“I don't reject the Catholic Church—the Catholic Church rejects me”: How Twenty- and Thirty-somethings in Poland Re-evaluate their Religion

Abstract

Given measures of religious belief and participation, young adults in Poland are becoming increasingly disengaged from the Catholic Church. Broad theories of secularisation are less useful for making sense of this trend than an analysis of the role of Catholicism in Polish society in the twentieth century, which demonstrates the ways in which forms of belief are contingent upon wider social and political transformations. This article argues that, since 1989, attempts by the Catholic Church in Poland to influence public life through conservative social and political interventions have alienated young people who are looking for religious resources with which to make sense of their lives in a rapidly changing social milieu. Alongside disengagement from conservative, propositional forms of Catholic truth and rejection of direct authority, young people still possess ‘religious capital’ and look upon religious ideas to orientate their personal lives. However, disaffection from the propositional truths offered by the Church and disengagement from rituals and practices of ‘folk Catholicism’ at the level of the family and local parish have not led to widespread expressions of atheism among young people. Instead, there is a sacralisation of everyday life and there are attempts to use ‘religious capital’ to help young people make choices for life. The reconfigured ‘religious capital’ is often expressed through diffuse Catholic symbols and sentiment as well as the periodic use of major religious festivals as a means of finding access to some form of collective religious experience. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of these changes for the future religious landscape of Polish society.     

Salutary effect of daily coping self-efficacy: impact on day-by-day coping to mood effects within dyads following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Little is known how coping self-efficacy (CSE) interacts with coping in dyad everyday life. The present study examined the moderating role of daily CSE in the relationship between coping and the next-day positive (PA) or negative (NA) affect in patient-caregiver dyads, following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Design: This intensive longitudinal study was conducted during the first 28 days after post-transplant discharge.

Methods: Patients and their caregivers (N?=?200) maintained daily diaries on CSE, coping strategies, and affect.

Results: Daily CSE moderated daily coping–affect relationship: Positive emotion-focused coping increased PA in patients with higher than usual emotion-related CSE, whereas a buffering effect was found at lower than usual emotion-related CSE. A positive association between negative emotion-focused coping and NA in both patients and caregivers was stronger among those with lower than usual levels of emotion-related CSE. Higher than usual instrumental coping reduced NA in patients whose caregivers had higher than usual problem-related CSE, but increased NA for those whose caregivers had lower than usual instrumental CSE.

Conclusion: The findings show that daily CSE contributes to the effectiveness of daily coping within dyad, confirming its significance in effective adaptation and the role in the dyadic coping process.     

Appraisal of Suicidal Risk Among Adolescents and Young Adults Through the Rorschach Test

The aims of this study are to investigate suicidal behaviors among adolescents and young adults and to test an index composed using Rorschach test responses related to an increased risk of suicide. Using a cross-sectional design, 4 groups were studied (according to criteria of the Columbia Classification Algorithm of Suicide Assessment [Posner, Oquendo, Gould, Stanley, &; Davies, 2007 Rierdan, J. 1978. Suicide and transparency responses on the Rorschach: A replication. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46: 1162–1163.  [Google Scholar]]): A group with suicidal ideation (n = 30), a group with parasuicidal behavior (n = 30), a group with near-lethal suicide attempts (n = 26), and a control group (n = 30). Responses to the Rorschach test yielded 6 potential indicators of suicidal behavior (scored according to Exner's Comprehensive System and the Suicidal Index for Adolescents; Silberg &; Armstrong, 1992 Stengel, E. 1975. Suicide and attempted suicide , 2nd ed., New York, NY: Aronson.  [Google Scholar]). Rorschach scores including at least 4 of these 6 indicators selected 69% of the people who had committed serious suicide attempts. The Rorschach Suicidal Index reached an acceptable reliability and was related to other criteria of suicide risk, such as the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelsohn, Mock, &; Erbaugh, 1961 Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelsohn, M., Mock, J. and Erbaugh, J. 1961. An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4: 561–571. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Linehan Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL–I; Linehan, Goodstein, Nielsen, &; Chiles, 1983 Menninger, K. 1938. Man against himself, New York, NY: Harcourt. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Moreover, the Rorschach Suicidal Index showed incremental validity over the BDI and the RFL–I to predict suicidal behavior. A path analysis additionally showed that low social support was an important mediator between the Rorschach Suicidal Index and the number of suicide attempts committed by participants.     

