Relationships

Queensland has been the last Australian jurisdiction to reform its law of criminal defences to try and take account of the difficulties faced by victims of domestic abuse in satisfying the traditional elements of self-defence. Section 304B of the Queensland Criminal Code was designed to create a partial defence for victims of domestic violence who, fearing for their lives, kill their abusers in circumstances that would otherwise constitute murder. Usually, these cases involve killing in the absence of a triggering assault or where the feared harm is not imminent. The partial defence provides that the accused will be found guilty of manslaughter only, thereby allowing for judicial discretion in sentencing. This paper argues that the new provision is ineffective and, in fact, puts victims of abuse who kill in a more difficult tactical position than if it had not been enacted. The theory of criminal responsibility (juxtaposing justification and excuse) and various moral theories are us...

This article explores polyamorous women’s potential to enlarge the concept of sexual subjectivity through their engagement in nontraditional relationships and their attempts to reject sexual objectification. Polyamorous people openly engage in romantic, sexual, and/or affective relationships with multiple people simultaneously. Polyamory differs from swinging with its emphasis on long-term, emotionally intimate relationships and from adultery with its focus on honesty and (ideally) full disclosure of the network of sexual relationships to all who participate in or are affected by them. Both men and women have access to additional partners in polyamorous relationships, distinguishing them from polygamy. This ethnographic analysis expands sociological understanding of women’s sexuality by investigating this previously unexamined area of sexual subjectivity. Specifically, the author analyzes some of the ways that polyamorous women expand so-called normal social roles, discusses their s...

With their increased popularity, games open up possibilities for simultaneous learning on multiple levels; players may learn from contextual information embedded in the narrative of the game and through the risks, benefits, costs, outcomes, and rewards of the alternative strategies that result from fast-paced decision making. Such dynamics also contribute to building relationships and sharing/delegating authority with others, in other words, acquiring leadership skills. Games and simulations have long histories as tools to facilitate learning and training, especially in formats such as board games, role-playing games, and real-life simulations. However, multiplayer online games are rarely used outside military training for leadership development. With its emphasis on transformational leadership skills in distributed teams (DTs), this study presents several findings on leadership in multiplayer online environments, such as INFINITEAMS and EVE ONLINE. To cope with globalization, techn...

This paper investigates relationships between men's testosterone and family life in a sample of approximately 350 Jamaican fathers of children 18– 24 months of age. The study recognizes the role of testosterone as a proximate mechanism coordinating and reflecting male life history allocations within specific family and cultural contexts. A sample of Jamaican fathers and/or father figures reported to an assessment center for an interview based on a standardized questionnaire and provided a saliva sample for measuring testosterone level. Outcomes measured include subject demographics such as age and relationship status as well as partnership quality and sexuality and paternal attitudes and behavior. The variation in these fathers' relationship status (e.g., married co-residential fathers, fathers in new non-residential relationships) was not associated with men's tes-tosterone. Too few stepfathers participated to enable a direct test of the prediction that stepfathers would have higher testosterone than biological fathers, although fathers who reported living with partners' (but not his own) children did not have higher testosterone than fathers not reporting residing with a non-biological child. Fathers' relationship quality was negatively related to their testosterone. Measures of paternal attitudes and behavior were not related to fathers' testosterone. Consistent with previous ethnography, this sample of Jamaican fathers exhibited variable life history profiles, including residential status. We discuss why fathers' relationship quality was found to be negatively related to their testosterone level, but other predictions were not upheld.

Purpose – Literature on spin-offs still lacks a thorough understanding of the forces governing spin-off performance. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by taking a network perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The paper combines the literature on spin-offs with the network approach to new ventures to proposing a model showing how networking in the pre-entry phases affects a spin-off's survival and early growth. Findings – The intensity and variety of interactions between the future entrepreneur (FE) and other individual actors has a positive impact on spin-off performance in both the incubation and the emergence phases. The degree of overlap between the network of the incubation phase and the network of the emergence phase also reinforces the effects of the intensity and variety of these interactions on performance during the emergence phase. Finally, entrepreneurial innovativeness is an antecedent of spin-off performance in that it requires different degrees of ...

