Societal Standards Research Articles

Correlates of Disclosure of Virginity Status Among U.S. College Students.

Disclosure of virginity status (DVS) refers to the extent to which an individual reveals that they identify as a virgin or not to different individuals in their lives. The purpose of this study was to investigate how generalized self-disclosure, virginity beliefs, and religiosity, as well as interactions with gender and virginity status, relate to DVS to family, peers, and religious communities. Southern U.S. college students (N = 690) took an online sexuality questionnaire. Generalized self-disclosure did not relate to DVS, suggesting that DVS represents a unique form of self-disclosure. Gender by virginity status interactions suggested that societal double standards of gender and virginity status (i.e., non-virgin women and virgin men being stigmatized for their virginity identifications) may be most relevant to one's decision to disclose to family, and somewhat relevant to one's decision to disclose to religious communities. Individuals high in religiosity overall tended to disclose their virginity status when they identified as a virgin, but not as a non-virgin. Virgins concealed their virginity status from religious communities when they stigmatized their own virginity but disclosed to family and peers when they viewed virginity as a gift. Overall, the results suggest that, although religiosity and virginity beliefs indeed play a role in DVS toward certain targets, one's gender and virginity status appear to be most important. Increased education on the double standard regarding gender and virginity status may help reduce stigma and improve sexual well-being.

Animalising and Mechanising Self-Determined Women Characters Regardless of Their Class Structure in Jasoda — A Feministic Perspective

The study illustrates that sexual harassment endured by women, is no way related with their class, position, hierarchy, culture, place or security. Jasoda contributes to this research by exhibiting the women characters belonging to varied societal standards undergoing abuse and oppression regardless of the hierarchal structure. The author surprises the readers by drafting women characters with self-determined characteristics and stooping to bear the patriarchal pressure exerted over them. The study throws light on the complex psychic behaviour of the independent woman protagonist, successful in sustaining herself and the family all by her own, yet subduing to her husband’s patriarchal oppression. Patriarchy steps forward in every situation where women are objectified or animalised. The paper further studies the animalisation and mechanisation of the female body by the male patriarch and also focuses on the breakage of stereotypes, built by the patriarchal power, over women society and femininity.

Eating Disorders

A much discussed and worrisome topic today is growing ratio of eating disorders among people especially youth. Eating disorders are characteristic behavioral disorders which present persistent disturbances in eating behavior with body weight, body image and body shape continuously preoccupying an individual’s mind. These behavioral disorders affect a person’s social life along with affecting physical and psychological health. Excessive food intake, compulsive strenuous exercise, food restriction, starvation, use of laxatives, vomiting immediately after eating, binging and purging are some behaviors which depict the presence of an eating disorder. Collectively, up to 5% population, mostly adolescents and young adults suffer from eating disorders. Usually both male and female of any age and ethnicity are at equal risk of having an eating disorder but generally women suffer more as compared to men. Of eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia nervosa are common among females but can also occur in males. Psychiatric problems also occur hand in hand with eating disorders such as disproportionate mood swings, OCD, anxiety and panic attacks and different drugs abuse. Treatment of eating disorders involves treating psychological as well as physical complications along with addressing malnutrition, GERD and other gastrointestinal problems.
 Out of other eating disorders bulimia nervosa has shown increasing trends among youth. Binge eating or Bulimia nervosa is eating larger quantity of foods in shorter time span. A binge eater firstly binges on food, feels ashamed of his/her action and weight, purges secretly and also feels guilty for eating too much. While binging is done with consuming large quantity of food or filling up to the throat within short time, associated discomfort, nausea and vomiting source the purging phase. Occurrence of bulimia nervosa among young females and adolescents is high but statistics also indicate increasing ratios in young adolescent males. Although bulimia is common among youth, it can affect individuals of all ages and gender having low, normal or high weight.
 Adolescents and young adults suffering from bulimia nervosa are often those who are mentally preoccupied with weight issues, fear to gain weight, have a dreadful urge to lose weight, are super conscious and discontented with their body image, size and shape.
 An emblematic case of an individual with bulimia nervosa is often an adolescent to young adult female or male having an enthusiastic, goal oriented, perfectionist, and diligent, introverted and stubborn personality. Such individuals are also awful self-critics and tend to have low self-esteem based on body image distortion. Regardless of the physical parameters, binging on large quantities of food and then purging them out gives the person a sense of satisfaction by eating the desired type of food in hefty amounts along with a sense of control and relief by throwing up or excreting it out as an attempt to maintain weight. Generally the affected individuals do this to eat whatever they want while maintaining or losing weight upon wish. This mechanism also relieves stress, anxiety and reduces negative moods for them, keeping them calm and composed by giving the person a sense of control in at least one aspect of his/her life, which largely explains reason for the increased ratios of bulimia among youth who are constantly subjected to body shaming, peer pressure, fear of being left out, sky rocketing pressure from social media to be and look perfect and to be up to the mark with the societal beauty standards.

