Religiosity, Alcohol Use, and Sex Behaviors Among College Student-Athletes

College student-athletes tend to consume more alcohol, engage in sex, and report more sex partners than nonathlete students. The current study examined the relationship between religiosity (e.g., influence of religious beliefs and church attendance) and alcohol use and sex behavior among college student-athletes. Most of the student-athletes (n = 83) were religious. Influence of religious beliefs was a significant predictor of less alcohol use and less sexual activity (i.e., oral and vaginal sex, number of sex partners). However, increased church attendance was not found to be a protective factor. Findings suggest that religious beliefs may contribute to reduction of alcohol use and sexual risk among college student-athletes. Consideration should be given to incorporating religiosity aspects in sexual and alcohol risk-reduction interventions for student-athletes.     

A preliminary investigation of sex differences in associations between emotion regulation difficulties and higher-order cognitive abilities

The present study sought to clarify the cognitive correlates of emotion regulation difficulties (ERD). Further, because prior evidence suggests sex differences in emotion regulation, sex was examined as a moderator of associations between cognitive abilities and ERD. Participants (N = 154) completed self-report measures of ERD, and were administered neuropsychological tests assessing crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as various components of executive functioning. Bivariate correlations and results from regression analyses suggested sex-dependent associations among cognitive processes and ERD. For men, inhibition of dominant response tendencies was associated with lower ERD, whereas for women, a host of executive abilities (e.g., greater inhibition, cognitive flexibility, semantic processing, abstract reasoning) were associated with greater ERD. Implications for the neurocognitive conceptualization of emotion dysregulation will be discussed.     

Repeated Self-Regulation and Asymmetric Hemispheric Activation

Numerous recent studies have investigated repeated self-regulation to uncover the processes involved in self-regulatory behavior over time. Results from most of these studies are consistent with a depletion process in which self-regulatory effectiveness declines over time due to resource depletion. The present research examined an additional factor that may also be involved in repeated self-regulatory exertion, namely, differential hemispheric activation. Five studies examined this issue, focusing on self-control tasks requiring avoidance or vigilance. Studies 1 to 3 indicated that these tasks resulted in greater relative right hemispheric activation. Studies 4 and 5 indicated that, consistent with this pattern of differential activation, initial vigilance self-control resulted in better subsequent performance on a spatial self-regulatory task but worse performance on a verbal self-regulatory task. These findings provide additional insight into the dynamics of self-regulatory behavior across tasks, suggesting the combination of tasks examined may influence the pattern of results obtained.     

Preschoolers’ emotion knowledge: Self-regulatory foundations,and predictions of early school success

Preschoolers (N=322 in preschool, 100 in kindergarten) were assessed longitudinally to examine the self-regulatory roots of emotion knowledge (labelling and situation) and the contributions of emotion knowledge to early school adjustment (i.e., including social, motivational, and behavioural indices), as well as moderation by age, gender, and risk. Age, gender, and risk differences in emotion knowledge were also examined. Emotion knowledge skills were found to be more advanced in older children and those not at economic risk, and in those with higher levels of self-regulation. Overall, the results support the role of emotion knowledge in early school adjustment and academic success even with gender, age, and risk covaried, especially for boys, older preschoolers, and those at economic risk.     

