Conceptualizing Religious Practices in Psychological Research: Problems and Prospects

This article addresses the problems and prospects that follow from the conceptualization of religious phenomena and practices for scientific investigation in the psychology of religion. Two Western research traditions—instrumentalism and operationalism—are described and their potential contribution to a mismatch between what researchers intend to study and what they actually study is illustrated through two exemplar studies. The exemplar studies show how researchers’ concern with methodological rigor can compromise the rich and thick meanings of religious practices, resulting in the misrepresentation of the practices and misleading both the psychological and religious research consumer. Several suggestions for dealing with these problems are discussed.     

A Review of Scientific Progress in Flow in Sport and Exercise: Normal Science,Crisis, and a Progressive Shift

Flow is highly relevant and desirable in sport and exercise. Drawing on ideas from iconic philosophers of science—Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, and Imre Lakatos—we argue that research in this field has followed a pattern of “normal science.” With a series of accumulating criticisms and “anomalies,” we propose flow research is approaching a “crisis point.” We highlight problems with research based on the traditional nine-dimensions conceptualization of flow. Then, drawing on the work of Popper and Lakatos, we offer theoretical and methodological suggestions for developing a more progressive and practically useful theory for researchers and practitioners.     

Does a Truck Driver See What a Nurse Sees? The Effects of Occupation Type on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

Previous researchers have demonstrated differential prevalence of harassment of men and women in men’s traditional, women’s traditional, and neutral occupation types, but they have not looked at differences in harassment judgments among these occupations. Our hypotheses rely on the assumption that people who have observed frequent sexual harassment of others in their work environments react differently to new cases than do those who have witnessed fewer of these episodes in the past. Participants watched videos of two cases and made judgments about the presence or absence of sexual harassment. We categorized the participants based on their occupations—men’s traditional, women’s traditional, and neutral, and compared responses among groups. A gender by occupation type interaction emerged. Men in men’s traditional occupation types provided the highest ratings of harassment, followed by men in neutral occupations; men in women’s traditional occupation types provided the lowest ratings. Conversely, women in women’s traditional occupations provided the highest ratings of harassment, followed by women in neutral occupations; women in men’s traditional occupations provided the lowest ratings of sexual harassment.     

Methodological, ethical, and legal considerations in drug court research

Since their inception in the late 1980s, drug courts have become the most prevalent specialty court in the United States. A large body of outcome research conducted over the past two decades has demonstrated that drug courts effectively reduce drug use and criminal recidivism, which has led to the rapid proliferation of these courts. Importantly, drug court research has flourished despite the many challenges faced by researchers when working with a vulnerable population of justice-involved substance users. In this article, we highlight the most common methodological, ethical, and legal challenges encountered in drug court research, and discuss ways in which researchers can overcome these challenges to conduct high-quality research. Drug court research exemplifies how rigorous empirical investigation can be accomplished in the criminal justice system, and it can serve as a useful model for researchers working in other parts of the judicial system.     

Are the important “individual differences” between or within individuals?

Within-individual differences have been a common finding in a variety of research areas. Such inconsistencies with individuals are argued to represent an important consideration for researchers concerned with between-individual differences. Cognitive Flexibility (availability in the individual's repertoire of several alternative types of strategies or processes, and ability to select the one(s) of the alternatives that are most effective for the required task) is suggested to be an important individual-difference variable. Some methodological problems in the assessment of cognitive flexibility as related to human memory are discussed, along with possible ways of overcoming these methodological difficulties, and some limited evidence for the importance of cognitive flexibility in research on personality as well as ability differences.     

An Overview of Issues Related to Categorical and Dimensional Models of Personality Disorder Assessment

Despite long-standing efforts to improve the current diagnostic system for Axis II, problems remain with the categorical conceptualization of personality disorders (PDs). Due in part to these problems, interest has developed in dimensional models of PD classification. In this article, we discuss four issues relevant to categorical vs. dimensional assessment of PDs: (a) problems with self-reports in PD patients, (b) methodological issues in behavioral and clinician assessment of PDs, (c) challenges that arise when dimensional models are applied to patient and nonpatient samples, and (d) clinical implications of categorical and dimensional PD models. We suggest that researchers and clinicians address these concerns to avoid implementing a new PD assessment model that—although different from the current system—would otherwise remain fraught with difficulties.     

