Glenn Greenwald is a civil rights attorney, a blogger for Salon, and the author of a new Cato Institute policy study called “Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Policies.” The paper examines Portugal’s experiment with decriminalizing possession of drugs for personal use, which began in 2001. Nick Gillespie, editor of reason.com and reason.tv, sat down with Greenwald in April [2009].
Greenwald's policy study can be downloaded at the Cato Institute website:
Drug Decriminalization in Portugal:
Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies
Update (Dec 29, 2010)
The Washington Post is carrying a series of Associated Press stories on the USA's war on drugs. This one examines Portugal's success with decriminalizing drugs.
"By BARRY HATTON and MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press
Monday, December 27, 2010; 12:01 AM
LISBON, Portugal -- These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community - mothers push baby strollers, men smoke outside cafes, buses chug up and down the cobbled main street.
Ten years ago, the Lisbon neighborhood was a hellhole, a "drug supermarket" where some 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneaked into a hillside honeycomb of derelict housing to shoot up. In dark, stinking corners, addicts - some with maggots squirming under track marks - staggered between the occasional corpse, scavenging used, bloody needles.
At that time, Portugal, like the junkies of Casal Ventoso, had hit rock bottom: An estimated 100,000 people - an astonishing 1 percent of the population - were addicted to illegal drugs. So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a groundbreaking law in 2000.
Now, the United States, which has waged a 40-year, $1 trillion war on drugs, is looking for answers in tiny Portugal, which is reaping the benefits of what once looked like a dangerous gamble. White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske visited Portugal in September to learn about its drug reforms, and other countries - including Norway, Denmark, Australia and Peru - have taken interest, too"
(Link to the full article) Portugal's drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Being true to yourself: Research on authenticity and virtue
Below is an interesting set of studies that attempts to empirically demonstrate what "being true to yourself" means. Although the researcher, Fleeson, doesn't state this explicitly, the results suggest to me that acting in accordance with one's virtues leads to feeling your behaviour is "true to yourself." In Fleeson's studies, the virtues the participants adhere to are assertiveness, conscientiousness, and civility. -- WFF
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being true to yourself: Psychologist publishes new research on being authentic
October 13, 2010
By Cheryl Walker
(PhysOrg.com) -- Staying true to yourself and not changing your personality to fit different situations is highly valued in Western culture. Shakespeare’s famous line "to thine own self be true," has been echoed across the centuries by parents, pop singers and motivational speakers.
But, in a new study published in the Journal of Personality, Wake Forest University psychologist William Fleeson found “being true to yourself” often means acting counter to your own personality traits.
Fleeson discovered that introverts feel more true to themselves or “authentic” when they are acting extroverted. For example, if a shy person attends a party and acts like a social butterfly, he is likely to report that he feels like he is showing his true self at that time in that situation.
Acting out of character in this way, some would say, suggests people are faking it. Fleeson says the study, co-authored by former Wake Forest graduate student Joshua Wilt, shows that is not the case.
“Authenticity is consistently associated with acting highly extraverted, even for those who characterize themselves as introverts,” he says. “Despite the cultural assumption that consistency with one’s traits would predict authenticity, it did not.”
He also found that people who think of themselves as disagreeable and rude feel more true to themselves when they are agreeable, considerate, polite and kind. And, people who consider themselves careless feel more true to themselves when they are conscientious.
In addition, his research showed that authenticity or feeling like you are being the real you, is consistently associated with acting emotionally stable and intellectual, regardless of the actor’s traits.
“Being flexible with who you are is okay,” Fleeson says. “It is not denying or disrespecting who you are. People are often too rigid about how they are and stick with the comfortable and familiar. Adapting to a situation can make you more true to yourself in some circumstances.”
This research can help people see they have so many options and choices for how they behave, he says.
Because authenticity predicts a variety of positive psychological outcomes, Fleeson says one implication of these findings is that “it might be possible for individuals to improve their mental health by acting against their personality traits.”
The multi-part study involved several groups of college-aged students. One hundred-forty three participated in multiple 50-minute sessions in a laboratory setting where they engaged in different activities, such as playing Twister and discussing medical ethics. Researchers recorded observations. The participants evaluated their own behavior and made judgments about whether their current actions expressed their true selves. The researchers then tested their findings with a sample of adults ranging in age from 18 to 51. The participants also filled out questionnaires assessing personality traits.
Link: Being True to Yourself
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being true to yourself: Psychologist publishes new research on being authentic
October 13, 2010
By Cheryl Walker
(PhysOrg.com) -- Staying true to yourself and not changing your personality to fit different situations is highly valued in Western culture. Shakespeare’s famous line "to thine own self be true," has been echoed across the centuries by parents, pop singers and motivational speakers.
But, in a new study published in the Journal of Personality, Wake Forest University psychologist William Fleeson found “being true to yourself” often means acting counter to your own personality traits.
Fleeson discovered that introverts feel more true to themselves or “authentic” when they are acting extroverted. For example, if a shy person attends a party and acts like a social butterfly, he is likely to report that he feels like he is showing his true self at that time in that situation.
Acting out of character in this way, some would say, suggests people are faking it. Fleeson says the study, co-authored by former Wake Forest graduate student Joshua Wilt, shows that is not the case.
“Authenticity is consistently associated with acting highly extraverted, even for those who characterize themselves as introverts,” he says. “Despite the cultural assumption that consistency with one’s traits would predict authenticity, it did not.”
He also found that people who think of themselves as disagreeable and rude feel more true to themselves when they are agreeable, considerate, polite and kind. And, people who consider themselves careless feel more true to themselves when they are conscientious.
In addition, his research showed that authenticity or feeling like you are being the real you, is consistently associated with acting emotionally stable and intellectual, regardless of the actor’s traits.
“Being flexible with who you are is okay,” Fleeson says. “It is not denying or disrespecting who you are. People are often too rigid about how they are and stick with the comfortable and familiar. Adapting to a situation can make you more true to yourself in some circumstances.”
This research can help people see they have so many options and choices for how they behave, he says.
Because authenticity predicts a variety of positive psychological outcomes, Fleeson says one implication of these findings is that “it might be possible for individuals to improve their mental health by acting against their personality traits.”
The multi-part study involved several groups of college-aged students. One hundred-forty three participated in multiple 50-minute sessions in a laboratory setting where they engaged in different activities, such as playing Twister and discussing medical ethics. Researchers recorded observations. The participants evaluated their own behavior and made judgments about whether their current actions expressed their true selves. The researchers then tested their findings with a sample of adults ranging in age from 18 to 51. The participants also filled out questionnaires assessing personality traits.
Link: Being True to Yourself
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)