Sometimes it does hurt to ask: The constructive role of articulating impressions

Decisions can sometimes have a constructive role, so that the act of, for example, choosing one option over another creates a preference for that option (e.g., , ,  and ). In this work we explore the constructive role of just articulating an impression, for a presented visual stimulus, as opposed to making a choice (specifically, the judgments we employ are affective evaluations). Using quantum probability theory, we outline a cognitive model formalizing such a constructive process. We predict a simple interaction, in relation to how a second image is evaluated, following the presentation of a first image, depending on whether there is a rating for the first image or not. The interaction predicted by the quantum model was confirmed across three experiments and a variety of control manipulations. The advantages of using quantum probability theory to model the present results, compared with existing models of sequence order effects in judgment (e.g., Hogarth & Einhorn, 1992) or other theories of constructive processes when a choice is made (e.g.,  and ) are discussed.     

Making sense of surveys and censuses: Issues in religious self-identification

Abstract

Censuses and surveys shape decisions, discourse and debates about people and their lived environments. The outcomes, in the case of a census, inform governments about resource distribution but also shape people's self-understanding about who they are and where they may be going. How people self-identify on censuses and surveys produces certain types of knowledge. This introduction emphasises the impact of those instruments on knowledge production and how numbers can be employed, often anecdotally, to further interests and claims. The way academics use and interpret such instruments has ethical and normative dimensions: numbers are not neutral but shape and are shaped by perceptions and identities. This introduction to a thematic issue of Religion introduces the contributing authors' diverse – historical, qualitative and quantitative – approaches that work together to produce their own kind of multi-disciplinary, academically located knowledge.     

The Effect of Parents’ Literacy Skills and Children’s Preliteracy Skills on the Risk of Dyslexia

The combination of investigating child and family characteristics sheds light on the constellation of risk factors that can ultimately lead to dyslexia. This family-risk study examines plausible preschool risk factors and their specificity. Participants (N?=?196, 42 % girls) included familial risk (FR) children with and without dyslexia in Grade 3 and controls. First, we found impairments in phonological awareness, rapid naming, and letter knowledge in FR kindergartners with later dyslexia, and mild phonological-awareness deficits in FR kindergartners without subsequent dyslexia. These skills were better predictors of reading than arithmetic, except for rapid naming. Second, the literacy environment at home was comparable among groups. Third, having a dyslexic parent and literacy abilities of the non-dyslexic parent related to offspring risk of dyslexia. Parental literacy abilities might be viewed as indicators of offspring’s liability for literacy difficulties, since parents provide offspring with genetic and environmental endowment. We propose an intergenerational multiple deficit model in which both parents confer cognitive risks.     

ERNEST BECKER'S PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION FORTY YEARS ON: A VIEW FROM SOCIAL COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

This article distinguishes between three projects in Ernest Becker's (1924–1974) later work: his psychology of “religion,” his psychology of religion, and his psychology of Religion (with a capital R). The first is an analysis of culture and civilization as immortality projects, means by which to deny death. The second, which overlaps with the first, is a characterization of religion‐as‐practiced (e.g., by adherents of the world religions) as a particularly effective immortality project vis‐à‐vis death anxiety. The third is less social scientific and more theological; Becker argues for a view of God that is in the tradition of Søren Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich (and, arguably, Pseudo‐Dionysius, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas). Focusing on the second of these projects—as much has already been written on the first, and little can be said about the third—this article evaluates Becker's claims about religion‐as‐practiced in light of recent developments in social cognitive psychology.     

The transitional impact scale: Assessing the material and psychological impact of life transitions

The Transitional Impact Scale (TIS) advances the measurement of event cognition into the real world. The TIS was created to provide a measure of change for important life transitions, including an index of their transitional properties and magnitude. Pilot work prior to Study 1 led to the creation of a 95-item version (TIS-95). A principal components analysis of TIS-95 (n = 215) resulted in two dimensions that we rotated to a Varimax criterion and interpreted as (1) material change (e.g., “This event changed where I live”) and (2) psychological change (e.g., “This event changed the way I think about things”). TIS-95 was reduced to 25 items. In Study 2, the structure of TIS-25 was replicated (n = 531) using the same method. The best 12 items were retained. TIS-12 was evaluated in two random split-half samples (n = 557 and n = 553). These samples produced essentially identical results, as assessed through factor comparison. The cumulative scales formed from items constituting each factor demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha ranged from .79 to .86).     