Prover9's Simplification Explained Away

This note discusses P. Oppenheimer and E. Zalta's ‘A Computationally-Discovered Simplification of the Ontological Argument’ [this journal, 2011]. I try to explain why the simplification presented there was successful and comment on the technical aspects of the method they applied.     

Do we need a new theory of truthmaking? Some comments on Disjunction Thesis, Conjunction Thesis, Entailment Principle and explanation

In the paper we discuss criticisms against David Armstrong’s general theory of truthmaking by Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, Peter Schulte and Benjamin Schnieder, and conclude that Armstrong’s theory survives these criticisms. Special attention is given to the problems concerning Entailment Principle, Conjunction Thesis, Disjunction Thesis and to the notion of explanation.     

The visuospatial functions in children after cerebellar low‐grade astrocytoma surgery: A contribution to the pediatric neuropsychology of the cerebellum

The aim of this study was to specify whether cerebellar lesions cause visuospatial impairments in children. The study sample consisted of 40 children with low‐grade cerebellar astrocytoma, who underwent surgical treatment and 40 healthy controls matched with regard to age and sex. Visuospatial abilities were tested using the spatial WISC‐R subtests (Block Design and Object Assembly), Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure, Benton Judgment of Line Orientation Test, PEBL Mental Rotation Task, and Benton Visual Retention Test. To exclude general diffuse intellectual dysfunction, the WISC‐R Verbal Intelligence IQ, Performance IQ, and Full‐Scale IQ scores were analysed. Post‐surgical medical consequences were measured with the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale. Compared to controls, the cerebellar group manifested problems with mental rotation of objects, visuospatial organization, planning, and spatial construction processes which could not be explained by medical complications or general intellectual retardation. The intensity of visuospatial syndrome highly depends on cerebellar lesion side. Patients with left‐sided cerebellar lesions display more severe spatial problems than those with right‐sided cerebellar lesions. In conclusion, focal cerebellar lesions in children affect their visuospatial ability. The impairments profile is characterized by deficits in complex spatial processes such as visuospatial organization and mental rotation, requiring reconstruction of visual stimuli using the imagination, while elementary sensory analysis and perception as well as spatial processes requiring direct manipulation of objects are relatively better preserved. This pattern is analogous to the one previously observed in adult population and appears to be typical for cerebellar pathology in general, regardless of age.     

Not Only Jumps,Slumps, but also Mini Plateau. Creative Potential Assessed by the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production. A Cross-Sectional Study of Polish Students Aged from 7 to 18

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the developmental trajectory of creative potentials of Polish students. A total of 1,522 Polish students aged between 7 and 18 from lower and upper primary school, middle school, and high school participated in the study. Creative potential was measured by means of the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production. The findings showed that older students achieved higher scores than the younger ones, drops in mean scores among students aged 13 and 16 were noted, and levelling of scores was found among students aged from 10 to 13, with a slight drop at the age of 13. Moreover, a phenomenon was discovered which was described as a mini plateau, i.e., an emergence of similar mean scores in 2 consecutive age groups. Possible explanations of the results are discussed, including interpretations in the context of the CMC and educational and environmental conditions which act as inhibitors or stimulators of the development of creative abilities.     

Increasing stimulus intensity does not affect sensorimotor synchronization

When people synchronize taps with isochronously presented stimuli, taps usually precede the pacing stimuli [negative mean asynchrony (NMA)]. One explanation of NMA [sensory accumulation model (SAM), Aschersleben in Brain Cogn 48:66–79, 2002] is that more time is needed to generate a central code for kinesthetic-tactile information than for auditory or visual stimuli. The SAM predicts that raising the intensity of the pacing stimuli shortens the time for their sensory accumulation, thereby increasing NMA. This prediction was tested by asking participants to synchronize finger force pulses with target isochronous stimuli with various intensities. In addition, participants performed a simple reaction-time task, for comparison. Higher intensity led to shorter reaction times. However, intensity manipulation did not affect NMA in the synchronization task. This finding is not consistent with the predictions based on the SAM. Discrepancies in sensitivity to stimulus intensity between sensorimotor synchronization and reaction-time tasks point to the involvement of different timing mechanisms in these two tasks.