The Role of Picture Books in Children's Spiritual Development and Meaning Making [1]

This paper sets out to explore how spiritual development might be addressed through the use of picture books in the primary classroom. The working definition for what is meant by ‘spiritual development’ is drawn from a variety of sources but is principally informed by the National Curriculum Council (NCC) and Ofsted discussion papers and the work of John Hull. Thus the work centres on the aspects of spirituality that are developed through experiencing relationships with other human beings and the world in which we live. The paper draws upon original classroom based research carried out with a group of 8 year old children in an inner city school. The children's group discussions centre around the picture book ‘Dogger’ by Shirley Hughes. The paper explores how the children are able to make and negotiate meaning as they address ‘spiritual’ issues.     

Fostering Diversity in the Creative Arts by Addressing Students' Capacity to Aspire

Research on young people's aspirations and their capacity to aspire to higher education has proliferated in recent decades, however, very little attention has been paid to the creative arts. Diversity in the arts remains a persistent issue in many nations, and repeated attempts to promote diversity in the Australian arts community have had limited impact, suggesting the need for new approaches. Drawing on data from a 4‐year longitudinal study of students from ages 8 to 18 (n = 6,492) in government schools, we examine school students' aspirations for careers in the arts. Arts‐related careers were popular among students, yet we found a distinct lack of diversity among those aspiring to such careers. Using logistic regression analysis we found that being female, high achieving, from an English‐speaking background, possessing high cultural capital, and attending advantaged schools were significant predictors of interest in the arts, suggesting the likely reproduction of existing patterns of participation. We argue that initiatives within schools are essential to disrupting these patterns and building the capacity of a more diverse range of students to aspire to careers in the arts.     

超越心理健康：精神健康的追求

区别于一般心理概念的、狭义的精神概念有三个特征:终极关怀、内发自生以及自由意志。诸如精神信仰危机、生活目标迷茫等区别于传统心理问题的精神问题已经成为现代人的顽疾。现代心理健康标准开始关注并尝试吸纳精神健康。精神健康是21世纪的健康主题,现代人不应仅仅满足于生理和心理的健康,还应寻求更高层次的精神健康。     

超越心理健康:精神健康的追求

区别于一般心理概念的、狭义的精神概念有三个特征:终极关怀、内发自生以及自由意志.诸如精神信仰危机、生活目标迷茫等区别于传统心理问题的精神问题已经成为现代人的顽疾.现代心理健康标准开始关注并尝试吸纳精神健康.精神健康是21世纪的健康主题,现代人不应仅仅满足于生理和心理的健康,还应寻求更高层次的精神健康.     

Psychological Implications of Women's Spiritual Health

The burgeoning women's spirituality movement is concrete evidence of feminist awakening in the culture. Women are finding some forms of feminist spirituality helpful for good mental health. Three specific shifts which have been occasioned by the feministization of religion are: (1) Women as protagonists of religion; (2) Women role models in the ministry, the academic study of religion, and as healers and leaders; and (3) Feminist changes in the content of the world's religions. This feminist theological overview clarifies the dynamics so that mental health professionals will understand what is happening and how it might figure into their strategies for health and healing.     

Students' R]eactions to Teachers' E]valuations: The Unique Impact of Negative Feedback1

This study attempts to identify some of the processes mediating self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom. Specifically, we hypothesized that negative feedback conveyed by teachers would influence students' p]erceptions of how the teacher viewed their success/failure, effort, ability and task difficulty more than positive feedback. In response to college students' s]core on an anagrams test, a (confederate) teacher expressed either positive, negative or no evaluative feedback. Questionnaires assessed students' s]elf-perceptions and perceptions of the teacher's evaluations of them. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative feedback was seen as a more credible indicator of the teacher's evaluation than positive feedback. Furthermore, negative feedback led students to believe that the teacher held an extremely unfavorable but inaccurate impression of their effort and ability and that the teacher underestimated the difficulty of the task. There were few differences between the effects of positive feedback and no feedback, and there were no significant effects on self-perceptions. These findings suggest new insights into negativity effects in evaluations and into the mechanisms underlying self-fulfilling prophecies.     

