Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Adolescents Attachment with Peers and Mother: The Mediating Role of Identity Synthesis and Confusion

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent in adolescents. Secure attachment with family and peers can reduce vulnerability to NSSI and can optimize the outcomes of developmental challenges such as identity formation. Problems experienced in these developmental processes and contexts can increase vulnerability to NSSI. Hence, the present study examined associations between attachment with mother and peers, identity formation, and NSSI, using self-report questionnaires in 528 high school students (Mean age = 15.0 years, SD = 1.84, 11–19 years, 50.4 % females). The lifetime prevalence of NSSI was found to be 14.2 %. Mediation analyses indicated that peer trust had a significant negative indirect effect on NSSI via identity synthesis and confusion. The positive association between peer alienation and NSSI was partially mediated by a lack of identity synthesis. Further, the pathways from maternal trust and alienation to NSSI were fully mediated by both identity confusion and synthesis. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Three symbol ungrounding problems: Abstract concepts and the future of embodied cognition

A great deal of research has focused on the question of whether or not concepts are embodied as a rule. Supporters of embodiment have pointed to studies that implicate affective and sensorimotor systems in cognitive tasks, while critics of embodiment have offered nonembodied explanations of these results and pointed to studies that implicate amodal systems. Abstract concepts have tended to be viewed as an important test case in this polemical debate. This essay argues that we need to move beyond a pretheoretical notion of abstraction. Against the background of current research and theory, abstract concepts do not pose a single, unified problem for embodied cognition but, instead, three distinct problems: the problem of generalization, the problem of flexibility, and the problem of disembodiment. Identifying these problems provides a conceptual framework for critically evaluating, and perhaps improving upon, recent theoretical proposals.     

Revisiting the spiritual supermarket: does the commodification of spirituality necessarily devalue it?

The New Age is often depicted as the quintessential spiritual marketplace in which seekers freely choose from an array of religious options. Empirically it is correct to point out that the movement has formed largely around consumption of goods and services offered for sale. Yet its commercial aspect is often conceptualised in relatively superficial terms. The notion that it is a ‘spiritual supermarket’ has been used to suggest that New Age consumer practices are trivial or socially insignificant. This has led some to call for a turn away from reductive market models. However, this article proposes that New Age studies should instead examine and theorise commercial dynamics more thoroughly, taking the lead from work in other disciplines that increasingly shows how economic, cultural and social life are deeply imbricated. Overcoming the taint of the spiritual supermarket allows a range of issues in the field to be explored more comprehensively.     

You and me

Are there distinctively second-personal thoughts? I clarify the question and present considerations in favour of a view on which some second-personal thoughts are distinctive. Specifically, I suggest that some second-personal thoughts are distinctive in also being first-personal thoughts. Thus, second-personal thinking provides a way of sharing another person's first-personal thoughts.     

Anscombe,Zygotes, and Coming‐to‐be

In some quarters, it is held that Anscombe proved that a zygote is not a human being on the basis of an argument involving the possibility of identical twins, but there is surprisingly little agreement on what her argument is supposed to be. I criticize several extant interpretations, both as interpretations of Anscombe and as self‐standing arguments, and offer a different understanding of her conclusion on which the non‐specificity of creation processes and their goals is at issue.     

A Comparison of Reading Rates,Comprehension, and Stamina in Oral and Silent Reading of Fourth-Grade Students

This study examined the relationships between silent and oral reading fluency and comprehension. Findings indicated that fourth grade students had consistent levels of comprehension in both reading modes. Students of all reading levels showed a similar pattern across the segments of a text set in both oral and silent reading—a gradual increase in rate from texts one through three, a drop-off on text four, and the fastest speed on text five. A portion of the sample engaged in abnormally rapid silent reading relative to their oral reading rates coupled with low comprehension. Implications for instruction are discussed.