Otto’s idea of the ‘numinous’- A crosscultural reappraisal

Conclusion Rudolf Otto’s concept of the ‘numinous’ was developed through study, observation, personal experience and religious and philosophical influences. The main philosophical influences for Otto's thought came from Fries, Schleiermacher, and Kant—from whom Otto derived the concept of thea priori nature of the numinous. However, the numinous does not appear to be a universally applicable category of experience, much lessa priori, and in some cases may distort religious experience. The example of Hinduism demonstrated how easily the concept of the numinous may be applied to one     

Families and Deinstitutionalization: An Application of Bronfenbrenner's Social Ecology Model

Bronfenbrenner's social ecology model is applied to families that include a member with a developmental disability who are involved in the process of transition from institution to community. An overview of the model is presented as well as discussion of counselors' use of it in providing services to families in this situation. The social ecology perspective can be applied to enhance understanding of the families and to provide a framework for structuring family support during the community transition process.     

Policy controversies in the negotiatory state

In this article Schön and Rein’s views about policy controversies and their resolution are introduced and critically examined. The broader context of their argument can be found in the emergence of the “negotiatory state,” where public policy is made in coproduction between interdependent actors in shared-power settings. Policy controversies, conceived of as conflicts rooted in clashes between the action frames that actors employ when they define problems and propose solutions to public issues, constitute a challenge to this institutional logic of policy-making. Schön and Rein’s book is largely devoted to identifying ways to resolve them. This article revisits their conceptualization of controversies, reassesses their implications for the integrity of the policy-making process, and places their proposed philosophy of “design rationality” in a broader repertoire of ways to cope with frame multiplicity and frame conflict in public policy-making.     

The myth of a secular state: A study of religious politics with historical illustrations

Religion has continued to assert itself as a significant moral force in Nigeria's post‐independence politics; however, some recent studies of the country's political life tend to dismiss religion as a kind of mystical irrationality or an act of deluded trust. After conducting an audit of what I take to be the assets and the liabilities of the intellectual traditions underpinning this secularist preference, I propose a theory of political morality in which themes of legitimacy, identity and social justice are explained against the background of religious expectations. I argue that the rationale for political behaviour in Nigeria is not fully accounted for by the categories of class and ethnicity, but must be sought in a more inclusive and transcendent moral basis. I conclude that the recent high‐profile involvements of religious persons in politics should not be seen as flashes of political insanity; rather, they constitute genuine attempts to reformulate the modern language of public morality.     

Changing perspectives in the extended family system in nigeria: Implications for family dynamics and counselling

The extended family system in Nigeria had in time past provided support structures for the Nigerian people. Today, Nigeria as a society has witnessed severe changes in the extended family system. This paper addresses issues connected with the extended family system in the Nigerian cultural setting before the influx of the extraneous forces as well as changes within the broader Nigerian society.     

Discrimination of picture requests for missing items among young children with developmental disabilities

Two experiments were conducted to assess discrimination of picture requests for missing items among young children with developmental disabilities. In Experiment 1, three children were first taught to request one object when it was missing from a set of two related leisure items. In Experiment 2, two children were taught to request one object belonging to a set of three leisure items. In both studies the requesting response consisted of pointing to a photograph of the missing item. After acquisition of the initial request, discrimination of picture requests was assessed when the second item (Experiment 1) and second or third item (Experiment 2) was missing. Requests for the untrained items emerged in the presence of natural maintaining contingencies and in the absence of instructional prompts for all but the third child in Experiment 1. This child required continued intervention on the initial request. The results suggest that for some children a sequence of intervention and the programming of natural maintaining contingencies may prove effective in promoting the discrimination of picture requests for missing items among young children with developmental disabilities.     

Computer software and hardware to determine contrast sensitivity using three methods: Tracking,limits, and constant stimuli

The software and hardware to obtain contrast sensitivity functions in a single session with monkeys are described. The versatility of the software allows the program to be used in a variety of sensory systems with only minor programming modifications. It will permit absolute or difference threshold measurements with any one of three methods of threshold testing: (1) method of tracking, (2) method of limits, and (3) method of constant stimuli. Human and monkey contrast sensitivity functions measured with the software and hardware are provided.     

Facial identity and facial speech processing: Familiar faces and voices in the McGurk effect

An experiment was conducted to investigate the claims made by Bruce and Young (1986) for the independence of facial identity and facial speech processing. A well-reported phenomenon in audiovisual speech perception—theMcGurk effect (McGurk & MacDonald, 1976), in which synchronous but conflicting auditory and visual phonetic information is presented to subjects—was utilized as a dynamic facial speech processing task. An element of facial identity processing was introduced into this task by manipulating the faces used for the creation of the McGurk-effect stimuli such that (1) they were familiar to some subjects and unfamiliar to others, and (2) the faces and voices used were either congruent (from the same person) or incongruent (from different people). A comparison was made between the different subject groups in their susceptibility to the McGurk illusion, and the results show that when the faces and voices are incongruent, subjects who are familiar with the faces are less susceptible to McGurk effects than those who are unfamiliar with the faces. The results suggest that facial identity and facial speech processing are not entirely independent, and these findings are discussed in relation to Bruce and Young’s (1986) functional model of face recognition.     

The concept of the ‘Other’ in modern Arab thought: From Muhammad cAbdu to Abdallah Laroui

The primary condition for the progress, or indeed the survival, of human societies is their effective coalescence into one human society’ (Zurayk 1994, 96).