RAMBUT SEBAGAI ASPEK PENDISIPLINAN TUBUH PEREMPUAN: STUDI KASUS PADA BIKSUNI BUDDHA TANTRAYANA-TIBETAN

This article tries to examine the fact that the biological determination between men and women contains the practice of disciplining the body that is formed due to social construction. Women's bodies tend to receive more control than men's because the image idealized of women. The body is then domesticated and gendered, and people lose their authority over their bodies. However, in everyday reality, there are some women voluntarily experience bodily discipline because they choose to live a celibate life. Thus, there is a friction between the femininity concept by societal standards and religious teachings, in this context is symbolized by the shaving of the head among female Buddhist monks. By shaving her head, instead of being considered less feminine, they look more divine. The case study of a female monk in the teachings of Tantrayana-Tibetan Buddhism also included to strengthen the analysis.

An Unethical Organizational Behavior for the Sake of the Family: Perceived Risk of Job Insecurity, Family Motivation and Financial Pressures.

In organizations, unethical behaviors are pervasive and costly, and considerable recent research attention has been paid to various types of workplace unethical behavior. This study examines employees’ behaviors that are carried out for the benefit of one’s family but violate societal and organizational moral standards. Drawing upon the self-maintenance and bounded ethicality theories, this study examines the engagement of unethical organization behaviors (UOB) in the name of the family during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the influence of job instability and the mediating role of family financial pressure and family motivation. A total of 770 employees in hotels and travel agents in Egypt were targeted, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results posit that perceived risk of job insecurity predicts engagement in unethical organizational behaviors, while intentions of UOB increase by high family motivation and financial pressures. Toward the end of this paper, a discussion on the theoretical and practical implications and are presented.

Prospective relationships between skin color satisfaction, body satisfaction, and binge eating in Black girls

Although it has been demonstrated that (a) body dissatisfaction and internalization of societal appearance standards contribute to disordered eating and (b) that internalization of societal appearance standards leads to decreased skin color satisfaction among Black women, it has not been established whether skin color dissatisfaction contributes to disordered eating among Black women or girls. The objective of the present study is to determine the influence of skin color satisfaction as a potential predictor for binge eating, and its effect through body image in Black girls during the vulnerable developmental period of adolescence. Using data from ten annual measurements in 1213 Black girls across ages 10–19, we sought to determine whether skin color satisfaction predicts Binge Eating Disorder (BED) risk and symptoms using pre-registered logistic and multilevel models. We found that lower skin color satisfaction at ages 13 and 14 significantly predicted greater odds of BED and lower skin color satisfaction at all ages predicted greater BED symptoms. Body satisfaction mediated the relationship between skin color satisfaction and BED symptoms. Our results suggest that skin color dissatisfaction is a novel component of body image for Black girls that is also related to binge eating.

Gender Discrimination in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara: A Critical Analysis

Mahesh Dattani is a distinguished contemporary Indian playwright in English who works as a writer, stage and film director, actor, and theatrical personality. His plays are on the issues that arise in Indian contexts. He writes about those who are on the margins of society, such as minorities, women, gays, and transsexuals. The purpose of my paper is to investigate the female child's trauma in Mahesh Dattani's Tara. The predicament of Tara is akin to those of myriad unfortunate Indian females. In this conservative society, there are numerous obstacles to nurturing a girl child. On the one hand, they discover empowerment through good education, financial success, and individualism in society, yet our culture is unable to decimate long-held biases against them. "The girl child is still an undesirable arrival into an Indian home, even when the family is ostensibly educated and even has exposure to Western ideas," argues Dr. Jyoti Sharma (1). In this play, Tara is the daughter of an educated upper-middle-class family in Bangalore. The play's plot revolves around twins who are born with three legs, with blood circulation to the third leg coming from the newborn girl's torso. Only one of the twins could have two legs, while the other had to make do with one. The unwavering pronouncement to attach the third leg to the boy child's body to complete the child. This decision was not based on the medical ground but due to gender discrimination and injustice towards girl children in our Indian society. Dattani is concerned with gender discrimination and inequality toward girl children. This is done not because the girl is incapable of surviving in the merciless hands of society, but because societal conventions, economic standards, and cultural elements are to blame for this horrific activity. All of these circumstances constitute an ideology in our society in which the girl child must live and die. In this case, a girl's potential is sacrificed on the altar of gender, in which a female's role is also unforgettable and unforgivable, resulting in this unwelcome criterion.

