际中的语用失误与语用移情能力的培养

语用失误有语言语用失误和社交语用失误两种表现形式。注重语言本身,而忽略了不同语言文化差异是造成语用失误的主要原因。因此,在跨文化交际中要成功消除语用失误所造成的障碍,必须了解目的语语言文化,调整自己的思维定势,做到语用移情。文章分析了跨文化交际语用失误的种类和原因,并且对在外语教学中如何培养学生语用能力和语用移情的习惯提出了一些切实可行的看法和建议。     

汉诗英译中的审美移情

移情是人们审美认知必然要经历的心理过程。在文学创作中,作为审美主体的作者直接而带感情地把握感性观照对象,将与之类比的自己的感情,从自己内部投射给对象,并且把它当作属于对象的东西来体验。这种独特的精神活动就叫移情。诗词翻译,作为一种跨语言文化的文学再创作过程,同样也少不了审美主体——译者的移情,汉诗英译中的审美移情包括移情于景、移情于物、移情及人三个方面。     

Empathy and Emotional Responsiveness in Delinquent and Non-delinquent Adolescents

Two groups of male adolescents, incarcerated young offenders (N = 64, mean age = 16.3 years) and a comparison group of community youth (N = 60; mean age = 16.6 years), were administered the Empathy Continuum (measuring cognitive‐affective responses to persons in emotionally evocative videotaped vignettes) and questionnaire measures of empathy, emotional responsiveness, guilt, shame, and antisocial attitudes and behaviors. Although both groups endorsed general statements of empathy, young offenders responded with empathy less often to particular persons in particular situations, and reasoned regarding their empathic responses in more self‐referencing ways. They also described their emotional responses to stimulus persons as less intense. In addition to the expected group differences, responsive empathy was a stronger predictor of delinquency than self‐reported antisocial behavior, and correctly classified 69 percent of young offenders and comparison youths. Although guilt was consistently related to lower self‐reported antisocial attitudes and behaviors, guilt (and shame) only weakly differentiated the two groups, limiting the usefulness of the TOSCA‐A as a predictor of delinquency.     

Action theory: a tool for understanding in social work

This article presents a theoretical framework that can be used not only for understanding the client but also one's own action as a practitioner. This framework, which has its roots mainly within philosophy and social psychology, uses terms of everyday language that are given a more precise meaning in the conceptual analysis of the Finnish philosopher G. H. von Wright. The application of action theory to social work practice is briefly described. The approach can be seen as an expansion of the problem-solving method developed by Helen Harris Perlman.     

Empathy to action: Child and adolescent out‐group attitudes and prosocial behaviors in a setting of intergroup conflict

The paper explored how to promote constructive intergroup relations among children and young people in a context of protracted conflict. Across two studies, the Empathy–Attitudes–Action model was examined in middle childhood and adolescence. More specifically, we tested the relations among dispositional empathy, out‐group attitudes, and prosocial behaviors for youth born after the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. In one correlational (Study 1: N = 132; 6–11 years old: M = 8.42 years, SD = 1.23) and one longitudinal design (Study 2: N = 466; 14–15 years old), bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed that empathy was associated with more positive attitudes toward the conflict‐related out‐group, which in turn, was related to higher out‐group prosocial behaviors, both self‐report and concrete actions. Given that out‐group prosocial acts in a setting of intergroup conflict may serve as the antecedents for peacebuilding among children and adolescents, this study has intervention implications.     

Autism, Empathy and Questions of Moral Agency

In moral psychology, it has long been argued that empathy is a necessary capacity of both properly developing moral agents and developed moral agency ( Blair, 2008 ; Hume et al., 1978 ). This view stands in tension with the belief that some individuals diagnosed with autism—which is typically characterized as a deficiency in social reciprocity (including empathy)—are moral agents. In this paper we propose to explore this tension and perhaps trouble how we commonly see those with autism. To make this task manageable, we will consider whether high functioning individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder are capable of empathetic responses. If they are, then they possess a capacity that, on the view above, is required for moral agency. If they are not so capable, and yet sometimes engage in moral behaviour, this casts some doubt on the claim that empathy is required for moral agency. This second possibility will necessitate an exploration of the capacity of some individuals with autism to engage in moral behaviour, giving us further grounds to re-see these individuals as moral agents.