Interpersonal Encounters Research Articles

"The poor will never cease"

Theological ethics, particularly Christian theological ethics, is very well-equipped both to treat the interests and needs of future generations as a genuine and pressing concern – and also to evade some of the questions they pose about temporality, by appealing to judgement beyond history. Phenomenological approaches to the question of future generations are important as a counterbalance to this tendency in theological ethics, insofar as they force us to remain with, and wrestle with, the relation to future persons as future. In this article I show that drawing on phenomenological approaches, in order to attend to temporality, produces an account of justice and responsibility to future generations that is more adequate theologically, as well as ethically. Attending to how the other, the future and the imperative of justice interrelate yields an approach to theological ethics that does not need to assume for the ethicist the God’s-eye view – the view from outside time, narrative or interpersonal encounter – and that is thus able to grapple with the core questions raised by bringing future generations into ethics.

The Personalism of John Henry Newman by John F. Crosby

Reviewed by: The Personalism of John Henry Newman by John F. Crosby John T. Ford C.S.C. (bio) The Personalism of John Henry Newman By John F. Crosby. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2014. Pages: xxv + 227. Cloth: $59.95, ISBN 978-0-8132-2689-7; Paperback: $34.95, ISBN 978-0-8132-2917-1; E-book: $34.95, ISBN 978-0-8132-2690-3. In 1879, John Henry Newman chose as his cardinalatial motto—Cor ad cor loquitur—"Heart speaks to heart." Genealogically, this motto is a paraphrase of a saying of Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), whose portrait was given a place of prominence in Newman's private chapel at the Birmingham Oratory. Philosophically this motto reflects Newman's distinction between notional apprehension/assent, which emphasizes the role of the intellect in human thinking, and real apprehension/assent, which involves not only the intellect but also the imagination and will in the process of decision making. Pastorally, this motto exemplifies the core of Newman's ministry—both Anglican and Roman Catholic—religion is a matter not only of intellectual understanding, but also of personal commitment. As John Crosby's book indicates, this dual dimension was evident in Newman's sermons, which not only insisted on the importance of Christian doctrine, but were also aimed at eliciting a personal commitment from his hearers. In fact, many of his Anglican listeners long remembered the powerful impact that Newman's sermons made on their minds and hearts. As Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) once reminisced, "Who could resist the charm of that spiritual apparition, gliding in the dim afternoon light through the aisles of St. Mary's rising into the pulpit, and then in the most entrancing of voices, breaking the silence with words and thoughts which were religious music—subtle sweet and mournful?" For his contemporaries, Newman's "personalism" was persuasive as well as memorable. As a newly ordained cleric of the Church of England, he almost single-handedly resurrected a moribund parish on the fringe of Oxford. As vicar of St. Mary's, his sermons were so popular that a Sunday excursion to Oxford was incomplete without hearing Newman preach. As a Roman Catholic, his writings attracted English readers around the world; his surviving letters, numbering some twenty thousand—roughly a third of his total output—were addressed to people from all walks of life. These are only a few examples of the "personalism" that characterized Newman's life and work. [End Page 75] Crosby's book examines Newman's "personalism" from a philosophical perspective. Starting with Newman's emphasis on "theocentric religion," Crosby notes a coincidentia oppositorum between objectivity—seen in Newman's espousal of "the dogmatical principle"—and subjectivity—exemplified in his personal acceptance of dogmatic teaching. Crosby then examines another coincidentia: the real and the notional, the imagination and the intellect, and discusses Newman's interpersonal encounters that are symbolized by cor ad cor loquitur. Crosby next discusses how religious truth is effectively transmitted more by personal influence than by doctrinal definitions or apologetical arguments. "Personalism" is then a necessary component of both intellectual understanding and practical reasoning. Newman was not reticent about reminding his audiences of the need for humility; similarly, today the "big bang theory" clearly emphasizes "an infinite abyss of existence." Finally, Crosby comes full circle by illustrating the "personalism" in Newman's view of the primordial knowledge of God. On the whole, this book is a masterwork. Crosby has accomplished what very few writers could do successfully; he has provided a stellar synthesis of Newman's personalist thought both in itself and in relation to many philosophers and theologians. Crosby is well versed in the corpus of Newman's writings—not only such familiar works as his Essay on Development, Idea of a University, Apologia pro Vita Sua and Grammar of Assent, but also his many essays, numerous sermons, and abundant correspondence. Crosby's interpretation of Newman's writings is dialogically interactive with such classical authors as Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Augustine, and Aquinas, as well as such modern writers as Buber, Husserl, William James, Kant, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Maritain, Rudolf Otto, Scheler, and von Hildebrand. As a result, Crosby...