Curvilinearity and Religious Types: A Second Look at Intrinsic,Extrinsic, and Quest Relations

The relation between Allport's intrinsic (I) and extrinsic (E) religious orientations, although of central conceptual importance, has never been clearly demonstrated. Allport (1960, 1966) initially hypothesized I and E to be endpoints of a bipolar continuum. Allport and Ross (1967) and subsequent researchers', however, failed to find consistent evidence for an inverse linear relation. Many researchers thus concluded that I and E—and later, Batson's (1976) quest orientation (Q)—are orthogonal. Study 1 demonstrates that I, E, and Q are not orthogonal, but inversely and curvilinearity related, offering some support for the use of religious types. Study 2 demonstrates that these types differ predictably on such dimensions as impression management, self-deception, and introjective depression. Conceptual and methodological implications for the study of religious orientation are discussed.     

Philosophical Error and the Economics of Belief Formation

Recent work has demonstrated that academic research faces serious challenges. Incentives to defend publishable ideas often lead researchers astray. Despite their tendency to produce error, efforts to publish erroneous results typically help a researcher's career. In addition, errors often arise from seemingly innocent methodological assumptions that allow researchers to believe their research is sound. This article discusses this research, as well as research into difficulties facing epistemic rationality caused by nonepistemic incentives. It then applies the lessons of this research to philosophical practice. It explains why philosophy likely suffers from these problems. It then provides an example of a widely shared methodological assumption that allows such research to be pursued and regularly published. It claims that the significance philosophers place on arguments is inappropriate, and that typical evaluations of philosophical arguments involve an instance of the base‐rate fallacy. It concludes by discussing whether or not this article is self‐defeating.     

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF MEN?

Recently the focus of sexual harassment research on the harassment of women by men has been challenged. Treatments of sexual harassment of men, however, have generally ignored power differentials between the genders. Our analysis predicts that behaviors identified as harassing by men stem from negotiations of gender in the workplace that challenge male dominance, whereas behaviors experienced by women as sexually harassing reinforce female subordinance. Consistent with our predictions, results indicated the following: men are considerably less threatened than women are by behaviors that women have found harassing; men find sexual coercion the most threatening form of harassment; men as well as women sexually harass men; and men identify behaviors as harassing that have not been identified for women. Results also showed signs of backlash among men against organizational measures that address sexual harassment and discrimination against women. Implications for psychological and legal definitions of sexual harassment of men are discussed.     

Assessment and treatment of obsessional harassment

Obsessional harassment and stalking have become increasingly recognized as significant social problems, often with dramatic negative repercussions on the lives of victims. As the public awareness of this problematic behavior has grown, the amount of clinical attention and empirical research focused on understanding the perpetrators of harassment has increased accordingly. Nevertheless, relatively little research has addressed the numerous issues involved in the assessment and treatment of obsessional harassment offenders. This article reviews the existing research on obsessional harassment/stalking, and offers a diagnostic typology of these offenders based on the nature of the relationship with the victim and the motivation of the offender. Treatment modalities are then discussed with regard to each of the primary diagnoses that occur among obsessional harassment offenders. Finally, strategies for initiating treatment for unmotivated or unwilling offenders are discussed, along with clinical issues that arise in the evaluation and treatment process.     

Perceived Conflict and Leader Dominance: Individual and Contextual Factors Behind Preferences for Dominant Leaders

Recent research finds that political candidates and leaders with dominant, masculine physical features are more preferred under conditions of conflict than of cooperation. Importantly, however, methodological limitations of past research have hindered the identification of whether this effect reflects that voters intuitively view (1) dominant leaders as more competent in solving problems of conflict, (2) nondominant leaders as more competent in solving problems of cooperation, or (3) both. In this article, we utilize recent advances in evolutionary psychology to form precise predictions on the nature of the underlying psychology and employ an unprecedented array of data types—including highly controlled experiments, natural experiments, and behavioral measures—to investigate the validity of these predictions. Using large approximately nationally representative surveys of 2,009 Poles and Ukrainians fielded during the Crimea crisis in 2014, we find that preferences for leader dominance are exclusively driven by the intuition that dominant leaders are better able to facilitate aggressive responses during social conflict and that these preferences are regulated by contextual conditions and individual predispositions related to such responses.     

The Experiences of Bystanders of Workplace Ethnic Harassment

The present research examined the experiences of individuals who witnessed or knew about ethnic harassment of their coworkers. Through 3 studies, we found that knowledge of other people's harassment was differentiated from personal experiences as a target and was associated with deleterious occupational, health-related, and psychological consequences beyond those accounted for by direct harassment and affective disposition. Ethnicity and gender did not moderate these relationships. Knowledge of others' ethnic harassment can therefore be construed as bystander harassment. Results also indicated that bystander and direct harassment were relatively common occurrences. Both harassment types contributed to how ethnic conflict is experienced. The consequences of ethnic harassment are not restricted to ethnic minority employees. Rather, everyone is at risk from such behaviors.     

