A Study of Current, Former, and New Elderly Volunteers: A Comparison of Developmental and Trait Models of Personality

This study examined relationships among personality traits, ego development, and volunteering among retired seniors who were current, former, and new volunteers. Volunteer history, but not extensiveness of volunteer experience, was associated with higher ego development. Current volunteers had higher levels of ego development than former and new volunteers, and former volunteers had higher levels than new volunteers. Openness to experience and ego development were positively associated. Results of multiple-regression analyses indicated that openness and volunteering history and extensiveness positively predicted ego development. This study supported the hypothesis that ego development is related to volunteering and suggests that participation in volunteer work promotes ego development.     

Resurgence is greater following a return to the training context than remaining in the extinction context

The present study examined whether resurgence of a previously reinforced target response upon removing alternative reinforcement would be greater when (1) returning to the original training context (ABA context changes) versus (2) remaining in the analogue treatment context in which the alternative response was differentially reinforced (ABB context changes). Experiment 1 arranged reinforcement of button pressing with points exchangeable for money in university students. Experiment 2 arranged reinforcement of lever pressing with food for rats. Experiment 3 arranged reinforcement of responses to a touchscreen with small bites of food with children diagnosed with ASD. Overall, resurgence of target responding tended to be greater when returning to the original training context (A) than when remaining in the analogue treatment context (B). These findings suggest context changes with differential reinforcement treatments could exacerbate the recurrence of problem behavior resulting from reductions in treatment integrity through failure to reinforce appropriate behavior.     

A Review of Emmanuel Y. Lartey’s Postcolonializing God: An African Practical Theology

This review of pastoral and practical theologian Dr. Emmanuel Lartey’s 2013 Postcolonializing God: An African Practical Theology summarizes the book’s specific contribution to African pastoral and practical theology as well as to the broader fields of pastoral and practical theology. The reviewer outlines Lartey’s three movements of reversal, recovery, and transcendence intertwined in the active process of postcolonializing. She raises questions about developmental theories of postcolonial change and commends Lartey for locating postcolonializing in pastoral practice rather than developmental achievement.     

Is a person-affecting solution to the nonidentity problem impossible? Axiology,accessibility and additional people

Abstract

This paper considers two objections based in axiological considerations against the position that whether a given outcome, or possible future or world, is morally worse than a second world may depend in part on what is going on at a third world. Such a wide-angled approach to determining worseness is critical to the solution I have previously proposed in connection with the nonidentity problem. I argue that both objections fail.     

Social Norms and Egalitarian Values Mitigate Authoritarian Intolerance Toward Sexual Minorities

In the United States, acceptance of sexual minorities (e.g., gay men and lesbians) has increased substantially since the early 1990s. This study examined whether authoritarians' attitudes have been influenced by the societal shift toward greater acceptance of sexual minorities. Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) collected between 1992 and 2012, we tested a model in which authoritarianism, endorsement of egalitarian values, and social norms shifting in the direction of tolerance predict individual attitudes toward sexual minorities and LGBT rights issues. Results indicated that (1) there was a subset of authoritarians who endorsed egalitarian values, (2) authoritarians in general became more tolerant (i.e., held less negative attitudes) toward sexual minorities between 1992 and 2012, and (3) “egalitarian authoritarians” held more positive attitudes toward sexual minorities than other authoritarians. The findings contribute to contemporary theory and research on authoritarianism, which is moving from a monolithic view of authoritarianism to one in which culture and core values activate and shape manifestations of authoritarian tendencies.     

Practicing What You Preach: Infidelity Attitudes as a Predictor of Fidelity

The current studies used the Perceptions of Dating Infidelity Scale (PDIS), which identifies attitudes toward three types of behaviors indicative of cheating: Ambiguous, Deceptive, and Explicit behaviors, to predict actual infidelity behaviors. Participants reported their attitude toward these behaviors and then reported their willingness to engage in these behaviors with a hypothetical target (Study 1) and reported actually engaging in these behaviors over the course of one month (Study 2). Study 1 showed that attitudes for Ambiguous and Deceptive behaviors significantly predict a willingness to engage in these behaviors with a hypothetical target. Study 2 showed that attitudes toward Ambiguous behaviors significantly predict actual engagement in Ambiguous behaviors during the course of one month.     

Psychometric properties of the Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments with a juvenile justice sample

This article describes the psychometric properties of the Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments, the revised version of Grisso's Miranda instruments. The original instruments demonstrated good reliability and validity in a normative sample. The revised instruments updated the content of the original instruments and were administered to a sample of 183 youth in pre- and postadjudication facilities. Analyses were conducted to establish the psychometric properties of the revised instruments and included similar analyses to those conducted by Grisso, as well as additional calculations (e.g., standard errors of measurement, intraclass correlation coefficients, Kappa coefficients). Results revealed sound psychometric properties, similar to those observed for the original instruments.