Divine Action,Resurrection, and the Transformation of the Universe

Abstract

The article examines the notion of self-organization and explores the reality of biological processes from an epistemological point of view. First, I briefly analyze what is currently regarded as one of the most important discoveries not only in physics, but also in biology—namely, complex systems and deterministic chaos; secondly, I offer some reflections on the new frontiers of contemporary biology— namely, functional genomics and systems biology. The central part of the article focuses on the epistemological transition from genetic determinism to the new conception of “meaning” as emergence.     

Disgust sensitivity and fear of animals: Effect of exposure to violent or revulsive material

Subjects were asked to rate their fear of four categories of animals both before and after viewing one of three brief video films. Subjects watched either (a) a video depicting extreme violence, (b) a video depicting revulsive scenes from a hospital operation, or (c) a video showing neutral landscape scenes. The results suggested that exposure to violent material produced an increase in fear ratings for animals in the Hi Fear/Hi Predatory category (e.g., lion, tiger, shark) which was significantly different from a decrease in fear ratings recorded for all other categories of animals. However, exposure to revulsive material produced an increase in fear ratings to animals in both the Hi Fear/Lo Predatory category (e.g., rat, spider, snake) and the Hi Revulsion category (e.g., slug, maggot, snail) which was significantly different to the decrease in fear ratings recorded for animals in the remaining categories. The neutral landscape scenes produced a decrease in mean fear ratings for all categories of animals. These results are considered further support for a disease-avoidance model of common animal fears, and suggest a causal link between disgust sensitivity and fear of certain fear-relevant animals.     

Investigating the Role of Emotion in Science Center Visitor Learning

ABSTRACT

A number of investigators have argued that emotion plays an important role in free-choice learning in settings such as museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums, particularly given the relationship between emotion and cognition. Despite considerable research on the cognitive aspects of visits, empirical studies on emotion in such settings are virtually non-existent. This study investigated the role that emotion plays in facilitating and enhancing learning at a science center. Three major research questions were addressed: (a) Can emotion be measured using Russell's Affect Grid in a non-laboratory setting such as an interactive science center? (b) If so, do different types of science center experiences create measurably different levels of emotional arousal and/or valence in visitors? and (c) If so, was there evidence that elevated arousal and/or valence enhanced or retarded visitors' long-term cognitive science learning? The study provided evidence that emotion could be measured using a modified Affect Grid technique and that a particular traveling exhibition generated arousal levels above baseline levels as determined by a control group. Findings suggest a relationship between emotional arousal and positive changes in visitor long-term cognition, attitudes, and behaviors.     

The Relation of Parent and Child Gender to Parental Tolerance of Child Disruptive Behaviors

Parental tolerance has been defined as the degree to which a parent tends to be annoyed by his or her child’s disruptive behavior. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relation of both parent and child gender to parental tolerance of child disruptive behaviors. Participants were 150 parents with 3–6 year-old at-risk children (47.5 % girls) who sought help with parenting of their child’s oppositional defiant behaviors. Tolerance was measured by the difference between parent ratings of intensity on 36 disruptive behaviors and whether each behavior was identified as a problem (resulting in a score of either high, expected, or low tolerance). A 2 (child gender) by 2 (parent gender) analysis of variance was conducted on the tolerance score. A significant interaction between child and parent gender emerged: Mothers were equally tolerant of boys’ and girls’ oppositional defiant behavior but fathers were more tolerant of boys’ than girls’ oppositional behavior. Exploratory analyses suggested that this interaction may be qualified by clinical status of the child. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Health Outcomes by Closeness of Sexual Abuse Perpetrator: A Test of Betrayal Trauma Theory

