Unitary Concept Research Articles

Underestimating the Relationship: Unpacking Both Socioeconomic Resources and Cognitive Function and Decline in Midlife to Later Life.

Although there is robust evidence that socioeconomic position influences later-life cognitive function, two issues limit knowledge regarding the nature and magnitude of these relationships and potential policy interventions. First, most social science research tends to treat cognition as a unitary concept despite evidence that cognitive outcomes are not interchangeable. Second, most biomedical research focuses exclusively on education, with limited attention to economic resources despite robust social science theoretical and empirical rationales for their role. Relatedly, there has been limited attention to how these relationships may vary across cohorts, even as educational and economic contexts have changed. Using the Health and Retirement Study (N = 36,494), we show that failing to attend to different facets of cognition, socioeconomic resources, and cohort differences leads to underestimates in the magnitude of educational and economic disparities in cognitive function and decline. This has important implications for appropriate policy interventions to address these disparities.

When failure is the option: Unravelling sexual assault outcomes

We investigate the concept of “criminal failure” in sexual crimes and the relevance of various theoretical frameworks for its understanding: individual offender's rational choice, environmental influences and routine activities, victimological characteristics from lifestyle theory, and crime interaction factors. We examined a sample of 1121 “failed” cases (i.e., attempted but not completed) and 1500 “successful” cases (i.e., completed) of sexual assault that occurred in France between 1990 and 2018. We used 32 predictors that mapped on the four theoretical frameworks and conducted bivariate followed by multivariate analyses. Multiple theoretical frameworks are relevant to understand criminal failure, which is a product of perpetrator, environmental, victimological, and interactional factors. Two distinct patterns are specifically associated with failure: lack of preparation and lack of social skills. In addition, failure was best understood not as a unitary concept, but as multifactorial by distinguishing between different types of failure, specifically: offender intentionally released the victim before completion, victim escaped or third party rescue. Finally, patterns of failure were different in sexual crimes against children compared to those against adults. Criminology should pay closer attention to failure in crime. This understudied area can yield important theoretical knowledge and practical implications regarding the prevention of sexual crimes.

When decolonization is hijacked

AbstractThis article asks how we should reconceptualize decolonization when it is hijacked by authoritarian/fascist forces. It focuses on the notorious Bhima Koregaon case in India in which 16 intellectuals/human rights defenders from across the country were imprisoned without trial as alleged terrorists. It shows how, on the one hand, decolonization is hijacked by the Hindu authoritarian regime and, on the other hand, colonial artifacts are resymbolized by the colonized to oppose oppression by native elites. It urges attention to the questions of who is mobilizing the language of decolonization and why. It argues that the most important anticolonial intellectuals may not use the language of decolonization and may not be in universities, but on the streets, with social movements, and in prison. It proposes that contemporary decolonization debates center processes of domination and oppression created by the state and global capital nexus, processes that are cultural, psychological, political, and economic. These processes are shown to entrench casteist/racist hierarchies, work through Indigenous elites, and create internal differentiation within marginalized communities, eschewing a unitary concept of indigenous ontology/cosmopolitics/worldviews. Calls for an emancipatory politics, such as that of decolonizing anthropology or the university, would be well placed to center these global processes and local nuances.

Job Satisfaction of Female Workers in Different Garments Factories in Dhaka City: An Intertemporal Comparison

Job satisfaction is an attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is gratified by or fulfilled in his/her job. It is an affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job. This meaning of job satisfaction implies that job satisfaction is not a unitary concept. Rather a person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of his or her job and dissatisfied with one or more other aspects. Thus, we can differentiate at least two aspects of job satisfaction ⎯ facet satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Facet satisfaction is the tendency for an employee to be more or less satisfied with various facets of his or her job. A large number of related research has been conducted in different countries including Bangladesh. Alam (1986) conducted a research on the job satisfaction of female workers in different garment factories in Dhaka City in 1983. He measured the level of overall satisfaction and analyzed the nature of facet satisfaction of 200 female workers. He concluded that a minor percentage of female workers in different garment factories are satisfied with their jobs, and there is a positive relationship between their level of job satisfaction and the level of wages/salaries and other identified factors. The objective of the present study is to measure the overall level of job satisfaction of female workers in different garment factories and to identify factors contributing to job satisfaction and factors contributing to job dissatisfaction. The present study also ranks all identified factors according to their relative importance by using a formula developed by Alam in 1983 (Alam, 1986). Finally, the present study makes intertemporal comparisons of overall job satisfaction level and of the nature of facet satisfaction over the twenty two-year period (between 1983 and 2005). Such intertemporal comparisons are necessary because of the fact that over the last twenty two years, as the garment industries of the country has expanded significantly, the nature of human resource management in this sector has changed in many aspects. As a result, job satisfaction status and the absolute as well as relative importance of factors contributing to satisfaction level are expected to change.

