The Association Between Strength of Religious Faith and Coping with Daily Stress

Recent research has examined the positive relationship between religious faith and both physical and mental health. The current study investigated the association between strength of religious faith and the ability to cope with daily stress over a 7-day period. The participants consisted of 68 students and 64 faculty or staff from a Catholic, liberal arts university. Measures included the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Symptom Check List-90-Revised, the Weinberger Low Self Esteem Scale, and a 10-point daily stress, coping, and strength of faith scale. Results suggest that religious faith was not associated with coping with daily stress.     

INCREASING CUSTOMER SERVICE BEHAVIORS USING MANAGER‐DELIVERED TASK CLARIFICATION AND SOCIAL PRAISE

This project assessed an intervention to improve employee customer service behaviors (correct greetings and closing behaviors). A combination of task clarification and manager‐delivered social praise resulted in increased correct greeting from 11.5% to 66% and correct closing from 8% to 70%. The effect was maintained at a 48‐week follow‐up for employees who were present during the initial study period, but not for more recently hired employees. The results suggest that task clarification combined with manager‐delivered social praise is an effective way to improve employee customer service behaviors.     

Self‐Enhancement in a Job Search Context

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of self‐enhancement in a job search context. Based on previous theoretical and empirical research on positive illusions and core self‐evaluations, we examined the relationships among core self‐evaluations, self‐enhancement, perceived job alternatives, and job search behaviors. Participants in two different studies were students attending a career fair at a university in the southwestern United States to look for a job. Results showed that self‐enhancement is positively related to preparatory job search and mediates the relationship between core self‐evaluations and perceived job alternatives. The implications of this study are discussed.     

I can see it both ways: First- and third-person visual perspectives at retrieval

The number of studies examining visual perspective during retrieval has recently grown. However, the way in which perspective has been conceptualized differs across studies. Some studies have suggested perspective is experienced as either a first-person or a third-person perspective, whereas others have suggested both perspectives can be experienced during a single retrieval attempt. This aspect of perspective was examined across three studies, which used different measurement techniques commonly used in studies of perspective. Results suggest that individuals can experience more than one perspective when recalling events. Furthermore, the experience of the two perspectives correlated differentially with ratings of vividness, suggesting that the two perspectives should not be considered in opposition of one another. We also found evidence of a gender effect in the experience of perspective, with females experiencing third-person perspectives more often than males. Future studies should allow for the experience of more than one perspective during retrieval.     

Summer Camp Program for Children With Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Description and Preliminary Observations

Summer camp programming has a rich history of promoting childhood development. In the care of children with specific childhood psychiatric disorders, the incorporation of targeted cognitive-behavioral principles provides an opportunity to marry targeted evidence-based practices with broader development, in particular social, emotional, and fine- and gross-motor development. This union is synergistic, providing the practitioner with an opportunity to employ cognitive-behavioral practices in an environment that may overcome common barriers to effective interventions outside the scope of the targeted illness. In this paper, the authors describe the preliminary findings concerning a weeklong, 25-hour summer camp program targeting childhood obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Nine children ages 9–12 years participated in this pilot program. Child and parent feedback alike suggested strong treatment acceptability and efficacy in targeting both core symptoms of OCD as well as associated developmental deficits. The camp’s implementation of exposure and response prevention enables an opportunity to report on the capability of employing these strategies in a summer camp setting. In conjunction with an evidence-based treatment program for childhood OCD, a summer camp program specifically targeted for children with OCD presents a valuable tool for improving child welfare and reducing functional impairments.     

Trinity, Temporality, and Open Theism

A number of thinkers today, including open theists, find reasons to attribute temporality to God. According to Robert W. Jenson, the Trinity is indispensable to a Christian concept of God, and divine temporality is essential to the meaning of the Trinity. Following the lead of early Christian thought, Jenson argues that the “persons” of the Trinity are relations, and these relations are temporal. Jenson’s insights are obscured, however, by problematic references to time as a sphere to which God is related. Schubert M. Ogden gives the notion of divine temporality coherent content by arguing that God’s actuality is best understood as an unending succession of experiences. This paper was delivered in the APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God.     

How does perfectionism affect academic achievement? Examining the mediating role of accurate self-assessment

Perfectionism, a multidimensional disposition encompassing both positive and negative attributes, has been widely examined in a number of different fields, one of which is academics. However, results of research on the precise connection between perfectionism and academic success remain largely inconclusive. The present study, therefore, attempted to identify this underlying mechanism by examining the mediating role of accurate self-assessment in the relationship between perfectionism and academic achievement of college students. The results revealed that while perfectionistic concerns and strivings did not directly affect academic achievement, their indirect effects were statistically significant. Perfectionistic concerns negatively predicted academic achievement through inaccurate self-assessment, whereas perfectionistic strivings positively predicted academic achievement through accurate self-assessment. These findings are expected to promote a practical and balanced understanding of academic perfectionism by explaining the relationship between the sub-dimensions of perfectionism and academic achievement.