The Role of Moral Exemplars in the Teaching and Learning of Practical Reason in a Catholic University

The content of Catholic social teaching suggests that an appropriate pedagogy for the teaching and learning of Catholic social thought is the teaching and learning of practical reason. This article explores the role of moral exemplars in the teaching and learning of practical reason in a Catholic university. Specifically, the article details the use of moral exemplars in the “Profiles in the Catholic Social Tradition” course taught at the University of Notre Dame in the Fall semester of 2000. After a brief explanation of the appeal to practical reason as an appropriate pedagogy for teaching and learning the content of Catholic social teaching, the article turns to a discussion of our particular experience of using moral exemplars in the classroom.     

Concrete and abstract visualizations in history learning tasks

Background History learning requires that students understand historical phenomena, abstract concepts and the relations between them. Students have problems grasping, using and relating complex historical developments and structures. Aims A study was conducted to determine the effects of tasks with abstract and/or concrete visualizations on the learning of historical developments and structures. The hypothesis was that students receiving visualizations would learn and retain more historical knowledge and concepts than those not receiving visualizations. Sample First‐year pupils in vocational middle school (N = 104) worked in randomly assigned pairs. Methods After reading a text, the pairs were given a learning task in one of four conditions: Textual, Concrete visualized, Abstract visualized, and Combined. Results Post‐test and retention test results showed no significant differences. There were some significant differences on the evaluation questionnaire. Conclusions Combining text and different types of visualizations in learning tasks does not necessarily enhance history learning. Possible explanations given are the ecological setting, the semiotics of the domain of history – that are not defined clearly – and the difficulty of unequivocally visualizing historical concepts.     

Words

The words people use in their writing and speaking can serve as markers of personality. Computerized text analysis programs based on word counts represent a methodological strategy for obtaining linguistic information objectively and rapidly from diverse text samples. Several studies are summarized that point to particles or function words (e.g., pronouns, articles, and prepositions) as central determinants of linguistic styles. Particles exhibit solid psychometric properties and are related to measures of depression, social concerns, physical health, and, to a modest degree, traditional personality indices. Possible reasons for the psychological significance of particles are offered, and the challenges facing the linguistic approach to personality are considered.     

Associations Between Breast Cancer Risk Factors and Religiousness in American Women in a National Health Survey

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in American women. Data are lacking from representative samples of total populations on the association of risk factors for breast cancer and religiousness. The sixth cycle of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG VI) included 3,766 women aged 30–44 years with complete data on self-reported religiousness, and selected breast cancer risk factors. Of women in the analysis, 1,008 reported having four or more breast cancer risk factors. Women who never attended services were over seven times more likely to report having four or more risk factors than those who attended more than weekly (P < 0.0001). After adjusting for age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, nativity, education and marital status by logistic regression, women who never attended services were still over six times more likely to report having four or more risk factors (P < 0.0001). The combination of frequent attendance at religious services, very high importance of religion in daily life, and self-identification as a Protestant evangelical was particularly protective. Multiple dimensions of religiousness are independently associated with multiple breast cancer risk factors.     

Psychological factors related to eating disordered behaviors: a study with Portuguese athletes

This study analyzes eating disordered behaviors in a sample of Portuguese athletes and explores its relationship with some psychological dimensions. Two hundred and ninety nine athletes (153 male, 51.2%) practicing collective (65.2%) or individual sports (34.8%) were included. The assessment protocol included the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) (Fairburn & Beglin, 1994); the Sport Condition Questionnaire (Bruin et al., 2007; Hall et al., 2007); the Sport Anxiety Scale (Smith et al., 2006); the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, 1992; Duda & Whitehead, 1998); the Cognitive Evaluation of Sport-Threat Perceptions (Cruz, 1994; Lazarus, 1991); and the Self-Presentation Exercise Questionnaire (Gammage et al., 2004). Results revealed that: i) no case of clinical significance was detected in the four dimensions of the EDE-Q simultaneously; ii) females scored higher on the EDE-Q Global Score, and athletes with the better sport results scored higher on the Restraint subscale; iii) athletes with a higher desire to weigh less scored higher on the EDE-Q Global Score; iv) athletes with lower scores on EDE-Q displayed more positive results on the psychological measures; v) several psychological dimensions were identified as predictors of eating disordered behaviors. In conclusion, the prevalence of eating disordered behaviors was negligible in this study, yet the relationship of this problem with personal, sport and psychological factors was evident.     

The effects of skill demands and object position on the distribution of preferred hand reaches

Performance-based measures of hand preference have been developed as an objective method of examining handedness. Previous research using this method showed that both skill demands and the position of the object in working space affect preferential hand reaching. Specifically, preferred hand reaches predominated in left hemispace, in spite of the biomechanical inefficiency involved in reaching across the body midline. This was mediated by the skill demands, with a higher frequency of preferred hand reaches for tasks requiring more skill. To further examine this issue, we increased the task skill demands. Twenty-two right-handed adults reached for five tools located in an array of five positions in front of them. Participants were required to pick up the tool, pick up and demonstrate how to use it, or pick up and actually use the tool on the materials provided. The results showed that the frequency of right hand reaches was greatest for the tool use condition. This effect was mediated by the position of the object in hemispace, with more right hand reaches occurring for the Use task in left hemispace than the other tasks, in support of our previous work.     

Target-biting behavior of individually and group-housed mice and rats

The effects of housing conditions (individual or grouped) on the biting of an inanimate target by confined male mice and rats were measured. It was observed that, for both mice and rats, individual housing markedly increased the number of target bites per session. These results indicate that the target-biting paradigm is sensitive to those factors responsible for the increase in fighting behavior following individual housing.