Summary

In this chapter, practicing attorney Brooks Cooper illuminates how the legal tradition of applying different standards to the ad-missibility of expert and lay opinions as evidence in litigation complicates delayed-discovery sexual abuse cases. Admissibility standards have long been a source of controversy, and recent developments in law, such as the pre-trial evidentiary hearings that invoke the “gatekeeper” function of the judge under the standard enunciated in Daubert v. Mer-rell-Dow Pharmaceuticals, have become a favored strategy by the defense in an effort to bar delayed memory testimony by characterizing it as the product of unreliable science. To overcome this litigation hurdle, Mr. Cooper contextualizes the present controversy in the history of scientific evidence admissibility, tracing emerging trends in judicial opinion on scientific evidence from expert witnesses from the 1923 case Frye v. United States through the present, and offers strategies and techniques to maintain admissibility of the evidence before and during all phases of the trial.     

Dating Violence Perpetration: The Predictive Roles of Maternally versus Paternally Perpetrated Childhood Abuse and Subsequent Dating Violence Attitudes and Behaviors

This study investigated both young men's and young women's perpetration of physical, sexual, and psychological forms of dating violence, examining predictors of violence including maternally or paternally perpetrated forms of various types of child maltreatment, as well as attitudes toward dating violence and dating violence victimization. Results of hierarchical linear regressions found that childhood experiences of maternal neglect predicted men's physical perpetration, and childhood sexual abuse predicted women's sexual perpetration and men's psychological perpetration. Further, positive attitudes toward dating violence predicted women's physical, psychological, and sexual perpetration, as well as men's sexual perpetration, and experiences of dating violence victimization were the strongest predictors of most forms of dating violence perpetration, particularly among women. Implications for future research and prevention initiatives are discussed.     

Action influences spatial perception: Neuropsychological evidence

We present neuropsychological evidence indicating that action influences spatial perception. First, we review evidence indicating that actions using a tool can modulate unilateral visual neglect and extinction, where patients are unaware of stimuli presented on one side of space. We show that, at least for some patients, modulation comes about through a combination of visual and motor cueing of attention to the affected side (Experiment 1). Subsequently, we review evidence that action‐relations between stimuli reduce visual extinction; there is less extinction when stimuli fall in the correct colocations for action relative to when they fall in the incorrect relations for action and relative to when stimuli are just associatively related. Finally, we demonstrate that action relations between stimuli can also influence the binding of objects to space, in a patient with Balint's syndrome (Experiment 2). These neuropsychological data indicate that perception–action couplings can be crucial to our conscious representation of space.     

Examining the role and functions of self-development in healthcare therapy trainings: A review of the literature with a modest proposal for the use of learning agreements

Many healthcare trainings with a psychodynamic orientation encourage or require students to commit to a process of personal development, such as provided through attending individual psychotherapy and/or an experiential ‘as if therapy’ group. This paper reviews recent literature about training in psychodynamically oriented practices within counselling psychotherapy, psychiatry, the creative arts therapies and clinical psychology. The results indicate that the mandatory personal development dimension of therapy training needs urgent reassessment. Results of studies consistently call for further research about the direct benefits of personal development on students’ development of skills for therapy practice. There is minimal evidence to indicate what self-development through individual psychotherapy can specifically deliver in terms of eventual professional competence. To address some aspects of the current lacuna, this paper summarises the recommendations for training programmes available from the current research, and makes a modest proposal for the use of learning agreements, rather than only mandated hurdle requirements, to ensure that the incremental steps by which the student attains expected requirements is negotiated and agreed within regularised, and widely accepted university course procedures.     

Pictorial rehearsal effects in younger and older adults

Abstract

In three studies, we examined pictorial rehearsal effects in younger and older adults. Concrete and abstract line drawings that varied in the amount of pictorial detail were presented for study under different presentation conditions. In the pictorial rehearsal condition, each picture was followed by a blank rehearsal interval where the picture was no longer presented. In all three experiments, the poststimulus interval enhanced picture recognition for both age groups, relative to a control condition where no rehearsal interval occurred. These findings suggest that older adults, like younger adults, form and maintain visual images across a blank rehearsal interval. Implications of these findings for current views on imaginal processes in older adults are discussed.