Monocultural and cross-cultural indigenous approaches: The royal road to the development of a balanced global psychology

Comprehensive comparison and conceptual analysis of cross-cultural, cultural, and indigenous psychologies in terms of their aims and theoretical and methodological perspectives lead to the conclusion that the first two are special cases of the third. Two basic types of indigenous psychology are distinguished on the basis of conceptual analysis: monocultural indigenous psychologies (including monocultural cultural psychologies) and cross-cultural indigenous psychologies (including both cross-cultural psychology and cross-cultural cultural psychology). Corresponding to these two types of indigenous psychology are two basic ways to conduct indigenous research, namely, the monocultural indigenous approach and the cross-cultural indigenous approach. Both approaches require achievement of the condition of indigenous compatibility, which stresses the sufficient congruity of the researcher's theory, methods, and results with the studied psychological or behavioral phenomenon and/or its sociocultural context. Finally, several ways to integrate research findings obtained by the monocultural and cross-cultural indigenous approaches are delineated and discussed with respect to their function in creating an indigenously derived global psychology.     

God as Teacher: Jewish reflections on a theology of pedagogy

In western religion we are accustomed to conceiving God in political terms as King, Ruler, or Lawgiver. This often results in a coercive conception of religion and education in which people are forced to do and believe that to which they would otherwise object. This essay explores images of God found in rabbinic readings of the Hebrew Bible as teacher and parent. These images form the basis of a non-coercive view of religion and education rooted in cultivation, nurture, and persuasion rather than force. According to this account, the authority of religious and educational leaders should be grounded in moral purpose rather than the exercise of power.     

How the Bayesians got their beliefs (and what those beliefs actually are): comment on Bowers and Davis (2012)

Bowers and Davis (2012) criticize Bayesian modelers for telling "just so" stories about cognition and neuroscience. Their criticisms are weakened by not giving an accurate characterization of the motivation behind Bayesian modeling or the ways in which Bayesian models are used and by not evaluating this theoretical framework against specific alternatives. We address these points by clarifying our beliefs about the goals and status of Bayesian models and by identifying what we view as the unique merits of the Bayesian approach.     

Napping alone in the snow and cuddling with mommy at night: An exploratory,qualitative study of Norwegian beliefs on infant sleep

This study addresses Norwegian infants’ sleeping places during the day and night. In the first part we asked the general public to indicate where they think infants should sleep by placing stickers on a depiction of different sleeping places. This revealed that infants were expected to predominantly sleep outside in a stroller during the day and either bedshare, room share or sleep independently from their parents at night. Interviews with Norwegian mothers confirmed these patterns and revealed that mothers emphasized the benefits of fresh air and being out in nature. They expressed valuing independence, though their opinions on how this could be achieved diverged, some proposing independent, other co-sleeping. Other outcomes of sleeping arrangements were rarely mentioned. Some, particularly mothers whose children bedshared or had different sleeping places from one night to the other or throughout the night, emphasized the infants’ right to choose how to sleep. None of the mothers endorsed letting infants cry themselves to sleep but many mentioned the importance of the child feeling secure. We argue that the seemingly contradictory sleeping patterns is in line with cultural values for independence, social cohesion and a love of nature.     

Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt on the Jewish question: political theology as a critique

The article is dedicated to the politico-theological critique of Judaism from the position of Christianity. It shows the affinity of Marx’s early critique of liberal state and of Hannah Arendt’s criticism of formal legalistic thinking in the contemporary judicial treatment of Nazism (and of similar international political crimes). Marx’s critique of nation-state finds its unlikely continuation in Arendt’s critique of international law. The politico-theological argument is explicit in Marx and implicit in Arendt, but both develop the Hegelian criticism of liberal state which shows its reliance on the abstract law, on the one hand, and on the egotistic abstract individual, on the other. The theological undercurrent of the argument is both sign of its limitations, and of the subsisting relevance of the politico-theological framework, even in the similarly novel circumstances of the twentieth century. It is only within and through the theological critique and critique of theology that these issues would stand a chance of resolution.     

Effects of a limited nap on night sleep in older subjects

The night sleep of sixteen 50-60-year-old women, which had been preceded by either afternoon naps or no-nap control periods, was assessed by polygraphic and subjective measures. There were 2 nap and 2 non-nap nights. The naps were limited to a 1-hr opportunity. The measures of all subjects, good nappers (more than 20-min sleep on both nap occasions), and subjects with 50-min or more nap time, were separately analyzed. The null hypothesis of a nap effect could not be rejected. Within limits, naps may be recommended to offset the common night-time awakenings in older persons.     

Liberating religion from theology: Marion and Heidegger on the possibility of a phenomenology of religion

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

The effects of self-beliefs and relationship beliefs on adjustment to a relationship stressor

A longitudinal study of college students involved in long-distance romantic relationships was conducted to examine the associations of positive self-beliefs and positive relationship beliefs to general distress, relationship status at the end of the semester (together vs. broken up), adjustment to a relationship stressor (physical separation), and adjustment to breakup. It was expected that positive self-beliefs (self-esteem, perceived control mastery, optimism) would predict the general psychological health outcome and that positive relationship beliefs (e.g., optimism about the future of the relationship) would predict the three relationship outcomes. Results confirmed predictions. Despite the positive correlation between self-beliefs and relationship beliefs, positive self-beliefs were associated with less psychological distress but were not associated with the three relationship outcomes. Relationship beliefs were associated with all three of the relationship outcomes. Positive relationship beliefs were adaptive in terms of relationship status, but were related to worse adjustment to the separation and worse adjustment to the breakup.     

