Psychological Hardiness and Adjustment to Life Events in Adulthood

Data were collected from 88 persons who had lost their jobs and 227 persons whose youngest child had left home to explore the impact of psychological hardiness on personal distress, adjustment, and coping strategies. Analyses controlling for numerous sociodemographic factors as well as NEO Neuroticism and Extroversion suggested that the interaction between overall hardiness and the experience of differential life events influenced the use of planful problem solving and positive reappraisal as coping mechanisms, as well as influencing levels of positive affect. In addition, a main effect for overall hardiness on several coping strategies, positive affect, and life satisfaction was obtained. Findings also suggested that job loss was a more stressful experience for adults in this study than was the empty nest. These data indicate that hardiness may mediate responses to life events that differ in terms of their predictability and anticipatory nature.     

German‐learning infants’ ability to detect unstressed closed‐class elements in continuous speech

The paper reports on two experiments with the head turn preference method which provide evidence that already at 7 to 9 months, but not yet at 6 months, German‐learning infants do recognize unstressed closed‐class lexical elements in continuous speech. These findings support the view that even preverbal children are able to compute at least phonological representations for closed‐class functional elements. They also suggest that these elements must be available to the language learning mechanisms of the child from very early on, allowing the child to make use of the distributional properties of closed‐class lexical elements for further top‐down analysis of the linguistic input, e.g. segmentation and syntactic categorization.     

Spiritual Formation for Ordained Ministry: An Ecumenical Approach

Abstract. Seminaries have a responsibility to engage students in reflecting upon the spiritual life, as well as providing opportunities to deepen their own spiritual journeys. It also is important that they consider the intentional ways that their understandings and experiences of the spiritual life influence their leadership in the Church. Spiritual formation of seminarians provides particular challenges to faculty of liberal, ecumenical seminaries. This article describes a course designed to address these issues and argues that spiritual formation can be effectively integrated into the curricula of liberal, ecumenical seminaries.     

The Role of Autonomy Support and Autonomy Orientation in Prosocial Behavior Engagement

Two studies examined individual and environmental forces that affect engagement in prosocial behavior. Self-determination theory was used to derive a model in which autonomy orientation and autonomy support predicted satisfaction of three core psychological needs, which in turn led to engagement in prosocial activities. In Study 1, college students reported their engagement in various prosocial activities, and completed measures of autonomy orientation, parental autonomy support, and general need satisfaction. In Study 2, volunteer workers completed measures of autonomy orientation, work autonomy support and need satisfaction at work. The number of volunteered hours indicated the amount of prosocial engagement. Results across the studies showed that autonomy orientation was strongly related to engagement in prosocial behavior, while autonomy support was modestly related. Need satisfaction partially mediated the effect of autonomy orientation, and fully mediated the effect of autonomy support. Interestingly, autonomy support predicted lower volunteer turnover. Implications for how prosocial behavior can be motivated are discussed.     

Healing the wounds of war and more: an integrative approach to peace—the work of Adam Curle and others with Mir i dobro in Županja,Croatia

Adam Curle, the founder of the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford, is both an academic and an international peacemaker, active in many countries, including Croatia. Curle's approach to the psychological aspects of conflict and peacemaking were implemented in a number of projects which were founded or inspired by him in Croatia following the 1991–1995 war. This paper examines the practical implications of Curle's approach as evidenced in the Mir i dobro project in ?upanja, taking into consideration some of the current debates concerning the treatment of psychological trauma, including validity of the diagnosis of PTSD and the use of so-called ‘Western therapeutic approaches’ for the treatment of psychological trauma in other cultures.