Understanding the frames before Fox: the development of unitary and pluralist views on organisations

PurposeThis article examines the intellectual antecedents of Alan Fox’s frames of reference and contributes to academic work that seeks to unravel the pre-Donovan roots of British industrial relations. It examines the origins of the unitary and pluralist frames of reference with a particular focus on the work of Norman Ross.Design/methodology/approachThis article draws on published academic materials to examine the origins of the unitary and pluralist frames of reference.FindingsThe article identifies usage of the term “frame of reference” in industrial relations literature from the 1940s and demonstrates the origins of the unitary and pluralist conceptions of the firm in the works of Ross in the 1950s and 1960s.Originality/valueThe article provides a “fresh look” at the origins of the frames of reference.

Alan Fox and the managerial “unitary” frame of reference in unionised companies: context, roots, elaboration and international applicability

PurposeThis study investigates the origins and elaboration of the managerial “unitary” frame of reference associated with Alan Fox, focusing on unionised firms: the industrial relations context, intellectual roots, elaboration, adaptation by other writers, and international applicability.Design/methodology/approachTracing the above requirements through contemporaneous sources.FindingsFox’s designation of the unitary frame needs to be understood in its 1960s’ context, particularly the promotion of “productivity bargaining”, and its furthering through management training and education. Fox’s specific contribution is identified. Subsequent UK writers have underplayed the importance of the legal dimension of managerial authority, especially relevant in the US context, while other extra-economic factors bolster the managerial unitary frame in authoritarian societies such as China.Originality/valueThe use of Fox's neglected 1960s’ writings; tracking how Fox developed the unitary frame concept and how it was funnelled into the narrow parameters of non-unionism by subsequent writers; identifying its applicability beyond the UK (with the USA as a historical example and China as a contemporary one).

Normative Pluralism and Sporting Integrity

ABSTRACT Official documents, such as the Word Anti-Doping Code (WADC), argue that sport can be deemed a homogenous and unitary concept. Even where different sports have varying characteristics, the homogenous view of a given sport (‘a sport’ or ‘the sport’) persists. The WADC, international and national sport associations aim to protect the spirit of (the) sport. In this picture, the intersection of sporting integrity and legal processes occupies a vital place. The article will posit that, from a legal perspective sport is heterogeneous due to its governance, regulation, adjudication, and enforcement structures. International and national associations, such as sport federations and leagues, have separate normative orders. These normative orders lead to differences in ensuring sporting integrity. A plural normative environment is inherent in sport; thus, we need to deal with it. The article will conclude that although harmonising norms and interpretations related to sporting integrity through national and global institutions may be acceptable, these must be achieved by promoting good governance and human rights.

Outlining a novel psychometric model of mental flexibility and affect dynamics.

Theoretically, affective states have always been conceived as complex phenomena enabling individuals to respond flexibly and dynamically to environmental demands. Methodologically, the novel field of Affect Dynamics has started to analyze affective states as inherently dynamic and interdependent phenomena by focusing on how and why they fluctuate over time. Fluctuations of affective states can also be conceived as a function of individuals' ability to flexibly modulate their responses according to environmental demands. However, this ability has been sparsely investigated in different disciplines and domains, thus, engendering a plethora of terms and models. In this conceptual analysis, we first aimed to disentangle the puzzle of flexibility by outlining the distinctive cross-domain features of this concept, thus providing a novel comprehensive operationalization. We termed this novel unitary concept "mental flexibility," the general ability to variably adapt to environmental demands. Then, we outlined the interplay between individuals' mental flexibility and affect dynamics by proposing a novel psychometric model of affect dynamics, using Markovian chain.

Empirical Investigation of How Social Media Usage Enhances Employee Creativity: The Role of Knowledge Management Behavior.

Employee use of social media in the workplace has become a common phenomenon. Thus, how to effectively manage and utilize employee social media usage in the workplace has become a new issue. This study examines how employees' work-related and social-related social media usage at work can present different impacts upon their creativity through knowledge management behaviors. To test the research model, this study collected data from 425 employees in various industries in China and utilized a covariance-based structural equation model (CB-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results suggested that work-related social media usage enhances employee creativity through promoting knowledge sharing and restraining knowledge manipulation. On the contrary, social-related social media usage cannot indirectly influence employee creativity through knowledge management behaviors. This study contributes to the literature on social media research by providing theoretical arguments on how employee use of social media for different purposes affects their creativity. Furthermore, this research offers the insight of the different paths of work-related and social-related social media usage that influence employee creativity rather than treating social media usage as a unitary concept and linking it simply with work results. This study also explores the role of three knowledge management behaviors in the relationship between social media usage and employee creativity.

