Ethnic differences in battered women's formal help-seeking strategies: a focus on health, mental health, and spirituality

The primary goal of this study was to identify ethnic differences in battered women's use of health, mental health, and spiritual coping strategies, as well as differences in the perceived helpfulness of each strategy. The authors recruited a sample of 376 African American and Caucasian victims of interpersonal violence from various sites. In comparison with Caucasian women in the sample, African American women were significantly more likely to report using prayer as a coping strategy and significantly less likely to seek help from mental health counselors. The 2 groups did not significantly differ in terms of the extent to which they sought help from clergy or medical professionals. African American women found prayer to be more helpful than did Caucasian women.     

What is learned in knowledge-related categories? Evidence from typicality and feature frequency judgments

When a category’s features are tied together by integrative knowledge, subjects learn the category faster than when the features are not directly related. What do subjects learn about the category in such circumstances? Some research has suggested that the subjects can use the knowledge itself in performing the category learning task and, thus, do not learn the details of the category’s features. Two experiments investigated this hypothesis by collecting feature frequency estimates after category learning. The results showed that integrative knowledge about a category did not decrease subjects’ sensitivity to feature frequency—if anything, knowledge improved it. A third experiment found that integrative knowledge did reduce sensitivity to feature frequency in typicality ratings. The results suggest that knowledge does not inhibit the learning of detailed category information, though it may replace its use in some tasks.     

The acquisition of category structure in unsupervised learning

Four experiments examined the extent to which prior knowledge influences the acquisition of category structure in unsupervised learning conditions. Prior knowledge is general knowledge about a broad domain that explains why an object has the features it does. Category structure refers to the statistical regularities of features within and across categories. Subjects viewed items and then divided them up into the categories that seemed most natural. Each item had one feature that was related to prior knowledge and five features that were not. The results showed that even this small amount of prior knowledge helped subjects to discover the category structure. In addition, prior knowledge enhanced the learning of many of the category's features, and not just the features that were directly relevant to the knowledge. The results suggest that prior knowledge may help to integrate the features of a category, thereby improving the acquisition of category structure.     

Physicalism Without Reductionism: Toward a Scientifically, Philosophically, and Theologically Sound Portrait of Human Nature

This essay addresses three problems facing a physicalist (as opposed to dualist) account of the person. First, how can such an account fail to be reductive if mental events are neurological events and such events are governed by natural laws? Answering this question requires a reexamination of the concept of supervenience. Second, what is the epistemological status of nonreductive physicalism? Recent philosophy of science can be used to argue that there is reasonable scientific evidence for physicalism. Third, the soul has traditionally been seen as that which enables human beings to relate to God. What accounts for this capacity in a physicalist theory of the person? This essay argues that the same faculties that enable higher cognitive and emotional experience also account for the capacity for religious experience.     

Remote Odor Memory in Alzheimer's Disease: Deficits as Measured by Familiarity

Deficit in olfaction and remote nonolfactory memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD) motivated the present study of remote memory for odors and faces, operationally defined as rated familiarity, in patients with AD and controls. Uncommon engineering symbols were rated for familiarity to ensure task comprehension. Results showed that patients with AD rate odors, but not faces, as significantly less familiar than do controls, which is indicative of deficit in remote odor memory. Follow-up testing 1 year later again showed this result. Poor odor-detection sensitivity in patients, with AD, but lack of significant correspondence between sensitivity and familiarity, suggests an existing but limited effect of sensitivity on familiarity. The findings provide further evidence that olfaction may be a useful modality for early identification of AD.     

The Relevance of Multiculturalism for Aging

Though multiculturalists focus on race and minority status, issues of central importance to the aged, multiculturalism has not infiltrated the gerontology literature. However, since the so-called natural stages of life are cultural formations, each one a valuable creation, the topic of aging would certainly benefit from a connection to multiculturalism and its critique of the demands of assimilation.     

The Theology of the Cross and God's Work in the World

Ian Barbour has distinguished eight theologies of God's role in nature, together with corresponding models of divine activity. This essay examines these ideas in the light of a theology of the cross. Three of Barbour's approaches—the neo-Thomist, the kenotic, and the existentialist—are able to provide different aspects of a theology of divine action that is consistent with belief that God's definitive revelation takes place in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. These approaches encourage attention to a part of traditional doctrines of Providence, the idea that God acts by "cooperation" with natural processes. The kenotic character of divine involvement in the world means that the regularities of the basic interactions of physics are maintained. The idea of cooperation can be extrapolated into the past, to give some insight into ways of understanding God's activity in originating the universe.     

Personality variables related to integrity test scores: The role of conscientiousness

Using a broad-based measure of normal personality, we tested the hypothesis that the trait conscientiousness is the best single predictor of scores on two well-researched integrity tests. Data from 180 traditional and nontraditional college students provided clear support for this hypothesis, but also indicated that a number of traits other than conscientiousness were likely to be related to integrity test scores. Scores on all six of the primary scales, and 33 of the 45 homogeneous item clusters (HICs) of the Hogan Personality Inventory were related to scores on the PDI Employment Inventory and/or the Personnel Selection Inventory. Personality variables were better predictors of scores on the PDI Employment inventory, which is a veiled-purpose (also referred to as personality based) test, than of scores on the Personnel Selection Inventory, which measures honesty-related attitudes and includes items calling for direct admissions of misdeeds.We are grateful for the assistance and cooperation of London House Inc., Personnel Decisions Inc., and Hogan Assessment Systems, Inc., and especially to Scott Martin, George Paajanen, and Joyce Hogan.