“I Will Be Your God and You Will Be My People”: Attachment Theory and the Grand Narrative of Scripture

In this article, we apply attachment theory to the grand narrative of Christian Scripture: creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. First, utilizing four key features of attachment theory—secure base, exploration, attachment behaviors, and safe haven—we attempt to integrate the “circle of attachment” with the biblical story of creation. Next, we explore the overlap between maternal deprivation, including the stages of protest, despair, and detachment, and the fall of humankind elucidated in the biblical storyline. Finally, we discuss the relationship between attachment theory and redemption and new creation within the grand narrative of Scripture. By focusing on the relationship between God and humankind found within the Old and New Testaments, we seek to expand the theological underpinnings of the attachment to God literature and conclude by offering suggestions for therapists and pastoral counselors working with Christians exhibiting disordered attachment patterns.     

Music, emotion, and autobiographical memory: They’re playing your song

Very long-term memory for popular music was investigated. Older and younger adults listened to 20-sec excerpts of popular songs drawn from across the 20th century. The subjects gave emotionality and preference ratings and tried to name the title, artist, and year of popularity for each excerpt. They also performed a cued memory test for the lyrics. The older adults' emotionality ratings were highest for songs from their youth; they remembered more about these songs, as well. However, the stimuli failed to cue many autobiographical memories of specific events. Further analyses revealed that the older adults were less likely than the younger adults to retrieve multiple attributes of a song together (i.e., title and artist) and that there was a significant positive correlation between emotion and memory, especially for the older adults. These results have implications for research on long-term memory, as well as on the relationship between emotion and memory.     

But we’re here to help! Positive buffers of the relationship between outsider incivility and employee outcomes

Incivility from sources outside the organization (e.g., customers, patients) is increasingly recognized as an important workplace stressor, having been linked to a variety of negative outcomes. It is therefore becoming more important to understand not only the negative effects of outsider incivility, but also potential buffers of these negative effects. As such, the current study sought to explore the impact of outsider incivility directed towards emergency workers (called “victim” incivility) and to identify and test potential positive psychological buffers of the relationship between victim incivility and burnout, physical symptoms and objective absenteeism. Specifically, utilizing a resource perspective, we sought to determine whether work engagement and empathy buffered these negative effects. Survey data from 208 firefighters at two time points showed that victim incivility predicted burnout, physical symptoms and absenteeism, and that both engagement and empathy ameliorated some negative outcomes of victim incivility, including burnout and physical symptoms. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed and areas for future research are proposed.     

Prior’s Fable and the limits of de re possibility

Prior??s hitherto unpublished ??Fable of the Four Preachers?? illuminates the connection of the metaphysical issues of trans-world identity with moral trans-world continuity. The paper shows Prior??s position with regard to genuine de re temporal possibility of individuals on the basis of chapter VIII of his Papers on Time and Tense. His position is that radical coming-into-being is not a genuine de re temporal possibility of individuals since there is no identifiable individual, before birth, who could be the subject of such possibility. The paper strengthens Prior??s claim by showing how an uncomfortable consequence of this intuitively appealing position can be avoided. As a result, the proper claim would be that the possibility of origin is general or de dicto: it is possible that someone be born to such and parents, but it is not possible of someone that he should be born to these or other parents.     

Has the World Changed? My Neighbor Might Know: Effects of Social Context on Routine Deviation

Routines help individuals save decision effort and protect them from overreacting to volatile environments. Yet routines become dysfunctional if the environment changes fundamentally. Whether the environment has truly changed is often not easy to tell. We experimentally study adaptation to a change in a previously stable environment. Participants have to choose between one of the four decks of cards. Each deck represents a lottery, with a distribution of gains and losses initially unknown to participants. In the learning phase of the experiment, participants acquire the routine to choose the most attractive deck. Unbeknownst to participants, after an interruption, the lotteries represented by the competing decks are changed. We study how participants react to this change. We manipulate whether participants have access to choices by a confederate who most of the time makes the normative choice. In baseline condition, they never do. In the treatments, access is provided either during the learning phase, during the test phase, or during both phases. Participants are most likely to realize that the world has changed if they had access to the confederate's choices in both phases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thought,speech and the genesis of meaning: On the 50th anniversary of Vygotsky's Myšlenie i reč'

This article seeks to present Vygotsky's theoretical perspective as an integral whole as an antidote to the desire to plunder his work for isolated insights. The first part of the paper treats Vygotsky's views on method: his critique of the prevailing psychological orthodoxies; his recommendation that the higher mental functions be seen as standing in interfunctional relations of mutual determination; his technique of unit analysis. The second part discusses the method in action: Vygotsky's genetic account of the development of consciousness, on which the key point in ontogenesis is taken to be the convergence of two initially independently developing faculties: thought and speech; the notion of internalisation and its defence; the critique of Piaget; the concepts of inner speech and developed thought. The author hopes this article will serve as an aid to reading the limited sources of Vygotsky's writings presently available in English.     