The Enigma of Interpersonal Justice in Private Law Theory

Abstract The purpose of this article is to establish that contemporary private law theory has located no foolproof conception of interpersonal justice. I examine four accounts and find them wanting: the instrumentalist deterrence and loss-spreading approaches of economists; Kantian right and corrective justice; critical and social justice accounts; and the human flourishing approach. If my critiques are justified, this leaves us with the enigma of ‘interpersonal justice’. I consider three options going forward, rejecting the suggestion that we should abandon the search for a theoretical concept or be content with a modus vivendi. I sketch a third option, ‘emancipating interpersonal justice’, drawing from the resources of contractualist philosophy, to suggest that interpersonal justice is not a unitary concept or single regulative idea but a framework for determining what we owe each other in different spheres of interaction, and propose how this might illume certain questions of private law theory.

Reflecting on eclecticism in garden heritage: The Monforte Gardens in Valencia as a case study

Precedent historic styles were analysed and recovered by historicist revisionism and revivalism during the nineteenth century. The lack of a style of its century lead to eclecticism, a trend that involved a merging of diverse ornamental repertories. Accordingly, eclectic garden design employed historic styles of different origins. As the cities grew, suburban gardens were integrated within the urban sprawl. The Monforte Gardens in Valencia represent a relevant case study characteristic of nineteenth century major garden design and development transformations. Most significant are the design resources and strategies introduced in the original design by Sebastián Monléon and, subsequently by Javier de Winthuysen as this research —including a thorough redrawing of the garden layout— gives evidence of. The Monforte Gardens represent an eclectic urban gardening design example in which the different parts maintain their independence without losing an overall unitary concept. Although traditionally considered neoclassical gardens, this research argues they should be properly considered as eclectic romantic gardens.

“Becoming Muslim”

Archaeology is in a unique position to offer a material culture based perspective on Islamization and conversion to Islam, particularly in regions where historical sources might be limited or absent. This is explored with reference to two archaeological areas, Gao in Mali, and Harlaa in Ethiopia to assess if similar material markers can recur archaeologically through evaluating mosques, Muslim burials and Arabic epigraphy, settlement structure and domestic architecture, animal and plant remains, ceramics, and miscellaneous artifacts potentially suggestive of Islamization in both regions, primarily for the period between the 11th–13th centuries CE. It is concluded that the evidence from Gao and Harlaa attests the variety of interpretations of Islam that exist, but, correspondingly, through the recurrence of key markers such as mosques, Muslim burials, and Arabic epigraphy, also affirms material similarity, yet without having to make course to a unitary and erroneous concept of “African Islam.”

Kraepelin, the unitary psychosis theory and the classification in psychiatry

IntroductionThe history of psychiatry is the history of the unitary psychosis concept. Recent studies on this subject by prominent authors (Huda, Stanghellini, Broome, etc.) confirm that the problem has not been resolved but that it reappears now with more force from skeptical positions, based above all on the insufficiency of the classification criteria official (ICD-10, DSM-V). This skepticism has led to an attempt to make the line that separates normality from mental illness disappear with the weak argument that isolated psychotic symptoms are detected in the general population.The proposals to stop these movements that border on the denial of mental illness try to provide more information on the contextual and subjective factors of mental illness, thus reinforcing the so-called biopsychosocial model formulated by Engel in 1976, whose conceptual imprecision is largely responsible for the problems before indicated as well as other more serious ones for the organization of psychiatric care.ObjectivesPoint out the insufficiencies of the biopsychosocial model.-Point out the advantages of acquiring a classic evolutionary approach such as the one designed by Iván Pavlov besides the Volga and improved by some followers.-highlight the differences between researching in psychopathology, a true science, or doing it in clinical psychiatry, its practical application. This distinction is essential.MethodsThe works of some authors who have approached this conflict with dedication and rigor will be reviewed.Research lines followed during last hundred years in psychiatry will be contrasted with the results obtained.ResultsNew points of view and new tools need to be incorporated to solve this conflict that confuses experts so much are proposed.Ways of working are indicated that should avoid confusion between psychopathology and clinical psychiatryConclusionsA psychiatric diagnosis must be established on solid conceptual basis that we currently lack.-Both Kraepelin and Kurt Schneider are two key figures to recover and keep current in our daily practice.-The importance of patient’s subjectivity when taking an anamnesis of their problems seems very important. The question is how to manage that subjectivity in order to analyze it from a classical scientific model, Pavlov’s great desire.-A revisiting of Husserlian phenomenology is essential in the training plans of young psychiatrists and in daily psychiatric care. But this is not enough. We need new tools and new conceptual frameworks so that the phenomenological perspective can contribute to put light in problems as important as those generated by the constant change of diagnosis that is carried out with many patients.If we want a scientific psychiatry we cannot handle with tools that have failed since their creation.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Human Rights and the Novel After UNDRIP: On Louise Erdrich's Justice Trilogy

