“Not at All Religious”: Irreligiosity as Social Deviance in a Majority Muslim Context

In a majority Muslim context, where most college students are raised religiously and appear outwardly to conform to social norms in terms of dress and religious ritual, which college students are most likely to report that, in fact, they consider themselves “Not At All Religious”? When irreligiosity is treated as a measure of social deviance, does Hirschi’s theory of social control appropriately account for this demographic? I use original Islamic Social Attitudes Survey data collected from 1,139 Kuwaiti college students in 2007 to show that gender, being raised religiously, and religious experience are all significantly correlated to irreligiosity. Neither family attachment nor peer networks predicts self-reported irreligiosity like the influence of conservative Mosque Networks.     

Coping Responses and Emotional Distress in Fathers of Children with Special Needs and “Redreaming” as a Creative Intervention

Abstract

Parents dream that their children will have every benefit possible to survive and thrive in the world. When their children have special needs, these dreams are challenged. Parents must adjust to the needs of their child and to the loss of this aspect of their dream. Common challenges and considerations when working with fathers of children with special needs are presented. “Redreaming,” an intervention to facilitate positive reappraisal, and creative approaches are also presented.     

Assessing Fidelity to and Satisfaction with the “Adolescent Coping with Depression Course” (ACDC) Intervention in a Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - This paper aims at describing the process for assessing the intervention fidelity of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an...     

Is Religious Coping Associated with Cumulative Health Risk? An Examination of Religious Coping Styles and Health Behavior Patterns in Alzheimer’s Dementia Caregivers

The current study explored the relationship between religious coping and cumulative health risk associated with health behavior patterns in a sample of 256 Latina and Caucasian female caregivers of elderly relatives with dementia. Primary analyses examined the relationship between religious coping (both positive and negative) and an overall index of cumulative health risk. Secondary analyses were conducted on the individual health behaviors subsumed in the broader index. Findings revealed that negative religious coping was significantly associated with increased cumulative health risk. Positive religious coping was predictive of decreased cumulative health risk among Latina caregivers but not among Caucasians. Negative religious coping was significantly associated with both an increased likelihood for weight gain and increased dietary restriction. Positive religious coping was associated with decreased likelihood for weight gain in Latinas. Implications for both caregivers and clinicians are discussed.     

“Broken Together”: Spirituality and Religion as Coping Strategies for Couples Dealing with the Death of a Child: A Literature Review with Clinical Implications

The death of a child is an event that can fall into the category of uncontrollable life events, testing the limits of the ability to control of bereaved parents. The literature reviewed showed that religious/spiritual coping is a unique way of coping and may be particularly important for couples who have lost a child. When assessing the couples’ coping strategies, marital therapists would be wise to look for religious/spiritual mechanisms that can be employed in the therapeutic process. Furthermore, the reviewers propose Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (Johnson, 2004, The practice of emotionally focused couple therapy: Creating connection, Routledge, New York) as well suited for helping couples grieving the death of their child.     

Is It Possible to “Incorporate” a Scar? Revisiting a Basic Concept in Phenomenology

Although scars never disappear completely, in time most people will basically get used to them. In this paper I explore what it means to habituate to scars against the background of the phenomenological concept of incorporation. In phenomenology (Husserl, Merleau-Ponty) the body as Leib or corps vécu (lived body) functions as a transcendental condition for world disclosure. Because of this transcendental reasoning, phenomenology prioritizes a form of embodied subjectivity that is virtually dis-embodied. Endowing meaning to one’s world through getting engaged in actions and projects is most successful indeed when one’s body is “absent,” “transparent,” or, at least, if it is not in the center of one’s attention. This taken-for-granted nature can be disturbed by discomfort, disability, and disfigurement. Incorporation, so I explain, aims at maintaining or restoring the body’s taken-for-grantedness. My analysis of the case of a woman who successfully habituated to her mastectomy scar demonstrates, however, that habituation to a perceptible scar can only be understood partly in terms of incorporation. Next to a decrease of explicit attention for the scar and the discomfort it produces (i.e., incorporation), the scar should also stop being a sign that refers to something else than itself. This is only possible, I argue, by taking the body’s materiality seriously, rather than it being wiped out as a result of transcendental reasoning.     

Can We Consider Religiousness as a Protective Factor Against Doping Behavior in Sport?

Religiousness is rarely studied in relation to doping behaviors in sport. In this study, we sampled 27 weightlifting/powerlifting athletes from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Using the originally developed questionnaire and by means of Spearman’s correlation, we interpreted data and discussed relationships between (a) social, religious, sport, and educational factors, and (b) substance use criteria, including cigarettes, alcohol, analgesics, nutritional supplementation, and doping behaviors. In conclusion, we found (1) that religiousness can be considered as a potential protective factor against doping, but also (2) that religious subjects tend to deny and underestimate the doping behaviors in their sport. Both of these findings should be extensively studied in future investigations.     

