bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Procreation, Children, and Family
Authors: von Thaden Robert H.
Published: October 2019

This chapter situates the rhetoric surrounding procreation, children, and family within the New Testament in its ancient context. Eschewing claims of uniqueness, it describes recent research into ancient understandings of family and children centered in the oikos, or household. It examines this rhetoric found in the Synoptic Gospels, Paul’s letters, and the Pastoral Epistles and the different ways that the communities that produced these texts participate in and reconfigure norms and expectations from surrounding Hellenistic, Roman, and Jewish cultures. It notes the tension, also found in non-Christian ancient cultures, between positive portrayals of family and children (as in the Household Codes) and negative evaluations of the same (in texts expressing an apocalyptic eschatological hope). It concludes by noting that early Christ-believing communities did not radically alter the situation of children in antiquity, even as they did create theological rationales for avoiding practices such as exposure and infanticide.
Sexual Slander
Authors: Drake Susanna
Published: October 2019

This essay explores sexual slander in early Christian literature in order to show how it illuminates the Greek concept of porneia, the formation of religious and cultural identities, and the regulation of sexual practices within early Christian communities. Porneia is central to understanding sexual slander in the New Testament because it functioned as an umbrella term for a variety of sexual practices deemed shameful, sinful, or illicit. The essay suggests two related directions for future study. First, studies of sexual slander should take into account the strong ties between slavery, prostitution, sexuality, and social status in the ancient Mediterranean world. Second, more work is needed on the relation of sexual invective and violence. By understanding the early Christian contribution to the twin legacies of sexual polemic and violence, we move closer to a critical understanding of the use of dehumanizing rhetoric and sexualized representation in the justification of violence.
Slavery and Sexual Availability
Authors: Glancy Jennifer A.
Published: October 2019

Any investigation of slavery in the Roman Empire must contend with the sexual exploitation of slaves endemic to the system. Given the diversity of ancient Christian attitudes toward sexuality, there is no reason to expect that a slaveholding ethos touched all Christian communities in a uniform fashion. At issue, however, is not whether the wider context of a slaveholding empire affected the formation of Christian attitudes toward sexuality. At issue is how. The purpose of this essay is to question whether early Christian silence on the issue should be construed as wholesale rejection of a system in which social status scripted social morality, or as complicity with that system. In the end, it is difficult to imagine how the churches could have challenged the right of a male slaveholder to exploit his domestic slaves sexually without challenging his right to claim ownership of other human beings.
Feminist Biblical Interpretation
Authors: Shaner Katherine A.
Published: October 2019

This essay argues that throughout its long history, feminist biblical interpretation has varied widely in definition, in its interpretive commitments, and in strategies for interpreting texts and contexts. It introduces readers to the major strategies used in feminist biblical interpretation as a way of showcasing the project’s diversity within the Western academy. It contextualizes feminist interpretation within conversations about the patriarchal nature of biblical texts, the intersectional identities of women and representations of women, and the ethics of biblical interpretation. In addition, the essay argues that archaeology (images, sculpture, inscriptions, architecture, and/or objects) needs to be incorporated more fully into feminist biblical interpretation.
The Resurrection Body
Authors: Petrey Taylor G.
Published: October 2019

This chapter surveys the relevant ancient Christian and Jewish texts on the resurrection that discuss gender and sexuality and the scholarship about these topics. It provides particular emphasis on the Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels, Paul, and the early Christian reception of their ideas in the second through fourth centuries. The saying of Jesus that those who are resurrected shall be “as angels” is central to early Christian theologies of the body and sexuality. Paul’s discussion of the nature of the resurrected body and the importance of the parts also informs how early Christians developed these ideas. The tension in early Christian writing about the resurrection was between those who emphasized continuity between the mortal and resurrected self, and those who emphasized a radical change between the two. Further, the chapter provides an overview to major scholarly methods and approaches to studying the resurrection, including feminist scholarship.
Gender and Sexuality in Postcolonial Perspective
Authors: Tong M. Adryael
Published: October 2019

This chapter analyzes postcolonial biblical criticism as it emerged out of liberation theology, empire studies, and postcolonial theory. It argues that this convergence of disparate theoretical and disciplinary genealogies is what gives postcolonial biblical studies its unique appearance. It then turns to the place of gender and sexuality in postcolonial readings of the New Testament, exploring ways in which such readings both rely on and critique feminist and queer hermeneutics. The chapter highlights some prominent examples and discusses future challenges for scholars engaged in this approach. An extended case study of the problem of anti-Judaism in postcolonial feminist biblical scholarship illustrates key methodological challenges but also new interpretive possibilities.
Who Is the Text? The Gendered and Racialized New Testament
Authors: Lin Yii-Jan
Published: October 2019

