God images and self-worth among adolescents in Scotland

A sample of 866 young people between the ages of 12 and 15 in Scotland completed measures of self-worth and God images. The data demonstrate a positive relationship between self-worth and images of God as loving and forgiving, and a negative relationship between self-worth and images of God as cruel and punishing.     

Student essay competition prize winner a study of the breaking and remaking of affectional bonds

Abstract

This essay was originally presented as the author's final clinical essay for the Advanced Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling run by the WPF (North) in conjunction with the Tuke Centre, York. It is a reflection on a year's counselling undertaken with a young man struggling with angry and violent impulses which threatened to wreck his relationship with his partner and their children. The work draws on psychoanalytic and attachment theories and examines the process involving client and counsellor as two men working together on issues of loss, relationship and intimacy.     

Utopia and its Enemies by George Kateb

Continued population growth and its effect on rural and urban areas in less developed countries is explored by explaining various causes of migration patterns. Presented are some possible solutions to the problems encountered in the current rural‐to‐urban migration pattern.     

The Relationship Between Students’ Reading Orientations and their Strategic Activity During a Collaborative Reading Task

This study examined the connection between middle school students’ beliefs about reading and their use of comprehension strategies during a collaborative reading activity. Seventy-one fifth- and sixth-grade students were videotaped while they worked in small groups to read and discuss short texts describing the reading habits and abilities of four fictitious readers. Students’ conceptions of successful reading were determined based on their rankings of these fictitious readers, and their strategic activity was indexed by coding their use of strategies and the participation roles they assumed while working together. The analyses revealed a strong relationship between students’ conceptions of reading and their patterns of interaction during the collaborative activity. The findings enrich our understanding of this relationship and raise important questions for future investigations.     

A Decline in Creativity? It Depends on the Domain

Earlier studies using psychometric tests have documented declines in creativity over the past several decades. Our study investigated whether and how this apparent trend would replicate through a qualitative investigation using an authentic nontest measure of creativity. Three-hundred and fifty-four visual artworks and 50 creative writing works produced by adolescents between 1990–1995 and 2006–2011 were assessed. Products were analyzed using a structured assessment method based on technical criteria and content elements. Criteria included in the current investigation (e.g., genre, medium, stylistic approach) are relevant both to the specific media domains and to previously established dimensions of creativity, such as originality and complexity. Results showed strong domain differences: performance in visual arts increased on a variety of indices of complexity and technical proficiency, and performance in writing decreased on indices related to originality and technical proficiency. Findings highlight the value of analysing creativity across domains. The importance of considering cultural and technological changes in characterizing and understanding apparent trends in amount and types of creativity is discussed.