Religious youth cults: Alternative healing social networks

The motivation of youth to join esoteric religious cults considered as psychopathology is a limited and reductionistic interpretation. Youthful devotees do demonstrate symptoms of psychic distress, which appear to be significantly ameliorated through participation in religious youth cults. Two major trends in social history reveal the sources of youth cults: loss of faith in the rationalistic Western cosmology and loss of the extended family system. The religious youth cult possesses many of the properties of the normal psychosocial system, which is a critical social structure for healthful coping in the world. As a normative social system, the religious youth cult is an alternative healing system for the existential crises of contemporary youth.     

Gender and Mathematical Problem Solving

The relationship between gender and mathematical problem-solving among high ability students depends on the attributes of the problem solving questions. This was evident in the present study of 12-year-olds. The children were from predominately White families. Eighty-three males and 76 females were tested in both the fall and the spring on the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales and on the Canadian Test of Basic Skills (CTBS). In the Spring, students were also tested on the GAUSS. Both the CTBS and the GAUSS measure mathematical problem solving. Among high ability students, there were gender differences on the problem-solving scale of the CTBS but not on the GAUSS, even though the GAUSS was independently rated as the more abstract and difficult of the two tests. The present study describes the implications of this for the question of the origin of gender differences in mathematics, and also looked at the relationship between attitudes toward mathematics and mathematical problem-solving performance.     

Rumination and worrying as possible mediators in the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of depression and anxiety in clinically depressed individuals

Rumination and worrying are considered possible mediating variables that may explain the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The current study sought to examine the mediational effects of rumination and worry in the relationships between neuroticism and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of clinically depressed individuals (N = 198). All patients completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of neuroticism, rumination, worrying, depression, and anxiety. Results showed that in subsequent analyses, rumination and worrying both mediated the relation between neuroticism and depression and anxiety. When rumination and worrying were simultaneously entered in the mediation analysis, only rumination was found to mediate the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Two components of rumination (i.e., brooding and reflection) were also analyzed in the mediational analysis. Both reflection and brooding were significant mediators with respect to depressive symptoms, whereas brooding was the only significant mediator in relation to anxiety symptoms. The results are discussed in the light of current theories, previous research, and recent treatment developments. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Western Theology in Africa: Christian Mission in the Light of the Undermining of Scientific Hegemony

Comprehension of the Old Testament in indigenous African Christianity can draw deeply on, confirm, and uphold tribal traditions designed to prevent death, calamity, and infertility. Deep spirituality demonstrated in such comprehension contrasts with “remnant spirituality” in the West. Western people's awareness of their own religious underpinnings has lapsed. As a result, how well are Western Christians able to engage with holistic African communities? Holistic or integral mission can fall short through being a holistic means of introducing dualism. This article questions the legitimacy of science's intrusion on the Christian faith, and draws practical implications for the Western mission enterprise, such as the fact that it generates dependency.     

Dewey's philosophy and the experience of working: Labor,tools and language

Although Richard Rorty has done much to renew interest in the philosophy of John Dewey, he nonetheless rejects two of the most important components of Dewey's philosophy, that is, his metaphysics and epistemology. Following George Santayana, Rorty accuses Dewey of trying to serve Locke and Hegel, an impossibility as Rorty rightly sees it. Rorty (1982) says that Dewey should have been “Hegelian all the way” (p. 85). By reconstructing a bit of Hegel's early philosophy of work, and comparing it to Dewey's metaphysics and epistemology we can see that Dewey was indeed “Hegelian all the way” and that Rorty has constructed a false dilemma. We also gain some interesting insight into Dewey's philosophy by viewing it in terms of labor, tools and language.     

The role of chance events in career decision making

Two studies are reported that investigate the role of chance events as influences in career decision making. In study one, the results of a large-scale survey of high-school and university students (N = 772) investigating influences on their career decision making are presented. Chance events were reported as influencing the career decisions of 69.1% of the sample. In the second study, the role of locus of control was found to be moderately associated with reporting chance events. More External control individuals tend to report more chance events than their Internal control counterparts. Implications for career choice theory and research are discussed.     

Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in two racial groups provide a rare window into social categorization and perception. In 5 experiments, we tested the extent to which a rule of hypodescent, whereby biracial individuals are assigned the status of their socially subordinate parent group, would govern perceptions of Asian-White and Black-White targets. In Experiment 1, in spite of posing explicit questions concerning Asian-White and Black-White targets, hypodescent was observed in both cases and more strongly in Black-White social categorization. Experiments 2A and 2B used a speeded response task and again revealed evidence of hypodescent in both cases, as well as a stronger effect in the Black-White target condition. In Experiments 3A and 3B, social perception was studied with a face-morphing task. Participants required a face to be lower in proportion minority to be perceived as minority than in proportion White to be perceived as White. Again, the threshold for being perceived as White was higher for Black-White than for Asian-White targets. An independent categorization task in Experiment 3B further confirmed the rule of hypodescent and variation in it that reflected the current racial hierarchy in the United States. These results documenting biases in the social categorization and perception of biracials have implications for resistance to change in the American racial hierarchy.     

Assimilation,multiculturalism, and colorblindness: Mediated and moderated relationships between social dominance orientation and prejudice

Using correlational and experimental data, we examined the degree to which personal and perceived normative support for the acculturation ideologies of assimilation, multiculturalism, and colorblindness mediated and moderated the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and prejudice among 299 White students at three American colleges. Correlational results indicated that personal support for the acculturation ideologies mediated the SDO–prejudice relationship. Personal support for assimilation (a hierarchy-enhancing ideology) positively related to SDO; multiculturalism and colorblindness (hierarchy-attenuating ideologies) negatively related to SDO. An experimental manipulation varied whether assimilation, multiculturalism, or colorblindness was considered normative in the United States. In addition to a control, a fifth condition primed the Obama presidency. SDO related most strongly to prejudice toward American immigrants and ethnic minorities when assimilation norms and the Obama presidency were primed. Efforts to reduce the associations between SDO and prejudice are discussed in terms of highlighting hierarchy-attenuating national norms of multiculturalism and colorblindness.