The Emerging Church as Corporatization’s Line of Flight

ABSTRACT

In the United States and elsewhere, many religious organizations have adopted structures, mechanisms, and ideologies that can be understood through the concept of corporatization. More than a process, corporatization creates a schema through which social relationships are structured and particular values and beliefs are emphasized (particularly, the valorization of the consumer). The authors of the present article draw on Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s conceptualization of ‘lines of flight’ to illustrate how the Emerging Church, a new religious movement, has leveraged the discontinuities within corporatization. The participants of this movement do so in order to resist institutionalizing systems that rigidify and indoctrinate participants. The authors use ethnographic field methods to demonstrate how Emerging Church participants rely on the tropes of ‘messiness’ and ‘conversation’ to embrace a radical contingency, to foster dialogue, and to avoid adopting rigid, rationalized systems of meaning.     

Reevaluating the link between dispositional optimism and positive functioning using a temporally expanded perspective

Dispositional optimism is typically defined in terms of generalized positive expectancies for personal future life outcomes. Yet, multiple lines of inquiry have demonstrated fundamental interconnections among all three temporal perspectives (past, present, and future). Hence, in the present work, we examine the commonality underlying dispositional optimism and individuals’ evaluations of their past, present, and anticipated future lives. Results (n = 459; 80% female; M age = 19.68) suggest that dispositional optimism loads strongly on an underlying (latent) tendency to evaluate one’s life positively across temporal perspectives. This latent tendency was significantly associated with each Big Five personality dimension; independent of this latent tendency dispositional optimism was associated only with neuroticism. Controlling for personality dimensions, the latent tendency was predictive of positive functioning (mental health, coping, physical health, and social resources); in contrast, independent of this latent tendency dispositional optimism had no significant residual associations with any of the various functioning indicators.     

Intra-amygdala anxiogenic drug infusion prior to retrieval biases rats towards the use of habit memory

In a dual-solution plus-maze task that can be acquired using either hippocampus-dependent "cognitive/place" learning or dorsal striatal-dependent "habit/response" learning, pre-acquisition peripheral or intra-basolateral amygdala (BLA) injections of anxiogenic drugs result in the predominant use of response learning. The present experiments examined the effect of anxiogenic drug treatment on the relative use of multiple memory systems when administered prior to memory retrieval. Adult male Long-Evans rats were trained for two days (6 trials/day, 30s ITI) in a dual-solution plus-maze task to swim from the same start point (south) to an escape platform that was located in a consistent goal arm (west). On day three, prior to a memory retrieval probe trial from a novel start point (north), rats received a peripheral (0.03, 0.1 or 0.3 mg/kg), or intra-BLA (0.1 microg/0.5 microl) injection of the anxiogenic alpha(2)-adrenoreceptor antagonist RS 79948-197, or saline. Relative to saline controls, rats receiving either peripheral or intra-BLA infusions of RS 79948-197 predominantly displayed response learning on the probe trial. In an additional experiment peripheral (0.1 mg/kg) or intra-BLA (0.1 microg) drug injections administered prior to both acquisition and retrieval also resulted in the predominant use of response learning. The findings indicate that (1) similar to acquisition, peripheral injection of an anxiogenic drug prior to memory retrieval biases rats towards the use of habit/response memory, (2) intra-BLA infusions of an anxiogenic drug is sufficient to produce this modulatory effect of emotional state on memory retrieval, and (3) state-dependency does not appear to play a role in the effects of anxiogenic drug treatment on multiple memory system use. The findings may have implications for understanding the interaction between brain function, emotion, and the relative use of multiple memory systems in human psychopathology.     

Use of Objectification Theory to Examine the Effects of a Media Literacy Intervention on Women

Although the impact of the media’s thin ideal on body image may be lessened by media literacy, empirical support for this is inconsistent. Objectification theory, which suggests that certain social situations serve to increase women’s self-objectification (i.e., viewing self from a third person perspective), was used as a framework to understand this inconsistency. In particular, it was hypothesized that media literacy may involve both negative (heightened self-objectification) and positive (well-being) effects. We used both qualitative and quantitative measures, and two studies showed that viewing the video Slim Hopes increased state self-objectification, as well as self-esteem and positive affect. Implications for effective media literacy and self-objectification are discussed.     

