Rolling away the stone: post-abortion women in the Christian community

This article seeks to bring to awareness and address the issues of a neglected group of people in need of pastoral care: women who have had an abortion. It offers some commentary regarding what many women experience following an abortion, focuses on the story of a specific woman, and goes on to offer a biblical perspective for a pastoral response to their needs. Responses to the article are offered by a healthcare chaplain and a seminary professor.     

Personal Identity, Reductionism and the Necessity of Origins

A thought that we all entertain at some time or other is that the course of our lives might have been very different from the way they in fact have been, with the consequence that we might have been rather different sorts of persons than we actually are. A less common, but prima facie intelligible thought is that we might never have existed at all, though someone rather like us did. Arguably, any plausible theory of personal identity should be able to accommodate both possibilities. Certain currently popular Reductionist theories of personal identity, however, seem to be deficient in precisely this respect. This paper explores some Reductionist responses to that challenge. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An exploration of links between early parenting experiences and personality disorder type and disordered personality functioning

Reports of early parenting were assessed using two measures, the Parental Bonding Index (PBI) and the Measure of Parenting Style (MOPS), in a sample of 265 patients with DSM-defined major depressive disorder. Psychiatrists then rated the extent to which sample members evidenced the personality "styles" underpinning 15 separate personality disorders, returning personality vignette scores. The extent of disordered functioning was also assessed across "parameters" and "domains" by psychiatrists, referrers, and family members, using a range of measures. Those with higher scores on vignettes measuring borderline, anxious, depressive, and self-defeating personality style rated parents as uncaring, overcontrolling, and abusive. When vignettes were consolidated into scores akin to the DSM clusters, the most consistent links between perceived dysfunctional parenting were with the Cluster C (anxious), and Cluster B (dramatic) styles and were nonsignificant for Cluster A (eccentric) style. Meeting criteria for an increasing number of personality disorder clusters was associated with increasing levels of adverse parenting. Multiple regression analyses indicated that disordered functioning (as assessed by the three independent rater groups) was most distinctly associated with paternal indifference and maternal overcontrol.     

Prehension in children and adults: The effects of object size

Studies of visually goal-directed arm movements in adults have shown that various task constraints such as intention, context, and object properties affect different kinematic characteristics of the movement components (Jeannerod, 1984; MacKenzie et al., 1987; Marteniuk et al., 1987, 1990; Paulignan et al., 1991; Soechting, 1984). The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of varying object size on the kinematics of reaching and grasping in both children and adults. Five children aged 9–10 years and five adults aged 18–24 years reached for and grasped three different sized cubes. Results revealed that object size had the same effect on the planning and control of reaching and grasping movements in children as in adults. Unlike adults, however, children in this age range spent more time in deceleration and reached peak aperture much later in the movement trajectory. The results were interpreted as immature integration of the visual and proprioceptive systems in 9–10 year olds. The implications of these findings for further examining developmental trends in prehension are discussed.PsycINFO classification: 2330     

Interrelationships between temperament characteristics and first-grade teacher-student interactions

The relationships between temperament characteristics and first-grade teacherstudent interaction were investigated. It was hypothesized that the temperament characteristics of Adaptability and Approach/Withdrawal would be potent predictors of teacher-student interactions since they had been found previously to be strong predictors of children's emotional and behavioral adjustment to school. The teachers of 105 first-grade children completed temperament questionnaires during the early part of the academic year, and their interactions with the children were observed soon thereafter. The teacher temperament ratings were factor-analyzed, and regression models were generated to predict classroom interactions. The study's hypothesis was supported, and three separate temperament dimensions were found to be predictive of classroom interactions. Suggestions are made for future extensions of the findings.     

Toward a theology of maturity in pastoral care

Popular theology has neglected a developmental perspective and has reinforced the concepts of human inadequacy and divine self-sufficiency. This has tended to keep persons in a state of infantile dependency on a super-father-figure God. Pastoral care, with its concern for the person and its commitment to the processes of growing and maturing in the self and in relationships, needs a theological frame of reference which positively reinforces a developing maturity in relation to God, as well as self and others.Formerly Associate Professor of Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Care at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Woodruff is Executive Director of the Peninsula Pastoral Counseling Center, Hampton, Virginia.     

A Preventive Approach to School Violence and Vandalism: An Experimental Study

School violence and vandalism are at crisis level. The investigators attempted to employ strategies that would attack identified procreators of school violence and vandalism existing within our schools. The effects of these strategies on vandalism costs, student attendance, off-task and disruptive behaviors, and on various kinds of positive teacher-student contacts were investigated in 19 elementary schools. Results indicated that the dollar costs of vandalism and frequency of inappropriate student behaviors decreased more in experimental than in control schools. Student attending and positive teacher-student contacts improved, or remained higher, in the experimental than in the control schools.     

Gender-Role Cognition in Three-Year-Old Boys and Girls

Although the multidimensionality of gender roles has been well established, few researchers have investigated male and female roles separately. Because of the substantial differences in the ways male and female roles are portrayed in our culture, boys and girls may think and learn about these roles differently. The male role is more clearly defined, more highly valued, and more salient than the female role; thus, children's cognitions about these two roles may be expected to differ. The present study addressed the question of whether there is sex-typical variation in gender labeling, gender-role knowledge, and schematicity. Participants were 120 families; 15% were from minority ethnic groups, and 17% were single-parent families; 25% of the parents had a high school education or less. Results indicated that at 36 months of age, boys were less able to label gender and less knowledgeable about gender roles than were girls. Boys' knew more about male stereotypes than female stereotypes, whereas girls knew considerably more than boys about the female role and as much as boys about the male role. Boys and girls were found to be similar in gender schematicity. Traditionality of parental attitudes regarding child-rearing and maternal employment were not strongly related to children's gender cognition.