Graduate programs*: Psychology,geo‐justice and creation spirituality

This article focuses on demonstrating how a Heideggerian sensitivity to the meanings latent in our own challenges of living can serve to orient us, especially in times of difficulty, toward finding our path and, moreover, our foothold on the paths that we have chosen. Presenting my own life experience through the lens of Heidegger's (1927/1962 Heidegger , M. ( 1962 ). Being and time (J. MacQuarrie &; E. Robinson, Trans.) . New York : Harper &; Row . (Original work published 1927)  [Google Scholar]) fundamental modes of disclosedness and care structure, this article examines the notion of one's own existentiell projection into possibilities from the perspective of thrownness and fallenness. From here I present a reflection on the possibility of finding alternative potentialities-for-Being within the context of what had originally presented itself as a rupture of my very Being—a detethering of myself from my ordinary totality of involvements. The reflections here serve as a hermeneutic retrieval (Wiederholung) of the kinds of personal meanings that one lives through in the process of recovering one's life, one's existence, one's Self, in the aftermath of trauma or serious illness.     

The Influence of Task Value,Expectancies for Success,and Identity on Athletes' Achievement Behaviors

This study extended and supported the use of Eccles et al.'s (1983) Eccles, J. S., Adler, T. F., Futterman, R., Goff, S. B., Kaczala, C. M., Meece, J. L. and Midgley, C. 1983. “Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors”. In Achievement and achievement motives: Psychological and sociological approaches, Edited by: Spence, J. T. 75–146. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.  [Google Scholar] expectancy-value model to a competitive sport context. High school varsity basketball players (N = 189) were assessed on expectancies for success, interest value, attainment value, utility value, and basketball identity. Achievement behavior was measured as coaches't ratings of players' effort and persistence displayed throughout the season. Significant differences emerged between African-American and White athletes on all variables; however, no gender differences were present. Regression analyses indicated different patterns in the relationships among self- and task beliefs and achievement behaviors by race. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that self- and task beliefs mediated the relationship between identity and effort and persistence. Specifically, identity was a strong predictor of self- and task beliefs and expectancies significantly predicted effort and persistence. Explanations for the racial differences are discussed as well as the role that identity plays in the expectancy-value model and practical implications for coaches.     

The career development of Christiaan Neethling Barnard: A psychobiography

This study employs a psychobiographical case study to describe and interpret the career development of Christiaan Neethling Barnard, who performed the first human heart transplant. It interprets Barnard's life history according to the career development model of Greenhaus, Callanan and Godshalk (2010), which proposes the following four stages: occupational and organisational choice, early, middle, and late career. Generally, Barnard's career progression matched the stages proposed by Greenhaus et al. (2010 Greenhaus, J. H., Callanan, G. A., & Godschalk, V. M. (2010). Career management (4th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. [Google Scholar]). Exceptions were noted that relate to the first and fourth stages: Barnard experienced an extended occupational and organisational choice stage, while he showed no signs of career disengagement during the late career stage. The study confirmed the usefulness of the career development model of Greenhaus et al. within the psychobiographical research tradition.     

Diagrammatic Reasoning: Some Notes on Charles S. Peirce and Friedrich A. Lange

According to the received view, Charles S. Peirce's theory of diagrammatic reasoning is derived from Kant's philosophy of mathematics. For Kant, only mathematics is constructive/synthetic, logic being instead discursive/analytic, while for Peirce, the entire domain of necessary reasoning, comprising mathematics and deductive logic, is diagrammatic, i.e. constructive in the Kantian sense. This shift was stimulated, as Peirce himself acknowledged, by the doctrines contained in Friedrich Albert Lange's Logische Studien (1877 Lange, F.A. 1877. Logische Studien: Ein Beitrag zur Neubegründung der formalen Logik und der Erkenntnisstheorie, H. Cohen, ed., Iserlohn: Verlag von J. Baedeker (LS). [Google Scholar]). The present paper reconstructs Peirce's reading of Lange's book, and illustrates what, according to Peirce, was right and what was problematic in Lange's account of reasoning. It further seeks to explain how Peirce's theory of deductive reasoning was a combination of Kant's philosophy of mathematics and Lange's philosophy of logic.     

