CHRISTIAN REALISM AND AUGUSTINIAN (?) LIBERALISM

Augustine's ontology, ecclesiology, and soteriology have recently been mined to help Christian realists and liberals respond to the problems that pluralism and conflict create for democratic societies. The results challenge those secularists who object to the late antique prelate's “moralizing” as well as others who insist that “public reason”—not religious traditions—makes for more meaningful political conversations and for collaboration “across differences.” But the results also raise the question whether Augustine would have gone along with the realists and liberals he has inspired and outfitted.     

An investigation of somatic anxiety and intelligence in children using the Kaufman-ABC and an Apple IIe program measuring heart rate

Somatic anxiety during intelligence testing was examined for 43 children in Grades K through 5 by assessing each child's heart rate with an Apple IIe computer program during an administration of the Kaufman-ABC. Heart rate (a measure of somatic anxiety) decreased steadily during the course of the test administration, except for an increase when the one timed subtest (Triangles) was administered. Heart rate during each separate subtest did not correlate significantly with performance on any task. Implications of these preliminary findings are discussed.     

Effects of Job Redesign: A Field Experiment1

A telephone company project to redesign the job of directory assistance operator was: studied in order to determine the effects on workers of “job enrichment” programs. The change increased the amount of variety and the decisionmaking autonomy in the operator's job. However, no change in work motivation, job involvement, or growth need satisfaction occurred as a result of the changes; instead, the changes had a significant negative impact on interpersonal relationships. After the changes, the older employees reported less satisfaction with the quality of their interpersonal relationships, and those supervisors whose jobs were affected by the changes reported less job security and reduced interpersonal satisfaction. Implications of these findings for the theory of job redesign proposed by Hackman and Lawler (1971) are discussed.     

Black-white differences at ages 212−812 on the McCarthy scales of children's abilities

Comparisons were made between matched groups of black and white children on the new McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities. Using the standardization sample as the data source, 148 matched pairs were obtained. These were grouped as follows: ages $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}\text{?3}\text{1}\text{2}\text{(}\text{N}\text{= 60), 6}\text{1}\text{2}\text{8}\text{1}\text{2}\text{(}\text{N}\text{= 45)}$. The blacks and whites did not differ significantly on any of the cognitive scales at ages $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}\text{?3}\text{1}\text{2}\text{and}\text{4?5}\text{1}\text{2}$, although at ages $\text{6}\text{1}\text{2}\text{-8}\text{1}\text{2}$ the whites scored about $\text{1}\text{2}\text{SD}$ higher. The blacks scored significantly higher on the Motor Scale at ages $\text{4?5}\text{1}\text{2}$ but there were no differences at other ages. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The preventive and therapeutic effects of two school mental health programs

In 30 classrooms randomly assigned to experimental conditions, effects on mothers' reports of behavior symptoms were compared for (a) a parent education program; (b) an in-school program of consultation, counseling, training, and referral; and (c) control classrooms. A sample of 426 families were followed for 30 months from the child's entry into third grade. A simple unweighted count of the number of symptoms reported in a home interview had adequate validity, good reliability, low reactivity, and intrinsic significance. Both programs had significant preventive and therapeutic effects on boys but not on girls. Effects were immediate in the upper middle class families, delayed in the lower class families.The larger study on which this article is based was initiated some years ago by Professor Glidewell and his colleagues, and represents a pioneering research effort in the field of community psychology. The present article was prepared by the authors in response to an invitation from the Editor to report important and still timely aspects of the original study that were not previously published in archival sources. We are grateful to Professor Glidewell and his colleagues for giving us this opportunity to make their findings more generally available to community psychology researchers.This work was supported by research grant M-592 from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Public Health Service, and the St. Louis County Health Department.     

On some philosophic grounds for understanding teaching

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

Sex of employee and sex of supervisor: Effect on attributions for the causality of success and failure

An industrial “employee-testing” situation was simulated in two laboratory studies to determine if differential attributions would be made for the causality of success and failure, as a function of the sex of the “supervisor” and of the “employee.” The saliency of the relative success of the performance was confirmed in both studies, as was the importance of the sexual composition of the dyad. Two surprising results were the general lack of derogation of females by themselves and others, as was generally found in prior research, and the different self-attributional patterns made in the presence and absence of a supervisor. The latter result calls into question the ipsative conception of attributions.     

Changes in HIV treatment beliefs and sexual risk behaviors among gay and bisexual men, 1997-2005.

OBJECTIVE: Beliefs about HIV treatment effectiveness and the impact of HIV treatments on HIV transmission risks were initially related to sexual risk-taking in the late 1990s when multidrug HIV treatments first became available. This study examined changes in beliefs about the effects of HIV treatment for preventing HIV transmission and their association to sexual risk behaviors between the years 1997 and 2005. DESIGN: Anonymous surveys were administered to a convenience sample of gay and bisexual men attending a large community event in Atlanta, Georgia in 1997 (N = 498) and again at the same community event in 2005 (N = 448). Analyses were performed for men living with HIV/AIDS and for men who have not been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rates of unprotected anal intercourse in the previous 3 months. RESULTS: There were significant increases in high-risk sexual practices that coincided with increased beliefs that HIV treatments can reduce the chance of transmitting HIV. However, optimistic beliefs about the health benefits of HIV treatments decreased over the 8 years and were not related to risk behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Beliefs about how HIV treatments impact HIV infectiousness remain associated with HIV transmission risk behavior and interventions targeting at-risk as well as HIV-positive men who have sex with men must directly address these beliefs and perceptions.