On Christ and Healing: Eiesland,Tillich, and Disability Theology

Abstract : The existentialist interpretation of the biblical texts offered by Protestant theologian Paul Tillich is deeply problematic in its treatment of disability, especially mental illness. Theologian Nancy Eiesland argues against a conflation of sin and illness, and proposes the symbol of the disabled God as a source for a liberation theology of disability. Reading the biblical texts existentially, as Tillich suggests, can advance Eiesland's Christology, while her critique of Christian teaching on disability offers a correction for Tillich.     

Positive outcomes of social norm transgressions

Norm transgressions occur when consumers behave outside social expectations; such transgressions often cause embarrassment for the perpetrator and negative responses from witnesses. This study asks if norm violations can lead to positive audience responses. The study relies on 246 written reports from norm breakers and finds positive audience responses occurring almost 17 per cent of the time, with an additional 26 per cent of cases providing a mix of both positive and negative reactions. A content analysis of influence factors suggests that the emergence of a positive outcome depends on the importance of the norm, the position of the perpetrating behavior relative to the broader scope of the norm, and the rewards received by the audience as a result of the norm transgression. These factors are illustrated by representative participant quotes. The findings have implications for theory as well as marketing practice. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Graphic Pathogeographies

This paper focuses on the graphic pathogeographies in David B.’s Epileptic and David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir to highlight the significance of geographic concepts in graphic novels of health and disease. Despite its importance in such works, few scholars have examined the role of geography in their narrative and structure. I examine the role of place in Epileptic and Stitches to extend the academic discussion on graphic novels of health and disease and identify how such works bring attention to the role of geography in the individual’s engagement with health, disease, and related settings.     

Exploring Women's Expectations of Recovery From Intimate Partner Violence: A Phenomenological Study

Occupational therapy literature related to intimate partner violence primarily focuses on clients' pragmatic concerns. The purpose of this study was to explore women's recovery needs for the first six months after leaving the abusive relationship. Specifically, the focus explored how women experiencing intimate partner violence anticipate their recovery process to progress and explored their perceptions regarding the obstructions and challenges that influence that process. As part of an ongoing, multiyear study, in-depth interviews based on Kawa Model river drawings were conducted at a domestic violence center with eight women. Multiple themes were identified highlighting pragmatic and personal objectives.     

Influence of Question Format and Text Availability on the Assessment of Expository Text Comprehension

This study examines how passage availability and reading comprehension question format (open-ended vs. multiple-choice) influence question answering. In two experiments, college undergraduates read an expository passage and answered open-ended and multiple-choice versions of text-based, local, and global bridging inference questions. Half the participants were allowed to refer to the passage when answering the questions and half were not. Participants' prior domain knowledge relating to the text contents was assessed using multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Correlation-based analyses in the two experiments indicated: (a) a decline in the relationship between prior domain knowledge and comprehension when the passage was available during question answering; and (b) a high correlation between multiple-choice and open-ended question answering performance when the passage was not available for reference. Overall the results indicate that the nature of the reading comprehension assessment is influenced by the specific task with which comprehension is assessed.     

No face is an island: How implicit bias operates in social scenes

Social psychologists have mainly studied implicit attitudes toward faces presented one at a time, whereas, in real life, we often encounter people in the presence of others. These surrounding individuals may alter attitudes toward the focal target of attention. We employed a flanker-IAT task and found that, when black and white targets were presented in racially diverse contexts, bias was decreased. This decrease in bias occurred even when targets previously seen in diverse contexts were presented on their own, suggesting context-free evaluations of the targets had been formed. Experiment 2 showed that the effect of diverse contexts does not affect bias toward a racial category as a whole, but only the specific targets previously seen in the diverse contexts. Quad model analysis (Sherman et al., 2008) revealed that these effects were related to changes in automatic evaluations, and not to changes in inhibition. Implications for implicit bias change and prejudice reduction strategies are discussed.     

Perceived lack of training moderates relationship between healthcare providers’ personality and sense of efficacy in trauma-informed care

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Medical patients often have trauma histories that are not routinely assessed, which can adversely affect health outcomes. Despite growing awareness of this issue, there is limited understanding of factors that influence provider competency in trauma-informed care (TIC). The study examined healthcare providers’ personality traits in relation to their sense of TIC efficacy, taking into account perceived barriers to TIC and professional quality of life.

Study Design: The study used cross-sectional survey methods to examine our central hypothesis that provider personality traits and perceived barriers to TIC would be associated with TIC-efficacy, and to explore interactions among study variables.

Methods: Survey data were collected from 172 healthcare providers examining TIC knowledge, TIC-efficacy, perceived barriers to TIC, personality traits, and professional quality of life.

Results: TIC-efficacy was positively correlated with “intellectence/openness” and inversely correlated with “neuroticism” and perceived lack of training as a barrier. “Intellectence/openness” interacted with perceived lack of training to predict TIC-efficacy, suggesting that providers with lower “intellectence/openness” report greater TIC-efficacy when lack of training is not perceived as a barrier.

Conclusions: Provider personality traits and perceived barriers to TIC appear related to providers’ TIC-efficacy. Implications for overcoming barriers to TIC through training and implementation are discussed.     

Missed Opportunities: Newspaper Reports of Domestic Violence

News coverage can influence public views of important health problems, including domestic violence (DV). To understand how newspaper reports frame DV, this study examined 187 articles published across a single state over a one-year period. Coded variables included characteristics of the newspapers and articles; incident details; common DV themes (e.g., victim blame; DV as isolated or rare); and education, resources, and community context. Approximately one-third of articles framed DV using themes that might misinform the public about DV (e.g., victim blame). The majority of articles missed opportunities to provide educational information or resources about DV and failed to situate DV in a community context. These findings point to missed opportunities for newspapers to provide comprehensive information and resources to the public.     

Social Construction of Intimate Partner Violence: A Brief Report on Quantitative Grammatical Analysis

This pilot study uses a quantitative linguistic analysis to assess evidence of agency and control, as well as treatment engagement, in letters written by men (N = 46, 37% Latino) participating in a batterer intervention program. At the program’s conclusion, men were asked to imagine their situation in 5 years and write a letter from their “future self” to their “present self.” Letters were scored for grammatical representations of agency and objectification, and temporal complexity. Results showed that the men tended to grant themselves the subject position (conferring agency) and to grant others the object position (deferring or denying agency) by almost equal margins, both rhetorical maneuvers suggesting an objectifying stance toward others. Moreover, they employed several strategies to address temporality, with more complex strategies suggesting greater treatment engagement. Findings suggest that quantitative linguistic analysis is a promising tool for assessing participants’ progress in and engagement with treatment.     

Associations between Thematic Content and Memory Detail in Trauma Narratives

This study examined whether thematic content (e.g., fear, anger, alienation, self‐blame, and spirituality) in trauma narratives predicted memory detail. Trauma‐specific memory models suggest that trauma narrative themes are associated with much sensory detail; general autobiographical memory models suggest that themes are associated with little context detail. Seventy‐one narratives from a diverse community sample exposed to a variety of traumatic events (e.g., sexual assault, natural disasters) were coded for themes and detail. Analyses controlled for narrative length, childhood or adulthood occurrence, self‐reported post‐traumatic stress disorder, depression and dissociation symptoms. Fear themes were associated with greater sensory detail; anger and spirituality themes were associated with less context detail. Findings support a link between thematic content and detail, and may partially explain why details in memory for traumatic events sometimes appear better and other times worse than memory for other events. Memory models may benefit from specification based on themes in trauma narratives. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.