Sexual harassment expanded: An examination of the relationships among sexual harassment,sex discrimination,and aggression in the workplace

We hypothesized that sexual harassment is part of a broader behavioral family including aggression and discrimination. We examined whether the relationships between these types of mistreatment can be represented well by a general factor that relates to other workplace variables. Evidence from military datasets showed that sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and workplace aggression can be conceptualized as a more general factor that functioned well in an integrated model of sexual harassment and was experienced differently by men and women. Thus, there is utility in examining these types of mistreatment both together and independently, both for research and prevention purposes.     

Optimizing the scientific study of suicide with open and transparent research practices

Suicide research is vitally important, yet—like psychology research more broadly—faces methodological challenges. In recent years, researchers have raised concerns about standard practices in psychological research, concerns that apply to suicide research and raise questions about its robustness and validity. In the present paper, we review these concerns and the corresponding solutions put forth by the “open science” community. These include using open science platforms, pre‐registering studies, ensuring reproducible analyses, using high‐powered studies, ensuring open access to research materials and products, and conducting replication studies. We build upon existing guides, address specific obstacles faced by suicide researchers, and offer a clear set of recommended practices for suicide researchers. In particular, we consider challenges that suicide researchers may face in seeking to adopt “open science” practices (e.g., prioritizing large samples) and suggest possible strategies that the field may use in order to ensure robust and transparent research, despite these challenges.     

Methodological issues in Navy Surveys

A number of important methodological issues involving surveys have emerged in Navy research. One such issue is whether results from computer-administered sur- veys are equivalent to those obtained from paper-and-pencil surveys. After a review of relevant Navy studies, we concluded that computer and paper surveys generally yield equivalent results. The Navy's efforts and success at computerizing command- level equal opportunity surveys is described, and the advantages of this approach are discussed. The Navy's survey work on diversity issues (e.g., Hispanics, sexual harassment, and pregnancy) is described and the problems posed by attempting to use surveys to identify who is Hispanic and to determine accurate rates of sexual harassment and pregnancy are outlined. Future issues to be addressed by Navy survey research are discussed.     

Women, Motivation, and Achievement

Women's educational and occupational achievements are crucial to the economic productivity and prosperity of the nation, as well as to the mental health of women and their families. In this article we review psychological research on motivation and on educational achievement, focusing on gender and the contributions that have been made by feminist researchers. Feminist psychologists noted the sex bias and methodological flaws in traditional research on achievement motivation and proposed vastly improved models, such as Eccles's expectancy x value model of achievement behavior. Contrary to stereotypes, gender similarities are typically found in areas such as mathematics performance. Policymakers should be concerned about gender bias in the SAT and about the Female Underprediction Effect. Additional threats to girls' and women's achievements include stereotype threat and peer sexual harassment in the schools.     

Sexual harassment in the workplace: An ethical dilemma for career guidance practice?

Sexual harassment in the workplace poses something of an ethical dilemma for career guidance practice. This is because it is now known that about half of all working women in the UK are likely to be victims at some stage of their employment and that the effects on individuals are invariably negative and can be positively harmful. What, therefore, is the role for career guidance—if any—in preparing and/or supporting girls and women who might face, or who are suffering from, sexual harassment in the labour market? This issue is thrown into particularly sharp focus by recommendations from recent studies into gender inequality in the workplace which exhort practitioners to combat stereotyping by encouraging girls and women into non-traditional vocational education, training and jobs. Yet research into non-traditional occupational areas reveals that there are particularly high levels of reporting of sexual harassment by victims. This article examines some of the research evidence on workplace sexual harassment and begins to explore implications for guidance practice.     

当代体育运动心理学跨文化研究述

采用文献检索法,对12份重要的国际期刊上1988~2004期间的文章进行检索,最终从其中的8份期刊中检索到33篇体育运动心理学跨文化研究的文献,在此基础上尝试从研究的方法论及研究的内容两方面来述评当代体育运动心理学跨文化研究的发展情况。方法论方面的述评主要包括数据收集方法、“文化”代表物、被试等值性,以及概念等值性四个方面的内容;研究内容方面的述评主要包括运动成就动机、教练-运动员关系、生涯转折,以及心理品质/心理技能四个方面的内容。文章最后对未来的研究提出了“建立指导研究的理论构架”、“发展指导研究的方法论模型”、“注重研究的实践应用价值”三点建议,并提出三阶段理论构架和四阶段方法论模型,分别尝试作为指导未来研究的理论构架和方法论模型