Journal articles on the topic 'Aversion – Psychological aspects'

Loss aversion is a central element of prospect theory, the dominant theory of decision making under uncertainty for the past four decades, and refers to the overweighting of potential losses relative to equivalent gains, a critical determinant of risky decision making. Recent advances in affective and decision neuroscience have shed new light on the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying loss aversion. Here, integrating disparate literatures from the level of neurotransmitters to subjective reports of emotion, we propose a novel neural and computational framework that links norepinephrine to loss aversion and identifies a distinct role for dopamine in risk taking for rewards. We also propose that loss aversion specifically relates to anticipated emotions and aspects of the immediate experience of realized gains and losses but not their long-term emotional consequences, highlighting an underappreciated temporal structure. Finally, we discuss challenges to loss aversion and the relevance of loss aversion to understanding psychiatric disorders. Refining models of loss aversion will have broad consequences for the science of decision making and for how we understand individual variation in economic preferences and psychological well-being across both healthy and psychiatric populations.

Purpose: This research is pursued at several points objectiveness: 1). Does the behavior of financial decision making on financial asset investors also apply the same to real asset investors. 2). By the empirically, this study is to test and confirm the relationship of herding and overconfidence factors to the level of loss aversion, regret aversion, financial literacy in making real asset investment decisions. Methodology: Involved 105 real estate auction investors as samples at the State Assets and Auction Service Office (KPKNL) Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia. Collecting data using a questionnaire consisting of 23 questions for measurement the variabel. Testing research data passes several feasibility tests, such as Inner and outer test modelling by PLS and hypothesis test to see the magnitude of the coefficient of relationship Result and Findings: Loss and regret aversion variables through direct and intervening testing have a positive and significant effect, but financial literacy variables, both through direct and intervening testing, are stated to have no significant effect. There are different aspects of the psychology of investment decision making between investors in the financial sector and investors in the real asset sector. The most striking difference is the consideration of information, opportunities and real assets turnover which will be resold after winning the auction.

The basic approaches to the interpretation of adaptability, adaptive potential, victim behavior and mechanisms of its development are analyzed. The concept of "adaptive capabilities" is formulated. The peculiarities of the violation of the adaptive processes that lead to the formation of victim behavior are outlined. The article presents an analysis of the research conducted among first- and fifth-year students with the aim of establishing the relationship between adaptive capabilities and types of victim behavior. The study involved 90 students. According to the results of the empirical study, it can be argued that there is a direct correlation between students' adaptive capacities and victimization, the higher the victim behavior index, the lower the level of adaptive capacities. In particular, the greatest number of direct relationships is observed between dependent victim behavior, maladaptation, aversion to self and others; feedback – with mental and mental resilience and personal adaptive potential. With the implemented victimization, there is also a decrease in neuro-psychic stability and aversion of others, which is explained by the action of protective mechanisms and the consequences of psychological trauma. The rejection of others is also characteristic of students with aggressive victim behavior, and on the contrary, they do not accept self-harming persons. Students with hypersocial victim behavior feel emotional comfort as this behavior is approved by the community.

The aim of the study was to reveal the negative psychological aspects of using animals by scientists and to determine whether the emotional tensions and stress are associated with performing experiments on animals. All 150 participants of the study conduct experiments on animals in their work. Computer-assisted web interviewing, was used to collect the data. Correlation matrices for factorial analysis of main component loads and cluster analysis have been calculated as grouping methods revealed two different categories of researchers, which were mostly distinguished by acceptance and aversion to animal testing and animal welfare. The main findings demonstrated, that there is a group of respondents who feel discomfort when performing experiments on animals. Especially young people involved in animal testing, feel remorse, emotional tension and helplessness.

AbstractComparing food taboos across 78 cultures, this paper demonstrates that meat, though a prized food, is also the principal target of proscriptions. Reviewing existing explanations of taboos, we find that both functionalist and symbolic approaches fail to account for meat's cross-cultural centrality and do not reflect experience-near aspects of food taboos, principal among which is disgust. Adopting an evolutionary approach to the mind, this paper presents an alternative to existing explanations of food taboos. Consistent with the attendant risk of pathogen transmission, meat has special salience as a stimulus for humans, as animal products are stronger elicitors of disgust and aversion than plant products. We identify three psychosocial processes, socially-mediated ingestive conditioning, egocentric empathy, and normative moralization, each of which likely plays a role in transforming individual disgust responses and conditioned food aversions into institutionalized food taboos.

A common cause of disruption of family communication is adultery, which creates a traumatic situation and even leads to family destruction. The purpose of the article is to investigate sexual and psychosocial disorders in family communication under adultery—research methods. The study used validity methods «Eysenck Inventory of Attitudes to Sex» and «Diagnostics of the inferiority complex». Statistical methods. For the non-parametric data correlation variables, the Spearman coefficient was used, Kendall's, Pearson's. Results: The present study found the destructive effect of the psychological characteristics of sexuality on family functioning in CGA. The connection between disappointment with existing sexual relations and desire for sexual satisfaction was established (p <0.05). Conflicts between beliefs and internal impulses were detected (p <0.05). It was found that treating a partner as a sexual object without finding sensual pleasure correlated with intolerance to a verbal description of bed scenes (p <0.05). Sexual shyness is a characteristic of couples with sexual inactivity and aversion to sexual manifestations (p <0.05). In turn, the difficulty of acquiring sexual excitement correlated with a fascination with only physical sex without its spiritual component (p <0.05). Conclusion: Features of the psychological response of men and women in CGA and CG in the genesis and development of impaired family life are connected to the following: a great number of complexes and constant struggle with personal weaknesses, drawbacks, mistakes; fear of analyzing oneself and one's own actions by "hiding" and "postponing" the resolution; inflated self-esteem, self-deception, living in the so-called "imaginary world", low communication (p <0.05).

Abstract Introduction The first large outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in Europe occurred in Northern Italy in February 2020. The relatively fast spread of the infection to Slovenia was expected, and preventive measures for its suppression were widely discussed. Methods An online questionnaire was designed to evaluate adherence to preventive measures and the extent to which the taking of preventive measures was associated with people’s anxiety level, psychological burden, their perceived vulnerability to disease, germ aversion and a number of demographic characteristics in the early stage of Covid-19 spread. The survey was active for 24 hours (13–14 March 2020). There were 12,307 responses and 7,764 questionnaires were completed in full. Results Higher preventive behaviour was found in individuals who experienced greater psychological distress, were more anxious, and expressed greater perceived infectability and germ aversion. Greater compliance with preventive behaviour was found among women, those sharing a household with people aged over 65, the elderly and those who knew somebody who had been infected. These groups also showed higher anxiety levels, which appeared to be significantly increased in general as a result of the specific situation. Quarantine was evaluated as the most efficient preventive measure, and was respected relatively strictly even before it became an officially announced protective measure. Conclusion This research reveals a strong association between preventive behaviour and anxiety. Anxiety, together with social distancing, may affect physical and psychological health in the population in the long term. Other aspects of public health might therefore be influenced by the measures currently being enforced to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Excessive activity consider as one of the common behavioral disorders among children, which could hinders the achievement of an educational goals. The problem of hyperactivity disorder and distraction also affects most aspects of growth in children. That led to impact the learning time as a result , it reflects negatively on the education and achievement. In addition, psychological condition that affects child who had a hyperactive as a result of the aversion of their peers. we can realize an activity among some children with special needs. In this research , the researcher will study two categories of special needs (mental retardation and autism disorder) were studied to determine which group suffers the most from hyperactivity. The research was limited to 12 children with mental retardation and 31 autistic children in the city of Misurata. Key words: Mental Retardation, Autism, Hyperactivity.

There are various behavioral aspects that influence the financial decisions of individual investors, such as overconfidence, herding behavior, loss aversion, and regret aversion. Other psychological elements may play a substantial influence in deciding the success or failure of any financial action. The primary aims of the present research article are to examine the effects of overconfidence bias and herding behavior on individual financial decisions regarding crypto currency investment. The markets for crypto currencies are extremely sensitive to any minute or significant changes in the economy, as well as to any changes in the individual behaviors of investors. To achieve these aims, 650 questionnaires were distributed to individual investors employed by various financial institutions, multinational corporations, including oil and gas exploration and production companies, operating in Pakistan, individual investors dealing in stocks, and students regardless of investment size. Purposive sampling was used to choose 311 valid responses from a total of 593. Those investors that engage in crypto currency investments were deemed valid responses. Classifications of investments were outlined, and demographic information was requested from respondents. SPSS-based empirical analysis provided the basis for the conclusions. The primary findings indicate that both overconfidence bias and herding tendency have a favorable and statistically significant impact on investors' financial decisions when investing in cryptocurrencies. In this study's sample, however, the majority of investors were overconfident in their crypto currency investing decisions.

Utilizing the data of a large nationwide household survey conducted in 2014, we investigate public preferences on nuclear power in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident and the role of four sets of factors: (1) household/individual socioeconomic characteristics, (2) psychological status, (3) geographical aspects, and (4) Fukushima accident-related experiences. The preferred energy mix, according to the averaged responses from the survey, includes 0.59 for renewables, 0.29 for fossil fuels, and 0.12 for nuclear—much more skewed towards the renewables than the actual national share of renewables of less than 0.2. Male, older, unmarried, less educated, high-income people, and government party supporters have a preference towards a higher share of nuclear power, except if they live near nuclear power plants. The experience of blackout and aversion to nuclear power during the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 lowers the share of nuclear power in the preferred mix.

This article analyses for the first time the asymmetric behavior in tourism demand by season across the business cycles based on time series and contributes herewith to a clear understanding of cyclical irregularities in tourism demand. For that reason, we study the outbound expenditures of four source markets per quarter, each understood as its own time series. In this new approach, we apply four types of demand functions showing distinct relationships only for the first, second, third, and fourth quarters. The results revealed strong evidence of asymmetric income elasticities in tourism demand by season across the business cycles. We emphasize coherently that the integration of psychological factors such as loss aversion and other quality-of-life aspects as well as economic factors like liquidity constraints, reluctant lending behavior of banks, precautionary saving, changing household behavior, and financial innovations delivers a new framework to explain asymmetric behavior in tourism demand.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the main reasons for the low level of savings, investments and excessive consumer lending and opportunities for improving financial well-being at the micro level and forming sources for future development. The article reveals the main problems of citizens’ savings and consumption that occurred before the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. And which only intensified during it. Some macroeconomic indicators reflecting the state of citizens’ savings and dependence on income were analyzed. Despite the stable growth of the population’s income, the savings rate remains at a low level. On the other hand, the demand for loan funds is ahead of such growth. In this way, the thesis about the negative relationship between wage growth and the rate of savings, put forward by some scientists earlier, was proved. Regardless of the presence of economic factors affecting the level of consumption and savings, the psychological reasons for the low tendency of citizens to save were also analyzed. Among these reasons are the deficit thinking effect, the default effect, confirmation bias, and loss aversion bias. It was also analyzed based on the facts, how much the psychological prejudices of Ukrainians influenced financial behavior. In particular, the fallacy of prejudices regarding the impracticality of investing in deposits of Ukrainian banks, as well as the idea that the Ukrainian banking system underwent catastrophic transformations in the first years after the banking reform, was considered.The research methods are descriptive, analytical, methods of synthesis and comparison. As a result of the analysis, the article proposes a comprehensive approach to men’s behaviour toward savings during the pandemic according to behavioural economics.Consideration of the economic and psychological aspects of the situation with savings led to the provision of conclusions and proposals. The main task for improving the effectiveness of managing one’s own expenses today is to understand the reasons for irrational behavior of people in new circumstances from the point of view of behavioral economics and the application of the theory of “pushing” for the formation of positive socio-economic changes. It is suggested to use this paper for further and deeper practical research of certain aspects of changing people’s behaviour for better investment solutions and financial wellbeing. JEL classіfіcatіon: D14, D91, E21

Despite the Buddha’s renowned aversion to metaphysical-cum-cosmological speculation, ostensibly cosmological systems have proliferated in Buddhist traditions. Debates persist over how to interpret these systems, a central puzzle being the relation between apparently cosmological and psychological aspects. This article critically analyzes three main interpretive orientations, namely psychologization, literalism, and the one-reality view. After examining a tendency in the third of these to equivocate between talk of two co-referentialvocabulariesand talk of two correspondingorders, I discuss at length the debate between literalist and psychologizing approaches. The latter emphasize how accounts of “realms of existence” are most cogently read as figurative descriptions of mental states, whereas literalists argue that at least some of the accounts should be understood cosmologically, as descriptions of spatiotemporal regions. Notwithstanding weaknesses in some literalist arguments, the importance to Buddhist soteriology of a conception of rebirth beyond one’s present life counts against psychologizing approaches that either ignore or downplay this importance. Returning to the one-reality view, I develop the idea that it is the existential state being described that constitutes the common factor between “cosmological” and “psychological” passages. Treating the texts in an overly literal-minded manner, I suggest, risks missing these descriptions’ affective and conative significance.

