Theorizing the (Anglican) lex orandi: A Theological Account

This article investigates the lex orandi, an under-theorized yet central strand of Anglican theological identity. The aim is to provide some theological grounding to the ‘law of prayer’ and is motivated by the question: what, theologically speaking, does the lex orandi do? The first section explores the historical origins of the lex orandi in the Augustinian tradition and then its reception into mainstream Anglican theology. From there, the second section moves beyond Anglicanism by offering a codification of the various operations of the lex orandi, focusing in particular on its role in correcting, communicating and then complexifying Christian belief. The final section explores in further detail the nature of Christian belief as it is re-routed through spiritual practice and takes, as a sort of test case, aspects of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo to display the ‘complexifying logic’ of the law of prayer.     

Re-Examining the Effect of Top-Down Linguistic Information on Speaker-Voice Discrimination

The current study replicated and extended the results from a study conducted by Narayan, Mak, and Bialystok (2017) that found effects of top-down linguistic information on a speaker discrimination task by examining four conditions: rhymes (day-bay), compounds (day-dream), reverse compounds (dream-day), and unrelated words (day-bee). The original study found that participants were more likely to judge two words to be spoken by the same speaker if the words cohered lexically (created lexical compounds such as day-dream) or were phonologically related (rhymes, such as day-bay), but their study contained two limitations: (a) Same- and different-speaker trials were analyzed separately, which obscures effects of response bias, and (b) cross-gender pairs were used in the different-speaker trials, potentially inflating performance. The current study addresses these limitations by including only within-gender trials and by examining sensitivity and bias using signal detection theory. Our results not only provide support of the original study but also provide clear evidence that listeners are biased to judge two words as being produced by the same person when they share either phonological information (rhymes) or lexical-semantic coherence (compounds). Thus, the current study provides an important modified replication of previous research.     

Character strengths and clinical presentation

Abstract

Three models are described that attempt to integrate clinical diagnosis with the strengths-based model introduced by Peterson and Seligman (2004 Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]). The strengths as syndrome model proposes conceptualizing clinical diagnoses in terms of excesses and deficiencies in strengths. The strengths as symptoms model suggests conceptualizing clinical symptoms as excesses or deficiencies in strengths. After reviewing these two models, we introduce a third. The strengths as moderators model suggests that signature or deficient strengths can serve moderators of clinical presentation within traditional diagnostic categories. This differs from the prior models primarily in offering a complement rather than alternative to traditional diagnostic formulation. A clinical case is provided highlighting the differences. The three approaches are not incompatible with each other, and in combination may provide practitioners a variety of perspectives for employing strength-based concepts in clinical interactions.     

Evidential diversity and premise probability in young children's inductive judgment

A familiar adage in the philosophy of science is that general hypotheses are better supported by varied evidence than by uniform evidence. Several studies suggest that young children do not respect this principle, and thus suffer from a defect in their inductive methodology. We argue that the diversity principle does not have the normative status that psychologists attribute to it, and should be replaced by a simple rule of probability. We then report experiments designed to detect conformity to the latter rule in children's inductive judgment. The results suggest that young children in both the United States and Taiwan are sensitive to the constraints imposed by the rule on judgments of probability and evidential strength. We conclude with a suggested reinterpretation of the thesis that children's inductive methodology qualifies them as “little scientists.”     

Using Structured Telephone Follow‐up Assessments to Improve Suicide‐Related Adverse Event Detection

Adverse event (AE) detection and reporting practices were compared during the first phase of the Emergency Department Safety Assessment and Follow‐up Evaluation (ED‐SAFE), a suicide intervention study. Data were collected using a combination of chart reviews and structured telephone follow‐up assessments postenrollment. Beyond chart reviews, structured telephone follow‐up assessments identified 45% of the total AEs in our study. Notably, detection of suicide attempts significantly varied by approach with 53 (18%) detected by chart review, 173 (59%) by structured telephone follow‐up assessments, and 69 (23%) marked as duplicates. Findings provide support for utilizing multiple methods for more robust AE detection in suicide research.