American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice by Albert J. Raboteau

Reviewed by: American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice by Albert J. Raboteau Casey Bohlen Albert J. Raboteau, American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and their Struggle for Social and Political Justice (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2016) In American Prophets, historian Albert J. Raboteau provides concise, lucid biographical sketches of seven religious radicals, each of whom contributed to movements for social justice in the 20th-century United States. His subjects include intellectuals and activists from a diverse set of faith traditions, including the familiar faces of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Fannie Lou Hamer, as well as the less well-known Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel, heterodox iconoclast A.J. Muste, Black Protestant intellectual Howard Thurman, and Catholic monk Thomas Merton. Although these individuals hailed from disparate theological backgrounds, Raboteau argues that they were united by a shared religious commitment to social justice, defined by moral solidarity with the socially marginalized and faith in the redemptive power of nonviolent direct action. For readers who are unfamiliar with the history of the mid-century [End Page 339] religious left, this book offers a readable and illustrative introduction to the field, told through the lives of some of its most influential participants. Raboteau's central argument is that members of the religious left have served as a prophetic voice in 20th-century United States politics, blending civic and theological language to develop effective moral arguments against injustice and inspire grassroots movements for social change. Their political vision was defined by what Raboteau dubs "divine pathos" – meaning a heightened sense of compassion for the least among us, derived from a religious belief in the divine dignity of each individual, the spiritual unity of humanity, and categorical opposition to systems rooted in violence and coercion. Inspired by this divine pathos, religious radicals played pivotal roles in a wide variety of social justice movements across the course of the century, ranging from the long civil rights movement to radical labour organizing to anti-war resistance. They mounted campaigns rooted in nonviolent direct action, drew on religious networks to organize activists at the grassroots, and delivered soaring political speeches redolent with religious imagery, appealing to the consciences of their fellow citizens through both word and deed. These appeals were often successful, most notably in the case of the Southern freedom struggle, which unsurprisingly takes centre stage here. But of equal importance, Raboteau argues, they passed their sense of divine pathos on to their audiences, engendering new moral awakenings and sustaining the religious left across generations in a manner that other branches of the United States left have notably failed to do. This combination of interpersonal encounters, flexible moral language, and effective protest tactics have made religious radicals capable of adapting their relatively consistent set of principles and strategies to a diverse set of causes. In doing so, they have had an outsized impact on United States politics over the course of the century. Raboteau delivers this argument episodically, organizing American Prophets into seven independent chapters, each devoted to one of his subjects' intellectual biography and history of social engagement. The book is already succinct, clocking in at just under two-hundred pages, but because each chapter can stand alone, educators might consider exploring Raboteau's overarching argument by assigning excerpts on just one or two of his subjects. His chapter on Thomas Merton is a prime candidate for such treatment. Merton was a Trappist monk whose early writings called on readers to seek God by withdrawing from the world, but who reemerged as a preeminent social critic and political advocate in the 1960s. Raboteau's discussion of him is rife with meaty block quotes, which articulate Merton's seemingly-paradoxical fusion of contemplative life and worldly engagement, his analysis of the relationship between systems of social violence and personal alienation, and his deep skepticism of the ability of white liberals and civil rights legislation to unravel the tangled knots of racial inequality in America. His writing is rich and provocative, and his thinking on race relations feels especially prescient today, marking Merton as one of the most intellectually challenging voices in this collection. Also noteworthy are...