Nurses hold pivotal role during COVID-19 pandemic through providing care toward the infected patients. Various pressures experienced by the nurses while working with COVID-19 patients affected their mental health states. This systematic review attempted to describe the mental health state of nurses who specifically work with COVID-19 patients. Five journals published in 2020 by international publishers were assessed for the methodological rigorousness including the title and its abstract, introduction and research aims, method and data, sampling, data analysis, ethics and bias, results, transferability, as well as the implications and usefulness. Through rigorous review of five studies using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) protocol, the mental health state of the nurses caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 patients can be inferred from emotional, cognitive and behavior components, with mental health aspects such as anxiety, anger, fear, sadness, distress, happiness, optimism and germ aversion. Findings from this systematic review can be further developed as a more elaborate research using psychological variables found in nurses caring for COVID-19 patients

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the unspoken fear of syphilis played a significant role in the development of beliefs about female sexuality. Many women were afraid of sexual relationships with men because they feared contracting syphilis, which was, at that time, untreatable. Women also feared passing this disease on to their children. Women’s sexual aversion, or repression, became a focus for Freud and his colleagues, whose theory of psychosexual development was based on their treatment of women. This article examines the case of Dora, the memoirs of Mabel Dodge Luhan and other sources to argue that the fear of syphilis was a significant factor in upper- and middle-class women’s avoidance of heterosexual relationships. The fear of syphilis, in turn, became a significant factor in the psychoanalytic construction of female sexuality. The social suppression of the fear of syphilis has had a profound impact on theories of women’s development. The implication for psychiatry is that our models of psychological development occur within a sociocultural milieu and cannot escape suppressed aspects of our culture.

Abstract Given the rapidly changing demographics, there will be an increasing number of individuals with dementia who will need significant support from informal caregivers. Providing care for an individual with dementia has been associated with negative outcomes in a number of domains including physical health, mental health, financial status and social functioning. There is a small but growing base of literature suggesting that fostering psychological flexibility, including acceptance, with dementia caregivers may be a helpful intervention. Experiential avoidance, which is the less adaptive alternative to acceptance, is the aversion from negative internal experiences including thoughts, feeling and physical sensations. Experiential avoidance has been found to be significantly related to depression and negative affect. The present study utilized online dementia caregiver support group samples (n = 158) to evaluate the relationship between experiential avoidance and general demographics, other aspects of psychological flexibility, and caregiver distress. Experiential avoidance was positively correlated with cognitive fusion (r(134) = .231, p &lt; .01), caregiver burden (r(127) = .258, p &lt; .01), and distress associated with dementia related behaviors (r(140) = .225, p &lt; .01). Experiential avoidance was negatively correlated with engaged living (r(133) = -.244, p &lt; .01), mindfulness (r(123) = -.187, p &lt; .05), and self-rated health (r(138) = -.193, p &lt; .05). Additionally, experiential avoidance was significantly higher for male caregivers (t(136)=2.462, p=.015) and those age 65 and over (t(134)=-2.421, p=.017). These findings support previous research that suggests experiential avoidance may be an important construct to target in future interventions with dementia caregivers.

Risk taking (RT) measurement constitutes a challenge for researchers and practitioners and has been addressed from different perspectives. Personality traits and temperamental aspects such as sensation seeking and impulsivity influence the individual’s approach to RT, prompting risk-seeking or risk-aversion behaviors. Virtual reality has emerged as a suitable tool for RT measurement, since it enables the exposure of a person to realistic risks, allowing embodied interactions, the application of stealth assessment techniques and physiological real-time measurement. In this article, we present the assessment on decision making in risk environments (AEMIN) tool, as an enhanced version of the spheres and shield maze task, a previous tool developed by the authors. The main aim of this article is to study whether it is possible is to discriminate participants with high versus low scores in the measures of personality, sensation seeking and impulsivity, through their behaviors and physiological responses during playing AEMIN. Applying machine learning methods to the dataset we explored: (a) if through these data it is possible to discriminate between the two populations in each variable; and (b) which parameters better discriminate between the two populations in each variable. The results support the use of AEMIN as an ecological assessment tool to measure RT, since it brings to light behaviors that allow to classify the subjects into high/low risk-related psychological constructs. Regarding physiological measures, galvanic skin response seems to be less salient in prediction models.

Today’s environmental conditions dictate the necessity of considering all aspects of activities through the uncertainty factor. The main reasons for uncertainty lie in the dynamism and variability of the environment in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic also acted as a catalyst for increasing uncertainty in all spheres of life. The purpose of the article is to define the concept of "uncertainty" in the investment behavior of households. The essence of this definition is a combination of the objective state of the environment and the subjective state of households during their investment behavior. The paper proves that the concepts of risk and uncertainty are not the same. Uncertainty is the primary source and one of the causes of risks. To consider the uncertainty, the expediency of using the institutional-behavioral approach is substantiated. This approach involves considering the concept of uncertainty through the prism of two concepts – environmental uncertainty and personal uncertainty of households. The environmental uncertainty is considered from the standpoint of two main approaches – the ability to predict future events and the quality of information about future events. Based on the analysis of definitions, the concept of "environmental uncertainty" is proposed to be defined based on the factors of its formation: the state of ambiguity, the impossibility of accurately predicting future developments; state of absence or insufficiency of reliable information about future events; state of availability of an unlimited number of options for the development of events due to the lack of criteria for their optimality and efficiency. The personal uncertainty is proposed to be determined from the standpoint of behavioral context. It should be based on the individual psychological (behavioral) characteristics of households, which may affect the level of their uncertainty. The main behavioral features of household uncertainty are the ambiguity of motives, the variability of goals, lack of information, risk aversion, psychological unpreparedness, and emotional and forceful instability to the challenges of the environment. The proposed approach to the essence of the concept of "uncertainty" will allow making more informed and efficient decisions in the investment behavior of households.

Demographic change, new family structures, and concerns about personal safety are contributing to a growing use of motorized transportation by women. The increasing importance of women as travelers has implications for the ways in which transportation policy must be reviewed in an era when sustainable development has become a key issue. An appreciation of the particular nature of women’s travel behavior, and their designed behavior, could facilitate an easier path to sustainability. The travel patterns, needs, and psychology of women are examined, as well as the influence of these patterns and behavior on efforts to promote sustainable development. Women’s travel patterns differ in important ways from those of men. In particular, gender differences arise in ( a) the distance traveled, ( b) the mode of travel, and ( c) the complexity and purpose of trip making. The particular psychology of women contributes to these patterns. In comparison with men, women tend to be prone to ambivalent feelings, but their analysis of these feelings can prompt leaps in thought and creative solutions to problems. In addition, women are more risk averse than men. Risk aversion may affect women’s travel decisions—for example, when security is a concern. Changes in the economy also are placing new demands and constraints on women, their lives, and their travel patterns. Future research on women and transportation should focus on the psychological aspects of women’s travel, the special travel needs and circumstances of women, and the influence of changing economic conditions on women’s travel patterns and the environment.

This paper seeks to identify and discusses the factors that affect an organization’s internal whistleblowing intentions related to ethics. This paper integrates theindividual variable which are ethical judgment and the intensity of the moral; organizational variable that support the organizations; and situational variables, such as the status of wrongdoers, the possibility of retaliation, and tolerance of dissent;that is expressed in a group of theoretical propositions, which is used to develop a frame of thoughts in the study. This paper attempts to provide useful knowledges on how individuals form the intention of reporting and how ethical values can affect these intentions, thus, itwill be able to provide a contribution for a further understanding of the phenomena associated with an ethical whistleblowing.The purpose of this paper is to provide a general discussion about the decision-making process of internal whistleblowing along with an overview of the ethical element that is reflected in the psychological, situational and organizational characteristics. Through a theoretical model, based on the existing literature, it indicates that whistleblowing is a very complex phenomenon resulted from an interaction of situational, organizational and individualfactors. The complexity of the phenomenon depends not only on the various factors that affect whistleblowing, but also related to the attitudes toward the ethical judgment and moral intensity. Whistleblowing behavior is embedded in a social context, so it can vary according to the values, beliefs and certain social norms. Factors that may inhibit the whistleblowingbehavioris a violation of the personal relationship between employee and employer, aversion to conflict, and interpersonal relations. The passivity of the employees can weaken the relationship between whistleblowing attitudes andwhistleblowingintentions, therefore,it causes the observer to not disclose the information.Specifically, organizations must improve the legitimacy of an internal whistleblowing and take actions that can reduce the fear of retaliation, increase the perceived support and easily identify the actions and behaviors that must be reported. By expanding the knowledge of the phenomenon and discussing the aspects and its implications, hence, it may encourage any debates on the topic and encourage organizations to rethink their policies and strategies for whistleblowing decision making. Keywords: whistleblowing

In real portfolio selection, the investor usually exhibits some psychological behaviors such as reference dependence, loss aversion and so on and also has the requirements of wealth expectation in his/her mental accounts, but the in-depth study on this aspect is still lacking. The objective of this paper is to develop a method for the portfolio selection in which the multiple psychological behaviors (i.e., the reference dependence, the probability overestimation or underestimation, the loss aversion and the diminishing sensitivity) and the mental accounts of the investor are considered simultaneously. First, for the multiple psychological behaviors of the investor, the calculation formula of overall comprehensive utility of portfolio of all the candidate assets is given according to the cumulative prospect theory. Then, a portfolio optimization model with the probabilistic constraints is constructed to determine the desirable portfolio. For the model, the objective is to maximize the overall comprehensive utility of portfolio of the assets, and the requirements of the wealth expectations in the mental accounts of the investor and the limitation of initial investment wealth are considered as the constraints. Further, the definition of the available state set is given, and the available state sets for each mental account can be determined according to the definition. Based on the determined available state sets, the model can be converted into the multiple linear integer programming problems. By solving the linear integer programming problems, the optimal portfolio can be obtained. In addition, a numerical example is used to illustrate the use of the proposed method. Finally, an empirical study is given to validate our research work.

