Space: The Final Frontier: The Use of Psychological,Emotional, and Sacred Space in Biblical Texts and Contemporary Psychotherapy

This article explores sacred space in pastoral psychotherapy using the big bang theory, the notion of transitional space, and a theology of story. A case study demonstrates the creation of healing space in the practice of therapy.     

Influences of Upstream Social Factors on Downstream Perceptions of Social Support in Cardiac Rehabilitation1

Within Berkman et al.'s (2000) framework, we examined sociodemographic correlates of social networks (SN) and social support (SS) in 155 heart patients (33 women, 122 men), who completed measures of sociodemographics, SN, and SS. Hierarchical regression analyses examined the relationship between sociodemographic factors and SN; and between sociodemographic factors, SN, and SS. Higher social status and more income were related to larger, more diverse networks and more SS. Higher social status and being married were related to more SS. Being married was related to more belonging and tangible support. Results show the complex relationship between higher level social factors and specific SS functions offering areas for future interventions to increase SS in heart patients.     

State education,spirituality, and culture: teachers’ personal and professional stories of negotiating the nexus

This paper explores the implications of spirituality for teaching and learning in multicultural state schools through the examination of several teachers’ personal and professional narratives. In attempting to capture the intangible, these narratives provide insights into the possibilities, both conscious and unconscious, of creating a climate that fosters spirituality. The classroom stories of a spiritual nature that the teachers recounted (while many and varied) revealed some common themes that related to the climate of the classrooms. Sensitive issues of faith, beliefs, and culture emerged and the teachers’ narratives illustrate ways in which inclusive communities can be fostered. The paper provides examples of cultural and social inclusiveness with a focus on two major themes: the relationship between life and death, and fostering a sense of belonging.     

The Social Goals of Excuses: Self‐Serving Attributions or Politeness Strategies1

Participants provided examples of explanations given as excuses, or withheld in favor of a false excuse, both for failing to keep a social contract and for rejecting a social invitation. Results show that the likelihood of an explanation being given in social‐contract situations was best predicted by intentionality and controllability; while in social‐rejection situations, the most important factor was to avoid personal reasons (related to the recipient). Excuse‐givers were even willing to blame themselves to do this. These results are discussed in terms of the need to extend attributional categories beyond traditional self‐serving functions to include social goals. such as the recipient saving face, to provide an adequate account of how excuse‐making varies across different types of social predicaments.     

Psychology and African-American women: Findings from applied research

The current applied research on African-American women is characterized by a limited focus on primarily poor and single mothers and comparative studies with white women. The resulting research ignores the diversity within African-American women generalizing from noncomparative or restrictive samples to all African-American women and provides narrowly focused and/or inappropriate research models in which to study the development of these women across the life span. This review focuses on some of this research as it relates to social context factors in African-American women's lives: social supports and parenting, work and self-esteem, gender role attitudes and marital life, and mental health. An examination of methodological problems and suggestions for future research is discussed.     

Absolutely general knowledge*

There is extensive debate among contemporary philosophers about the possibility of absolutely unrestricted quantification; thus far, the debate been almost entirely logically and metaphysically focused. We argue for a third axis of evaluation: the epistemological. We defend absolutism on epistemological grounds, by showing that one prominent and attractive alternative to absolutism—schematism—is epistemologically unacceptable. First, we spell out and motivate an epistemological desideratum for theories of generality, a desideratum which is easily satisfied by absolutists. Second, we consider five ways the schematist might satisfy this desideratum. We argue that none of the five ways is successful.