Politeness Strategies in Confrontations of Prejudice

ABSTRACTThis project draws on the self-regulation of prejudiced responses model and politeness theory to investigate the role of politeness strategies in interpersonal confrontations of prejudice. One hundred and three participants were exposed to experimental confrontations of prejudiced remarks made about Native Americans. The results generally indicate that direct confrontations, which included an explanation of why the response was perceived as prejudiced, were most effective in reducing prejudiced responses and reducing levels of reported prejudice. Furthermore, participants generally accepted confrontations of their prejudiced responses and did not negatively evaluate their confronters. Finally, the more positive politeness participants perceived in the confrontations, the more positively they evaluated their confronter. Implications for theory and the confrontation of prejudice in everyday life are discussed.

Travel Risks for Those With Serious Mental Illness

Introduction: It has been known for a long time in the French-speaking, but not the English-speaking literature that travel can exacerbate pre-existing psychosis. The purpose of this article was to review the literature on this subject and present recommendations for prevention. Methods: For this narrative review of the literature on travel risks in individuals with pre-existing psychosis, appropriate terms were used to search Google Scholar, and all identified English, French, and Polish references were investigated. Results: Potential psychotogenic stresses of travel were found to be: mental confusion due to rapid transition into unfamiliar roles, physical discomfort and malaise seeding delusional beliefs, reawakening of old fears, loss of usual supports, overuse of substances to quiet fears, irregular scheduling or interruption of medications, jet lag with insomnia and hormonal shifts, the shock of acculturation, and unaccustomed interpersonal encounters. Women and the elderly were at greatest risk for symptom escalation related to travel. Conclusion: Travel risks need to be recognized and anticipated in vulnerable populations because many travel stressors are preventable.

Nurses' perspectives on workplace mistreatment: A qualitative study.

An accurate understanding of workplace mistreatment and its impacts on nurses is crucial to hospital managers. A qualitative approach using conventional content analysis was adopted in this study to describe the perspectives of a sample of Iranian nurses concerning workplace mistreatment. After analyzing the transcribed interviews, three main themes emerged: (i) Demand for a more humanistic and appreciative environment; this theme consisted of three categories: "incompetent management practice", "invisibility of nurses", and "unethical behaviors"; (ii) Unprofessional interpersonal encounters which included three categories: "poorly defined job characteristics", "nurses' poor performance", and "inefficient supportive means and structures"; and (iii) Inaction despite injury, consisting of two categories: "passive and ineffective ways of coping with mistreatment", and "personal and professional negative impacts". Findings from this study can guide further investigation within diverse populations of Iranian nurses, as well as worldwide, in order for firm conclusions to be drawn. Future research could compare the perspectives of other stakeholders - patients and relatives, physicians, and managers concerning workplace mistreatment.

Integrating 'Tech and Touch' to Achieve Widespread Internet Banking Acceptance in Asian Cultures: The Case of Thailand

This research explores bank and corporate customer views on customer satisfaction with interpersonal and Internet channels within the banking sector in Thailand, and examines the concept of integration to blend the two channels rather than operating them as separate alternatives. Qualitative in-depth interviews with top management of leading commercial banks and with financial officers of large corporate customers of these banks confirmed that corporate customers still prefer personal contact most of the time, although they find the Internet channel useful for some things. Questionnaire survey with customers results indicate that an integrated Internet service channel can be an attractive new option for banks and their corporate customers. Thai banks, however, are following worldwide trends by offering Internet banking as a separate service channel. The results suggest that even though Integration can enhance customer satisfaction with both Internet banking and interpersonal service encounters, it rather decrease both dissatisfaction. This study concludes that the corporate customers, who are more likely to use Internet banking services, would still prefer to switch freely back and forth between channels without the need for personal contact. However, the corporate customers who are more likely to use face-to-face services still prefer personal contact. Therefore, the integration of interpersonal service channel with Internet banking service channel is an important consideration in terms of enhancing customer satisfaction. The overall interpersonal satisfaction can enhance customer loyalty. However, the moderating effect of Integration weakens the relationship between overall interpersonal satisfaction and customer loyalty. It might be because if customers widely adopt Internet banking services, when they face the problems with bank staff, they may switch to use Internet banking services. Therefore, the strong relationship with the customers can be reduced, which may lead to lower customer loyalty.