An introduction to the cognitive therapy of evaluation-[1]

This paper introduces a new cognitive therapy which is evolving from the theoretical background of general semantics theory. This therapy is being tested since 1985 with several samples, the results being favorable and promising. Nevertheless, only its theoretical rational and clinical background will be introduced. Subsequently, the cognitive therapy of evaluation will be defined, and its main therapeutic ingredients described; finally, its differences and similarities with current cognitive therapies will be highlighted.     

学生学习成就动机训练的实验研究

成就动机是一种高层次的需要,它对人的行为具有极大的激励作用。提高职业中学学生成就需要水平,对于他们树立理想,确立奋斗目标,具有十分重要的意义。     

The Bureaucratization of Spirituality[1]

This paper examines some of the critical contexts within which spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is to be realized. First, I examine the nature of school as a modernist bureaucratic institution. I argue that schools are bound in a self‐referential reality and barely connect with the late modem world. I then discuss the cultural sources of education policy and particularly the employment of nostalgia as a legitimation for neo‐conservative policy and practice. I then discuss school knowledge and in particular the end of liberalism and its replacement with rationalism. I next turn to spiritual, moral and social education and critically discuss its cultural and political formation. Finally, I argue that school is unable to accommodate the spiritual dimension and that critical to its successful inclusion is the re‐establishment of teachers as knowledgeable professionals with their practice grounded in the contemporary world and the real conditions of pupils' lives.

     

Self-defence and National Defence [1]

ABSTRACT The paper begins with the suggestion that the aura of respectability that surrounds the notion of self-defence may render that notion suitable as a rallying point for agreement on the ethical legitimacy of warfare. I first argue that self-defensive killing by a person X is morally justified if three conditions obtain: (1) X is together with at least one other person in a situation in which one of the persons will be killed through actions of the other person(s); (2) X is not responsible for bringing about that situation; (3) unless X kills another person, X him- or herself will be killed. Next, I show that on the basis of this principle military operations are morally justified only if there are no alternatives to executing them that would save more lives or prevent the total loss of freedom for people. The paper concludes with the observation that the morality of individual self-defensive killing is unable to justify most of current national defence policies.     

Assessing Spiritual Health via Four Domains of Spiritual Wellbeing: The SH4DI

This study argues for the assessment of spiritual health in terms of four domains of wellbeing concerned with self, community, environment, and God. This view of spiritual health is supported by data from 311 teachers in the UK. The Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index (SH4DI) developed from these data both provides an overall index of spiritual health and distinguishes among six different spiritual health perspectives represented by personalists, communalists, environmentalists, religionists, existentialists, and globalists.     

Spiritual Integration Predicts Self-Reported Mental and Physical Health

Data from 167 participants were used to establish the psychometric properties of the Reidhead spiritual integration scale, 31-item version (SI-31). Structural equation modeling was used to empirically evaluate influences on perceived health functioning, while accounting for possible confounds. The analyses showed that SI-31 predicted perceived mental and physical health while controlling for life satisfaction, religious variables, mood patterns, depression symptoms, and demographics. The importance of SI as a predictor of health-related outcomes is supported, as is the usefulness of the SI-31 in predicting these outcomes.     

Monitoring and Fostering Elementary School Students' Life Satisfaction: A Case Study

Research on the importance of complete mental health has led to increased focus on students' subjective well-being (i.e., happiness and life satisfaction) coupled with the traditional attention to psychopathology. Although screeners for psychopathology abound, the present project is novel in applying best practices in universal screening to grade level-wide assessment of children's life satisfaction, followed by implementation of a positive psychology intervention for students identified through the screener. In this case study of 375 third- to fifth-grade students in one elementary school, 93.6% participated in the screening, 11.2% qualified for supplemental services based on screening cutoff scores, and 4.8% took part in the targeted intervention to improve subjective well-being. Repeated measures analysis of mean scores revealed the intervention increased children's life satisfaction, lending support for the value of universal screeners in the process of service delivery. Implications for practice regarding universal screening and intervention for life satisfaction are discussed.     