Discrepancy in the Parents’ Mindset as a Source of Discrepancy in their Adolescents’ Mindset

An attempt was made to trace the source of discrepancy in adolescents’ mindset to the discrepancy in the mindset of their parents. Ninety three respondents, 31 adolescents (girls 17, boys 14) and both their parents living together in an urban area were interviewed with the help of the separately developed questionnaires that were designed to assess the extent of discrepancy in their mindset. Some background information about the family was also collected. Discrepancy in the parents’ mindset was the average of converged discrepancies rated by each parent, his or her spouse, and their adolescent son or daughter on the items that were separately developed for the father and the mother. Coefficients of correlation among and between the ratings of discrepancy in the father’s and the mother’s mindset indicated the convergent and discriminant validity of the measures. Mothers manifested greater discrepancy in their thoughts and behaviour than fathers. Regression analysis showed that the magnitude of discrepancy only in father’s mindset and convergence of discrepancy in mostly mother’s mindset contributed significantly to the discrepancy in adolescents’ thoughts and behaviour. Daughters’ discrepancy was a function of their father’s magnitude and mother’s convergence of discrepancy scores.     

Source and destination memory: Two sides of the same coin?

Whereas source memory involves remembering from whom you have heard something, destination memory involves remembering to whom you have told something. Despite its practical relevance, destination memory has been studied little. Recently, two reports suggested that generally destination memory should be poorer than source memory, and that it should be particularly difficult for older people. We tested these predictions by having young and older participants read sentences to two examiners (destination encoding) and listen to sentences read by two examiners (source encoding), under intentional (Experiment 1) or incidental encoding (Experiments 2 and 3). Only in Experiment 3 (in which cognitive demands during destination encoding were increased) was destination memory significantly poorer than source memory. In none of the experiments were older adults inferior to the young on destination or source memory. Destination- and source-memory scores were significantly correlated. Item memory was consistently superior for sentences that had been read out loud (during destination encoding) versus those that had been heard (during source encoding). Destination memory needs not always be poorer than source memory, appears not to be particularly impaired by normal ageing and may depend on similar processes to those supporting source memory.     

Compassion and Pity: An Evaluation of Nussbaum’s Analysis and Defense

In this paper I argue that Martha Nussbaums Aristotelian analysis of compassion and pity is faulty, largely because she fails to distinguish between (a) an emotions basic constitutive conditions and the associated constitutive or intrinsic norms, (b) extrinsic normative conditions, for instance, instrumental and moral considerations, and (c) the causal conditions under which emotion is most likely to be experienced. I also argue that her defense of compassion and pity as morally valuable emotions is inadequate because she treats a wide variety of objections as all stemming from a common commitment to a Stoic conception of the good. I argue that these objections can be construed as neutral between conceptions of the good. I conclude by arguing that construed in this way there are nonetheless plausible replies to these objections.     

Can Becoming My Self Influence My Health?: Exploring the Effects of a Eudaimonic-Enhancement Process on Psychological Indicators of Well-Being and Physical Activity

The current study adopts an intervention approach that begins with the assumption that the quality of a person’s lived experience is at the core of well-being and health behavior change. Specifically, the present study used a well-being enhancement process grounded in eudaimonia to explore the connection among eudaimonia, indicators of psychological well-being (i.e., personal growth, subjective vitality, self-determination, and life engagement), and physical activity. Participants in the intervention group engaged in 8 weekly, group eudaimonic well-being enhancement (the Well-Being Way, WBW) sessions with assessments at Weeks 1, 8, and 12 (follow-up), and were compared to a comparison group that did not participate. A series of 2?×?3 (Group by Time) repeated measures ANOVAs along with follow-up paired comparisons t-tests were conducted to compare the WBW and comparison groups across time. Results indicated that the WBW group exhibited significant increases in two indices of psychological well-being (trait subjective vitality and self-determination) and in their physical activity levels. The comparison group showed no changes in any of the variables. The results of an exploratory regression analysis provided some evidence that WBW participants who experienced the greatest gains in life engagement and trait subjective vitality also exhibited significant increases in level of physical activity. Discussion focuses on the implications of the Well-Being Way approach for the enhancement of positive well-being and future possibilities for eudaimonic-based approaches to health behavior change.     

