Caring for Creation and Striving for Climate Justice: Implications for mission and spirituality1

Presenting climate change as one of the most important challenges the world faces today, and one that already affects populations in the Pacific, in Africa, in the Caribbean and in Southeast Asia, the author links spirituality and mission with the advocacy work being carried on by the World Council of Churches on climate change issues. The article asserts that the ecumenical work on climate change is rooted in a biblical imperative. Two biblical insights, the wholeness of creation and the commitment for justice, are unfolded as guidelines for the ecumenical concern on climate change. The first one requests a renewed theology of creation that responds adequately to the accusation that Christianity is anthropocentric. In this theology, the trinitarian understanding of creation and the role of the Holy Spirit are highlighted. Together with theology, ethics is a core contribution churches make to the climate change debate. This ethical approach is based on the commitment for justice, biblically rooted, which pays special attention to the poor, the vulnerable ones. Main principles of climate justice from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are also analyzed. Finally, the spiritual dimension is presented following texts of Leonardo Boff and Larry Rasmussen, among others, as a specific contribution Christian churches make to climate change, ecology and environmental issues.     

Social power increases implicit prejudice

The effects of power on implicit and explicit attitudes towards racial groups were examined. In Study 1, participants who had power showed a stronger facilitation of positive words after exposure to White faces, and negative words after exposure to Black faces, compared to participants who did not have power. In Study 2, powerful participants, compared to controls and powerless participants, showed more positive affective responses to Chinese pictographs that followed White compared to Black faces. Power did, however, not affect explicit racial attitudes. In Study 3, powerful participants showed greater racial prejudice toward Arabs in an Implicit Association Test than did powerless participants. This effect was driven by the power of the perceiver rather than the power of the target. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Modeling the Dynamics of Risky Choice

Individuals make decisions under uncertainty every day. Decisions are based on incomplete information concerning the potential outcome or the predicted likelihood with which events occur. In addition, individuals' choices often deviate from the rational or mathematically objective solution. Accordingly, the dynamics of human decision making are difficult to capture using conventional, linear mathematical models. Here, we present data from a 2-choice task with variable risk between sure loss and risky loss to illustrate how a simple nonlinear dynamical system can be employed to capture the dynamics of human decision making under uncertainty (i.e., multistability, bifurcations). We test the feasibility of this model quantitatively and demonstrate how the model can account for up to 86% of the observed choice behavior. The implications of using dynamical models for explaining the nonlinear complexities of human decision making are discussed as well as the degree to which the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems might offer an alternative framework for understanding human decision making processes.     

Luther's Radical Conception of Faith: God,Christ, and Personhood in a Post‐Metaphysical Age

Luther's exposition of Paul's letter to the Galatians offers a premier window into a deconstruction of the tandem God, ego and symbolic order of the law by proposing a radical “technology of the self,” a new understanding of what it means to be a person in light of God's own becoming in the flesh—a new subjective perspective. This places the event of belief as a displacement of a socially and ecclesiastically constructed ego‐consciousness and the emergence of a new (social) center of subjectivity—Christ consciousness, that is, faith. For Luther the “person” emerges as a radical break with the self‐referentiality of the ego and through the perspectival assimilation of God's own subjective experience in the flesh.     

Human food preferences and cultural identity: The case of Aragón (Spain)

This research aims to analyze the relationship between sociocultural values and human food preferences. The latter, as shown in this paper, are greatly influenced by cultural identity. This work stems from a theoretical context that originated in Europe and the United States towards the mid‐twentieth century, within the field of the anthropology of food. A qualitative and quantitative analysis has been performed in the Comunidad Autónoma de Aragón (Spain). Research methods include focus groups, in‐depth interviews, participant observation, and a questionnaire that was handed out to a representative sample of the Aragonese population (816 people over 21 years of age; confidence level of 95.5% and error margin of ±3.5). Regarding the research outcome, a highly significant qualitative and quantitative connection has been found between food selection and cultural identity. In other words, people prefer to consume foods that are symbolically associated with their own culture, in order to reinforce their sense of belonging. Although this study has been carried out in Aragón, it is our belief that the results can be generalized to other areas. The originality and interest of our findings are notable considering that, to date, few works have analyzed the sociocultural factors motivating food behavior. Moreover, these results could be used by public and private organizations to meet objectives such as health promotion and product marketing.     

Effect of Age and Gender in the Control of Elbow Flexion Movements

In previous studies of rapid elbow movements in young healthy men, characteristic task-dependent changes in the patterns of muscle activation when movement speed or distance was varied have been reported. In the present study, the authors investigated whether age or gender is associated with changes in the patterns of muscle activity previously reported in young men. Arm movements of 10 healthy older and 10 healthy younger participants (5 men and 5 women in each group) were studied. Surface electromyograms (EMGs) from agonist (biceps) and antagonist (triceps) muscles, kinematic and kinetic parameters, as well as anthropometric and strength measures were recorded. All 4 groups of participants showed similar task- (distance or speed) dependent changes in biphasic EMG activity. Similar modulation of the initial rate of rise of the EMG, integrated agonist and antagonist EMG activity, as well as their relative timing were observed in all 4 groups. Those results suggest that older individuals of both genders retain the control strategies for elbow movements used by young individuals. Despite the qualitative similarities in the patterns of muscle activation, the men moved more quickly than the women, and younger participants moved more quickly than older participants. Those performance differences could not be explained in terms of differences in body size and strength alone.     

Psychometric Properties and Clinical Cut-Off Scores of the Spanish Version of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents

Psychotic (P) and Non-Psychotic (N-P) retardates were compared on 13 Rorschach “indicators” of psychosis using a matched pairs technique. Two of the 13 signs were found to significantly differentiate between groups with the P group demonstrating a lower F% and higher C' responding than the N-P group.     

Niveles experimentales de conflicto social e influencia minoritaria: Límites en la definición de influencia indirecta

Resumen

El propósito de la presente investigación es desarrollar una jerarquía experimental que estudie las características más importantes del conflicto social en los procesos de influencia minoritaria. También se hace un análisis de los límites de la influencia latente minoritaria. Se defiende así la idea de que la influencia indirecta de las minorías reposa sobre una relación de naturaleza binaria no transitiva entre las posiciones minoritarias y las opiniones y actitudes objeto de influencia. Para ello se elaboró una serie de experimentos que combinan las siguientes variables, pertenencia categorial y presentatividad de la fuente minoritaria, en un diseño factorial 3 x 2. Los sujetos, 107 escolares (110 mujeres y 87 varones) fueron distribuidos en seis condiciones experimentales resultantes de la combinación de dos clases de variables: fuente de influencia perteneciente a un intragrupo, a un extragrupo, o a una minoría sin categorización social; fuente minoritaria representativa o no representativa. Los resultados subrayan la importancia del conflicto social en la producción de la influencia minoritaria y parecen confirmar la hipótesis de los límites en la influencia indirecta minoritaria.