Studies of Rorschach Content; A Review of Research Literature Part II; Non-Traditional Uses of Content Indicators

This paper deals with the extension of research on Rorschach content to new modes of scoring and classifying test reponses that lie outside of the conventional classification scheme. Four avenues of going beyond the traditional content categories are presented and reviewed: study of subdivisions within the units of the generally used scoring system, exploration of the symbolic meaning of Rorschach responses, investigation of constellations of content signs, and development and validation of content scales. Little systematic work has been done in the first two areas of endeavor. As far as the latter two research topics are concerned, the evidence accumulated suggests that, at best, scales and signs derived from content yield overlap, and not correspondence, with their respective real-life referents. The study of mediating variables that act to magnify or reduce the extent of this relationship has merely begun and remains the major unfulfilled task in Rorschach content research.     

The Conflicting Demands of Work,Family, and School Among Students at an Urban University

The effects of perceived effectiveness of university support services and general satisfaction with the educational experience on conflicting demands of work, family, and school were investigated in a study of 375 undergraduate and graduate students at an urban university. Results demonstrated a negative relationship between perceived effectiveness of support services and the degree of work-school role conflict experienced by participants. Furthermore, satisfaction with educational experience was negatively related to work-school conflict. No other significant effects were found.     

Perceived religious support for problem gambling: does church doctrine influence help-seeking?

The Eysenck Personality Profiler was completed by 400 undergraduate students together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data confirm the main conclusion of several previous studies by demonstrating that there is no significant relationship between the personality dimension of neuroticism and religiosity. The analyses go beyond previous studies by examining the relationships between religiosity and the seven component parts of neuroticism separately. These analyses demonstrate a significant positive correlation between religiosity and guilt, a significant negative correlation between religiosity and unhappiness, and no significant correlation between religiosity and low-self esteem, anxiety, dependency, hypochondriasis, or obsessiveness.     

Psychological-type theory and Christian theology: a conflict between implicit and explicit religions?

This study analyses the relationship between psychological-type theory and Christian theology through the lens of implicit religion, drawing on the conceptualisation of implicit religion proposed by Edward Bailey, on the methodology for identifying implicit religion proposed by Tatjana Schnell, and on an heuristic framework derived from systematic theology. The case is argued that psychological-type theory can be conceptualised as implicit religion and implicit theology in a way that enables dialogue (and conflict) between psychological-type theory and Christian theology to be reconceptualised within the established field of the theology of religions.     

Implicit religion,explicit religion and purpose in life: an empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old adolescents

In his analysis of the construct “implicit religion” Edward Bailey speaks of those individuals “who believe in Christianity” but who do not display the behaviours of explicit religion, like church attendance. A recent research tradition has tried to operationalise this understanding of implicit religion by studying those who believe that they can be a Christian without going to church. A longer established research tradition has demonstrated the association between explicit religiosity and an enhanced sense of purpose in life. The aim of the present study is to test the hypothesis that implicit religiosity (in the sense of believing that you can be a Christian without going to church) is also associated with an enhanced sense of purpose in life. Data provided by a sample of 25,825 13- to 15-year-old adolescents support this hypothesis. In turn these findings support the notion that implicit religion (in the sense operationalised by this study) fulfils some functions similar to those fulfilled by explicit religion.     

Religion and mental health among Hindu young people in England

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between mental health and attitude toward their religious tradition among a sample of 330 young people attending the Hindu Youth Festival in London. The participants completed the Santosh–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Hinduism together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire which provides measures of neuroticism and psychoticism. The data indicated that a more positive attitude toward Hinduism was associated with lower psychoticism scores but unrelated to neuroticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to associate higher levels of religiosity with poorer mental health among young people within the Hindu community.     

