Linking Religion and Spirituality with Psychological Well-being: Examining Self-actualisation, Meaning in Life, and Personal Growth Initiative

Research largely shows that religion and spirituality have a positive correlation to psychological well-being. However, there has been a great deal of confusion and debate over their operational definitions. This study attempted to delineate the two constructs and categorise participants into different groups based on measured levels of religious involvement and spirituality. The groups were then scored against specific measures of well-being. A total of 205 participants from a wide range of religious affiliations and faith groups were recruited from various religious institutions and spiritual meetings. They were assigned to one of four groups with the following characteristics: (1) a high level of religious involvement and spirituality, (2) a low level of religious involvement with a high level of spirituality, (3) a high level of religious involvement with a low level of spirituality, and (4) a low level of religious involvement and spirituality. Multiple comparisons were made between the groups on three measures of psychological well-being: levels of self-actualisation, meaning in life, and personal growth initiative. As predicted, it was discovered that, aside from a few exceptions, groups (1) and (2) obtained higher scores on all three measures. As such, these results confirm the importance of spirituality on psychological well-being, regardless of whether it is experienced through religious participation.     

Manipulating perception versus action in recalibration tasks

We conducted six experiments to examine how manipulating perception versus action affects perception–action recalibration in real and imagined blindfolded walking tasks. Participants first performed a distance estimation task (pretest) and then walked through an immersive virtual environment on a treadmill for 10 min. Participants then repeated the distance estimation task (posttest), the results of which were compared with their pretest performance. In Experiments 1a, 2a, and 3a, participants walked at a normal speed during recalibration, but the rate of visual motion was either twice as fast or half as fast as the participants' walking speed. In Experiments 1b, 2b, and 3b, the rate of visual motion was kept constant, but participants walked at either a faster or a slower speed. During pre- and posttest, we used either a blindfolded walking distance estimation task or an imagined walking distance estimation task. Additionally, participants performed the pretest and posttest distance estimation tasks in either the real environment or the virtual environment. With blindfolded walking as the distance estimation task for pre- and posttest, we found a recalibration effect when either the rate of visual motion or the walking speed was manipulated during the recalibration phase. With imagined walking as the distance estimation task, we found a recalibration effect when the rate of visual motion was manipulated, but not when the walking speed was manipulated in both the real environment and the virtual environment. Discussion focuses on how spatial-updating processes operate on perception and action and on representation and action.     

Construction of new scales for the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List

Factor analyses were used to develop new scales for the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) measuring anxiety, depression, hostility, positive, and sensation-seeking affects. Anxiety, depression, and hostility scales were moderately intercorrelated and a combined score called “dysphoria” was formed from their addition. Positive and sensation-seeking affects were also correlated and combined in a summary score (PASS). The dysphoric and PASS scores were not highly correlated. The number of items checked correlated highly with the positive affect scale, moderately with sensation seeking, and relatively low with the negative affect scales. Internal reliabilities were high and retest reliabilities were low, in conformance with the model for state scales. The anxiety score increased and the positive affect score and number of items checked decreased just prior to a classroom examination. Further plans for scale development are discussed.     

Mobilization of Cognitive Resources and the Generation Effect

The generation effect refers to the memory advantage of words that have been generated rather than read. Such a read-generate comparison confounds qualitative task differences and raises methodological problems. A revised methodology is proposed circumventing these problems in that the encoding task is held constant and all stimuli have to be generated, but the degree of generativeness (i.e. the amount of cueing) is varied. In Experiment 1, 1, the (refined version of the) generation effect is demonstrated in a within-subjects design; with increasing generation activity left to the subject, free recall performance increases. No effect is obtained for degree of target masking. The same finding is replicated and shown to be independent of self-paced study time when generative activity is manipulated between subjects (Experiment 2) or within subjects (Experiment 3). As all learning trials involve generation, encoding time is controlled statistically, and free recall is used as a measure of memory, this refined generation effect cannot be explained as an artifact of selective attention or elaboration. Rather, generative activity seems to increase the mobilization of cognitive resources. This motivational account is supported by Experiment 4 showing an enhanced generation effect for positive mood.     

Crying as social behavior

Twenty mother-infant pairs were observed once a week for 7-hour periods when the infants were 2, 3, 4, and 5 weeks old. The occurrence of crying and its relationship to patterning of maternal behaviors was studied in two social contexts: while the mother was holding the infant and while she was not holding the infant. There were significant individual differences in the amount of crying in each of these contexts. The amount of crying in the two contexts was not correlated. Six variables describing forms of maternal attention throughout the 7-hour day were selected, and profiles were formed from measures of these variables. These profiles were found to vary systematically as a function of the amount of crying while the mother was holding the infant. In this context, only physical stimulation increased linearly with increased crying, whereas other forms of attention showed a U-shaped function in relation to increased crying. No relationship was found between crying while the mother was not holding the baby and patterns of interaction. We conclude that the structuring of a mother-infant relationship is reflected in the amount of crying that occurs while mother and infant are in close physical contact. The results also provide evidence that the social context for an infant's crying must be taken into account if the full adaptive value of crying is to be understood.     

