Do Threatening Messages Change Intentions to Give Up Tobacco Smoking? The Role of Argument Framing and Pictures of a Healthy Mouth Versus an Unhealthy Mouth1

Do preventive‐behavior framing and outcomes of action framing moderate behavioral intention to stop smoking when health messages are illustrated by pictures? We manipulated arguments about preventive action (presence or absence), as well as arguments about the outcome of action (gain or loss), and the pictures that illustrated outcome action (healthy or unhealthy mouths). Behavioral intention was higher when pictures of unhealthy mouths were presented, regardless of framing, and when pictures of healthy mouths illustrated the presence of preventive action. Applications of this study on tobacco risk health campaigns based on text and pictures are discussed.     

Low Subjective Social Status Promotes Ruminative Coping1

Correlational research has shown that lower social standing is associated with poorer health, but it is unknown if this association is causal. Two experiments tested whether randomly assigned low subjective social status would promote ruminative coping, a mechanism leading to the development of poor health outcomes. Participants were college females, split about evenly between Blacks and Whites. Experiment 1 (N = 39) found those imagining themselves at the bottom (vs. top) of a social ladder showed more ruminative coping using rater‐assessed responses. Experiment 2 (N = 42) replicated these results, extended them with a self‐report outcome measure, and demonstrated that negative affect did not mediate between subjective social status and ruminative coping. Across both experiments, race/ethnicity had no effect.     

Can Narrative Christology Be Orthodox?

Abstract:  Questions raised about the coherence of narrative Christology in the work of James Wm McClendon, Jr, raise questions about the orthodoxy of narrative Christology on the whole. An exploration of these questions identifies at least two possible narrative formulations of the identity of Jesus Christ: in him we acknowledge two agents in one narrative and two narratives in one agent. This bending of concepts for bearing witness to the singularity of Jesus Christ follows the conciliar rules and establishes the orthodoxy of narrative Christology.     

The Japanese Tea Ceremony and Pancultural Definitions of Art

Dominic McIver Lopes and Yuriko Saito claim that the Japanese tea ceremony, or chadō, is a non‐Western art form. Stephen Davies also defends that claim. In this article, I utilize the tea ceremony as a test case for pancultural definitions of art that claim to be inclusive of non‐Western cultures without relying on Western ethnocentrism to justify their status as artworks. I argue that Davies's (2015) hybrid definition is not justified in assuming a homogenous art tradition and/or a unified conception of artistic practices in a non‐Western culture. Moreover, the cladistic structure of his definition fails to accommodate the spontaneous instantiation of new art traditions. Additionally, Jerrold Levinson's Intentional‐Historical definition cannot satisfactorily accommodate chadō. First, the nonart origins that were formative for the regard that is required for appreciation of the tea ceremony mean that the relational interpretation of the definition fails. Second, Rikyū’s tea ceremony does not count as art incidentally, as it is not a form of mimesis nor does the Japanese wabi aesthetic that is central to chadō have a precursor in known Western art. Third, if chadō does satisfy Levinson's extended theory, it comes at the cost of embracing Western ethnocentrism.     

The Application of Chaos Theory to the Career‐Plateaued Worker

This article uses chaos theory as a way to conceptualize the career‐plateaued worker. After discussing the literature regarding both chaos theory and career plateau, it applies some of the principles of chaos theory to career‐plateaued workers on the basis of a case study. The article concludes that chaos theory provides career practitioners a useful application for working with this type of client.