Reciprocity

The core concept of this article i.e. social capital consists of three main components: scope of social relations , level of social trust, and rate of reciprocity. The research is accomplished through 600 cases of Indian and Iranian female secondary school students and their parents, in two cities of Chandigarh in India and Tehran in Iran. Findings of the research show that the scope of social relations in India is higher than Iran, while the true level which was measured in the social network in Iran was far higher than India. Even the third aspect i.e. the reciprocity is also higher in Iran than India. Therefore, the social capital measured among the Iranian cases is higher than the Indian students and their families. Likewise, the level of trust estimated among Indian people is higher than the true level of trust present in the social network whereas; an exact opposite situation could be seen in Iran. In other words, the different aspects of social capital do not necessarily have a high co-variation among themselves.

The present study aimed to capture and represent the mediator-learner’s interaction in the development of listening proficiency and statistically compare this interaction between high and low proficient English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Thirty EFL learners participated in Oxford Quick Placemat Test (OQPT) and the Interactions/Mosaic Listening Placement (IMLP) Test to select those whose proficiency levels and listening skills were based on the placement guide of the tests, at upper-intermediate and advanced levels. Out of 30 learners, 12 learners (upper-intermediate level=6, advanced level=6) volunteered to participate in individualized tutoring sessions. The study adopted an interactionist Dynamic Assessment (DA) approach and implemented a qualitative research methodology to reveal the frequency and quality, the two criteria to interpret the learners’ developments and Zone of Actual/Potential Development (ZAD/ZPD) functioning, of mediator-learner’s interaction. The amount and quality of moves made by learners to complete the task were reported in quantitative data. Statistical analyses were run to examine whether the ability level may affect the responsiveness of learners to mediation. Findings of the study revealed that 17 reciprocity moves were identified that promoted the development of listening abilities of upper-intermediate and advanced level learners. It is also revealed that the upper-intermediate learners showed more responses as compared to the advanced learners.

The paper argues that the moral philosophy of Thomas Hobbes is unified by a complex conception of reason that imposes consistency norms of both rationality and reasonableness.  Hobbes’s conceptions of rightness as reciprocity, and moral goodness as sociability belong to an original and attractive moral theory that is neither teleological nor classically deontological, nor as interpreters have variously argued, subjectivist, contractarian, egoist, or dependent on divine command.