Style Of Interpretation Research Articles

Who’s Afraid of Canaan’s Curse?

The story of Noah’s curse of his grandson Canaan (Gen. 9:18–29) is especially well suited to an interpretive style Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has labeled “paranoid reading.” Oft exploited by those invested in xenophobia and racism, this passage appears to present an intrinsically identitarian plot that cannot be shaken off, either by historicizing or by other kinds of critical engagement. Indeed, historical critical analysis has tended to confirm rather than undermine the story’s determination to justify disinheritance on the basis of some vague form of sexual perversion. In her later work, however, Sedgwick began to call such paranoid readings into question, advocating a more open, descriptive, and anti-foundational approach to texts and histories. These “reparative reading” practices cede paranoia’s determination to be “in the know” to descriptive multiplicity and more limited acts of noticing. Inspired by Sedgwick’s insights, this essay considers the advantages of paranoid reading strategies, especially when it comes to this story, even as it acknowledges the serious limits of such readings, which have yet to succeed if the goal is to undermine the stickiness of sexualized and racialized blaming rooted in this difficult biblical text.

CORAK PENAFSIRAN M. QURAISH SHIHAB DALAM TAFSIR AL-MISBAH

This article examines the patterns of M. Quraish Shihab’s interpretation in his work Tafsir Al-Misbah. From the beginning it appears that Tafsir al-Misbah uses multidipliner approach in assessing and interpreting the Koran. So that, it is can be concluded that M. Quraish Shihab is subjectivist position. It can be seen from his styles of interpretation often strengthened by historical data as the data interpretation or sometimes data cited from other holy scriptures such as Gospel and the Book of the Law. The later is cited to use as a comparison in order to strengthen his interpretation argument over the verses of Qur'an . Nowadays, these types of interpretation effort are quite influential in understanding the Qur'an. although the progression of the new interpretation is measured based on the ability of the developing community.

Another Person in the Room: Using Interpreters During Interviews With Immigrant Workers.

Cross-language research poses many challenges. When researchers and participants do not speak the same language, meanings expressed by participants might not be understood in the same way by researchers, and the richness of participants' experiences might be lost. This can lead to the misrepresentation and silencing of issues faced by these participants, especially newcomers. In this article, we critically examine our experience conducting qualitative interviews with injured immigrant workers with the help of professional interpreters. Using examples from our field notes and transcripts, we outline some of the key difficulties we faced: varying styles of interpretation, breeches of interview conventions, and miscommunications with interpreters. We discuss how these issues affected our study design, rapport with participants and, ultimately, data quality. We end with a discussion of how to improve cross-language and cross-cultural research.

Text and Context: Contract Interpretation as Contract Design

Contract interpretation remains the most important source of commercial litigation and the most contentious area of contemporary contract doctrine and scholarship. Two polar positions have competed for dominance in contract interpretation. In a textualist regime, generalist courts cannot consider context; in a contextualist regime, they must. Underlying this dispute are contrary assumptions about the prototypical contract each interpretive style addresses. For modern textualists, contracts are bespoke, between legally sophisticated parties who embed as much or as little of the contractual context as they wish in an integrated writing, and prefer to protect their choices against judicial interference by an interpretive regime including parole evidence and plain meaning rules. For contextualists in contrast, contracts are between legally unsophisticated parties in two prototypical settings. The first is the mass market, standardized contract between sophisticated sellers and unsophisticated consumers, who cannot bargain over contractual terms; the second involves commercial parties doing business in a deeply nuanced world where formal and informal understandings mix and the meaning of a particular contract can be illuminated by the parties' course of dealings. For the contextualist, willfully restricting a court's access to information bearing on the parties' real relationship in both cases degrades judicial interpretation. We argue that the narrow focus on which prototype should apply universally has erroneously framed discussion of the parties’ choices and led to an inconclusive and limited debate about the role of courts in contract interpretation. The range of options for parties and generalist courts is much more diverse and variegated than the choice between ex ante party autonomy and ex post adjudication. We present a typology of transactional settings — the design space for contract — sufficiently rich to capture the breath of current contractual experience but sufficiently parsimonious to clarify the central relationship between the factors that shape the design of any given contract and the role of courts in interpreting it. We show that design and judicial response depends, first, on the level of uncertainty and, second, on the thickness of the market — whether there are many traders or few engaged in a similar class of transactions. The higher the level of uncertainty, the less workable complete, state-contingent contracts become, and the more parties develop interpretive mechanisms based on rich and regular exchange of information on a project’s progress that allows each to gauge the other’s capacity to define and produce a product. The greater the number of traders engaged in a transaction, the more likely that the interpretive regime — terms adapted to current need — will be provided by a trade association or, given collective action problems, a public regulator. The interplay of uncertainty and scale illuminates new forms of contracting among legally sophisticated parties unanticipated in discussions of textualist prototypes, and recasts the contextualist prototypes as special cases that demand novel institutional responses, including generalist courts sufficiently versed in the parties’ practices that they resemble early courts of equity. More generally, our analysis reveals a surprising complementarity between public regulation and common law adjudication in a variety of settings. Contractual interpretation today should attend to today’s contracts and courts: Our aim is to escape the stalemate between textualists and contextualists and open the way for doctrine and debate to support the novelty of contemporary contracting practices.