Background: Individuals experiencing psychosis can present with elevated levels of depression and anxiety. Research suggests that aspects of depression and anxiety may serve an avoidant function by limiting the processing of more distressing material. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy suggests that avoidance of aversive mental experiences contributes to psychological inflexibility. Depression and anxiety occurring in the context of psychosis have a limiting effect on quality of life. No research to date has investigated how levels of psychological flexibility and mindfulness are associated with depression and anxiety occurring following psychosis. Aims: This study investigated associations psychological flexibility and mindfulness had with depression and anxiety following psychosis. Method: Thirty participants with psychosis were recruited by consecutive referral on the basis that they were experiencing emotional dysfunction following psychosis. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II) and the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) were used. A cross-sectional correlational design was used. Results: The depression and anxiety subscales of the HADS both had significant correlations with psychological flexibility (as assessed by the AAQ-II) and aspects of mindfulness (as assessed by the KIMS). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that psychological flexibility, but not mindfulness, contributed significantly to models predicting 46% of variance in both depression and anxiety scores. Conclusions: Although aspects of mindfulness are associated with depression and anxiety following an episode of psychosis, psychological flexibility appears to account for a larger proportion of variance in depression and anxiety scores in this population.

The protective influence of social relationships on health is widely documented; however, not all relationships are positive, and negative aspects of relationships may be detrimental. Much less is known about the relationships characterized by both positivity and negativity (i.e., ambivalence). This article provides a theoretical framework for considering the influence of ambivalent relationships on physical health, including reasons why ambivalence should be considered separately from relationships characterized as primarily positive (supportive) or primarily negative (aversive). We introduce the social ambivalence and disease (SAD) model as a guide to understanding the social psychological antecedents, processes, and consequences of ambivalent relationships. We conclude by highlighting gaps in the literature and features of the SAD model that may serve as a guide to future research on potential health-relevant pathways of ambivalent relationships.

Abstract Introduction Burn patients often experience pain and fear of the recovery process, negatively impacting their engagement in necessary treatments for maximal functional outcomes. Patients routinely exhibit aversions toward physical and occupational therapies (PT and OT). As a result, therapists have been tasked with managing the patient’s psychological reactions while simultaneously providing rehabilitation. We developed a program for our psychologist to co-treat patients with burn physical and occupational therapists to directly address the painful or feared aspects of burn recovery. These multidisciplinary visits offer in-vivo interventions for managing patient distress and allows therapists the ability to focus solely on their specialized interventions. Methods This program has been active for 12 months and was created during therapy to aid a patient with high distress during PT and OT. Therapists now work with psychology to co-treat improving patient engagement in rehabilitative interventions. During co-treatment, the patients are able to engage in PT and OT more effectively and achieve short-term goals. The burn center psychologist and therapists have developed an interventional method to explore potential generalization of co-treatment effectiveness. Patients are identified based on high need for psychological support during therapy sessions. Each patient case is reviewed and discussed to develop individualized treatment plans and establish goals. Through qualitative review of each co-treatment visit, common barriers have been identified as well as strategies to improve engagement and compliance. Results The common barriers encountered had a high association with a history of traumatic experiences and avoidant coping/low distress tolerance. The most effective co-treatment interventions included: collaboratively setting patient goals with PT, OT and psychology; scheduling patient therapy with burn psychology in advance; teaching distress tolerance skills to manage anticipatory and in-vivo distress related to rehabilitation. Conclusions Treating the emotional aspects of burn recovery during moments of acute distress is integral for holistic patient care. This multidisciplinary approach offers patients increased involvement through collaboratively tailored treatment planning and improved ability to tolerate distressing aspects of recovery. Additionally, therapists were taught various approaches to improve patient engagement and adherence.

Abstract Distancing is an effective tactic for emotion regulation, which can take several forms depending on the type(s) of psychological distance being manipulated to modify affect. We recently proposed a neurocognitive model of emotional distancing, but it is unknown how its specific forms are instantiated in the brain. Here, we presented healthy young adults (N = 34) with aversive pictures during functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly compare behavioral performance and brain activity across spatial, temporal, and objective forms of distancing. We found emotion regulation performance to be largely comparable across these forms. A conjunction analysis of activity associated with these forms yielded a high degree of overlap, encompassing regions of the default mode and frontoparietal networks as predicted by our model. A multivariate pattern classification further revealed distributed patches of posterior cortical activation that discriminated each form from one another. These findings not only confirm aspects of our overarching model but also elucidate a novel role for cortical regions in and around the parietal lobe in selectively supporting spatial, temporal, and social cognitive processes to distance oneself from an emotional encounter. These regions may provide new targets for brain-based interventions for emotion dysregulation.

IntroductionPediatric acute bacterial meningitis is a life-threatening illness that results from bacterial infection of the meninges and leaves some survivors with significant sequelae. Given the potential trauma induced by the disease itself and the hospitalization, it is important to have an insight on how the parents cope with this aversive event, and especially how they give sense to this experience.Objectives(1) To explore the lived experience of close family ascendants whose child or grandchild had survived acute bacterial meningitis (2) To investigate how they give meaning to this specific experience.MethodsParticipants were recruited through two association of persons affected by meningitis. Convenience sample of eleven family ascendants. Their family descendants were aged between 0.2 and 20 years old at the time of the meningitis diagnosis (M= 4.1, SD= 7.3). In average, 9.4 years had passed between the onset of illness and the relative’s interview (SD= 5.4).Results6 superordinate themes and 2 meaning-making processes were identified: 1. Sick child becoming a “hero” (comparison with other children). 2. Engaged action/attitude: finding the “positive” of the traumatic experience and engaged action to improve the care system.ConclusionsThis is one of the first studies exploring the first-hand experience of family ascendants confronted to acute bacterial meningitis. Findings highlighted factors characterising the disease experience and the psychological adjustment of meningitis survivors’ families. They demonstred (1) the multidimensional impact of the disease on family ascendants and their need for professional psychological support, (2) the importance of direct involvement of parents in identifying key aspects of care.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND The presence of psychiatric symptoms, anger, and personality characteristics are factors that affect the quality of life of newly diagnosed digestive system cancer patients. OBJECTIVE This study aims to identify which stable characteristics of the individual’s personality interfere with quality of life, even when reactive emotional characteristics of falling ill are controlled. METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed at the Oncology Clinic ( Hospital das Clínicas ), Marília/SP, Brazil, in which 50 adult patients with digestive system cancer and diagnosed less than 6 months answered the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, Temperament and Character Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and WHOQOL-BREF. Multiple regression was performed to verify if quality of life was related to stable characteristics of the subject’s personality (anger trait, temperament and character) after controlling to the transient emotional aspects (anger state, psychiatric symptoms). RESULTS The quality of life psychological health score was higher in presence of self-directedness character and reward dependence temperament and quality of life environment score was higher in presence of self-directedness character and lower in presence of harm avoidance temperament. CONCLUSION The psychological well-being and the adaptive needs to the environment that favoring a better quality of life were reinforced mainly by the self-directedness character; which means that patients more autonomous cope better with the disease. On the other hand, the harm avoidance temperament (meaning the patient has fear of aversive situations) impaired the adaptive capacity to deal with the changes of the day-to-day imposed by the disease. Understanding these personality traits is important to the health professionals drive the patient to more successful treatment.

9044 Background: Because a cancer diagnosis may be regarded as a potentially traumatic event with untoward consequences, much research has focussed on negative aspects of cancer diagnosis and treatment, emphasising psychological outcomes. A recent paradigm shift recognises that such a psycho-pathological approach discounts the human capacity for resilience "the ability to maintain relatively stable functioning following an aversive life event" (Bonanno GA Curr Direct in Psychol Science 2005 14(3) 135). Predictors of resilience in women who recovered uneventfully from surgical and adjuvant treatment for early stage breast cancer were investigated in a prospective study. Methods: Validated self-report measures of mood, somatic symptoms, temperament, illness attitudes, and social support were completed post-surgery. Clinical, tumor and treatment details were recorded. At end treatment and subsequently at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, self-report measures of mood and somatic symptoms were completed. Resilience was defined as: no evidence of protracted psychological or somatic distress in the 12 months following treatment completion. Identified resilient and non-resilient groups were compared and predictors sought by logistic regression. Results: Of 218 women evaluated, 106 (49%) were classified as "resilient." They either reported no clinically significant psychological or other distress post-surgery (34%) and 12months following adjuvant treatment or recovered promptly (15%) and remained well. There were no significant differences in age (52 years); marital status; tumor size; treatment; treatment toxicity (nadir hemoglobin and neutrophil count) or mortality at 5 years post treatment (8 confirmed deaths in each group). Logistic regression identified low neuroticism (temperament or personality trait) as the most significant predictor of resilience. Conclusions: These findings suggest that without any intervention almost half the women treated for breast cancer adapt well to diagnosis and treatment. These outcomes warrant further research, to provide further insight into how individuals cope with major illness and to facilitate development of programs to aid those in whom outcomes are protracted.

Background The representation of variability in sensitivity to pain by differences in neural connectivity patterns and its association with psychological factors needs further investigation. This study assessed differences in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and its association to cognitive-affective aspects of pain in two groups of healthy subjects with low versus high sensitivity to pain (LSP vs. HSP). We hypothesized that HSP will show stronger connectivity in brain regions involved in the affective-motivational processing of pain and that this higher connectivity would be related to negative affective and cognitive evaluations of pain. Methods Forty-eight healthy subjects were allocated to two groups according to their tolerability to cold stimulation (cold pressor test, CPT, 1°C). Group LSP (N = 24) reached the cut-off time of 180±0 sec and group HSP tolerated the CPT for an average of 13±4.8 sec. Heat, cold and mechanical evoked pain were measured, as well as pain-catastrophizing (PCS), depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21). All subjects underwent resting state fMRI. ROI-to-ROI analysis was performed. Results In comparison to the LSP, the HSP had stronger interhemispheric connectivity of the amygdala (p = 0.01) and between the amygdala and nucleus accumbens (NAc) (p = 0.01). Amygdala connectivity was associated with higher pain catastrophizing in the HSP only (p<0.01). Conclusions These findings suggest that high sensitivity to pain may be reflected by neural circuits involved in affective and motivational aspects of pain. To what extent this connectivity within limbic brain structures relates to higher alertness and more profound withdrawal behavior to aversive events needs to be further investigated.

The article examines the aversive emotion of disgust and its deployment in the visual arts and in the premier Russian modernist novel, Andrei Belyi's Petersburg, which has not been considered in regard to its affective poetics before. Based on recent studies of the emotions in cultural history and theory, it explores the philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic aspects of disgust as a response to something viscerally and/or morally repugnant. The emotion, induced by the experience seen or imagined close up, provokes the observer's recoil as defined by cultural norms. As such, disgust is performative in spatial terms. Olga Matich argues that movement away from the loathsome image or idea affords the possibility of making the experience cognitively readable or legible, that disgust creates a space in which the individual negotiates her emotional as well as moral response. Yet she claims that aesthetically—and in certain instances ethically—disgust, which is always about the boundaries of the permissible, is also liberating: it offers society, its artists, and their consumers the opportunity to transgress established norms. Through extensive close readings of Petersburg, Matich shows that Belyi's experimental novel does precisely that, challenging the reader not to avert her readerly gaze from that which is unsettling and to appreciate, even to delight in, his shocking metamorphic image-making. She calls Petersburg a modernist exemplar of baroque aesthetics, characterized by excessive affect and grotesque representation, especially of the corpse, invoking the transience of life and dissolution of form.