This chapter contends that the study of gender, sexuality, and the New Testament is not limited to the content of texts or their historical contexts. On the contrary, how we formulate a textual entity and how we approach that entity contribute to the dynamics that constitute identity, and are thus important to the discussion. In the case of the New Testament, Western Christianity has understood the active Word, or Logos, of God as “masculine” in its creative power. The text of the New Testament, on the other hand, requires historical and philological study, and is decidedly “feminine” in its vulnerability to disease and adulteration, especially in the field of textual criticism. Disrupting metaphors and conceptions of text and speech, masculine and feminine, can be found in ancient Judaism’s formulation of the Written and Oral Torah, as well as in Clement of Alexandria, the Odes of Solomon, and in Plato.
The New Testament and Early Christian Literature in the History of Gender and Sexuality
Authors: Dunning Benjamin H.
Published: October 2019

What is the place of the New Testament and early Christianity in the history of gender and sexuality? This essay explores this question in conversation with feminist and queer theory. It considers the terminology of sex, gender, sexual difference, sex acts, and sexuality both as theoretical concepts and in relation to New Testament and Early Christian Studies. It then surveys the question of ancient androcentrism and the methodological problem posed by the so-called linguistic turn, arguing that the ongoing study of gender and sexuality in the New Testament and early Christianity will, of necessity, continue to be a prismatic, if contested, exercise in writing “the history of the present.”
Dewey, Aesthetic Experience, and Education for Humanity
Authors: English Andrea , Doddington Christine
Published: October 2019

Following from John Dewey’s notion that aesthetic experience is experience in its fullest sense, this chapter focuses on examining Dewey’s concept of aesthetic experience as it is inextricably tied to his concepts of human nature and education. It begins by exploring the concept of aesthetic experience in the context of Dewey’s broader theory of education and growth. The chapter then discusses how aesthetic experiences are cultivated in the context of formal learning settings, including classrooms and outdoor environments, paying special attention to the critical and indispensable role of the teacher in creating situations for students’ aesthetic experiences. In this context, the chapter discusses how Dewey’s critique of traditional and progressive education is still relevant in today’s global education climate. It concludes by discussing the crisis in education as the authors see it today and suggests that Dewey’s views provide three key insights for addressing this crisis: the value of teachers, the role of art as an ethical-political force, and the special place of philosophy of education in the cultivation of shared humanity.
Socialization of Moral Judgments and Reasoning
Authors: Jambon Marc , Smetana Judith
Published: October 2019

This chapter examines the socialization of moral judgments and reasoning through the lens of social domain theory, a constructivist approach to children’s social and moral development. Disciplinary practices, parent-child conversations, and warm, supportive parent-child relationships are each important for children’s developing understanding of moral norms. Parent-child interactions also facilitate children’s and adolescents’ autonomy development, which serves as a foundation for their conceptualization of rights and civil liberties. In addition, peer relationships have both positive and negative implications for children’s and adolescents’ moral development. We highlight the limitations of past research and the need for longitudinal studies using contemporary, theoretically grounded measures, and we conclude by suggesting avenues for future study.
Parenting, Religion, and Moral Development
Authors: Hardy Sam A. , Dollahite David C. , Baldwin Chayce R.
Published: October 2019

The purpose of this chapter is to review research on the role of religion in moral development within the family. We first present a model of the processes involved. Parent or family religiosity is the most distal predictor and affects moral development through its influence on parenting as well as child or adolescent religiosity. Additionally, parenting affects moral development directly, but also through its influence on child or adolescent religiosity. In other words, parent or family religiosity dynamically interconnects with parenting styles and practices, and with family relationships, and these in turn influence moral development directly as well as through child or adolescent religiosity. We also discuss how these processes might vary across faith traditions and cultures, and point to directions for future research.
The Socialization of Children’s Moral Understanding in the Context of Everyday Discourse
Authors: Laible Deborah J. , Karahuta Erin , Van Norden Clare , Interra Victoria , Stout Wyntre
Published: October 2019

