Esta tese possui dois objetivos fundamentais, quais sejam, 1) a apresentação de um aspecto da obra de Durkheim que consiste em enunciados sobre o dever ser moral 2) a discussão em torno da fundamentação possível de sua defesa de um ideal moral específico, o individualismo, e de sua proposta de institucionalização de uma moral laica. A tese central é a de tudo aquilo que ele afirma como dever ser corresponde a um ideal criado coletivamente, portanto, sua fundamentação é a própria coletividade. A defesa desse ideal em detrimento de outro qualquer se dá pela avaliação, por parte de sua ciência, de que ele corresponde à lógica imanente de sua sociedade sendo, portanto, normal, desejável e necessário. / I have to main purposes in this thesis, which are 1) to present an aspect of Durkheims work that is basically about what morals should be and 2) look for a plausible grounding of this very specific moral ideal sustained by him, which himself refers as individualism, and of his proposals regarding the institutionalization of a secular moral education. The main thesis to be sustained affirms that all his arguments regarding what moral should or ought to be corresponds to an ideal collectively created, therefore, its ground is collectivity itself. Defending this particular ideal instead of any other possible one depends upon the evaluation made possible by his science that it corresponds to the intrinsic rationale of his own society, therefore, is both normal and desirable.

This dissertation examines to what extent social comparison is emphasized in performance evaluations of work organizations, how employees react to it, and whether there is an alternative to it. Operationalizing social comparison as an evaluation process that compares an employee’s performance to their coworkers’ performance, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that social comparison is emphasized to a stronger extent in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures. Studies 3 and 4 find that employees in collectivistic cultures perceive higher procedural fairness when they receive social comparison evaluations as compared to employees in individualistic cultures. The mediation analyses from Studies 2 and 4 indicate that these findings are explained by the perceived descriptive and injunctive norms of social comparisons within collectivistic versus individualistic cultures, which shape people’s general attitudes toward using social comparison in evaluation settings. In collectivistic cultures that put strong emphasis on people’s social context, social comparison is considered to be a necessary component of performance evaluations. In contrast, in individualistic cultures where people focus on the specific characteristics of each person, social comparison is believed to be more or less irrelevant. Given the aversive effect of social comparison in individualistic cultures, the second chapter of this dissertation investigates whether there is a proper alternative to social comparison in the context of performance evaluations. It finds that temporal comparison—which compares an employee’s performance to his or her own past performance—can be such an alternative. Temporal comparison secures employees’ perceptions of fairness by providing the beliefs that their evaluators are focusing on them and their specific characteristics. These findings imply that employees in individualistic cultures want their independent identities to be acknowledged at work, and providing temporal comparison evaluations is one way to fulfill such needs.

Pei Kong-ngai. / Thesis submitted in: September 2002. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves i-vi). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction / Chapter 1. --- Intentional States and Folk Psychology --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- "Eliminativism, Externalism, and Individualism" --- p.5 / Chapter 3. --- Overview of The Thesis --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- Mental States and Externalism / Chapter 1. --- The Distinction between Intrinsic and Relational Properties --- p.11 / Chapter 2. --- Supervenience --- p.14 / Chapter 3. --- Externalism --- p.18 / Chapter 4. --- The Classical Arguments for Semantic Externalism: The Twin Earth Thought Experiments --- p.19 / Chapter 5. --- From Semantic Externalism to Mental Content Externalism --- p.23 / Chapter 6. --- Externalism and Physicalism --- p.26 / Chapter 7. --- The Common Concept Strategy Objection to Externalism --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- Stich's Argument for Individualism: The Argument from Below / Chapter 1. --- Stich's Argument for Individualism --- p.34 / Chapter 2. --- Narrow and Wide Behaviour --- p.37 / Chapter 3. --- Refining the Argument --- p.39 / Chapter 4. --- Is Replacement Argument Successful in establishing Individualism? --- p.44 / Chapter 5. --- Fodor's Argument for Premise 2*: Narrow Behaviour and Crazy Causal Mechanisms --- p.46 / Chapter 6. --- Causal vs. Non-Causal (Constitutive) Causal Powers --- p.51 / Chapter 7. --- Conclusion: Stich's Unsuccessful Argument from Below --- p.53 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Fodor's Argument for Individualism: The Argument from Abo --- p.ve / Chapter 1. --- Fodor's Explanan Argument --- p.56 / Chapter 2. --- A Response to Individualism: Rendering Intentional States Individualistic --- p.65 / Chapter 2.1 --- Fodor's Account of Narrow Content --- p.69 / Chapter 2.2 --- Criticisms of Fodor's Account of Narrow Content --- p.71 / Chapter 3. --- Examining Global Individualism: Fodor's A Priori Argument --- p.74 / Chapter 3.1 --- Counterexamples to Global Individualism --- p.76 / Chapter 3.2 --- Can Global Individualism be Reconciled with Relational Taxonomies? --- p.81 / Chapter 3.3 --- Two Senses of Causal Relevance of External Conditions --- p.83 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Failure of The Argument from Above --- p.89 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Conclusion --- p.91 / Bibliography --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.vi