Education of Women in Islam: A Critical Islamic Interpretation of the Quran1

In Islam, knowledge, its acquisition and application is a fundamental requirement for all Muslims to enable them to believe, think, and act according to the principles of the religion. However, differences in style of interpretation of the Qur’an have led to text being interpreted against its own fundamental worldview; an example is the recent attempted assassination of a Pakistani girl for advocating female education. Based on analysis of selected verses, this article argues that the worldview of the Qur’an places importance on gaining knowledge of different kinds to fulfill divine requirements as well as all forms of human endeavor.

The cognitive process of identity reconstruction after the onset of a neurological disability

Purpose: Rehabilitation professionals and researchers underscore the impact of an acquired disability on identity. However, the cognitive process by which identity is transformed is understudied. The present study aims to explore the cognitive process by which personal identity is reconstructed following disability onset. Methods: A template organizing style of interpretation was used to perform a qualitative analysis based on the Cognitive-Developmental Model of Social Identity Integration (CDMSII) using interview data from 10 participants with traumatic brain injury or traumatic spinal cord injury. Results: As suggested by the CDMSII, following the accident, participants initially tend to emphasize distinctions between their pre- and post-injury conditions. Eventually, individuals are able to create cognitive connections between pre-injury self-knowledge and how they understand their new condition. Finally, in the last stage of the identity integration process, the various identity components are recognized as part of the self. Organizing data based on the three stages of this theory was found to resonate with participants and aided the comprehension of how every stage in the identity reconstruction process is intertwined with the need for continuity through life. Conclusions: The CDMSII offers a useful heuristic for understanding long-term identity reconstruction and the present research emphasizes the importance of a sense of continuity following disability onset.Implications for RehabilitationA central concern in the adjustment process following disability onset is identity reconstruction. The Cognitive-Developmental Model of Social Identity Integration is useful to understand this process.This study highlights the importance of a sense of continuity throughout the identity reconstruction process following disability onset.Therapists should first help to identify core pre-injury identity characteristics in order to sustain a sense of continuity. Subsequently, the patient can be helped with the creation of meaningful links between significant pre-injury characteristics and the post-injury circumstances.The process of identity reconstruction following disability onset spans many years, therapists need to address this issue in a long-term perspective.

Attachment-Related Individual Differences in the Consistency of Relationship Behavior Interpretation

The consistency with which people interpret relationship-based information has important implications for attachment theory and research. Our objective is to determine whether there are attachment-related individual differences in the manner and the consistency with which individuals interpret hypothetical relationship behaviors. In two studies (N = 629, 79% female, 63% American, M(age) = 29; N = 820, 78% female, 65% American, M(age) = 29), we assessed participants' ability and consistency in relationship behavior interpretation across two blocks and estimated how they would have performed had they interpreted information perfectly consistently. Secure participants were generally more consistent in their interpretations relative to insecure participants. Estimates of perfectly consistent interpretation revealed that improvements to both systematic factors related to behavior interpretation (e.g., working models) and consistency would have led to a more secure interpretation style for participants of all attachment styles. Results imply that both secure and insecure individuals process relationship-based information according to secure scripts, but insecure individuals do so inconsistently. Our results imply that, due to the inconsistent behavioral responses that may occur as a result of inconsistent information processing, the consistency with which people process relationship-related information will be related to relationship satisfaction. Further directions for future research are discussed.