Conversations with parents are one important way in which moral and behavioral standards get communicated to children. This chapter explores how the content and style of parent-child discourse might influence children’s socialization and moral development. Although researchers have emphasized the importance of discourse in the context of inductive discipline, there has been little empirical work on how the content of that discourse might influence children’s perception and appropriation of the discipline message. Thus, we speculate on the types of discourse that might be important for promoting children’s moral internalization in the context of discipline. More work has been done on parent-child discourse in other contexts, including on children’s reminiscing, parent-child conflict, and the discussion of hypothetical and real world conflicts. We review this work and highlight the importance of examining the interplay between content and style of discourse in predicting moral development.
Parental Knowledge and Child Disclosure as They Relate to Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors
Authors: Laird Robert D. , Zeringue Megan M.
Published: October 2019

The chapter focuses on parents’ knowledge of their children’s whereabouts and activities, as well as children’s disclosure of their whereabouts and activities to their parents. Knowledge and disclosure have their conceptual and empirical roots in research on parental monitoring, so the chapter begins with a brief historical review of the parental monitoring research. The review is followed by the presentation of a conceptual model of the processes anteceding child disclosure and parental knowledge, and processes linking parental knowledge and child disclosure with children’s prosocial and antisocial behavior. The conceptual model is followed by a review of empirical studies providing tests of the links and processes specified in the theoretical model. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the empirical database and identifies promising avenues for future work on potential connections among knowledge, disclosure, and moral development.
Parenting Styles and Practices
Authors: Mounts Nina S. , Allen Cara
Published: October 2019

This chapter examines parenting styles and parenting practices related to children’s moral behavior. In the first part of the chapter, parenting styles, dimensions of parenting styles, and parenting practices, including induction, power assertion, love withdrawal, rewards, and experiential learning, are presented as main effects in predicting children’s moral behavior. The literature associated with individual dimensions of warmth and behavioral control is examined as well. Next, the literature that examines bidirectional effects between parents and children in predicting moral behavior is examined. Subsequently, mediators of parenting effects, such as sympathy and self-regulation, are examined, followed by a consideration of moderators of parenting effects including attachment, shared positive affect, responsiveness, negative affect, child temperament, emotion regulation, sex of child, age of child, and sex of parents. Extensions to the literature are explored throughout the chapter and in the final section of the chapter.
Evolution and the Parenting Ecology of Moral Development
Authors: Narvaez Darcia
Published: October 2019

Evolutionary theory can enrich developmental theory but not just any evolutionary theory will do. Evolutionary systems theory is a developmentally friendly evolutionary theory unlike selfish gene theory because it identifies multiple inheritances beyond genes and takes into account the complex dynamism of development. One inheritance is the species-typical evolved nest, or evolved developmental niche, a set of community provisions that evolved to match up with the maturational schedule of the child. Ethogenesis describes the development of ethics across the life span. We can identify two primary moral inheritances that are fostered by the evolved nest. The first is engagement, or flexible relational attunement, which includes capacities for resonance, reciprocity, mutuality, sympathy, and egalitarian relations with face-to-face others. The second emerges with the development abstracting capabilities that build on engagement capacities into an inclusive communal imagination. A species-typical nest provides what babies and young children need to develop a full human nature.
Socialization of Moral Emotions and Behavior
Authors: Spinrad Tracy L. , Eisenberg Nancy
Published: October 2019

The experience of empathy and its related responses has been an important topic in developmental research. In this chapter, we review findings involving the socialization correlates of empathy-related responding (i.e., empathy, sympathy, personal distress) and prosocial behavior. In particular, we discuss several potential ways that parents foster children’s prosocial tendencies. The focus is on parental warmth, inductions, modeling, and emotion socialization processes. We briefly consider complexities in the research, such as potential moderators (e.g., children’s characteristics, culture) of the relations of parenting to children’s empathy and moral behavior and the potential for bidirectional relations. Recommendations for future directions in research focusing on the socialization of moral emotions are made. Future directions for research are proposed.
Plato’s Parmenides
Authors: Peterson Sandra
Published: October 2019

This chapter presents a reading of the Parmenides. The Parmenides uniquely depicts Socrates as perhaps 15 or 19 years old in conversation (dialegesthai) with Parmenides Plato’s other dialogues show an older Socrates that uses dialegesthai to engage youths and to test professionals and pretenders. Scholars have questioned whether the difficulties that Parmenides poses for the adolescent Socrates’s admissions about forms seriously damage what Plato’s other dialogues say about forms. Scholars give various answers, for example: Plato thinks none of the objections were worthwhile as objections to his views about forms; the objections record Plato’s “honest perplexity” about forms; Plato is admirably self-critical in revealing difficulties as to his earlier views. The assumption that Plato’s other dialogues intend a theory with which the Parmenides must be reconciled is natural. The assumption’s implications are worth pursuing. In this chapter I defer that assumption as an experiment, and I pursue the results of such deferral.
The Timaeus on the Principles of Cosmology
Authors: Johansen Thomas K.
Published: October 2019

