Existential faith and biblical philosophy

In this article, I present a case for a kind of existential theology which would be philosophical and metaphysical, though not broadly Platonic and classical, and biblical though not illogical. What I present will be an attempt to clarify and justify what I call ??existential hayatological theism??. In so doing I will draw on insights from what Edmond La B Cherbonnier and Claude Tresmontant designated as ??biblical philosophy?? and ??biblical metaphysics?? as well as from the neo-classical philosophies of Charles Hartshorne and Alfred North Whitehead, especially that of Whitehead.     

Cohort differences in Big Five personality factors over a period of 25 years

The notion of personality traits implies a certain degree of stability in the life span of an individual. But what about generational effects? Are there generational changes in the distribution or structure of personality traits? This article examines cohort changes on the Big Five personality factors Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience, among first-year psychology students in The Netherlands, ages 18 to 25 years, between 1982 and 2007. Because measurement invariance of a personality test is essential for a sound interpretation of cohort differences in personality, we first assessed measurement invariance with respect to cohort for males and females separately on the Big Five personality factors, as measured by the Dutch instrument Five Personality Factors Test. Results identified 11 (females) and 2 (males) biased items with respect to cohort, out of a total of 70 items. Analyzing the unbiased items, results indicated small linear increases over time in Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and small linear decreases over time in Neuroticism. No clear patterns were found on the Openness to Experience factor. Secondary analyses on students from 1971 to 2007 of females and males of different ages together revealed linear trends comparable to those in the main analyses among young adults between 1982 onward. The results imply that the broad sociocultural context may affect personality factors.     

Social and Academic Impairment in Youth with ADHD, Predominately Inattentive Type and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) was originally identified as a construct that characterized the inattention problems of some children with attention deficit disorder (ADD). Research has indicated that using SCT symptoms to identify a subset of youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominately inattentive type (ADHD-IT) may elucidate distinct patterns of impairment and thereby improve the external validity of ADHD subtypes. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether youth with clinically-assessed ADHD-IT and high levels of SCT exhibit unique social and academic impairments. In a clinic-referred sample of youth (N?=?209; 23 % female) aged 6 to 17 years, participants who met criteria for three different groups were identified: ADHD, Combined Type (ADHD-CT; n?=?80), ADHD-IT with low SCT symptoms (n?=?74), and ADHD-IT with high SCT symptoms (n?=?55). These groups were compared on indicators of social and academic functioning while considering the effects of co-occurring internalizing and disruptive behavior disorders. Youth with ADHD-IT high in SCT exhibited uniquely elevated withdrawal, as well as low leadership and low peer-directed relational and overt aggression, which were not accounted for by co-occurring disorders. This high-SCT group was also the only group to have more homework problems than the ADHD-CT group, but only when other disruptive behavior disorders were absent. The distinctiveness of the high-SCT group, which was primarily evident in social as opposed to academic functioning, provides partial support for the external validity and clinical utility of SCT.     

Cognitive-behavioral therapy of insomnia: A clinical case series study of patients with co-morbid disorders and using hypnotic medications

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi) has demonstrated considerable efficacy within randomized clinical trials and case-series designs. This case-series study in a community sleep medicine clinic assessed the effectiveness of an eight-session CBTi protocol chronic insomnia patients who were allowed to continue their use of hypnotics (intent-to-treat n = 48), administered by a clinical psychology doctoral student receiving training and supervision in CBTi by a behavioral sleep medicine certified clinician. Outcome measures included daily sleep diaries, self-report measures on insomnia severity, dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, daytime sleepiness, as well as medication usage. Patients showed significant improvements in sleep onset latency, wake time after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, insomnia severity, and dysfunctional sleep beliefs from pre- to post-treatment. No changes were seen in daytime sleepiness - patients were not excessively sleepy either before or after treatment. Use of sleep medication declined significantly from 87.5% pre-treatment to 54% post-treatment, despite no active efforts to encourage patients to withdraw. Results demonstrate that a CBTi conducted in a community sleep medicine clinic with patients not required to discontinue sleep-related medications can have similar effects as therapy delivered among those not on medication.     

Perceiving External Things and the Time‐Lag Argument

Abstract: We seem to directly perceive external things. But can we? According to the time‐lag argument, we cannot. What we directly perceive happens now. There is a time‐lag between our perceptions and the external things we seem to directly perceive; these external things happen in the past; thus, what we directly perceive must be something else, for example, sense‐data, and we can only at best indirectly perceive other things. This paper examines the time‐lag argument given contemporary metaphysics. I argue that this argument is not as compelling as it may initially seem. First, it denies that what we directly perceive can ever be what it seems to be; second, it conflicts with the current physical conception of time, relativity theory. This latter point leads to a more general one: the argument's force depends on a particular metaphysical conception on time, presentism, which is controversial in contemporary metaphysics of time. Given the alternative conception, eternalism, the argument is much less compelling. The overall argument of this paper, then, is that, if one wishes to hold that we directly perceive external things, we should subscribe to the latter view of time, i.e., eternalism.     

Well-Being, Quality of Life, and the Naïve Pursuit of Happiness

The pursuit of happiness is a long-enshrined tradition that has recently become the cornerstone of the American Positive Psychology movement. However, “happiness” is an over-worked and ambiguous word, which, it is argued, should be restricted and only used as the label for a brief emotional state that typically lasts a few seconds or minutes. The corollary proposal for positive psychology is that optimism is a preferable stance over pessimism or realism. Examples are presented both from psychology and economics that illustrate the dangers of optimism, and in which better outcomes can occur with a pessimistic stance. A more sophisticated approach is then presented in which, in relation to well-being and quality of life, neither optimism nor pessimism is seen as inherently better than the other, but, rather, in which psychological flexibility may contribute optimally to health and well-being.     

Do older individuals have difficulty processing motion or excluding noise? Implications for safe driving

This study aimed to determine if difficulties extracting signal from noise explained poorer coherent motion thresholds in older individuals, particularly women. In four experimental conditions the contrast of the signal and noise dots used in a random dot kinematogram was manipulated. Coherence thresholds were highest when the signal dots were of a lower contrast than the noise dots and lowest when the signal dots were of a higher contrast than the noise dots. In all conditions the older group had higher coherence thresholds than the younger group, and women had higher thresholds than men. Significant correlations were found between coherence thresholds and self-reported driving difficulties in conditions in which the signal dots had to be extracted from noise only. The results indicate that older individuals have difficulties extracting signal from noise in cluttered visual environments. The implications for safe driving are discussed.     

Welcome to “the Rock”: Service Providers’ Views on Newcomer Youth Integration in Newfoundland and Labrador

This study investigates the needs of newcomer youth in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the services provided to them in the provincial capital, St. John’s, through the lens of service providers. We employ Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model (1999, 2005) as the conceptual framework to explore how various ecological systems interact with one another to influence the development of newcomer youth. Data were drawn from 33 semi-structured interviews with personnel in various immigrant and refugee support agencies, medical and counseling units, municipal recreational offices, and educational programs, as well as ten observations of their programs. Our findings indicate that the current services and programs provide effective support in a number of areas. However, closer collaboration can be established between schools and community organizations, among different service agencies, and involving the business community. Service gaps identified include a lack of transportation to and from school, insufficient academic bridging programs, and no career counseling catering to newcomer students. We argue that service agencies should consider shifting some of their programs to the newcomer youth’s microsystems of school and family, and that the provincial educational authorities need to look into the transportation issue that infringes upon the rights of these students to appropriate school instruction.