Effects of a persuasive communication on beliefs, attitudes, and career choice

Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action was used to formulate a persuasive communication in an attempt to influence unclassified American college students' beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors regarding signing up for a career as a registered nurse. A two-stage cluster sample was used to assign 90 male and female students to either an experimental or control group. After persuasive communication exposure, the experimental group showed a significantly more positive change in beliefs, attitudes, and intentions than did the control group exposed to a neutral message. Sign-up rate was also statistically significant for the experimental group. With the Fishbein model to predict sign-up behavior, no other scores were found to add to the prediction once behavioral intention was entered into the model. Change in behavioral intention explained 49% of the variation in behavior. Normative belief scores did not approach statistical significance.     

Effects of status and outcome on attributions and just-world beliefs: How the social distribution of success and failure may be rationalized

The distribution of success and failure to social groups is supported by lay theories about the characteristics of social groups and the causes of their outcomes, as well as by beliefs about entitlement of groups to succeed or fail. This paper presents a study where a target individual’s socio-economic status (high vs. low) and outcome in a major academic achievement task (success vs. failure) were manipulated in a 2 × 2 experimental design. It was found that high-status success and low-status failure, i.e. the system-consistent outcomes, were attributed relatively more to stable internal causes (ability), whereas high-status failure and low-status success, i.e. the system-inconsistent outcomes, were attributed relatively more to unstable causes (effort). Second, participants’ belief in a just world was higher in high-status success and low-status failure than in high-status failure and low-status success.     

Conceptual influences on induction: A case for a late onset

This research examines the mechanism of early induction, the development of induction, and the ways attentional and conceptual factors contribute to induction across development. Different theoretical views offer different answers to these questions. Six experiments with 4- and 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds and adults (N = 208) test these competing theories by teaching categories for which category membership and perceptual similarity are in conflict, and varying orthogonally conceptual and attentional factors that may potentially affect inductive inference. The results suggest that early induction is similarity-based; conceptual information plays a negligible role in early induction, but its role increases gradually, with the 7-year-olds being a transitional group. And finally, there is substantial contribution of attention to the development of induction: only adults, but not children, could perform category-based induction without attentional support. Therefore, category-based induction exhibits protracted development, with attentional factors contributing early in development and conceptual factors contributing later in development. These results are discussed in relation to existing theories of development of inductive inference and broader theoretical views on cognitive development.     

How do I feel about the behavior? The interplay of affective associations with behaviors and cognitive beliefs as influences on physical activity behavior.

Individuals have affective associations with health behaviors. In other domains such associations have been shown to influence behavior, but affective associations with health behaviors are not included in current health decision-making models. The authors examined whether affective associations with exercise predicted individuals' activity behavior and, if so, how they interfaced with other decision-making constructs to influence behavior. Adult participants (N = 433) reported their current physical activity behavior and affective associations with physical activity. Health belief model and theory of planned behavior constructs were also assessed. More positive affective associations with activity significantly predicted greater activity behavior. Moreover, the influence of the health belief model and theory of planned behavior constructs on activity behavior was mediated through affective associations. Affective associations were shown to play a central role in individuals' activity behavior, both as a mediator of the effects of cognitively based decision-making factors and as an independent predictor of activity behavior. The results suggest the need to include affective influences on behavior in formal models of health decision making and, potentially, to explore affectively based intervention routes to change behaviors.     

Unique contributions of religious and science beliefs on meaning systems in a nationally representative American sample

Individuals often hold beliefs in religion and in science, but how they mutually function is not well-understood. We examined these conjoint influences by examining their relative contributions to individuals' global meaning systems. We also examined whether subgroups of participants could be identified in terms of relative influence of religious or science beliefs on their meaning systems. A nationally representative sample of 300 American adults completed online surveys. Results suggested that science beliefs and religion beliefs comprise separate but only modestly negatively correlated dimensions. Both contributed similarly to the explanation of world assumptions, but only religious beliefs generally predicted goals, values and sense of meaning in life. Latent profile analysis produced a three-profile solution: one profile of moderate science and religious beliefs represented half the sample while the remainder split evenly between predominantly religious and predominantly science beliefs. In general, across most aspects of global meaning, the religious beliefs group was higher than the science beliefs and moderate beliefs in both groups. Results of this first systematic investigation of the separate effects of beliefs in religion and in science on meaning systems suggest that the balance of these beliefs is a potentially important individual difference warranting further investigation and elaboration.     

How great apes perform on a modified trap-tube task

To date, neither primates nor birds have shown clear evidence of causal knowledge when attempting to solve the trap tube task. One factor that may have contributed to mask the knowledge that subjects may have about the task is that subjects were only allowed to push the reward away from them, which is a particularly difficult action for primates in certain problem solving situations. We presented five orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), two chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), two bonobos (Pan paniscus), and one gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) with a modified trap tube that allowed subjects to push or rake the reward with the tool. In two additional follow-up tests, we inverted the tube 180° rendering the trap nonfunctional and also presented subjects with the original task in which they were required to push the reward out of the tube. Results showed that all but one of the subjects preferred to rake the reward. Two orangutans and one chimpanzee (all of whom preferred to rake the reward), consistently avoided the trap only when it was functional but failed the original task. These findings suggest that some great apes may have some causal knowledge about the trap-tube task. Their success, however, depended on whether they were allowed to choose certain tool-using actions. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at