Recovering the Lost: Remeasuring U.S. Religious Affiliation

Over the past several decades, survey research has found a growing percentage of Americans claiming no religious affiliation. In this article, we introduce a modified religious traditions (RELTRAD) typology to measure religious affiliation. The approach benefits from a more detailed data collection and coding scheme of religious tradition based upon religious family, denomination, and congregation. Using new national survey data from the Baylor Religion Survey, we find: (1) improvement to survey design and measurement makes it possible to accurately locate more Americans within established religious traditions; (2) Americans remain connected to congregations, but less so to denominations or more generic religious identity labels; and (3) religious adherents are considerably more evangelical than prior studies have found. Finally, we consider how affiliation as a form of religious belonging relates to religious beliefs and behaviors.     

The NNPI: in sickness or in health

The much-maligned personality inventory is further maligned in this article by two authors who claim to have some expertise in the area of test development. This claim may or may not be substantiated by the fact that one author received his degree in water-skiing and the other received his degree in ceramics. The authors request that any correspondence regarding comments or criticisms of this article be sent to them in a plain brown wrapper.     

Shame proneness and intimate relations in Mainland China

Using dyadic data from 200 young adult couples (aged 18–31 years) in Mainland China, this study evaluated associations between shame proneness, intimate partner attachment, adaptive interactions, and relationship satisfaction. Results demonstrated that shame proneness was directly associated with more insecure attachment to the partner (anxious and avoidant dimensions) and less adaptive interactions (operationalized by variables assessing constructive problem solving and negative interactions) and indirectly with lower relationship satisfaction for male and female partners. While shame is a highly valued emotion in Confucian cultures, shame proneness may be a liability for modern‐day intimate relations.     

Stages of Change in Physical Exercise and Social Support: An Integrated Socio‐Psycho‐Economic Approach

The present research attempts to integrate behavioral and social science theories (e.g., theory of reasoned action, social cognitive theory, transtheoretical model) in assessing the effect and sources of social support of persons in various stages of physical exercise. Using multinomial regression to analyze the data collected via interviews from a sample of over 1,500 working adults in Jamaica, strong statistical support was found for the role of social support in initiating and maintaining exercise. The importance of various providers depends on the individual's stage of behavioral change. Health workers, relatives, and friends are important during early stages; while friends and physical trainers are important during later stages. Other results, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Psychological Health and Attitude Toward Christianity Among Pupils Aged 11 to 15 Years in England

Advocates of the secularization thesis describe radical decline in the significance of the Christian tradition among young people in England. In this context, a sample of 5,808 pupils age 11 to 15 years provided data about their religious identity and practice and completed the short-form Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (as a measure of psychological health) and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (as a measure of their affective commitment to the Christian tradition). The data showed that half of the pupils retained some connection with the Christian tradition and that a positive attitude toward Christianity was associated both with lower psychoticism scores and with higher neuroticism scores. There is evidence, therefore, to link a positive view of Christianity with some indicators of better psychological health (lower psychoticism) and with some indicators of poorer psychological health (higher neuroticism).     

WE (SOMETIMES) KNOW NOT HOW WE FEEL: PREDICTING JOB PERFORMANCE WITH AN IMPLICIT MEASURE OF TRAIT AFFECTIVITY

In this study we examined relationships between trait affectivity and work performance. However, because trait affectivity is believed to operate primarily outside awareness, we assessed it using techniques designed to measure content at explicit  and  implicit levels. Although results were consistent across the explicit and implicit measures (i.e., positive affectivity was positively related to task performance and citizenship behavior, whereas negative affectivity was negatively related to task performance and positively related to counterproductive behavior), the implicit measure predicted greater proportions of variance in supervisor-rated criteria and did so incremental to the explicit measure. We discuss the implications of these results for theory and practice, and highlight the potential usefulness of implicit measures for applied research.