Social decentering theory was developed in response to the confusion created by the use of the term empathy and to a lesser extent, perspective-taking, to reflect a wide and varied set of human cognitive processes and behaviors. Theory of Social Decentering: A Theory of Other-Orientation Encompassing Empathy and Perspective-Taking, presents an innovative approach to the social cognitive process by which humans take into consideration the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and dispositions of other people. The multidimensional theory and measure of social decentering represents a unifying theory that identifies and incorporates key elements imbedded in other-oriented terms. The first chapters present the theory and development of a measure of social decentering in a complete and detailed manner examining the important role that social decentering plays in human communication. The remaining chapters of the book examine the role that social decentering, empathy, and perspective-taking play in the development and management of interpersonal relationships, in marital relationships, in teams and group interactions, and in the workplace. The final chapter examines the negative consequences to individuals, decisions, and relationships potentially created by engaging in social decentering. The appendices include copies of the measure of social decentering and the measure of relationship-specific social decentering. The book is of interest for graduates in communication studies, psychology, and sociology, and valuable for communication and social psychology scholars interested in empathy or perspective taking.

Childhood faces humanity with its own deepest and most perplexing questions. An ethics that truly includes the world’s childhoods would transcend pre-modern traditional communities and modern rational autonomy with a postmodern aim of growing responsibility. It would understand human relations in a poetic rather than universalistic sense as openly and interdependently creative. As a consequence, it would produce new understandings of moral being, time, and otherness, as well as of religion, rights, narrative, families, obligation, and power. Ethics in Light of Childhood fundamentally reimagines ethical thought and practice in light of the experiences of the third of humanity who are children. Much like humanism, feminism, womanism, and environmentalism, Wall argues, a new childism is required that transforms moral thinking, relations, and societies in fundamental ways. Wall explores childhood’s varied impacts on ethical thinking throughout history, advances the emerging interdisciplinary field of childhood studies, and reexamines basic assumptions in contemporary moral theory and practice. In the process, he does not just apply ethics to childhood but applies childhood to ethics—in order to imagine a more expansive humanity.

Social theory and research has long faced the limitations of its conventional Eurocentric focus. The essays in this volume offer new thoughts and empirical studies for transcending those limitations.

winner of the 2021 Ellen Koskoff Edited Volume Prize Decentering the Nation: Music, Mexicanidad, and Globalization considers how neoliberal capitalism has upset the symbolic economy of “Mexican” cultural discourse, and how this phenomenon touches on a broader crisis of representation affecting the nation-state in globalization. This book argues that, while mexicanidad emerged in the early twentieth century as a cultural trope about national origins, culture, and history, it was, nonetheless a trope steeped in ‘otherization’ and used by nation-states (Mexico and the United States) to legitimize narratives of cultural and socioeconomic development stemming out of nationalist political projects that are now under strain. Using music as a phenomenological platform of inquiry, contributors to this book focus on a critique of mexicanidad in terms of the cultural processes through which people contest ideas about race, gender, and sexuality; reframe ideas of memory, history, and belonging; and negotiate the experiences of dislocation that affect them. The volume urges readers to find points of resonance in its chapters, and thus, interrogate the asymmetrical ways in which power traverses their own historical experience. In light of the crisis in representation that currently affects the nation-state as a political unit in globalization, such resonance is critical to make culture an arena of social collusion, where alliances can restore the fiber of civil society and contest the pressures that have made disenfranchisement one of the most alarming features characterizing the complex relationships between the state and the neoliberal corporate system that seeks to regulate it. Scholars of history, international relations, cultural anthropology, Latin American studies, queer and gender studies, music, and cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.

From an informal group of a dozen faculty and graduate students at Temple University, the Jean Piaget Society grew in seven years to 500 members who have interests in the application of genetic epistemology to their own disciplines and professions. At the outset Piaget endorsed the concept of a society which bore his name and presented a major address on equilibration at the society's first symposium in May, 1971. Had he not done so the society would no doubt have remained a small parochial group, like so many others throughout the country, interested in Piaget and his theory. With the encouragement of Genevans and the leadership of its first four presidents, Lois Macomber, Barbara Press eisen, Marilyn Appel, and John Mickelson, the society undertook a number of programs to collect and disseminate the results of scholarly work in genetic epistemology. Particular emphasis was placed upon applications of Piaget's theory to developmental psychology, philos ophy, and education. One of these programs was the publication of an annual series on the development of knowing, of which this volume is the first. In 1973, the society asked Hans Furth with the assistance of Willis Overton and Jeanette Gallagher to initiate and plan a series of yearbooks with the result that in addition to this volume, a second volume on education was commissioned, and a third one on the decalage issue was planned.