An experimental investigation of emotional reasoning processes in depression

Cognitive models of depression emphasize how distorted thoughts and interpretations contribute to low mood. Emotional reasoning is considered to be one such interpretative style. We used an experimental procedure to determine whether elevated levels of emotional reasoning characterize depression. Participants who were currently experiencing a major depressive episode (n = 27) were compared with those who were non-depressed (n = 25 who had never been depressed and n = 26 previously but not currently depressed) on an emotional reasoning task. Although there were some trends for depressed participants to show greater levels of emotional reasoning relative to non-depressed participants, none of these differences attained significance. Interestingly, previously depressed participants engaged in more non-self-referent emotional reasoning than never-depressed participants. Emotional reasoning does not appear to characterize mild to moderate levels of depression. The lack of significant differences in emotional reasoning between currently depressed and non-depressed participants may have been a consequence of the fact that participants in our currently depressed group were, for the most part, only mildly depressed. Non-self-referent emotional reasoning may nevertheless be a risk factor for subsequent depressive episodes, or else serve as a 'cognitive scar' from previous episodes. In contrast with the predictions of cognitive models of depression, emotional reasoning tendencies may not be especially prominent in currently depressed individuals. Depressed individuals vary greatly in the degree to which they engage in emotional reasoning. Individuals with remitted depression may show elevated of levels non-self-referent emotional reasoning compared with those who have never had a depressive episode, that is, rely on their emotions when forming interpretations about situations. Our findings require replication using alternative indices of emotional reasoning. Our currently depressed individuals were only mildly clinically depressed precluding conclusions about individuals with more severe levels of depression.

Reducing negative interpretations in adolescents with anxiety disorders: A preliminary study investigating the effects of a single session of cognitive bias modification training

Anxiety disorders are globally prevalent, debilitating and onset in early life. Cognitive bias modification of interpretations (CBM-I) training has emerged as a targeted intervention for early emerging anxiety problems. While CBM-I can alter interpretational styles in unselected and clinical-analogue samples of adolescents, no studies have assessed its capacity to change biases in clinical samples. Here, we assessed training efficacy in ameliorating interpretation biases and anxious mood in adolescents with anxiety disorders. Twenty-eight Chinese adolescents meeting criteria for a current anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to receive positive or neutral CBM-I training. Training involved completing a word-fragment to resolve the outcomes of sixty ambiguous scenarios. During positive training, scenarios ended with benign/positive resolutions, but during neutral training, half of the scenarios were resolved positively and half negatively. Positively trained patients interpreted new ambiguous scenarios less negatively than the neutral training group although training effects were not observed on a questionnaire measure of interpretation bias. Training effects on mood were also absent. Before the clinical implications of CBM-I can be considered in adolescents, research needs to establish optimal training parameters for symptom-changes to occur.

The political economy of memory: the challenges of representing national conflict at ‘identity-driven’ museums

This article investigates how national histories marred by racial conflict can be translated into narratives of group identity formation. I study the role of “identity-driven” museums in converting American’s racial past into a metanarrative of black identity from subjugation to citizenship. Drawing on a thick description of exhibitions at 15 museums, interviews with curators and directors, museum documents, and newspaper articles, I use the “political economy of memory” as a framework to explain how ideological and material processes intersect in the production of exhibitions. I show that in addition to struggles over the truth and interpretive styles, more prosaic issues of funding, attendance, and institutional capacity-building hve an impact on representational selectivities. I explain how these issues affect black museums operating during the civil rights and post-civil rights eras. I consider the motivations and consequences of “remembering” national histories of violence and intolerance through the prism of group identity formation.

How the Analytic Process Is Captured and Absorbed into the Familiar, the Feared, and the Desired

In their transference efforts to maintain psychic equilibrium (Joseph, 1989), some patients will do their best to convert their analysts into familiar, dreaded, or desired internal objects which they then react to or relate to. The interpersonal, interactional, and intrapsychic pull for the absorption and utilization of the analyst into a predesigned and pathologically limited figure creates countertransference struggles and phases of enactment that can go unnoticed, denied, or justified. Even when analysts maintain their analytic balance, the patient can manipulate, mishear, and transform words, actions, and intentions into very specific archaic objects or part objects. Case material is used to illustrate the way in which patients attempt to turn the analytic process and the therapeutic relationship into an acting out of wished for or painfully familiar self and object interactions. This method of subsuming the analytic method can be quite subtle, or it can be very obvious but still extremely difficult to shift, interpret, or recover from. Indeed, the analyst can easily be drawn into this perversion of analytic procedure and end up participating in various enactments. With such patients, the nature of the unconscious fantasies projected into the transference matrix and the intensity of the patient's object relational conflicts almost guarantee some degree of ongoing countertransference acting out. So, the ongoing and repetitive interpretive style needed with such patients is both helpful and healing as well as often becoming a contribution to the fundamental pathology the patient repeats in the clinical setting. Although the transference dynamic being examined could be understood from a number of theoretical perspectives, the author focuses on the Kleinian psychoanalytic method.