Understanding the relation between explicitly and implicitly measured political orientation: The moderating role of political sophistication

Researchers have argued that to understand more fully political orientation, non-reactive measures similar to those used in the broader implicit attitudes literature should be explored. Recently, the nature of the relation between explicitly and implicitly measured attitudes has been a topic of considerable discussion, with researchers stressing the importance of when explicit and implicit measures are related and when they are not. In the present research, the relation between explicit and implicit political orientation, and the potential moderating role of political sophistication was investigated. Participants (N = 116) completed an explicit measure of political orientation, a liberal–conservative Implicit Association Test (IAT), and a test of political knowledge. Results showed that explicit and implicit political orientation scores were moderately correlated (r = .48) with each other. Moreover, results from regression analyses showed that the association between explicit and implicit political orientation was moderated by political knowledge scores, such that the positive association was stronger among participants with a greater knowledge of politics.     

Assessing the Role of Body Image Coping Strategies as Mediators or Moderators of the Links Between Self-Objectification, Body Shame, and Well-Being

We examined self-objectification in relation to well-being, and the potential moderating versus mediating role of body image coping strategies (appearance fixing, avoidance, positive rational acceptance). Undergraduate women from southern Ontario, Canada (Sample 1, n?=?104; Sample 2, n?=?314) completed measures of depression, disordered eating attitudes, subjective well-being, and body-image coping. Self-objectification was related to greater depression, disordered eating attitudes, and lower subjective well-being. A two-stage mediation model was supported: Body shame and body image coping strategies (appearance fixing and avoidance) partially mediated the associations between self-objectification and outcomes; appearance fixing and avoidance partially mediated the associations between body shame and outcomes. Body image coping strategies did not moderate any of the relations between body shame and outcomes.     

Lesions of the caudate nucleus selectively impair "reference memory" acquisition in the radial maze

Groups of Long-Evans rats with bilateral lesions of the caudate nucleus, sham lesions, or no lesions were given one trial per day in an eight-arm radial maze. The same four maze arms were baited on each trial. The remaining four arms never contained food. Optimal performance required animals to enter each of the baited arms only once on each trial and to avoid entering the arms in the unbaited set. Rats with caudate lesions learned to enter each of the baited arms only once on each trial. However, these rats were severely impaired in learning to avoid entering the arms in the unbaited set. Implications for dual-memory theories are discussed.     

The control of "classroom attention": a group contingency for complex behavior

Cumulative time measures of classroom attention, as delineated by the teacher, were taken of four elementary classes (kindergarten, third, fifth, and sixth grades) and of 16 randomly chosen students in these same classes. Each class of students was viewed as an individual responding organism. Base rates showed considerable variability. Explicit instructions alone concerning student attention produced temporary increase for some students and for some grades. Adding group contingencies (i.e., contingencies dependent on the attention of every student in the class) and token-mediated reinforcement to class achievement of a gradually increasing attention criterion raised group measures to a consistent 70 to 85% level of time attending to task as instructed, and raised individual student measures to a stable 90 to 100% level. Reversals and other data indicate that the elementary teacher can, by herself and with little effort, maximize what she considers the "paying-attention behavior" of all her students by her less-than-precise measure and consequation of the attention of the class as a whole.     

Psychological mindedness and therapist attributes

Background to study: Psychological Mindedness (PM) involves an interest in and ability to extract and make sense of psychological information (thoughts, feelings and behaviours) from a situation. The nature of the psychotherapeutic role and training demands therapists think about motives, distortions and inner experiences of others. Aims: This study empirically examined the association between PM and adaptive therapist attributes, clinician empathy, self understanding and the therapeutic relationship in practitioners. Method: Forty eight therapists responded to a postal questionnaire. Results: Statistically significant correlations were found between adaptive therapist attributes; empathy, the therapeutic relationship and level of self-understanding and PM.