AbstractThe stereotypic and oversimplified relationship between female sex hormones and undesirable behavior dates to the earliest days of human society, as already the ancient Greek word for the uterus, “hystera” indicated an aversive connection. Remaining and evolving throughout the centuries, transcending across cultures and various aspects of everyday life, its perception was only recently reframed. Contemporarily, the complex interaction of hormonal phases (i. e., the menstrual cycle), hormonal medication (i. e., oral contraceptives), women’s psychological well-being, and behavior is the subject of multifaceted and more reflected discussions. A driving force of this ongoing paradigm shift was the introduction of this highly interesting and important topic into the realm of scientific research. This refers to neuroscientific research as it enables a multimodal approach combining aspects of physiology, medicine, and psychology. Here a growing body of literature points towards significant alterations of both brain function, such as lateralization of cognitive functions, and structure, such as gray matter concentrations, due to fluctuations and changes in hormonal levels. This especially concerns female sex hormones. However, the more research is conducted within this field, the less reliable these observations and derived insights appear. This may be due to two particular factors: measurement inconsistencies and diverse hormonal phases accompanied by interindividual differences. The first factor refers to the prominent unreliability of one of the primarily utilized neuroscientific research instruments: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This unreliability is seemingly present in paradigms and analyses, and their interplay, and is additionally affected by the second factor. In more detail, hormonal phases and levels further influence neuroscientific results obtained through fMRI as outcomes vary drastically across different cycle phases and medication. This resulting vast uncertainty thus tremendously hinders the further advancement of our understanding of how female sex hormones might alter brain structure and function and, ultimately, behavior.This review summarizes parts of the current state of research and outlines the essential requirements to further investigate and understand the female brain’s underlying physiological and anatomical features.

Food safety and food quality are two closely related aspects of the food management system. The difference between the two is that one keeps consumers safe while the other keeps consumers satisfied. This study examined the differences in how consumers value food safety and food quality with a focus on the influence of loss aversion on one’s psychological level and of income effect on one’s socio-demographic level. Our findings indicate that loss aversion and income effect significantly influence the way consumers value food safety vs. quality labels when considering potential health risks and food price. High risk-averse and low-income consumers with strong loss aversion and a weak income effect show a higher demand for food safety labels as a way to ensure easy access to safety indications. Low risk-averse and high-income consumers with weak loss aversion and a strong income effect show a higher demand for food quality labels because they hope to gain more health benefits from high-quality food at good prices. This study provides insights that will assist public authorities and food industry in balancing food safety control and food quality improvement in order to meet the heterogeneous market demand changing alongside the transition of China’s food consumption and production.

AbstractPeople are eager to know the self in other’s eyes even with personal costs. However, what drives people costly to know evaluations remains unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis of placing subjective value on knowing social evaluations. To quantify the subjective value, we developed a pay-to-know choice task where individuals trade off profits against knowing social evaluations. Individuals computed independent unknown aversion towards positive and negative social evaluations and placed higher values on knowing social evaluation on positive than negative aspects. Such a valence-dependent valuation of social evaluation was facilitated by oxytocin, a neuropeptide linked to feedback learning and valuation processes, by decreasing values of negative social evaluation. Moreover, individuals scoring high in depression undervalued positive social evaluation, which was normalized by oxytocin. We reveal the psychological and computational processes underlying self-image formation/update and suggest a role of oxytocin in normalizing hypo-valuation of positive social evaluation in depression.

This paper examines current literature on edible insect consumption in western culture through an inductive lens, addressing environmental, nutritional, food security, anthropological and psychological aspects of the topic. Findings show that western aversion towards edible insects is deeply psychological and cultural, mostly ignoring the pleasure dimensions such as taste, texture and flavour. The nature of the problem appears to be predominantly social. Results suggest that a beneficial route of introducing edible insects into the western diet could be formed through a societal perspective. Tourism and hospitality can potentially play a big part in the edible insect development. For instance, food as a tourism product can attract visitors from different backgrounds whilst food consumption as a tourism experience subliminally promises an experience of novelty and potential newfound pleasure in food. Food as an integral part of various cultures and local heritages entails local dishes that can be considered ‘cultural artifacts’ and their consumption symbolises the consumption of ‘other’. Tourism experiences can expose an individual to lasting personal change, self-discovery and intellectual development. Hence, taking into consideration that acquiring new cultural knowledge increases openness to experience, it is possible that tourism could contribute to adopting the practice of insect consumption in the western cultural sphere.

Abstract Background Substandard and falsified medicine (SFM) sales (an estimated > $200 billion) has become one of the worlds’ fastest growing criminal enterprises. It presents an enormous public health and safety challenge. While the developed world is not precluded from this challenge, studies focus on low-income countries. They emphasize supply chain processes, technological, and legal mechanisms, paying less attention to consumer judgment and decision-making aspects. Methods With attention to the demand side of the counterfeit medicines challenge, this survey of U.S. consumers (n = 427) sheds light on some of the social, psychological, and normative factors that underlie consumers’ attitudes, risk perceptions, and purchase intentions. Results Consumers who (a) self-report that they know about the problem, (b) are older, (c) view counterfeit medicine consumption as ethical, and (d) think their significant others would approve of them using such products are more inclined to perceive lower risks and have favorable purchase intentions. Risk averseness is also inversely related to the predicted outcomes. Perceived benefit of SFMs is a factor but has no effect when risk perception and aversion, attitudes, and subjective norms are factored into the model that predicts purchase intentions. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that consumer knowledge (albeit in an unexpected direction), people’s expectations about what will impress their significant others, their ethical judgments about selling and consuming counterfeits, and their risk-aversion are associated with their decision-making about counterfeit medicines. The study offers insights into a demand-side approach to addressing SFM consumption in the U.S. Implications for public health, consumer safety, and brand advocacy education are discussed.

Sexual harassment against healthcare workers is an international problem, but little is known about how recipients of sexual harassment respond to this type of workplace violence. An integrative review was conducted that summarized the findings of 15 studies from around the world that revealed how healthcare workers respond to sexual harassment. The review indicated that recipients of sexual harassment experience a wide variety of aversive feelings, including fear, anger, and shock. Some also experience negative psychological and physical harms and negative employment-related consequences. In conclusion, more studies using increasingly sophisticated designs are required to develop an explanatory model that explicates complex relationships among characteristics of the harassment, institutional responses, and responses of the recipients over time.

The few studies that have considered psychological processes during the commute have drawn an ambiguous picture, with some emphasizing the negative and others the positive consequences of commuting. Drawing on self-determination theory, we develop a framework that expands on the costs and benefits of commuting for employees’ subsequent domain-related functioning at work and home. Specifically, we propose employees’ basic needs satisfaction and processes of autonomous and controlled self-regulation as mechanisms that explain how psychological commute characteristics spill over to domain-related functioning through experienced subjective vitality. In doing so, we introduce a taxonomy of psychological commute characteristics and highlight the importance of separating these underlying subjective characteristics from objective aspects of the commuting environment. Our research encourages scholars to conduct within- and between-person studies to examine how the objective commute environment and associated psychological commute characteristics affect employees’ self-regulation. Plain Language Summary What happens during the commute does not stay within the boundaries of the commute: Aversive experiences such as being stuck in a traffic jam may spill over to lower engagement in work or home activities. Similarly, positive incidents such as flowing to work uninterruptedly can positively impact subsequent experiences such as flowing (i.e., being fully engaged) when performing tasks at work or at home. How can this be explained? Our article suggests that commuters enter motivational states when going and coming from work. For instance, they feel that everything is going easy and under one's control (autonomous self-regulation) or they feel that the commute is effortful and externally determined (controlled self-regulation). These motivational states influence subjective vitality after the commute, which in turn predicts how employees function at work or at home. Importantly, while objective aspects of the commute environment (for instance, the length of one's commute or one's means of transportation) have an impact on these motivational states, we argue that they do so via psychological commute characteristics perceived by the commuter. We focus on the latter and predict employees’ motivational state during the commute in the form of the fulfillment of their basic needs (i.e., feeling autonomous, competent, and related during the commute) as determined by different psychological commute characteristics (decision latitude, psychological stimulation, social characteristics, physical aspects, insecurity). Our work can inspire research that investigates why different employees perceive their commute differently as well as why the same employee may experience different motivational states during their commute from day to day. We end with practical recommendations for communities, organizations, and the commuter themselves.

Abstract. The aim of this research was to validate the dual conception of envy in Serbian culture, measured by the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS). In Study 1 ( N = 404), the results confirmed cross-cultural invariance of the Malicious Envy scale across Serbian and US samples, with the US sample obtaining higher scores. However, two items in the Benign Envy scale showed significant differential item functioning across samples. Nonetheless, both scales in Serbian showed adequate measurement precision (information) and the expected distinction in relations with narcissistic admiration, narcissistic rivalry, and self-esteem, with more aversive characteristics associated with Malicious Envy. In Study 2 ( N = 404), Malicious Envy showed a negative relation with Conscientiousness and Openness, as well as higher negative correlations with Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, psychopathy, and sadism compared to Benign Envy. Furthermore, Malicious Envy showed higher positive correlations with psychological distress, while Benign Envy showed negative correlations with some aspects of distress. The results support good psychometric properties of BeMaS scores of the Serbian adaptation and add to the cross-cultural validity of the dual conception of envy.

