Physical Health Functioning Among United Methodist Clergy

United Methodist clergy have been found to have higher than average self-reported rates of obesity, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, and high blood pressure. However, health diagnoses differ from physical health functioning, which indicates how much health problems interfere with activities of daily living. Ninety-five percent (n = 1726) of all actively serving United Methodist clergy in North Carolina completed the SF-12, a measure of physical health functioning that has US norms based on self-administered survey data. Sixty-two percent (n = 1074) of our sample completed the SF-12 by self-administered formats. We used mean difference tests among self-administered clergy surveys to compare the clergy SF-12 Physical Composite Scores to US-normed scores. Clergy reported significantly better physical health composite scores than their gender- and age-matched peers, despite above average disease burden in the same sample. Although health interventions tailored to clergy that address chronic disease are urgently needed, it may be difficult to elicit participation given pastors’ optimistic view of their physical health functioning.     

A Comparison of Children with Epilepsy to an Age- and IQ-Matched Control Group on the Children's Memory Scale

Past research has found that children with epilepsy exhibit decreased memory skills. In addition, some studies have found that children with epilepsy obtain significantly lower IQ scores than controls. In an effort to examine whether children with epilepsy have specific memory weaknesses versus global cognitive difficulties, the present study compared the performance of 62 children (age range = 6–16 years). Thirty-one children with epilepsy were compared to 31 age- and IQ-matched controls on the Children's Memory Scale (CMS) to determine whether differences in memory skills persist when IQ is matched. An independent t-test comparing index and scaled scores was performed. The results indicated that with the exception of the Word Pairs subtest (p < .01), children with epilepsy did not differ significantly on the CMS subtests when IQ was matched. This suggests that list-learning paradigms may be particularly sensitive to memory impairments in children with epilepsy and/or that children with epilepsy have more global cognitive impairments.     

An Investigation of Neuronal Integrity in Severe Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and its association with neuropsychological functioning was examined in the chronic injury phase of paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fifteen children, aged 10-16 years, with severe TBIs were compared with 15 controls, matched for age and gender. The TBI group was found to have significantly lower levels of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) and Choline (Cho) in the right frontal lobe and generally displayed reduced performances on neuropsychological tests. A correlation between metabolites and reaction times was also obtained. Findings indicate a role of proton MRS as a measure of neuronal integrity following severe paediatric TBI and suggest a potential association of MRS with specific neuropsychological impairments.     

Religious attributions pertaining to the causes and cures of mental illness

In this Australian study, 126 Protestant Christian participants, 52 females and 74 males, were assessed for their beliefs about the importance of 26 causal variables and 25 treatment variables for two mental disorders: Major Depression and Schizophrenia. Factor analysis revealed four causal factors, common to both conditions, labelled as religious factors, physical factors, coping style and social/environmental stressors. Furthermore, four treatment factors emerged: religious means, professional help, help from others (non-professional) and self-initiated means. Explanatory variables for these beliefs were assessed using: a Religious Beliefs Inventory (RBI) to measure religious beliefs; a Values Survey (VS) including a measure of Christian religious values; and a Religion and Mental Health Inventory (RMHI) to measure cognitive dissonance (cf. Festinger, 1957 Festinger L 1957 A Theory of cognitive dissonance Evanston IL Row & Peterson  [Google Scholar]) between religious faith and perceptions of mental-health principles. The results revealed that religious beliefs, religious values and cognitive dissonance function as predictors of the attribution of the causes and treatments, for Major Depression and Schizophrenia, to religious factors. An additional finding of this study was that 38.2% of the participants endorsed a demonic aetiology of Major Depression, and 37.4% of the participants endorsed a demonic aetiology of Schizophrenia.     

Demand Characteristics and Self-Report Measures of Imaginary Audience Sensitivity: Implications for Interpreting Age Differences in Adolescent Egocentrism

Self-consciousness during early adolescence has been explained as an outcome of adolescent egocentrism, in which adolescents create an imaginary audience (IA) of attentive, critical peers. The possibility that such self-consciousness might result from contact with peers who are more attentive and critical than those encountered during childhood or adulthood has not been considered. Study I tested whether young adults, who are not theoretically susceptible to IA, could be made to receive high scores on IA and self-consciousness measures by having them complete a procedure in 1 of 3 laboratory conditions—a critical audience, a noncritical audience, or no audience. However, participants in the critical-audience condition received significantly lower IA and self-consciousness scores than participants in the no-audience condition did. Study 2 tested whether the directions given to Study I participants might have been responsible for the unexpected findings. Results indicated that participants instructed to give mature-sounding responses received lower IA/self-consciousness scores than did those asked to report their honest opinions. Together, the results of Studies 1 and 2 indicated that survey measures of IA are subject to demand characteristics and highlighted the need to interpret with caution age differences in IA as traditionally assessed.     

Yielding to Deviant Temptation: A Quasi-Experimental Examination of the Inhibiting Power of Intrinsic Religious Motivation

ABSTRACT

The deviance-inhibiting power of religion is among the oldest criminological inquiries. To date, the extant empirical literature contains mixed and oftentimes contradictory evidence. Social scientists have argued that the ambiguous body of religion-deviance evidence is attributable, in some part, to known methodological weaknesses. This study responds to the criticisms of prior research by utilizing a validated measure of religiosity, employing a quasi-experimental design, and observing actual deviant behavior. The results of this study find that religion is indeed a powerful predictor of deviant behavior.     

Simultaneous Semipermeable Groups for Mothers and Their Early Latency-Age Boys

Abstract

Bonding is an ongoing aspect of intersubjective experience, a type of mental relationship to oneself and others. As a behavioral mode, bonding utilizes verbal and nonverbal communication primarily to establish a basic feeling of connection between individuals. Bonding is the floor, a cognitive-affective state that precedes and prepares the way for the complex processes underlying identification. The concept relates to Bion’s early theory of basic assumptions, and takes on new and different meanings according to his later ideas regarding social communication. Bonding is also a therapeutic posture or technique, an element in the establishment of group cohesion, the positive transference, and therapeutic and group alliance. Case examples illustrate how the therapist and other group members bring a complex of bonding needs and anxieties that must be negotiated to establish and maintain bonding, which is a necessary condition for successful therapeutic work.     

Contextual Connections to Puns in Tom Swifties

Previous research conducted with short fables was replicated in this study with Swifties in which sentence length and presence of a pun were controlled. Of the 24 one-sentence word plays shown to each participant, half had an enhanced contextual connection that was predicted to increase appropriateness and detection of the incongruity, resulting in heightened perceived cleverness and humor. Results supported predictions, showing especially strong enhancement of perceived cleverness. The authors suggest that this outcome could be generalized to other forms of word play.     

Gender Differences in Body Size Dissatisfaction Among Individuals With Low,Medium, or High Levels of Body Focus

The authors designed the present study to test whether women reported higher levels of body dissatisfaction than did men even when the 2 genders were matched on a measure of degree of body focus. Sixty undergraduates (30 men, 30 women) were screened on attention-to-body-shape scores and divided into high, medium, and low body-shape-focus groups. The participants also completed questionnaires that provided information on age, education, vocabulary ability, levels of depression, and body-image assessment. The groups did not differ (ps > .05) on age, education, vocabulary ability, or levels of depression. However, women in all 3 body-shape-focus categories indicated a larger discrepancy between their real vs. ideal body images (p < .01) than did the men. In the high-body-focus group, there was an 11:1 ratio between women's and men's reported real-ideal body-shape discrepancies. Women showed greater body dissatisfaction than did men, even when the genders were matched on a measure of body focus.