High school students’ academic causal attributions in the cultural-political context of the Arab school system in Israel

While motivation is commonly interpreted as an individual student’s characteristic, motivational perceptions and beliefs, such as causal attributions of success and failure, are embedded in cultural meanings and contextual practices. The current study aimed to investigate causal attributions among Arab high school students in Israel and to interpret them in the light of their cultural-political context. Two hundred and five 11th-grade Arab students from three different geographic regions in Israel responded to open-ended and closed survey questions about events of success and failure in school. The analysis indicated that students overwhelmingly considered exams when thinking about events of success and failure, reflecting the normative teacher-centred pedagogical practices in schools. The analysis also manifested patterns of a self-serving bias. These findings are interpreted in the light of the cultural-political characteristics of the Arab school system in Israel.     

Impression management in corporate annual reports during the global financial crisis

This paper analyses impression management (IM) during the global financial crisis (GFC). It examines the differences in multiple textual characteristics and attributions between a highly positive performance period (2002–2007) and the GFC period (2008–2012), within the setting of Spain, where these two economic cycles were extreme. In contrast to previous research, companies' extreme poor performance in our sample is driven by an exogenous event. The findings do not show clear evidence of IM based on textual characteristics specifically linked to the GFC. Companies tried not to use overt IM and, to some extent, tried to clarify the impact of the crisis on performance. They were under great scrutiny and probably preferred to tell a more careful story. However, a general pattern of IM was still present during the GFC in the form of consistent positive attributions, favourable benchmarks and enhancement practices. In essence, the crisis did not fully stop IM practices, but rather influenced the way IM was produced. Overall, our results show that IM was lower during the GFC than in the case of poor performance in normal macroeconomic conditions found by previous literature. The results also show that the narratives of firms in the finance and real estate sectors were the most reactive to the GFC, probably linked to their key role in the crisis.     

试论薇拉·凯瑟的婚姻观与女性意识

本文通过透析《啊,拓荒者!》中四对悲剧婚姻,探讨凯瑟悲剧婚姻观的实质、成因及其体现出来的女性意识。     

李商隐政治诗的悲剧创作心态

李商隐一生以悲苦执着的政治追求创作了大量政治诗。然而在其政治诗的创作中 ,由于晚唐社会的悲剧使诗人不仅获得了刻骨铭心的悲剧体验 ,也孕育了“才命两妨”的悲剧命运意识和“人间桑海朝朝变”的悲观宿命意识 ,并使其政治诗创作浸淫在“爱君忧国去未能”的悲剧心态之中。本文从李商隐政治诗的创作心理历程分析了其政治诗悲剧创作心态形成的原因 ,揭示了诗人政治诗悲剧创作的心理轨迹     

悲情人世的灵魂守望--评魏微短篇小说三篇

魏微是近年在文坛上崛起的优秀青年作家,她的作品构思新颖,视角独特,文笔细腻深刻,挖掘人性入木三分。《化妆》、《异乡》和《大老郑的女人》是她近年的三篇短篇小说力作,享誉文坛。对悲情人世始终如一的灵魂守望,对平凡人物矢志不移的悲悯情怀,成就了魏微小说的思想深度与艺术魅力。而审丑艺术的极致表现,异化想象的深度探寻,自然人性的大胆赞颂,则共同构成了魏微小说独一无二的审美空间。     

Work and non-work factors as perceived causes of symptoms of psychological strain

Two studies are reported in which the respondents were asked to attribute causes to their experienced symptoms of stress as measured by the General Health Questionnaire. The results show that most respondents can do this, that there are differences in attributions by symptoms, and that the pattern of attributions is similar for two different occupational groups, even though the level of symptomology is higher for nurses than for laboratory workers. It is argued that this simple addition to symptom questionnaires might have useful diagnostic value, but that further research with different populations and other symptoms is desirable.     

关于幼儿教育价值和现状的沉思

人类文明延续到今天,人们对早期教育与人生健康发展、社会和谐进步关系的认识日益充分,因而幼教神圣的观念正被更多的人所接受;与此形成反差的是,我们周遭的幼教现状堪忧:业内外不少人轻视幼教,这几年幼教事业整体上有所滑坡,有关幼教政策法规的落实、对幼教的监管和经费投入不到位。加强政府监管、改善幼儿园教师的生存状态、加大对幼教的投入力度、为幼儿教育立法等等,应视为改变现状的主要对策。     

Impact of Perpetrator Type on Attributions of Mother Fault in Child Sexual Abuse

Blaming nonoffending mothers for child sexual abuse has substantial negative consequences for both the mother and child victim. Although perpetrator type has been shown to influence how much blame and responsibility is placed on nonoffending mothers in child sexual abuse cases, research to date has focused primarily on perpetrators who are strangers to the child or the child’s biological father, ignoring the effect of other father-figure perpetrators. The current study examined how differences in perpetrator’s relationship to the mother impacted blame, responsibility, cause, and prevention as separate constructs. One hundred and eight participants from an online community sample were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing a child sexual abuse situation with a female victim and one of two perpetrators: the victim’s biological father or the mother’s boyfriend. Participants assigned significantly higher levels of fault for CSA to the mother when the perpetrator was the mother’s boyfriend. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Lay explanations of and solutions to unemployment in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This study investigates the structure of and relationship between lay explanations of and solutions to unemployment in an area of high unemployment. A sample of 261 subjects resident in Northern Ireland rated the importance of 20 explanations of unemployment identified by Furnham (1982) and 20 solutions to unemployment identified by Heaven (1990). Factor analysis of their responses identified three explanatory factors, viz. individualistic, societal/managerial and fatalistic/uncontrollable Factor analysis of the 20 solutions identified three primary factors which were labelled punitive, opportunity creation, and resource management. The relative importance of both the explanation and the solution factors varied little with the demographic characteristics of the subjects. A correlation analysis showed that there was a clear and meaningful pattern in the relationship between explanations of and solutions to unemployment.     

The role of attributions in psychological reactions to job relocation

Job relocation refers to the process of simultaneously moving to a new job and house and this can cause considerable stress for the relocator and his/her family. Based upon an attributional analysis, we predicted that negative psychological reactions would be a function of (1) number of relocation problems, and (2) making pessimistic attributions for relocation problems (that is, the tendency to attribute negative events to internal, stable and global causes). Furthermore, these factors should interact, such that individuals with many relocation problems who also make pessimistic attributions will experience the worst psychological reactions. The results from a cross-sectional survey of 93 relocators supported these predictions. As expected, those relocators who had many relocation problems and made pessimistic attributions reported the worst mental health and relocation-specific stress. In addition, a reanalysis of a longitudinal study of relocators by Martin (1996) also supported the above predictions using attributions of perceived control. Furthermore, the relocators predicted to be most at risk (many problems}/low control) reported the worst changes in mental health during the course of the move.