Definitions and Evaluation of Religion and Spirituality Items by Religious Professionals: A Pilot Study

In an effort to clarify the concepts of religion and spirituality religious professionals (Imams, Ministers, Priests, and Rabbis) defined the terms religion and spirituality and responded to whether the concepts religion and spirituality were different (i.e. non-overlapping), the same, or overlapping. Additionally, they rated each item from the five measures (purportedly to assess religion or spirituality) for the extent to which the items assess the construct of religion and/or spirituality. Content analysis of definitions revealed religion as objective, external, and ritual or organizational practices that one performs in a group setting and that guide one’s behavior; while spirituality was defined as internal, subjective, and divine experience or direct relationship with God. Primarily the concepts were viewed as overlapping. Analysis for item ratings revealed few within group differences and relatively few between group differences for ratings of item relevance to assess religion and spirituality. Factor analysis of item ratings revealed one factor named religion/spirituality.Corine Hyman, M.S., is a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at Saint Louis University. Her research interests include religion, spirituality, anxiety, and depressive disorders, minority issues, PTSD, and test development.Paul J. Handal received his Ph.D. degree from Saint Louis University in clinical psychology in 1969. His interests have included education and training of clinical psychologists as director of the clinical program at Saint Louis University from 1973 until 1993. Additional interests include research in the area of psychology and religion and its relationship to adjustment and health in adolescence and adults. Correspondence to Dr. Paul J. Handalm, handalpj@slu.edu.     

Work, Competences and Learning Scenarios for the Future

Il arrive que les occasions d'apprentissage et d'acquisition des compétences et des aptitudes soient tiées aux opportunités professionnelles et ainsi, indirectement, au développement de l'économie. L auteur illustre, avec cinq scénarios, comment l'apprentissage peut être conditionné par des choix macro-économiques et macro-sociaux.
Opportunities for learning and the acquisition of competences or skills happen to be linked to work opportunities and thence indirectly to the development of the economy. The author sketches five scenarios indicating how learning may be conditioned by macroeconomic and macro-social choices.     

Lunch Buddy Mentoring for Children Victimized by Peers: Two Pilot Studies

The authors describe two pilot studies examining the potential benefits of Lunch Buddy (LB) mentoring, a manualized approach to school-based mentoring. LB mentoring takes place during the school lunch period and is designed to promote positive changes in children's peer relationships. In both studies, changes in peer victimization were assessed after one and three semesters of LB mentoring. In the first study, LB mentors were paired with elementary school children (N = 24) identified by child and teacher reports as victimized by peers. Results revealed significant declines in self- and teacher-rated victimization after one and three semesters of mentoring. In the second study, LB mentors were paired with victimized children who also engaged in bullying behavior (N = 23). Results indicated significant declines in self- and teacher-ratings of peer victimization after three semesters of mentoring. In both studies, ratings of perceived harm were low and ratings of satisfaction were high. Discussed are the implications of these findings for future research and for efforts to develop a nonharmful way to help children who are repeatedly victimized.     

Future Professionals and Managers: Their Attitudes Toward Unions, Organizational Beliefs, and Work Ethic

The authors replicate and extend the research on future workers' union attitudes, organizational beliefs, and work ethic. Selected demographic and attitudinal data were collected from a sample of 644 students at a small, western Pennsylvania university. Compared to earlier research on pre-employment predictors of union attitudes, this study is based on a much larger sample size and includes a cross-section of majors. The results offer additional support for the family socialization process; in general, future professionals and business managers are more sympathetic to labor unions if they were children of union members. In addition, the results show that student major has a significant and systematic impact on both positive and negative union attitudes.     

The Effect of Episodic Future Thinking on Learning Intention: Focusing on English Learning Goal-Relevant Future Thinking in University Students1,2

We examined the effects of episodic future thinking related to achieving important learning goals on university students' learning intentions. Japanese university students (N = 70) participated in this experiment. Participants in the episodic future thinking condition were asked to imagine and describe events they would experience if they achieved their goals. In the semantic future thinking condition, we asked participants to describe their future selves after university graduation and rate the relevance of their future selves to their learning goals. Participants were then asked to respond to the learning intentions measures. Participants in the control condition responded to the measures of learning intentions after completing a questionnaire unrelated to future thinking. When the importance of goal attainment was high, participants in the episodic future thinking condition planned to study for significantly longer than those in the other conditions. Episodic future thinking related to achieving important learning goals strengthens learning intentions more than simple awareness of the future self and learning goals.     

Lessons Learned About Barriers to Implementing School-Based Interventions for Adolescents: Ideas for Enhancing Future Research and Clinical Projects

The majority of youth with mental health problems do not receive treatment, highlighting the critical need to transport evidence-based interventions into community settings, such as schools. Despite being able to reach a large number of adolescents and minority youth, the process of implementing evidence-based interventions to schools is challenging. This paper discusses some expected and unexpected challenges experienced during the implementation of an open trial and a pilot randomized controlled trial examining the acceptability and effectiveness of a school-based preventive intervention for adolescents at risk for internalizing disorders. First, we highlight key programs and findings on preventive interventions for adolescents at risk for depression and anxiety. Next, we provide a brief overview of the preventive intervention we implemented in schools. This provides a context for the section that describes implementation issues and highlights specific challenges and potential solutions for intervention implementation. Finally, the paper offers recommendations for researchers and clinicians interested in implementing school-based mental health services for adolescents.     