A Three-Dimensional Concept of Worldview

Several Christian school associations and many Christian schools identify developing a Biblical worldview in their students as an essential component of their organizational mission, yet few report on their level of success. This study investigates the concept of worldview from an Evangelical Christian perspective. The first step in investigating worldview is to establish a working definition of the term worldview. A Biblical definition of worldview is a challenge since Scripture does not use the term, but various writers have defined the term with language that is Biblically relevant. This study used the definition of worldview as derived by James W. Sire in 2004 Sire , J. W. (2004). Naming the elephant: Worldview as a concept . Downer's Grove , IL : InterVarsity Press. [Google Scholar] as the basis for a three-dimensional conception of worldview. The dimensions are propositional, behavioral, and heart-orientation.     

Deciphering Heidegger's Connection with the Daodejing

This paper carries out an intensive study of Heidegger's famous reflection on the word dao and of his citations from the Daodejing, with the purpose of elucidating his complex relation with Daoist thinking. First I examine whether dao could be said to be a guideword for Heidegger's path of thinking. Then I discuss Heidegger's citations, in six places of his writings, from five chapters of the Daodejing, by situating them in the immediate textual context as well as against the broad background of the fundamental presuppositions and orientations of Heidegger and Laozi's thinking. My examination of Heidegger's citations from the Daodejing has for the first time gathered together all the relevant materials discovered so far.     

The Assessment of Self-Oriented and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism: Subscales Make a Difference

Campbell and Di Paula (2002) Campbell, J. D. and Di Paula, A. 2002. “Perfectionistic self-beliefs: Their relation to personality and goal pursuit”. In Perfectionism, Edited by: Flett, G. L. and Hewitt, P. L. 181–198. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.  [Google Scholar] suggested differentiating Perfectionistic Striving and Importance of Being Perfect subscales when measuring self-oriented perfectionism and Others’ High Standards and Conditional Acceptance subscales when measuring socially prescribed perfectionism. In this study, we investigated the utility of this differentiation by analyzing data from 1,041 students and examining correlations with positive striving and maladaptive evaluation concerns aspects of perfectionism and with positive and negative indicators of well-being and psychological adjustment. As expected, (a) Perfectionistic Striving scores showed higher correlations with positive striving aspects of perfectionism and with positive indicators of well-being and adjustment than Importance of Being Perfect scores, and (b) Conditional Acceptance scores showed higher correlations with maladaptive evaluation concerns aspects of perfectionism and with negative indicators of well-being and adjustment than Others’ High Standards scores. The findings indicate that Campbell and Di Paula's differentiation provides for a more detailed and informative assessment of multidimensional perfectionism and its different aspects. Moreover, it provides for new insights into self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism and their relationships and associations.     

On Pedagogy of Personality Assessment: Application of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

In this article, Bloom's (1956 Bloom, B. (Ed.), Englehart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., &; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook 1. Cognitive domain. White Plains, NY: Longman. [Google Scholar]) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, a pedagogical tool that can help instructors of personality assessment to develop effective and student-centered instructional design, is discussed. Bloom's taxonomy provides a progressive sequence of educational objectives used for lesson planning, needs assessment, and measurement of learning outcomes. The taxonomy comprises 6 categories of objectives that are ordered hierarchically, from the simplest to the most advanced. The levels are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. I explain how the taxonomy can be applied to the teaching of personality assessment and discuss the implications for assessment pedagogy. I provide examples of effective instructional activities, overview the signs of learners at each level, and highlight typical errors that students make in their oral and written work. Strategies to help learners progress to higher order thinking are also addressed.     

Psychometric Properties of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A) Clinical,Content, and Supplementary Scales in a Forensic Sample

In this study, we evaluated the internal psychometric properties and external correlates of scores on the Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales in a forensic sample of 496 adolescents (315 boys and 181 girls) who were court-ordered to receive psychological evaluations. We examined Cronbach's alpha coefficients, scale intercorrelation matrices, and frequencies of scale elevations. Further, we found varying degrees of support for the convergent and discriminant validity of scores on the MMPI–A (Butcher et al., 1992 Butcher, J. N., Williams, C. L., Graham, J. R., Archer, R. P., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S. and Kaemmer, B. 1992. MMPI–A (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent): Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]) Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales. This study adds to the body of literature establishing the utility of the MMPI–A in forensic evaluations.     