This chapter presents a reading of Plato’s Timaeus. The Timaeus, like the Republic, emphasizes the need to grasp the proper principle of our disciplines of study. As Timaeus says in his opening speech, “Now in every subject it is of utmost importance to begin (arxasthai) according to the natural principle (arkhê)” (29b2–3). But what is the natural principle of cosmology? Timaeus’s cosmology concerns the coming-into-being of the cosmos, down to and including the nature of man. Thus, the question becomes: What is the natural principle of the study of the coming-into-being of the cosmos? It is shown that the principle is a principle of coming-into-being, not of being. Timaeus accepts that there may be more fundamental principles of everything, but cosmology, as he understands it, does not provide the appropriate method for approaching such ultimate principles. The subject of cosmology is the world as it has come into being, and its method one that is appropriate to this subject-matter. Cosmology, as Timaeus understands it, is not concerned with the principle of absolutely everything. Cosmology is not concerned with being as such, its ultimate principle is not the ultimate principle of being, and its method is not that of dialectic, in the Republic’s sense.
The Sophist on Statements, Predication, and Falsehood
Authors: Brown Lesley
Published: October 2019

Plato’s late dialogue, the Sophist, divides clearly into two very different parts. In the Outer Parts (216–236d; 264b9–end), the main speaker, a nameless visitor from Elea in Italy (hereafter ES, for Eleatic Stranger) embarks on a discourse ostensibly designed to say what a sophist is. Using the so-called Method of Division, the ES offers no fewer than seven accounts of what the sophist is. Interrupting the seventh attempt, the Middle Part (236d9–264b8) provides a striking contrast. There the ES undertakes a lengthy discussion sparked by problems arising from defining a sophist as a maker of images and purveyor of false beliefs. This chapter focuses on two key problems discussed and solved in the Middle Part: the Late-learners’ problem (the denial of predication), and the problem of false statement. It looks at how each is, in a way, a problem about correct speaking; how each gave rise to serious philosophical difficulty, as well as being a source of eristic troublemaking; and how the ES offers a definitive solution to both. The Sophist displays an unusually didactic approach: Plato makes it clear that he has important matter to impart, and he does so with a firm hand, especially on the two issues discussed.
Plato’s Metaphysics
Authors: Harte Verity
Published: October 2019

This chapter examines Plato’s metaphysics by narrowing the topic to Plato’s ontology itself in order to locate his metaphysical theorizing within his own immediate tradition. For, unlike metaphysics as such, ontology—understood as the rational investigation of what there is or of being—is a branch of study for which Plato could find obvious precursors in his philosophical predecessors, perhaps most notably, the Eleatic philosopher, Parmenides, in whose Way of Truth one finds an account of a subject identified only as “being” (in Greek: to eon), which attributes to being many of the characteristics that Plato would subsequently ascribe to Forms. In Plato’s works, Forms themselves are identified most generally as “the beings” (in Greek: ta onta, or at least in many places apparently equivalently: ousiai). The chapter focuses on Plato’s place in this tradition.
Plato and Platonism
Authors: Brittain Charles
Published: October 2019

The development of a specifically Platonic philosophy in the Academy or elsewhere was checked by the advent of the Hellenistic schools, which advocated a more empirical approach to philosophical inquiry. As a result, the idea that Plato’s dialogues already presented a well-defined, comprehensive, and essentially correct philosophical system seems not to have arisen until the first century b.c. And it was probably not until toward the beginning of the second century a.d. that a disparate set of philosophers who identified themselves as “Platonists” conceived the project of advocating and defending a specifically Platonic philosophy of this kind by systematically interpreting and explaining Plato’s texts. Over the next 500 years (c. 100–600 a.d.), Platonist philosophers produced a huge corpus of philosophical work inspired by their interpretations of Plato. This chapter introduces the reader to this immensely varied and philosophically exciting—but, as yet, still largely unexplored tradition. It discusses the reasons why a modern student of Plato might be interested in historical Platonism. Then, it investigates the origins and evolution of the Platonist movement; and sketches its shifting epistemological foundations and their relation to the Platonic dialogues.
The Protagoras And Gorgias
Authors: Warren James
Published: October 2019