Good intentions, bad behavior: A review and synthesis of the literature on unethical prosocial behavior (UPB) at work

SummaryScholars have investigated work behaviors that are intended to help others, yet at the same time violate societal values, norms, laws, or standards of proper conduct. We refer to these actions collectively as unethical prosocial behavior (UPB) at work. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the UPB literature. Our review makes several contributions: First, we clarify definitional issues surrounding UPB, while also offering suggestions for the improvement of measurement and methodology in the study of UPB. Second, we review the major theoretical perspectives that have been adopted in empirical research on UPB at different levels of analysis and summarize the empirical findings on the topic. In doing so, we highlight the theoretical and empirical challenges facing this work. Finally, we develop an agenda for future research that clears a path toward resolving these issues and advancing knowledge of UPB.

Effects of decentralization on ethnic conflict resolution in South Sudan: A case study of Juba county

The study examined decentralization's contribution to ethnic conflict resolution in Juba County, South Sudan, a gap that existing studies have not filled. The study administered a questionnaire to 349 representatives of households in Juba County's Rejaf and Luri payams and interviewed 41 key informants in these payams and within the Juba City Council. The survey respondents were selected using the multi-stage sampling technique, while the key informants were purposively selected based on their experience with the subject matter. The survey data were analysed using SPSS, while the qualitative data were analysed using narrative and content analysis techniques. The study reveals that decentralization's overall contribution to ethnic conflict resolution in Juba County is marginal because it has not been implemented as planned, making people associate it with reducing local autonomy, and exacerbating impunity of high-profile people, rampant land disputes, grand corruption, tribalism and nepotism, and unbalanced development. Nevertheless, decentralization has made local authorities more responsive to citizens' needs than central government officials, increased inter-ethnic unity, and enhanced citizens' participation in decision-making processes, among others. The study concludes that decentralization's effectiveness in ending ethnic conflicts in South Sudan requires complete devolution where the central government not only vests local governments with political and administrative powers but also fiscal and legal authority. Then, there must be a robust system of downward and upward accountability in the confines of rule of law, to make everyone abide by societal standards and norms, and end injustices that allegedly push people to pursue their rights violently.

PR Practitioners’ Conceptualisation of the Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility Planning and Implementation

Over the years, practitioners and stakeholders have regarded the practice of stakeholder engagement as a non-essential part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The only standard corporate practice was to invest in developing CSR and sustainability programmes with minimal involvement of those they materially affect, also known as their stakeholders. However, engaging with stakeholders is no longer optional. In theory, the reflective public relations paradigm emphasises the need for organisations to meet stakeholder and societal expectations, values, norms, and standards by conducting themselves in a socially responsible manner in their communities. Against this background, this study evaluated PR practitioners’ conceptualisation of the role of stakeholder engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility planning and implementation using the Public Relations reflective paradigm conceptualised by Susanne Holmström. The study also adopted the stakeholder approach to CSR formulated by Freeman. The study followed an exploratory qualitative research approach, involving six PR practitioners involved in CSR within their organisations in Cape Town. The researchers selected participants through the purposive sampling technique. The findings of this study revealed that stakeholder inclusivity and engagement vary for each organisation. However, in many organisations’ corporate social responsibility strategies, the most common goal is to engage and put all their stakeholders at the forefront.

