Probing the Will of God: Bonhoeffer and Discernment

Like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the spiritual discernment of Dietrich Bonhoeffer seeks to bring one’s life into conformity (Gleichgestaltung) with Christ. Such conformation makes discipleship costly, but it also overflows with the fullness of life.     

Cross‐level,three‐way interactions among work‐group climate,gender, and frequency of harassment on morale and withdrawal outcomes of sexual harassment

We examined the effects of gender and work‐groups' perceptions of climate for sexual harassment on the relationship between individuals' sexual harassment experiences and job‐related outcomes (namely, job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, work withdrawal, and job withdrawal). Drawing from a variety of theories, we proposed that a beneficial climate would buffer men from negative outcomes, but would intensify negative outcomes for women. Significant three‐way interactions were found for job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and job withdrawal. Results indicated that beneficial work‐group climate perceptions buffered men from decrements in job satisfaction and work withdrawal, but intensified decrements in all three outcomes for women. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The Origin of Biases in Face Perception

ABSTRACT— Experience with certain types of faces during the first year of development defines which types of faces are more efficiently recognized later in life. In work described here, we found that infants who learned to recognize six monkey faces individually (i.e., each face was individually labeled) over a 3-month period maintained the ability to discriminate monkey faces. However, infants who learned these same six faces categorically (i.e., all faces were labeled "monkey") or were simply exposed to these faces (i.e., faces were not labeled) showed a decline in the ability to discriminate monkey faces. These results suggest that experience individuating faces from 6 to 9 months of age, via labeling, critically shapes the perceptual representation that is responsible for later recognition and discrimination of faces.     

On interpreting the relationship between remember–know judgments and confidence: The role of instructions

Two experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that the nature of the remember–know instructions given to participants influences whether these responses reflect different memory states or different degrees of memory confidence. Participants studied words and nonwords, a variable that has been shown to dissociate confidence from remember–know judgments and were given a set of published remember–know instructions that either emphasized know judgments as highly confident (Experiment 1) or as less confident (Experiment 2) states of recognition. Experiment 1 replicated the standard finding showing that remembering and knowing were differently influenced by the word–nonword variable, whereas confidence responses were not. By contrast, Experiment 2 showed a similar pattern of data for remember–know and sure–unsure responses, thus demonstrating the importance of the instructions for interpreting the relationship between remembering and knowing and confidence.     

Parents’ Perceptions of Autism Spectrum Disorder Etiology and Recurrence Risk and Effects of their Perceptions on Family Planning: Recommendations for Genetic Counselors

Knowledge about the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) is increasing, but causes remain elusive for most cases. Genetic counselors are positioned to help families that have children with ASDs despite uncertainty regarding etiology. To determine how genetic counselors might best provide services, an anonymous survey was conducted with 255 parents whose children were diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Questions concerned: 1) their perceptions of ASD cause(s) and 2) recurrence risk, 3) whether perceived risk affected family planning decisions, 4) whether parents had received genetic services, and 5) how genetic counselors might assist families. The most prevalent perceived cause was genetic influences (72.6%). Most parents’ recurrence risk perceptions were inaccurately high and significantly affected family planning. Only 10% had seen a genetic professional related to an ASD. Parents provided several suggestions for genetic counselor best practices. Findings indicate the importance of genetic counselor awareness of parent perceptions in order to best help families who have children with ASDs.     

Maternal and Paternal Depressive Symptoms as Predictors of Toddler Adjustment

In this study we explored the relation between maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and toddler adjustment in a community sample, testing direct, additive, and interactive models of parental depressive symptoms and child adjustment. Participants were 49 families with 30-month-old children. Data were collected on maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and marital quality, as well as on toddler internalizing and externalizing behavior. The data supported an additive, but not interactive, model of prediction to externalizing behavior, such that maternal and paternal symptoms each accounted for unique variance in the prediction of toddler externalizing. Models predicting toddler internalizing were not significant. Maternal reports of marital quality, but not paternal reports of marital quality, reduced the magnitude of the relation between symptoms and child externalizing when entered as a covariate. Implications for depression screening of parents are discussed.     

Human Timeline: A Spatial‐Kinesthetic Exercise in Biblical History

The Human Timeline invites students to physically re‐create biblical history. Each student holds a card that denotes an event randomly selected from the biblical timeline. They then arrange themselves chronologically to learn the correct flow of biblical history. Because of the movement involved and the arbitrary layout of the cards among their classmates, learners engage their spatial‐kinesthetic intelligences through this activity. The exercise proves popular among students who identify themselves as “visual” learners, and ultimately serves the biblical studies classroom by reinforcing biblical history as a necessary framework for understanding the biblical text.     

Social attention in keas, dogs, and human children

Understanding animals’ abilities to cooperate with and learn from each other has been an active field of research in recent years. One important basis for all types of social interactions is the disposition of animals to pay attention to each other—a factor often neglected in discussions and experiments. Since attention differs between species as well as between individuals, it is likely to influence the amount and type of information different species and/or observers may extract from conspecifics in any given situation. Here, we carried out a standardized comparative study on attention towards a model demonstrating food-related behavior in keas, dogs and children. In a series of experimental sessions, individuals watched different conspecific models while searching, manipulating and feeding. Visual access to the demonstration was provided by two observation holes, which allowed us to determine exactly how often and for how long observers watched the model. We found profound differences in the factors that influence attention within as well as between the tested species. This study suggests that attention should be incorporated as an important variable when testing species in social situations.     

Randomized Controlled Pilot Study of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in a Sample of Incarcerated Women With Substance Use Disorder and PTSD

This randomized controlled pilot study compared a cognitive-behavioral therapy (Seeking Safety; SS) plus treatment-as-usual (TAU) to TAU-alone in 49 incarcerated women with substance use disorder (SUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; full or subthreshold). Seeking Safety consisted of a voluntary group treatment during incarceration and individual treatment after prison release. TAU was required in the prison and comprised 180 to 240 hours of individual and group treatment over 6 to 8 weeks. Assessments occurred at intake, 12 weeks after intake, and 3 and 6 months after release from prison. There were no significant differences between conditions on all key domains (PTSD, SUD, psychopathology, and legal problems); but both conditions showed significant improvements from intake to later time points on all of these outcomes across time. Secondary analyses at follow-up found trends for SS participants improving on clinician-rated PTSD symptoms and TAU participants worsening on self-reported PTSD symptoms. Also, SS demonstrated continued improvement on psychopathology at 3 and 6 months, whereas TAU did not. However, alcohol use improved more for TAU during follow-up. Satisfaction with SS was high, and a greater number of SS sessions was associated with greater improvement on PTSD and drug use. Six months after release from prison, 53% of the women in both conditions reported a remission in PTSD. Study limitations include lack of assessment of SS outcomes at end of group treatment; lack of blind assessment; omission of the SS case management component; and possible contamination between the two conditions. The complex needs of this population are discussed.