Attachment style,attachment to God,religiosity, and moral disengagement: a study on offenders

The present study investigates religiosity, moral disengagement, attachment to God, and interpersonal attachment in 30 offenders within Italian jails. We administered a semi-structured interview to collect data about family, social and medical history, and the manner in which the deviant act was carried out; the Moral Disengagement Scale; the Attachment to God Inventory; the Revised Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scale; and the Attachment Style Questionnaire. Results show how intrinsic religiosity negatively predicts moral disengagement; the “Preoccupation with Relationships” Scale (anxious/ambivalent attachment) predicts avoidant attachment to God; and the “Secondariety for Relationship” Scale (dismissing attachment) predicts personal extrinsic religiosity and negatively predicts intrinsic religiosity. Studying these constructs in offenders is important not only to increase the literature but also to implement interventions aimed at reeducation focused on issues relevant to personal adjustment.     

A Study of Black and White College Women

In an examination of career aspirations, 101 black and 530 white college women were asked to indicate their occupational and educational plans, important considerations for career choices, and their attitudes toward combining the roles of career and family. Results indicated that women who planned careers in male-dominated occupations had higher career and educational aspirations than women who desired careers in femaledominated occupations. Black women who planned careers in male-dominated professions showed high levels of aspirations, planned more education than was necessary for the desired occupations, and perceived less conflict in combining the roles of career and family than their white counterparts. There were few differences between black and white women in their attitudes toward the traditional roles of men and women. Those choosing female-dominated careers, however, had more traditional attitudes regardless of race. Implications of these findings for the influence of occupational gender dominance on career aspirations are discussed.     

Augmenting Data With Published Results in Bayesian Linear Regression

In most research, linear regression analyses are performed without taking into account published results (i.e., reported summary statistics) of similar previous studies. Although the prior density in Bayesian linear regression could accommodate such prior knowledge, formal models for doing so are absent from the literature. The goal of this article is therefore to develop a Bayesian model in which a linear regression analysis on current data is augmented with the reported regression coefficients (and standard errors) of previous studies. Two versions of this model are presented. The first version incorporates previous studies through the prior density and is applicable when the current and all previous studies are exchangeable. The second version models all studies in a hierarchical structure and is applicable when studies are not exchangeable. Both versions of the model are assessed using simulation studies. Performance for each in estimating the regression coefficients is consistently superior to using current data alone and is close to that of an equivalent model that uses the data from previous studies rather than reported regression coefficients. Overall the results show that augmenting data with results from previous studies is viable and yields significant improvements in the parameter estimation.     

Evaluative conditioning: Overview and further options

Abstract

The demonstration of evaluative conditioning by Baeyens, Eelen, and Van den Bergh confirms our previous findings and extends the evidential basis for conditioning without awareness. The case made against their findings by Shanks and Dickinson is not supported by the methodological claims they advance. We suggest alternative control procedures and argue that evaluative conditioning plays an adaptive role in the formation of preferences.