Overcontrol in Retirement Communities

Overcontrol, a personal propensity to control or dominate others, is examined as found in large retirement communities. Aspects of personality theory related to control issues are examined and utilized, particularly social cognitive and cognitive-affective personality system theories. Aspects of social psychological theory, particularly interactional role theory and reference group theory, are also employed. Overcontrol, which is asserted to flourish particularly in large retirement communities, is viewed as a coping device designed to ensure protection against anxiety, and as an intensification of a healthy control trait in the elderly. Three patterns are presented and some approaches to their mitigation are discussed.     

A new age of faith

Pastoral Psychology -     

The “Self”, its vicissitudes and possibilities: An essay in theological anthropology

Conclusion Some readers may be disappointed that more direct implications for practical theology have not been drawn. I do hope to draw some of these out in the future. But first another step must, in my opinion, be taken. That is an attempt to spell out the relationship between the self and the spirit. Recall that the self is a Johnnie-come-lately to the theological scene. Spirit, on the other hand, has been at the core of Christian reflection since it began, and still is the most comprehensive term for what a human being is, as well as what a human being may become, paradoxically. To this problem of self and spirit I hope to turn my attention, and then to see how the problem's perplexing practical theology looks.     

Moral chronicity and social information processing: Tests of a social cognitive approach to the moral personality

Following Higgins, King, and Mavin (1982) chronicity paradigm, we examined the effects of chronically accessed moral constructs for prototypic moral character using two different research paradigms, spontaneous trait inferencing and lexical decision. Study 1 presented target sentences in a deliberate or spontaneous processing condition. Recall was cued with either a dispositional or semantic cue. Moral chronics made more spontaneous trait inferences with dispositional cues than semantic cues. In Study 2, participants read stories about characters who did or did not help. Moral chronics were faster responding to probes reflecting negative evaluations of story characters who did not help when requested (e.g., “disloyal”). Findings support claims that the moral personality is usefully conceptualized in terms of the chronic accessibility of moral knowledge structures.