Al-D˛am L ¥ r,Human Conscience and Christian-Muslim Relations

Can human conscience be a uniting bond between Christians and Muslims, across moral and religious differences? This article discusses the notion of d?am L ¥ r as employed by the Egyptian Muslim authors ?Abba ¥ s Mah?mu ¥ d al-?Aqqa ¥ d, Kha ¥ lid Muh?ammad Kha ¥ lid and M. Ka ¥ mil H?usayn. In the 1950s and 1960s, these authors used the notion of d?am L ¥ r to express the inward dimension of Islamic ethics. As Islamic humanists, they also used it to express what Muhammad and Jesus, Muslims and Christians, may 'know together' in the field of ethics. The modern Egyptian material is related to some observations on the semantic history of d?am L ¥ r, and a discussion of the conceptual history of conscience in Christian tradition and European philosophy. The article proposes that a constitutive element in the notion of conscience is the tension between 'knowing by oneself' and 'knowing with others'. In a broader perspective, the article discusses conscience as a globalized concept, and its importance for a Christian-Muslim dialogue which respects the difference of the Other.     

Problematic video game play in a college sample and its relationship to time management skills and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptomology

Although numerous benefits have been uncovered related to moderate video game play, research suggests that problematic video game playing behaviors can cause problems in the lives of some video game players. To further our understanding of this phenomenon, we investigated how problematic video game playing symptoms are related to an assortment of variables, including time management skills and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Additionally, we tested several simple mediation/moderation models to better explain previous theories that posit simple correlations between these variables. As expected, the results from the present study indicated that time management skills appeared to mediate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and problematic play endorsement (though only for men). Unexpectedly, we found that ADHD symptoms appeared to mediate the relation between time management skills and problematic play behaviors; however, this was only found for women in our sample. Finally, future implications are discussed.     

The role of task difficulty in the control of dynamic balance in children and adults

Although several studies have explored the development of balance control in children, few have addressed the influence of task difficulty on balance control under dynamic and ecologically valid conditions. In this study, reaching tasks in three directions to two distances enabled the examination of balance control in the context of graded task difficulty. Balance control was measured in younger (6 years) and older (10-11 years) children and adults using center of pressure (COP) measures (initial position, excursion, and amplitude) and reach distance. Measures of the initial position of the COP and the excursion of the COP revealed no age-related differences in balance control. Furthermore, balance control, measured by the amplitude of COP movement over the course of the reaching tasks, indicated no differences between the age groups for the least difficult and most difficult tasks. For tasks of moderate difficulty, however, older children displayed levels of balance control similar to younger children for some tasks and higher levels of balance control, similar to adults, for others. This study suggests that (1) process-based measures of balance control are more sensitive in detecting age-related differences, and (2) balance control depends upon both age and the difficulty of the task being performed.     

Is the truth in the details? Extended narratives help distinguishing false “memories” from false “reports”

The present study examined the effects of fantasy proneness on false "reports" and false "memories", of existent and non-existent footage of a public event. We predicted that highly fantasy prone individuals would be more likely to stand by their initial claim of having seen a film of the event than low fantasy prone participants when prompted for more details about their experiences. Eighty creative arts students and 80 other students were asked whether they had seen CCTV footage preceding the attack on Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh up to, and including, non-existent footage of the actual moment of the attack. If affirmative, they were probed for extended narratives of what they claimed to have seen. Overall, 64% of participants provided a false "report" by answering yes to the initial question. Of these, 30% provided no explicit details of the attack, and a further 15% retracted their initial answer in their narratives. This left 19% of the sample who appeared to have false "memories" because they provided explicit details of the actual moment of the attack. Women scored higher than men and art students scored higher than other students on fantasy proneness, but there was no effect on levels of false reporting or false "memory". Memories were rated more vivid and clear for existent compared to non-existent aspects of the event. In sum, these data suggest a more complex relationship between memory distortions and fantasy proneness than previously observed.     

Reconsidering therapeutic action: Loewald, cognitive neuroscience and the integration of memory's duality

Both Loewald's relational theory of memory and the Self-Memory System (SMS) of cognitive neuroscience describe a dual memory system, one system that is experience-near sensory-perceptual, and the other, symbolic and conceptual. In contrast to perspectives that locate therapeutic action in either altering implicit procedural memories or interpreting explicit historical content, we argue that psychological health emerges from effective integration of both memory systems, achieved through a combination of transference dynamics and analytic insight. We support this position by elaborating four key assumptions of the loewaldian and SMS perspectives, followed by application to a clinical example. We highlight the power of certain integrative autobiographical memories called 'self-defining memories' in assisting an understanding of transference dynamics and providing metaphoric touchstones to guide subsequent treatment.