Dégueulasse is French slang for “disgusting,” derived in 1867 from the French verb dégueuler, to vomit. Despite its vulgar status, it is frequently used by almost every French speaker, including foreigners and students. It is also a term that has often been employed to describe the 1973 cult film, La Grande bouffe [Blow Out], by Marco Ferreri, which recounts in grotesque detail the gastronomic suicide of four male protagonists. This R-rated French-Italian production was booed, and the director spat on, at the 26th Cannes Film Festival—the Jury President, Ingrid Bergman, said it was the most “sordid” film she’d ever seen, and is even reported to have vomited after watching it (Télérama). Ferreri nevertheless walked away with the Prix FIPRESCI, awarded by the Federation of International Critics, and it is apparently the largest grossing release in the history of Paris with more than 700,000 entries in Paris and almost 3 million in France overall. Scandal sells, and this was especially seemingly so 1970s, when this film was avidly consumed as part of an unholy trinity alongside Bernardo Bertolucci’s Le Dernier Tango à Paris [Last Tango in Paris] (1972) and Jean Eustache’s La Maman et la putain [The Mother and the Whore] (1973). Fast forward forty years, though, and at the very moment when La Grande bouffe was being commemorated with a special screening on the 2013 Cannes Film Festival programme, a handful of University of Melbourne French students in a subject called “Matters of Taste” were boycotting the film as an unacceptable assault to their sensibilities. Over the decade that I have been showing the film to undergraduate students, this has never happened before. In this article, I want to examine critically the questions of taste that underpin this particular predicament. Analysing firstly the intradiegetic portrayal of taste in the film, through both gustatory and aesthetic signifiers, then the choice of the film as a key element in a University subject corpus, I will finally question the (dis)taste displayed by certain students, contextualising it as part of an ongoing socio-cultural commentary on food, sex, life, and death. Framed by a brief foray into Bourdieusian theories of taste, I will attempt to draw some conclusions on the continual renegotiation of gustatory and aesthetic tastes in relation to La Grande bouffe, and thereby deepen understanding of why it has become the incarnation of dégueulasse today. Theories of Taste In the 1970s, the parameters of “good” and “bad” taste imploded in the West, following political challenges to the power of the bourgeoisie that also undermined their status as the contemporary arbiters of taste. This revolution of manners was particularly shattering in France, fuelled by the initial success of the May 68 student, worker, and women’s rights movements (Ross). The democratization of taste served to legitimize desires different from those previously dictated by bourgeois norms, enabling greater diversity in representing taste across a broad spectrum. It was reflected in the cultural products of the 1970s, including cinema, which had already broken with tradition during the New Wave in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and became a vector for political ideologies as well as radical aesthetic choices (Smith). Commonly regarded as “the decade that taste forgot,” the 1970s were also a time for re-assessing the sociology of taste, with the magisterial publication of Pierre Bourdieu’s Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979, English trans. 1984). As Bourdieu refuted Kant’s differentiation between the legitimate aesthetic, so defined by its “disinterestedness,” and the common aesthetic, derived from sensory pleasures and ordinary meanings, he also attempted to abolish the opposition between the “taste of reflection” (pure pleasure) and the “taste of sense” (facile pleasure) (Bourdieu 7). In so doing, he laid the foundations of a new paradigm for understanding the apparently incommensurable choices that are not the innate expression of our unique personalities, but rather the product of our class, education, family experiences—our habitus. Where Bourdieu’s theories align most closely with the relationship between taste and revulsion is in the realm of aesthetic disposition and its desire to differentiate: “good” taste is almost always predicated on the distaste of the tastes of others. Tastes (i.e. manifested preferences) are the practical affirmation of an inevitable difference. It is no accident that, when they have to be justified, they are asserted purely negatively, by the refusal of other tastes. In matters of taste, more than anywhere else, all determination is negation; and tastes are perhaps first and foremost distastes, disgust provoked by horror or visceral intolerance (“sick-making”) of the tastes of others. “De gustibus non est disputandum”: not because “tous les goûts sont dans la nature,” but because each taste feels itself to be natural—and so it almost is, being a habitus—which amounts to rejecting others as unnatural and therefore vicious. Aesthetic intolerance can be terribly violent. Aversion to different life-styles is perhaps one of the strongest barriers between the classes (Bourdieu). Although today’s “Gen Y” Melbourne University students are a long way from 1970s French working class/bourgeois culture clashes, these observations on taste as the corollary of distaste are still salient tools of interpretation of their attitudes towards La Grande bouffe. And, just as Bourdieu effectively deconstructed Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgement and the 18th “century of taste” notions of universality and morality in aesthetics (Dickie, Gadamer, Allison) in his groundbreaking study of distinction, his own theories have in turn been subject to revision in an age of omnivorous consumption and eclectic globalisation, with various cultural practices further destabilising the hierarchies that formerly monopolized legitimate taste (Sciences Humaines, etc). Bourdieu’s theories are still, however, useful for analysing La Grande bouffe given the contemporaneous production of these texts, as they provide a frame for understanding (dis)taste both within the filmic narrative and in the wider context of its reception. Taste and Distaste in La Grande bouffe To go to the cinema is like to eat or shit, it’s a physiological act, it’s urban guerrilla […] Enough with feelings, I want to make a physiological film (Celluloid Liberation Front). Marco Ferreri’s statements about his motivations for La Grande bouffe coincide here with Bourdieu’s explanation of taste: clearly the director wished to depart from psychological cinema favoured by contemporary critics and audiences and demonstrated his distaste for their preference. There were, however, psychological impulses underpinning his subject matter, as according to film academic Maurizio Viano, Ferrari had a self-destructive, compulsive relation to food, having been forced to spend a few weeks in a Swiss clinic specialising in eating disorders in 1972–1973 (Viano). Food issues abound in his biography. In an interview with Tullio Masoni, the director declared: “I was fat as a child”; his composer Phillipe Sarde recalls the grand Italian-style dinners that he would organise in Paris during the film; and, two of the film’s stars, Marcello Mastroianni and Ugo Tognazzi, actually credit the conception of La Grande bouffe to a Rabelaisian feast prepared by Tognazzi, during which Ferreri exclaimed “hey guys, we are killing ourselves!” (Viano 197–8). Evidently, there were psychological factors behind this film, but it was nevertheless the physiological aspects that Ferreri chose to foreground in his creation. The resulting film does indeed privilege the physiological, as the protagonists fornicate, fart, vomit, defecate, and—of course—eat, to wild excess. The opening scenes do not betray such sordid sequences; the four bourgeois men are introduced one by one so as to establish their class credentials as well as display their different tastes. We first encounter Ugo (Tognazzi), an Italian chef of humble peasant origins, as he leaves his elegant restaurant “Le Biscuit à soupe” and his bourgeois French wife, to take his knives and recipes away with him for the weekend. Then Michel (Piccoli), a TV host who has pre-taped his shows, gives his apartment keys to his 1970s-styled baba-cool daughter as he bids her farewell, and packs up his cleaning products and rubber gloves to take with him. Marcello (Mastroianni) emerges from a cockpit in his aviator sunglasses and smart pilot’s uniform, ordering his sexy airhostesses to carry his cheese and wine for him as he takes a last longing look around his plane. Finally, the judge and owner of the property where the action will unfold, Philippe (Noiret), is awoken by an elderly woman, Nicole, who feeds him tea and brioche, pestering him for details of his whereabouts for the weekend, until he demonstrates his free will and authority, joking about his serious life, and lying to her about attending a legal conference in London. Having given over power of attorney to Nicole, he hints at the finality of his departure, but is trying to wrest back his independence as his nanny exhorts him not to go off with whores. She would rather continue to “sacrifice herself for him” and “keep it in the family,” as she discreetly pleasures him in this scene. Scholars have identified each protagonist as an ideological signifier. For some, they represent power—Philippe is justice—and three products of that ideology: Michel is spectacle, Ugo is food, and Marcello is adventure (Celluloid Liberation Front). For others, these characters are the perfect incarnations of the first four Freudian stages of sexual development: Philippe is Oedipal, Michel is indifferent, Ugo is oral, and Marcello is impotent (Tury & Peter); or even the four temperaments of Hippocratic humouralism: Philippe the phlegmatic, Michel the melancholic, Ugo the sanguine, and Marcello the choleric (Calvesi, Viano). I would like to offer another dimension to these categories, positing that it is each protagonist’s taste that prescribes his participation in this gastronomic suicide as well as the means by which he eventually dies. Before I develop this hypothesis, I will first describe the main thrust of the narrative. The four men arrive at the villa at 68 rue Boileau where they intend to end their days (although this is not yet revealed). All is prepared for the most sophisticated and decadent feasting imaginable, with a delivery of the best meats and poultry unfurling like a surrealist painting. Surrounded by elegant artworks and demonstrating their cultural capital by reciting Shakespeare, Brillat-Savarin, and other classics, the men embark on a race to their death, beginning with a competition to eat the most oysters while watching a vintage pornographic slideshow. There is a strong thread of masculine athletic engagement in this film, as has been studied in detail by James R. Keller in “Four Little Caligulas: La Grande bouffe, Consumption and Male Masochism,” and this is exacerbated by the arrival of a young but matronly schoolmistress Andréa (Ferréol) with her students who want to see the garden. She accepts the men’s invitation to stay on in the house to become another object of competitive desire, and fully embraces all the sexual and gustatory indulgence around her. Marcello goes further by inviting three prostitutes to join them and Ugo prepares a banquet fit for a funeral. The excessive eating makes Michel flatulent and Marcello impotent; when Marcello kicks the toilet in frustration, it explodes in the famous fecal fountain scene that apparently so disgusted his then partner Catherine Deneuve, that she did not speak to him for a week (Ebert). The prostitutes flee the revolting madness, but Andréa stays like an Angel of Death, helping the men meet their end and, in surviving, perhaps symbolically marking an end to the masculinist bourgeoisie they represent.To return to the role of taste in defining the rise and demise of the protagonists, let me begin with Marcello, as he is the first to die. Despite his bourgeois attitudes, he is a modern man, associated with machines and mobility, such as the planes and the beautiful Bugatti, which he strokes with greater sensuality than the women he hoists onto it. His taste is for the functioning mechanical body, fast and competitive, much like himself when he is gorging on oysters. But his own body betrays him when his “masculine mechanics” stop functioning, and it is the fact that the Bugatti has broken down that actually causes his death—he is found frozen in driver’s seat after trying to escape in the Bugatti during the night. Marcello’s taste for the mechanical leads therefore to his eventual demise. Michel is the next victim of his own taste, which privileges aesthetic beauty, elegance, the arts, and fashion, and euphemises the less attractive or impolite, the scatological, boorish side of life. His feminized attire—pink polo-neck and flowing caftan—cannot distract from what is happening in his body. The bourgeois manners that bind him to beauty mean that breaking wind traumatises him. His elegant gestures at the dance barre encourage rather than disguise his flatulence; his loud piano playing cannot cover the sound of his loud farts, much to the mirth of Philippe and Andréa. In a final effort to conceal his painful bowel obstruction, he slips outside to die in obscene and noisy agony, balanced in an improbably balletic pose on the balcony balustrade. His desire for elegance and euphemism heralds his death. Neither Marcello nor Michel go willingly to their ends. Their tastes are thwarted, and their deaths are disgusting to them. Their cadavers are placed in the freezer room as silent witnesses to the orgy that accelerates towards its fatal goal. Ugo’s taste is more earthy and inherently linked to the aims of the adventure. He is the one who states explicitly: “If you don’t eat, you won’t die.” He wants to cook for others and be appreciated for his talents, as well as eat and have sex, preferably at the same time. It is a combination of these desires that kills him as he force-feeds himself the monumental creation of pâté in the shape of the Cathedral of Saint-Peter that has been rejected as too dry by Philippe, and too rich by Andréa. The pride that makes him attempt to finish eating his masterpiece while Andréa masturbates him on the dining table leads to a heart-stopping finale for Ugo. As for Philippe, his taste is transgressive. In spite of his upstanding career as a judge, he lies and flouts convention in his unorthodox relationship with nanny Nicole. Andréa represents another maternal figure to whom he is attracted and, while he wishes to marry her, thereby conforming to bourgeois norms, he also has sex with her, and her promiscuous nature is clearly signalled. Given his status as a judge, he reasons that he can not bring Marcello’s frozen body inside because concealing a cadaver is a crime, yet he promotes collective suicide on his premises. Philippe’s final transgression of the rules combines diabetic disobedience with Oedipal complex—Andréa serves him a sugary pink jelly dessert in the form of a woman’s breasts, complete with cherries, which he consumes knowingly and mournfully, causing his death. Unlike Marcello and Michel, Ugo and Philippe choose their demise by indulging their tastes for ingestion and transgression. Following Ferreri’s motivations and this analysis of the four male protagonists, taste is clearly a cornerstone of La Grande bouffe’s conception and narrative structure. It is equally evident that these tastes are contrary to bourgeois norms, provoking distaste and even revulsion in spectators. The film’s reception at the time of its release and ever since have confirmed this tendency in both critical reviews and popular feedback as André Habib’s article on Salo and La Grande bouffe (2001) meticulously demonstrates. With such a violent reaction, one might wonder why La Grande bouffe is found on so many cinema studies curricula and is considered to be a must-see film (The Guardian). Corpus and Corporeality in Food Film Studies I chose La Grande bouffe as the first film in the “Matters of Taste” subject, alongside Luis Bunuel’s Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast, and Laurent Bénégui’s Au Petit Marguery, as all are considered classic films depicting French eating cultures. Certainly any French cinema student would know La Grande bouffe and most cinephiles around the world have seen it. It is essential background knowledge for students studying French eating cultures and features as a key reference in much scholarly research and popular culture on the subject. After explaining the canonical status of La Grande bouffe and thus validating its inclusion in the course, I warned students about the explicit nature of the film. We studied it for one week out of the 12 weeks of semester, focusing on questions of taste in the film and the socio-cultural representations of food. Although the almost ubiquitous response was: “C’est dégueulasse!,” there was no serious resistance until the final exam when a few students declared that they would boycott any questions on La Grande bouffe. I had not actually included any such questions in the exam. The student evaluations at the end of semester indicated that several students questioned the inclusion of this “disgusting pornography” in the corpus. There is undoubtedly less nudity, violence, gore, or sex in this film than in the Game of Thrones TV series. What, then, repulses these Gen Y students? Is it as Pasolini suggests, the neorealistic dialogue and décor that disturbs, given the ontologically challenging subject of suicide? (Viano). Or is it the fact that there is no reason given for the desire to end their lives, which privileges the physiological over the psychological? Is the scatological more confronting than the pornographic? Interestingly, “food porn” is now a widely accepted term to describe a glamourized and sometimes sexualized presentation of food, with Nigella Lawson as its star, and hundreds of blog sites reinforcing its popularity. Yet as Andrew Chan points out in his article “La Grande bouffe: Cooking Shows as Pornography,” this film is where it all began: “the genealogy reaches further back, as brilliantly visualized in Marco Ferreri’s 1973 film La Grande bouffe, in which four men eat, screw and fart themselves to death” (47). Is it the overt corporeality depicted in the film that shocks cerebral students into revulsion and rebellion? Conclusion In the guise of a conclusion, I suggest that my Gen Y students’ taste may reveal a Bourdieusian distaste for the taste of others, in a third degree reaction to the 1970s distaste for bourgeois taste. First degree: Ferreri and his entourage reject the psychological for the physiological in order to condemn bourgeois values, provoking scandal in the 1970s, but providing compelling cinema on a socio-political scale. Second degree: in spite of the outcry, high audience numbers demonstrate their taste for scandal, and La Grande bouffe becomes a must-see canonical film, encouraging my choice to include it in the “Matters of Taste” corpus. Third degree: my Gen Y students’ taste expresses a distaste for the academic norms that I have embraced in showing them the film, a distaste that may be more aesthetic than political. Oui, c’est dégueulasse, mais … Bibliography Allison, Henry E. Kant’s Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgement. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2001. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1984. Calvesi, M. “Dipingere all moviola” (Painting at the Moviola). Corriere della Sera, 10 Oct. 1976. Reprint. “Arti figurative e il cinema” (Cinema and the Visual Arts). Avanguardia di massa. Ed. M. Calvesi. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1978. 243–46. Celluloid Liberation Front. “Consumerist Ultimate Indigestion: La Grande Bouffe's Deadly Physiological Pleasures.” Bright Lights Film Journal 60 (2008). 13 Jan. 2014 ‹http://brightlightsfilm.com/60/60lagrandebouffe.php#.Utd6gs1-es5›. Chan, Andrew. “La Grande bouffe: Cooking Shows as Pornography.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 3.4 (2003): 47–53. Dickie, George. The Century of Taste: The Philosophical Odyssey of Taste in the Eighteenth Century. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. Ebert, Roger, “La Grande bouffe.” 13 Jan. 2014 ‹http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/la-grande-bouffe-1973›. Ferreri, Marco. La Grande bouffe. Italy-France, 1973. Freedman, Paul H. Food: The History of Taste. U of California P, 2007. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Trans. Joel Winsheimer and Donald C. Marshall. New York: Continuum, 1999. Habib, André. “Remarques sur une ‘réception impossible’: Salo and La Grande bouffe.” Hors champ (cinéma), 4 Jan. 2001. 11 Jan. 2014 ‹http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/cinema/030101/salo-bouffe.html›. Keller, James R. “Four Little Caligulas: La Grande bouffe, Consumption and Male Masochism.” Food, Film and Culture: A Genre Study. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co, 2006: 49–59. Masoni, Tullio. Marco Ferreri. Gremese, 1998. Pasolini, P.P. “Le ambigue forme della ritualita narrativa.” Cinema Nuovo 231 (1974): 342–46. Ross, Kristin. May 68 and its Afterlives. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Smith, Alison. French Cinema in the 1970s: The Echoes of May. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2005. Télérama: “La Grande bouffe: l’un des derniers grands scandales du Festival de Cannes. 19 May 2013. 13 Jan. 2014 ‹http://www.telerama.fr/festival-de-cannes/2013/la-grande-bouffe-l-un-des-derniers-grands-scandales-du-festival-de-cannes,97615.php›. The Guardian: 1000 films to see before you die. 2007. 17 Jan. 2014 ‹http://www.theguardian.com/film/series/1000-films-to-see-before-you-die› Tury, F., and O. Peter. “Food, Life, and Death: The Film La Grande bouffe of Marco Ferreri in an Art Psychological Point of View.” European Psychiatry 22.1 (2007): S214. Viano, Maurizio. “La Grande Abbuffata/La Grande bouffe.” The Cinema of Italy. Ed. Giorgio Bertellini. London: Wallflower Press, 2004: 193–202.