An Insider’s Moments of Confucian Ethical Conflict: Reflexivity as the “Middle Way” Response

Cultural ethical dilemmas occur when ethical research practices, as prescribed by the research ethics codes of Western research institutions, conflict with the cultural and social norms of non-Western researchers and their participants. Thus, insider-researchers working with participants from similar cultural backgrounds may experience ethical dilemmas that result in disconcerting cultural estrangement from their communities. Using reflexive narratives, the author identifies moments of cultural ethical dilemmas that necessitate a choice between two competing sets of values. Working out of a Western university, the narratives reflect on cultural ethical dilemmas relating to non-coercion, confidentiality, and beneficence, encountered during interviews in the researcher’s community. Analyzed through the lens of Confucian social and ethical behavior, the paper asks whether there is a need for East–west polarization, or whether research ethics codes based on Western worldviews can be reconciled with Confucian worldviews. The paper suggests the “Middle Way” approach to reconciling and integrating the diverse worldviews of ethics, through the use of an ethical reflexive process that engenders trust in the research process and resolves cultural ethical dilemmas.     

Effects of stimulation by three-dimensional natural images on prefrontal cortex and autonomic nerve activity: a comparison with stimulation using two-dimensional images

Empirical evidence suggests that three-dimensional (3D) images of nature promote physiological relaxation in humans by providing more realistic effects compared with two-dimensional (2D) images. However, no studies have evaluated the physiological relaxation effects of nature-derived 3D images on prefrontal cortex and autonomic nerve activity. The present study aimed to clarify the physiological relaxation effects of visual stimulation by 3D flower images on prefrontal cortex and autonomic nerve activity. Nineteen male university students (22.2 ± 0.6 years) were presented with 3D and 2D images of the water lily for 90 s. Prefrontal cortex activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy, while autonomic nerve activity was measured using heart rate variability (HRV). Psychological effects were determined using a modified semantic differential method (SD). Compared with visual stimulation by 2D images, that by 3D images resulted in a significant decrease in oxyhemoglobin concentration in the right prefrontal cortex, lower sympathetic activity as calculated by the ratio of the low-frequency to high-frequency HRV component, and a significantly greater realistic feeling as evidenced by higher SD ratings. In conclusion, visual stimulation by realistic 3D floral images promotes physiological relaxation more effectively than the corresponding 2D image.     

Life Satisfaction of the Aged in the Retirement Process: A Comparative Study of South Korea with Germany and Switzerland

This study aims to examine relationships among various types of transitional retirement processes and life satisfaction. It conducted a cross-national comparison among Korea, Germany, and Switzerland using the Cross-National Equivalent File and the ordered logistic analysis method was used as the analysis model. We classify the retirement process by three types; the complete retirement type, the hopping type of post-retirement and the continuity type of post-retirement, and evaluate the life satisfaction in each type of retirement process. Our empirical analysis finds that workers of the complete retirement type have higher level of life satisfaction than workers working continually after retirement in South Korea, while workers continually working even after retirement periods have higher level of life satisfaction than workers of the complete retirement type in Germany and Switzerland. Based upon these empirical results, we also discuss the policy direction to improve the life satisfaction of the aged in South Korea.     

Research-Based Knowledge in Psychology: What,if Anything,is Its Incremental Value to the Practitioner?

This essay reflects an ongoing dialogue between a clinician versed in mainstream psychological research and theory, and a social psychologist with experience both as a researcher and contributor to applied undertakings in various domains about the “incremental value” of research-based knowledge—that is, its value beyond that provided by the other sources of knowledge available to the practitioner. These sources include knowledge about the needs and coping strategies of all human beings, as well as knowledge both about the specific life circumstances of those one is seeking to help, and knowledge about language and culture. Examples from the clinical practice of the first author are offered, coupled with in-principle arguments about the underspecified and contingent nature of research-based generalizations. By way of rebuttal, examples of arguably useful findings are provided by the second author—especially findings that serve as correctives to biases in lay psychology (notably unwarranted “dispositionism”) and to widespread shortcomings in judgment and decision-making (particularly, Kahneman and Tversky’s work on “prospect theory” ). Both authors agree on the value of a “bricoleur” treatment strategy that relies on careful attention to the specifics of the case at hand and avoids one-size-fits-all applications of theory and prior research, and both agree that research-based findings are more useful in predicting behavior and designing intervention strategies that apply to groups and large samples of individuals rather than single actors. A concluding discussion focuses on necessary criteria and strategies for increasing the usefulness of laboratory and field research for the practitioner.