Is reasoning from counterfactual antecedents evidence for counterfactual reasoning?

In most developmental studies the only error children could make on counterfactual tasks was to answer with the current state of affairs. It was concluded that children who did not show this error are able to reason counterfactually. However, children might have avoided this error by using basic conditional reasoning (Rafetseder, Cristi-Vargas, & Perner, 2010 Perner, J. and Rafetseder, E. 2010. “Counterfactual and other forms of conditional reasoning: Children lost in the nearest possible world”. In Understanding counterfactuals/Understanding causation, Edited by: Hoerl, C., McCormack, T. and Beck, S. R. New York: Oxford University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Basic conditional reasoning takes background assumptions represented as conditionals about how the world works. If an antecedent of one of these conditionals is provided by the task, then a likely conclusion can be inferred based only on background assumptions. A critical feature of counterfactual reasoning is that the selection of these additional assumptions is constrained by actual events to which the counterfactual is taken to be counterfactual. In contrast, in basic conditional reasoning one enriches the given antecedent with any plausible assumptions, unconstrained by actual events. In our tasks basic conditional reasoning leads to different answers from counterfactual reasoning. For instance, a doctor, sitting in the park with the intention of reading a paper, is called to an emergency at the swimming pool. The question, “If there had been no emergency, where would the doctor be?” should counterfactually be answered “in the park”. But by ignoring the doctor's intentions, and just reasoning from premises about the default location of a hospital doctor who has not been called out to an emergency, one might answer: “in the hospital”. Only by 6 years of age did children mostly give correct answers.     

Unconcealing Jung's Transcendent Function with Heidegger

In the first sentence of his book, The Transcendent Function, Jeffery Miller says “The transcendent function is the core of Carl Jung's theory of psychological growth and the heart of what he called individuation, the process by which one is guided in a teleological way toward the person he or she is meant to be” (Miller, 2004 Miller, J. C. (2004). The transcendent function: Jung's model of psychological growth through dialogue with the unconscious. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. [Google Scholar], p. 1). Consequently, for Jung, the transcendent function is the question of unveiling the unconscious for individuation to take place or, as Heidegger would say, the question of unveiling Being for authenticity to take place. As a result of the apparent equivalence, these questions can be synthesised to demonstrate that read together, each of these thinkers brings deeper understanding, meaning, and interpretation to the projects of the other in such a way that an extension for application is created for both philosophy and psychotherapy.     

Sanctifying Work: Effects on Satisfaction,Commitment, and Intent to Leave

Sanctification involves perceiving objects or events: (a) theistically by viewing them as having spiritual significance, or (b) nontheistically by viewing them as extraordinary and worthy of veneration and respect without any reference to a higher being. Previous research has found positive outcomes associated with sanctification, including increased satisfaction with marriage (Mahoney et al., 1999 Mahoney, A., Pargament, K. I., Jewell, T., Swank, A. B., Scott, E.Emery, E. 1999. Marriage and the spiritual realm: The role of proximal and distal religious constructs in marital functioning. Journal of Family Psychology, 13: 321–338. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), body image (Mahoney, Carels, et al., 2005 Mahoney, A., Carels, R. A., Pargament, K. I., Wachholtz, A., Leeper, L. E.Kaplar, M. 2005. The sanctification of the body and behavioral health patterns of college students. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15: 221–238. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and sexual intercourse (Murray-Swank, Pargament, & Mahoney, 2002 Murray-Swank, N. A., Pargament, K. I. and Mahoney, A. 2002. At the crossroads of sexuality and spirituality: The sanctification of sex by college students. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15: 199–219.  [Google Scholar]) to name a few. This study extends these findings into the world of work by demonstrating that those who sanctify their jobs are more satisfied, more committed to their organization, and at the same time less likely to intend to leave.     