O uso de medicamentos fitoterápicos vem crescendo mundialmente entre os programas preventivos e curativos, e tem estimulado a avaliação dos extratos de plantas para o uso na odontologia como controle do biofilme dental e outras desordens bucais. As plantas do gênero Lavandula, pertencem à família Lamiaceae, e têm sido utilizadas através dos anos para uma variedade de propósitos cosméticos e terapêuticos. Sua utilização na odontologia é, na grande maioria dos estudos, devido ao seu potencial ansiolítico. Entretanto, a Lavandula angustifólia demonstra outros potencias farmacológicos, como sua atividade antimicrobiana, antifúngica, anti-inflamatória e antinociceptiva. O presente estudo teve como objetivo integrar os conhecimentos já existentes sobre os aspectos das propriedades farmacológicas da Lavandula angustifolia Miller e sua aplicação na Odontologia. Trata-se de uma revisão bibliográfica no qual foi realizada uma seleção de artigos científicos a partir das bases de dados: Lilacs, MEDLINE, BVS e Scielo, além de monografias que atenderam aos requisitos do tema abordado, no período 2008 a 2018 com exceção de artigos clássicos que se apresentaram imprescindíveis ao presente estudo. Obteve-se um total de 1.532 artigos. Foram selecionados 38 artigos como amostra, que apresentaram a temática elencada para a pesquisa e que foram divididos por sessões: aspectos botânicos da planta; aspectos bioquímicos da planta; potencial antimicrobano; potencial anti-inflamatório; potencial ansiolítico e; potencial antinociceptivo. Pode-se concluir que a Lavandula angustifóliaMiller apresenta-se como uma boa alternativa para utilização na odontologia. Entretanto, a falta de trabalhos que abordem sua utilidade na odontologia revela a necessidade de se intensificar as pesquisas sobre o assunto.Descritores: Plantas Medicinais; Odontologia; Lavandula.ReferênciasFrancisco KSF. Fitoterapia: uma opção para o tratamento odontológico. Rev Saúde. 2010;4(1):18-24.Silveira SM, Cunha Júnior A, Scheuermann GN, Secchi FL, Silvani V, Marisete K et al . Composição química e atividade antibacteriana dos óleos essenciais de Cymbopogon winterianus (citronela), Eucalyptus paniculata (eucalipto) e Lavandula angustifolia (lavanda). Rev Inst Adolfo Lutz. 2012;71(3):462-70.Koulivand PH, Ghadiri MK, Gorji A. Lavender and the nervous system. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:681304.Verma RS, Rahman LU, Chanotiya CS, Verma RK, Chauhan A, Yadav A et al. Essential oil composition of Lavandula angustifolia Mill. cultivated in the mid hills of Uttarakhand, India. J Serb Chem Soc. 2010;75(3):343-48.Biasi LA, Deschamps C. Plantas Aromáticas: do cultivo à produção de óleo essencial. Curitiba: Layer;2009.Lorenzi, H, Matos EJA. Plantas medicinais do Brasil: nativas e exóticas. 2. ed. Nova Odessa: Instituto Plantarum de Estudos da Flora;2008.Índice Terapêutico Fitoterápico (ITF). Petrópolis: Editora de Publicações Biomédicas;2008.Chioca LR. Avaliação do mecanismo de ação do efeito tipo ansiolítico da inalação do óleo essencial de lavanda em camundongos [tese]. Curitiba: Universidade Federal do Paraná;2013.Zabirunnisa M, Gadagi JS, Gadde P, Myla N, Koneru J, Thatimatla C. Dental patient anxiety: Possible deal with Lavender fragrance. J Res Pharm Pract. 2014;3(3):100-3.Platt ES. Lavender: How to grow and use the fragrant herb. 2. ed. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books;2009.Hajhashemi V, Ghannadi A, Sharif B. Anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties of the leaf extracts and essential oil of Lavandula angustifolia Mill. J Ethnopharmacol. 2003;89(1):67-71.Machado MP, Ciotta MN, Deschamps C, Zanette F, Côcco LC, Biasi LA. In vitro propagation and chemical characterization of the essential oil of Lavandula angustifolia cultivated in Southern Brazil. Cienc Rural 2013;43:283-89.Porto C da, Decorti D, Kikic I. Flavour compounds of Lavandula angustifolia L. to use in food manufacturing: Comparison of three different extraction methods. Food Chem. 2009;112(4):1072-78.Duke JA. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs. Flórida: CRC;2000.Mantovani ALL, Vieira GPG, Cunha WR, Groppo M, Santos RA, Rodrigues V et al . Chemical composition, antischistosomal and cytotoxic effects of the essential oil of Lavandula angustifolia grown in Southeastern Brazil. Rev. bras. farmacogn. 2013;23(6):877-84.Jianu C, Pop G, Gruia AT, Horhat FG. Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and Lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia) Grown in Western Romania. Int J Agric Biol. 2013;15(4):772-76.Lam M, Jou Pc, Lattif Aa, Lee Y, Malbasa Cl, Mukherjee Pk et al. Photodynamic therapy with Pc 4 induces apoptosis of Candida albicans. Photochem Photobiol. 2011;87(4):904-9.Pereira CA, Romeiro RL, Costa AC, Machado AK, Junqueira JC, Jorge AO. Susceptibility of Candida albicans, staphylococcus aureus, and streptococcus mutans biofilms to photodynamic inactivation: an in vitro study. Lasers Med Sci. 2011;26(3):341-48.Neville BW, Damm DD, Allen CM, Bouquot JE. Patologia Oral e Maxilofacial. 3. ed. Rio De Janeiro: Elsevier;2009.de Rapper S, Kamatou G, Viljoen A, van Vuuren S. The in vitro antimicrobial activity of lavandula angustifolia essential oil in combination with other aroma-therapeutic oils. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:852049.Uniyal V, Bhatt RP, Saxena S, Talwar A. Antifungal activity of essential oils and their volatile constituents against respiratory tract pathogens causing Aspergilloma and Aspergillosis by gaseous contact. J Appl Nat Sci. 2012;4(1):65-70.Ribeiro BP, Pereira WS, Sousa AIP, Guerra RNM, Nascimento FRF. Alteração no perfil bioquímico induzido por reação inflamatória granulomatosa em camundondos. Rev Ciênc Saúde. 2010;12(1):73-9.Rubin E, Gorstein F, Rubin R, Schwarting R, Strayer D. Patologia. Bases clínicopatológicas da Medicina. 4. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Guanabara Koogan;2006.Silva GL. Avaliação da atividade antioxidante, antiinflamatória e antinociceptiva do óleo essencial de lavanda (Lavandula angustifolia Mill) [dissertação]. Dissertação (Mestrado). Porto Alegre: Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul;2009.Cryan, JF, Sweeney FF. The age of anxiety: role of animal models of anxiolytic action in drug discovery. Br J Pharmacol. 2011;164(4):1129-61.Barik J, Marti F, Morel C, Fernandez SP, Lanteri C, Godeheu G et al. Chronic stress triggers social aversion via glucocorticoid receptor in dopaminoceptive neurons. Science. 2013;339(6117):332-35.Martin EI, Ressler KJ, Binder E, Nemeroff CB. The neurobiology of anxiety disorders: brain imaging, genetics, and psychoneuroendocrinology. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2009;32(3):549-75.Oler JA, Fox AS, Shelton SE, Rogers J, Dyer TD, Davidson RJ et al. Amygdalar and hippocampal substrates of anxious temperament differ in their heritability. Nature. 2010;466(7308):864-68.Loggia ML, Schweinhardt P, Villemure MC, Bushnell Mc. Effects of psychological state on pain perception in the dental environment. J Can Dent Assoc. 2008;74(7):651-56.Carvalho RWF, Falcão PGCB, Campos GJL, Bastos AS, Pereira JC, Pereira MAS et al. Ansiedade frente ao tratamento odontológico: prevalência e fatores predictores em brasileiros. Ciênc Saúde Colet. 2012;17(7):1915-22.Siviero M, Nhani VT, Prado EFGB. Análise da ansiedade como fator preditor de dor aguda em pacientes submetidos à exodontias ambulatoriais. Rev Odontol UNESP. 2008;37(4):329-36Coelho LS, Correa-Netto NF, Masukawa MY, Lima AC, Maluf S, Linardi A et al. Inhaled Lavandula angustifolia essential oil inhibits consolidation of contextual-but not tone-fear conditioning in rats. J Ethnopharmacol. 2018;215:34-41.Oliveira RRB, Góis RMO, Siqueira RS, Almeida JRGS, Lima JT, Nunes XP et al . Antinociceptive effect of the ethanolic extract of Amburana cearensis (Allemão) A.C. Sm., Fabaceae, in rodents. Rev bras farmacogn. 2009;19(3):672-76.Millan MJ. Descending control of pain. Prog Neurobiol. 2002;66(6):355-474.Julius D, Basbaum AI. Molecular mechanisms of nociception. Nature. 2001;413(6852):203-10.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unintentional drug poisoning in the United States. CDC: Atlanta, 2010. Disponível em: https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/pdf/poison-issue-brief.pdf.Donatello NN. Ativação de receptores opioides periféricos e espinais pela inalação do óleo essencial de lavandula augustifolia reduz hiperalgesia mecânica em modelos animais de neuropatia e inflamação crônica [dissertação]. Palhoça: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Pós-graduação em Ciências da Saúde;2017.Maior FNS. Atividade ansiolítica e antinociceptiva do óxido de linalol em modelos animais [tese]. João Pessoa: Universidade Federal da Paraíba;2011.

