The Multidimensionality of Motivation for Jewish Religious Behavior: Content, Structure, and Relationship to Religious Identity

The present study examined the content and structure of self–reported motivation for Jewish religious behavior. Initial items were generated from comprehensive and detailed responses to a semi–structured interview and an open–ended questionnaire. Principal component factor analysis with orthogonal rotation was carried out on the responses of a sample of 323 research participants to two parallel sets of the 111 items produced by the above process. The factor structures for each of these sets of items were highly similar to each other and consisted of the following five reliable factors: belief in a divine order, ethnic identity, social activity, family activity, and upbringing. These factors appear to reflect the way religious behavior can contribute to the satisfaction of a number of general human motives. Persons with different religious identities were found to attribute their performance of religious ritual to different motives, providing a partial explanation for the apparent anomaly of the performance of religious ritual by persons who identify themselves as secular.     

Philosophy in America: Remarks on John McCumber's Time in the Ditch: American Philosophy and the McCarthy Era

John McCumber is right to think that analytic philosophy has had a particularly central and dominating position in American philosophy, and that philosophy is less significant in American public life than in the public life of many European countries. I believe he is wrong to think that American philosophers have turned to analytical work in order to escape being politically relevant, and that he is wrong to suppose that prominent academic philosophy is something to wish for.     

Assessment of Nicotine Dependence Among Substance Abusing Adolescent Smokers: A Comparison of the DSM-IV Criteria and the Modified Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire

Nicotine dependence has been found to be a significant factor in adolescent smoking persistence. However, measures of this construct are primarily adult-derived, limiting their utility as bases for characterizing nicotine dependence and formulating youth intervention strategies. This issue is of particular importance among substance abusing youth who have substantially higher rates of cigarette smoking than do adolescents in the general population. The objectives of this preliminary study were to examine the construct validity of the DSM-IV nicotine dependence criteria and the modified Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire (mFTQ) and to compare the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for nicotine dependence with the mFTQ in a sample of 67 adolescent smokers in treatment for substance abuse. Results revealed that more participants were classified as nicotine dependent using DSM-IV criteria than by mFTQ scores. Little evidence was found for construct validity of these measures and convergence between the two measures was low. Findings also suggested that the present measures do not capture optimally broad dimensions of adolescent nicotine dependence.     

Clinical Predictors of Depression in Patients with Low-Grade Brain Tumors: Consideration of a Neurologic Versus a Psychogenic Model

Few studies have examined quality of life issues in patients with brain tumors, though coping with cancer is stressful and is associated with heightened levels of depression. We used regression to examine the clinical factors that might predict depression in a group of 57 adults with low-grade brain tumors after surgery but prior to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. A neurological model comprised of tumor characteristics and treatment was compared with a psychogenic model comprised of both psychosocial and psychodynamic variables. Demographic variables and level of fatigue were also included. A model consisting primarily of fatigue (also clinically elevated) and secondarily of tumor location and aggressiveness of surgical treatment accounted for 33% of the depression score. In a small group at a later follow-up when patient depression was clinically elevated (4–6 years after baseline), fatigue, female sex, cognitive dysfunction, increased family support, and increased report of physical symptoms were associated with depression. The late out findings remain exploratory because of the small sample size, but they suggest that depression develops over time and results from a combination of neurological and psychosocial problems that ensue initial treatments. Treating these collateral problems may reduce the complications from depression.     

Recent Developments in the Treatment of Depression

The cognitive and behavioral interventions can be as efficacious as antidepressant medications and more enduring, but some patients will be more likely to respond to one than the other. Recent work has focused on developing sophisticated selection algorithms using machine-learning approaches that answer the question, “What works best for whom?” Moreover, the vast majority of people suffering from depression reside in low- and middle-income countries where access to either psychotherapy or medications is virtually nonexistent. Great strides have been made in training nonspecialist providers (known as task sharing) to overcome this gap. Finally, recent work growing out of evolutionary psychology suggests that antidepressant medications may suppress symptoms at the expense of prolonging the underlying episode so as to increase the risk of relapse whenever someone tries to stop. We address each of these developments and their cumulative implications.     