The development of the Meaning in Life Index (MILI) and its relationship with personality and religious behaviours and beliefs among UK undergraduate students

The scales available for assessing meaning in life appear to be confounded with several related constructs, including purpose in life, satisfaction with life, and goal-directed behaviour. The Meaning in Life Index (MILI), a new instrument devised as a specific measure of meaning in life, was developed from responses to a pool of 22 items rated by a sample of 501 undergraduate students in Wales. The nine-item scale demonstrated sufficient face validity, internal consistency, and scale reliability to commend the instrument for future use. With respect to personality, the MILI scores were most strongly predicted by neuroticism (negatively), and less strongly by extraversion (positively) and psychoticism (negatively). With respect to several religious behavioural variables, those who attended church at least weekly returned significantly higher MILI scores than those who attended church less frequently. Intrinsic religiosity was the only orientation to be significantly associated with the MILI scale scores, although the magnitude of the association was smaller than anticipated. These results suggest that meaning in life is associated more strongly with individual differences in personality than with specific religious behaviours and attitudes. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of individual's personal values and attitudes that might underlie their experience of a meaning in life.     

Child,Adolescent and Adult Psychiatric Disorders in Africa: Implications for Psychological Interventions

The authors start by critically discussing some core features of Western psychiatric diagnosis, and present the cultural formulation as one approach to ensure that the cultural aspects of the diagnostic process are addressed, followed by a summary of what is known about the causes of psychiatric disorder. Five arguments are presented that provide support for the importance of psychiatric disorders in Africa: prevalence rates are high; psychiatric disorder is associated with a considerable burden from disability; in most cases, adults with psychiatric disorders experienced the onset of their disorder in childhood or youth; psychiatric disorders are strongly associated with medical conditions; and effective interventions exist for the majority of people suffering from psychiatric disorders. Against this background, current mental health services in Africa are reviewed. Finally, some suggestions are provided for how those providing psychological interventions can contribute to addressing the challenges posed by psychiatric disorders in Africa.     

Repetition priming within and between languages in semantic classification of concrete and abstract words

Although concrete nouns are generally agreed to have shared core conceptual representations across languages in bilinguals, it has been proposed that abstract nouns have separate representations or share fewer semantic components. Conceptual repetition priming methodology was used to evaluate whether translation equivalents of abstract nouns have shared conceptual representations and compare the degree of conceptual overlap for concrete and abstract nouns. Here 72 Spanish–English bilinguals made concrete–abstract decisions on English and Spanish nouns. Both concrete and abstract nouns elicited substantial between-language priming and these effects were of equivalent size, indicating that translation equivalents of both concrete and abstract nouns have shared conceptual representations and that abstract words do not share fewer components. The between-language priming effects and their attenuation relative to within-language priming indicate that the within-language effect is based on facilitation of both word comprehension and semantic decision processes.     

Multi-Iteration Usability Testing of the U.S. Navy's Performance Management System

The U.S. Navy has undertaken the second of two iterations of usability testing for the Navy's Human Performance Feedback and Development (HPFD) and ePerformance system. This second of two iterations included 34 officer and enlisted supervisors and nonsupervisors in usability testing conducted at three Navy locations—Naval Meteorology and Oceanographic Center (NAVMETOCCEN) Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia; USS HOWARD (DDG 83) in San Diego, California; and the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) in Arlington, Virginia. Each participant completed a usability test scenario in addition to pretest and posttest surveys designed to obtain Navy personnel's subjective impressions of the HPFD and ePerformance systems. Results from analyses comparing data from Iteration 1 (reported in Schwerin, Dean, Robbins, Bourne, &; Reed, 2006 Schwerin, M. J., Dean, E., Robbins, K. M., Bourne, M. J. and Reed, L. 2006. Subjective and objective results of usability testing for the U.S. Navy's Performance Management System.. Military Psychology, 18(3): 227–245. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Iteration 2 (reported in Dean, Aspinwall, Schwerin, &; Kendrick, 2006 Dean, E., Aspinwall, K. R., Schwerin, M. J. and Kendrick, D. 2006. Usability results from Human Performance Feedback and Development (HPFD) and ePerformance system users (Tech. Rep. No. 1)., Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) show an overall reduction in user burden (e.g., fewer errors and less time to complete usability tasks) and increased user satisfaction (e.g., more satisfied with the professionalism, efficiency, and overall effectiveness). These findings indicate that the Navy HPFD and ePerformance systems are easier to use but, more generally, results support the value and effectiveness of usability in human systems integration (HSI) and usability testing. Recommendations for system refinement, policy development, and implementation planning are discussed.