Where,O death,is thy sting? The meaning-providing function of beliefs in literal immortality

Terror management theory suggests that humans invest in cultural worldviews that allay mortality-related anxiety by promising death transcendence. Many religious individuals adhere to belief in literal immortality – believing that one will live on after death. Across two studies (n?=?1137), we explored the terror management function of such beliefs by exploring whether these beliefs are associated with lower death anxiety and greater meaning among individuals of varying religiousness. In both Study 1 (n?=?236) and Study 2 (n?=?901), belief in literal immortality was related to lower death anxiety only among intrinsically religious participants. Moreover, meaning in life mediated the relationship between belief in literal immortality and death anxiety. Study 2 clarified that this mediational relationship was only present for intrinsically religious individuals. We discuss the importance of particular religious beliefs in the provision of meaning in order to manage existential concerns.     

Risk Management Principles for Nanotechnology

Risk management of nanotechnology is challenged by the enormous uncertainties about the risks, benefits, properties, and future direction of nanotechnology applications. Because of these uncertainties, traditional risk management principles such as acceptable risk, cost–benefit analysis, and feasibility are unworkable, as is the newest risk management principle, the precautionary principle. Yet, simply waiting for these uncertainties to be resolved before undertaking risk management efforts would not be prudent, in part because of the growing public concerns about nanotechnology driven by risk perception heuristics such as affect and availability. A more reflexive, incremental, and cooperative risk management approach is required, which not only will help manage emerging risks from nanotechnology applications, but will also create a new risk management model for managing future emerging technologies.     

Testing a self-determination theory intervention for motivating tobacco cessation: supporting autonomy and competence in a clinical trial.

A longitudinal randomized trial tested the self-determination theory (SDT) intervention and process model of health behavior change for tobacco cessation (N = 1006). Adult smokers were recruited for a study of smokers' health and were assigned to intensive treatment or community care. Participants were relatively poor and undereducated. Intervention patients perceived greater autonomy support and reported greater autonomous and competence motivations than did control patients. They also reported greater medication use and significantly greater abstinence. Structural equation modeling analyses confirmed the SDT process model in which perceived autonomy support led to increases in autonomous and competence motivations, which in turn led to greater cessation. The causal role of autonomy support in the internalization of autonomous motivation, perceived competence, and smoking cessation was supported.     

Anger and psychopathology in prison inmates

The relationship between anger and psychopathology was examined in a sample of 137 inmates. The State-Trait Anger Scale and the Anger Expression Inventory were used to measure anger and the Basic Personality Inventory was used to measure psychopathology. State and trait anger correlated positively with 8 and 9, respectively, out of 12 scales of psychopathology. The factor scales for the State-Trait Anger Scale, anger/hostility, arousal and situational anger correlated positively with 8, 9 and 4, respectively, out of 12 measures of psychopathology. Anger-control had an inverse relationship with 8 out of 12 measures of psychopathology, anger-out was positively related to measures of interpersonal problems, alienation, impulse expression and deviation, and anger-in had positive correlations with 11 out of 12 indices of psychopathology. Alternative treatment approaches which are sensitive to individual differences in anger style were discussed.     

The Effect of Rational-Emotive Parent Education on the Stress of Mothers of Young Children with Down Syndrome

Parents of children with disabilities are likely to experience more stress than parents of normal children. This study assessed the effectiveness of a Rational-Emotive Parent Education Program (REPE) in reducing parental stress. The REPE program focused only on core irrationalities to determine the efficacy of elegant disputation. Mothers of young children attending an early intervention centre for Down syndrome were randomly allocated to three groups, experimental, REPE, n = 21; a comparative-treatment control, Applied Behaviour Analysis, (ABA) n = 17; and a no-treatment control, n = 16. A pretest post-test design was used with there being eight seminars of both the REPE and ABA programs. On both the Profile of Mood States and the Parenting Stress Index (Parent Domain) totals the REPE group showed significant reductions in stress compared with both control groups. The results from some subscales and single items suggested that the early intervention centre program also reduced stress. The REPE program using elegant disputation reduced parental stress.     

Analyzing mothers' speech to young autistic children: A methodological study

The development of a technique for analyzing mothers' speech to young children is described. The need for such a measure arose from two linked studies of autistic children, one comparing them with developmental dysphasic children and the other evaluating the results of a home-based approach to treatment. A 17-category system was developed which could encompass almost all the types of speech shown by mothers of young autistic and normal children and which differentiated between the speech used by different mothers in a way that was meaningfully related to the child's level of language development. The categories proved to be easily applicable and to show good inter-observer reliability. Tape-recordings made during home observations were found to be the best source of speech samples. The problems of time sampling, length and nature of speech sample, and observer effects are discussed.We are most grateful to our colleagues Dr. Lionel Hersov and Mr. William Yule for many helpful suggestions in developing the measures and for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. The study is supported by a grant from the (British) Department of Health and Social Security.     

The Political Ecology of Dignity: Human Dignity and the Inevitable Returns of Animality

Human dignity names a two‐tier political ecology: one moral‐political community whose members bear a special status of inviolability, and another larger community where violence and degradation are routine. Because ecological relations are never uni‐directional, the routinized violence that “belongs” in interactions with nonhuman animals returns, normalizing violence across gendered, racialized, and politicized lines of human difference. An account of dignity that begins from creaturely vulnerability rather than anthropological exceptionalism not only better expresses key theological insights of the Christian tradition, it also resists the repressed and disavowed violence generated by prevalent accounts of dignity.     

Trait Forgiveness and Dyadic Adjustment Predict Postnatal Depression

The birth of a first child can be stressful on intimate partner relationships and the women having their first child. Conflict can occur, and hurts might be experienced, which could lead to post-partum depression. Thus, capacity for forgiveness with specific hurts might affect post-partum depression. We investigated women having their first child (N?=?52), and examined whether dyadic adjustment, trait forgiveness, and situational forgiving during pregnancy predicted postpartum depression. This study found that marital forgiveness predicted lower levels of depression above and beyond the effects of general dyadic adjustment. Dyadic adjustment and trait forgiveness predicted postpartum depression while situational forgiving was mixed. Postpartum depression researchers are encouraged to consider the inclusion of positive psychology variables, such as forgiveness, in future research studies.     

Evidence from a response choice task reveals a selection bias in the attentional cueing paradigm

In a typical attentional cueing paradigm, irrelevant peripheral cues produce early facilitation (fast responses) followed by later inhibition (slow responses) to cued locations. Here we examine whether cues not only influence the speed with which responses are produced, but also impact or bias which location is ultimately selected as requiring a response. Specifically, can cues influence not only the speed with which we respond but also influence the behavior produced? To examine this question, a choice localization task was used in which no targets were presented, and subjects were asked to choose which effector (left hand, right hand) to use in response to a centrally presented tone. Thus, following either a left or right peripheral cue, and then a central tone, subjects were free to respond with either their left or right hand. Early facilitation and later inhibition with this choice procedure were found in both response times and the proportion of responses to the cued and uncued locations. These results suggest that there are processes which initially bias response selection toward cued locations and then subsequently bias response selection away from cued locations.