Exploring Multi-Issue Activism

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (01) ◽  
pp. 63-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Ann Andersen ◽  
M. Kent Jennings

AbstractMulti-issue activists are sorely understudied, despite their acknowledged importance as bridges between social movements and issue domains. In this article we explore multi-issue activism, beginning with a large sample of AIDS activists and charting the degree and nature of overlapping issue involvement, the key role of “initiator” issues, and individual characteristics that promote multi-issue activism. We demonstrate that the great majority of these AIDS activists had sizable prior and ongoing participation histories in other issues, suggesting that movement across issue areas may be the norm rather than the exception. We also show that involvement in specific past issues served as gateways to later involvement in AIDS, that psychological engagement in politics prompted cross-issue activism even among these already activated individuals, and that unique personal characteristics (in this case gender and sexual orientation) led to more issue interconnectedness.

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-274
Author(s):  
George Gillett

Why are the diagnostic criteria of some psychiatric disorders standardised by gender while others are not? Why standardise symptom questionnaires by gender but not other personal characteristics such as ethnicity, socioeconomic class or sexual orientation? And how might our changing attitudes towards gender, born from scientific research and changing societal narratives, alter our opinion of these questions? This paper approaches these dilemmas by assessing the concept of diagnosis in psychiatry itself, before analysing two common approaches to the study of psychiatric diagnosis; the naturalist and constructivist views. The paper assesses the relative merits and significance of each, before turning its attention to the nature of gender and its relevance to psychiatry. The paper introduces a framework to approach gender-based diagnostic bias and concludes by drawing a distinction between qualitative and quantitative standardisation, arguing that gender standardisation of psychiatric diagnoses is ethically justified in the former but not the latter.


Author(s):  
Aleksandra Mitrovic ◽  
Juergen Goller

Facial attractiveness is one of the most ubiquitous forms of beauty that people encounter and value. It is a unique category in visual aesthetics because of its deep biological foundation and essential significance for social interactions. This chapter gives an overview and discusses the rich history of facial attractiveness research from four perspectives. First, the face itself is discussed, asking what makes a face attractive, with reference to local features such as eye color and spatial configurations, and global characteristics like symmetry and averageness. Attention then turns to the face bearer, and a distinction is drawn between facial attractiveness and personal characteristics like mate quality, familiarity, and the “what is beautiful is good” stereotype. Next, the chapter examines the role of the observer, and how individual characteristics explain differences in taste and effects of facial attractiveness on perception and cognition. Finally, some inherent limitations to this research are addressed.


Author(s):  
Magdalena Obermaier ◽  
Thomas Koch ◽  
Christian Baden

Abstract. Opinion polls are a well-established part of political news coverage, especially during election campaigns. At the same time, there has been controversial debate over the possible influences of such polls on voters’ electoral choices. The most prominent influence discussed is the bandwagon effect: It states that voters tend to support the expected winner of an upcoming election, and use polls to determine who the likely winner will be. This study investigated the mechanisms underlying the effect. In addition, we inquired into the role of past electoral performances of a candidate and analyzed how these (as well as polls) are used as heuristic cues for the assessment of a candidate’s personal characteristics. Using an experimental design, we found that both polls and past election results influence participants’ expectations regarding which candidate will succeed. Moreover, higher competence was attributed to a candidate, if recipients believe that the majority of voters favor that candidate. Through this attribution of competence, both information about prior elections and current polls shaped voters’ electoral preferences.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104-109
Author(s):  
Chernysh O.O.

The urgency of the researched problem is connected with the growing role of mass media in modern conditions leads to change of values and transformation of identity of the person. The active growth of the role of the media, their influence on the formation and development of personality leads to the concept of “media socialization” and immutation in the media. The aim of the study is to outline the possibilities of the process of media socialization in the context of immutation in the media. The methods of our research are: analysis of pedagogical, psychological, literature, synthesis, comparison, generalization. The article analyzes the views of domestic and foreign scientists on the problem of immutation in the media and the transformation of the information space. In the context of the mass nature of the immutation of society, the concept of “media socialization” becomes relevant, which is the basis for reducing the negative impact of the media on the individual.The author identifies the lack of a thorough study of the concept of “media socialization” in modern scientific thought. Thus, media socialization is associated with the transformation of traditional means of socialization, and is to assimilate and reproduce the social experience of mankind with the help of new media.The article analyzes the essence of the concepts “media space”, “mass media” and “immutation”. The influence of mass media on the formation and development of the modern personality is described in detail.The study concluded that it is necessary to form a media culture of the individual, to establish safe and effective interaction of young people with the modern media system, the formation of media awareness, media literacy and media competence in accordance with age and individual characteristics for successful media socialization. The role of state bodies in solving the problem of media socialization of the individual was also determined. It is determined that the process of formation of media culture in youth should take place at the level of traditional institutions of socialization of the individual.The author sees the prospect of further research in a detailed analysis and study of the potential of educational institutions as an institution and a means of counteracting the mass nature of the immutation of society.Key words: immutation, media socialization, mass media, media space, information.


Author(s):  
Inna A. Koroleva ◽  

This article is dedicated to the 110th birthday anniversary of a great Russian poet, native of Smolensk, one of the founders of the Smolensk Poetic School Aleksandr Tvardovsky (1910–1971). It examines how Smolensk motifs and Tvardovsky’s love for his home town are reflected in his works at the onomastic level. Smolensk-onyms reflected in long poems are analysed here, the focus being on anthroponyms and toponyms naming the characters and indicating the locations associated with Smolensk region. A close connection between the choice of proper names and Tvardovsky’s biography is established. An attempt is made to demonstrate how, using onomastic units introduced by the author into the storyline of his artistic text, the general principles of autobiography and chronotopy are realized, which have been noted earlier in critiques of Tvardovsky’s literary works. The onomastic component of the poems is analysed thoroughly and comprehensively, which helps us to decode the conceptual chain writer – name – text – reader and identify the author’s attitude to the characters and the ideological and thematic content of the works, as well as some of the author’s personal characteristics, tastes and passions. At the onomastic level, the thesis about the role of Smolensk motifs in Tvardovsky’s literary works is once more substantiated. A review is presented of onomastic studies analysing proper names of different categories in Tvardovsky’s poems (mainly conducted by the representatives of the Voronezh Onomastic School and the author of this article). It should be noted that Smolensk proper names in the entire body of Tvardovsky’s poetry are analysed for the first time.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lewis Bernard ◽  
George A. Backus ◽  
Walter E. Beyeler
Keyword(s):  

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