Although organizational identification is founded on social identity and symbolic interactionist theories, current theories emphasize a social identity whereby organizational members categorize themselves and others based on roles and membership in an organization or work unit. In contrast symbolic interactionism, which resides in interpersonal relationships, is rarely theorized or empirically assessed in studies of organizational identification. We use survey data collected at an academic institution to explore how the strength and structure of an individual's social network both directly influences organizational identification as well as moderates the relation between social identity, or categorical, antecedents and organizational identification. Our results show that the size of an individual's network as well as the interaction between relationship strength and prestige better explain organizational identification than do antecedents based solely on categorization and social comparison processes. Thus networks of relationships, which have been a foundational but much neglected premise and process for organizational identification, are brought back into a theory of organizational identification. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We are in the midst of a technological revolution whereby, for the first time, researchers can link daily word use to a broad array of real-world behaviors. This article reviews several computerized text analysis methods and describes how Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) was created and validated. LIWC is a transparent text analysis program that counts words in psychologically meaningful categories. Empirical results using LIWC demonstrate its ability to detect meaning in a wide variety of experimental settings, including to show attentional focus, emotionality, social relationships, thinking styles, and individual differences.

Abstract: Sister Carrie was a reflection of Hermann Theodore Dreiser’s own life. There were many incidents in Dreiser’s life which he incorporated in his works. His sisters’ lives also provided him the necessary inspiration as remarked in Dreiser’s biography. Dreiser had in mind the image of his mother Sarah Dreiser when he wrote about Caroline Meeber in Sister Carrie (1900). Later we are told that the image of Carrie was more inspired by his sister, Emma Dreiser. Dreiser wrote eight novels, four books of sketches and short stories, four travel books, two autobiographies, poems and plays, as well as miscellaneous collections of science, politics, social problems and autobiographies. He has been honored mostly for his works, Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). Dreiser continued to lead a life full of experiments and struggled throughout his life, changing jobs frequently. At many points in his life his employability did not serve any purpose as he was not earning eno...

The present research uses a behavioral observation methodology to examine emotional and behavioral reactions to threatening interpersonal situations in married couples. The research shows that although anxious attachment can hinder people's tendencies to react constructively to threatening events, greater relationship commitment may serve as a buffer against the negative effects associated with attachment insecurities, diminishing feelings of rejection, enhancing feelings of acceptance, and promoting more constructive accommodation behaviors. The research also reveals that wives' degree of relationship commitment has stronger effects on emotional outcomes for both partners than does husbands' degree of commitment. Moreover, husbands' and wives' emotional reactions affect their own accommodative behaviors as well as their spouses' behaviors. These dyadic findings are discussed in terms of attachment theory and interdependence theory.

All organizations have relationships with their environments that can be described as their social capital. The development of this social capital is a crucial public relations activity. Taking a cue from the late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, social capital can also be seen as one of the several resources used to obtain or maintain positions of power. Bourdieu, however, was quite vague about how social capital should be analyzed and did not write about organizations per se. Accordingly, I will discuss and elaborate on the social capital concept by drawing from the work of Nan Lin (2002).

For most of us, break-ups and post-romantic etiquette are as much a part of our romantic love lives as our most loving and fulfilling relationships are. Yet, in the philosophy of love, our dialogue lacks a critical discussion focusing on break-ups. What, if any thing, do I owe to my ex-girlfriend(s) with whom I was in love? Are the reasons I have for action regarding my ex agent-relative or agent-neutral? Put differently, do I owe something my ex-lover something more than strangers? This paper adds something both timely and urgent to the existing philosophy of love literature. I argue that we have partial obligations to our ex-lovers in virtue of the loving romantic relationship that we shared.

Nowra says of his play The Golden Age:

It must be pointed out that The Golden Age is no polemic about civilisation and nature. The play is not saying that nature is good and civilisation is evil. It is also not saying that the group is innocent and wonderful and the civilised people are evil. Both groups have their good and bad aspects and the relationship between the two is more subtle than that. (Nowra, 1995:xii)

Nowra is saying that there is no good or bad, just differences between the cultures of the two societies: civilised and primitive. He argues that neither is 'evil', and it is with this quote as a premise that I have decided to analyse The Golden Age.

The Golden Age contains contemporary thematic emblems. Among these are the notions of primitive and civilised, who are outcasts, didacticism, and the power of language for use in dominance over, and historical preservation, of culture. It is intended that these topics will be discussed, supported with my own views as an academic and thespian. I hope that my own conclusions will support an argument that Nowra, in the statement provided earlier, is not entirely correct. I am not attempting to claim Nowra is a hypocrite - as the author of his own work. However, I am going to suggest that there are elements within The Golden Age that allow a distinctly different interpretation of the role of the two cultures. This thesis will be supported by other writers who have made invaluable contributions to the analysis of Nowra's works.