“My Plate is Full”: Reasons for Declining a Genetic Evaluation of Hearing Loss

The aim of this study was to obtain patient and parent perspectives on genetic evaluation of hearing loss, in order to identify motivators, expectations, and barriers. Three focus groups were conducted following a semi-structured discussion guide, led by an independent moderator. Participants were hearing parents of children with permanent hearing loss or deaf adults. Qualitative content analysis was used to develop a codebook and identify major themes and subthemes. Participant views were compared to national guidelines. The 28 participants comprised 23 parents representing 21 unique families and 5 deaf adults. 13/21 families and 0/5 adults reported comorbidities, 4/21 families and 3/5 adults had a positive family history, and 12/21 families versus 0/5 adults had utilized genetics services. A common theme among adults and parents was a curiosity as to the cause of hearing loss. Parents were motivated to detect comorbidities and optimize care for hearing loss. Some parents felt overwhelmed by the hearing loss and unprepared to pursue early genetic evaluation as recommended in guidelines. Several reported positive experiences following genetics consultation, while others reported unease and unmet expectations. Notably, both parents and adults expressed ambivalence regarding the desire for genetic knowledge. Financial concerns and difficulties obtaining a referral were cited as extrinsic barriers. For parents of children with hearing loss, both the presence of comorbidities and a positive family history were drivers of genetics consultation and/or genetic testing. We identified educational opportunities for both patients and providers that would improve informed decision-making and increase access to genetic services. Consideration of the patient/family perspective and their decision-making processes, along with flexibility in the approach to genetics evaluation and its timing, will optimize both the development and implementation of guidelines.     

“They Say That You Are a Danger But You Are Not”: Representations and Construction of the Moral Self in Narratives of “Dangerous Individuals” 1

This article is based on an analysis of narratives of 26 offenders with mental health problems living in the United Kingdom. It explores the impact of an ascribed dangerous status and the construction of the self as moral and responsible in response to this label with reference to the literature on denial, deviance disavowal and other “techniques of neutralization” and Goffman's presentation of self. Two dominant strands are identified in relation to the construction of moral self-hood: “Not my fault” and “Good at heart” narratives. “Techniques of neutralization” are widely drawn on, particularly denial of responsibility in the “Not my fault” narratives that seek to explain anti-social behavior with reference to external forces such as a hostile environment inhibiting their ability to control their lives. In contrast, “Good at heart” narratives draw on the essentially good and moral nature of the inner-self. Both are used as evidence of sharing and adhering to moral norms in order to present an acceptable and credible self.     

'You’re Being Unreasonable’: Prior and Passing Theories of Critical Discussion

A key and continuing concern within the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation is how to account for effective persuasion disciplined by dialectical rationality. Currently, van Eemeren and Houtlosser offer one response to this concern in the form of strategic manoeuvring. This paper offers a prior/passing theory of communicative interaction as a supplement to the strategic manoeuvring approach. Our use of a prior/passing model investigates how a difference of opinion can be resolved while both dialectic obligations of reasonableness and rhetorical ambitions of argumentative success are simultaneously accommodated. The paper explores the model with particular reference to the pragma-dialectical rules of critical discussion, strategic manoeuvring and fallacious reasoning.     

Beyond the politics of reception: Jacques Rancière and the politics of art

Jacques Rancière’s work has become a major reference point for discussions of art and politics. However, while Rancière’s negative theses (about what “political art” is not) are becoming widespread and well understood, his positive thesis is still poorly understood, owing partly to Rancière’s own formulation of the issue. I first clarify Rancière’s account of the links between politics and art. I then explore a gap in this account; Rancière has stuck too closely to a politics of art’s reception. I argue for a politics of art production, which would expand the possible engagement between politics and art.     

Changing people’s attitudes and beliefs toward driving through floodwaters: Evaluation of a video infographic

Despite awareness of campaigns such as ‘Turn Around, Don’t Drown’ and the Australian state of Queensland’s ‘If It’s Flooded, Forget It’, people continue to drive through floodwaters, causing loss of life, risk to rescuers, and damage to vehicles. The aim of this study was to develop a video infographic that highlights the dangers of driving through floodwaters and provide safety tips to reduce the risk, and to evaluate its effectiveness in changing the beliefs and intentions of Australian adults toward this risky driving behaviour. This study adopted an online three-wave non-controlled pretest–posttest design. Australian licensed drivers (N = 201, male = 41, female = 160; M_age = 34.10) self-reported their demographic and psychological variables (intention, attitude, subjective norm, barrier self-efficacy, risk perception, anticipated regret, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity) at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and at a one-month follow-up (T3). Messages in the video infographic were developed based on psychological theory and empirical evidence, using data on causal factors derived from coronial records and the findings of behavioural research. Results indicated that men had significantly higher intentions and attitudes and significantly lower barrier self-efficacy, risk perception, anticipated regret, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity with respect to driving through floodwater than women. Statistically significant time x gender interaction effects were also found; attitude and subjective norm were significantly lower between T1 and T2 for both men and women but scores between T2 and T3 remained significantly lower for women only. In addition, perceived susceptibility and perceived severity scores were significantly higher in women across T1 and T2, with the difference maintained at T3. In contrast, there were no differences in scores across the three-time points for men. The implications of these findings for road safety and drowning prevention messages targeting drivers during floods are discussed.