Does Environmental and Social Standards Influence Workers Psychology? A Cognitive Analytics Management as A Strategic Factor

Background: The desire to contribute to sustainable development was translated into a search for the broadest possible consensus, at the international level, on the means of integrating responsible behavior into the company, by providing operational guidelines on dialogue with stakeholders. In spite of the complexity of challenges of environmental and societal standards effect on workers psychology, there has been limited research which explains this relationship. Therefore, the goal of this article is to explore the ripple effect generated by employment of environmental management criteria (ISO 14000) combined with social responsibility standard (ISO 26000) as integrated system designed to cope with cognitive analytics management (CAM) on employees psychology and behavior. Method: The study is based on survey instrument and it was targeted a sample of 300 companies from Tunisian industrial sector. The quantitative and qualitative exploratory research design was adopted through the structural equation model (PLS-SEM). Results: The findings showed that there is an indirect relationship between organizational effectiveness as a determinant of ISO standards and intention, sense of self-efficacy as a workers psychology criteria. The causality path of different constructs has been approved via CAM which played the mediator role and ensured the establishment of ISO practices and its effects to employees’ behavior by extracting tacit knowledge to explicit. Conclusion: The organizational effectiveness induced through the coding of knowledge towards the decoding of employee behavior through loyalty, commitment, pride, trust, belief in personal effectiveness, promote the role gives by the manager to his employees in achieving the strategic ambitions of the organization, and more specifically in their confidence ability to coordinate voluntarily in the interests of the company.

Supplemental Material for Just Be Yourself? Regulatory Focus Moderates the Effects of Societal Standards Attainment on Personal Well-Being

Supplemental Material for Just Be Yourself? Regulatory Focus Moderates the Effects of Societal Standards Attainment on Personal Well-Being

Pakistani Women Take Facebook with A Pinch of Salt; Men Go Overboard

The growing popularity of social networking sites among people has resulted in the blurring of the distinctions between offline and online people’s identities. Peoples are frequently enticed to publicly express themselves on social media in ways that reveal their personality. The study looked at how the Pakistani people used language to (re)construct their gender identities on Facebook. The researcher used qualitative approach in this study and selected 60 posts of male and female for analysis. The findings of the study shows females are more concerned with establishing social interactions and displaying closeness to others while still adhering to societal standards and expectations. Males posting prefer to discuss issues linked to personal and individual activities,while females prefer to discuss relationships and social perspectives. In reality, the current study suggests that an individual's identity is constantly formed and reshaped by their social, cultural, and technical surroundings.

An investigation of influencer body enhancement and brand endorsement

PurposeAs the cosmetic surgery industry grows and diversifies, societal beauty standards have shifted to include images of surgically enhanced bodies. With the increased use of influencer marketing, it is important for marketers to understand consumer perceptions of these modified appearances. This paper aims to use the lens of perceived morality (PM) to investigate consumer perceptions of cosmetic surgery services and the effect of enhanced body appearance on consumer interest in an endorsed brand. Interpersonal similarity (IS) is tested as a boundary condition.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach was taken with a qualitative study and two online experiments. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling (NStudy 1 = 133) and Amazon Mechanical Turk (NStudy 2 = 202; NStudy 3 = 270).FindingsThe themes uncovered in the qualitative study revealed that cosmetic surgery services were acceptable when internally motivated but may signal inauthenticity. The findings of Study 2 suggested consumer interest in an endorsed brand was negatively impacted by body enhancement (BE), with PM as the underlying mechanism. Study 3 results demonstrated IS moderated this effect. The indirect effect was significant only for those low in IS.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the underexplored area of cosmetic surgery services and its role in influencer marketing. The findings extend the literature on consumer attitudes and perceptions toward these services and provides insight into the intersection of BE and morality. The contribution is notable, as marketers increasing rely on social media influencers, many of whom have undergone cosmetic surgery services and enhanced their body appearance, to promote their brands.

The relationship between Instagram activity and female body concerns: The serial mediating role of appearance‐related comparisons and internalization of beauty norms

AbstractRecent research showed that body image concerns (i.e., drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction) may be associated with exposure to images on social networking sites. We analysed this relationship by taking into account the possible mediating role of both the appearance‐related comparisons (i.e., the comparison with others on a specific dimension) and the internalization of beauty standards (i.e., the acceptance of the predominant physical‐attractiveness societal standards) in the Italian context. In two studies, we showed that Instagram‐photo activity was positively associated with both drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction through the mediating role of appearance‐related comparisons on Instagram. We further showed that the association between Instagram‐photo activity and body image concerns was sequentially mediated by appearance‐related comparisons on Instagram and the internalization of beauty standards. Female participants who engaged in Instagram‐photo activity also expressed greater concerns about their bodies as they were highly likely to make more comparisons relative to the appearance dimension and show high levels of internalization of beauty standards. These findings are discussed within theoretical and applied implications in the social media domain. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