Reliability and Factor Structure of the Psychological Maltreatment and Neglect Scales of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI)

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Psychological Maltreatment (PM) and Neglect subscales of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI; DiLillo et al., 2010 DiLillo, D., Hayes-Skelton, S. A., Fortier, M. A., Perry, A. R., Evans, S.Messman-Moore, T. L. 2010. Development and initial psychometric properties of the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI): A comprehensive self-report measure of child maltreatment history. Child Abuse and Neglect, 34: 305–317. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The CAMI is a retrospective self-report measure that assesses multiple forms of child maltreatment (i.e., sexual, physical, psychological, neglect, exposure to interparental violence) retrospectively from adults. The CAMI's PM and Neglect subscales were administered to a geographically diverse sample of 400 college students and a sample of 412 newlyweds. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted for each group separately by subscale. Represented in the PM factor structures were items that depict emotional responsiveness, terrorizing/spurning, demanding/rigid, corrupting, and isolating parental behaviors. The Neglect scale included items depicting basic needs, cleanliness, abandonment, monitoring and medical neglect factors. Revised versions of the CAMI PM and Neglect subscales based on the factor analysis are presented.     

Do Korean Fraction Names Promote Part-Whole Reasoning?

We investigated the effects of transparent fraction names on children's reasoning about fractions. U.S. and Korean first and second graders were tested using verbal and nonverbal measures. On a verbal task, Korean students were worse at interpreting their own conventional fraction names than interpreting modified terms with a more familiar word for parts. This indicates that Korean fraction names may not be as transparent as previously claimed (e.g., Miura et al., 1999 Miura , I. T. , Okamoto , Y. , Vlahovic-Stetic , V. , Kim , C. C. , & Han , J. H. ( 1999 ). Language supports for children's understanding of numerical fractions: Cross-national comparisons . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 74 , 356 – 365 . [Google Scholar]). On nonverbal tasks, such as matching equivalent pictures of fractions and solving mixed-number problems using objects, students from both nations performed above chance and about equally well. However, U.S. students were more likely than Korean students to misinterpret a sharing task in terms of whole numbers, leading to significantly below-chance performance in the former group.     

Thinking Levels of Questions in Christian Reading Textbooks

If Christian schools desire students to achieve higher-level thinking, then the textbooks that teachers use should reflect such thinking. Using Risner's (1987 Risner, G. P. (1987). Cognitive levels of questioning demonstrated by test items that accompany selected fifth-grade science textbooks (Doctoral dissertation). Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. [Google Scholar]) methodology, raters classified questions from two Christian publishers’ fifth grade reading textbooks based on the revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001 Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrick, P. R., … Wittrock, M. C. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman. [Google Scholar]). The questions in the A Beka Book textbook contained 57.6% lower-level and 42.4% higher-level thinking; the questions in the Bob Jones University Press textbook contained 45.8% lower-level and 54.2% higher-level thinking. Analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the percentages of thinking in the two publishers (p < .05).     

Computer Scoring of Emotional Awareness in a Nonclinical Population of Young Adults

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane, Quinlan, Schwartz, Walker, &; Zeitlin, 1990 Lane, R. D., Quinlan, D. M., Schwartz, G. E., Walker, P. A., &; Zeitlin, S. B. (1990). The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale: A cognitive-developmental measure of emotion. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 124–134. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5501&;2_12[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) is an open-ended measure of the ability to describe emotional reactions. Scoring the LEAS by hand is complex and time consuming (Barchard, Bajgar, Leaf, &; Lane, 2010 Barchard, K. A., Bajgar, J., Leaf, D. E., &; Lane, R. D. (2010). Computer scoring of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale. Behavior Research Methods, 42, 586–595. doi:10.3758/BRM.42.2.586[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Therefore, Program for Open-Ended Scoring (POES; Leaf &; Barchard, 2010 Leaf, D. E., &; Barchard, K. A. (2010). Program for Open-Ended Scoring [POES] version 1.4.1 [Unpublished program]. Available from Kim Barchard, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154–5030, kim.barchard@unlv.edu [Google Scholar]) was designed to score the LEAS quickly and easily. Using 268 undergraduates, this article compares traditional LEAS hand scoring to 6 POES methods, 2 of which are holistic methods that have never before been examined. Based on split-half reliability, correlations with measures of emotional and social intelligence, and partial correlations once response length and vocabulary were partialed out, we recommend 3 of the POES methods when testing nonclinical samples of young adults. Because POES scoring is fast and efficient, it allows more researchers and clinicians to use the LEAS, thus moving away from self-report measures of emotional awareness.     

