Religion, Meaning in Life, and Change in Physical Functioning During Late Adulthood

This study has two primary goals. The first is to see whether select aspects of religion are associated with meaning in life. The second goal is to see whether change in meaning in life is associated with change in physical functioning. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people provide support for the following relationships: (1) older adults who attend church services more often tend to develop a closer relationship with God; (2) older people who have a closer relationship with God are more likely to provide emotional support to others; (3) elders who give emotional support to their social network members are more likely to have a stronger sense of meaning in life; and (4) older individuals who have a deeper sense of meaning in life are less likely to experience a decline in their physical functioning over time.     

Subcultural Research on Organizational Commitment With the 15 OCQ Invariant Instrument

The 15 item organizational commitment scale (15 OCQ) has been developed, tested, and validated in the USA (Mowday et al. 1979). Its adaptability to other countries and other languages is necessary for subcultural and cross-cultural research in industrial settings. A French version of the OCQ instrument was developed and assessed. Exploratory and multi-group invariance testings were used to assess the instrument invariance with French and English Canadian salespeople. The comparable English and French versions should facilitate future research.     

Done in 60 s? Inferring teachers’ subjective well-being from thin slices of nonverbal behavior

Being a teacher is known to be a particularly stressful occupation and as a consequence many teachers suffer from reduced well-being. Thus, it is important to know as soon as possible which individuals are likely to experience reduced well-being in their employment. Therefore, this study investigated whether it is possible to infer teachers’ future well-being from minimal nonverbal information, i.e., thin slices of behavior. Between 2003 and 2006, 50 teachers were filmed while holding a lesson. Naïve observers were shown 60-s clips of these teachers and were asked to predict the teachers’ satisfaction with job, life, and health in 5–8 years. Five to eight years later, the teachers’ satisfaction with job, life, and health was assessed. It was shown that judges highly agree in their predictions. Additionally, these predictions were shown to be accurate for life and job satisfaction. Thus, it is possible to predict a teacher’s well-being on the basis of thin slices of the nonverbal behavior they show while performing their job. These thin slices might therefore allow for a risk assessment in the context of teacher education and such approaches might contribute to teacher professionalism.     

Contingency learning and stereotype formation: Illusory and spurious correlations revisited

The ability of implicit measures to predict behaviour varies greatly across studies, emphasising the need for accounts of this variability. In order to organise and review the literature on moderators that influence individuals' information processing, we suggest a classification system of moderators with two dimensions. One dimension distinguishes moderators according to their influence on the opportunity to control, the motivation to control, or the reliance on either automatic or controlled processes without changes in opportunity or motivation. The second dimension classifies moderators according to whether they pertain to a disposition of the acting person, the situation in which the behaviour occurs, or the behaviour itself. Increased predictive validity of implicit measures is associated with conditions that foster the impact of automatic processes on behaviour determination. In the discussion we derive several additional moderators from the classification system, delineate emerging research questions, and discuss implications of the reviewed studies for research on self-regulation.     

Parental Religious Socialization Practices,Connectedness With Others,and Depressive Symptoms in Late Life

This purpose of this study is to examine two constructs that have been largely overlooked in the study of religious involvement among older people: parental religious socialization practices and feelings of connectedness with others. The data are from an ongoing nationwide survey of older people. Findings from a latent variable model that was designed to examine the two focal constructs provide support for the following relationships: (a) older people whose parents encouraged them to become more involved in religion are more likely to attend worship services, (b) older people whose parents promoted religious involvement and older individuals who attend church more often are more likely to report that they see a fundamental connection among all human beings, (c) older adults who feel more closely connected to others will be more likely to forgive people for the things they have done, and (d) older people who are more forgiving are likely to experience fewer symptoms of depression over time.     

The Social Milieu of the Church and Religious Coping Responses: A Longitudinal Investigation of Older Whites and Older Blacks

The purpose of this study is to see if the social environment of the church influences the use of religious coping responses over time. The following theoretical relationships were embedded in the conceptual model that was developed to evaluate this issue: (a) People who go to church more often are more likely to feel their congregation is highly cohesive (e.g., share the same values and beliefs); (b) individuals who worship in highly cohesive congregations are more likely to receive spiritual support (i.e., encouragement to adopt religious teachings and principles) from their fellow church members; and (c) people who receive more spiritual support will be more likely to adopt religious coping responses. In the process of evaluating this model, tests were performed to examine the influence of racial culture. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older adults provide support for each link in the conceptual model. Pervasive racial cultural differences were also found: Older Blacks were more likely to be deeply involved in each facet of religion than older Whites.     

Assessing Whether Trust in God Offsets the Effects of Financial Strain on Health and Well-Being

Having trust in God is widely viewed as an essential component of many faith traditions (e.g., Christianity). Even so, researchers have paid relatively little attention to this core facet of religious life. The purpose of this study was to see if trust in God helps offset the effects of chronic economic problems on self-rated health, depressed affect, and life satisfaction. Data from a nationwide survey of middle-aged and older adults (N = 1,535) indicated that the effect of ongoing financial hardship on self-rated health, depressed affect scores, and life satisfaction was reduced for individuals who have greater trust in God.     

Object Relations in Borderlines,Depressives, and Normals: An Examination of Human Responses on the Rorschach

Recently, researchers and clinicians have become increasingly interested in diagnostic distinctions between borderline and mood disorders. Object relations theory provides a useful framework for the comparison of these two overlapping diagnostic categories. In our study, a measure of object relations as represented on the Rorschach, developed by Blatt, Brenneis, Schimeck, and Glick (1976), was applied to data produced by borderline and depressive inpatients and by normal comparison subjects. Portions of the Blatt measure that tap the subject's experience of human action and interaction distinguish among the three diagnostic groups. Specifically, borderlines tend to understand human action as more highly motivated and human interaction as more malevolent in nature than do either depressives or normals. The data indicate that borderlines experience the object-relational world in a way that is fundamentally different from the way normals and depressives perceive it. implications are discussed for theories of borderline object relations.     

Prayer Beliefs and Change in Life Satisfaction Over Time

A considerable number of studies have focused on the relationship between prayer, health, and well-being. But the influence of some types of prayer (e.g., petitionary prayer) has received more attention than others. The purpose of this study is to examine an overlooked aspect of prayer: trust-based prayer beliefs. People with this orientation believe that God knows that best way to answer a prayer and He selects the best time to provide an answer. Three main findings emerge from data that were provided by a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people reveals. First, the results reveal that Conservative Protestants are more likely to endorse trust-based prayer beliefs. Second, the findings suggest that these prayer beliefs tend to be reinforced through prayer groups and informal support from fellow church members. Third, the data indicate that stronger trust-based prayer beliefs are associated with a greater sense of life satisfaction over time.