Why Does Cognitive Reserve Align With Modern Western Ideals of Success? Theoretical & Methodological Proposals

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a framework that investigates discrepancies between brain pathology and cognitive decline. In explaining why individuals with similar levels of brain pathology display different levels of functional impairment, CR research focuses on factors that resemble modern, Western ideals of success: greater education, professional achievement, a self-directed life, and physically and intellectually stimulating leisure time. This theoretical paper documents this alignment between CR and modern, Western ideals of success to hypothesize different mechanisms by which CR may operate. The focus in the CR literature has been on investigating and operationalizing the direct cognitive changes that come from intellectual cultivation, and the native abilities that are hypothesized to produce differences in both education and cognitive outcomes. This paper argues that an attention to CR’s relationship to current definitions of success presents alternative hypotheses about the mechanisms by which CR operates. Specifically, the paper outlines two potential mechanisms and frames alternative means of studying them: First, does the accrual of CR simply follow from being successful in conventional ways because of the material benefits of wealth and stability that success brings? Second, does a lack of success carry cognitive risks solely because of material deprivation, or are there additional psychosocial penalties that come from living a non-normative life—especially when that is not of one’s choosing? This paper proposes both cross-cultural and intersectional methods to begin to better understand the relationship between normative success and cognitive health.

Travel and Exposure to Western Culture

There are various reasons countries sometimes choose to regulate travel both in and out of their borders. During the Communist Era, countries in the Soviet bloc restricted travel mainly to prevent defection, and out of fear that people would realize life might be better outside the iron curtain. This chapter examines the impact travel restrictions had and shows they were largely unsuccessful in preventing exposure to Western ideals and culture. Many examples are given that show that without even having to travel people in Czechoslovakia and Hungary were learning through radio, television, books, and film how life was different in the West. Through personal remembrances, this chapter illustrates the effect of travel constraints and why people view the ability to travel freely as one of the main advantages of communism falling.

Ethics education in Maltese public schools: a response to otherness or a contribution to Othering?

This paper reflects on the establishment of an Ethics Education Programme for school pupils aged between five and sixteen years who opt out of Catholic Religious Education in Malta. It needs to be seen in the light of the changing demography of Malta and the increasing secularisation of the country, as well as to the growing racism, islamophobia and rejection of the Other to be found all over Europe (and of course beyond). We question if the Ethics Education Programme, in its commitment to ‘totalising’ western ideals of rationality, autonomy, and universal values, is itself rooted in discomfort with the Other and constitutes a form of ethical violence. The work of Emmanuel Levinas on Otherness, sameness and violence is central to this paper.

Family Approaches for Trauma

A three-level definition of a family therapy approach is offered. On a theoretical level, the authors define family approaches as those organized around systems theory and constructivism. On an assessment level, they define family approaches as those that operate from a three-person unit of analysis, identifying three-person interactional patterns and three-person interactional exceptions. From an intervention perspective, the authors define family therapy approaches as those that aim to change interactional patterns and/or enlarge interactional exceptions. Family approaches to working with trauma are then reviewed. Finally, the chapter addresses cross-cultural competence and trauma. The authors note the dominance of Western ideals and argue for the inclusion of and sensitivity to non-Western cultural understandings.

The Limits of Liberal Internationalism

This chapter addresses how Fulbright’s views on race complicated American exchange programs with African nations in the 1960s. At the height of the civil rights movement, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson sought to improve relations with newly decolonized African nations, and Fulbright’s influence over exchange programs complicated that pursuit. Though Fulbright believed that boosting mutual understanding through exchange was the world’s best hope for creating and maintaining peace, he did not believe that all people—not least Africans—would be able to grasp the liberal, Western ideals he wished to spread. Though he was known as a racial moderate, his outlook on policy was hemmed in by the color line at home and abroad, a fact that constrained the US government’s African exchange programming. He preferred that the focus of exchange programs remain on Europe.