Are Religious People More Prosocial? A Quasi-Experimental Study with Madrasah Pupils in a Rural Community in India

Using quasi-experimental data, this article examines the relationship between religiosity and prosocial behavior. In contrast to previous studies that identify religious people by how often they attend religious services or by their self-reported religiosity, this study compares the behavior of highly devout students who are preparing to enter the clergy to the behavior of other students in a public goods game and in the dictator game. The results show that religious students were significantly more cooperative in the public goods game and significantly more generous in the dictator game than other students.     

A Closer Look at the Relationship between Life Satisfaction and Job Performance

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The central aim of this research was to examine the mediating role of bonding social capital and affective commitment in the life satisfaction – job...     

Visual context processing and its development in gamers and non-gamers

Visual context processing was investigated in both action video game players and nonplayers using the Ebbinghaus illusion task (N = 312, 39.4% female) in a cross-sectional study design. When presented in context, players showed markedly poorer target size discrimination accuracy compared with nonplayers in the 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-years old age groups, but this difference was reduced in 10-years old group and diminished in adults. When presented in isolation (no-context), the two groups displayed similar performance in all age groups. Furthermore, nonplayers (linear) and players (bell curve) showed profoundly different age-related differences in context processing. These findings provide evidence that players might have enhanced perceptual bias to process visual context in the transition from early childhood to early adolescence, and the differences between the two groups start at early ages and continue with distinct developmental profiles.     

Gender differences in depressive response: The role of social support

The present study investigated the possibility that women's ruminative response style to stressful events is due in part to differential advice that women and men receive from their social support networks. Undergraduates (60 men, 136 women) of various ethnic backgrounds (e.g., 21.4% English, 16.8% West Indian, 12.8% Chinese, 10.7% Italian) indicated the extent to which they would endorse various statements of advice for a stimulus person described as experiencing a negative life event. As predicted, subjects endorsed more ruminative advice for female stimulus persons than for male stimulus persons (p< .02). These findings imply that, since females in stressful situations seem more likely to receive ruminative advice than do their male counterparts, women's greater vulnerability to depressive symptoms may be partly the result of the concomitant dangers of stressful events and potentially harmful advice.     

应激对大鼠行为和部分脑区谷氨酸含量的影响

以旷场试验法测定动物在急、慢性躯体性和心理性应激时的行为变化,以快速断头冷冻匀浆法,用ＨＩＴＡＣＨＩ－８３５氨基酸分析仪测定应激各期视皮层、海马、下丘脑、小脑谷氨酸含量。并对正常动物经侧脑室微量注射Ｌ－ＡＰ４后观察行为变化。结果显示,急性应激期动物行为活动增加,慢性应激期减少：应激时,大鼠部分脑区的谷氨酸含量与对照组相比在不同时期呈显著性差异;侧脑室微量注射Ｌ－ＡＰ４提示行为活动减弱可能与脑内Ｇｌｕ系统的活动有关。     

Effects of fasting on visual flicker fusion

Two experiments are reported which investigated the effects of fasting on visual flicker fusion (VFF). In Exp. 1 the VFF of 40 undergraduate students, 20 men and 20 women, whose mean age was 22.5 yr., was measured in nonfasting conditions 1 to 2 weeks before and in fasting conditions during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In Exp. 2 the VFF of a comparable group of 15 men and 15 women, whose mean age was 23.2 yr., was measured in a different month in both fasting and nonfasting conditions. Subjects were assigned randomly to these two conditions. Analysis shows that fasting reduced VFF significantly in both experiments. This finding indicates that fasting is likely to reduce perceptual sensitivity. The results were explained in terms of fatigue and physical exhaustion effects produced by fasting.     

Does retinal size have a unique correlate in perceived size?

Subjects estimated the size and distance of a single electroluminescent disc in the absence of distance cues and without the use of visual comparators. For different groups of Ss the disc subtended a visual angle of 1, 2, 4, or 8 deg. The size estimates varied directly with visual angle and the distance estimates varied inversely with visual angle. These results were considered in relation to the question of whether or not retinal size hasa direct correlate in perceived size.     

Business dimensions to organizational counselling

Organizations are increasingly introducing counselling for troubled employees. For some organizations, with a long history of employee care or paternalism, the role of Welfare or Personnel has grown to cover emotional as well as other needs. Other organizations, impressed by Employee Assistance Programmes and their claims of increasing employee effectiveness and reducing sickness absence, have opted for commercial counselling providers. This paper looks at the background to Organizational Counselling, alternative approaches to meeting organizational needs, and presents the current Post Office approach to employee care and counselling.