Strategically Prophetic Priests: An Analysis of Competing Principal Influence on Clergy Political Action

We assess clergy political activism dynamics using data from a national survey of Roman Catholic priests. Like their elite counterparts in interest groups and other secular political institutions, clergy encounter expectations and demands from competing principals when determining how to publicly act on key political issues. Building on insights from decades of clergy politics scholarship, we leverage new perspectives of principal-based influence by examining how Catholic priest perception of both local parish finances and diocesan bishop expectations affect their reported political actions. Our findings are consistent with the notion that parish and bishop principals condition priest political behavior, controlling for priest ideology. However, priest political action proves more sensitive to parish financial concerns than bishop encouragement.     

Dissociation between magnitude comparison and relation identification across different formats for rational numbers

ABSTRACT

The present study examined whether a dissociation among formats for rational numbers (fractions, decimals, and percentages) can be obtained in tasks that require comparing a number to a non-symbolic quantity (discrete or else continuous). In Experiment 1, college students saw a discrete or else continuous image followed by a rational number, and had to decide which was numerically larger. In Experiment 2, participants saw the same displays but had to make a judgment about the type of ratio represented by the number. The magnitude task was performed more quickly using decimals (for both quantity types), whereas the relation task was performed more accurately with fractions (but only when the image showed discrete entities). The pattern observed for percentages was very similar to that for decimals. A dissociation between magnitude comparison and relational processing with rational numbers can be obtained when a symbolic number must be compared to a non-symbolic display.     

The Before Baby Relationship Checkup: A Couples-Based Intervention to Reduce Relationship Risk Factors for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Relationship conflict and lack of partner support are risk factors for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. An intervention to strengthen couples’ relationships before birth may reduce relationship risk factors for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, though no research has explored this to date. The aims of this Stage 1 open-series non-experimental proof of concept study were to adapt the ‘Marriage Checkup’, an evidence-based intervention for relationship distress, as a preventative intervention for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and to assess its feasibility and acceptability. Pregnant women receiving care at a university-based obstetric practice, and their partners, were recruited. Ten couples participated in the Before Baby Relationship Checkup, a personalized relationship health service offered in the obstetric clinic. Quantitative and qualitative data gathered suggests the intervention is feasible to implement in an obstetric setting, and acceptable to perinatal couples. Specific adaptations to the Marriage Checkup for perinatal couples are warranted and further testing is needed to evaluate efficacy.

     

Soft constraints in interactive behavior: the case of ignoring perfect knowledge in-the-world for imperfect knowledge in-the-head

Constraints and dependencies among the elements of embodied cognition form patterns or microstrategies of interactive behavior. Hard constraints determine which microstrategies are possible. Soft constraints determine which of the possible microstrategies are most likely to be selected. When selection is non-deliberate or automatic the least effort microstrategy is chosen. In calculating the effort required to execute a microstrategy each of the three types of operations, memory retrieval, perception, and action, are given equal weight; that is, perceptual-motor activity does not have a privileged status with respect to memory. Soft constraints can work contrary to the designer’s intentions by making the access of perfect knowledge in-the-world more effortful than the access of imperfect knowledge in-the-head. These implications of soft constraints are tested in two experiments. In experiment 1 we varied the perceptual-motor effort of accessing knowledge in-the-world as well as the effort of retrieving items from memory. In experiment 2 we replicated one of the experiment 1 conditions to collect eye movement data. The results suggest that milliseconds matter. Soft constraints lead to a reliance on knowledge in-the-head even when the absolute difference in perceptual-motor versus memory retrieval effort is small, and even when relying on memory leads to a higher error rate and lower performance. We discuss the implications of soft constraints for routine interactive behavior, accounts of embodied cognition, and tool and interface design.     

SANLab-CM: A tool for incorporating stochastic operations into activity network modeling

The Stochastic Activity Network Laboratory for Cognitive Modeling (SANLab-CM) is a new tool that incorporates stochastic operations into activity network modeling (Schweickert, Fisher, & Proctor, 2003). In this article, we discuss the core functionality of SANLab-CM and walk through a case study that expands a previously published single, static path model of telephone operators interacting with customers via a workstation (from Gray, John, & Atwood, 1993) into a stochastic model that generates 55 unique paths with different frequencies and a variety of qualitative properties. Without SANLab-CM, it would have been easy to mistake some of the more frequent critical paths as evidence for alternative strategies for task completion. With SANLab-CM, these critical paths can be shown to be simple emergent properties of variability in elementary cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes.     

Relationship closeness and trauma narrative detail: A critical analysis of betrayal trauma theory

Betrayal Trauma Theory (BTT) holds that certain traumas, such as incest, should be uniquely categorized as betrayal trauma: a subcategory of trauma in which the violation of trust, within a close relationship, occurs in the context of a traumatic event. According to BTT, betrayal trauma results in either partial or complete traumatic amnesia because repression is adaptive when a victim depends on a perpetrator for physical or emotional needs. In a test of BTT, undergraduates screened for betrayal and non‐betrayal trauma histories provided detailed accounts of these events. In order to account for threats to internal validity that are often overlooked by traumatic amnesia researchers, we also assessed factors known to compromise narrative detail. Consistent with BTT predictions, more betrayal was associated with less detailed trauma narratives. However, this relationship was no longer significant after controlling for survivor age, avoidance symptoms, gender and purposeful omission of detail. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structure and Measurement Invariance of Adult Romantic Attachment

Romantic attachment is a popular theory for explaining affect, cognition, and behavior in romantic contexts. This popularity has led to a surge of self-report measures assessing dimensions of attachment. In this study, we considered the ability of 2 common attachment measures, the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ) and the Experience in Close Relationships–Revised (ECR–R), to replicate the avoidant and anxious attachment factors. We also determined the degree of measurement invariance across, and mean differences between, genders and single and nonsingle individuals. Both the AAQ (N = 650) and the ECR–R (N = 1,271) successfully distinguished avoidant and attachment factors. The AAQ showed evidence for partial strong measurement invariance, whereas the ECR-R showed strict factorial invariance for both gender and relationship status. Gender differences were detected on both measures in a direction consistent with previous research, with males exhibiting higher levels of avoidant attachment (relative to females) and females exhibiting higher levels of anxious attachment (relative to males). Furthermore, when compared to individuals who were currently single, those in romantic relationships exhibited lower levels of avoidant tendencies. This research aligns with the notion that the AAQ and ECR–R reliably assess similar constructs, across genders and single and nonsingle individuals.     

Examining the Clinical Efficacy of Core Transformation: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This randomized clinical trial with a sample of adults (N = 129) from India explored the effects of a single core‐transformation session on symptom experience and psychological growth. The results over the total 8‐week study period indicated significant, moderate overall effect sizes (ds = 0.63 and 0.52) for symptom experience, emotional stability, affect balance, global well‐being, and purpose in life. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.