What's the Story?: Spirituality and Writing

What is spirituality? As in other papers (Gearon, 1995, cf Wright, 1996; Gearon, 1996, 1997), I maintain here that spirituality may be defined as our relationship with ultimate reality. Spirituality is thus inevitably, by this definition, always metaphysical (Gearon, 1995, again, cf. Wright, 1996, but also Wright, 1997). I want to develop this theme here by contending that such notions of ultimate reality are determined, themselves defined, by texts, that spirituality today, in literate societies, is defined by writing.

Developing this intentionally provocative idea of spirituality's ultimate definition and determination by writing, particularly through notions of narrative and text, this paper provides a critical examination of the place of the literary form in contemporary debate on spirituality in education. Marking out the contentious territory of various interdisciplinary boundaries – some more disputed than others – an attempt is made to parallel the problems centring on our understanding of spirituality with problems associated with the interpretation of texts. By way of an open conclusion, designed as with the main body of the paper to stimulate debate, these albeit brief considerations will be set within the more specific concerns of ‘Engaging the Curriculum – A Theological Programme’, (Thatcher, 1995; Markham, 1996, 1997, 1997a; Gearon, 1997a, 1997b, and, forthcoming, 1998, 1998a), a major project to promote an interdisciplinary awareness of spiritual and theological issues in the curriculum in a genuinely international context. (The bulletin and now journal of the project is, beyond the UK, circulated in Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Philippines, the United States, amongst other countries.)     

Guidance and counselling in Irish schools

The development of guidance services in Irish schools since the sixties is described and discussed. Provision for the full-time training of guidance teachers began in 1967, and after a brief attempt to use short courses as a substitute, this has now been accepted as the standard form of basic training. Since 1972 approximately 90 guidance teachers have qualified each year, and by 1974 they were present in about 24% of post-primary schools. Data is reported from a survey of early graduates from the one-year course at University College Dublin, and also from a survey of the attitudes to guidance of the heads of schools with guidance teachers. Some comments are also provided on the current status of guidance in Ireland.     

Moving with the in-crowd: Cooperation and interpersonal entrainment in in- vs. out- groups

Current Psychology - Interpersonal entrainment or moving together in time, has been shown to cultivate pro-social behaviours amongst those who take part. Converging evidence suggests that its...     

Planning ahead: goal-directed problem solving by 2-year-olds.

On tasks that require overcoming an obstacle along an existing path to a physically present goal, infants and very young children evince planning. In each of 3 experiments, the authors tested 21- and 27-month-olds' ability to construct a path to a mentally re-presented goal. Across experiments, the authors varied the number and type of cues to the solution provided. After exposure to the goal-state configuration of problems, both age groups showed evidence of planning (Experiment 1). Demonstration of the initial step in the solution path in Experiment 2 was not as effective as exposure to the goal state in Experiment 1. Even with specification of a greater proportion of the goal path, goal-state configuration information was particularly effective in facilitating performance (Experiment 3). The results suggest productive generation of solutions to novel problems by young children; planning is facilitated by goal-state configuration information.     

Varying reinforcement magnitude on interval schedules

In Experiment 1, rats were trained on either a random-interval or a variable-interval 60-sec schedule of reinforcement, and reinforcement magnitude was varied across conditions between one and four pellets. Although the two schedules maintained different patterns of behaviour, patterns and rates of responding were not systematically affected by the variation in reinforcement magnitude. In Experiment 2, a regulated probability interval schedule that generated similar rates of reinforcement to those of the schedules of Experiment 1 was used, with the pattern of behaviour generated resembling that typical of a random-interval schedule. Changing reinforcement magnitude again produced few systematic changes in behaviour. In Experiment 3, a variable-ratio schedule was used within a procedure that otherwise resembled that of Experiments 1 and 2. Increasing the reinforcement magnitude now decreased the rates of responding, and examination of the patterns of responding showed that this came about because rates of responding were higher early in the interreinforcer interval in the one-pellet condition. These experiments demonstrate the insensitivity of behaviour under interval schedules to changes in reinforcement magnitude and suggest the operation of mechanisms different from those engaged by ratio schedules and discretetrial learning procedures.     

Impulse Control Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease: A Psychosocial Perspective

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease primarily characterised by motor symptoms. However, another feature of PD which is receiving increasing attention is the phenomenon of impulse control disorders (ICDs), such as pathological gambling. To date, research into ICDs in PD has centred on a biomedical model of cause, related to the effects of dopamine replacement therapy. However, there are several areas of discrepancy in the current biomedical account of ICDs in PD. In addition, we argue that social and psychological factors also need to be considered to achieve a more complete understanding of the phenomenon. We present a novel conceptual model which combines biomedical and psychosocial factors in the genesis of ICDs in PD and use the model to identify a number of potential treatment intervention points and to highlight important outstanding questions concerning the inter-relationship between psychosocial and biomedical factors in the genesis of ICDs in PD.