Is disability really an obstacle to success? Impact of a disability simulation on motivation and performance

In Western societies, statistics on the integration of people with disabilities into the labor market consistently indicate that this category of workers faces serious discrimination. Research has evidenced negative perceptions about their occupational skills, despite positive beliefs about their personal qualities. The main purpose of this study was to show how these subjective beliefs about disability can shape performance (speed and accuracy, Studies 1, 3, and 4) and self‐reported motivation (Studies 2, 3, and 4) of able‐bodied persons simulating a disability. Participants were 281 French students without disabilities who carried out a task either with or without a simulated disability. This simulated disability constituted an actual handicap to perform the task (Studies 1 and 2) or not (Studies 3 and 4). The first three studies were focused on cognitive abilities, whereas Study 4 introduced a job interview component. Results consistently showed that participants in the simulated disability situation completed the task more accurately than controls, but took more time to do so. Higher degrees of motivation and perseverance are found for participants in the simulated disability situation, except in a job interview setting. These results are important for understanding how subjective beliefs about persons with disabilities can constitute objective barriers to social participation, and more specifically, to access to the labor market.     

Laboratory analogue investigation of defusion and reappraisal strategies in the context of symbolically generalized avoidance

The present study examined and compared the effects of 2 analogues of cognitive treatments—cognitive defusion and cognitive reappraisal—on symbolically generalized avoidance established using a basic behavioral laboratory paradigm. This back‐translation design contributes to the development and validation of principle‐based definitions of the applied constructs of defusion and reappraisal. Eighty‐eight participants first underwent basic laboratory procedures designed to establish symbolically generalized avoidance in response to an arbitrary stimulus (a nonsense word). Participants were then randomized to defusion, reappraisal, or control conditions. The response variables were (a) equivalence responding—indicative of the trained relational network and analogous to the cognitive content responsible for symbolic generalization—and (b) avoidance—the behavioral impact of symbolic generalization. A between‐groups analysis revealed that defusion and reappraisal significantly increased the odds of nonavoidance responding. Discrete‐time survival mediation analyses provided preliminary support for the classification of defusion as a functional context intervention and reappraisal as a relational context intervention.     

Police Enforcement of Street Prostitution as a Quality-of-Life Offense: New York City,United States,and Frankfurt am Main,Germany

The present paper compares how police in Hunts Point, South Bronx, New York City and Frankfurt am Main Germany manage street prostitution as a quality-of-life offense. Methods utilized for this research include observation and “conversation” in public spaces with prostitutes, police, and community members. This paper deals with characteristics of street prostitutes, police enforcement, actual interaction between police and street actors, and impact of these methods on prostitutes. For decades, broken windows policing has been utilized to counter quality-of-life offenses in urban neighborhoods such as NYC, and evidence regarding its effectiveness has often been questioned. In attempts to address prostitution, two variant policing models were identified and examined through the framework of broken windows theory: Punitive/Criminalization Policing and Containment/Laissez-Faire Policing. Broken windows policing probably lowered the incidence of quality-of-life offenses including street prostitution. However, broken windows theory does not take into account socially constructed myths that persist about prostitution, nor the realities that counter them. This paper addresses these myths and how they may inform policing practices, resulting in negative corollary effects which must be eliminated.     

A visualization technique for Bayesian reasoning

We tested a method for solving Bayesian reasoning problems in terms of spatial relations as opposed to mathematical equations. Participants completed Bayesian problems in which they were given a prior probability and two conditional probabilities and were asked to report the posterior odds. After a pretraining phase in which participants completed problems with no instruction or external support, participants watched a video describing a visualization technique that used the length of bars to represent the probabilities provided in the problem. Participants then completed more problems with a chance to implement the technique by clicking interactive bars on the computer screen. Performance improved dramatically from the pretraining phase to the interactive‐bar phase. Participants maintained improved performance in transfer phases in which they were required to implement the visualization technique with either pencil‐and‐paper or no external medium. Accuracy levels for participants using the visualization technique were very similar to participants trained to solve the Bayes theorem equation. The results showed no evidence of learning across problems in the pretraining phase or for control participants who did not receive training, so the improved performance of participants using the visualization method could be uniquely attributed to the method itself. A classroom sample demonstrated that these benefits extend to instructional settings. The results show that people can quickly learn to perform Bayesian reasoning without using mathematical equations. We discuss ways that a spatial solution method can enhance classroom instruction on Bayesian inference and help students apply Bayesian reasoning in everyday settings.