Preaching in a Time of Declining Dharma: History,Ethics and Protection in Sermons to the Sri Lankan Army

This article examines two Buddhist ceremonies sponsored by the Sri Lankan Army, a flag blessing in 2005 and a lamp lighting ceremony in 2007. I argue that, while the monks officiating at these ceremonies encourage the soldiers to fight, they do not justify war in any way. On the contrary, these preachers employ an ethical imagination more dependent upon eschatological factors than upon individual obligations. Specifically, they take for granted that ideal Buddhist moral behaviour is almost impossible in a world where the Dharma is in decline. In a world of declining Dharma, they assert that Buddhists must sometimes engage in unwholesome activities in order to preserve the possibility of Buddhist practice in the future. They do not justify these compromises according to a hierarchy of moral duties or a metaphysical ideal of justice, but rather they accept them as markers of the corrupt nature of the world. The monks thus advise soldiers to protect the Dharma that remains in the country, preserving the possibility of Buddhist ethical activity and the possibility of re-establishing Dharma in the future.     

Testing a Model of Disfigurement: Effects of a Skin Camouflage Service on Well-being and Appearance Anxiety

This paper outlines and tests a model of disfigurement that integrates psychological and sociological viewpoints on appearance anxiety. Thirty-two clients who attended the British Red Cross Skin Camouflage Service for assistance in covering skin blemishes completed questionnaires designed to assess aspects of the model just before and four months after their appointment. As predicted, the results indicated that attendance at the Service had beneficial effects in reducing self-reported avoidance and increasing confidence. Well-being as measured by the General Health Questionnaire improved for those who found the camouflage cream effective in covering blemishes. Also as predicted, more fundamental aspects of appearance anxiety as measured by the Appearance Schema Inventory and Fear of Negative Evaluation were relatively unaffected by the use of camouflage creams. The results suggest that the model can be used to understand the social and cognitive processes involved in dealing with disfiguring conditions and to inform assessment of the effects of medical and psychological interventions.     

Individual Growth Curve Modeling of Specific Risk Factors and Memory in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes: An Accelerated Longitudinal Design

Objective: To examine if diabetes risk factors disrupt memory score trajectories in youth with T1D over three years with a powerful accelerated longitudinal method and individual growth curve modeling. Methods: Participants aged 9–17 completed memory measures at study enrollment and two years later. Results: Poorer metabolic control over the course of the study related to a significant decrease in visual memory scores. Compared to baseline, these youth scored 1.99 points lower at follow-up. Generally appropriate developmental gains were made in memory trajectories and girls' visual and verbal memory improved more than boys. No significant effects of disease duration, age of onset, or severe hypoglycemia were found on visual or verbal memory over three years time. Conclusions: Of the risk factors studied, only poorer metabolic control had a significant impact upon visual memory after three years. Verbal memory was unaffected. However, given that level of metabolic control tends to remain relatively consistent over time, the effect of continued poorer metabolic control on memory should be monitored.     

Longitudinal Assessment of the Relationship Between Physical Self-Concept and Health-Related Behavior and Emotion in Adolescent Girls

This study investigated the changes in and the relationships among body mass index (BMI), global self-esteem, physical self-perceptions, social physique anxiety (SPA), physical activity, and dietary restraint in adolescent females over a 24-month period. Participants (N = 501) completed annual assessments in grade 9, 10, and 11. The results showed moderate covariance stability in all variables. There were several significant time effects (group mean change), with small increases in BMI, moderate decreases in physical activity, and very small changes over time in SPA and physical self-perceptions. Longitudinal analyses indicated that specific physical self-perceptions were important predictors of physical activity, dietary restraint and SPA; however, most of the variance was explained by previous year values. Evidence of bidirectional effects revealed that specific self-perceptions impact specific behaviors and SPA more so than the impact of behavior/emotion on self-perceptions. These results highlight the importance of understanding the physical self and its links to health-related behaviors and emotion in adolescents.     

Thematic Analysis of the Intersection of Spirituality and Eating Disorder Symptoms

The authors interviewed 12 female participants about the intersection of their spiritual beliefs and eating disorder symptoms. Three main themes emerged from the data: (a) spiritual beliefs as helpful, (b) choice not to ask for spiritual help, and (c) guilt.     

