Is Religious Service Attendance Declining?

Weekend attendance at conventional religious services remains the most common form of social religious action in American society. Debates about secularization, discussions of congregations as sites of political skill-building and mobilization, and research on religion's contributions to stocks of social capital often rely partly on claims about trends in religious service attendance. Yet, existing evidence does not definitively establish whether attendance at religious services declined in American society from the 1950s to the present. We examine the trend in religious service attendance between 1990 and 2006. Evidence from several sources converges on the same answer: weekly attendance at religious services has been stable since 1990. However one reads the evidence about trends between World War II and 1990, the recent past has been a time of stability. This has important implications for theories of religious change.     

ADAPTABILITY TO CHANGING TASK CONTEXTS: EFFECTS OF GENERAL COGNITIVE ABILITY, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, AND OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

We examined the extent to which cognitive ability, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience predict decision-making performance prior to and after unforeseen changes in the task context. Seventy-three undergraduates made decisions on a series of 75 problems during a 3-hour computerized simulation. Unbeknownst to participants, the rules used in determining correct decisions changed after problems 25 and 50. Effects of the individual differences on decision-making performance became significantly stronger after the changes. Only cognitive ability explained variance in prechange performance. Individuals with higher cognitive ability made better decisions. After the change, the cognitive ability effect increased and the effects of Conscientiousness and Openness became statistically significant. As expected, those with high Openness made better decisions. Unexpectedly, those with low Conscientiousness made better decisions. Subsequent analyses revealed that this surprising effect for Conscientiousness was due to the traits reflecting dependability (i.e., order, dutiful-ness, deliberation) rather than volition (i.e., competence, achievement striving, self-discipline).     

The Moral Status of Nonresponsible Threats

Most people believe that it is permissible to kill a nonresponsible threat, or someone who threatens one's life without exercising agency. Defenders of this view must show that there is a morally relevant difference between nonresponsible threats and innocent bystanders. Some philosophers, including Jonathan Quong and Helen Frowe, have attempted to do this by arguing that one who kills a bystander takes advantage of another person, while one who kills a threat does not. In this paper, I show that the proposals offered by Quong and Frowe have unacceptable implications. I then argue that those who claim that nonresponsible threats may be killed face a dilemma generated by the possibility of a stationary threat, or someone who endangers another person's life without moving. Unless we arbitrarily distinguish between stationary and moving nonresponsible threats, it is unclear how the permission to kill nonresponsible threats is to be explicated. I conclude that nonresponsible threats are not legitimate targets of self‐defence.     

The Glass Is Half Full: The Positive Effects of Organizational Identification for Employees Higher in Negative Affectivity

Organizational identification has traditionally been associated with positive organizational outcomes, whereas negative affectivity (NA) has most often been associated with negative individual outcomes. We hypothesize that organizational identification will positively influence self‐reported performance for individuals high in NA. Conversely, individuals low in NA will not experience feelings of enhanced performance as organizational identification increases. The findings from 2 samples provided support for the research hypothesis; specifically, the personality factor of NA moderated the organizational‐identification/self‐reported performance relationship. We discuss our findings in light of important implications for the positive psychology movement and practicing managers.     

Exploring the Relationship Among the Undesired Self,Health, and Mood in Older Adults1

Longitudinal data from older adults were analyzed to examine the impact of health factors on undesired and ideal self‐discrepancies; and the association of these 2 self‐discrepancies on moods. Results showed that after controlling for self‐assessed health (SAH), fatigue/lack of energy was associated with the undesired but not the ideal self. A second set of analyses revealed that the undesired self‐discrepancy predicted moods only at high levels of SAH. The ideal self was only associated with anxiety, but only at low levels of SAH. This evidence supports the idea that health‐related factors are relevant for the self‐discrepancies of older adults, especially the undesired self‐discrepancy. We expanded prior evidence by demonstrating that the effects of self‐discrepancies on mood are moderated by SAH.