Pastoral care and counseling with the chronically ill

The increasing prevalence of chronic illness and chronic pain problems offers a challenge to pastors and churches. In this paper, notions of surplus suffering and disability are discussed, misconceived rules and expectations characterized, and strategies for helping chronic patients and their families described.     

Executive attention and task switching in category learning: Evidence for stimulus-dependent representation

One class of multiple-system models of category learning posits that within a single category-learning task people can learn to utilize different systems with different category representations to classify different stimuli. This is referred to as stimulus-dependent representation (SDR). The use of SDR implies that learners switch from subtask to subtask as trials demand. Thus, the use of SDR can be assessed via slowed response times, following a representation switch. Additionally, the use of SDR requires control of executive attention to keep inactive representations from interfering with the current response. Subjects were given a category learning task composed of one- and two-dimensional substructures. Control of executive attention was measured using a working memory capacity (WMC) task. Subjects most likely to be using SDR showed greater slowing of responses following a substructure switch and a greater correlation between learning performance and WMC. These results provide support for the principle of SDR in category learning and the reliance of SDR on executive attention.     

Socioeconomic Status and Perceived Expectations As Measures of Family Influence

This is a study of changes in the educational plans of a longitudinal group of 255 males over grades 8, 9, 10, and 11. Subjected to testing and confirmed is the hypothesis that the student's perceived interaction with parents, regardless of socioeconomic status, is more directly associated with his educational plans than is socioeconomic status itself. The results also suggest that peers do not exceed parents in their influence upon adolescent plans when both sources of possible influence are measured by the same method.     

Viral videos and virtue: Moral elevation inductions shift affect and interpersonal goals in daily life

Laboratory studies suggest that witnessing virtuous acts triggers moral elevation, an emotion characterized by feeling uplifted and increased prosocial motives. However, it remains unknown whether regular inductions can increase elevation and prosocial motives in daily life without being vulnerable to habituation or adaptation effects. Participants (total N = 181) were randomly assigned to elevating vs. neutral or amusing inductions (video or recall tasks) for seven days (Study 1), ten days (Study 2), or 12 days over one month (Study 3). Multilevel growth models showed that relative to comparison conditions, elevation inductions increased daily elevation, positive affect, and prosocial outcomes (compassionate goals and affiliation), and decreased self-protective motives (self-image goals). Adaptation effects occurred for immediate responses when exercises occurred daily, but not when spaced out over time, and not for outcomes measured later each day. Results suggest benefits of brief, regular elevation experiences and have implications for interventions targeting specific emotions.     

Spirituality and depth psychology

The resurgence of interest in spiritual and religious matters and in the depth psychology of C.G. Jung is examined relative to the work of spiritual direction and pastoral counseling. It is suggested that the risks of muddled thinking, narcissism, gnosticism, and credulity are increased when one attempts to combine spiritual disciplines with depth psychology.     

Action and emotion in everyday life

This study of naturally occurring behaviour employed a "beeper technique" to investigate the actions carried out by 152 subjects in eight different groups, viz. adult students, employed students who were also parents, unemployed, art students, doctoral students, alcoholics, retired people and a control group. Actions were sampled for seven subsequent days, five times per day between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. at randomly selected occasions. Each action was rated on a number of variables, shortly after it was sampled (median delay approximately 10 min). Some of the findings were: Time allocation corresponded well with national estimates. Being under situational control was highly aversive. Instrumental and consummatory orientations correlated positively. The background variables were, on the whole, only rather weakly related to action ratings, but it was found that women and retired persons tended to report a higher level of well-being.