This chapter presents a reading of Protagoras and Gorgias. The two dialogues, whatever the relative chronology, both present conversations marked by skilfull characterization and show Plato’s ability to encourage serious philosophical reflection through the interplay of vividly drawn participants. Protagoras and Gorgias also share a feature that is surely the origin of many of the frustrations felt by various interpreters. In both cases, Socrates is determined to dismiss certain views of human virtue and the value of sophistic education and also to insist on the importance of rational order in a person’s life. But, unlike in dialogues such as the Phaedo and Republic, he does so as far as possible without setting out and then relying on detailed and substantial claims of his own about the nature and structure of a human soul and the nature of ethical knowledge.
Plato’s Laws
Authors: Meyer Susan Sauvé
Published: October 2019

This chapter presents a an overview of the themes and topics of Plato’s Laws and then focusses on the grand hierarchy of divine and human goods identified in book I (631b-d) as the reference point of all proper legislation. The hierarchy rests on a conception of virtue distinct from what we find in other Platonic dialogues. It ranks courage last among the virtues and describes justice as a blend of moderation with wisdom and courage. This chapter argues that courage is ranked last because it is a natural or non-rational trait of fearlessness, analogous to the “ordinary” trait of moderation (self-restraint in the face of pleasure) that is presented as a trifling virtue in books III and IV. Justice, as conceived of in the Laws, requires combining these two traits and informing them with wisdom. The chapter concludes by noting that the leading role played by wisdom in Plato’s hierarchy of goods prefigures Aristotle’s conception of the highest good.
Plato’s Theology
Authors: Sedley David
Published: October 2019

This chapter examines Plato’s views on theology. Plato inherited Socrates’s conviction that a proper understanding of the divine nature is essential to human virtue and happiness. Hence, god’s essential goodness is the thesis that runs most prominently through all his theological arguments. Since this supreme goodness is manifested above all in the cosmic structures created by divine intelligence, it is understandable if Plato turns out to stick resolutely to his insistence that, for all its appearances of imperfection, from a global perspective ours is the best physical world that could ever have been created, even by a supremely powerful being. On the other hand, Plato shows less interest than Socrates did in the idea of divine intervention in individual human lives. To that extent his work in theology points forward to Aristotle, who would insulate god entirely from concern with the sublunary world.
Introduction
Authors: Fine Gail
Published: October 2019

The Introduction provides a synoptic account of the topics and dialogues considered in the volume. It discusses dialogues ranging from the Apology (generally taken to be early) through the Laws (generally taken to be Plato’s last dialogue). The topics considered in the Introduction include ethics; political theory (including Plato’s view of the ideally just state); the soul (including the division of the soul and arguments for the immortality of the soul); love, art, and education; theology; epistemology (including Socrates’s disavowal of knowledge; recollection; what knowledge is and how it differs from belief and from true belief, knowledge, and forms); and metaphysics (including the theory of forms).
An Introduction to Positive Emotion and Psychopathology
Authors: Gruber June , Tobias Margaret R. , Flux Michael C. , Gilbert Kirsten E.
Published: October 2019

This book sets out to provide a comprehensive review of the nature of positive emotion and psychopathology in this book. It begins by introducing recent scientific and public interest in understanding positive emotional functioning, as well as the importance of understanding disturbances in positive valence systems for uncovering knowledge about etiology and maintenance of chronic and severe psychiatric disorders. The argument is that the field of clinical psychology has typically focused on the adaptive components of positive emotion in understanding mental illness, and that there remains increasing need and importance to study the mechanisms and contexts by which positive emotional processes may also lead to maladaptive psychological processes and outcomes across disorders. This chapter concludes with proposing a transdiagnostic and comprehensive framework toward identifying, studying, and treating positive emotional disturbance.
Specifying the Connection Between Reward Processing and Antisocial Psychopathology Across Development
Authors: Estrada Suzanne , Tillem Scott , Stuppy-Sullivan Allison , Baskin-Sommers Arielle
Published: October 2019

Antisocial behavior is a heterogeneous construct that includes a range of behavioral problems and psychopathologies. With regard to classification, children and adolescents may be identified as having conduct disorder or callous–unemotional traits; whereas adults may be identified as having antisocial personality disorder or psychopathy. The adverse consequences of the behaviors and diagnoses related to this construct produce great burdens for the perpetrators, victims, family members, and society at large. Research has focused on identifying various factors contributing to antisocial behavior, with reward processing among one of the most studied. This chapter synthesizes self-report, behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging literature on reward processing in antisocial behavior across development. Findings are organized regarding key reward constructs within the Positive Valence Systems domain of the Research Domain Criteria matrix. Overall, children with conduct disorder display deficits in action selection, responsivity to reward, and reward prediction that result in risky choices, impaired performance in the face of reward, and poor integration of reward information. By contrast, children with callous–unemotional traits demonstrate poor reward learning and use of reward cues. In adults, those with antisocial personality disorder display deficits in reward valuation; whereas those with psychopathy show context-dependent abnormalities in multiple components of reward processing. Ultimately, an integrative focus on abnormal reward processing across subtypes of individuals who engage in antisocial behavior might help refine the phenotype and improve the prediction of onset and recovery of these disorders.
Positive Mood States and Gambling Disorder
Authors: Yip Sarah W. , Wei Zhai Zu , Balodis Iris M. , Potenza Marc N.
Published: October 2019