Gaze Aversion During Children's Transient Knowledge and Learning

Looking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults and children answer challenging mental arithmetic and verbal-reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998 Glenberg, A. M., Schroeder, J. L. and Robertson, D. A. 1998. Averting the gaze disengages the environment and facilitates remembering. Memory and Cognition, 26: 651–658. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Phelps, Doherty-Sneddon, & Warnock, 2006 Phelps, F., Doherty-Sneddon, G. and Warnock, H. 2006. Functional benefits of children's gaze aversion during questioning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24: 577–588. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). While such “gaze aversion” (GA) is used far less by 5-year-old school children, its use increases dramatically during the first years of primary education, reaching adult levels by 8 years of age (Doherty-Sneddon, Bruce, Bonner, Longbotham, & Doyle, 2002 Doherty-Sneddon, G., Bruce, V., Bonner, L., Longbotham, S. and Doyle, C. 2002. Development of gaze aversion as disengagement from visual information. Developmental Psychology, 38: 438–445. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Furthermore, GA increases with increasing mental demands, with high levels signalling that an individual finds material being discussed challenging but remains engaged with it (Doherty-Sneddon et al., 2002 Doherty-Sneddon, G., Bruce, V., Bonner, L., Longbotham, S. and Doyle, C. 2002. Development of gaze aversion as disengagement from visual information. Developmental Psychology, 38: 438–445. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005 Doherty-Sneddon, G. and Phelps, F. 2005. Gaze aversion: A solution to cognitive or social difficulty?. Memory and Cognition, 33: 727–733. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the current study we investigate whether patterns of gaze and gaze aversion during children's explanations can predict when they are in states of transient knowledge (Karmiloff-Smith 1992 Karmiloff-Smith, A. 1992. Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]; Goldin-Meadow, Kim, & Singer, 1999 Goldin-Meadow, S., Kim, S. and Singer, M. 1999. What the teacher's hands tell the student's mind about math. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91: 720–730. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In Study 1, thirty-three 6-year-old children completed a balance beam task (Pine & Messer, 2000 Pine, K. J. and Messer, D. 2000. The effects of explaining another's actions on children's implicit theories of balance. Cognition and Instruction, 18: 37–54. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Children who improved the representational level of their explanations (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992 Karmiloff-Smith, A. 1992. Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]) of this task with training used more GA than those who did not. Practical implications for teaching and for recognizing transient knowledge states are discussed. In Study 2, fifty-nine 6-year-olds took part and completed a “Time Task” along with periodic teaching intervention to improve their comprehension of telling the time. Some children improved immediately, whereas others did so more gradually. The gradual improvers showed the highest levels of GA, particularly when they were at an intermediate level of performance.     

Mental Health Services Use Intentions Among Canadian Military Recruits

Identifying the factors associated with mental health services use (MHSU) is an important step in developing strategies to improve services access and delivery. The aims of the present study were to (a) identify personality and individual difference characteristics associated with MHSU intentions within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and (b) explore complex relationships that might exist between these characteristics and determinants of MHSU intentions identified in TPB, including attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Data for 244 Canadian Armed Forces recruits who completed a MHSU questionnaire following mental health training were linked to personality data collected earlier. Multivariate analyses showed that the relationship between agreeableness and MHSU intentions was mediated by instrumental attitudes and subjective norms. The relationship between hardiness and MHSU intentions was mediated by subjective norms and self-efficacy. Findings suggest it may be worthwhile to consider mental health education initiatives to improve MHSU.     

Perceived relevance of honesty and agreeableness to situations with non‐correspondent and correspondent outcomes: An interdependence perspective

According to interdependence theory, interpersonal situations that vary in their surface characteristics can be united by similarities in their underlying structure. Likewise, factor analytic approaches to personality combine many traits into a small number of factors. In the current research, we use interdependence theory and existing factor analyses of personality traits to measure people's lay theories about the ways traits and situations interact. We predict that traits representative of honesty–humility/virtue will be rated as more relevant to situations with non‐correspondent outcomes (a gain in one person's outcomes is associated with a loss in the other person's outcomes) than to situations with correspondent outcomes (a gain in one person's outcomes is associated with a gain in the other person's outcomes). Conversely, we predict that traits representative of agreeableness will be rated as more relevant to situations with correspondent outcomes than to situations with non‐correspondent outcomes. An experiment found the expected trait X situation interaction revealing that subjects expect certain types of traits to be most relevant to specific types of situations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple hydrogen trapping at monovacancies

Novel structures for multiple hydrogen atoms trapped at a monovacancy are discussed. Using atomistic simulations based on semiempirical interatomic potentials and density functional theory, we find low-energy configurations for four, five, and six hydrogen atoms around a monovacancy different than those that have been previously studied in the literature. The energetics of hydrogen binding are compared to results, both theoretical and experimental, previously published in the literature. We argue that up to four hydrogen atoms may be exothermically bound to monovacancy.     

Badiou,Keyser, and the Theo-mathematics of the Infinite

Abstract

This paper discusses Alain Badiou's dissolution of theology in light of his equation of ontology and mathematics and his separation of the infinite from the one. I argue, however, that Badiou leaves open a place for theology, and I exploit this for theology by drawing on the work of the American mathematician Cassius Jackson Keyser. Keyser suggests a more positive relationship between mathematics, ontology, and theology, and his claim that theology is the science of idealization allows us to begin to think about how one might go about doing philosophical theology after Badiou.