A community-reinforcement approach to alcoholism

Several theoretical approaches to alcoholism exist. An opérant reinforcement approach was used in the present study to develop a new procedure that rearranged community reinforcers such as the job, family and social relations of the alcoholic such that drinking produced a time-out from a high density of reinforcement. The results showed that the alcoholics who received this Community-Reinforcement counseling drank less, worked more, spent more time with their families and out of institutions than did a matched control group of alcoholics who did not receive these procedures. This new approach appears to be an effective method of reducing alcoholism. An analysis in reinforcement terms is presented of the etiology, epidemiology, and treatment of alcoholism.     

Karma and redemption: A religious approach to family violence

Violence within the family is becoming so widespread that its treatment cannot be left to specialists alone, but increasingly will be faced by the helping professions generally. The Hindu concept of Karma and the Christian theory of redemption together provide a religious understanding for those who seek to help both the perpetrators and victims of family violence. Karma holds the truth that actions bear consequences, whereas redemption suggests that the evil consequences can be altered for good. The result is a new Karmic law which provides a fundamental starting point for family abuse counseling.Formerly, he was Assistant Professor of Religion at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. Prior to taking up his post with Scripture Union, he worked in Anchorage as Adult Education Specialist for two agencies dealing with sexual abuse and domestic violence. This paper formed the basis for his presentation at an Alaskan conference on violence in the family held in Anchorage in October 1985.     

Why people convert: A balance theoretical approach to religious conversion

This paper presents a model of religious conversion that integrates process models in the tradition of Lofland and Stark (1965) with the cognitive balance model of Gartrell and Shannon (1985). By placing balance theoretical principles in the context of a process model, the model presented here seeks to explain conversion as a process that is facilitated through the cognitive states of individuals. This technique, it is argued, produces a view of conversion that denies neither individual agency nor the structural constraints placed on the individual by the group. Implications for the study of conversion are discussed.Many thanks to the participants in the Emory University Sociology Department's presentation seminar for helpful comments. You know who you are. Thanks also Nancy Ammerman, Sonya Gamble, Karen Hegtvedt, and Frank Lechner.BITNET: SOCY7182 & EMUVM1.     

Improvements in the community-reinforcement approach to alcoholism

This study evaluated a modified Community-Reinforcement program for treating alcoholics. The previously tested Community-Reinforcement program included special job. family, social and recreational procedures and was shown to reduce alcoholism. To increase the effectiveness of the program further, the present study incorporated a Buddy system, a daily report procedure, group counseling, and a special social motivation program to ensure the self-administration of Disulfiram (Antabuse). The alcoholics who received the improved Community-Reinforcement program drank less. worked more, spent more time at home and less time institutionalized than did their matched controls who received the standard hospital treatment including Antabuse in the usual manner. These results were stable over a 2-year period. The program appeared even more effective and less time-consuming than the previous program. The present results replicate the effectiveness of the Community-Reinforcement program for reducing alcoholism and indicate the usefulness of the additions to the program.     

A social identification approach to the effects of religious disclosures in business communication

This research expands on prior research into the effects of religious disclosures on interpersonal attraction by drawing from social identification theory to explain attributions stemming from religious disclosures in professionals’ e-mail signature blocks. Participants (N = 268) were randomly exposed to one of three experimental conditions (a Christian, Islamic, or secular quotation in a signature block) and completed measures of social identification and perceptions of professionalism. Results indicate that, contrary to prior research, merely disclosing one’s religion does not increase attributions; rather, attributions of a sender’s professionalism are positively derived from the receiver’s social identification with the sender’s religion. Implications of these findings are discussed with regard to social identity theory, as well as for professional practice in developing signature blocks as a means of self-presentation.     

Belgrade systemic approach to the treatment of alcoholism: principles and interventions

This article describes an ecosystemic approach to alcoholism (ESTA) developed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The fundamental principle is that alcoholism is a problem of the whole context, involving the index patient, the family and wider systems including the work system.
The treatment programme, which integrates contemporary principles of the treatment of alcoholism with family-systems ideas covering biomedical-psychological-sociocultural levels, is also described and illustrated by a detailed case example.     

