Evaluative RE? A response to two articles by Andrew Wright on hermeneutics and religious understanding

In broad agreement with Wright, this article seeks to take the discussion a stage further by excavating assumptions at the root of the problem detected in the adoption of inappropriate hermeneutical models for religious education based on romanticism and postmodernism. A radical critique of these assumptions has significant implications for the subject. This leads to discussion developing Wright's suggestions for a model which can promote openness and thoughtfulness on the part of pupils/students whilst paying attention to truth-claims. I call this evaluative religious education because it focuses on sharing reflective thinking skills used in an affirming as well as a critical way.     

Predictors of Teens' Attitudes Toward Condoms: Gender Differences in the Effects of Norms

Using data collected from a telephone survey of adolescents aged 15 to 19, we studied predictors of condom attitudes. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 348 sexually active teens. Multiple regression revealed that holding other variables constant being females, African American, perceiving that more of their friends were using condoms (i. e., perceived normative behavior). and stronger perceived normative pressure were significantly associated with favorable condom attitudes. Furthermore, significant interaction effects pointed to gender differences in the association between two types of norms and attitudes toward condoms. Perceived normative behavior had a greater effect on the attitudes of female adolescents. Perceived normative pressure had a greater effect on the attitudes of male adolescents.     

Effect of couple illness perception congruence on psychological adjustment in women with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize similarities and differences in illness perceptions between women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their husbands, and examine whether illness perception congruence predicted wives' subsequent psychological adjustment. DESIGN: Women with RA and their husbands (N=190 couples) recruited from community and clinical settings completed mailed surveys at baseline and 4-month follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Data for this investigation included illness perceptions in partners and illness severity, marital variables, and psychological adjustment in wives. RESULTS: In general, wives and husbands had similar views of RA. Couple congruence concerning women's personal control over RA and its cyclic nature predicted better psychological adjustment in women 4 months later. Post hoc tests showed better psychological adjustment in wives from couples with similar optimistic beliefs about personal control, illness coherence, and RA consequences, when compared to those in couples with similar pessimistic beliefs. Furthermore, when partners disagreed about RA's consequences, wives fared better when husbands overestimated rather than underestimated their beliefs. In contrast, couple congruence about the emotions and timeline of RA was unrelated to adjustment. CONCLUSION: It may be important for husbands to understand wives' views on their control over RA and its cyclic nature. Furthermore, wives may benefit when they share optimistic views with their husbands about RA, and when their husbands avoid underestimating RA's consequences. Developing interventions to enhance partners' illness understanding may be beneficial.     

Decreased empathic sensitivity for distressed infants in neurotic adults: The mediating role of remembered parental rejection

The primary purpose of the present research was to determine whether negative reactions to infant distress in neurotic adults are mediated by representations of same sex parental rejection. Participants were 308 adult males and females who completed questionnaires assessing their personality and their representations of their parents’ care-giving from childhood. Participants also reported their own empathic reactions toward emotionally distressed and non-distressed infants. The present findings revealed that neuroticism significantly predicted a greater recall of parental rejection which, in turn, predicted decreased empathy ratings for distressed infants. In addition, recollections of father rejection mediated the relation between neuroticism and empathy in men, while recollections of maternal rejection mediated the relation between these variables in women.     

Can the absence of prejudice be more threatening than its presence? It depends on one's worldview

The present research used validated cardiovascular measures to examine threat reactions among members of stigmatized groups when interacting with members of nonstigmatized groups who were, or were not, prejudiced against their group. The authors hypothesized that people's beliefs about the fairness of the status system would moderate their experience of threat during intergroup interactions. The authors predicted that for members of stigmatized groups who believe the status system is fair, interacting with a prejudiced partner, compared with interacting with an unprejudiced partner, would disconfirm their worldview and result in greater threat. In contrast, the authors predicted that for members of stigmatized groups who believe the system is unfair, interacting with a prejudiced partner, compared with interacting with an unprejudiced partner, would confirm their worldview and result in less threat. The authors examined these predictions among Latinas interacting with a White female confederate (Study 1) and White females interacting with a White male confederate (Study 2). As predicted, people's beliefs about the fairness of the status system moderated their experiences of threat during intergroup interactions, indicated both by cardiovascular responses and nonverbal behavior. The specific pattern of the moderation differed across the 2 studies.     

Do Automatic Self-Associations Relate to Suicidal Ideation?

Dysfunctional self-schemas are assumed to play an important role in suicidal ideation. According to recent information-processing models, it is important to differentiate between ‘explicit’ beliefs and automatic associations. Explicit beliefs stem from the weighting of propositions and their corresponding ‘truth’ values, while automatic associations reflect more simple associations in memory. Both types of associations are assumed to have different functional properties and both may be involved in suicidal ideation. Thus far, studies into self-schemas and suicidal ideation focused on the more explicit, consciously accessible traces of self-schemas and predominantly relied on self-report questionnaires or interviews. To complement these ‘explicit’ findings and more directly tap into self-schemas, this study investigated automatic self-associations in a large scale community sample that was part of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). The results showed that automatic self-associations of depression and anxiety were indeed significantly related to suicidal ideation and past suicide attempt. Moreover, the interactions between automatic self-depressive (anxious) associations and explicit self-depressive (anxious) beliefs explained additional variance over and above explicit self-beliefs. Together these results provide an initial insight into one explanation of why suicidal patients might report difficulties in preventing and managing suicidal thoughts.     

Child abuse and negative explicit and automatic self-associations: The cognitive scars of emotional maltreatment

Individuals reporting Childhood Abuse (CA) (i.e., emotional neglect, emotional-, physical- and sexual-abuse) are marked by increased explicit (i.e. self-reported) negative self-associations, and an increased risk to develop depression or anxiety disorders. Automatic self-associations might play an important role in the development and maintenance of affective disorders after exposure to CA, since automatic associations are assumed to be involved in uncontrolled (spontaneous) affective behavior. This study examined whether individuals reporting a history of CA show stronger automatic (and explicit) self-depression and/or self-anxiety associations than individuals who report no CA in a large cohort study (Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), n = 2981). The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was utilized to assess automatic self-depression and self-anxiety associations. We found that CA was associated with enhanced automatic (and explicit) self-depression and self-anxiety associations. Additionally, when compared to physical- and sexual-abuse, Childhood Emotional Maltreatment (CEM; emotional abuse and emotional neglect) had the strongest link with enhanced automatic (and explicit) self-depression and self-anxiety associations. In addition, automatic and explicit negative self-associations partially mediated the association between CEM and depressive or anxious symptomatology. Implications regarding the importance of CA, and CEM in particular will be discussed.