Recovery and Buddhist practices in the aftermath of the Tsunami in Southern Thailand

For most Thai people, Buddhism serves as a base for explanations about life and death.This article focuses on Buddhist practices and the importance of ceremonies in the recovery process after the 2004 tsunami in Southern Thailand. The tsunami had devastating consequences for most people in the coastal regions. First, through the loss of life, and second, through the damage to and loss of houses, fishing boats and means of livelihood. This article analyses informants’ experiences, narratives, interpretations and actions in terms of their Buddhist beliefs. The key findings of this article are that collective ceremonies form an important part of the recovery process. One finding revealed that, in cases of ambiguous loss, a Buddhist ceremony that was unknown to most people before the tsunami became an important element of the search for missing persons. Another finding is that the common Buddhist practice of communicating across the boundary between the living and dead became the most important ritual among the surviving relatives. The ethnography is based on a long-term anthropological research project with in-depth interviews, life stories and participant observation carried out in coastal villages located mainly in Phang Nga, the worst hit province in Thailand.¹     

The origin and mission of Material Religion

Beginning its sixth year of publication, Material Religion is an interdisciplinary journal that seeks to gather the best work from around the world engaged in materializing the study of religions. The editors welcome original scholarship on any religion and from any period in human history that treats material objects and practices as primary evidence and engages in critical reflection on the cultural construction of materiality. In this article the editors reflect on the formation and format of the journal, the force and direction of its articles and other features, the question of what constitutes the material culture of religion, and finally the role of materiality in the current study of religions. Along the way, the editors consider new theories and concerns that have been taken up in the journal's pages and address the range of disciplines and interests that are represented in the different departments of the journal.     

Religions, natural hazards, and disasters: An introduction

This editorial serves as an introduction to the special issue of Religion on Religions, Natural Hazards, and Disasters. It sets out some conceptual background and briefly reviews the existing literature on religion, natural hazards, and disasters. It also provides a brief assessment of the role of religious and groups in reducing the risk of disasters.     

Implicit sequence learning is represented by stimulus—response rules

For nearly two decades, researchers have investigated spatial sequence learning in an attempt to identify what specifically is learned during sequential tasks (e.g., stimulus order, response order, etc.). Despite extensive research, controversy remains concerning the information-processing locus of this learning effect. There are three main theories concerning the nature of spatial sequence learning, corresponding to the perceptual, motor, or response selection (i.e., central mechanisms underlying the association between stimulus and response pairs) processes required for successful task performance. The present data investigate this controversy and support the theory that stimulus—response (S—R) rules are critical for sequence learning. The results from two experiments demonstrate that sequence learning is disrupted only when the S—R rules for the task are altered. When the S—R rules remain constant or involve only a minor transformation, significant sequence learning occurs. These data implicate spatial response selection as a likely mechanism mediating spatial sequential learning.     

A critical look at critical (neo)personalism: Unitas multiplex and the ‘person’ concept

This essay evaluates critically William Stern's (Stern, W. (2010). Psychology and personalism) unitas multiplex and definition of ‘person.’ Discussion of the former is restricted to the lowest psychological levels and evaluation is conducted in light of interpretive options open to the ‘targets’ of Stern's current adherents, termed ‘neopersonalists.’ It is concluded that to avoid the charge of ‘individualism,’ neopersonalist expositions of the unitas multiplex should be geared toward the strong possibility that their targets will read it as a person-ontology. Evaluation then turns to Stern's definition of ‘person,’ which is compared with elements of Hacker's (Hacker, P. (2007). Human nature: The categorial framework. Oxford: Blackwell) analysis of the same concept. Results suggest that while Stern's definition applies to ‘animal’ and ‘human being,’ it does not apply to ‘person’. A more coherent conceptual framework for neopersonalism thus is suggested. A ‘can-do teleontology’ maintains emphasis on the person's potentialities and inherent goal-oriented and goal-striving nature, avoids reduction of the person concept, relates the person to others by necessity, and is amenable to Stern's definition of ‘personality.’     

Predicting Children's Recall of a Dental Procedure: Contributions of Stress,Preparation, and Dental History

We examined the extent to which three predictors of children's recall, selected on the basis of their theoretical significance, contributed to the prediction of children's recall for the details of dental operative procedures in a diverse sample of 28 children (54–140 months of age). Parents provided information regarding their children's dental histories and preparation for the dental visit. We obtained behavioral indices of stress from video recordings of the procedures and interviewed the children shortly after treatment to assess their memory. In a significant model predicting open‐ended recall, measures of prior dental experience and parent discussion emerged as unique predictors, although stress did not add to the prediction. The results attest to the importance of incorporating measures of individual differences in investigations of children's reports of their personal experiences. We discuss the importance of children's interpretations in understanding memory for stressful events.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Training the removal of negative information from working memory: A preliminary investigation of a working memory bias modification task

Rumination in depressed adults is associated with a bias toward retaining negative information in working memory. We developed a task designed to modify this cognitive bias by having subjects repeatedly practice removing negative words from working memory, thereby enabling them to retain positive and neutral words. To assess the efficacy of this task, we recruited 60 adults who reported elevated repetitive negative thought (RNT) and randomly assigned them to receive a single administration of either the working memory bias modification (WMBM) task or a control task. Subjects in the WMBM condition exhibited greater reduction in proactive interference for negative information than did those in the control condition. These results suggest that the WMBM task reduces biased retention of negative information in working memory and, thus, may be useful in investigating the possible causal role of this cognitive bias in RNT or depression.     

An Exploratory Study of Neglect and Emotional Abuse in Adolescents: Classifications of Caregiver Risk Factors

Recent research has advanced exploration of developmental stage and age-related distinctions in understanding the perpetration of child maltreatment. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being I (NSCAW-I), this exploratory study investigated heterogeneity in caregiver risks in cases of both neglect and emotional abuse of adolescents (N = 511). Using MPlus software, a person-centered data analytic strategy–latent class analysis was performed to identify distinct classes of caregiver risk factors that were associated with the reports of maltreatment among adolescents. Subsequently exploring the distinct characteristics of the classes, we examined the related demographic characteristics, child welfare system variables (e.g., type of placement status; change in placement type between waves), and youth factors such as the presence of clinical range problem behaviors (Child Behavior Checklist). Results demonstrate four distinct classes of caregiver risk factors, with a nearly even split between those who have an absence of risk factors and those who have a whole host of risk determinants. Differences between the classes regarding the duration of time in out-of-home placements between Wave 1 and Wave 3 also emerged significant.     

Cross‐examination: The Testimony of Children With and Without Intellectual Disabilities

The present study assessed how children with a range of cognitive abilities fared during a mock cross‐examination. Ninety children (aged 4 to 11 years; 18 with intellectual disabilities, 13 with borderline intellectual disabilities and 59 who were typically developing) witnessed a staged event, participated in an initial forensic interview (a few days later) and were cross‐examined by a barrister‐in‐training (10 months later). During cross‐examination, 98% of all children changed at least one response from their initial interview when challenged. However, group differences in performance (total number of changed responses, ‘resistance’ to challenges), controlling for age and memory for event details, were not significant or did not prove reliable at the level of individual group contrasts. Overall, little robust evidence for group differences in performance on cross‐examination could be identified, and memory for event details was the most reliable predictor of performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.