Conscience as the voice of God: A jungian view

Archetypal psychology proposes a genetic basis for experiencing conscience as the Voice of God. Human beings are predisposed to submit themselves to parental directives, but they are also predisposed to submit themselves to some higher, spiritual law. True conscience differs from the Freudian superego in that it sometimes directs one to disobey the prevailing moral code.From the unconscious spring the basest motives and also the noblest motives. The religious person gives careful attention to both. It is difficult but not always impossible to distinguish true conscience from subtle self-deceit.     

Children in the public eye: The functioning of Pastors' children

Pastors' children have been thought to have more behavioral problems than other children since they face high expectations and are part of families that are often under public scrutiny. The purpose of this study was to describe the social competencies and behavioral problems of a national sample of pastors' children, aged 4–16, and to compare them to age and sex standardized norms. Data were obtained on 98 children from a random sample of 62 families, using the Child Behavior Checklist. Results indicate that scores for both boys and girls at each age grouping fell within the acceptable norms for both social competencies and behavioral problems.     

Catholic priests and their experience of celibacy

This paper presents some results of an in-depth interview study on the celibate experience of Roman Catholic priests. Twenty-four parish priests who were able and willing to talk about their celibacy were interviewed in five- to six-hour-long sessions. The purpose of the study was to gain more insight into the psychodynamics of being obliged to live a celibate life. Three varieties of celibate experience that we discovered in our research population will be presented. Also the problematic relationship between celibacy and mental health will be discussed.This research was partly supported by the Dutch Centre for Studies in Mental Health (KSGV).     

Guilt and/or self-esteem as consequences of religion

Our discussion begins with a consideration of the various types of religion and of guilt. Both religion and morality function in different ways from individual to individual. All these factors need to be taken into account before we can turn to treatment for the painful experience of guilt and bring about an improved self-esteem.     

The beliefs adults and children hold about television and video games.

In Phase 1 of this study, we asked 23 parents between the ages of 30 and 52 years and 26 children between the ages of 10 and 19 years to list effects of television and video games on children. A questionnaire was developed using the most frequently given responses (e.g., television influences children's aggressive behavior, verbal abilities, or time with friends). In Phase 2, this questionnaire was administered to different groups of parents and children and a control group of adults without offspring (N = 204) who were asked to rate the influence of each item on the questionnaire. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that there were similarities and differences among the groups. For example, parents and other adults held similar beliefs about the influence of television, but parents held more positive beliefs about the influence of video games than the other adults. Children held more positive beliefs about the influence of television than parents, but parents and children held similar beliefs about the influence of video games.     

A capacity theory of comprehension: individual differences in working memory.

A theory of the way working memory capacity constrains comprehension is proposed. The theory proposes that both processing and storage are mediated by activation and that the total amount of activation available in working memory varies among individuals. Individual differences in working memory capacity for language can account for qualitative and quantitative differences among college-age adults in several aspects of language comprehension. One aspect is syntactic modularity: The larger capacity of some individuals permits interaction among syntactic and pragmatic information, so that their syntactic processes are not informationally encapsulated. Another aspect is syntactic ambiguity: The larger capacity of some individuals permits them to maintain multiple interpretations. The theory is instantiated as a production system model in which the amount of activation available to the model affects how it adapts to the transient computational and storage demands that occur in comprehension.     

Cortical dynamics of visual motion perception: short-range and long-range apparent motion.

This article describes further evidence for a new neural network theory of biological motion perception. The theory clarifies why parallel streams V1----V2, V1----MT, and V1----V2----MT exist for static form and motion form processing among the areas V1, V2, and MT of visual cortex. The theory suggests that the static form system (Static BCS) generates emergent boundary segmentations whose outputs are insensitive to direction-of-contrast and to direction-of-motion, whereas the motion form system (Motion BCS) generates emergent boundary segmentations whose outputs are insensitive to direction-of-contrast but sensitive to direction-of-motion. The theory is used to explain classical and recent data about short-range and long-range apparent motion percepts that have not yet been explained by alternative models. These data include beta motion, split motion, gamma motion and reverse-contrast gamma motion, delta motion, and visual inertia. Also included are the transition from group motion to element motion in response to a Ternus display as the interstimulus interval (ISI) decreases; group motion in response to a reverse-contrast Ternus display even at short ISIs; speed-up of motion velocity as interflash distance increases or flash duration decreases; dependence of the transition from element motion to group motion on stimulus duration and size, various classical dependencies between flash duration, spatial separation, ISI, and motion threshold known as Korte's laws; dependence of motion strength on stimulus orientation and spatial frequency; short-range and long-range form-color interactions; and binocular interactions of flashes to different eyes.     

The Effects of Decision Outcome Dispersion Upon Organizational Decision Making

The effects of varying decision outcome dispersion on organizational decision making were investigated under individual and group decision making conditions. Thirty-six female and pg]36 male subjects made decisions for organizational decision scenarios in which outcomes affected primarily the decision maker, people other than the decision maker, or a group of which the decision maker was a member. Subjects rated their levels of perceived risk and confidence in their decisions and made decisions within a simulated context of either a small or a large organization. Results indicated that subjects perceived significantly less risk and more confidence in their decisions when outcomes affected primarily themselves rather than others regardless of whether the decisions were made individually or by a group. Males perceived their decisions as significantly more risky than females. Induced organizational size did not significantly influence decision making.

     

Validity of the Threat Index.

The validity of the Threat Index was examined in a study of 42 students and 15 HIV+ clients. When completing the Threat Index, subjects rate the self and death on 30 bipolar adjectives. A count is made of the number of times the same adjective poles are used to describe the self and death. Uses of the same poles are called matches, while uses of different poles are called splits. The Threat Index is based on the assumption that splits indicate threat. Analysis showed that neither splits nor matches were usually threatening and that neither was necessary or sufficient for the experience of threat. These results did not support the validity of the Threat Index.