Looking Away? Civilized Indifference and the Carnal Relationships of the Contemporary Workplace

Looking Away? Civilized Indifference and the Carnal Relationships of the Contemporary Workplace

特集論文 「出会うということ」をめぐって ある自閉症の子どもと音楽療法士の＜あいだ＞に着目して

特集論文 「出会うということ」をめぐって ある自閉症の子どもと音楽療法士の＜あいだ＞に着目して

After the Fall: Responses and Reactions to Unethical Behavior in Organizations

Scholars in the fields of management, organizational behavior, and psychology have produced a sizable body of research about unethical behavior in organizations. Taken as a whole, the literature suggests that ethical violations are widespread in organizations, and relatively minor influences can foster or perpetuate such violations. Given the pervasiveness of unethical behavior in organizations, it is surprising how little academic attention has been paid to the aftermath of ethical violations, and in particular, how organizational actors respond to such violations. This symposium attempts to expand our understanding of how individuals in organizations experience and respond to misconduct and wrongdoing. In particular, this symposium will explore how communities frame ethical violations, how violators react to accusations, how violators engage in impression management strategies following wrongdoing, how observers confront violators, and how forgiveness affects non-forgiving victims. Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Moral Accessories as Identity Revealing and Forming Cues Presenter: Sreedhari D. Desai; U. of North Carolina Presenter: Jonathan E. Keeney; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Forgiving for Us All: Forgiving Our Common Transgressor Presenter: Medha Raj; U. of Southern California Presenter: Scott Wiltermuth; U. of Southern California Cashing in or Selling Out? Authenticity as Moral Capital in Craft Industries Presenter: Keith Leavitt; Oregon State U. Presenter: Chad B Murphy; Oregon State U. Mistake or Misconduct? The Effect of Violation Type on Interpersonal Confrontation Presenter: Erin Frey; Harvard Business School Presenter: Francesca Gino; Harvard U. Presenter: Joshua D Margolis; Harvard U.

Objectification in Action

Although the process of sexual objectification is theorized to occur within interpersonal interactions, we believe this is the first study to examine sexual objectification and self-objectification in actual (nonconfederate) interpersonal encounters. Men and women were brought into the laboratory and interacted in mixed-sex dyads. We used dyadic analysis to detect whether partners’ objectification of each other affected state self-objectification, and the resulting feelings of comfort and authenticity during the interaction. After the interaction, participants completed a cognitive performance task, a measure of career aspirations, and a measure of relationship agency. Results showed that for women only, being objectified by their male interaction partner was associated with an increase in state self-objectification, and state self-objectification led to perceptions that the interaction was less comfortable and less authentic. Furthermore, for women but not for men, having authentic interactions was found to relate positively to relationship agency, career aspirations, and cognitive performance. This research shows that self-objectification is not only a self-process but an interpersonal process heightened by the real-time sexual objectification of a male interaction partner. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental

Blending in at the Cost of Losing Oneself: Dishonest Self-Disclosure Erodes Self-Concept Clarity in Social Anxiety

Self-concept clarity helps to promote self-esteem and guide adaptive social behavior. Recent studies have found that people with higher levels of trait social anxiety exhibit significantly diminished levels of self-concept clarity, but the mechanisms that might link higher social anxiety with lower self-concept clarity are untested and unknown. We propose that the relation between social anxiety and self-concept clarity is mediated by dishonest self-disclosure – a self-protective strategy in which one asserts an inauthentic or dishonest opinion to others based on what one believes others wish to hear rather than one's own genuine viewpoint. To test this prediction, we manipulated the honesty of participants' self-disclosures during a social task in the laboratory and measured subsequent changes in self-concept clarity. As hypothesized, dishonest relative to honest self-disclosure led to significantly reduced levels of self-concept clarity, but only amongst participants with higher levels of trait social anxiety. These findings help to elucidate the processes underlying the link between social anxiety and self-concept clarity and provide insight into the costs of adopting an inauthentic façade during interpersonal encounters when social conformity motives become salient.

