Clergymen and clergywomen: the same inclusive gospel?

Some commentators suggest that clergywomen bring a different perspective to ministry in comparison with that brought by clergymen. This paper explores the extent to which clergywomen bring a more inclusive set of values and beliefs to the pulpit. Data from the Church Times Survey conducted in April 2001 enable this question to be examined across four main areas: inclusive beliefs, pastoral inclusivity, inclusive views on ordained ministry, and social inclusivity. The analysis suggests that clergywomen do bring a more inclusive perspective to ministry than clergymen across the four areas explored in this study.     

Measuring Big-Five personality dimensions with the implicit association test – Implicit personality traits or self-esteem?

We examined whether the implicit association test (IAT) could serve as an implicit measure of the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model of Personality. In the first study (N = 84) IAT-effects of the Big-Five (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness) were found and the IAT showed good internal consistencies and convergent validity with an explicit Big-Five questionnaire (NEO-FFI-30). In a second study (N = 50), conducted to determine the overlap of the personality-IATs with implicit self-esteem, the Extraversion and the Neuroticism-IAT were shown to correlate with a self-esteem-IAT only moderately.     

Age of acquisition and the cumulative-frequency hypothesis: a review of the literature and a new multi-task investigation

Early-acquired words are processed faster than late-acquired words. This is a well-accepted effect within the word recognition literature. Different explanations have been proposed, either localizing the effect of age of acquisition (AoA) in a particular substage of word processing or seeing it as the result of the way in which information is stored and accessed in the brain in general. The cumulative-frequency hypothesis is an example of the latter type of explanation: it states that the total number of times a system has come across a particular stimulus will determine the speed with which the stimulus can be recognized. The present multi-task investigation provides a critical test of the different explanations. Results show that in a variety of word processing tasks the effects of frequency and AoA are highly correlated, and that the impact of AoA is consistently higher than would be expected on the basis of the cumulative-frequency hypothesis. The findings are interpreted as evidence for recent demonstrations of a loss of plasticity in neural networks due to training and/or for mathematical models that describe the growth of the lexico-semantic network as the attachment of new nodes to existing nodes.     

Correlations between attitude toward Christianity, prayer, and church attendance among 9- to 11-yr.-olds

Data provided by 150 9- to 11-yr.-old primary school pupils in England showed scores on the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity more highly correlated with (personal) prayer (r = .57) than with (public) church attendance (r = .23), providing support for the view that attitude scales access a deeper level of religiosity less contaminated by those contextual and social factors which may influence public church attendance more than personal prayer.     

An evaluation of in vivo desensitization and video modeling to increase compliance with dental procedures in persons with mental retardation

Fear of dental procedures deters many individuals with mental retardation from accepting dental treatment. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two procedures, in vivo desensitization and video modeling, for increasing compliance with dental procedures in participants with severe or profound mental retardation. Desensitization increased compliance for all 5 participants, whereas video modeling increased compliance for only 1 of 3 participants.     

Time-shrinking: the process of unilateral temporal assimilation

Our previous research on auditory time perception showed that the duration of empty time intervals shorter than about 250 ms can be underestimated hugely if they are immediately preceded by shorter time intervals. We named this illusion 'time-shrinking' (TS). This study comprises four experiments in which the preceding interval, t1, was followed by a standard interval, t2. When t1 < or = 200 ms, and t1 < or = t2, the underestimation of t2 came into view clearly. The absolute difference between t2 and t1 was the crucial factor for the illusion to appear. The underestimation increased when t2 increased from t1 to t1 + 65 ms, stayed at about 45 ms when t2 was between t1 + 65 ms and t1 + 95 ms, and disappeared suddenly when t2 exceeded t1 + 95 ms. This pattern of results was observed across all values of t1 < or = 200 ms. A model was fit to the data to elucidate the underlying process of the illusion. The model states that the perceived duration difference between t1 and t2 is reduced by cutting mental processing time for t2; in other words, that t2 assimilates to t1.     

Why managers should care about fairness: the effects of aggregate justice perceptions on organizational outcomes

This work examines the aggregation of justice perceptions to the departmental level and the business-unit level, the impact of these aggregate perceptions on business-unit-level outcomes, and the usefulness of the distinction between procedural and interpersonal justice at different levels of analysis. Latent variables analyses of individual-level and department-level data from 4,539 employees in 783 departments at 97 hotel properties showed that the 2 justice types exercise unique paths of impact on employees' organizational commitment and thus on turnover intentions and discretionary service behavior. Business-unit-level analyses further demonstrate paths of association between aggregate justice perceptions, aggregate commitment levels, and the business-unit-level outcomes of employee turnover rates and customer satisfaction ratings.     

Attending to affect: appraisal strategies modulate the electrocortical response to arousing pictures

Arousing (unpleasant and pleasant) pictures elicit increased neurophysiological measures of perceptual processing. In particular, the electrocortical late positive potential (LPP) is enhanced for arousing, compared with neutral, pictures. To determine whether the magnitude of the LPP is sensitive to the way stimuli are appraised, 16 participants viewed both pleasant and unpleasant pictures and categorized them along an affective or nonaffective dimension. Results indicate that the LPP was reduced for both pleasant and unpleasant pictures when participants made nonaffective, compared with affective, judgments. These results are consistent with previous studies that have used functional neuroimaging to investigate the role of appraisal on emotional processing. The results are further discussed in terms of the utility of using the LPP to study emotion regulation.     

Couple relationship education in Australia

In Australia, the strengthening of marriage through relationship education has received strong governmental policy support and some modest financial support. Couple relationship education services are offered by a variety of community-based, church-affiliated, and church-based providers. There is a strong emphasis on providing programs that are developed locally in response to perceived couple needs and government policies. Available evaluations show that most couples who attend education value the service, but relationship education providers need to do a better job reaching out to couples at high risk for future relationship problems, and more research is needed on the effects of education on long-term marital outcomes. There is significant scope for building on current initiatives to incorporate evidence-based approaches and to expand the program reach to more couples.     

Class,mass and mereology

LeSniewski’s systems of Ontology and Mereology, considered from a purely formal point of view, possessstriking algebraic parallels, ascan be seen in their respective relations to Boolean algebra. But there are alsoimportant divergences, above all that general Mereology is silent, where Ontology is not, on the existenceof ‘atoms’ (individuals). By employing plural terms, LeSniewski sought to accommodate talk of (distributive)classes, without according these an autonomous ontological status. His logic also – like predicate logic– has no place for mass predication in its raw state. It is argued that reference both to pluralities and tomasses is ineliminable, and that one must therefore separate the grammatical distinction singular/pluralfrom the ontological distinction individual/class/mass. A kind of language, modelled on kiniewski’s, issuggested which enables these distinctions to be held apart and at the same time, building on the work ofRichard Sharvy, allows us to express the most important relationships between individuals, classes andmasses.