How do Jewish teachings relate to beliefs about depression in the strictly orthodox Jewish community?

The aim of this study was to explore whether and, if so, how Jewish teachings influence strictly orthodox Jewish beliefs about depression. The rabbinic literature was searched for Jewish teachings relevant to depression. Ten consenting strictly orthodox Jews were purposively selected and interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule focussing on their beliefs about causes of and treatments for depression. Thematic analysis was used to analyse transcribed interviews and explore relationships between community beliefs and the Jewish teachings identified in the review. The key themes in both the rabbinic literature and the community included the overriding importance in Judaism of preserving life, using appropriate, acceptable means to do so, and obligations to help others. Contrasts between rabbinic teachings and community beliefs included community concerns about stigma, generally lacking in the rabbinic literature, and greater rabbinic emphasis on spiritual exertion in dealing with depression. Findings could prove useful to those managing depressed, orthodox Jews.     

Religious support and psychosocial well-being among a religious Jewish population

The three subscales of the Religious Support Scale assess perceived support from a person’s religious community, religious leaders, and God. This three-factor structure was replicated in the current study with a sample of 277 religious Jewish persons residing in Israel. Hierarchical canonical analysis showed that, even after controlling for general social support, Religious Leader and God Support were related to lower emotional distress, Religious Leader and Religious Community Support contributed to a higher level of life satisfaction, and Religious Community and God Support contributed to the prediction of perceived health. Findings are discussed in terms of religious support’s generalizability as a psychosocial resource for persons of various faiths.     

The influence of word shading and word length on eye movements during reading

In three experiments rats were given short or long preexposure (4 or 10 sessions) to two compound flavours, AX and BX, according to an intermixed or a blocked schedule. Following preexposure, aversion conditioning trials were given with AX as the conditioned stimulus (CS). In Experiments 1 and 2, retardation and summation tests were then carried out to assess the inhibitory properties of B (an Espinet procedure). In Experiment 3, test trials evaluated generalization from AX to BX (the standard perceptual learning procedure). The results showed that B performed as an inhibitor of the unconditioned stimulus (US; an Espinet effect) only after long intermixed preexposure, whereas a reliable perceptual learning effect was observed both after short and after long preeexposure. The observation that B had no detectable inhibitory properties after short preexposure casts doubt on the suggestion that inhibitory learning is responsible for perceptual learning after brief exposure to AX and BX.     

Socio-Economic Class Bias in Rorschach Diagnosis: Contributing Psychosocial Attributes of the Clinician

The study attempted a replication of William Haase's finding (1956) of psychodiagnostic bias detrimental to the lower socio-economic class among clinical psychologists, while positing that psycho-social characteristics of the clinician, in particular Authoritarianism and Status Anxiety, would be significant correlates of this biased behavior. Sixty clinical psychologists were classified as High or Low Authoritarian, with level of status anxiety experimentally induced. Ss then interpreted paired (equated) Rorschach protocols with appended social histories of alleged lower or middle class origin. Social-class-related diagnostic bias was demonstrated, but was unrelated to the psychosocial characteristics of the clinician.     

Factors that Precipitate and Mitigate Crises in Ministry

Using a modified Delphi technique, this study reports mixed-method data for factors identified as leading to crises in ministry. Data were collected from a random stratified sample of Uniting Church clergy based in southern Australia. Three phases (Phase 1?N?=?85, Phase 2?N?=?95, Phase 3?N?=?75) identified precipitants to crises in ministry and strategies to mitigate these crises. Strategies included a need for ongoing mandatory professional development, professional supervision, peer support, and formal ethics training. Results are discussed in the light of job demands, job control and job support, and the self-determination needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy.     

Natural Law and Perfect Community: Contributions of Christian Platonism to Political Theory

This paper undertakes two tasks. Firstly, it argues that the concept of subjective rights has no place in a Christian ethic of community, even in a "natural-law" ethic, because it is wedded, both historically and necessarily, to a theologically doubtful foundation of individual and collective proprietorship of human and non-human nature. Secondly, it elaborates and alternative communal ethic of love, law and natural order from within the Augustinian Platonist tradition of individual and collective non-proprietorship, concentrating on the theological contributions made by the medieval Franciscans (especially St. Bonaventure) and later by John Wyclif.