Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (p.43-46).

Syftet med litteraturstudien är att göra en begreppsanalys av begreppet identitet samt att diskutera detta i relation till styrdokumenten för religionskunskapsämnet i åk 7-9 och gymnasiet. Detta har gjorts utifrån fyra frågeställningar. Vilka olika innebörder, synonymer och asymmetriska motbegrepp kan identifieras i primärkällorna? Vilka andra begrepp finns i samma semantiska fält som begreppet identitet i primärkällorna? Hur har författarna i samtida forskning använt begreppet identitet i sin forskning? Vad implicerar de olika tolkningarna och användningarna av begreppet identitet i förhållande till aktuella styrdokument? Metoden för undersökningen har varit begreppsanalys där både samtida forskning och deras primärkällor har analyserats. Detta mot en teoretisk utgångspunkt som utgjorts av socialkonstruktionism och essentialism. Undersökningen visar att en essentialistisk tolkning av identitet är problematisk som utgångspunkt för lärare i religionskunskapsämnet.

published_or_final_version / Humanities / Master / Master of Philosophy

‘Essentialism’ and ‘constructivism’ are two epistemological perspectives that have been used in the philosophical analysis of mystical experience. ‘Essentialism’ attempts to establish mystical experience as a distinct category of experience, cutting across cultural boundaries. ‘Constructivism’ attempts to establish mystical experience as unique to its various cultural contexts. The two viewpoints are variously held in opposition. ‘Constructivism’ often appears as something of an assumed perspective and is rarely, if ever, defended (in any depth) by the individuals whose views it apparently represents. Recent ‘essentialist’ thinkers (‘non-constructivists’) have taken issue with this tendency to assume ‘what is to be proved’, and have reasoned in attempts to establish ‘constructivisim’ as inappropriate to certain experiences that appear to be found recurring in reports of mystical experiences across cultures. However, those analyses have been concerned to recommend their own (‘essentialist’ / ‘non-constructivist’) position and have, therefore, operated with a certain amount of bias, despite elements of commendable intent. Indeed it is in virtue of these commendable elements i.e. by exploring the epistemological assumptions of authors who attempt to make mystical experience culture specific, that ‘essentialists’ posit and provide justification for the classification of ‘constructivism’ as a distinct philosophical approach to the data of enquiry. ‘Constructivists’ (so-called), on the other hand, tend to emphasise the importance and role of context in their discussions, and in some cases reject the classification of their views as particularly ‘constructivist’. The thesis examines the reasonable defensibility of ‘nonconstructed’ mystical experience from three perspectives: ‘essentialist’, ‘constructivist’ and ‘contextualist’ – outlining considerations for anyone approaching the material via each, and addressing the relevant issues of diversity at tension between these recognisable philosophical viewpoints.

Kantian theories of morality focus on the universal application of moral rules. However, both children and adults often apply different moral standards to in-group and out-group members. Psychologists have proposed that this group bias in moral judgments may be explained by “social essentialism”, a tendency to conceive of social groups as natural kinds. This dissertation uses a cross-cultural, developmental approach to test this hypothesis by investigating a) how the essentialization of five social groups changes with age and b) whether the differences in essentialization explain children’s moral judgments in inter-group contexts. In Study 1, I tested the degree of essentialization of five social categories (Gender, Nationality, Religion, Socioeconomic Status (SES), and Teams) in 5-10 year olds (N=147) and adults (N=223) in Turkey and the U.S. I hypothesized three possible patterns of results indicating different mechanisms underlying essentialization: 1) essentialization is a strong basic bias invariant across ages, cultures and categories; 2) essentialization varies by category across culture based on historical group conflicts; and 3) essentialization is over-generalized for pseudo-biological categories (Gender, Nationality) and declines with age for other categories in both cultures. I found strong support for the third mechanism and striking similarities in the developmental patterns by category across cultures. Study 2 examined the hypothesized link between children’s social essentialist bias and moral judgments in the US (N=211). I predicted that for highly essentialized categories from Study 1 (i.e., Gender), children would believe that it is more acceptable to harm the out-group than the in-group. There were no systematic differences between in-group and out-group judgments and no relationship with essentialization, however. These null results suggest that children are more Kantian than recent work on social groups proposes. Essentialism did, however, affect moral reasoning in inter-group contexts in more indirect ways, when accompanied by other social phenomena, such as salient discrimination. Combined, these studies make two contributions to the field. First, essentialist beliefs in the social domain are triggered cross-culturally by a biological representation of some categories. Second, children are not generally sensitive to group membership in their explicit judgments of moral transgressions in third-party scenarios.

I min uppsatts så undersöker jag om det finns någon uppenbar pedagogisk skillnad mellan behöriga och obehöriga lärare. I undersökningen så deltog två outbildade och två utbildade lärare. Jag gör undersökningen genom grundfilosofiskt perspektiv. Jag börjar med att ge lite statistik på hur fördelningen har varit mellan behöriga och obehöriga lärare från 1990-talets början till en början in på 2000-talet. Redovisar sedan fyra grundfilosofier essentialism, perennialism, progressivism och rekonstruktionism. Efter detta redovisar jag mina intervjuer och filminspelningar samt tolkar och redovisar dessa. Jag kommer framtill att jag inte kan se någon uppenbar skillnad i min intolkning av de olika lärarna vare sig de är utbildade eller inte.

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Negotiating a synergized solution is challenging under optimal circumstances. Add in the challenge of cross-cultural differences, cultural collision occurs leading to worse negotiation outcomes in intercultural negotiation than intracultural ones (e.g., Adair et al., 2001; Adair et al., 2007). Given that intercultural negotiations are both challenging and prevalent, this study investigates how to improve intercultural negotiation effectiveness, and demonstrates when intercultural negotiators can in fact achieve significantly better outcomes than intracultural negotiators (i.e. cultural synergy). Drawing insights from research on cultural essentialism and its influence on intergroup relations and conflicts, I examine the interaction between essentialist beliefs and the cultural context in negotiation. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, I reveal that whether cultures collide or synergize in intercultural negotiation depends on negotiators’ endorsement of cultural essentialist beliefs. Intercultural negotiators who believed that cultural characteristics are malleable (i.e. non-essentialist beliefs) achieved higher individual gains and joint gains, compared to not only intercultural negotiators who endorsed stronger essentialist beliefs, but also intracultural negotiators. Beyond identifying why cultures collide in negotiation, these findings pave the way for future research to examine factors that help negotiators harvest cultural synergy for favorable negotiation outcomes.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1987. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-237).

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