Spiritually based parenting workshop: An outcome study

The present study observed the effects of one spiritually based parenting workshop: Parent and Family Healing. A repeated-measures design using before, after, and 3-week follow-up revealed that in the sample of 65 parents, Parent and Family Healing significantly lowered parents’ stress and negative affect, and increased their parental efficacy and parental satisfaction. These effects were all maintained at the 3-week follow-up. The workshop also significantly increased parents’ positive affect, but this change was not maintained 3 weeks following the workshop. Spirituality level did not change significantly over the course of the workshop or at follow-up, despite the workshop being spiritually based. Participants rated all the spiritual components of the workshop as between somewhat and very helpful. Finally, parents’ free-response answers revealed very positive opinions about the workshop, its effects, and the spiritual approach taken.     

The Effect of Order and Rate of Presentation of Stimuli Upon the Establishment of a Conditioned Discrimination

The modified interfering cue theory put forward by Fletcher et al. (2) to explain performance in the ambiguous cue problem (ACP) was examined. Eight-year-old children were first trained to acquire response tendencies to the individual cues of this problem. When presented subsequently with the problem, the children showed marked differences in the number and type of errors made. The results were interpreted as supporting the theory of Fletcher et al. It was also suggested that the cues with clear positive or negative values were employed by the subjects to limit or neutralize the interference caused by the ambiguous cue.     

Sad Kids,Sad Media? Applying Mood Management Theory to Depressed Adolescents' Use of Media

Mood management studies typically have found that adults will select media that enhance positive moods and reduce negative moods. In this study, adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder and control adolescents without psychiatric disorders were called on customized cell phones up to 4 times a day and asked about their current mood state and media use for five extended weekends across an 8-week period. Mood effects on subsequent media use, mood during media consumption, and media effects on subsequent mood were examined. Results indicated that adolescents who consumed fun media tended to do so in a way that sustained, rather than enhanced their prior positive mood levels during and after consumption-if they turned to media. Adolescents in more negative moods did not often use media to improve their moods. When they did, boys were more likely than girls to use media that ultimately reduced negative mood levels. Findings are discussed in light of the literature on mood management, adolescence, and depression.     

Beauty and the burn: tanning and other appearance-altering attitudes and behaviors

Tanning is often prompted by appearance concerns, yet little is known about associations between tanning and other appearance-altering behaviors. In the current study, we examined potential correlates of indoor and outdoor tanning that, like tanning, may enhance appearance but present health risks. College students (N = 284; Mage = 20.14, SD = 3.39) completed a survey. The main outcome measures were indoor tanning and outdoor sunbathing. Participants also answered questions pertaining to piercings and tattoos, healthy and unhealthy dieting behaviors, cigarette smoking, and interest in cosmetic surgery and enhancements. Results indicate that indoor tanners were more likely to have piercings, tattoos, to engage in healthy dieting behaviors, and to express interest in cosmetic enhancements. Outdoor sunbathers were more interested in cosmetic enhancements than non-outdoor sunbathers, and female outdoor sunbathers reported more unhealthy dieting behaviors than male outdoor sunbathers. These findings provide evidence for college students’ engagement in a constellation of appearance-oriented risk behaviors.     

Kant,Neo‐Kantians,and Transcendental Subjectivity

This article discusses an interpretation of Kant's conception of transcendental subjectivity, which manages to avoid many of the concerns that have been raised by analytic interpreters over this doctrine. It is an interpretation put forward by selected C19 and early C20 neo‐Kantian writers. The article starts out by offering a neo‐Kantian interpretation of the object as something that is constituted by the categories and that serves as a standard of truth within a theory of judgment (I). The second part explicates transcendental subjectivity as the system of categories, which is self‐referential and constitutes objects (II), in order to then evaluate this conception by means of a comparison with Hegel's absolute subject (III). Rather than delineating the differences between neo‐Kantian writers, the article systematically expounds a shared project, which consists in providing the ultimate foundation for judgments by means of an anti‐psychologist and non‐metaphysical interpretation of transcendental subjectivity.     

The Random-Map Technique: Enhancing Mind-Mapping with a Conceptual Combination Technique to Foster Creative Potential

Although creativity techniques are highly recommended in working environments, their effects have been scarcely investigated. Two cognitive processes are often considered to foster creative potential and are, therefore, taken as a basis for creativity techniques: knowledge activation and conceptual combination. In this study, both processes were enhanced individually and jointly with an appropriate technique. Knowledge activation was fostered by the mind-map technique and conceptual combination by the random-input technique. The random-map technique evolved from merging these two techniques together. The two different techniques were tested in a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design with 80 participants. It was assumed that (a) both individual techniques would enhance creative potential when compared to the control group, and (b) the combined technique would lead to more creative potential than implementing the techniques individually. Results showed an increased creativity level of each of the individual techniques when compared to the control group. The combined creativity technique resulted in even higher creativity level when compared to both individual techniques. Thus, fostering different creativity processes jointly had an additive effect on creative potential.