Contested Emotions: Pity and Gratitude from the Stoics to Swift and Wordsworth

Pity and gratitude are often classified among the moral emotions: pity responds to an undeserved ill that has befallen another, while gratitude affirms as good something given to us, as well as the agent who gave it. To some philosophers, however, pity and gratitude are never or rarely appropriate. For the Stoics, pity is unnecessary suffering for the person who pities, grounded in a mistaken view of what constitutes privation; Wollstonecraft and Godwin add that in a just society, there would be no pitiably needy people. Similarly, if assistance is reconceived as something due a person as a right, then the obligation to feel or express gratitude, or to render reciprocal service, is largely eliminated. Godwin'sEnquiry concerning Political Justiceis indebted to the Stoical, pitiless, and gentle Houyhnhnms ofGulliver's Travels, and it prompts in turn Wordsworth's representations of interpersonal encounter in “Simon Lee,”The Ruined Cottage, andThe Prelude.

Beyond Legislation: Genuine Change in the Interaction between Victims of Sexual Crimes and the Criminal Law System

This article examines the changes in the encounter between sexual assault victims and representatives of the law enforcement and judicial systems in Israel as perceived by workers and volunteers in the sexual assault crisis centres. After more than four decades of action in legal contexts – from spurring changes in legislation, through the training of professionals within the legal system, up to escorting victims – it is still hard to find studies that describe any change beyond legislation and procedures in the forms that this encounter assumes in Israel and in the world.For the purpose of the study, this interaction was separated from the other aspects of the procedure, observed in depth and, with the interviewees' help, broken down into its relevant components. Data gathered and processed using quantitative and qualitative methods show that, according to the impression of the critical and experienced interviewees, representatives of the legal system truly endeavoured during the first decade of the second millennium to provide victims with better conditions than in the past, encouraging them to speak out in criminal proceedings.As a possible background for the changes in the interpersonal encounter, the article suggests focusing on two mutually related processes, historical but also ongoing. The first is a change in the modes of thought and action in the crisis centres that dealt with this matter and promoted specific changes in the interpersonal encounter. The second process is reflected in the way in which legislators chose to intervene in the interpersonal encounters through four sections in the Rights of Victims of Crime Law. These processes influenced one another and still largely accompany the developments in this sphere, teaching important lessons about change in systems that are not easily amenable to change.

Toward a Social Psychology of Race and Race Relations for the Twenty-First Century.

The United States, like many nations, continues to experience rapid growth in its racial minority population and is projected to attain so-called majority-minority status by 2050. Along with these demographic changes, staggering racial disparities persist in health, wealth, and overall well-being. In this article, we review the social psychological literature on race and race relations, beginning with the seemingly simple question: What is race? Drawing on research from different fields, we forward a model of race as dynamic, malleable, and socially constructed, shifting across time, place, perceiver, and target. We then use classic theoretical perspectives on intergroup relations to frame and then consider new questions regarding contemporary racial dynamics. We next consider research on racial diversity, focusing on its effects during interpersonal encounters and for groups. We close by highlighting emerging topics that should top the research agenda for the social psychology of race and race relations in the twenty-first century.

Facial mimicry in its social setting.

