The effect of religiosity and spirituality on psychological well-being among forensic psychiatric patients in Canada

All patients in a multilevel secure forensic psychiatric centre were surveyed to determine the relationship between religiosity and spirituality, and depression, anxiety and satisfaction with life. Of the whole population, 90% responded; 5% were females and 47% aboriginal. The mean anxiety and depression scores using the Beck anxiety and depression inventories were low at 11.4 and 17, respectively. Weekly attendance at worship and the private intrinsic religiosity scores were higher than comparable samples of Canadians and general mental-health inpatients. Satisfaction with life score was positively correlated with all religiosity and spirituality variables. There was an inverse relationship between the Existential Well-Being scale and depression scores. The Existential Well-Being scale also correlated positively with satisfaction with life. Weekly worship attendance was inversely correlated with depression scores. These results point to some important differences between this patient population and the general population.     

How Interviewees Consider Content and Context Cues to Person–Organization Fit

The interview is an ideal opportunity for job candidates to assess their fit with potential employers. While research shows that candidates' perceptions of person–organization (PO) fit lead to important outcomes, fewer studies explore how such perceptions are formed. A policy‐capturing study modeled how job candidates detect and interpret cues from the interview to inform their determinations of PO fit. A total of 213 participants read a series of vignettes representing interview scenarios, and rated each in terms of his/her perceived PO fit. Evidence showed that participants considered context factors (interview procedure practices and interviewer behaviors) more than the values‐relevant content of interview questions when assessing their level of PO fit.     

Homeokinetics/Homeodynamics: A Physical Heuristic for Life and Complexity

This essay addresses the puzzlement, the missing piece, sensed when attempts are made to build a bridge from the synchronic, informational genotype to the diachronic, dynamic phenotype—a regular mapping that seems to be extraphysical. There is no formal, dynamic foundation for the bridge. Albert Einstein, Max Delbrück, and Erwin Schrödinger all expressed acute awareness of limitations of contemporary physics when considering biology because physics addresses much simpler sysems. As a proposed remedy, a new physical heuristic, homeokinetics, developed by Arthur Iberall and Harry Soodak (and later recast for biology by me as homeodynamics) is introduced here as a foundation for comprehending energy flows and transformations in complex systems, including those in metabolic networks of living systems. Their individual dynamic stability is flexible and marginal—it must allow for adaptations and changes in physiological and behavioral states to occur in an orderly fashion as external circumstances change. At the population level, stability must allow for evolvability of chemical networks that have energized terrestrial living systems for about 3.9 billion years. Homeokinetics/homeodynamics emphasizes that persistent, marginally stable metabolic networks, as open thermodynamic systems, necessarily organize energy processing as cyclic, physical action modes. Conceptually, that organization is under 2 kinds of biological time pressure—time as a cycle that daily closes the thermodynamic books and time as an arrow orthogonally pressing the cyles into the future, creating joint time as a helix. In most animals, after maturity, the helix is additionally shaped into a tapered ellipsoid by a senesence process that gains influence as dynamic degrees of freedom are frozen out by the constructions of development.     

Moral Philosophy,Ethical Evaluations,and Sales Manager Hiring Intentions

A growing body of evidence shows an influence of moral philosophies on ethical decision-making. Despite the importance of ethical considerations in sales force selection, the influence of sales managers’ ethical evaluations on hiring practices has received scant attention. This study examines sales managers’ ideological orientations, ethical evaluations of hypothetical salespeople portrayed in scenarios, and the effect of such evaluations on the intent to hire salespeople. Results of a cluster analysis highlight that four ideology-based segments of sales managers exist, with absolutists dominating the 268 sales executives surveyed. Furthermore, it was found that ideological relativism influences managers’ judgments of ethical behavior and hiring intentions, but idealism did not play a role. In turn, ethical judgments of justness, fairness, moral rightness, and acceptability influence hiring intentions.     

Analysis of the Buyer-Seller Dyad: The Social Relations Model

Research into the interaction of a salesperson with a buyer would seem to be relatively simple, but in fact there are a number of theoretical and methodological challenges. The author describes several of these challenges, particularly the nonindependence of observations and the existence of effects at both individual and dyadic levels. An analytical approach, the Social Relations Model, is presented which takes these phenomena into account. The model's application is illustrated with an investigation of the relationship between a salesperson's communication competence and performance.     

Winnicott,Kohut, and the Developmental Context of Well-Being

In this article, qualitative, case-based research findings from the works of D. W. Winnicott and Heinz Kohut, regarding the interpersonal world of the child, are used to show how quantitative data from positive psychology on well-being can be seen as emerging within a highly social developmental context. It was shown that observations concerning the optimal social context for healthy child development embedded within the works of both Winnicott and Kohut can be mutually employed in the service of a productive dialogue with the tradition of quantitative research on well-being within positive psychology. On a more general level, the analysis provides evidence in support of Friedman's (2008 Friedman , H. ( 2008 ). Humanistic and positive psychology: The methodological and epistemological divide . The Humanistic Psychologist , 36 , 113 – 126 .[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Mruk's (2008 Mruk , C. J. ( 2008 ). The psychology of self-esteem: A potential common ground for humanistic positive psychology and positivistic positive psychology . The Humanistic Psychologist , 36 , 143 – 158 .[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) calls for an enhanced dialogue between humanistic, qualitatively inclined psychologists and positive, quantitatively inclined psychologists.     

Brief eviews

Developments in humanistic psychology: Recent books by division members

Christopher M, Aanstoos (Ed.). Studies in Humanistic Psychology. West Georgia College Studies in the Social Sciences (Volume 29). Carrollton, GA: West Georgia College, 1991, 216 pp. $5.00.

Frank Barron. Creativity and Psychological Health: Origins of Personal Vitality and Creative Freedom. Buffalo: C.E.F. Press, 1990.

James F. T. Bugental. Intimate Journeys: Stories from Life‐Changing Therapy. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1990, 335 pp. $24.95.

Alvin R. Mahrer. How to Do Experiential Psychotherapy: A Manual for Practitioners. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1989. 153 pp. $12.95.

Alvin R. Mahrer. Dreamwork in Psychotherapy and Self‐Change. New York: W. W. Norton. 372 pp. $34.95.

Clark Moustakas. Heuristic Research: Design, Methodology, and Applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990. 130 pp. $14.95.

Clark Moustakas. Loneliness. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1990, $6.95. and Clark Moustakas. Loneliness and Love. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1990. 146 pp. $7.95.

Kirk J. Schneider. The Paradoxical Self: Toward an Understanding of our Contradictory Nature. New York: Plenum Press, 1990. 235 pp. $20.95.

M. Brewster Smith. Values, Self & Society: Toward a Humanistic Social Psychology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1991, 289 pp. $34.95.

Richard E. Felder and Avrum Geurin Weiss. Experiential Psychotherapy: A Symphony of Selves. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991. 164 pp.     

The Masking Function of Self-Revelation in Group Therapy

Though similar to traditional group psychotherapy in many respects, a coping skill training approach differs principally in several areas and technically in many more. Coping skill training group therapy tends to employ many concrete intervention strategies to enhance various aspects of process, drawing on ongoing data to evaluate group interaction and individual responses. The approach draws more heavily on cognitive, modeling, reinforcement, and problem-solving procedures to achieve specifically determined goals, and it depends less on interpretive and confrontative methods. The author discusses a wide range of techniques to show the benefits of this approach.