Abstract: This essay extends Joseph Slaughter's argument that the genre of the novel and human rights discourse are "mutually enabling fictions," by examining three novels by the celebrated Native American author Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) created in the wake of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). UNDRIP presented a significant innovation in human rights discourse, extending the concept of human rights not just to individuals but to whole communities and transnational collectivities of Indigenous people. Erdrich's The Plague of Doves (2008), The Round House (2012), and LaRose (2016) have been grouped together as her "Justice Trilogy" for their common thematic exploration of justice as a concept in its various legal, theological, metaphysical, and personal meanings. And yet the books all remain essentially unsatisfying in their inability to resolve the central question of whether justice was, or ever can be, done. I propose that this is because the real aim of the books is not to elaborate on a unitary concept of justice at all, but rather to think through the problem of the enabling conditions of justice, namely human rights. Together, the novels loosely describe a history of human rights discourse related to Native Americans, with The Plague of Doves exploring the absence of human rights and the impossibility of justice in the moment of non-Indigenous settlement of the Great Plains, and The Round House exploring justice and human rights in the context of the compromised sovereignty of reservations during the era of "self-determination." The final book, LaRose , explores problems of justice, mourning, and revenge in the context of a fictional world in which cultural rights and Indigenous sovereignty are taken as givens; in other words, within a regime of human rights similar to what is proposed in UNDRIP.

Towards nonconservative conditions for equilibrium stability. Applications to switching systems with control delay

The objective of the paper is to give a unitary approach to nonconservative conditions of the equilibrium stability. The focus is on a real world system defined by a switched linear mathematical model having control delay. A control synthesis based on predictive state feedback is first applied to compensate the actuator delay. This results in a closed loop switching system free of delay. Then, a theorem giving conservative sufficient conditions of global uniform exponential stability for a switched system is proved. Next, a theorem expressing necessary and sufficient stability conditions is cited, in which the differences compared to the proved theorem are highlighted, but whose mechanism could not be applied in practice. Finally, it is shown how the problem of nonconservativeness can be solved starting from an important theorem given in the literature that uses the idea of homogeneous polynomial Lyapunov functions originating in the Hilbert’s famous 17th Problem. The paper investigates the complexity of the method in terms of numerical computation volume, and offers a way to circumvent the conflict between the method and the mathematical model. In this manner older and newer results are presented in a unitary concept and in a selfcontained approach. Numerical simulations are applied to a real-world model: an active vibration control for a physical model of an intelligent airplane wing in a wind tunnel. The substantial result of the simulations is the minimum guaranteed dwell time that characterizes the equilibrium stability of the switching system with control delay.

Identity, Dignity and the Politics of Resentment

In his 2018 book, Identity, the Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, Stanford University politi­cal scientist Francis Fukuyama addresses themes which might more properly be considered matters of political philosophy and the philosophy of law: How are we to navigate between traditional, ethnic, unitary conceptions of the nation on the one hand, and the threat of identitarian fragmentation on the other? Though Fukuyama affirms the importance of the concepts of human dignity and identity, more or less as these are commonly understood, he also criticizes the contemporary phenomenon of identity politics—which he views as a danger to liberal democ­racy. “The rise of identity politics in modern liberal democracies,” writes Fukuyama, “is one of the chief threats that they face;” and moreover, “unless we can work our way back to more universal understand­ings of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict.” This paper raises the question of whether the well reasoned case against identity politics as a threat to national unity and purpose leaves room for skepticism of fast-paced and more ambitious (“Wilsonian”) pursuit of internationalist goals of globalization. Greater emphasis on political consensus at home may helpfully strengthen the hand of American foreign policy in support of liberal democracy. But we now look back with well founded skepticism on neo-conservative interventionism, and there are just and needed limits on globalizing internationalism imposed by and implicit in the retreat from identity politics. Having lost the unity of purpose of Cold War liberalism, we are yet to find a “golden mean” avoiding ethnic nationalism and short of political fragmentation.
 

