The minister and the discharged mental patient

Pastoral Psychology -     

Cognitive correlates of mathematical achievement in children with cerebral palsy and typically developing children

Background . Remarkably few studies have investigated the nature and origin of learning difficulties in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Aims . To investigate math achievement in terms of word‐problem solving ability in children with CP and controls. Because of the potential importance of reading for word‐problem solving, we investigated reading as well. Sample . Children with CP attending either special (n= 41) or mainstream schools (n= 16) and a control group of typically developing children in mainstream schools (n= 16). Method . Group differences in third grade math and reading, controlled for IQ, were tested with analyses of co‐variance (ANCOVAs). Hierarchical regression was used to investigate cognitive correlates of third grade math and reading. Predictors included verbal and non‐verbal IQ measured in first grade, components of working memory (WM) and executive function (EF) measured in second grade, and arithmetic fact fluency and reading measured in third grade. Results . Children with CP in special schools performed significantly worse than their peers on word‐problem solving and reading. There was a trend towards worse performance in children with CP in mainstream schools compared to typically developing children. Conclusions . Impairments of non‐verbal IQ and WM updating predicted future difficulties in both word‐problem solving and reading. Impairments of visuospatial sketchpad and inhibition predicted future word‐problem, but not reading difficulty. Conversely, deficits of phonological loop predicted reading but not word‐problem difficulty. Concurrent arithmetic fact fluency and reading ability were both important for word‐problem solving ability. These results could potentially help to predict which children are likely to develop specific learning difficulties, facilitating early intervention.     

A meta-analysis of the Dark Triad and work behavior: a social exchange perspective

We reviewed studies of the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits--Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-and meta-analytically examined their implications for job performance and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Relations among the DT traits and behaviors were extracted from original reports published between 1951 and 2011 of 245 independent samples (N = 43,907). We found that reductions in the quality of job performance were consistently associated with increases in Machiavellianism and psychopathy and that CWB was associated with increases in all 3 components of the DT, but that these associations were moderated by such contextual factors as authority and culture. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that the DT explains moderate amounts of the variance in counterproductivity, but not job performance. The results showed that the 3 traits are positively related to one another but are sufficiently distinctive to warrant theoretical and empirical partitioning.     

Child Involvement in Interparental Conflict and Child Adjustment Problems: A Longitudinal Study of Violent Families

This study examined whether child involvement in interparental conflict predicts child externalizing and internalizing problems in violent families. Participants were 119 families (mothers and children) recruited from domestic violence shelters. One child between the ages of 7 and 10 years in each family (50 female, 69 male) completed measures of involvement in their parents’ conflicts, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems. Mothers completed measures of child externalizing and internalizing problems, and physical intimate partner violence. Measures were completed at three assessments, spaced 6 months apart. Results indicated that children’s involvement in their parents’ conflicts was positively associated with child adjustment problems. These associations emerged in between-subjects and within-subjects analyses, and for child externalizing as well as internalizing problems, even after controlling for the influence of physical intimate partner violence. In addition, child involvement in parental conflicts predicted later child reports of externalizing problems, but child reports of externalizing problems did not predict later involvement in parental conflicts. These findings highlight the importance of considering children’s involvement in their parents’ conflicts in theory and clinical work pertaining to high-conflict families.     

Quantum perichoresis: Quantum field theory and the Trinity

The main thesis of this article is that the Trinitarian theological doctrine of perichoresis can be metaphorically interpreted as a form of Divine phase entanglement with the world. Such entanglement would entail non-local, relational holism and superposition through which the immanent unity of the Trinity is economically present in creation. Christ kenoticly empties himself of the immanent perichoresis of the Trinity in order to enter the economic perichoresis of the creation. The Spirit is then the continuing perichoretic love of God sanctifying the creation toward life and fulfillment from within. It is the Trinity in ongoing perichoretic entanglement with the creation, affirming Divine ubiquity and panentheism.