This collection investigates the concept of modernity in music and its multiple interpretations in Europe and East Asia. Through contributions by both European and East Asian musicologists it discusses how a decentered understanding of musical modernity could be matched on multiple historiographical perspectives while being attentive to the specificities of local music and their narratives in East Asia and Europe. The essays connect local, global and transnational history with sociological theories of modernity and modernization, making the volume an important contribution to overcoming the Eurocentric dichotomy between western music and world music within the field of historical musicology.

This volume provides a diverse, eclectic, and paradoxically mature approach to theorizing and demonstrates how the development of theory is crucial to the future of family research.".

Adolescence is a period of rapid growth, maturing individuality, vulnerabilities and fortitude. Fortunately, most youths go through this period of life in a healthy way, but some do not. Adolescent Mental Health: Prevention and Intervention is a concise and accessible overview of our current knowledge on effective treatment and prevention programs for youths who have developed, or are at risk of developing, mental health problems. Ogden and Hagen’s introduction to "what works" in the promotion of adolescent mental health addresses some of the most common mental health problems among young people, and how these problems might be prevented or ameliorated through professional and systematic efforts. The volume illustrates contemporary and empirically supported interventions and prevention efforts through a series of case studies, and covers some of the most prevalent mental health conditions affecting today’s youth; externalizing, internalizing and drug use problems. Within an ecological and transactional framework, the book discusses how psychopathologies may develop and the risks and protective factors associated with these. The problem-oriented perspective on risk and mental health problems is combined with a focus on social competence and other protective factors. Adolescent Mental Health: Prevention and Intervention will be essential reading for students and practitioners in the fields of child welfare and mental health services, and any professionals working with adolescents at risk of developing mental health problems.

This book addresses one of the most critical issues facing global business leaders and the multicultural workforce – how to work and relate effectively in the intercultural contexts. The author presents business professionals, practitioners and academics with the Collaborative Intercultural Competence Model. Based on solid theoretical assumptions and real intercultural experiences, this model is to help professionals work more effectively across and within cultures. This book expands the traditional presentation of existing knowledge by providing a unified discussion of intercultural communication and its conceptual foundations. The book offers readers with a contemporary insight into the intercultural competence phenomenon and highlights the basis for its experience-based inquiry, assessment and development. A distinctive feature of Intercultural Competence in Organizations is its comprehensive coverage of the intercultural competence framework from both communication and organizational behavior perspectives. This book does not cover traditional areas of international business, international management, global management strategy and policy and cross-cultural comparative management, but focuses on theoretical foundations of intercultural competence and intercultural competence research and practice. The author describes the complex nature of intercultural competence in a straightforward format which helps professionals, practitioners and students to envision a variety of intercultural situations in which they may behave competently. Thus, the conceptual acumen of this title is to understand the premises of intercultural competence, embrace its theoretical assumptions, see its practical applicability, and advance individual intercultural competence. Featuring examples and skill development exercises, this book will be appealing to professionals, practitioners, students, academics and policy makers in the field of international business, management and communication. “Dr. Matveev challenges his readers to develop their intercultural competence so as to make themselves more effective, more humane and more socially skilled in a world that increasingly involves extensive contact across various groups of people.” --from the Foreword by Richard W. Brislin, University of Hawaii “Dr. Matveev creates an awareness of intercultural competence by exposing the reader to the theoretical concepts and practical tools. Business people and academics will use this book to recognize and leverage the benefits of cultural diversity.” --Berthold Mukuahima, Director of Human Capital, Ohlthaver & List Group, Namibia “Dr. Matveev reveals how intercultural competence of professional multicultural teams helps in achieving corporate competitive advantage and longevity in a challenging globalized world. This book is very useful for managers, scholars and students who want to elevate the efficacy of intercultural relationship in their professional and personal lives.” --Srečko Čebron, Management Board Member, Sava Reinsurance Company, Slovenia /div

What is intercultural communication? How does perspective shape a person’s definition of the key tenets of the term and the field? These are the core questions explored by this accessible global introduction to intercultural communication. Each chapter explores the topic from a different geographic, religious, theoretical, and/or methodological perspective, with an emphasis on non-Western approaches, including Buddhist, South American, Muslim, and Chinese perspectives. Featuring the voices of a range of international contributors, this new textbook presents the full breadth of diverse approaches to intercultural communication and showcases the economic, political, and cultural/societal needs for and benefits of communicative competence.