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The nature of human well-being has been debated in psychological research since the beginning of the study of human behaviour. Mechanistic perspectives regard humans to be independent objects motivated by external contingencies, with needs to be both self sufficient and self-enhancing. Organismic perspectives describe humans as having innate self-organisational tendencies, which partly depend on qualities of relationships with others. Basic needs for well-being include being self-determined and socially integrated. Both perspectives claim empirical support. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the present study proposed that basic needs for well-being include autonomy and relatedness, and ego-defensive needs that undermine health include independence, control and narcissism. To compare the effects of different needs on well-being, the present study measured people's perceived needs and the satisfaction of those needs, within the context of interpersonal interactions. Participants were sourced from the student population at a Melbourne university (N = 82), and various internet website forums (N= 171). Included were 82 participants who had received a diagnosis of social anxiety in the past two years. A new measure, the Interpersonal Needs Scale (INS) was developed to tap the strength of values for the five needs of interest, and the degree to which needs are satisfied. Factor analysis on the INS produced four value subscales: these were named Authenticity and Belonging, comprising autonomy and relatedness items, and Independence and Narcissism, both including Control items. The fmal version of the INS showed satisfactory reliability and validity. Results for Study 1 indicated that for the present sample, Authenticity and Belonging values were associated with overall interpersonal need satisfaction and with well-being. Conversely, Independence and Narcissistic values were associated with dissatisfaction of interpersonal needs and compromised well-being. For Study 2, cluster analysis was used to group participants according to their INS profiles: that is, similarities in their perceived needs and their degree of satisfaction of needs. In line with predictions, the groups included: the Selfother Balanced (N = 42), who reported significantly greater values for authenticity and belonging over independence and narcissism, and overall need satisfaction; the Slightly Lonely (N = 53), who reported similar value ranking but some dissatisfaction of needs; the Satisfied Narcissists (N = 45), who reported high values for ego-defensive needs and satisfaction of narcissistic needs only; the Needy Narcissists (N= 81), who also reported high values for ego-defensive needs but high overall need dissatisfaction; and the Individualists (N = 27), who reported low values for belonging and unsatisfied independence needs. The characteristics of each group were analysed and compared with each other according to a range of self-concept measures (autonomous-self, relational self, independent-self, and narcissistic personality), indicators of psychological wellbeing (depression, anxiety, stress, and self-esteem), and social well-being (alienation). The Self-other Balanced group reported the highest well-being scores and a predominantly autonomous self-concept, while those who reported low values for belonging needs (Individualists), and those who reported the least satisfaction of interpersonal needs (Needy Narcissists), reported the most compromised well-being. A large proportion of respondents with social anxiety belonged to the latter group. The implications of these results for understanding the impact of values and the satisfaction of interpersonal needs on well-being were discussed.