Personalized interactive characters for toddlers' learning of seriation from a video presentation

Children's media is rooted in relationships with onscreen characters. In this study, 18-month-old toddlers were initially exposed to one of two unfamiliar interactive media characters for 3 months. Conditions varied whether the character was personalized to them or not. At age 21 months, toddlers were tested on a seriation task that was presented onscreen by the character and compared to the performance of a 21-month-old control group who did not view a video demonstration (total N = 48). Toddlers learned significantly more from the personalized character, but not from the non-personalized character, when compared to the control group. Children in the personalized condition also increased in parasocial, nurturing behaviors directed at the character during play sessions, and these scores were linked to better seriation performance. The results suggest an important role for social relationships with interactive characters to teach early seriation skills.     

Realism and Uncertainty of Unobservable Common Causes in Factor Analysis

Famously, scientific theories are underdetermined by their evidence. This occurs in the factor analytic model (FA), which is often used to connect concrete data (e.g. test scores) to hypothetical notions (e.g. intelligence). After introducing FA, three general topics are addressed. (i) Underdetermination: the precise reasons why FA is underdetermined illuminates various claims about underdetermination, abduction, and theoretical terms. (ii) Uncertainties: FA helps distinguish at least four kinds of uncertainties. The prevailing practice, often encoded in statistical software, is to ignore the most difficult kinds, which are essential to FA's underdetermination. (iii) What to do: some suggestions for dealing with these hardest types of uncertainty are offered.     

Adapted digital music players for individuals with severe impairments

Portable music production devices, such as radios, cassette players, and MP3 players, have characteristics that make them less than ideal for teaching the cause‐and‐effect relationships that would enable children and adults with severe impairments to control them independently and appropriately. Even when adapted for control with adaptive switches, the relationship between switch closure and on–off operation results in contingency characteristics that can inhibit learning. Some solutions to these problems are described, and for those individuals who can learn with complex contingencies, some promising products are reviewed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neither by global nor local cues alone: evidence for a unified orientation process

A substantial amount of empirical and theoretical debate remains concerning the extent to which an ability to orient with respect to the environment is determined by global (i.e., principal axis of space), local (i.e., wall lengths, angles), and/or view-based (i.e., stored representation) accounts. We developed an orientation task that allowed the manipulation of the reliability of the principal axis of space (i.e., searching at the egocentric left- and/or right-hand side of the principal axis) between groups while maintaining goal distance from the principal axis, local cues specifying the goal location (i.e., short wall left, short wall right, and obtuse angle), and visual aspects of the goal location consistent across groups. Control and test trials revealed that participants trained with a reliable principal axis of space utilized both global and local geometric cues, whereas those trained with an unreliable principal axis of space utilized only local geometric cues. Results suggest that both global and local geometric cues are utilized for reorientation and that the reliability of the principal axis of an enclosure differentially influences the use of geometric cues. Such results have implications for purely global-based, purely local-based, and purely view-based matching theoretical accounts of geometry learning and provide evidence for a unified orientation process.     

Anesthesia Awareness: Narrative Review of Psychological Sequelae,Treatment, and Incidence

Awareness during general anesthesia occurs when patients recall events or sensations during their surgeries, although the patients should have been unconscious at the time. Anesthesiologists are cognizant of this phenomenon, but few discussions occur outside the discipline. This narrative review summarizes the patient recollections, psychological sequelae, treatment and follow-up of psychological consequences, as well as incidence and etiology of awareness during general anesthesia. Recalled memories include noises, conversations, images, mental processes, feelings of pain and/or paralysis. Psychological consequences include anxiety, flashbacks, and posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Limited discussion for therapeutic treatment after an anesthesia awareness experience exists. The incidence of anesthesia awareness ranges from 0.1 to 0.2% (e.g., 1–2/1000 patients). Increased recognition of awareness during general anesthesia within the psychological/counseling community, with additional research focusing on optimal therapeutic treatment, will improve the care of these patients.