Gambling problems are experienced by about 1% of the adult population, with higher estimates reported in adolescents. Both positive and negative motivations for gambling exist and may contribute to gambling problems. Positive valence disturbances involving how people process rewards, including monetary rewards relevant to gambling, have been reported in gambling disorder and have been associated with the disorder and clinically relevant measures relating to impaired impulse control. Positive valence systems as they relate to gambling disorder and clinically relevant features thereof are considered in this chapter. Findings from neuroimaging data related to the positive valence system constructs of approach motivation, initial and sustained/longer term responsiveness to reward, habit and reward learning are reviewed. Possible interactions between positive valence systems and other Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) systems are also discussed within the context of gambling disorder, as is how the application of an RDoC framework can be used to further understanding of gambling disorder.
Effects of Positive Emotion on Pain
Authors: Hitchcock Emma , Hassett Afton L. , Wager Tor D.
Published: October 2019

The relationship between negative affect and health outcomes is widely studied. One finding, clearly supported by both behavioral and biological data, is that pain and poor health lead to greater negative affect. We aim to challenge this paradigm by exploring the ways that positive affect can affect pain and health outcomes. Current models of pain show that painful experiences are more than just a direct mapping of nociceptive input: They are mediated by complex cerebral processes and psychological input. The objective of this chapter is to examine the role that positive affect plays in alleviating pain and benefitting health overall. In medical and clinical settings, positive affect is often overlooked and considered a mere negative correlate to negative affect. This chapter examines the true relationship between positive and negative affect and the implications of this relationship or balance in individuals with pain. The chapter suggests that positive and negative affect cannot be characterized as opposite ends of a single spectrum or as orthogonal factors produced by distinct systems. Each experience of positive and negative affect is a complex mapping within an affective sphere. Potentially beneficial manipulations of positive affect (intervention studies), informed by work on the brain basis of emotions, are explored.
Reward Disruption in the Development of Depression
Authors: Forbes Erika E. , Casement Melynda D.
Published: October 2019

While every major model of depression has proposed that positive affect is disrupted in the disorder, it is only recently that scientists have devoted their attention to disruption of the neural aspects of positive affect in depression. This attention is burgeoning, and accumulating evidence, including meta-analytic findings, supports reduced function in the ventral striatum, a basic and critical reward-related brain region. The disruption of positive affect and reward neural systems is particularly germane to adolescence, when reward systems undergo dramatic changes and depression onset is most likely to occur. This chapter provides a developmental psychopathology and affective neuroscience perspective on the disruption of positive emotions in depression by focusing on adolescent brain development, reward function, and depression. This work is extended to social context and development of the self, both of which are impacted by depression and both of which develop prominently in adolescence. These aspects of behavior share common neural substrates with depression, and disruption to their development by the experience of depression could compromise effective functioning during adulthood.
Protector and Casualty
Authors: Dennison Meg , McLaughlin Katie
Published: October 2019

Early-life adversity is associated with elevated risk for a wide range of mental disorders across the lifespan, including those that involve disruptions in positive emotionality. Although extensive research has evaluated heightened negative emotionality and threat processing as developmental mechanisms linking early-life adversity with mental health problems, emerging evidence suggests that positive emotions play an integral, but complex, role in the association of early-life adversity with psychopathology. This chapter identifies two pathways through which positive emotion influences risk for psychopathology following early-life adversity. First, experiences of early-life adversity may alter the development of the “positive valence system”, which in turn increases risk for psychopathology. Second, the association between adversity and psychopathology may vary as a function of individual differences in positive emotionality. We consider how the development of positive emotionality—measured at psychological, behavioral and neurobiological levels—may be altered by early-life adversity, creating a diathesis for psychopathology. We additionally review evidence for the role of positive emotion, measured at multiple levels, as a protective factor that buffers against the adverse impacts of adversity. In integrating these two roles, it is proposed that characteristics of environmental adversity, including developmental timing, duration, and type of adversity, may differentially impact the development of positive emotionality, leading to a better understanding of risks associated with specific adverse experiences. Methodological issues regarding the measurement of adverse environments as well as implications for early intervention and treatment are discussed.
Facilitation of Positive Emotions Through Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Authors: Geschwind Nicole , Martinmäki Saara , Garland Eric L.
Published: October 2019

