The role of Christian commitment in predicting drug use amongst church affiliated young people

This research set out to establish which of four statements reflecting Christian commitment ('usually go to church on Sunday', 'have given my life to Jesus', 'read the Bible every week' and 'pray most days') were the most important predictors of never having smoked, drunk alcohol or tried drugs amongst a group of church affiliated young people. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 7661 participants aged 12-30. Agreement with the Christian commitment statements was generally associated with a lesser likelihood of having smoked, drunk alcohol or tried drugs, though different factors were found to be important in predicting lifetime substance use in the two age groups surveyed (12-16 years and age 17-30). Church attendance was the only factor which predicted each behaviour for the younger age group (12-16 years), but for older participants (age 17-30), statements suggesting a greater level of commitment were most important ('have given my life to Jesus', 'read the Bible every week'). The findings suggest that for church affiliated young people it is initially the socialization of religion that acts as a prohibitor against substance use, though, as age increases, a greater internalization of Christian commitment becomes more important.     

Flashbulb Memories for September 11th can be Preserved in Older Adults

Flashbulb memories (FMs) are vivid, long-lasting memories for the source of surprising, arousing news. Laboratory studies have consistently found that older adults, especially those with below-average frontal lobe (FL) function, are impaired in source memory relative to young. We tested memory for the source of news concerning the September 11th terrorist attacks in older adults with high or low frontal lobe function and in young people. We found no age differences in source memory a year after the event and no differences related to FL function. Flashbulb memories may be different from usual cases of source memory because of their emotional content, personal importance, or social relevance.     

Identification and Ego Defensiveness in Thematic Apperception

A theoretical explanation for the classical distinction between the conversion and dissociative hysterias was advanced based on previous research with cases of conversion hysteria and multiple personality. The principles were illustrated and extended using Rorschach and Hand Test data from a fugue state.     

A Guide to Published Literature Relating to the Authoritarian Personality Through 1956

A comparison of mental illness and narcotic use in rural and urban areas indicates a greater incidence in areas with high population density. A hypothesis explored is that prior experiences condition some to be sanguine and others melancholic. Whereas both are vulnerable to stress, the reactions to signals indicating punishment will vary according to the conditioned temperament. The great frequency of signals in high population density areas activates a general stress reaction. Relief can be obtained for the melancholic by withdrawal, whereas for the sanguine it is by the use of drugs.     

Mapping Teacher-Faces

This paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's concept of faciality to analyse the teacher's face. According to Deleuze and Guattari, the teacher-face is a special type of face because it is an 'overcoded' face produced in specific landscapes. This paper suggests four limit-faces for teacher faciality that actualise different mixes of signifiance and subjectification in a classroom in which individualisation and massifications are affected. Understanding these limit-faces suggests new ways to conceive the affects actualised in the classroom that are subjected to increasing levels of surveillance from education policy makers. Through this ‘partial mapping’ new possibilities emerge to “escape the face”.     

Revisiting effects of contextual strength on the subordinate bias effect: Evidence from eye movements

In this study, we examined two issues regarding the role of context in ambiguity resolution: whether access to the contextually appropriate meaning is exhaustive or selective, and whether the contextually inappropriate meaning is inhibited. Participants read texts in which a biased ambiguous word was encountered twice while their eye movements were measured. The context preceding the first encounter varied in the extent to which the subordinate meaning was supported; the context preceding the second encounter always supported the dominant meaning. The findings suggest that lexical access is exhaustive but can be influenced by context, and that the subsequent accessibility of the contextually inappropriate meaning is unaffected by previous selection processes. The results were interpreted in terms of the assumptions of the reordered-access model and activation mechanisms that operate during reading.     

Examination of muscularity and body fat depictions in magazines that target heterosexual and gay men

Previous content analyses of magazine images have typically examined within genres but failed to include comparisons between publications intended for various populations. The purpose of this study was to examine depictions of muscularity and thinness of male images in several widely distributed magazines that target male audiences from a variety of genres. Twenty-three magazine titles with the highest circulation rates that targeted heterosexual men, gay men, and general audiences were selected for image analyses. We found that magazines that target gay male audiences depicted images of men who were thinner in comparison to magazines targeting heterosexual men. Both gay and heterosexual magazines depicted male images with greater muscularity than magazines intended for general audiences. Differences in male image depictions in magazines may contribute to the promotion of an unattainable body ideal in some subgroups of gay culture.     

An examination of the complex associations between religiousness and femininity among US Christian women

Although various forms of religiousness have been found to be associated with women’s body image, sexuality, and personal and professional roles, these studies have failed to examine multiple aspects of religiousness and femininity (i.e., conformity to feminine norms) concurrently. The current study explored the association between femininity and religiousness among women using multivariate definitions of these constructs. As hypothesised, there were multiple significant associations between religiousness and femininity. In terms of the more complex, multivariate relationships, more conservative and “traditional” religiousness was found to be associated with high sexual fidelity, adherence to domestic roles, and adherence to being sweet and nice. Also, minimal engagement in religiousness was associated with low levels of modesty, low adherence to being nice, and more emphasis on being in a romantic relationship. Several simpler, bivariate relationships were also found as hypothesised.     

A technique for continuous measurement of body movement from video

The movements that we make with our body vary continuously along multiple dimensions. However, many of the tools and techniques presently used for coding and analyzing hand gestures and other body movements yield categorical outcome variables. Focusing on categorical variables as the primary quantitative outcomes may mislead researchers or distort conclusions. Moreover, categorical systems may fail to capture the richness present in movement. Variations in body movement may be informative in multiple dimensions. For example, a single hand gesture has a unique size, height of production, trajectory, speed, and handshape. Slight variations in any of these features may alter how both the speaker and the listener are affected by gesture. In this paper, we describe a new method for measuring and visualizing the physical trajectory of movement using video. This method is generally accessible, requiring only video data and freely available computer software. This method allows researchers to examine features of hand gestures, body movement, and other motion, including size, height, curvature, and speed. We offer a detailed account of how to implement this approach, and we also offer some guidelines for situations where this approach may be fruitful in revealing how the body expresses information. Finally, we provide data from a small study on how speakers alter their hand gestures in response to different characteristics of a stimulus to demonstrate the utility of analyzing continuous dimensions of motion. By creating shared methods, we hope to facilitate communication between researchers from varying methodological traditions.