Interpretive style and intolerance of uncertainty in individuals with anxiety disorders: A focus on generalized anxiety disorder

Interpretations of negative, positive, and ambiguous situations were examined in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), other anxiety disorders (ANX), and no psychiatric condition (CTRL). Additionally, relationships between specific beliefs about uncertainty (Uncertainty Has Negative Behavioral and Self-Referent Implications [IUS-NI], and Uncertainty Is Unfair and Spoils Everything [IUS-US]) and interpretations were explored. The first hypothesis (that the clinical groups would report more concern for negative, positive, and ambiguous situations than would the CTRL group) was supported. The second hypothesis (that the GAD group would report more concern for ambiguous situations than would the ANX group) was not supported; both groups reported similar levels of concern for ambiguous situations. Exploratory analyses revealed no differences between the GAD and ANX groups in their interpretations of positive and negative situations. Finally, the IUS-US predicted interpretations of negative and ambiguous situations in the full sample, whereas the IUS-NI did not. Clinical implications are discussed.

Truth and Wisdom: Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsā'ī's Influence on the Bahā'ī Approach to the Understanding and Practice of Religious Ordinances

Many religious movements have at one time or another had to acknowledge the effect of historical developments and social changes on the applicability of their sacred laws. This has been especially true for Shi’a Islam, whose history was, for long, one of disappointment and defeat. Throughout the centuries, Shi’a jurists gradually developed a rather distinct set of conceptual tools, and a unique religious structure, to deal with these changes. The implication of these developments for one’s understanding of the nature and meaning of religious truth, though, remained largely uninvestigated by these jurists. In the early part of the 19th century, Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa’i (1753–1826) and Siyyid Kazim al-Rashti (1793–1843) embarked on an enterprise to revise popular Shi’a understanding of religious truth. Together, they tried to show that religious truth was neither static nor could it be reduced to the outward meanings of Qur’anic verses and Islamic traditions. Instead, they portrayed truth as that which would have to unfold through an unceasing dialectic between the worlds of creation and revealed text (naql), and within the enlightened hearts of illumined souls who have rid themselves of preconceptions and become imbued with spiritual virtues. Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim referred to their proposed method of encounter with and search for religious truth as dalil-i-hikmat (lit. the proof of wisdom). This paper attempts to portray ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s interpretive style as proof of wisdom par excellence. It begins with a study of the term ‘hikmat’, as commonly used in the Baha’i writings and parlance, to refer to the effect of situational factors on the shaping and application of Baha’i laws and teachings. It proceeds to show how this particular usage is linked to, and informed by, the Shaykhi approach to truth, and to demonstrate how this approach is endorsed in the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and finds expression in his encounter with questions regarding the applicability of Baha’i laws. The paper aims to suggest that the Baha’i community’s collective decision-making needs to become better informed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s hermeneutical approach to the understanding of the teachings of the Baha’i Faith.

Cognitive bias modification training in adolescents reduces anxiety to a psychological challenge

Many anxiety disorders begin in adolescence. Early interventions that target adolescent anxiety may prevent later disabling consequences. Previous studies show that cognitive bias modification training can generate positive interpretative styles of ambiguous information in adolescents but effects on anxious mood reduction are less clear. Adult studies suggest more consistent training effects on mood when assessed in response to a psychological challenge. Here, we assess whether positive training reduces adolescent anxious responses to a laboratory stressor. A total of 40 adolescents were randomly assigned to positive or negative computerised training. During training, ambiguous scenarios were resolved positively or negatively. After training, adolescents completed a test of interpretation bias and a difficult mental arithmetic task while believing that they were being videotaped for teaching purposes. First, positively-trained adolescents endorsed more positive and fewer negative interpretations of new ambiguous situations than negatively-trained adolescents. Second, positively-trained adolescents also showed attenuated anxiety levels after but not before the challenge. Induced positive interpretations via computerised cognitive training may modify anxious responsivity. Although there are some caveats to these data, in general they justify extensions of computerised training to adolescents with clinical anxiety, to reduce anxious responsivity.