An exploratory study of how business schools approach AACSB’s societal impact standards

AACSB adopted new and revised standards in 2020 that require business schools to demonstrate positive societal impact through internal and external activities. While many schools are already engaged in such activities, there seems to be no agreed-upon conceptualization or measurement of societal impact. This paper aims to help business schools organize, measure, and demonstrate their efforts to create positive societal impact and thus meet the updated AACSB standards. By using data from semi-structured interviews, this paper identifies different dimensions of positive societal impact and offers enablers and barriers in business school efforts to create such societal impact.

Demon in a Dress?

Demon in a Dress?

ROLE OF FEMALE PARLIAMENTARIANS IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN PAKISTAN

This article attempts to elucidate the female parliamentarian’s role in social and political change in Pakistan by looking at it through the lens of the country’s historical progress. With an emphasis on historical evolution and current situation, the article also discusses social constraints that have made it difficult for women to engage in the political system in the past. Women’s political engagement should be enhanced in the future, and an assessment of these concerns may produce some helpful ideas. In this study article, researchers have examined employing a qualitative research approach which is also called market research method that focuses on acquiring data through open-ended and conversational dialogue. These qualitative research approaches allow for in-depth and additional probing and questioning of respondents based on their responses, where the researchers also seek to understand their purpose and sentiments. The study also finds that Women’s political empowerment across the country is limited by social and cultural standards, as well as by their economic dependency on the male counterparts of their household. Women’s engagement is also limited by low literacy rates and the segregation of men and women in social positions. There will be no meaningful impact on women’s engagement in the public life particularly political life, until there is a progressive adjustment in societal standards, which should begin at the grassroots level and work its way up. For starters, women must be granted greater social and economic autonomy.

Combating the Challenges of Intellectual Freedom: The Perspective of Librarians in Academic Libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria

Background: Censorship of library materials denies people's right to access, use, retrieve, and store materials of their desire. Intellectual freedom is critical to eliminating the constraint of censorship. Issues such as illiteracy, societal standards, and selection policy hadbeen identified as challenges to intellectual freedom. The existing body of literature revealed that library materials are subjected to censorship and this denies readers’ rights to access desirable information at any point in time. Aim: This research examined the perception of librarians on combating the challenges of intellectual freedom. Methodology: The target population for this study included professional librarians working in eight (8) selected academic libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 60 respondents from the 8 academic libraries involved in the study. A questionnaire of 6 research questions was developed for the collection of data. Findings: The results indicated: the majority of the respondents agree that there are equal opportunities for library users to access library materials, obscene and controversial materials are subjected to censorship, library selection policy restricts library users’ access to desired materials. Lifting restriction of access to library materials was identified as the way to combat the challenges of intellectual freedom. Recommendations: The authors recommends that government should ensure that the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) is passed to enable library patrons’ have access to all information materials and that library stakeholders should create awareness, publicity, or enlightenment on intellectual freedom to inform the users of their rights to hold, use, and access information materials of their choice.

How the Pursuit of Sustainability Poses Tradeoffs Between Legitimacy and Reputational Spillovers

Due to persistent dynamism regarding societal standards and expectations of sustainability, firms are increasingly expected to pursue sustainability by way of increased commitments to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Likewise, amidst such uncertainty and dynamism investors are likely to reward industry-specific conformity of ESG practices as a means of reducing risk. We argue, however, that such conformity regarding ESG practices increases the unanticipated risk of negative reputational spillovers in the event that the firms’ peers and their ESG practices are publicly criticized. We test our hypotheses using a balanced panel dataset of 2,313 companies across 62 industries and 70 countries from 2013 to 2018. Our results suggest that although conformity indeed benefits a firm’s financial performance on average, it also accentuates negative spillover effects—effects, which in the event that industry peers are highly criticized, can outweigh any legitimacy-related gains associated with conformity. Firms in industries with highly diverse sustainability practices alternatively benefit from positive spillovers when their industries’ peers are severely criticized. Our findings contribute to longstanding research on categorization and optimal distinctiveness, while advancing the growing and important literature on spillover effects in the context of sustainability.