Humanism and Theoretical Pluralism

Christian Smith's What Is a Person? calls for a normative turn in sociology—the grounding of sociology in a theory of human nature. While offering a systematic account of a thick view of personhood—what it should look like, how it can be applied, and why it is needed—the book proposes a critical realist personalism as the best metatheoretical direction for sociology. The author of this essay agrees with the main questions and direction of Smith's project. However, by historicizing the origins and sociological implications of personalist moral theory, the author problematizes the personalism that is one of the foundations of Smith's project. She contrasts personalism with humanism, suggesting that the latter might possess both the normative robustness and comparative potential needed for contemporary sociological theory and practice. She ends her response to Smith's book by raising questions about the relationship between critical realist personalism and theoretical pluralism.     

Dimensions of Acculturation and Work Hope in International Students

Work hope is an emerging and important factor in the career development process of international students. In this study, the authors focused on the work hope of international students and examined its relation to dimensions of acculturation (i.e., dominant society immersion, ethnic identity, ethnic society immersion, individualism, and collectivism). A total of 340 international students completed an online survey. Results of a correlation analysis revealed associations in the expected directions. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that horizontal collectivism, horizontal individualism, and vertical collectivism had a significant and unique contribution in explaining work hope. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Sleep deprivation and hallucinations. A qualitative study of military personnel

Much anecdotal evidence suggests that sleep deprivation not only impairs performance, but also brings about other extraordinary effects like hallucinations. However, knowledge about how sleep deprivation may trigger hallucinations is limited. To qualitatively describe hallucinatory experiences during sleep deprivation 12 male military officers from the Norwegian Armed Forces who all had experienced at least one sleep loss-induced hallucinatory experience were recruited. Data were collected and analyzed by semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. This resulted in the identification of three distinct main themes: (1) Modalities, (2) circumstances/triggers and (3) reactions to hallucinations. Hallucinations were experienced in several modalities (visual, auditory and multi-modality), although visual hallucinations seemed to dominate. Typical reported circumstances/triggers were sleep loss, physical exhaustion, time-of-day, low calorie intake, mental exhaustion and lack of external stimuli (low sensory and social input, boring situations, and monotonous activity). Negative emotions were dominant during the hallucinatory episodes. Often some reasoning and checking on behalf of the officers were necessary to differentiate between real percepts and hallucinations. In some cases the hallucinations caused erroneous actions. Retrospectively, most officers viewed their hallucinatory experiences in light of positive emotions and several emphasized having learned something from them. The results are discussed in relation to the existing literature and suggestions for future studies are outlined.     

Knowledge‐lies re‐examined

Sorensen says that my assertion that p is a knowledge‐lie if it is meant to undermine your justification for believing truly that ～p, not to make you believe that p and that, therefore, knowledge‐lies are not intended to deceive. It has been objected that they are meant to deceive because they are intended to make you more confident in a falsehood. In this paper, I propose a novel account according to which an assertion that p is a knowledge‐lie if it is intended not to provide evidence that p but to make you stop trusting all testimonies concerning whether p (in a room full of obvious liars, you will trust no one), which is how they undermine your testimonial knowledge. Because they are not intended to provide evidence that bears on the truth of p, they are not intended to make you more confident in a falsehood; therefore, knowledge‐lies are not intended to deceive. This makes them a problem for the traditional account, which takes the intention to deceive as necessary for lying, and an interesting example of Kant's idea that allowing lies whenever one feels like it would bring it about that statements in general are not believed.     

Professionals’ Reflections About the Impact of Digital Technologies on Eating Disorders

The aim of this study was to explore how professionals working with clients who suffer from eating disorders reflect the impact of digital technologies on their clients. Interviews with 30 professionals were conducted. A qualitative analysis revealed the following areas: (a) the attributes of technologies that influence people with eating disorders, (b) the characteristics of people with eating disorders that influence their interaction with digital technologies, (c) the risks of technology usage, and (d) the benefits of technology usage. The results are discussed with respect to the Rodgers’s theoretical model explaining technology–eating disorder relations and the implications for practice.     

