IN DEFENSE OF PUBLICS: PROJECTION,BIAS, AND CULTURAL NARRATIVES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION DEBATES

John H. Evans's recent book Morals Not Knowledge is a timely argument to recognize broader social and cultural factors that might impact what U.S. religious publics think about the relationship between science and religion and their attitudes toward science and/or religion. While Evans's focus is primarily on what can be classed as moral issues, this response argues that there are other factors that sit within neither the older epistemic conflict model approach nor a moral conflict model approach that also merit further investigation. There is a significant need for further research that examines the social, psychological, (geo)political, and broader cultural factors shaping people's social identities in relation to science and religion debates. When undertaking such research, we need to be wary of creating a binary between scholarly and public space discourse. Social scientific research in this field should be led by public perceptions, attitudes, and views, not by concepts or frameworks that we project onto them.     

The generalizability of reactions to assessment: An application of the Selection Procedural Justice Scale (SPJS) in academic settings

This study tested the Selection Procedural Justice Scale (SPJS) in an educational setting. The sample consisted of 617 students. Four different confirmatory models were tested, followed by an IRT analysis to test the scale structure at the item level in the two different contexts (selection vs. academic exams). Results indicated that the 11‐factor structure is the best factorial solution, and SPJS items were found to be free of DIF.     

Securing Cisgendered Futures: Intersex Management under the “Disorders of Sex Development” Treatment Model

In this critical, feminist account of the management of intersex conditions under 2006’s controversial “Disorders of Sex Development” (DSD) treatment model, I argue that like the “Optimal Gender of Rearing” (OGR) treatment model it replaced, DSD aims at securing a cisgendered future for the intersex patient, referring to a normalized trajectory of development across the lifespan in which multiple sexed, gendered, and sexual characteristics remain in “coherent” alignment. I argue this by critically analyzing two ways that intersex management has changed between OGR and DSD: 1) regarding sex‐assignment recommendations for three patient populations and, 2) with the prenatal treatment of pregnant individuals at risk of conceiving a fetus with congenital adrenal hyperplasia with the steroid hormone dexamethasone. I conclude that like OGR before it, DSD also unjustifiably presumes that typical genitalia are necessary for cisgendered development. However, unlike OGR, it appeals to the empirically inadequate, theoretically suspect, and biologically determinist model of gender development known as brain‐organization theory. Given this, I conclude that the treatment of intersex people under DSD continues to be driven by problematically heterosexist and transphobic assumptions regarding the value and normalcy of cisgendered life, while practically and discursively constituting it as such.     

Marketing of Professional Counselors: A Q‐Sort Study of Best Practices

This quantitative Q‐sort research was designed to evaluate representations of counselor qualifications and to determine which configurations account for the variance in consumer preference and selection. The sample consisted of 161 graduate and undergraduate students in a regional university in Texas. An iterative inverse factor analysis produced 3 distinct factors that accounted for 65.85% of the variance in the data, explaining a majority of the differences in how consumers perceive counselor credentials.     

具身认知视角下的道德隐喻表征

道德隐喻已成为道德心理学研究的热点问题,随着具身认知相关理论的兴起,道德隐喻的具身研究逐渐展开。目前,具身道德隐喻的维度主要包括空间、温度、洁净、颜色、明暗、触觉、味觉、嗅觉等。具身道德隐喻的相关理论解释主要包括概念隐喻理论、具身认知理论、知觉符号理论和架构理论。今后的具身道德隐喻应更多的探讨跨文化的差异性,丰富道德隐喻具身维度的内容以及各维度之间的相关性,同时要引入道德隐喻的影响机制分析。     

基层干部治理能力结构探索及问卷编制

基于对国内外相关文献的整合与分析,结合对50名基层干部行为事件访谈法(BEI)的编码结果,构建基层干部治理能力是由七个维度组成的理论假设,编制基层干部治理能力初始问卷,经过试测删减后形成正式问卷。对山东省1325名基层干部进行正式施测,探索性因素分析表明基层干部治理能力包含引导与执行力、知识与技能拓展力、公共服务能力、整合资源能力、管理创新能力、信息分享提升力六个维度; 验证性因素分析证实问卷的结构,结合信度检验和效标关联效度检验,表明该问卷信效度达标,可作为基层干部治理能力的测量工具。     

Decreasing student behavior problems and fostering academic engagement through function‐based support and fading of token reinforcement

This study examined the effects of function‐based behavior support plans (BSPs) on the persistent behavior problems and lack of academic engagement of three, 7‐ to 8‐year‐old, male students from two public schools in Iceland. Based on the results of functional behavioral assessments, BSPs were created for each participant. Each plan included a token system. The goal for all students was to foster independent functioning. A multiple baseline across participants showed that disruptive behavior decreased by 85% on average and academic engagement increased by 78% on average. Statistical analyses suggest significant positive effects were obtained. Findings suggest that persistent behavior problems can be reduced and independent academic engagement fostered in inclusive school settings through function‐based BSPs with gradual fading of token reinforcement.     

Functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in response to prompts of romantically disillusioning events

To differentiate romantic disillusionment from similar constructs of dissatisfaction and regret, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data obtained when romantically involved individuals (N = 39) were reminded of relationship events representing these emotions were analyzed. Whole‐brain activations suggested disillusionment‐linked processes not observed for dissatisfaction or regret. Compared to dissatisfying events, disillusioning ones showed greater activity in regions pertaining to evaluation, reflection, and reconciling conflicting information (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex). No regions showed significantly more activation for dissatisfying than disillusioning events. Compared to regret‐inducing events, disillusioning events showed greater activation in areas thought pertinent to detail processing and decision making (occipital fusiform and lingual gyrus). Regret‐inducing events activated regions suggesting the planning and thoughts of how one could have acted differently (e.g., prefrontal cortex).     

The profile of abstract rule learning in infancy: Meta‐analytic and experimental evidence

Everyone agrees that infants possess general mechanisms for learning about the world, but the existence and operation of more specialized mechanisms is controversial. One mechanism—rule learning—has been proposed as potentially specific to speech, based on findings that 7‐month‐olds can learn abstract repetition rules from spoken syllables (e.g. ABB patterns: wo‐fe‐fe, ga‐tu‐tu…) but not from closely matched stimuli, such as tones. Subsequent work has shown that learning of abstract patterns is not simply specific to speech. However, we still lack a parsimonious explanation to tie together the diverse, messy, and occasionally contradictory findings in that literature. We took two routes to creating a new profile of rule learning: meta‐analysis of 20 prior reports on infants’ learning of abstract repetition rules (including 1,318 infants in 63 experiments total), and an experiment on learning of such rules from a natural, non‐speech communicative signal. These complementary approaches revealed that infants were most likely to learn abstract patterns from meaningful stimuli. We argue that the ability to detect and generalize simple patterns supports learning across domains in infancy but chiefly when the signal is meaningfully relevant to infants’ experience with sounds, objects, language, and people.