Forum: Insiders,Outsiders, and Disclosure in the Undergraduate Classroom

In this set of essays, three authors provide different perspectives on whether personal religious sensibilities and identities affect the ways we teach religion. Elliott Bazzano discusses how, as a white Muslim convert teaching at a Catholic college, he incorporates selective autobiographical anecdotes into his classes as a way to problematize the meaning of “insider” and “outsider,” and pushes his students to recognize the many layers of identity that any given person embodies at a given time. In the second essay, Audrey Truschke explains why she makes no reference to her own religious beliefs or affiliations in class as part of her strategy to demonstrate how students can study any religion regardless of personal convictions. In the third essay, Jayme Yeo explores the benefits of discussing personal religious identity as a means to resist the categories of “inside” and “outside,” which she sees as heterogeneous concepts that do not always offer explanatory power upon close examination.     

Sexual Nature? (Re)presenting Sexuality and Science in the Museum

The past 15 years have seen dramatic changes in social norms around sex and sexuality in the UK and worldwide. In 2011, the London Natural History Museum (NHM) contributed to these debates by opening the temporary exhibition Sexual Nature, which aimed to provide ‘a candid exploration of sex in the natural world’ whilst also drawing in an under-represented audience of young adults. Sexual Nature provides an opportunity to explore Macdonald's ‘politics of display’ in the mutual construction of (public) scientific knowledge, society and sexuality, at a time of intense contestation over sexual norms. Whilst Sexual Nature both reflected and contributed to major reframings of sexuality and what science can say about it, the assumption that it would be possible to present this topic as morally neutral, reliable and uncontested, in line with traditions of public science, proved to be problematic. The language of the exhibition moved back and forth between human/animal similarity and difference, and between scientific and cultural tropes as the NHM tried to maintain epistemic authority whilst also negotiating the moral boundaries of acceptable sexual behaviour. The topic of sex pushed the museum far beyond its usual expertise in the natural sciences towards the unfamiliar territory of the social and human, resulting in an ad hoc search for, and negotiation with, alternative sources of expertise. Boon et al.’s co-curation approach to exhibition building has the potential to extend the NHM's audience-driven strategy, whilst also producing a more coherent and nuanced exhibition about the science of sex.     

Fiduciary Duty and Boundaries: Acting in the Client's Best Interest

The task of defining boundaries and boundary violations in the therapeutic relationship is examined from several perspectives. This paper reviews the ethical rules of the major mental health associations and the American Medical Association to determine the professions' ethical positions with regard to boundary maintenance and boundary violations. It also analyzes judicially sanctioned causes of action for recovery by clients for damages suffered as a result of boundary violations. The authors examine the ways in which fiduciary theory is used in the formulation of the ethical rules and to support the imposition of civil liability for boundary violations. The authors conclude that fiduciary theory provides a useful paradigm for setting and evaluating boundaries that acknowledge and address the fiduciary nature of the therapist–client relationship. The authors point out that measuring boundary violations with the yardstick of fiduciary duty serves the interests of both the client and the therapist. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How many trials are required for parameter estimation in diffusion modeling? A comparison of different optimization criteria

Diffusion models (Ratcliff, 1978) make it possible to identify and separate different cognitive processes underlying responses in binary decision tasks (e.g., the speed of information accumulation vs. the degree of response conservatism). This becomes possible because of the high degree of information utilization involved. Not only mean response times or error rates are used for the parameter estimation, but also the response time distributions of both correct and error responses. In a series of simulation studies, the efficiency and robustness of parameter recovery were compared for models differing in complexity (i.e., in numbers of free parameters) and trial numbers (ranging from 24 to 5,000) using three different optimization criteria (maximum likelihood, Kolmogorov–Smirnov, and chi-square) that are all implemented in the latest version of fast-dm (Voss, Voss, & Lerche, 2015). The results revealed that maximum likelihood is superior for uncontaminated data, but in the presence of fast contaminants, Kolmogorov–Smirnov outperforms the other two methods. For most conditions, chi-square-based parameter estimations lead to less precise results than the other optimization criteria. The performance of the fast-dm methods was compared to the EZ approach (Wagenmakers, van der Maas, & Grasman, 2007) and to a Bayesian implementation (Wiecki, Sofer, & Frank, 2013). Recommendations for trial numbers are derived from the results for models of different complexities. Interestingly, under certain conditions even small numbers of trials (N < 100) are sufficient for robust parameter estimation.     

The Experience in Personal Social Systems Questionnaire (EXIS.pers): Development and Psychometric Properties

This study presents the theoretical background, development, and psychometric properties of the German and English versions of the Experience in Personal Social Systems Questionnaire (EXIS.pers). It assesses how the members of a personal social system experience their situation within that system. It is designed as a research tool for interventions in which only one member of the system participates (e.g., Family Constellation Seminars). The EXIS.pers was created to measure change on the individual level relating to one's own important personal social system. In Study 1, we used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for latent variable identification of the original German EXIS.pers (n = 179). In Studies 2 and 3, we used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the dimensionality of the German (n = 634) and English (n = 310) EXIS.pers. Internal consistencies and cross‐cultural structural equivalence were assessed. EFA indicated that a four‐factor model provided best fit for the German EXIS.pers. For both the German and English EXIS.pers, CFA provided the best fit for a five‐factor bi‐level model that included a general factor (Experience In Personal Social Systems) and four dimensions (Belonging, Autonomy, Accord, Confidence). Good internal consistencies, external associations, and cross‐cultural structural equivalence were demonstrated. This study provides first evidence for the German and English EXIS.pers as an economical and reliable measure of an individual's experience within his or her personal social systems.     

Gender and Teachers' Attrition: The Occupational Destination of Former Teachers

Based on the resources–rewards model and on the sex segregation perspective, the study was designed to examine gender differences in teachers' attrition by comparing three groups: teachers who remained in the educational system, teachers who left the labor market, and teachers who left teaching and entered other occupations. The study also addressed the type of occupations into which former teachers moved. The sample was 2,108 teachers who participated in the censuses of 1983 and 1995 and are represented in the inter-generation dataset of the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. The findings indicated that one-third of the teachers did not continue teaching. Most of them moved to other occupations. Gender was found to be related to teachers' attrition and to their occupational destination. The data support the sex segregation perspective and suggest that working in a female-dominated occupation has different implications for women's and men's attrition and patterns of changing occupations, which contribute to maintaining the sex segregation structure in the labor market.     

Integrating fieldwork into employment counseling for methadone‐treatment patients

An innovative employment counseling model, Customized Employment Supports, was developed for methadone‐treatment patients, a population with historically low employment rates. The effectiveness of a key component of the model, “vocational fieldwork,” the delivery of services in the community rather than only within the clinic, was assessed through a quasi‐experimental study of the first 55 patients receiving the model in 2 clinics. Employment outcomes after 6 months were compared between patients who received vocational fieldwork (n = 18) and those who did not (n = 37). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that patients receiving vocational fieldwork had significantly better outcomes for competitive work, informal work, and any paid work.     

For There is Work to be Done: Poetry and Commentary

Poetry illuminates the work of health care professionals well beyond procedure guidelines, clinic schedules or best practice policy. Poems and commentary from the perspective of a nurse, an emergency medical technician and two physicians are accompanied by an exploration of the meaning of work and the role of medical humanities.