Bonhoeffer for the Coming Generations: The New English Works

The process of discovering, preserving and transmitting Bonhoeffer's works, both in German and English, is one of the most significant stories in theology after World War II, in some ways mirroring the dramas and complexities of Bonhoeffer's own life. The near completion of the Bonhoeffer Works Series in English, based on the scholarly German edition, is the culmination of over 20 years' work by scholars in the USA, Canada, Britain and South Africa, and makes available the entire known legacy of Bonhoeffer's works, both in new translations of previously published works and many that have hitherto been unknown in English. As well as involving much historical and textual research, the project has faced major questions of translation, interpretation and language style. The series enables a new generation of scholars to explore for themselves Bonhoeffer's thought as a whole, in its complexities, continuities and radical changes, and its persistent challenges for today.

A Phylogenetic Approach to Music Performance Analysis

This paper presents a novel algorithmic approach to music performance analysis. Previous attempts to use algorithmic tools in this field focused typically on tempo and dynamics alone. We base our analysis on ten different performance categories (such as bowing, vibrato and durations). We adapt phylogenetic analysis tools to resolve the inherent inconsistencies between these categories, and describe the relationships between performances. Taking samples from 29 different performances of two pieces from Bach's sonatas for solo violin, we construct a ‘phylogenetic’ tree, representing the relationship between those performances. The tree supports several interesting relations previously conjectured by the musicology community, such as the importance of date of birth and recording period in determining interpretative style. Our work also highlights some unexpected inter-connections between performers, and challenges previous assumptions regarding the significance of educational background and affiliation to the historically informed performance (HIP) style.

The End of ‘Modes of Liability’ for International Crimes

AbstractModes of liability, such as ordering, instigation, superior responsibility, and joint criminal liability, are arguably the most-discussed topics in modern international criminal justice. In recent years, a wide range of scholars have rebuked some of these modes of liability for compromising basic concepts in liberal notions of blame attribution, thereby reducing international defendants to mere instruments for the promotion of wider sociopolitical objectives. Critics attribute this willingness to depart from orthodox concepts of criminal responsibility to international forces, be they interpretative styles typical of human rights or aspirations associated with transitional justice. Strangely, however, complicity has avoided these criticisms entirely, even though it, too, fails the tests international criminal lawyers use as benchmarks in the deconstruction of other modes. Moreover, the source of complicity's departures from basic principles is not international as previously suggested – it stems from international criminal law's emulation of objectionable domestic criminal doctrine. If, instead of inheriting the dark sides of domestic criminal law, we apply international scholars’ criticisms across all modes of liability, complicity disintegrates (as do all other modes of liability) into a broader notion of perpetration. A unitary theory could also attach to all prosecutions for international crimes, both international and domestic, transcending the long-endured fixation on modes of liability within the discipline.

Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion

Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion

D.C. v. Heller and the Death of Consistent Constitutional Jurisprudence

When ruling on the day's most politicized legal issues, the Supreme Court has abandoned consistent interpretive theory. This paper will examine the Roberts Court's tendency to resolve divisive issues on a policy, rather than legal, basis, and will show that this trend is exemplified by the Court’s landmark Heller opinions. Part I of this paper will discuss the traditional importance of theories of Constitutional interpretation. Part II will examine the Constitutional theory subscribed to and consistently applied by Justice Scalia, perhaps the Court's most outspoken proponent of a consistent and defined interpretive style. Part III of this paper will delve into Justice Scalia's Heller opinion and show that the interpretive model used by the Court is simply an inconsistent gloss used to obscure a political ruling. This paper will conclude by showing that the interpretive inconsistency that marks the Heller opinion is not isolated to the Heller case but rather has become the rule for this Court.

The Plasticity of Adolescent Cognitions: Data from a Novel Cognitive Bias Modification Training Task

Many adult anxiety problems emerge in adolescence. Investigating how adolescent anxiety arises and abates is critical for understanding and preventing adult psychiatric problems. Drawing threat interpretations from ambiguous material is linked to adolescent anxiety but little research has clarified the causal nature of this relationship. Work in adults using Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) training show that manipulating negative interpretational style alters negative affect. Conversely, 'boosting' positive interpretations improves affect. Here, we extend CBM-I investigations to adolescents. Thirty-nine adolescents (13-18 years), varying in trait anxiety and self-efficacy, were randomly allocated to receive positive or negative training. Training-congruent differences emerged for subsequent interpretation style. Induced negative biases predicted a decline in positive affect in low self-efficacious adolescents only. Tentatively, our data suggest that cognitive biases predict adolescent affective symptoms in vulnerable individuals. The acquisition of positive cognitions through training has implications for prevention.