Psychophysiological Arousal and Perceived Support during Couple Support Interactions: The Role of Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance

Abstract

Couple support processes—typically occurring in the context of non-relationship distressing issues—are crucial to our understanding of relationships (Pasch, Bradbury, & Sullivan, 1997 Pasch, L. A., Bradbury, T. N., & Sullivan, K. T. (1997). Social support in marriage: An analysis of intraindividual and interpersonal components. In G. R. Pierce, B. Lakey, & I. G. Sarson (Eds.), Sourcebook of social support and personality (pp. 229–256). New York, NY: Plenum Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). These couple support processes influence important relationship outcomes, including relationship satisfaction and longevity (i.e., Collins & Feeney, 2010 Collins, N. L., & Feeney, B. C. (2010). An attachment theoretical perspective on social support dynamics in couples: Normative processes and individual differences. In K. T. Sullivan, & J. Davila (Eds.), Support processes in intimate relationships (pp. 89–120). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). In this study, we examined 51 couples’ support perceptions and physiological arousal during individually distressing support conversations. Using dyadic data analysis, results reveal important findings in terms of avoidant attachment and couple support perceptions. Additionally, significant results were found between attachment anxiety and psychophysiological arousal. Implications of the current findings for couple relationships and therapy are discussed.     

Children's Lived Spaces in the Inner City: Historical and Political Aspects of the Psychology of Place

Children's lives are tied to particular places, which are the stage where the psychological drama of the human community is played out. This biographical research study investigates and documents the experiences of children's lived spaces in Pittsburgh's Hill District. The Hill District is a traditionally immigrant and African American neighborhood, which has suffered through segregation, the turmoil of urban renewal, race riots, gang warfare, and drug-related crime. When we look at the history of a particular place, we often forget that its children are raised and participate in the same historical stream. What was childhood like for the children who grew up in The Hill over the past century?

Adapting the ethnographic method of narrative mapping (Lutz, Behnken, & Zinnecker, 1997 Lutz, M., Behnken, I. and Zinnecker, J. 1997. “Narrative Landkarten [Narrative maps]”. In Handbuch Qualitative Forschungmethoden in der Erziehungswissenschaft, Edited by: Friebertshäuser, B. and Prengel, A. 414–435. Germany: Juventa Verlag.. Weinheim und Muenchen [Google Scholar]), 12 African American adults (24 to 84 years old), who spent their childhoods in the Hill District, were interviewed and asked about their childhood roaming spaces. The story about lived space that emerged through the choral voices of the participants is of childhood places marked by political and cultural changes. Each generation of 10-year-olds (1930's to 2000) lived in the same geographical area, but experienced and lived their neighborhood places in dramatically different ways.     

Three decades of lay epistemics: The why,how, and who of knowledge formation

A conceptual integration and review are presented of three separate research programmes informed by the theory of lay epistemics (Kruglanski, 1989 Kruglanski, A. W. 1989. Lay epistemics and human knowledge: Cognitive and motivational bases, New York: Plenum. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). They respectively address the “why”, “how”, and “who” questions about human knowledge formation. The “why” question is treated in work on the need for cognitive closure that propels epistemic behaviour and affects individual, interpersonal, and group phenomena. The “how” question is addressed in work on the unimodel (Kruglanski, Pierro, Mannetti, Erb, & Chun, 2007 Kruglanski, A. W., Pierro, A., Mannetti, L., Erb, H. P. and Chun, W. Y. 2007. “On the parameters of social judgement”. In Advances in experimental social psychology, Edited by: Zanna, M. P. Vol. 39, 255–296. New York: Academic Press.  [Google Scholar]) depicting the process of drawing conclusions from the “information given”. The “who” question is addressed in work on “epistemic authority” highlighting the centrality of source effects (including oneself as a source) in human epistemic behaviour. These separate research paradigms explore facets of epistemic behaviour that jointly produce human knowledge, of essential significance to people's’ individual and social functioning.