Examining the Validity of Cyclothymic Disorder in a Youth Sample: Replication and Extension

DSM-IV-TR defines four subtypes of bipolar disorder (BP): bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymic disorder and bipolar not otherwise specified (NOS). However, cyclothymic disorder in children is rarely researched, or often subsumed in an “NOS” category. The present study tests the replicability of findings from an earlier study, and expands on the criterion validity of cyclothymic disorder in youth. Using the Robins and Guze (1970) framework we examined the validity of cyclothymic disorder as a subtype of BP. Using a youth (ages 5–17) outpatient clinical sample (N?=?894), participants with cyclothymic disorder (n?=?53) were compared to participants with other BP spectrum disorders (n?=?399) and to participants with non-bipolar disorders (n?=?442). Analyses tested differences in youth with cyclothymic disorder and bipolar disorder not otherwise specified who do, and those who do not, have a parent with BP. Compared to youth with non-bipolar disorders, youth with cyclothymic disorder had higher irritability (p?<?0.001), more comorbidity (p?<?0.001), greater sleep disturbance (p?<?0.005), and were more likely to have a family history of BP (p?<?0.001). Cyclothymic disorder was associated with a younger age of onset compared to depression (p?<?0.001) and bipolar II (p?=?0.05). Parental BP status was not significantly associated with any variables. Results support that cyclothymic disorder belongs on the bipolar spectrum. Epidemiological studies indicate that cyclothymic disorder is not uncommon and involves significant impairment. Failing to differentiate between cyclothymic disorder and bipolar NOS limits our knowledge about a significant proportion of cases of bipolarity.     

Major memory for microblogs

Online social networking is vastly popular and permits its members to post their thoughts as microblogs, an opportunity that people exploit, on Facebook alone, over 30 million times an hour. Such trivial ephemera, one might think, should vanish quickly from memory; conversely, they may comprise the sort of information that our memories are tuned to recognize, if that which we readily generate, we also readily store. In the first two experiments, participants’ memory for Facebook posts was found to be strikingly stronger than their memory for human faces or sentences from books—a magnitude comparable to the difference in memory strength between amnesics and healthy controls. The second experiment suggested that this difference is not due to Facebook posts spontaneously generating social elaboration, because memory for posts is enhanced as much by adding social elaboration as is memory for book sentences. Our final experiment, using headlines, sentences, and reader comments from articles, suggested that the remarkable memory for microblogs is also not due to their completeness or simply their topic, but may be a more general phenomenon of their being the largely spontaneous and natural emanations of the human mind.     

Missed Conceptions: A Gendered Extension of Early Conception Among Street Youth

The moral sentiment concerning teenage pregnancy among unmarried youth is that it is an act of deviance or non-conformity. Using data from a multidisciplinary study of high-risk youth, this article explores the notion that early conception among street youth is an opportunity for youth to conform to the conventional societal role of becoming a parent, not an act of deviance. The article further highlights the importance of including young men in discussions about early conception. Drawing on general strain theory and social bonding theory, experiences of strain in the family of origin as well as current social bonds are explored. Findings indicate that both general strain and social bonding contribute to a gendered understanding of early conception among street youth.     

The effects of trait and state anxiety on attention to emotional images: An eye-tracking study

Attentional biases for threatening stimuli have been implicated in the development of anxiety disorders. However, little is known about the relative influences of trait and state anxiety on attentional biases. This study examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on attention to emotional images. Low, mid, and high trait anxious participants completed two trial blocks of an eye-tracking task. Participants viewed image pairs consisting of one emotional (threatening or positive) and one neutral image while their eye movements were recorded. Between trial blocks, participants underwent an anxiety induction. Primary analyses examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on the proportion of viewing time on emotional versus neutral images. State anxiety was associated with increased attention to threatening images for participants, regardless of trait anxiety. Furthermore, when in a state of anxiety, relative to a baseline condition, durations of initial gaze and average fixation were longer on threat versus neutral images. These findings were specific to the threatening images; no anxiety-related differences in attention were found with the positive images. The implications of these results for future research, models of anxiety-related information processing, and clinical interventions for anxiety are discussed.