Autobiographical memory and the self on the psychosis continuum: investigating their relationship with positive- and negative-like symptoms

ABSTRACT Autobiographical memory is severely impaired in schizophrenia, but previous work has largely treated both as unitary concepts. Here, we examined how various dimensions of autobiographical memory relate to different aspects of psychosis. Participants were recruited from the general population (Study 1, N = 264) and a university subject pool (Study 2, N = 305). We examined different measures of autobiographical memory and self (i.e., involuntary memory, autobiographical recollection, self-knowledge and self-awareness), at the trait level in Study 1 and both trait and state levels in Study 2, as a function of positive-and negative-like symptoms of psychosis. Across both studies, positive and negative dimensions of psychosis were found to be related to an increase in involuntary memories (i.e., the spontaneous recall of personal memories), and to lower self-concept clarity and insight. Positive and negative dimensions of psychosis correlated differently with autobiographical recollection characteristics, measured at both trait (Studies 1 and 2) and state levels (Study 2). Positive-like symptoms (in particular hallucination-proneness) showed a stronger and more consistent pattern of correlations than negative-like symptoms. These findings call for a dimensional approach to the relationship between autobiographical memory and psychosis symptoms in clinical and non-clinical individuals, to better understand the breakdown of autobiographical memory in the psychopathology of psychosis.

Youth Empowerment from the Educator’s Perspective: The Individual and Community Dimensions

This research studies how educators help young people to be empowered. It is built from a pedagogical model of youth empowerment comprising nine variables: self-esteem, responsibility, critical capacity, efficacy, community identity, meta-learning, participation, autonomy and teamwork. Our aim is to analyze youth empowerment factors from the educators’ perceptions of this concept, taking into account different educators’ fields and different uses of methodological strategies. In this quantitative cross-sectional study, the survey technique is applied. We analyzed responses to a questionnaire obtained from 696 educators (including teachers and social pedagogy professionals), through structural equation models (multigroup analysis) and non-parametric techniques. The results suggest that both groups of educators see youth empowerment as a unitary concept, but with two dimensions: the individual and the community. Teachers and social education professionals share the same conception of empowerment and perceive their contribution to it in the same way. On the other hand, differences were detected in the use of methodological strategies when working with young people. The results are discussed in the light of the existing literature, and appear to confirm the need to revisit the differentiation between the formal and non-formal when characterizing educators’ actions.

Types of Intelligence and Academic Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The concept of intelligence has been extensively studied, undergoing an evolution from a unitary concept to a more elaborate and complex multidimensional one. In addition, several research studies have focused their efforts for decades on the study of intelligence as a predictor of academic performance of students at different educational stages, being a stable and highly relevant predictor along with other variables such as executive functions, social context, culture or parental guardianship. Thus, the present study, based on a systematic review and meta-analysis, includes 27 studies with a total sample of 42,061 individuals. The main objective was to analyse the relationship between intelligence and academic performance using different predictive models that include moderating variables such as country of origin, type of intelligence, gender and age. The findings of this research highlight the significant, positive and moderate relationship between intelligence and academic performance (r = 0.367; p < 0.001), highlighting the predictive capacity on school performance when the type of intelligence (general and implicit; 35%) or the country of origin (45%) is taken as a moderating variable, with the explanatory models on age or sex not being significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that intelligence, in addition to being a good predictor of academic performance, is influenced depending on the type of intelligence or theoretical model taken as a reference, and also depending on the country or culture of origin.

Thematic object pairs produce stronger and faster grouping than taxonomic pairs.

Studies of visual object processing have long appreciated that semantic meaning is automatically extracted. However, "semantics" has largely been defined as a unitary concept that describes all meaning-based information. In contrast, the concept literature divides semantics into taxonomic and thematic types. Taxonomic relationships reflect categorization by similarities (e.g., dog-wolf); thematic groups are based on complementary relationships (e.g., swimsuit-goggles). Critically, thematic relationships are learned from the experienced co-occurrence of objects whereas taxonomic relationships are based on shared structural similarities. In two studies with adults (N = 66 Experiment 1; N = 44 Experiment 2), we test whether visual processing of thematic objects is more rapid because they form a perceptual unit and serve as mutual visual primes. The results demonstrate that visual processing benefits between thematically related objects are earlier than taxonomic ones, revealing a link between how information is acquired (e.g., experienced vs. unobserved) and how it modulates perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).