Information and Communication Technology in the Work of Catholic Priests

ABSTRACT

This article presents data gathered in a doctoral study, the aim of which was to identify information needs and behavior patterns of Croatian Catholic priests for pastoral work. Results of the research focus only on the role of information and communication technology and using electronic sources by the priests in the liturgy and caregiving role. The research was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methodology (print questionnaires and semi-structured interviews). A total of 327 respondents took part in the quantitative study and twenty respondents were interviewed. Although research results showed that many respondents are not very familiar with the information and communication technology, most of them still occasionally use computers for making documents and consult the Internet for finding religious information in pastoral work. Computers and the Internet to a larger degree are used by younger and well-educated priests who have the least experience regarding management of the parishes in major locations. Since the results indicated that parish priests mostly seek religious and secular information on the Internet, it is recommended that the Catholic Church in Croatia offer them increased electronic resources for pastoral work.     

Internet Use Associated Body-Surveillance Among Female Adolescents: Assessing the Role of Peer Networks

Body-surveillance is a core element of self-objectification, which has been recognized as a health hazard, particularly in female adolescents. Although the role of peers in self-objectification has been documented, the utility of ego-centered network approach has not been demonstrated. Using an online sample of 211 Croatian female adolescents, this study explored whether structural characteristics of self-reported networks (composed of same-sex peers one has discussed sexuality with) moderated the relationship between the use of social networking sites (SNS) and body-surveillance. Controlling for parental monitoring and accounting for self-esteem—which was negatively associated with adolescent body-surveillance—smaller network size amplified the association between SNS use and body-surveillance. Apart from confirming the overlap between offline and online peer networks in shaping adolescent body image concerns, this study’s findings suggest that adolescent women who frequently use SNS and those with fewer close friends are more vulnerable to social media-related body-objectification than their peers.     

Spatial navigation deficits in amnestic mild cognitive impairment with neuropsychiatric comorbidity

Aims: To find out whether neuropsychiatric comorbidity (comMCI) influences spatial navigation performance in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).

Methods: We recruited aMCI patients with (n = 21) and without (n = 21) neuropsychiatric comorbidity or alcohol abuse, matched for global cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy elderly participants (HE, n = 22). They completed the Mini-Mental State Examination and a virtual Hidden Goal Task in egocentric, allocentric, and delayed recall subtests.

Results: In allocentric navigation, aMCI and comMCI performed significantly worse than HE and similarly to each other. Although aMCI performed significantly worse at egocentric navigation than HE, they performed significantly better than patients with comMCI.

Conclusions: Despite the growing burden of dementia and the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the elderly population, comMCI remains under-studied. Since trials often assess “pure” aMCI, we may underestimate patients’ navigation and other deficits. This finding emphasizes the importance of taking account of the cognitive effects of psychiatric disorders in aMCI.     

Statistical properties of four effect-size measures for mediation models

This project examined the performance of classical and Bayesian estimators of four effect size measures for the indirect effect in a single-mediator model and a two-mediator model. Compared to the proportion and ratio mediation effect sizes, standardized mediation effect-size measures were relatively unbiased and efficient in the single-mediator model and the two-mediator model. Percentile and bias-corrected bootstrap interval estimates of ab/s _Y , and ab(s _X )/s _Y in the single-mediator model outperformed interval estimates of the proportion and ratio effect sizes in terms of power, Type I error rate, coverage, imbalance, and interval width. For the two-mediator model, standardized effect-size measures were superior to the proportion and ratio effect-size measures. Furthermore, it was found that Bayesian point and interval summaries of posterior distributions of standardized effect-size measures reduced excessive relative bias for certain parameter combinations. The standardized effect-size measures are the best effect-size measures for quantifying mediated effects.