This thesis addresses both theories and practices of subjectivity in Anglo-American societies into the twenty-first century. The central argument is that one dominant subjectivity that has emerged in these societies centres on a deep-seated, almost irreconcilable tension. On the one hand, persons experience relatively heightened desires for unbounded lifestyles amidst relatively high levels of affluence and consumption. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the education, skills, and dispositions that persons assume in social worlds make desiring problematic. For example, high-level consumption or workplace flexibility are not necessarily seen as desirable things, yet appear to envelop contemporary lifestyles. Individuated desires form key aspects of an Anglo-American 'way-of-life', but a liberal individualism that emphasizes personal capacities and responsibilities, 'self-improvement' and 'well-being' has arisen, and this makes resolving ethical and existential dilemmas difficult. That is, many worldly dilemmas - concerns with material security, social justice, the environment, or nutrition, for example - seem irreconcilable to the liberal individualism that is 'lived' as subjectivity 'on the ground'. The thesis synthesizes social anthropology and social theory to ground its claims about the empirical world that sees subjectivity as 'being' human for particular social worlds. The approach is designed to look at situations that call upon self-orienting individuals, in order to explain how these represent the form of life that an 'immediate' self-projecting and orienting, self-asserting and 'creative' dominant subjectivity takes in Anglo-American societies. The argument develops a number of examples in the context of a theory-based approach in two registers: normative and ontological. Inquiry over an ontological register discusses the social formation of subjectivity in relation to the 'categories' of spatiality, temporality, embodiment, and institutionality, and the social constitution of subjectivity over coeval somatic, practical-ethological, and reflexive 'layers of affect'. Inquiry over a normative register discusses practical and discursive conditions, and relates the overall argument to a critique of normativity based in the claim that 'being' requires that norm-based and relational contexts can affectively 'legitimate' ongoing sociality. In summary, the thesis has two dimensions. It argues that this dominant subjectivity moves between sovereign desires for satisfactions and their atomized dissatisfactions, and turns on a sustained deferral of worldly dilemmas irreconcilable to the liberal individualism that is seen to both anchor and impel ongoing sociality. Secondly, it suggests that we need to rethink theories of subjectivity in order to understand better this new dominant form of life.

<p>Dagens organisationer verkar på en marknad präglad av hård konkurrens om såväl marknadsandelar som kompetent personal. Detta ställer krav på kostnadseffektivitet samt lojala och engagerade medarbetare. Ett fenomen som visat sig kunna bidra till just detta är commitment, som beskriver den anställdes bindning till organisationen. Individens värderingar i förhållande till commitment är delvis outforskat. Individualism är ett ramverk av värderingar som bland annat beskriver individers relation och identifikation med grupper. Mot bakgrund av detta är det intressant att sätta begreppet i relation till commitment. Syftet med denna studie var således att undersöka förekomsten av samband mellan individualism och commitment och hur dessa i så fall ter sig. Studien genomfördes genom en enkätundersökning på 158 bankanställda. Resultaten påvisade samband mellan horisontell individualism och känslomässig commitment samt mellan vertikal individualism och normativ commitment. Med denna kunskap kan organisationer anpassa sitt personalarbete för att motivera anställda och skapa förutsättningar för commitment.</p>

<p>En av de viktigaste utvecklingstendenserna i det senmoderna samhället är en mycket långt gången individualisering. Denna utveckling tycks å ena sidan ha medfört en hög grad frihet och självbestämmande men den har å andra sidan också kritiserats för att leda till en kollektiv flykt från ansvar. I ljuset av detta har det förts en diskussion kring möjligheten av en ny förståelse av fenomenet ansvar. Flera tänkare har på olika sätt gestaltat en möjlig förståelse av ansvar som att `svara an´ alltså det outtalade kravet av att ta ansvar för sitt uppträdande i interaktion med andra då människans blotta närvaro ger svar hos den andre. Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur människa i det senmoderna samhället upplever fenomenet ansvar. Studien belyser frågan om det finns en gemensam känsla för ansvar, hur denna ser ut och på vilket sätt utvecklingen i det senmoderna samhället kan tänkas ha format denna känsla. Studiens teoretiska och begreppsliga ramverk bygger på Anthony Giddens och Zygmunt Baumans tankar om det senmoderna samhället, individualiseringen och hur detta påverkar och hanteras av enskilda människor. Genom en hermeneutisk ansats genomfördes fem intervjuer i dialogform med respondenter uppväxta i det senmoderna samhället. Resultatet presenterar en huvudtolkning som inte understödjer tanken om massflykt från ansvar utan som målar upp ansvar som ett dynamiskt och pulserande fenomen som bland annat är behjälpligt i formandet av individens självidentitet.</p>