Navigating personal and relational concerns: the quest for equilibrium

The authors' personal-relational equilibrium model suggests that people come to seek equilibrium in their dedication to personal and relational concerns in that these 2 important needs cannot always be gratified simultaneously. The authors proposed that the experience of personal-relational disequilibrium motivates attempts to restore equilibrium and that achieving equilibrium promotes life satisfaction. Four studies revealed good support for the model. In Study 1, a manipulation of anticipated future disequilibrium (vs. equilibrium) as a result of overdedication to either the personal or relational domain caused reduced motivation to address concerns in that domain and increased motivation toward the complementary domain. In Study 2, narratives describing disequilibrium experiences (vs. equilibrium experiences) exhibited increased motivation to restore equilibrium and reduced life satisfaction. In Study 3, diary reports of everyday disequilibrium were associated with increased same-day motivation to restore equilibrium, reduced same-day life satisfaction, and increased next-day dedication of effort to the complementary domain. In Study 4, experiences of disequilibrium predicted reduced well-being 6 months later. Collectively, these findings extend knowledge of how people regulate themselves toward equilibrium in pursuing 2 fundamental human concerns.     

Spiritual Need Two: Continued Learning for Older Adults and Older Adult Organizations

SUMMARY

Age provides opportunity not only for a person to grow spiritually, but also for people to enlarge their understandings of the world about them, including God, and connect them to previous learnings and life-experiences. In older age, learning is not merely an affirmation of what has been, but a re-creation of the self in relation to everything that surrounds the person. The theories of James Fowler, Malcom Knowles, Peter Senge, and Erik Erikson provide insight as to the purpose of older adult education. The goal is for churchs to encourage and assist in each person's re-construction of their lives as they view life from the perspective of length of years. Concrete examples of re-constructive learning are provided.     

Literature and Madness: Fiction for Students and Professionals

Psychiatry studies the human mind within a medical paradigm, exploring experience, response and reaction, emotion and affect. Similarly, writers of fiction explore within a non-clinical dimension the phenomena of the human mind. The synergism between literature and psychiatry seems clear, yet literature—and in particular, fiction—remain the poor relation of the medical textbook. How can literature be of particular relevance in psychiatry? This paper examines these issues and suggests a selection of useful texts.     

类别学习中两种学习模式的比较研究：分类学习与推理学习

采用学习迁移任务范式,使用基于单一特征的类别判断技术,比较了非线性分离结构下,分类学习和推理学习的学习效率、学习过程与策略和学习结果。结果表明：在学习效率上,分类学习比推理学习更好地习得了含有较多样例的类别知识,分类学习的速度上显著快于推理学习。在学习的过程与策略上,推理学习比分类学习更为关注类别内不同特征的相关,但在分类策略的运用上不如分类学习灵活。在学习的结果上,推理学习倾向于原型记忆,分类学习倾向于进行样例记忆,分类学习比推理学习更好地掌握了类别原型     

Learning to Be a Professional: Two Models of Competence and Related Learning Strategies

SUMMARY

Occupations required by the health industry, specifically in aged and palliative care, include nursing, pastoral care, medicine, and social work amongst many others. Professional education for these health disciplines incorporates competence for practice and critical thinking skills. Two different conceptual models of competence, personal and operational, reveal different approaches to learning. Personal competence, currently dominant in the higher eduction (tertiary) sector, privileges theory over practice. Personal competence can exclude non-propositional forms of knowledge, making it difficult for students to explain their practice experiences. The operational model of competence, which is emerging in professional education, has the potential to develop critical approaches to learning and practice, skills required for practice development and quality improvement in today's health environment.     

Elder Abuse: Ethical and Related Considerations for Professionals in Psychology

Elder abuse presents difficult ethical considerations that the field of psychology has yet to sufficiently address. As demographics and sociocultural factors shift in the coming decade, this deficit in ethical competence may become an increasingly serious problem. Although legal definitions of elder abuse lack uniformity and clarity, there is much room for improvement in the field of psychology. Ethical considerations most relevant to professionals in psychology draw heavily on the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence and respect for people's rights and dignity. Professional standards of competence, discrimination, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, and cooperation with other professionals are also critical in these considerations. A number of recommendations are made, centering around the needs for more education, frank discussion, and empirical examination of the complexities of elder abuse.     

Financial and Ethical Considerations for Professionals in Psychology

The profession of psychology is one of many entities affected by the current economic recession. The question of what to do when clients cannot pay agreed-upon charges will need to be answered. Ethical issues related to setting the fee for psychotherapy, insurance coverage, abandonment, pro bono psychotherapy, and lack of resources are addressed in light of the 2002 American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and other relevant literature. The impact of the Mental Health Parity Act on the financial complexities that professionals in psychology now face is also discussed. Several recommendations are made for psychologists, calling them to be proactive in their communities, to be advocates for their clients, and to critically evaluate their financial practices.