Introduction I am a transmigrant who has moved back and forth between the West and the Rest. I was born and raised in a Muslim family in a predominantly Muslim country, Bangladesh, but I spent several years of my childhood in Pakistan. After my marriage, I lived in the United States for a year and a half, the Middle East for 5 years, Australia for three years, back to the Middle East for another 5 years, then, finally, in Australia for the last 12 years. I speak Bengali (my mother tongue), Urdu (which I learnt in Pakistan), a bit of Arabic (learnt in the Middle East); but English has always been my medium of instruction. So where is home? Is it my place of origin, the Muslim umma, or my land of settlement? Or is it my ‘root’ or my ‘route’ (Blunt and Dowling)? Blunt and Dowling (199) observe that the lives of transmigrants are often interpreted in terms of their ‘roots’ and ‘routes’, which are two frameworks for thinking about home, homeland and diaspora. Whereas ‘roots’ might imply an original homeland from which people have scattered, and to which they might seek to return, ‘routes’ focuses on mobile, multiple and transcultural geographies of home. However, both ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ are attached to emotion and identity, and both invoke a sense of place, belonging or alienation that is intrinsically tied to a sense of self (Blunt and Dowling 196-219). In this paper, I equate home with my root (place of birth) and route (transnational homing) within the context of the ‘diaspora and belonging’. First I define the diaspora and possible criteria of belonging. Next I describe my transnational homing within the framework of diaspora and belonging. Finally, I consider how Australia can be a ‘home’ for me and other Muslim Australians. The Diaspora and Belonging Blunt and Dowling (199) define diaspora as “scattering of people over space and transnational connections between people and the places”. Cohen emphasised the ethno-cultural aspects of the diaspora setting; that is, how migrants identify and position themselves in other nations in terms of their (different) ethnic and cultural orientation. Hall argues that the diasporic subjects form a cultural identity through transformation and difference. Speaking of the Hindu diaspora in the UK and Caribbean, Vertovec (21-23) contends that the migrants’ contact with their original ‘home’ or diaspora depends on four factors: migration processes and factors of settlement, cultural composition, structural and political power, and community development. With regard to the first factor, migration processes and factors of settlement, Vertovec explains that if the migrants are political or economic refugees, or on a temporary visa, they are likely to live in a ‘myth of return’. In the cultural composition context, Vertovec argues that religion, language, region of origin, caste, and degree of cultural homogenisation are factors in which migrants are bound to their homeland. Concerning the social structure and political power issue, Vertovec suggests that the extent and nature of racial and ethnic pluralism or social stigma, class composition, degree of institutionalised racism, involvement in party politics (or active citizenship) determine migrants’ connection to their new or old home. Finally, community development, including membership in organisations (political, union, religious, cultural, leisure), leadership qualities, and ethnic convergence or conflict (trends towards intra-communal or inter-ethnic/inter-religious co-operation) would also affect the migrants’ sense of belonging. Using these scholarly ideas as triggers, I will examine my home and belonging over the last few decades. My Home In an initial stage of my transmigrant history, my home was my root (place of birth, Dhaka, Bangladesh). Subsequently, my routes (settlement in different countries) reshaped my homes. In all respects, the ethno-cultural factors have played a big part in my definition of ‘home’. But on some occasions my ethnic identification has been overridden by my religious identification and vice versa. By ethnic identity, I mean my language (mother tongue) and my connection to my people (Bangladeshi). By my religious identity, I mean my Muslim religion, and my spiritual connection to the umma, a Muslim nation transcending all boundaries. Umma refers to the Muslim identity and unity within a larger Muslim group across national boundaries. The only thing the members of the umma have in common is their Islamic belief (Spencer and Wollman 169-170). In my childhood my father, a banker, was relocated to Karachi, Pakistan (then West Pakistan). Although I lived in Pakistan for much of my childhood, I have never considered it to be my home, even though it is predominantly a Muslim country. In this case, my home was my root (Bangladesh) where my grandparents and extended family lived. Every year I used to visit my grandparents who resided in a small town in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Thus my connection with my home was sustained through my extended family, ethnic traditions, language (Bengali/Bangla), and the occasional visits to the landscape of Bangladesh. Smith (9-11) notes that people build their connection or identity to their homeland through their historic land, common historical memories, myths, symbols and traditions. Though Pakistan and Bangladesh had common histories, their traditions of language, dress and ethnic culture were very different. For example, the celebration of the Bengali New Year (Pohela Baishakh), folk dance, folk music and folk tales, drama, poetry, lyrics of poets Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindra Sangeet) and Nazrul Islam (Nazrul Geeti) are distinct in the cultural heritage of Bangladesh. Special musical instruments such as the banshi (a bamboo flute), dhol (drums), ektara (a single-stringed instrument) and dotara (a four-stringed instrument) are unique to Bangladeshi culture. The Bangladeshi cuisine (rice and freshwater fish) is also different from Pakistan where people mainly eat flat round bread (roti) and meat (gosh). However, my bonding factor to Bangladesh was my relatives, particularly my grandparents as they made me feel one of ‘us’. Their affection for me was irreplaceable. The train journey from Dhaka (capital city) to their town, Noakhali, was captivating. The hustle and bustle at the train station and the lush green paddy fields along the train journey reminded me that this was my ‘home’. Though I spoke the official language (Urdu) in Pakistan and had a few Pakistani friends in Karachi, they could never replace my feelings for my friends, extended relatives and cousins who lived in Bangladesh. I could not relate to the landscape or dry weather of Pakistan. More importantly, some Pakistani women (our neighbours) were critical of my mother’s traditional dress (saree), and described it as revealing because it showed a bit of her back. They took pride in their traditional dress (shalwar, kameez, dopatta), which they considered to be more covered and ‘Islamic’. So, because of our traditional dress (saree) and perhaps other differences, we were regarded as the ‘Other’. In 1970 my father was relocated back to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and I was glad to go home. It should be noted that both Pakistan and Bangladesh were separated from India in 1947 – first as one nation; then, in 1971, Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. The conflict between Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) and Pakistan (then West Pakistan) originated for economic and political reasons. At this time I was a high school student and witnessed acts of genocide committed by the Pakistani regime against the Bangladeshis (March-December 1971). My memories of these acts are vivid and still very painful. After my marriage, I moved from Bangladesh to the United States. In this instance, my new route (Austin, Texas, USA), as it happened, did not become my home. Here the ethno-cultural and Islamic cultural factors took precedence. I spoke the English language, made some American friends, and studied history at the University of Texas. I appreciated the warm friendship extended to me in the US, but experienced a degree of culture shock. I did not appreciate the pub life, alcohol consumption, and what I perceived to be the lack of family bonds (children moving out at the age of 18, families only meeting occasionally on birthdays and Christmas). Furthermore, I could not relate to de facto relationships and acceptance of sex before marriage. However, to me ‘home’ meant a family orientation and living in close contact with family. Besides the cultural divide, my husband and I were living in the US on student visas and, as Vertovec (21-23) noted, temporary visa status can deter people from their sense of belonging to the host country. In retrospect I can see that we lived in the ‘myth of return’. However, our next move for a better life was not to our root (Bangladesh), but another route to the Muslim world of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. My husband moved to Dhahran not because it was a Muslim world but because it gave him better economic opportunities. However, I thought this new destination would become my home – the home that was coined by Anderson as the imagined nation, or my Muslim umma. Anderson argues that the imagined communities are “to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (6; Wood 61). Hall (122) asserts: identity is actually formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth. There is always something ‘imaginary’ or fantasized about its unity. It always remains incomplete, is always ‘in process’, always ‘being formed’. As discussed above, when I had returned home to Bangladesh from Pakistan – both Muslim countries – my primary connection to my home country was my ethnic identity, language and traditions. My ethnic identity overshadowed the religious identity. But when I moved to Saudi Arabia, where my ethnic identity differed from that of the mainstream Arabs and Bedouin/nomadic Arabs, my connection to this new land was through my Islamic cultural and religious identity. Admittedly, this connection to the umma was more psychological than physical, but I was now in close proximity to Mecca, and to my home of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mecca is an important city in Saudi Arabia for Muslims because it is the holy city of Islam, the home to the Ka’aba (the religious centre of Islam), and the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad [Peace Be Upon Him]. It is also the destination of the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. Therefore, Mecca is home to significant events in Islamic history, as well as being an important present day centre for the Islamic faith. We lived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for 5 years. Though it was a 2.5 hours flight away, I treasured Mecca’s proximity and regarded Dhahran as my second and spiritual home. Saudi Arabia had a restricted lifestyle for women, but I liked it because it was a Muslim country that gave me the opportunity to perform umrah Hajj (pilgrimage). However, Saudi Arabia did not allow citizenship to expatriates. Saudi Arabia’s government was keen to protect the status quo and did not want to compromise its cultural values or standard of living by allowing foreigners to become a permanent part of society. In exceptional circumstances only, the King granted citizenship to a foreigner for outstanding service to the state over a number of years. Children of foreigners born in Saudi Arabia did not have rights of local citizenship; they automatically assumed the nationality of their parents. If it was available, Saudi citizenship would assure expatriates a secure and permanent living in Saudi Arabia; as it was, there was a fear among the non-Saudis that they would have to leave the country once their job contract expired. Under the circumstances, though my spiritual connection to Mecca was strong, my husband was convinced that Saudi Arabia did not provide any job security. So, in 1987 when Australia offered migration to highly skilled people, my husband decided to migrate to Australia for a better and more secure economic life. I agreed to his decision, but quite reluctantly because we were again moving to a non-Muslim part of the world, which would be culturally different and far away from my original homeland (Bangladesh). In Australia, we lived first in Brisbane, then Adelaide, and after three years we took our Australian citizenship. At that stage I loved the Barossa Valley and Victor Harbour in South Australia, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast in Queensland, but did not feel at home in Australia. We bought a house in Adelaide and I was a full time home-maker but was always apprehensive that my children (two boys) would lose their culture in this non-Muslim world. In 1990 we once again moved back to the Muslim world, this time to Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. My connection to this route was again spiritual. I valued the fact that we would live in a Muslim country and our children would be brought up in a Muslim environment. But my husband’s move was purely financial as he got a lucrative job offer in Muscat. We had another son in Oman. We enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle provided by my husband’s workplace and the service provided by the housemaid. I loved the beaches and freedom to drive my car, and I appreciated the friendly Omani people. I also enjoyed our frequent trips (4 hours flight) to my root, Dhaka, Bangladesh. So our children were raised within our ethnic and Islamic culture, remained close to my root (family in Dhaka), though they attended a British school in Muscat. But by the time I started considering Oman to be my second home, we had to leave once again for a place that could provide us with a more secure future. Oman was like Saudi Arabia; it employed expatriates only on a contract basis, and did not give them citizenship (not even fellow Muslims). So after 5 years it was time to move back to Australia. It was with great reluctance that I moved with my husband to Brisbane in 1995 because once again we were to face a different cultural context. As mentioned earlier, we lived in Brisbane in the late 1980s; I liked the weather, the landscape, but did not consider it home for cultural reasons. Our boys started attending expensive private schools and we bought a house in a prestigious Western suburb in Brisbane. Soon after arriving I started my tertiary education at the University of Queensland, and finished an MA in Historical Studies in Indian History in 1998. Still Australia was not my home. I kept thinking that we would return to my previous routes or the ‘imagined’ homeland somewhere in the Middle East, in close proximity to my root (Bangladesh), where we could remain economically secure in a Muslim country. But gradually I began to feel that Australia was becoming my ‘home’. I had gradually become involved in professional and community activities (with university colleagues, the Bangladeshi community and Muslim women’s organisations), and in retrospect I could see that this was an early stage of my ‘self-actualisation’ (Maslow). Through my involvement with diverse people, I felt emotionally connected with the concerns, hopes and dreams of my Muslim-Australian friends. Subsequently, I also felt connected with my mainstream Australian friends whose emotions and fears (9/11 incident, Bali bombing and 7/7 tragedy) were similar to mine. In late 1998 I started my PhD studies on the immigration history of Australia, with a particular focus on the historical settlement of Muslims in Australia. This entailed retrieving archival files and interviewing people, mostly Muslims and some mainstream Australians, and enquiring into relevant migration issues. I also became more active in community issues, and was not constrained by my circumstances. By circumstances, I mean that even though I belonged to a patriarchally structured Muslim family, where my husband was the main breadwinner, main decision-maker, my independence and research activities (entailing frequent interstate trips for data collection, and public speaking) were not frowned upon or forbidden (Khan 14-15); fortunately, my husband appreciated my passion for research and gave me his trust and support. This, along with the Muslim community’s support (interviews), and the wider community’s recognition (for example, the publication of my letters in Australian newspapers, interviews on radio and television) enabled me to develop my self-esteem and built up my bicultural identity as a Muslim in a predominantly Christian country and as a Bangladeshi-Australian. In 2005, for the sake of a better job opportunity, my husband moved to the UK, but this time I asserted that I would not move again. I felt that here in Australia (now in Perth) I had a job, an identity and a home. This time my husband was able to secure a good job back in Australia and was only away for a year. I no longer dream of finding a home in the Middle East. Through my bicultural identity here in Australia I feel connected to the wider community and to the Muslim umma. However, my attachment to the umma has become ambivalent. I feel proud of my Australian-Muslim identity but I am concerned about the jihadi ideology of militant Muslims. By jihadi ideology, I mean the extremist ideology of the al-Qaeda terrorist group (Farrar 2007). The Muslim umma now incorporates both moderate and radical Muslims. The radical Muslims (though only a tiny minority of 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide) pose a threat to their moderate counterparts as well as to non-Muslims. In the UK, some second- and third-generation Muslims identify themselves with the umma rather than their parents’ homelands or their country of birth (Husain). It should not be a matter of concern if these young Muslims adopt a ‘pure’ Muslim identity, providing at the same time they are loyal to their country of residence. But when they resort to terrorism with their ‘pure’ Muslim identity (e.g., the 7/7 London bombers) they defame my religion Islam, and undermine my spiritual connection to the umma. As a 1st generation immigrant, the defining criteria of my ‘homeliness’ in Australia are my ethno-cultural and religious identity (which includes my family), my active citizenship, and my community development/contribution through my research work – all of which allow me a sense of efficacy in my life. My ethnic and religious identities generally co-exist equally, but when I see some Muslims kill my fellow Australians (such as the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005) my Australian identity takes precedence. I feel for the victims and condemn the perpetrators. On the other hand, when I see politics play a role over the human rights issues (e.g., the Tampa incident), my religious identity begs me to comment on it (see Kabir, Muslims in Australia 295-305). Problematising ‘Home’ for Muslim Australians In the European context, Grillo (863) and Werbner (904), and in the Australian context, Kabir (Muslims in Australia) and Poynting and Mason, have identified the diversity within Islam (national, ethnic, religious etc). Werbner (904) notes that in spite of the “wishful talk of the emergence of a ‘British Islam’, even today there are Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Arab mosques, as well as Turkish and Shia’a mosques”; thus British Muslims retain their separate identities. Similarly, in Australia, the existence of separate mosques for the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Arab and Shia’a peoples indicates that Australian Muslims have also kept their ethnic identities discrete (Saeed 64-77). However, in times of crisis, such as the Salman Rushdie affair in 1989, and the 1990-1991 Gulf crises, both British and Australian Muslims were quick to unite and express their Islamic identity by way of resistance (Kabir, Muslims in Australia 160-162; Poynting and Mason 68-70). In both British and Australian contexts, I argue that a peaceful rally or resistance is indicative of active citizenship of Muslims as it reveals their sense of belonging (also Werbner 905). So when a transmigrant Muslim wants to make a peaceful demonstration, the Western world should be encouraged, not threatened – as long as the transmigrant’s allegiances lie also with the host country. In the European context, Grillo (868) writes: when I asked Mehmet if he was planning to stay in Germany he answered without hesitation: ‘Yes, of course’. And then, after a little break, he added ‘as long as we can live here as Muslims’. In this context, I support Mehmet’s desire to live as a Muslim in a non-Muslim world as long as this is peaceful. Paradoxically, living a Muslim life through ijtihad can be either socially progressive or destructive. The Canadian Muslim feminist Irshad Manji relies on ijtihad, but so does Osama bin Laden! Manji emphasises that ijtihad can be, on the one hand, the adaptation of Islam using independent reasoning, hybridity and the contesting of ‘traditional’ family values (c.f. Doogue and Kirkwood 275-276, 314); and, on the other, ijtihad can take the form of conservative, patriarchal and militant Islamic values. The al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden espouses the jihadi ideology of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian who early in his career might have been described as a Muslim modernist who believed that Islam and Western secular ideals could be reconciled. But he discarded that idea after going to the US in 1948-50; there he was treated as ‘different’ and that treatment turned him against the West. He came back to Egypt and embraced a much more rigid and militaristic form of Islam (Esposito 136). Other scholars, such as Cesari, have identified a third orientation – a ‘secularised Islam’, which stresses general beliefs in the values of Islam and an Islamic identity, without too much concern for practices. Grillo (871) observed Islam in the West emphasised diversity. He stressed that, “some [Muslims were] more quietest, some more secular, some more clamorous, some more negotiatory”, while some were exclusively characterised by Islamic identity, such as wearing the burqa (elaborate veils), hijabs (headscarves), beards by men and total abstinence from drinking alcohol. So Mehmet, cited above, could be living a Muslim life within the spectrum of these possibilities, ranging from an integrating mode to a strict, militant Muslim manner. In the UK context, Zubaida (96) contends that marginalised, culturally-impoverished youth are the people for whom radical, militant Islamism may have an appeal, though it must be noted that the 7/7 bombers belonged to affluent families (O’Sullivan 14; Husain). In Australia, Muslim Australians are facing three challenges. First, the Muslim unemployment rate: it was three times higher than the national total in 1996 and 2001 (Kabir, Muslims in Australia 266-278; Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 63). Second, some spiritual leaders have used extreme rhetoric to appeal to marginalised youth; in January 2007, the Australian-born imam of Lebanese background, Sheikh Feiz Mohammad, was alleged to have employed a DVD format to urge children to kill the enemies of Islam and to have praised martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad (Chulov 2). Third, the proposed citizenship test has the potential to make new migrants’ – particularly Muslims’ – settlement in Australia stressful (Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 62-79); in May 2007, fuelled by perceptions that some migrants – especially Muslims – were not integrating quickly enough, the Howard government introduced a citizenship test bill that proposes to test applicants on their English language skills and knowledge of Australian history and ‘values’. I contend that being able to demonstrate knowledge of history and having English language skills is no guarantee that a migrant will be a good citizen. Through my transmigrant history, I have learnt that developing a bond with a new place takes time, acceptance and a gradual change of identity, which are less likely to happen when facing assimilationist constraints. I spoke English and studied history in the United States, but I did not consider it my home. I did not speak the Arabic language, and did not study Middle Eastern history while I was in the Middle East, but I felt connected to it for cultural and religious reasons. Through my knowledge of history and English language proficiency I did not make Australia my home when I first migrated to Australia. Australia became my home when I started interacting with other Australians, which was made possible by having the time at my disposal and by fortunate circumstances, which included a fairly high level of efficacy and affluence. If I had been rejected because of my lack of knowledge of ‘Australian values’, or had encountered discrimination in the job market, I would have been much less willing to embrace my host country and call it home. I believe a stringent citizenship test is more likely to alienate would-be citizens than to induce their adoption of values and loyalty to their new home. Conclusion Blunt (5) observes that current studies of home often investigate mobile geographies of dwelling and how it shapes one’s identity and belonging. Such geographies of home negotiate from the domestic to the global context, thus mobilising the home beyond a fixed, bounded and confining location. Similarly, in this paper I have discussed how my mobile geography, from the domestic (root) to global (route), has shaped my identity. Though I received a degree of culture shock in the United States, loved the Middle East, and was at first quite resistant to the idea of making Australia my second home, the confidence I acquired in residing in these ‘several homes’ were cumulative and eventually enabled me to regard Australia as my ‘home’. I loved the Middle East, but I did not pursue an active involvement with the Arab community because I was a busy mother. Also I lacked the communication skill (fluency in Arabic) with the local residents who lived outside the expatriates’ campus. 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Citation reference for this article MLA Style Kabir, Nahid. "Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?: A Transmigrant’s Perspective." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/15-kabir.php>. APA Style Kabir, N. (Aug. 2007) "Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?: A Transmigrant’s Perspective," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/15-kabir.php>.