Religion in Global Perspective: SSSR Presidential Panel

Global processes present a challenge for scholarly work on religion, necessitating new concepts, theoretical and analytical models, intellectual sensitivity, and imagination. This calls for focusing on (1) cross‐border interpenetration of religious organizations, beliefs, and practices; (2) variations in the potential for religious beliefs and institutions to be transported; and (3) the use of multiple frames of reference to examine the dispersion of religious cultures and communities. A presidential panel presents the need for generating new research questions, improving measurement tools, and updating methodological techniques so that social scientists of religion accurately and authentically portray the nature and expression of religion in the 21st century.     

Assimilation,multiculturalism, and colorblindness: Mediated and moderated relationships between social dominance orientation and prejudice

Using correlational and experimental data, we examined the degree to which personal and perceived normative support for the acculturation ideologies of assimilation, multiculturalism, and colorblindness mediated and moderated the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and prejudice among 299 White students at three American colleges. Correlational results indicated that personal support for the acculturation ideologies mediated the SDO–prejudice relationship. Personal support for assimilation (a hierarchy-enhancing ideology) positively related to SDO; multiculturalism and colorblindness (hierarchy-attenuating ideologies) negatively related to SDO. An experimental manipulation varied whether assimilation, multiculturalism, or colorblindness was considered normative in the United States. In addition to a control, a fifth condition primed the Obama presidency. SDO related most strongly to prejudice toward American immigrants and ethnic minorities when assimilation norms and the Obama presidency were primed. Efforts to reduce the associations between SDO and prejudice are discussed in terms of highlighting hierarchy-attenuating national norms of multiculturalism and colorblindness.     

Exhausting or exhilarating? Conflict as threat to interests,relationships and identities

Some conflicts are experienced as depleting and exhausting whereas others are experienced as stimulating and invigorating. We explored the possibility that the focus of perceived threat in conflict determines whether it produces taxing stress or vitalizing arousal. Studies 1 and 2 established that attending to threats to interests, relationships, and identities during interpersonal conflict differentially relates to motivational goals, empathy and perspective-taking, femininity, and a collectivistic self-construal. Study 2 also found that perceived threats to relationships are associated with lower challenge appraisals and energy mobilization. Studies 3 and 4 experimentally manipulated threats to different targets and demonstrated causal effects of threat perceptions on self-reported energy mobilization and the consumption of comfort foods. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that conflicts which threaten relationships are experienced as significantly more depleting than conflicts that threaten either tangible interests or elements of individuals' identities, and explain when, why and for whom conflict is exhausting.     

An ecological analysis of the effects of deviant peer clustering on sexual promiscuity, problem behavior, and childbearing from early adolescence to adulthood: an enhancement of the life history framework

The authors propose that peer relationships should be included in a life history perspective on adolescent problem behavior. Longitudinal analyses were used to examine deviant peer clustering as the mediating link between attenuated family ties, peer marginalization, and social disadvantage in early adolescence and sexual promiscuity in middle adolescence and childbearing by early adulthood. Specifically, 998 youths, along with their families, were assessed at age 11 years and periodically through age 24 years. Structural equation modeling revealed that the peer-enhanced life history model provided a good fit to the longitudinal data, with deviant peer clustering strongly predicting adolescent sexual promiscuity and other correlated problem behaviors. Sexual promiscuity, as expected, also strongly predicted the number of children by ages 22-24 years. Consistent with a life history perspective, family social disadvantage directly predicted deviant peer clustering and number of children in early adulthood, controlling for all other variables in the model. These data suggest that deviant peer clustering is a core dimension of a fast life history strategy, with strong links to sexual activity and childbearing. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the need to integrate an evolutionary-based model of self-organized peer groups in developmental and intervention science.     

A controlled evaluation of the impact of a parent training programme on child behaviour and mothers' general well-being

This study was designed to assess the impact of a parent training programme run by the Eastern Health Board (EHB) on two factors, child behaviour and mothers' general well-being. Thirty-nine mothers (Experimental group), and forty mothers on a waiting list for the course (Control group), were assessed before the Experimental group commenced the course and again when the Experimental group had completed the course. The Experimental group was also assessed one year after completing the course. Although initially the Control group started from a slightly better position, statistically significant for one of the four measures, mothers in the Experimental group changed more during the course and rated their children as having fewer and less intense behavioural problems, and saw themselves as having fewer psychological symptoms and increased levels of self-esteem at post-course assessment. These beneficial effects were maintained at follow-up.     

Financial Aversion and Its Link to Attachment Anxiety

Recent research has identified a pattern of anxious and averse reactions towards the management of personal finances that particularly affects the young. A correlational study was conducted including 168 UK university students to investigate the nature of financial aversion within an attachment theory framework. It was hypothesised that, in addition to attachment style, financial aversion would be linked to financial stressors, dyslexia, and general anxiety. According to the findings, financial aversion was linked to probable dyslexia, symptoms of anxiety, attachment anxiety, and attachment dependency. Regression analysis identified attachment anxiety as the only independent predictor and suggested that it also moderated the effects of general anxiety on financial aversion. Findings may interest professionals counselling university students or other groups vulnerable to the experience of financial stress.     

Metaphor: Bridging embodiment to abstraction

Embodied cognition accounts posit that concepts are grounded in our sensory and motor systems. An important challenge for these accounts is explaining how abstract concepts, which do not directly call upon sensory or motor information, can be informed by experience. We propose that metaphor is one important vehicle guiding the development and use of abstract concepts. Metaphors allow us to draw on concrete, familiar domains to acquire and reason about abstract concepts. Additionally, repeated metaphoric use drawing on particular aspects of concrete experience can result in the development of new abstract representations. These abstractions, which are derived from embodied experience but lack much of the sensorimotor information associated with it, can then be flexibly applied to understand new situations.     

Separation—Individuation,Self-Concept,and Object Relations in Fraternal Twins,Identical Twins,and Singletons

Identical twins, fraternal twins, and singletons (n = 30 in each group) were compared on objective measures of separation–individuation, object relations, and self-esteem. No significant differences were found. The data did not support the popular notion that twins face special problems with respect to personality development or the idea that twins have more difficulty than others in establishing and maintaining close relationships. Twins and nontwins did not differ significantly with respect to marital status, number of years married, whether married before, number of previous marriages, number of years divorced, or living arrangements if single. The majority of twins had been raised in a way that encouraged at least some individual differences.     

The Corsi Block-Tapping Task: Methodological and Theoretical Considerations

The Corsi block-tapping task has enjoyed extensive use in clinical and experimental studies for a quarter of a century and is arguably the single most important nonverbal task in neuropsychological research. Nevertheless, there has been considerable inconsistency not only in the administration and scoring of this measure, but also in the physical properties of the test apparatus. In this paper, we survey a wide range of studies that have made use of the block-tapping task during the past 25 years and provide a detailed appraisal of the manifold methodological variations. Additionally, we discuss the historical context in which the Corsi originated and offer a critical examination of the cognitive processing operations purported to underlie performance on this task.