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Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the effect of health‐care providers' attitudes towards the medical use of cannabis, subjective norms and perceived stigma towards medicinal cannabis users on health‐care providers' intention to recommend medicinal cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions. Methods: A cross‐sectional correlational study included 221 health‐care providers (mean age, 42.2 ± 11.2; 74.2% women and 76.5% nurses) who completed a questionnaire examining theory‐based variables and stigma towards medicinal cannabis users. Results: More positive attitudes towards the medical use of cannabis were associated with lower stigma towards medicinal cannabis users, which, in turn, was associated with a higher intention of recommending medicinal cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions. The relationship between attitudes towards the medical use of cannabis and the intention to recommend medicinal cannabis varies according to subjective norms. Conclusions: Among nurses and physicians, stigma towards medicinal cannabis users mediated the relationship between attitudes towards the medical use of cannabis and the intention to recommend medicinal cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions, whereas subjective norms moderated this relationship. Effective treatment with medicinal cannabis might be compromised by health‐care providers' negative attitudes, stigma and subjective norms. SUMMARY STATEMENT: What is already known about this topic? The use of medicinal cannabis (MC) is considered controversial by health‐care providers. Patients who use MC are still the target of social discrimination.What this paper adds? Stigma towards MC users mediated the relationship between attitudes towards the medical use of cannabis and the intention to recommend MC for patients with qualifying conditions, whereas subjective norms moderated this relationship.The implications of this paper: There is a clear need for educational programmes for health‐care providers on the use of MC and the legitimacy of MC use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that elaborating Winnicott’s idea of “potential space” can provide a conceptual approach to psychotherapy across the cultural divide. The first part of the paper discusses the general problematic of intercultural psychotherapy. This is illustrated with an account of therapeutic work with Ethiopian Jews who have migrated to Israel. There is a significant gap between the Ethiopian cultural codes relevant to psychotherapy and those of the Israeli therapist, who is usually trained in the Western psychotherapeutic tradition. A meaningful and effective therapeutic process can take place if psychotherapist and client cocreate a “mutual creative space.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present paper examines the talk of three senior figures from the Palestinian Hamas political movement. Data are drawn from a series of journalistic interviews that were conducted in the months leading up to the invasion of Gaza by Israel in December 2007. Using membership categorization analysis, we explore the membership categories and category-bound attributes that interviewers use in questions about responsibility for potentially culpable actions and the ways that these are taken up, challenged, or reworked by interviewees in presenting their own versions. The analytic findings show that interviewers deploy categories bound up with terrorism while interviewees develop alternative categorizations of resistance. Interviewers construct Palestinians as victims of Hamas' actions while interviewees construct them as victims of Israeli aggression and international indifference. In warranting these alternative constructions, the interviewees contrast current behaviours of the international community with those of the past and align current Palestinian actions with those previously taken by Western nations in resisting illegitimate occupations. Through these descriptions of categories and actions, the interviewees attribute to the wider international community responsibility for addressing the events of the ongoing conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I consider the applicability of liberal, ethno-national and post-national perspectives of citizenship to the concept of membership in Israeli society. I examine attitudes of Jews regarding the allocation of social rights to new immigrants arriving under the Law of Return, Israeli Arabs, and labour migrants. Analysis shows that the framework that guides access to the goods of citizenship displays a hierarchical mode that reflects two main membership discourses. The first is the liberal discourse, which differentiates between citizens (Jewish immigrants and Arabs) and non-citizens (labour migrants) in entitlement to rights. The second is the ethno-national discourse which discriminates between Jewish and Arab citizens. Although the distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens is evident, the impact of 'citizenship status' on discriminatory attitudes to out-group members is stronger than the impact of 'ethnic origin' (i.e. Arab) migrants in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rationality of radical Islam in relation to the British-based al-Muhajiroun terrorist group which has supported the al Qaeda (Qaida) terror organization, terrorism against Israel, and the efforts to wage jihad against the U.S. in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The reasons why Islamist radicals engage in activism that could lead to arrest or death are examined, along with the religious aspects of terrorism and ideology. The spiritual incentives that inspire Islamic radicalism are assessed, as well as deviant social behavior and functionalist social psychology.

Sociological and socio-psychological theories maintain that values play an essential role in predicting attitudes. Most research portraying the effect of a single value on various attitudes claims that the effect of values on attitudes increases if the attitudes and the specific values are related or if the attitudes involve objects or situations that reflect specific values. This exploratory study examined the relationship between personal values, considered as components of an individual's mindset or psychological structure, and attitudes supporting social welfare policy. The participants in the study were Israeli Bachelor of Arts students from four institutions of higher learning. The students' personal values were measured, and the effect of their values (beyond the students' socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, religiosity etc.) on social support for welfare policy was tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market maven construct, developed by Feick and Price (1987), has been used in empirical studies in the USA, South Africa, Germany, Poland, and Hungary. This study extends previous research by being the first to use the general mavenship concept in an Asian country (Israel). Furthermore, the study examines market mavenship and opinion leadership as outcome concepts arising from exploratory behavior or innovativeness tendencies. Additionally, the impact of a three-dimensional exploratory behavior concept is compared to the impact of a unidimensional innovativeness concept on opinion leadership and market mavenship. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the two nomological models based on a sample of 142 adult Israeli consumers. Although both exploratory behavior and innovativeness affect market mavenship and opinion leadership, the impact of the former is stronger. Additionally, the impact of the “new brand trial” facet of exploratory behavior on market maven was comparable to that of innovativeness, whereas its impact on opinion leadership was weaker than the impact of innovativeness. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]