Understanding the pathways to purpose: Examining personality and well-being correlates across adulthood

Although finding a purpose is almost universally accepted as a developmental achievement, relatively little research has sought to understand the potential means by which individuals do so. Using a newly developed measure, the current studies examined the personality and well-being profiles of individuals who reported following any of three different pathways to purpose: (1) proactive engagement, (2) reaction to significant life events, or (3) social learning. Across both emerging adult (n?=?179) and adult (n?=?307) samples, we demonstrated that individuals along these three pathways differ in theoretically meaningful ways. For instance, proactively engaged individuals report greater agency and openness to experience, while individuals who found a purpose primarily through reactive means are less likely to be exploring their life aims. Engagement with any pathway though coincided with greater well-being, due to the fact that following these paths may lead to a sense of purpose in life.     

Rejecting Evolution: The Role of Religion,Education, and Social Networks

Large segments of the American public are skeptical of human evolution. Surveys consistently find that sizable minorities of the population, frequently near half, deny that an evolutionary process describes how human life developed. Using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, I examine the role of religion and education in predicting who changes their beliefs about evolution between late adolescence and early emerging adulthood. I conclude that religion is far more important than educational attainment in predicting changing beliefs about evolution. Perhaps more importantly, I find that social networks play an important moderating role in this process. High personal religiousness is only associated with the maintenance of creationist beliefs over time when the respondent is embedded in a social network of co‐religionists. This finding suggests that researchers should pay far more attention to the social context of belief formation and change.     

“My Religion Picked My Birth Control”: The Influence of Religion on Contraceptive Use

This research investigates the influence of religious preference and practice on the use of contraception. Much of earlier research examines the level of religiosity on sexual activity. This research extends this reasoning by suggesting that peer group effects create a willingness to mask the level of sexuality through the use of contraception. While it is understood that certain religions, that is, Catholicism does not condone the use of contraceptives, this research finds that Catholics are more likely to use certain methods of contraception than other religious groups. With data on contraceptive use from the Center for Disease Control’s Family Growth Survey, a likelihood probability model is employed to investigate the impact religious affiliation on contraception use. Findings suggest a preference for methods that ensure non-pregnancy while preventing feelings of shame and condemnation in their religious communities.     

Why Nudges Coerce: Experimental Evidence on the Architecture of Regulation

Critics frequently argue that nudges are more covert, less transparent, and more difficult to monitor than traditional regulatory tools. Edward Glaeser, for example, argues that “[p]ublic monitoring of soft paternalism is much more difficult than public monitoring of hard paternalism”. As one of the leading proponents of soft paternalism, Cass Sunstein, acknowledges, while “[m]andates and commands are highly visible”, soft paternalism, “and some nudges in particular[,] may be invisible”. In response to this challenge, proponents of nudging argue that invisibility for any given individual in a particular choice environment is compatible with “careful public scrutiny” of the nudge. This paper offers the first of its kind experimental evidence that tests whether nudges are, in fact, compatible with “careful public scrutiny”. Using three sets of experiments, the paper argues that, even when entirely visible, nudges attract less scrutiny than their “hard law” counterparts.     

Investigating the Affective Signature of Forgivingness across the Adult Years

Though dispositional forgiveness has been associated with affective well-being, it remains unclear whether these associations are consistent throughout adulthood. The current study investigated whether forgivingness interacted with chronological age or future time perspective to predict affect at the trait and daily level. Participants (n = 332, mean age: 45.5 years) completed baseline measures of forgivingness, positive and negative affect, and future time perspective, along with daily assessments of positive and negative affect for up to ten days. Results suggest that the associations between forgivingness and affective well-being differ somewhat based on age and future time perspective, and level of analysis.     

The Influence of an Acute Bout of Whole Body Vibration on Human Postural Control Responses

The use of vibrating platforms has become increasingly available, and popular at sports and rehabilitation institutes. Given the discrepancies in the literature regarding whole body vibration (WBV) and human reflexive responses, the purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of WBV on postural response latencies, as well as associated electromyography measures of the lower extremities during balance perturbations. Reflexive responses during backward and forward balance perturbations were examined before, after, and 10 min after a bout of WBV. The findings suggest that following an acute bout of whole body vibration, muscle activity of the lower extremities is decreased during a reflexive response to an unexpected perturbation, and may be associated with faster reaction time.     

Ethical Analysis in Counseling: A Case for Narrative Ethics,Moral Visions,and Virtue Ethics

The author presents an overview of the current content of ethics education in counseling, grouping that content into 3 areas: decision‐making models, principle ethics, and the standard of care. It is argued that as the field of ethics education has grown, so has the need for additional content models, especially ones that enhance moral sensitivity and reduce objectification of client circumstances. The author presents 3 possible approaches to revising the conceptualization of professional ethics that meet the need for new models: moral visions, narrative ethics, and virtue ethics.     

The Silence of the Body

As a practice meant to release the subject from the narcissism that informs the concerns and preoccupations of her or his ego, psychoanalysis aims at a transformation of the subject comparable to the Buddha's quest for enlightenment. In order to clarify this subtle and difficult dimension of psychoanalytic work, this essay draws upon a clinical example and discusses it in the context of both Freud's and Lacan's ideas about the role of narcissism in the formation of the ego, and the Buddha's doctrine of Anatta, which insists that the concept of the Atman, or self, is based upon an illusory thought.     

Objectification Theory as It Relates to Disordered Eating Among College Women

Objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. A. Roberts, 1997) demonstrates how sociocultural variables work together with psychological variables to predict disordered eating. Researchers have tested models that illustrate how certain constructsof objectification theory predict disordered eating, but a more comprehensive model that integrates a combination of constructs central to the theory (i.e., sexual objectification; self-objectification; body shame; poor interoceptive awareness of hunger, satiety, and emotions) has not yet been examined. In this study, we incorporated these variables within an inclusive model based on the assertions of B. L. Fredrickson and T. A. Roberts (1997) and examined it with 460 college women. Structural equation modeling analyses suggested that the model provided a good fit to the data and supported most propositions set forth by objectification theory and the eating disorders literature.     

ATC-lab: an air traffic control simulator for the laboratory.

Air Traffic Control Laboratory Simulator (ATC-lab) is a new low- and medium-fidelity task environment that simulates air traffic control. ATC-lab allows the researcher to study human performance of tasks under tightly controlled experimental conditions in a dynamic, spatial environment. The researcher can create standardized air traffic scenarios by manipulating a wide variety of parameters. These include temporal and spatial variables. There are two main versions of ATC-lab. The mediumfidelity simulator provides a simplified version of en route air traffic control, requiring participants to visually search a screen and both recognize and resolve conflicts so that adequate separation is maintained between all aircraft. The low-fidelity simulator presents pairs of aircraft in isolation, controlling the participant's focus of attention, which provides a more systematic measurement of conflict recognition and resolution performance. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that ATC-lab is a flexible tool for applied cognition research.