The Baltimore Mural Project: An approach to threshold concepts in religious studies

The Baltimore Mural Project (BMP) seeks to connect religious studies education to the growing literature on threshold concepts in order to address bottleneck areas in student learning. The project is designed for undergraduate service courses comprised of mostly non‐majors: for example, world religions. Students in these courses often struggle to understand and apply the discipline's unique approaches to the study of religion (i.e. its threshold concepts). Rather than merely memorize certain facts about a religious tradition's myths [or world forming stories], rituals [or embodied disclosures], materials, and so on... students are asked to apply threshold concepts related to religion, art, and the social good to the study of murals in Baltimore. Through a series of project elements (including: field work, photography, digital geomapping, and quantitative, qualitative, and archival research) the BMP helps students who struggle with threshold concepts in religious studies by creatively connecting the more conventional aspects of world religions courses to social justice issues related to mural art in Baltimore. By experientially helping students to make these connections, they are able to find creative routes through otherwise hindering barriers to their learning in religious studies.     

Combination pharmacotherapy in alcoholism: a novel treatment approach

Combination pharmacotherapy has proven effective in a number of psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia. However, compared with other affective disorders, few studies have explored the use of combination therapy in alcoholism, and the majority have been limited to animal models. There is evidence to support a role for combination therapy in alcoholism. For example, several neurochemical systems, including the dopaminergic, serotonergic, and opioidergic, appear to affect alcohol intake. Studies in several different types of alcohol-preferring rats have suggested that coadministration of agents to target more than one of these systems simultaneously may produce beneficial effects on alcohol intake, while avoiding problematic effects, such as alterations in food or water intake. Data from preliminary clinical studies have shown trends toward combination therapy reducing alcohol intake in humans. While such findings are encouraging, they must be explored further in larger, randomized, double-blind trials.     

Authoritarianism and religious identification: Response to threats on religious beliefs

The present study illustrates the impact of threat and authoritarianism on individuals and their respective belief systems within a Christian framework. Participants completed Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale, the Religious Fundamentalism Scale, the Questions and Doubts about Religion Scale, and the Behavioral and Faith Scale. Participants also read a threat- or non-threat-inducing article concerning the crisis of the Catholic Church. Results showed that individuals with high RWA scores demonstrated a greater support for religious fundamentalist ideals, reported less doubts regarding their religious beliefs, and identified more strongly with their religion than did those with low RWA scores. Furthermore, participants who were exposed to threat, regardless of individual level of authoritarianism, scored higher on a measure of religious fundamentalist ideals and identified more strongly with their respective religions than those who were not exposed to a threat. Most importantly, individuals high in authoritarianism who were exposed to threat demonstrated greater support for religious fundamentalist ideals, reported fewer doubts, and more strongly identified with their religion than those individuals with high levels of authoritarianism who were in the non-threatening article condition.     

The challenge of religious pluralism: A reply to James Kraft

Religious pluralis does have, as James Kraft says, a negative impact on the epistemic confidence with which one holds a religious position, when epistemology is thought on both the externalist and internalist lines. I also conclude both that there is a resulting epistemic humility and that a tolerance of religious diversity results from it, but I reach these conclusions for entirely different reasons. Epistemic humility and religious tolerance are fostered by the realization that many religions are striving for the infinite, though all have limited views of it.     

Correction to: Relief from rescue

Philosophical Studies -     

Deconstructing delusions: A qualitative study examining the relationship between religious beliefs and religious delusions

Delusions have been conceptualized as forming in response to experience, yet the relationship between religious belief, and beliefs regarded as delusional, has received little research attention. This is despite the high prevalence of delusions featuring religious content. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants who had been diagnosed as experiencing delusions. Participants from a range of religious backgrounds were asked about their religious experiences and beliefs, family background and experiences of psychosis. These interviews were analysed qualitatively. Whilst religious background affected the content of delusions, the nature of delusions appeared to be influenced by other factors, such as early family experiences, particularly an absent parent and conflict within the family. Individuals often used a religious framework to understand unusual experiences, and there seemed to be a role for the process of identification and wish fulfilment in influencing delusional content. Whilst this research is clearly limited by its exploratory nature, it offers a possible framework of understanding which helps make sense of religious delusions, and suggests approaches which may be helpful in recovery.     

Taking spiritual experiences seriously in the religious education classroom: a transrational approach

ABSTRACT

Spiritual experiences are common across religious and non-religious faiths, but schoolchildren are often afraid to share these because they fear ridicule from peers who are convinced religion is irrational. The need to speak about spirituality in religious education is increasingly recognised. Signposts suggests that intercultural understanding implies recognising religious students’ perception of reality and helping others understand it. Religious education in Norway now includes exploration of existential questions as a core element, and in England, making sense of religious, spiritual and mystical experiences has been suggested as a big idea. In this paper, we discuss how the dualistic paradigm of modern science makes it difficult to take spirituality seriously as lived experience and empirical phenomenon. Instead we suggest a transrational approach to explore our multidimensional reality in an intercultural dialogue where insiders and outsiders learn from each other. We also explore examples of transrational research on spiritual phenomena.