Browsing by Subject "Mattering"

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Effects of parent–child intergenerational cultural discrepancies on Korean-American young adults’ psychological well-being, through communication quality, mattering, and autonomy support
(2021-05-07) Lee, Yookyung, Ph.D.; Suizzo, Marie-Anne; Falbo, Toni; Schallert, Diane; Keating, Xiaofen; Carlson, Cindy
Korean-Americans are one of the fastest-growing racial subgroups, representing 0.4% of the total population of the U.S. as of 2019. Many Korean-American immigrant families consist of Korea-raised parents and their 1.5- or second-generation children. Because these families experience both mainstream and heritage cultures, cultural discrepancies may arise between the children and their immigrant parents. The main purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effects of parent–child communication quality, mattering to parents, and parental autonomy support on the relationship between intergenerational cultural discrepancies and psychological well-being, among Korean-American young adults. Participants were recruited through Korean-American communities in the U.S. and participated in this study through an online survey and follow-up one-on-one video interviews. A total of 161 Korean-American young adults between age 18 and 34 (M age = 23.14) were included in the final sample for the survey study, and 10 of the 161 also participated in the follow-up interview study. A mixed methods approach, including several mediation models and interview analysis, was used to test the hypotheses of this study. Key results from the quantitative analyses showed that greater parent–child intergenerational cultural discrepancies affected their lower communication quality, and this lower communication quality subsequently affected lower mattering to parents, but this lower mattering did not affected children’s depressive symptoms (Model 1). Also, greater parent–child intergenerational cultural discrepancies affected both lower parent–child communication quality and less parental autonomy support at the same time, which in turn affected lower levels of young adults’ life satisfaction (Model 2). The qualitative results provide a rich description of specific examples of these effects and possible reasons for the quantitative results. In addition, the participants shared messages to their parents during their adolescence as well as advice for current Korean-American adolescents who may face similar experiences. The results of this study support and extend the findings of previous work linking parent–child intergenerational cultural discrepancies to children’s psychological adjustment in immigrant families, as well as those linking parent–child communication, mattering to parents, and parental autonomy support. Future studies could investigate whether these relationships are different between mother–child and father–child dyads, and whether these results have any Korean-specific characteristics, by comparing them with results from young adults in other ethnic groups.
Freedom, mattering, and the intrinsic badness of suffering
(2021-07-10) Andrew, James Preston; Strawson, Galen; Montague, Michelle; Juhl, Cory F; Martinich, Aloysius P; Galvin, Richard F; Dancy, Jonathan P
This dissertation is, fundamentally, concerned with two questions: (1) ought we to believe that anything matters in itself?, and (2) if so, what ought we to believe matters in this way?; with respect to (1), I argue in the affirmative (specifically, I argue that there are both strong epistemic and pragmatic reasons to believe that somethings matters), and with respect to (2), I argue that, at minimum - and most fundamentally - we ought to believe that the badness of suffering matters and that, moreover, all suffering is bad, by virtue of being undeserved (on the grounds that the variety of freedom necessary for grounding anyone’s deserving to suffer is impossible). The dissertation, therefore, is centered upon core issues relating to the topics of value, normativity, freedom, and moral responsibility. It is divided into two primary parts. Consisting of five chapters, Part I is aimed at establishing that, for various reasons, we ought to believe that suffering is intrinsically bad. In Chapter 1, I motivate my conception of mattering, arguing that the view of commonsense is that (i) mattering is mind-independent and that (ii) there is mattering (i.e., something in fact matters). In Chapter 2, I propose and attempt to motivate my definition of suffering as unsanctioned harm (this is intended as an ecumenical definition that will accommodate a multiplicity of views about the nature of suffering). In Chapter 3, I offer two varieties of arguments - one variety grounded in phenomenological considerations and another grounded in considerations having to do with consistency - to the conclusion that (S) suffering is intrinsically bad and that (I) it is prima facie impermissible to intentionally cause suffering. In Chapter 4, I argue that (S) and (I) are not subject to evolutionary debunking, and are actually rendered more plausible by the fact that they do not admit of any straightforward evolutionary account. I conclude, in Chapter 5, by arguing that even in the absence of strong epistemic reasons for accepting (S) and (I), there is strong pragmatic reason to do so - at least for many of us. According to The Pragmatic Argument, many of us ought, pragmatically, to believe that something matters, and thus ought to believe (S) and (I), given that these claims will be true if anything truly matters (i.e., matters mind-independently). Consisting of four chapters, Part II makes the case that suffering could not possibly be deserved (in the basic desert sense), given the limitations, not only on our own agency, but on any logically possible variety of agency. In Chapter 6, I unpack the notion that “the guilty deserve to suffer”, presenting the most defensible version of this claim of which I am aware, due to Randolph Clarke. In Chapter 7, I argue that (i) in order for one to deserve to suffer, it would be necessary for one to be the ultimate source of one’s acts and that (ii) it is doubtful that this is possible, given the extant models of free will. In Chapter 8, I argue that being the ultimate source of one’s acts is necessary, but insufficient, for deserving to suffer: one would also need to be the ultimate cause of the way that one was - and that, as Galen Strawson has (I believe) shown decisively, is not even logically possible. Finally, in Chapter 9, I defend the Basic Argument - and, more narrowly, the claim that this argument proves that no one could ever deserve to suffer - against some common lines of attack.