Crises and spiritual growth

The principal concern of this essay is the spiritual growth which life crises make possible. My assumptions are a) that every crisis can arouse within us a fresh awareness of the transcendent source of and goal for every human life, and b) that precisely in the trauma which every crisis brings, we are given the opportunity to reassess the principles by which we have lived, in the direction of a more encompassing and adequate set of values, informed by a deeper faith. For such reassessment to occur, however, we must be willing to call into question our whole lives, and not just those decisions contributing to the specific crisis now confronting us. I believe that close to the very heart of pastoral work is that enlivening and encouraging pastoral presence which supports change in the face of obstacles and overwhelming anxiety, and which mediates the Giver of Life in a way which makes radical change truly possible. I elaborate upon this conviction in two sections: the first discusses the role of the pastor in crisis intervention and the second advances the claim that exacerbating a sense of crisis for the sake of facilitating peoples' growth in faith is the uniquely pastoral contribution to helping people in crisis.     

An improved procedure for the wherry-winer method for factoring large numbers of items

A technique is presented that differs from the previous one in that the use of variance terms is eliminated from the computations; thus some formulas are simplified. A rationale for the improved method is presented.     

The Academic Interests of College Women: A Factorial Study

The extent to which college programs meet the needs and goals of women students has not been established. In this study, a sample of students and alumnae of the College of Home Economics, Iowa State University, responded to a set of attitude scales concerning their reactions to courses in their core curriculum. Factor analysis of the person-course interactions revealed 6 factors which were tentatively defined in terms of the courses loading most heavily on each. Implications for improved educational planning of women are discussed.     

Near-death veridicality research in the hospital setting: Problems and promise

We attempted to conduct near-death veridicality research in the hospital setting, the rationale for which (we presented previously (Holden, 1988).) This paper describes problems, both anticipated and unanticipated, that we encountered. Based on the successes and failures of this undertaking, we present recommendations for future research of this type.At the time of this study, Dr. Holden was a candidate for the Ed.D. degree at the Northern Illinois University Graduate SchoolThis study was funded in part by a Dissertation Completion Award granted to Dr. Holden by the Northern Illinois University Graduate School. The authors also express gratitude to Robert Stromberg, Chaplain of the Lutheran General Hospital CCU at the time of this study, for his assistance in this research.     

Are visual cue masking and removal techniques equivalent for studying perceptual skills in sport?

The spatial-occlusion paradigm makes use of two techniques (masking and removing visual cues) to provide information about the anticipatory cues used by viewers. The visual scene resulting from the removal technique appears to be incongruous, but the assumed equivalence of these two techniques is spreading. The present study was designed to address this issue by combining eye-movement recording with the two types of occlusion (removal versus masking) in a tennis serve-return task. Response accuracy and decision onsets were analysed. The results indicated that subjects had longer reaction times under the removal condition, with an identical proportion of correct responses. Also, the removal technique caused the subjects to rely on atypical search patterns. Our findings suggest that, when the removal technique was used, viewers were unable to systematically count on stored memories to help them accomplish the interception task. The persistent failure to question some of the assumptions about the removal technique in applied visual research is highlighted, and suggestions for continued use of the masking technique are advanced.     

Automatic analysis of altered gait in arylsulphatase A-deficient mice in the open field

In current research with laboratory animals, observing their dynamic behavior or locomotion is a laborintensive task. Automatic continuous monitoring can provide quantitative data on each animal’s condition and coordination ability. The objective of the present work is to develop an automated mouse observation system integrated with a conventional open-field test for motor function evaluation. Data were acquired from 86 mice having a targeted disruption of the arylsulphatase A (ASA) gene and having lowered coordinated locomotion abilities as a symptom. The mice used were 36 heterozygotes (12 females) and 50 knockout mice (30 females) at the age of 6 months. The mice were placed one at a time into the test setup, which consisted of a Plexiglas cage (53× 34.5 × 26 cm) and two fluorescent bulbs for proper illumination. The transparent cage allowed images to be captured from underneath the cage, so image information could be obtained about the dynamic variation of the positions of the limbs of the mice for gait reconstruction. Every mouse was recorded for 10 min. Background subtraction and color filtering were used to measure and calculate image features, which are variables that contain crucial information, such as the mouse’s position, orientation, body outline, and poßible locations for the mouse’s paws. A set of heuristic rules was used to prune implausible paw features and label the remaining ones as front/hind and left/right. After we had pruned the implausible paw features, the paw features that were consistent over subsequent images were matched to footprints. Finally, from the measured footprint sequence, eight parameters were calculated in order to quantify the gait of the mouse. This automatic observation technique can be integrated with a regular open-field test, where the trajectory and motor function of a free-moving mouse are measured simultaneously.     

An Application of Generalizability Theory to the Consistency-Specificity Problem: The Transsituational Consistency of Behavioral Persistence

We assessed the behavioral persistence of 65 elementary school children in five situations to explore further the consistency-specificity, or trait-situation, issue. We predicted that the cross-situational consistency of persistence would co-vary with gender, socioeconomic status, and intelligence. The data were analyzed within the context of generalizability theory, and some of our predictions were supported by the results. We contend that the consistency-specificity issue can be profitably studied by direct behavioral assessments within the context of generalizability theory. The implications of the findings for the consistency-specificity issue, and for personality assessment in general, are discussed.     

Ethical Issues in Cancer Genetics: 1) Whose Information Is It?

This article presents and discusses four clinical cases that exemplify the complexity of ethical dilemmas concerning the provider's obligation to disclose or withhold genetic information from patients. Case 1: What is the responsibility of the cancer genetics provider to ensure that a positive test results is shared with distant relatives? Case 2: To ensure that results go to at-risk relatives, do we have the right to ignore the wishes of the designated next-of-kin? Case 3: Do we have the right to reveal a familial BRCA1 mutation to a patient's relative, who is at 50% risk? Case 4: Do we have an obligation to reveal that a patient is not a blood relative and therefore, not at risk to have inherited a familial mutation? These cases form the basis for discussing the provider's dual obligations to keeping patient confidentiality and informing patients and families about risk (i.e. duty to warn). We also provide a summary of consensus points and additional discussion questions for each case.