In interpersonal encounters, individuals often exhibit changes in their own facial expressions in response to emotional expressions of another person. Such changes are often called facial mimicry. While this tendency first appeared to be an automatic tendency of the perceiver to show the same emotional expression as the sender, evidence is now accumulating that situation, person, and relationship jointly determine whether and for which emotions such congruent facial behavior is shown. We review the evidence regarding the moderating influence of such factors on facial mimicry with a focus on understanding the meaning of facial responses to emotional expressions in a particular constellation. From this, we derive recommendations for a research agenda with a stronger focus on the most common forms of encounters, actual interactions with known others, and on assessing potential mediators of facial mimicry. We conclude that facial mimicry is modulated by many factors: attention deployment and sensitivity, detection of valence, emotional feelings, and social motivations. We posit that these are the more proximal causes of changes in facial mimicry due to changes in its social setting.

From Middle Ground to Common Ground: Self-Management and Spaces of Encounter in Organic Farming Networks

This article deploys the anarchist notion of self-management to critically investigate the global organic farming network World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) as an initiative that offers insights into the possibilities and challenges of encounter. WWOOF facilitates the giving of food, accommodation, and hands-on learning experiences for volunteers, in exchange for their labor on organic farms. It operates as a moneyless sharing economy, designed as a site of mutual learning and cultural exchange. Literatures on encounter divide between brief tourist encounters of difference and everyday encounters in diverse, usually urban, communities. In linking these two bodies of work, I argue that the principle of self-management, as conceived by anarchist thinkers, can help develop a unified, critical framework for making sense of encounter event spaces. This adds important nuance to theorizations of encounter by recognizing the entwinement of the intimate and the structural, foregrounding the capacity of people to autonomously create shared spaces of interdependence. The case study indicates that structural contradictions and inequalities in voluntary relationships within statist-capitalist systems can seriously undermine otherwise promising interpersonal encounters. By articulating self-management as a tool for both analyzing and producing spaces of encounter, this article offers new possibilities for a more holistic and unified analytical framework.

How Patients Perceive Their Doctors’ Communication

By emphasizing the value of health professionals’ communication skills in creating positive health care experiences, researchers have tended to study health communication as an interpersonal encounter. Interactions in the health context, though, are inherently intergroup. Using the language and social psychology approach, this study emphasizes those intergroup features of health communication. We used mixed methods and applied communication accommodation theory and the willingness to communicate construct to the health context. Participants in Canada and Australia ( N = 371) were asked about their perceptions of their health consultations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that health communication competence was the best predictor of patient willingness to communicate. Differences between patients’ accounts of positive and negative health care experiences were clearly differentiated by their perceptions of the health professionals’ communication strategies. The potential effects of these strategies on patient participation are discussed.

Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the “Musical Other”

Musical experience can confront us with emotions that are not currently ours. We might remain unaffected by them, or be affected: retreat from them in avoidance, or embrace them and experience them as ours. This suggests that they are another’s. Whose are they? Do we arrive at them through empathy, turning our interest to the music as we do to others in an interpersonal encounter? In addressing these questions, I differentiate between musical and social empathy, rejecting the idea that the emotions arise as a direct consequence of empathizing with composers or performers. I argue that musical perception is doubly active: bodily knowledge can extend auditory perception cross-modally, which, in turn, can orient a bodily hermeneutic. Musical passages thus acquire adverbial expressivity, an expressivity which, as I discuss, is co-constituted, and engenders a “musical other.” This leads me to a reinterpretation of the musical persona and to consider a dialectic between social and musical empathy that I think plays a central role in the individuation of shared emotion in musical experience. Musical empathy, then, occurs via a combination of self-involvement and self-effacement—leading us first into, and then perhaps beyond, ourselves.

Two Strikes

There are large racial disparities in school discipline in the United States, which, for Black students, not only contribute to school failure but also can lay a path toward incarceration. Although the disparities have been well documented, the psychological mechanisms underlying them are unclear. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that such disparities are, in part, driven by racial stereotypes that can lead teachers to escalate their negative responses to Black students over the course of multiple interpersonal (e.g., teacher-to-student) encounters. More generally, we argue that race not only can influence how perceivers interpret a specific behavior, but also can enhance perceivers’ detection of behavioral patterns across time. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical benefits of employing this novel approach to stereotyping across a range of real-world settings.