Combining Indian and Western Spiritual Psychology: Applications to Health and Social Renewal

We introduce the topic of Indian/US collaboration in studying religion and spirituality (R/S), providing both historical and philosophical context. A fully in-depth and comprehensive study of R/S will require taking into account three potential types and sources of knowledge: (1) theoretically and intellectually oriented knowledge as exemplified by William James; (2) empirically oriented knowledge as exemplified by Gordon Allport; and (3) experience- and realization-derived knowledge based on reports from eminent spiritual figures. We sketch the distinct but mutually informative challenges of clinical and epistemic integration. We suggest several topics for future collaboration, arguing that the most comprehensive study of R/S will require combining the western attention to empirical knowledge with the Indian psychology movement’s attention to realization-derived knowledge. Suggested topics include processes of learning from spiritual exemplars and teachers; health effects from engagement in Hindu or other Indian religious practice; psychological and health effects of specific spiritual practices; the importance and influence of the focus used in meditation; the effects of japam, Ramnam, or similar repeated short prayers; how diverse spiritual practices affect mindfulness; and the nature and means of fostering skills for living in a religiously plural society.     

Development of Translation Materials to Assess International Students' Mental Health Concerns

International college students in the United States often face adjustment difficulties; therefore, cultural sensitivity is necessary to help them express their concerns. This article describes the development of translations of international students' common mental health concerns into 7 languages. Suggestions for the use of translated materials with distressed international students are provided. Los estudiantes internacionales universitarios en los Estados Unidos se enfrentan a menudo con dificultades de ajuste; por lo tanto, la sensibilidad cultural es necesaria para ayudarles a expresar sus preocupaciones. Este artículo describe el desarrollo de traducciones a 7 idiomas de problemas de salud mental comunes. Se ofrecen sugerencias sobre cómo usar los materiales traducidos con estudiantes internacionales afligidos.     

教师创造性教学行为与中小学生创造性自我效能感的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

采用问卷法对北京市和西安市1所小学和2所中学的小学三年级到初中三年级的1689名学生进行调查,考察教师创造性教学行为与学生的创造性自我效能感之间的关系,以及班级创新氛围的中介作用和学生沉浸特质的调节作用。研究结果表明:(1)教师创造性教学行为显著正向预测学生的创造性自我效能感;(2)班级创新氛围在教师创造性教学行为和学生创造性自我效能感间起完全中介作用;(3)学生沉浸特质对班级创新氛围的中介作用存在显著的正向调节效应。     

Spiritual Maturity and Mental Health: Implications for Counseling

Evidence was found to support the validity of Genia's (1997) spiritual maturity typology. Participants (N = 256) were categorized as spiritually growth-oriented, transitional, dogmatic, or underdeveloped. Those in the underdeveloped and dogmatic groups seemed to be more emotionally distressed than those in the growth oriented group. The authors also formed a group, based on scores above the mean on both the Dissociation Scale and the Sexual Abuse Trauma Index (SATI) of the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40; Elliott & Briere, 1992), that they hypothesized were traumatized in childhood. They found that those individuals, compared to the nontraumatized persons, experienced lower levels of spiritual support and were more symptomatic on mental health measures. The traumatized women, especially, experienced psychological distress, particularly in areas of depression, anxiety, and sexual problems. Although trauma generally was associated negatively with spiritual development, some traumatized persons also scored among the spiritually growth oriented, suggesting that such trauma is not associated in all cases with a detrimental effect in the process of spiritual development.