What will the future bring? Thoughts of children after missile bombardment

Abstract

We examined how cognitive views of the future relate to degree of exposure to trauma and to posttraumatic stress reactions in children. Following the experience of Scud missile bombardment during the Persian Gulf war, 492 Israeli pupils from grades 5, 7, and 10 from regions actually hit and from regions under threat but not hit, described what they thought life would be like next year for children of their age. Based on recent cognitive theories, it was expected that children who experienced higher levels of stress would also express more pessimistic views of the future. We found that children's dominant perception of the future was positive. However, children who expressed stronger postwar reactions also tended to have more pessimistic future views, especially in areas that were hit by missiles. Discussion focused upon views of the future as a direct consequence of the stress as well as a means of coping with stress.     

Protecting and respecting the vulnerable: existing regulations or further protections?

Scholars and policymakers continue to struggle over the meaning of the word “vulnerable” in the context of research ethics. One major reason for the stymied discussions regarding vulnerable populations is that there is no clear distinction between accounts of research vulnerabilities that exist for certain populations and discussions of research vulnerabilities that require special regulations in the context of research ethics policies. I suggest an analytic process by which to ascertain whether particular vulnerable populations should be contenders for additional regulatory protections. I apply this process to two vulnerable populations: the cognitively vulnerable and the economically vulnerable. I conclude that a subset of the cognitively vulnerable require extra protections while the economically vulnerable should be protected by implementing existing regulations more appropriately and rigorously. Unless or until the informed consent process is more adequately implemented and the distributive justice requirement of the Belmont Report is emphasized and operationalized, the economically disadvantaged will remain particularly vulnerable to the harm of exploitation in research.     

Psychological Well-Being and the Metabolic Syndrome in African and Caucasian Women in South Africa

This study explored the association between comprehensive psychological well-being and the metabolic syndrome (MS), as well as whether women without MS markers differ significantly from women with MS (three or more markers) on specific facets of psychological well-being. African (N=102) and Caucasian (N=115) women completed self-report questionnaires on psychological well-being, and biological markers for MS were determined. Results indicated a significant association between comprehensive psychological well-being and the MS in Caucasian women, but not in the case of African women. Caucasian women without MS had higher levels of perceived support from friends and family, environmental mastery, purpose in life, sense of coherence, affect balance and positive relationships than those with MS. African women without MS had higher levels of positive relationships and an optimistic explanatory style, but lower levels of perceived support from family. Further research is indicated.     

Progressive Dying: Meaningful Acts of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

In this paper I use William James's understanding of “significance” in life to show that for certain patients euthanasia and assisted suicide can be importantly meaningful acts that family, friends, and health care professionals must acknowledge and even, at times, aid in bringing to fruition. Dying with meaning is transformative. It reshapes the lives of others that are left behind, giving to their lives new groundings by engaging them in the meaning of dying for us. For the patient, dying with meaning takes the seemingly formless void in the abyss of death and gives it a significant purpose in the last stages of life itself; it turns potential nothingness into actual significance. To the extent that we outsiders do not help the dying, we condemn terminally ill patients to a meaningless existence until they die.     

Transference and covenant in pastoral care

Transference raises issues in pastoral care which covenant addresses. Through transference one tames the terrors of life and death. Transference also provides a basis for healing in pastoral relationships. Transference must be managed so that it does not result in idolatry but rather points the helpee beyond attachment to the minister and toward dependence upon God. Covenant provides theological guidance for transcending transference. This covenant involves the pastor-helpee relationship, commitment to God as a third party, and accountability to the covenant community.This article was presented in an earlier version as the Spring Faculty Lecture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary on March 1, 1979.     

“Parts” of perceived visual forms: New evidence

The Pulfrich effect (the illusory displacement of a moving stimulus when it is viewed with an optical filter over one eye) was measured repeatedly during a 20 min period following the initial filtering of the eye. For each of 10 filter densities, the Pulfrich effect always occurred immediately upon filtering the eye, but subsequently increased greatly during the adaptation period. The results indicate that the perceptual latency of the filtered eye is increased by two factors: the reduction in stimulus luminance due to the filter and progressive dark adaptation. Dark adaptation is apparently the more important of these two factors.     

‘God,the Father Almighty’: A Theological Excursus

The confession of ‘God, the Father almighty’ in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds can be interpreted as offering a progressively more focused characterization of the First Person of the Trinity, such that ‘Father’ clarifies the meaning of ‘God’, and the force of ‘almighty’ is controlled by the meaning of ‘Father’. The results of such an exegesis accentuate divine transcendence in a way that raises questions about theological claims to natural knowledge of God. More specifically, they suggest that the very comprehensiveness of God's relationship to the world implied by divine almightiness blocks any direct line of inference from creation to Creator.