MUSLIM PERSPECTIVES ON STEM CELL RESEARCH AND CLONING

In Islam, the acquisition of knowledge is a form of worship. But human achievement must be exercised in conformity with God's will. Warnings against feelings of superiority often are coupled with the command to remain within the confines of God's laws and limits. Because of the fear of arrogance and disregard of the balance created by God, any new knowledge or discovery must be applied with careful consideration to maintaining balance in the creation. Knowledge must be applied to ascertain equity and justice for all of humanity. Research in Islam must be linked to the broad ethical base set forth in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Whether embryonic stem cell research or cloning is ethically acceptable in Islam depends on the benefits derived from such applications. What is most important for the scholars is to adhere to the concepts of compassion, mercy, and benefit to everyone.     

ANTHROPOLOGY,POLANYI, AND AFROPENTECOSTAL RITUAL: A SCIENTIFIC AND THEOLOGICAL EPISTEMOLOGY OF PARTICIPATION

The 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis sponsored both an International Congress of Arts and Sciences aimed at unity of knowledge and an anthropology exhibit of diverse peoples. Jointly these represented a quest for unifying knowledge in a diverse world that was fractured by isolated specializations and segregated peoples. In historical perspective, the Congress's quest for knowledge is overshadowed by Ota Benga who was part of the anthropology exhibit. The 1904 World's Fair can be viewed as a Euro‐American ritual, a global pilgrimage, which sought to celebrate the advances and resolve the challenges of modernity and human diversity. Three years later Afropentecostalism dealt with these same issues with different methods and rituals. This ritual system became the most culturally diverse and fastest growing religious movement of the twentieth century. I suggest that the anthropological method of Frank Hamilton Cushing, the postcritical epistemology of Michael Polanyi, and the Afropente‐costal ritual movement initiated by William J. Seymour are all attempts to develop a postmodern epistemology that is simultaneously constructive, focused on discerning reality, and broad enough to allow for human consciousness and diverse human communities. I explore this confluence of scientific and participatory epistemology through six theses.     

Challenges and Promises of Becoming a Culturally Competent Counselor in a Sociopolitical Era of Change and Empowerment

This article explores the historical and sociopolitical contexts of the multicultural competency movement and the challenges and promise of becoming a culturally competent counselor. Specific attention is directed to the promise and opportunity for those who commit to a culturally competent personal and professional way of life.     

Summarizing digital documents: effects of alternate or simultaneous window display

We investigated the effect of window visibility on the computer‐based summarizing of digital documents. Two experiments studied the impact of the simultaneous or alternate display of the windows containing the notepad and source documents. In Experiment 1, the participants were asked to summarize the content of the source documents. In Experiment 2, they were required to copy out sections of the source documents. The results showed that in the alternate condition, the participants performed fewer reading and writing cycles than in the simultaneous condition. Furthermore, in the alternate condition, the writing episodes were both more numerous and more effortful, while quality of the summaries produced using the copying strategy was also affected. These experiments highlight the need for writers to be able to navigate freely and easily between the windows so that they can construct an overall mental representation of their summaries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Overcoming the winner's curse: an adaptive learning perspective

The winner's curse phenomenon refers to the fact that the winner in a common value auction, in order to actually win the auction, is likely to have overestimated the item's value and consequently is likely to gain less than expected and may even lose (i.e., it is said to be “cursed”). Past research, using the “Acquiring a company” task has shown that people do not overcome this bias even after they receive extensive feedback. We suggest that the persistence of the winner's curse is due to a combination of two factors: variability in the environment that leads to ambiguous feedback (i.e., choices and outcomes are only partially correlated) and the tendency of decision makers to learn adaptively. We show in an experiment that by reducing the variance in the feedback, performance can be significantly improved. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fairness and bargaining power in threshold public goods experiments

Experiments on three two‐person threshold public good provision games, namely, the simultaneous, sequential, and dictator games, are conducted to explore the motives behind giving. Players who move simultaneously are endowed with equal bargaining power, and players who move first are endowed with more bargaining power than players who move subsequently. Dictators are indubitably endowed with complete bargaining power. Since the differences between the bargaining powers of two players increase from the simultaneous to the sequential to the dictator game, comparisons among games allow us to trace whether the contribution behavior is motivated by fairness or is simply due to the strategic concern. The experimental evidence shows that the strategic concern explains the overall contribution behavior better than the motive of fairness. However, in the final round 26% of the dictators share the threshold evenly with their opponents, suggesting that some subjects do play fairly. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Malingering as a categorical or dimensional construct: the latent structure of feigned psychopathology as measured by the SIRS and MMPI-2

The 6 nonoverlapping primary scales of the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS) were subjected to taxometric analysis in a group of 1,211 criminal and civil examinees in order to investigate the latent structure of feigned psychopathology. Both taxometric procedures used in this study, mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC) and maximum covariance (MAXCOV), produced dimensional results. A subgroup of participants (n = 711) with valid Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) protocols were included in a second round of analyses in which the 6 nonoverlapping primary scales of the SIRS and the Infrequency (F), Infrequency-Psychopathology (Fp), and Dissimulation (Ds) scales of the MMPI-2 served as indicators. Again, the results were more consistent with dimensional latent structure than with taxonic latent structure. On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that feigned psychopathology forms a dimension (levels of fabrication or exaggeration) rather than a taxon (malingering-honest dichotomy) and that malingering is a quantitative distinction rather than a qualitative one. The theoretical and clinical practice implications of these findings are discussed.     

Dissolving the diaspora: Dialogical practice in the development of deep multiculturalism

This article is an exposition of deep or critical multiculturalism that is grounded in a mutually respectful dialogue. Such multiculturalism names historical oppressions, recognizes the structural causes of injustice and inequality, and is profoundly open to cultural critique, challenge and change. In order to promote such a multicultural practice, the article makes the case for a dialogical politics of deep and mutual respect in which ethno‐religious sensibilities are validated and welcomed in their rich diversity. In doing so, the article draws upon the author's empirical research on the Muslim minority in contemporary Canada. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mechanical restraints as positive reinforcers for aggression

Research suggests that, in some cases, mechanical restraints may function as positive reinforcers. In this study, we conducted a functional analysis of severe aggression exhibited by an individual with a history of wearing arm splints. The results of this functional analysis demonstrated that his aggression was maintained by access to the arm splints. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.