Positive emotions are vital to psychological well-being and enhance resilience against psychopathology. One of the psychiatric disorders most characterized by a lack of positive emotions is major depressive disorder. Despite the resilience-enhancing features of positive emotions and high rates of relapse for major depressive disorder, current recommended treatment forms do not pay much explicit attention to the stimulation of positive emotions. One evidence-based form of relapse prevention is mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. In mindfulness based cognitive therapy, participants train their capacity to intentionally guide their attention toward present-moment experience through daily practice, such as focusing on their own breath. Another important aspect of the training is the cultivation of an open, nonevaluative, curious, and mild orientation of mind. Many scholars have focused on the nonevaluative quality of mindful present-moment awareness as an antidote for reducing negative mental states. The question arises regarding which extent mindfulness-based therapies naturally enhance positive emotions. The current chapter first reviews the current evidence for positive emotions as a protective factor against the development of major depressive episodes and then examines the evidence for the idea that mindfulness practice may naturally facilitate the experience of positive emotions. The chapters ends by presenting a novel account detailing how the practice of mindfulness may result in increased positive emotions as well as translate into an increased sense of meaningfulness and purpose. Implications for enhancing the facilitation of positive emotions in mindfulness-based therapies are discussed.
From Feeling Good to Doing Good
Authors: Oettingen Gabriele , Gollwitzer Peter M.
Published: October 2019

Indulging in positive fantasies about a desired future helps people feel accomplished and happy. At the same time, it hurts people with implementing the wished-for future. It leads to low energy, low effort, and little success. Indulging in positive future fantasies also predicts high depressive affect over time, partially mediated by low effort and little success. However, when juxtaposing the positive future fantasies with a clear sense of reality (mental contrasting), people understand what they want and can achieve, and take the necessary steps to fulfill their wishes. People are particularly effective in fulfilling their wishes when they combine mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). The chapter concludes by suggesting that MCII may also be used to snap out of excessively positive affective states.
A Regulatory Flexibility Perspective on Positive Emotion
Authors: Connolly Philippa-Sophie , Hull Thomas D. , Bonanno George A.
Published: October 2019

Functional accounts of emotion assume that the display of positive emotion confers general adaptive benefits, including resilience to psychopathology. A volume of empirical research supporting the adaptive function of positive emotion has been steadily accruing; however, there is an emerging body of literature suggesting that the relationship between positive emotion and psychopathology is less straightforward. Data from studies are used to stress that the expression of positive emotion may also lead to negative consequences, including poor social adjustment and dysfunction. A regulatory flexibility model is used as a framework for better understanding the processes and mechanisms by which positive emotion is linked with negative outcomes at three different levels: sensitivity to context, responsiveness to feedback, and emotion regulation repertoire. Implications are discussed with an eye to future directions for research.
Positive Emotional Disturbance in Psychopathology
Authors: Watson David , Stanton Kasey
Published: October 2019

Positive mood scales are negatively associated with many symptoms and disorders, but display positive relations with other forms of psychopathology. The basic goal of this chapter is to explicate the nature of these complex associations. The data we present clearly established that the size and sign of these relations depended on the specific mood measure that was used. More specifically, our results indicated that there were two basic types of positive mood scales. The first type of scale was best exemplified by PANAS-X Joviality and IDAS-II Well-Being. High scorers on these scales report feeling happy, cheerful, lively, enthusiastic, and optimistic. These scales tap a very adaptive form of positive affect, as they tended to correlate negatively with psychopathology. They displayed substantial specificity in their relations, however, correlating most strongly with indicators of depression and anhedonia, and also with social aloofness and other negative symptoms of psychoticism. The second type of scale was exemplified by IDAS-II Euphoria and, to a lesser extent, PANAS-X Self-Assurance. High scorers on these scales report feeling elated, energetic, restless, grandiose, bold, and extremely confident. These scales clearly assess a more dysfunctional form of positive affect, as they tended to correlate positively with psychopathology. Again, however, they displayed considerable specificity in their relations, correlating most strongly with indicators of elevated positive mood within mania, various forms of externalizing, and positive symptoms of psychoticism. These findings demonstrate the importance of examining multiple types of positive mood in psychopathology research.
Electoral Behavior in Israel
Authors: Shapira Assaf , Rahat Gideon
Published: October 2019

