Sunday School Student and Theological Fatalism

I will briefly argue that theological fatalism is not a genuine ‘theological’ problem, for it can be reduced to another alleged incompatibility that arises independently of the existence or non-existence of God. I will conclude that the way of arguing against the existence of God or His omniscience by appealing to theological fatalism is blocked for libertarian atheists.     

Construct Validity of the Relationship Profile Test: Links With Measures of Psychopathology and Adult Attachment

This study assessed the construct validity of the Relationship Profile Test (RPT; Bornstein &; Languirand, 2003 Bornstein, R. F., &; Languirand, M. A. (2003). Healthy dependency. New York, NY: Newmarket. [Google Scholar]) with a substance abuse sample. One hundred-eight substance abuse patients completed the RPT, Experiences in Close Relationships Scale–Short Form (Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt, &; Vogel, 2007 Wei, M., Russell, D. W., Mallinckrodt, B., &; Vogel, D. L. (2007). The Experience in Close Relationships Scale (ECR)–Short Form: Reliability, validity and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88, 187–204.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 1991 Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. [Google Scholar]), and Symptom Checklist–90–Revised (Derogatis, 1983 Derogatis, L. R. (1983). SCL–90–R administration, scoring, and procedures manual II. Towson, MD: Clinical Psychometric Research. [Google Scholar]). Results suggest that the RPT has good construct validity when compared against theoretically related broadband measures of personality, psychopathology, and adult attachment. Overall, health dependency was negatively related to measures of psychopathology and insecure attachment, and overdependence was positively related to measures of psychopathology and attachment anxiety. Many of the predictions regarding RPT detachment and the criterion measures were not supported. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

What Does Islam Say About Dieting?

Dieting is very important to maintain a healthy and peaceful life. Today, most of the health problems are related with dieting. Thus, the modern health science recommends a number of suggestions regarding dieting for better health such as learning the five basic food groups (grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and meat); eating three times a day; decreasing the amount of fat; increasing the amount of fruits, vegetables and grains; including an adequate amount of iron; and avoiding excessive rich food, salt, sugar, and fat. Religion can also play a vital role for our good health and lifestyle. The main concern of this paper was to present an analytical justification regarding what Islam as a religion advocates about dieting along with the modern food and nutrition sciences.     

Double Jeopardy: Subordinates’ Worldviews and Poor Performance as Predictors of Abusive Supervision

Purpose

To test a moderated mediation model where a positive relationship between subordinates’ perceptions of a dangerous world—the extent to which an individual views the world as a dangerous place—and supervisory abuse is mediated by their submission to authority figures, and that this relationship is heightened for more poorly performing employees.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from 173 subordinates and 45 supervisors working in different private sector organizations in Pakistan.

Findings

Our model was supported. It appears that subordinates’ dangerous worldviews are positively associated with their perceptions of abusive supervision and that this is because such views are likely to lead to greater submission to authority figures. But this is only for those employees who are performing more poorly.

Implications

We highlight the possibility that individual differences (worldviews, attitudes to authority figures, and performance levels) may lead employees to become victims of abusive supervision. As such, our research informs organizations on how they may better support supervisors in managing effectively their subordinate relationships and, in particular, subordinate poor performance.

Originality/Value

We add to recent work exploring subordinate-focused antecedents of abusive supervision, finding support for the salience of the previously untested constructs of individual worldviews, authoritarian submission, and individual job performance. In so doing we also extend research on dangerous worldviews into a new organizational setting. Finally, our research takes place within a new Pakistani context, adding to the burgeoning non-US based body of empirical work into the antecedents and consequences of abusive supervision.

     

Perceived social structural relations and group stereotypes: A test of the Stereotype Content Model in Malaysia

Using data from two studies, the current research tests the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) within a Malaysian context using Chinese and ethnic Malay participants. The aim of the research is to examine the theoretical underpinnings of the SCM in a new context by investigating the role of aspects of the perceived social structure that have not been considered previously. In line with the SCM it is found that the two dimensions of warmth and competence underlie in‐group and out‐group stereotypes in Malaysia. In addition, the in‐group was evaluated more positively than the out‐group on both dimensions. Furthermore, perceived economic social status rather than cultural or power status was related to out‐group competence (Study 1), and to out‐group warmth (Studies 1 and 2). Higher perceived economic competition was weakly and not consistently associated with less out‐group warmth, and political competition was not related to warmth.     

Between Country Variations in Self-Rated-Health and Associations with the Quality of Life of Older People: Evidence from the Global Ageing Survey

In social science and public health earlier research has persistently reported significant socio-economic inequalities in health, inequalities in the use of health care and self rated-health (SRH) among older adults. However, relatively little attention is paid to the link between SRH and the overall quality of life (QoL) of older adults. Utilising the data collected in the Global Ageing Survey (GLAS) 2006-07, the study explores the linkages between the self-rated-health and quality of life among older adults in 21 countries and territories in five major regions of the world. The QoL was assessed by two survey instruments designed to capture subjective as well as objective appraisals of individual quality of life. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to examine the influence of SRH on the QoL. The analyses reveal that there are health inequalities across different age cohorts and this remains consistent for all selected countries and territories. As expected the proportion reporting poor health increases with age in most countries. The net effect of health status on QoL has also been analysed subsequently in multivariate models using ordered logistic regression analysis and is adjusted for two main demographic variables - age and gender. Findings show that age plays an important role alongside with health on the overall quality of life. The study also reveals that females are found to be more likely to have been depressed compared to their male counterparts.     

A biologically based model for recognition of 2-D occluded patterns

In this work, we present a biologically inspired model for recognition of occluded patterns. The general architecture of the model is based on the two visual information processing pathways of the human visual system, i.e. the ventral and the dorsal pathways. The proposed hierarchically structured model consists of three parallel processing channels. The main channel learns invariant representations of the input patterns and is responsible for pattern recognition task. But, it is limited to process one pattern at a time. The direct channel represents the biologically based direct connection from the lower to the higher processing level in the human visual cortex. It computes rapid top-down pattern-specific cues to modulate processing in the other two channels. The spatial channel mimics the dorsal pathway of the visual cortex. It generates a combined saliency map of the input patterns and, later, segments the part of the map representing the occluded pattern. This segmentation process is based on our hypothesis that the dorsal pathway, in addition to encoding spatial properties, encodes the shape representations of the patterns as well. The lateral interaction between the main and the spatial channels at appropriate processing levels and top-down, pattern-specific modulation of the these two channels by the direct channel strengthen the locations and features representing the occluded pattern. Consequently, occluded patterns become focus of attention in the ventral channel and also the pattern selected for further processing along this channel for final recognition.     

Perceptions of Challenges Affecting Research Ethics Committees’ Members at Medical and Health Science Colleges in Omani and Jordanian Universities

Journal of Academic Ethics - In recent years there has been an increase in research conducted in the Middle East, with a corresponding increase in the challenges faced by members of the Research...     

A Qualitative Examination of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals with Neuro-developmental Disabilities and their Families

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Individuals with neuro-developmental disabilities (NDD) have been profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on focus groups with 24 service providers...