Psychometric examination of the School Social Climate Questionnaire in Chileans students

The School Social Climate Questionnaire (CECSCE) was adapted and applied. Subsequently, its psychometric proprieties were analyzed. The 1075 Chilean students who participated were assessed with the CECSCE and the School Violence Scale. The results showed that the CECSCE has a bifactorial structure, although there was also the possibility of a unifactorial structure. The CECSCE achieved satisfactory reliability and homogeneity indexes. The CECSCES scores were inversely related to the school violence rate. Lastly, differences by gender and educational level were analyzed. Given that there are differences in school climate perceptions in favor of girls, Chilean standards are presented in percentiles by gender. It can therefore be concluded that the CECSCE is sufficiently valid and reliable to be applied in Chile.     

Pentecostal Dynamics of African Initiated Churches

This essay is a historical consideration of the body of churches known as African Initiated Churches (AICs). The key research questions I am investigating are whether this church can be classified as Pentecostal and how it employs transnational networking in its mission strategy. I have approached this question by exploring the Pentecostal dynamics and transnational networking of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church as an example of an AIC. To this end, I analyze the Pentecostal and transnational nature of an international ecumenical conference organized by the church in London in 2017. This essay is written from the perspective of someone who was born and raised within the church movement, but has also studied the movement as part of African Christianity. The originality of this essay is in its analysis of the transnational nature of the international ecumenical conference.     

How Culture Impacts the Dissemination and Implementation of Innovation: A Case Study of the Families and Schools Together Program (FAST) for Preventing Violence with Immigrant Latino Youth

We consider how culture impacts the translation of research into practice, focusing on the culture of the client and the culture of the agency implementing selected programs. We build on lessons learned from a pilot study of an evidence-based family-school partnership, Families and Schools Together (FAST), to prevent youth violence with low-income, immigrant Latino families in Southern California. We examine the impact of cultural characteristics on the translation of this innovation into practice at the community level, relying on an interactive systems framework developed recently by Wandersman and colleagues (2008, American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3–4), in press) discussed in this issue. As we point out, the culture of the client and the culture of the agency can facilitate or impede connections within and across these interactive systems.     

Inaction Inertia in the Stock Market1

Based on the inaction inertia effect, it was hypothesized that investors who missed an opportunity to leave a “bear market” will be less likely to sell the stock at a later opportunity when facing a grave loss. Participants in a stock‐market computer game were given an opportunity to sell their stock for a moderate gain. Having missed this initial opportunity and now facing a grave loss, these participants were less likely to sell their stock compared to participants whose potential loss was not as grave, or compared to participants facing the same magnitude of loss who had no previous opportunity to leave the market. Analysis of the time spent by participants on reading relevant information concerning the stock market suggests that this tendency toward continued inaction was not the result of careful deliberation over market trends. The results are discussed in terms of counterfac‐tual thinking and anticipated regret.     

Life and teleology

A comprehensive definition of the phenomenon called life led to the addition of many dimensions to the natural sciences, and especially the conscious mental dimension. Historical attention is paid not only to those employing the natural philosophical paradigms, but also to evolutionary theories and to the Kantian teleological philosophy. The belief that science can solve the riddle of life is a category of purposal thinking. A revised version of critical teleology is essential for comprehension of life.     

Projective identification: Pros and cons. An essay review of Samuel Slipp,the technique and practice of Object Relations Family Therapy

This paper is a critical appraisal of Samuel Slipp's book on Object Relations Family Therapy (ORFT), which uses the concept of projective identification as a central thesis in explaining interpersonal influence. Slipp's book is praised for its excellent review of the literature of object relations theory and the major schools of family therapy, classification of families according to complementary projections, and revealing case material. Interpersonal-Systemic (I-S) theory and methodology with its use of the concepts of empathy, interpersonal influences, search for intimacy, maintenance of self-esteem, selective inattention, and reflected appraisals is offered as an alternative view to projective identification.     

Developmental aspects of visual hemifield differences in perception of verbal material

The effect of acquisition of reading on visual field asymmetries for verbal material was investigated in school-age children. Contrary to the expectation that acquisition of differential scanning tendencies will operate on perceptual asymmetries, it was found that right visual field superiority which was independent of scanning direction appeared at the fifth grade. This, and the presence of slight left field superiority at the age when reading is initially acquired, suggests that hemispheric dominance and its attributes, parallel and sequential pattern recognition processes, is the major factor which determines the field preference for verbal material.     

Trial by polygraph: Scientific and juridical issues in lie detection

The present article examines two methods of polygraph-assisted lie detection: the Control Question Technique (CQT) and the Guilty Knowledge Technique (GKT). It presents the rationale for both, arguing that only the latter is well grounded in psychological theory. It then surveys the empirical support for claims of the polygraph's ability to detect deception, arguing that such support often comes from studies that are methodologically flawed by contamination of various sorts—especially studies of the CQT. The article then explores the legal implications of introducing polygraph test results, as presently gathered, into the criminal courtroom.