On unpredictability as a causal factor in “learned helplessness”

In two replications, two groups of dogs were exposed to a series of uncontrollable, electric shocks. For one group the shocks were preceded by a tone (i.e., Paired). For the other group the shocks were randomly related to the tones and hence unpredictable (i.e., Random). Each replication also included a third group; in the first it was exposed only to the series of tones (CS-only), while in the second, it was exposed only to a series of shocks (Shocks-only). Then, all dogs were required to learn a discriminative choice escape/avoidance task in which the required response was to lift the correct paw in the presence of each of two visual S^Ds to escape or avoid the shocks [($\text{S}{}_1{}^{\mathrm{D}}\text{?R}{}_1\text{)}\text{(S}{}_2{}^{\mathrm{D}}\text{?R}{}_2$)]. Dogs preexposed to random tones and shocks were least successful in learning the task relative to those groups which experienced either predicted shocks, only the tones, or only the shocks, which in turn did not differ from each other. These results permitted the inference that the proactive interference with choice behavior following random tone CSs and shocks was attributable to a learned irrelevance generalized with respect to CSs.     

The efficacy of “right” as a function of its relationship with reinforcement

The effects of the relationship between the presentation of a verbal stimulus (“right”) and an established reinforcer (M&Ms) on the reinforcement efficacy of the verbal stimulus was tested with three groups of retarded boys. Blocks of training and test trials alternated. During training of the Discriminative Group, “right” reliably preceded candy. For the Contiguous Group, “right” accompanied candy, and for the Random Group “right” and candy were programmed independently. “Right” promoted learning in the Discriminative Group but did not in the latter two groups. The results support Cairns' analysis of the often found failure of approval to be an effective reinforcer in laboratory tasks.     

Does Age Make a Difference? Age as Moderator in the Association Between Time Perspective and Happiness

A balanced time perspective can help retaining or improving happiness. Research shows shifts in time perspective while ageing. In order to reach a better understanding of the value of time perspective in different age groups, results are reported of a survey (n = 525), which examines the moderating role of age in the association between time perspective and happiness. Time perspective was measured by the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) (Zimbardo and Boyd in J Personal Soc Psychol 77:1271–1288, 1999) and to measure happiness, the Subjective Happiness Scale of Lyubomirsky and Lepper (Soc Indic Res 46:137–155, 1999) was used. Regression analysis shows that time perspective is indeed associated with happiness and that, although the assumed shifts in time perspective over time were not found, age does act as a moderator of this association. With ageing, the negative association between a past-negative time perspective and happiness weakens. These results add to our understanding of the theoretical concept of time perspective and shed new light on the value of a balanced time perspective for someone’s wellbeing. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

“American” as a Proxy for “Whiteness”: Racial Color-Blindness in Everyday Life

This article discusses racial color-blindness as it relates to a modern strategy used by both Whites and People of Color (POC) to mask their discussions of race and privilege. People who endorse racial color-blindness tend to believe that race should not matter and currently does not matter in understanding individuals’ lived experiences. Therefore, racially color-blind individuals use strategies to justify their racial privilege and racist beliefs and attitudes. One such strategy is to use the term “American” as a proxy for “White” in describing instances of White privilege as norms and to hide discussions of race more generally. Study 1 findings show that there are many different socially constructed definitions for the term American. Study 2 findings reveal differences in definitions for American depending on an individual’s race and generational status.     

Coping with the Media at the Vancouver Winter Olympics: “We All Make a Living Out of This”

The purpose of this study was to examine the journalist-athlete relationship at a major competitive event to better understand how the media may be perceived as a source of strain and how elite athletes cope with the media demands. Ten participants were interviewed after the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Intrusive questioning may negatively affect and influence the athlete's preparation for events. The use of coping strategies to deal with the media demands and reporting becomes important. In addition, the team support personnel should employ mastery motivational strategies to keep the athlete task involved.     

Principles of Behavioral Assessment and Management of “Life-Threatening Behavior” in Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) in its initial iteration was developed for the treatment of suicidal and self-injuring adults. As a result, the assessment and management of suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injurious (NSSI) behavior was and is central to the conduct of standard DBT. In this paper the authors describe the DBT approach to suicide risk assessment including discussion of both comprehensive and targeted suicide risk assessment and the associated documentation. In addition, it describes when and when not to conduct such assessment. Finally, this article describes management of both imminent and distant suicide risk and the application of DBT treatment strategies that can be applied in session.     

“Keeping Up with the Joneses”: Subjective Social Status Predicts Proactive Coping

Journal of Adult Development - Proactive coping involves actions to prevent or alter the form of future stressors which can be important for successful aging processes, but it relies on resources....     

Behaviors associated with “good” and “poor” outcomes in a simulated career decision

What career decision-making procedures enable people to make decisions that yield consequences congruent with their own values? The 40 “best” (most congruent) and 40 “worst” decision makers on the Career Decision Simulation were compared in a sample of 148 community college students. No significant differences appeared in the amount of double checking, number of occupations and information sources checked, amount of information collected, decision time required, and the proportion of information sought about high values. The “best” decision makers, however, were significantly more persistent in immediately seeking more information about an occupation that seemed to match one of their most important personal work values. Following a values-guided search appears more effective than simply searching exhaustively.