This chapter reviews, analyzes, and explains general patterns of electoral behavior in national elections in Israel from 1949 to 2019. It examines both patterns of voter turnout and the choice of a specific party. While it looks at historical trends, it focuses mainly on more recent developments. The types of factors that explain variance and trends in these behavioral patterns are not unique to Israel. Yet the specific relative weight of each factor clearly tells much of the story of Israeli politics. These factors include, especially, the influence of religiosity on Jewish voting patterns and the separate development in voting patterns (turnout and party choice) of the minority population of Israeli Arab citizens.
Children and the Law: An Introduction
Authors: Dwyer James G.
Published: October 2019

This article introduces The Oxford Handbook of Children and the Law. This volume of collected essays by many of the world’s leading scholars of child welfare and law combines thorough research on a comprehensive range of legal issues salient in children’s lives with sophisticated theoretical and policy analysis of the law, informed by current empirical research on child development and welfare. The Handbook’s organization follows the life of a child, more or less chronologically, from prebirth to adolescence and a sequence of ever-widening social spheres—from the womb to family to society to the world. The topics range from assisted reproduction, protection of fetuses, parentage, child maltreatment, medical care, education, custody disputes, children’s privacy, delinquency, minimum age laws, and strategies for advocating for youths. There is also substantial geographic breadth; the authors of the volume’s chapters represent four continents and roughly a dozen countries. A unifying feature of the volume is that all chapters put children at the center of attention. The authors write about topics relating to children from within their respective areas of expertise and offer a perspective that focuses first and foremost on how the law impacts children’s wellbeing and experience of life. This often produces unfamiliar, thought-provoking conclusions.
“Laying Hands” and Learning to Touch and Grab in the Police Academy
Authors: Lande Brian
Published: October 2019

Research on the formation of police officers generally focuses on the beliefs, accounts, and categories that recruits must master. Becoming a police officer, however, is not simply a matter of acquiring new attitudes and beliefs. This article attends to an unexplored side of police culture—the sensorial and tactile education that recruits undergo at the police academy. Rubenstein wrote in 1973 that a police officer’s first tool is his or her body. This article examines the formation of the police body by examining how police recruits learn to use their hands as instruments of control. In police vernacular, this means learning to “lay hands” (a term borrowed from Pentecostal traditions) or going “hands on.” This chapter focuses on two means of using the hands: searching and defensive tactics. It describes how instructors teach recruits to use their hands for touching, manipulating, and grabbing the clothing and flesh of others to sense weapons and contraband. It also examines how recruits are taught to grab, manipulate, twist, and strike others in order to gain control of “unruly” bodies. It concludes by discussing the implications of “touching like a cop” for understanding membership in the police force.
Objective and Subjective Time in Comparative Politics
Authors: Hanson Stephen E.
Published: October 2019

There has been a marked resurgence of interest in the study of time and temporality in the political science discipline. Scholars working within the tradition of comparative historical analysis have explored what might be termed “objective” temporal processes, tracing causal relationships that unfold slowly through long periods of time and analyzing “critical historical junctures” with enduring social effects. Meanwhile, scholars influenced by developments in behavioral economics and social psychology have devoted increasing attention to the problem of “subjective” time: how time is perceived differently by actors with varying psychological profiles and risk appetites. To date, these two literatures have developed largely in isolation from one another. Thus there has been comparatively little attention paid to the problem of explaining the origin and persistence of collective interpretations of political time. In this context, returning to the study of political ideology can help link the objective and subjective approaches to political temporality.
Accuracy of Personality Trait Judgments Based on Environmental and Social Media Cues
Authors: Wall Helen J. , Campbell Claire
Published: October 2019

This chapter provides an overview of the role of physical (e.g., offices, bedrooms) and virtual contexts (e.g., social media such as Facebook and Twitter profiles) on the accuracy of personality judgments. Personality, context, and accuracy are defined, and evidence from studies on trait accuracy are outlined within and across contexts. The availability of cues in online and offline contexts are discussed in terms of Funder’s realistic accuracy model (RAM) and Brunswik’s lens model. In doing so, the chapter provides some insight into the ways various aspects of a context might affect trait accuracy; specifically, it allows us to consider what aspects of a context affect the cues that are available. The literature described in this chapter sheds light on the importance of the physical and virtual contexts in personality judgments. Context has a differential effect on judgment accuracy in terms of the specific trait, or traits, being judged. The literature presented has also highlighted the need for more research on this topic.