Dagens organisationer verkar på en marknad präglad av hård konkurrens om såväl marknadsandelar som kompetent personal. Detta ställer krav på kostnadseffektivitet samt lojala och engagerade medarbetare. Ett fenomen som visat sig kunna bidra till just detta är commitment, som beskriver den anställdes bindning till organisationen. Individens värderingar i förhållande till commitment är delvis outforskat. Individualism är ett ramverk av värderingar som bland annat beskriver individers relation och identifikation med grupper. Mot bakgrund av detta är det intressant att sätta begreppet i relation till commitment. Syftet med denna studie var således att undersöka förekomsten av samband mellan individualism och commitment och hur dessa i så fall ter sig. Studien genomfördes genom en enkätundersökning på 158 bankanställda. Resultaten påvisade samband mellan horisontell individualism och känslomässig commitment samt mellan vertikal individualism och normativ commitment. Med denna kunskap kan organisationer anpassa sitt personalarbete för att motivera anställda och skapa förutsättningar för commitment.

The purpose of the present research was to examine and understand, within a cultural context, the subjective experiences of recovery from child abuse of adults who have not sought the help of mental health professionals. Examining the cultural context of recovery permitted a glance at the environmental climate in which people came to understand, respond, and make sense of their child abuse experiences. To achieve this objective, dominant themes regarding beliefs about recovery were gathered from cultural documents, specifically, popular books on recovery from abuse, and from individual accounts of recovery from abuse. The present study was qualitative in nature and conducted within the framework of an ethnographic inquiry. The data were content analysed for themes of recovery. A comparison of recovery themes in popular books and participant interviews revealed that participants descriptions of their recovery mirrored those described by popular books, with a few exceptions. Factors considered helpful for recovery which emerged from both sources included education/information, relationships (e.g., support and resolution), attending to ones feelings and beliefs about the abuse (e.g, re-experiencing), self-care (e.g., coping with stress), and spirituality. In both popular books and participant stories, value was placed on the survivor looking inward, and differentiating oneself, ones feelings and beliefs, from those of others. This orientation served to delineate clear boundaries from others, and to allow one to assert oneself and to develop an independent view of oneself (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). As such, it reflects Canadian/American cultural values of agency, autonomy, and personal control (Kirsh & Kuiper, 2002). The participants experiences of recovery enabled them to reconstruct their views of themselves, their abusers, and people in general, in a way that enabled them to assert their differences and distinct values from others. Although support was emphasized, its role was confined to helping the participants gain new understanding of their experiences. Their disclosures of abuse experiences to supportive others were guided less by the need to create harmony or to fit in with an in-group, as would be expected in collectivist societies, than it was by the need to assert oneself, ones feelings, and ones needs. Also, participants accounts of recovery illustrated that they were relatively well versed in the use of psychological terms and concepts such as grief, confrontation, self-esteem, and role-models that were common in the popular books. The participants developed new views of themselves which were geared toward developing a more self-enhancing sense of self. These shifts reflect a discourse common in psychology and self-help culture, which directs the individual toward self-actualization, heightened self-esteem, and increased autonomy (Starker, 1989). This study also demonstrated how, through their own personal resourcefulness, people can be agents of their own recovery. Participants accessed unique resources (e.g., participating in sports, parenting, religion) to make sense of their experiences. In some cases, participants focussed more on drawing meaning from these self-enhancing resources than they did on re-experiencing painful memories associated with the abuse. Given the emphasis on re-experiencing trauma in clinical and popular literature, the various routes taken by participants suggest that the process of re-experiencing may be over-emphasized. Further research on recovery, outside of the therapeutic context, may serve to clarify how self-recovery takes place, possibly contributing to a new discourse on recovery.