Second Victims: Aftermath of Gun Violence and Faith-Based Responses

Journal of Religion and Health - In the aftermath of gun violence, those impacted and left to mourn are regarded as second victims. These individuals experience and are often burdened by mental and...     

Uh‐Oh! What Have We Missed? A Qualitative Investigation into Everyday Insight Experience

This study takes a novel qualitative approach to the investigation of everyday insight experience. It offers ecological validation to findings principally rendered, prior to this research, from a quantitative, cognitive standpoint. In addition, it considers emotional as well as cognitive components of insight. Participants were given different (or no) definitions of insight to ensure experiences collected did not simply mirror the examples of insight provided. This avoided the circularity problem of previous insight research. With the use of an open‐ended questionnaire (online or hardcopy), first‐hand textual accounts of insight instances were recorded. Data collected from 76 participants were analyzed using an adapted qualitative methodology, Integrative Thematic Analysis. This enabled the researchers to identify themes from the data, building a new typology of insight: Content (Personal, Intellectual, Practical), Process (Social Facilitation, Time Away, Active Search) and Feelings (Positive Feelings, Negative Feelings) aspects of insight. The findings suggest everyday experience of insight reaches beyond cognitive problem solving to include elements related to applied psychology, namely Personal (counseling psychology) and Social Facilitation (occupational psychology). Notably, this study offers examples of negative insight, Uh‐oh moments, for the first time. Future research should focus on the interaction of cognitive and affective components in insight moments.     

Forgiveness and Suicidal Behavior: Cynicism and Psychache as Serial Mediators

Research is burgeoning regarding the beneficial association of forgiveness with numerous health-related outcomes; however, its particular relationship to suicidal behavior has received relatively little attention. Both cynicism and psychache, or agonizing psychological pain, have displayed deleterious associations with suicidal behavior, but have rarely been incorporated into more comprehensive models of suicidal behavior. Consistent with the recent development of a theoretical model regarding the forgiveness–suicidal behavior association, the present study utilized an undergraduate sample of college students (N = 312) to test a mediation-based model of the cross-sectional association of forgiveness with suicidal behavior, as serially mediated by cynicism and psychache. Dispositional forgiveness of self and forgiveness of uncontrollable situations were each indirectly associated with less suicidal behavior via less psychache. Also, dispositional forgiveness of others was indirectly associated with less suicidal behavior via less cynicism and less psychache, in a serial fashion. The present results are consistent with the extent literature on the forgiveness–suicidal behavior association, cynicism, and psychache, and pending future studies, may be utilized to inform further treatment efforts for individuals at a high risk of attempting suicide.     

Religious Attendance and Body Mass: An Examination of Variations by Race and Gender

Studies of the association between religious attendance and body mass have yielded mixed results. In this paper, we consider intersectional variations by race and gender to advance our understanding of these inconsistencies. We use data from the 2006–2008 Health and Retirement Study to examine the association between religious attendance and three indicators of body mass: overall body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio (n = 11,457). For White women, attendance is either protective or unrelated to body mass. For Black women, attendance is consistently associated with increased body mass. We find that religious attendance is not associated with body mass among the men.     

The accessibility of religious beliefs

We used reaction time techniques to study individual differences in accessibility of beliefs about the reality of religious targets. Moderately religious people were slower than religious or irreligious people. Religious people were faster than non-religious people. Reaction times to classify religious stimuli are stable over 8 days. We also found that religious people with accessible beliefs have the highest well-being, and that religious beliefs correspond to greater levels of religious behavior when the reality of religious stimuli is accessible. These results further our understanding on natural individual differences in attitude accessibility and add to our understanding of religious beliefs, including their impact.     

Gender Differences in Aggression: The Role of Status and Personality in Competitive Interactions

Southwest US undergraduates (78 female, 72 male) were tested in a laboratory aggressive behavior paradigm involving noise blasts participants could use against another (bogus) same-sex competitor in a point-earning task. Status of the competitor (low vs. high) and expectation to meet the competitor (meet vs. no meet) were experimentally manipulated. A significant gender × aggression proneness × status interaction indicated that aggression-prone men were more likely to aggress against a high status competitor, while aggression-prone women were more likely to aggress against a low status competitor. Interactions of narcissism and sensation seeking with gender and anticipated meeting indicated that men but not women high in these personality traits were more likely to aggress, but only towards competitors they anticipated meeting.     

Gender Differences in Correlates of Homophobia and Transphobia

A scale of prejudice against transgender individuals was developed, validated, and contrasted with a homophobia measure in 153 female and 157 male US college undergraduates. For both sexes, transphobia and homophobia were highly correlated with each other and with right-wing authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, and hostile sexism, but aggression proneness was predictive of transphobia and homophobia only in men. Benevolent sexism and rape myth acceptance were more predictive of transphobia and homophobia in women than men. With homophobia partialled out, authoritarianism, fundamentalism, and aggression proneness no longer predicted transphobia for men, but authoritarianism, fundamentalism, benevolent sexism, and rape myth acceptance continued to predict transphobia in women. Discussion focused on gender differences in issues that drive prejudice against transgender and homosexual individuals.     

Do individuals with autism process words in context? Evidence from language-mediated eye-movements

It is widely argued that people with autism have difficulty processing ambiguous linguistic information in context. To investigate this claim, we recorded the eye-movements of 24 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and 24 language-matched peers as they monitored spoken sentences for words corresponding to objects on a computer display. Following a target word, participants looked more at a competitor object sharing the same onset than at phonologically unrelated objects. This effect was, however, mediated by the sentence context such that participants looked less at the phonological competitor if it was semantically incongruous with the preceding verb. Contrary to predictions, the two groups evidenced similar effects of context on eye-movements. Instead, across both groups, the effect of sentence context was reduced in individuals with relatively poor language skills. Implications for the weak central coherence account of autism are discussed.     

What Underlies Appraisals? Experimentally Testing a Knowledge‐and‐Appraisal Model of Personality Architecture Among Smokers Contemplating High‐Risk Situations

ABSTRACT We tested a theoretical model of personality structures underlying patterns of intra-individual variability in contextualized appraisals. The KAPA (Knowledge-and-Appraisal Personality Architecture) model was tested experimentally among smokers appraising their efficacy to resist the urge to smoke in high-risk situations. In a novel design, we assessed self-knowledge and situational beliefs idiographically and employed cognitive priming to manipulate the accessibility of self-knowledge experimentally. The results confirmed the unique KAPA-model prediction that priming would affect appraisals in a contextualized manner. Priming positively valenced self-knowledge enhanced self-efficacy appraisals specifically within that subset of situations that were relevant to the primed knowledge. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that systems of self- and situational knowledge underlie consistency and variability in appraisals.