Children’s spirituality and the practice of meditation in Irish primary schools

Abstract

This paper uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the child’s experience of meditation in Irish primary schools and its impact on children’s spirituality. Using a phenomenological, hermeneutic, mystagogical methodology, it describes how children experience the practice of meditation, the benefits they consider they gain from it and the nature of its impact, if any, on their spirituality. Seventy children, aged 7 to 11, were interviewed. The study is original in that the interview protocol contained novel processes designed to elicit from children their experience, if any, of the transcendent in meditation and in its depth of analysis of the spiritual fruits of the practice. The study concludes that meditation does have the capacity to nourish the innate spirituality of the child. It offers a heuristic model outlining the key elements of the child’s experience of meditation, stresses the importance of personal spiritual experience and supports the introduction of meditation in primary schools.     

Cognitive processing and cognitive ability: A multivariate validity investigation

What are the underlying sources of cognitive ability differences and of cognitive growth? Recent attention has focused on the experimental isolation of cognitive processing factors in the explanation of performance differences on complex tasks, and a number of research studies show a substantial relation between processing parameters and ability differences. Several validity issues—convergent process measures, differential ability prediction, and multiple levels of analysis—have not been addressed empirically, and these concerns are the focus of this study. Sixty eighth graders (30 F, 30 M) and 60 adults (30 F, 30 M) participated in verbal and spatial assessments, and in six experiments over two sessions. Three experiments were designed to estimate memory retrieval processing and three to estimate mental rotation processing. Two strategy parameters were derived also from these experiments. Within the processing tasks, there was modest convergence for eighth graders but negligible convergence for adults. More importantly, relationships between the processing parameters and the ability indices failed substantially to conform to the theoretically predicted convergent/discriminant pattern. Regression analyses also provided support for these disconforming patterns. The viability of explaining developmental and/or individual] differences using cognitive processing variance is explored.     

Cognitive arithmetic: comparison of operations

Adults' performance of simple arithmetic calculations (addition, multiplication, and numerical comparison) was examined to test predictions of digital (counting), analog, and network models. Although all of these models have been supported by studies of mental addition, each leads to a different prediction concerning relations between the times required for addition, multiplication, and numerical comparison. Pairs of single-digit integers were presented and reaction times (RTs) for adding, multiplying, and comparing the stimuli were collected. A high correlation between RT for addition and multiplication of the same digits was obtained. This result is consistent with a network model, but presents difficulties for both analog and counting models. A "ties" effect of no increase in RT with increases in problem size for doubles such as 2 + 2 has been found in previous studies of addition using verification procedures, but was not found with the production task employed in the present study. Instead, a different kind of ties effect was found. Reaction time for both addition and multiplication of ties increased more slowly with problem size than did RT for non-tie problems. This ties effect, and the finding that probability of making errors contributes independently of problem size to RT support a distinction between location and accessibility of information in a network.     

Acceptance of persuasion and the inhibition of counterargumentation under various distraction tasks

A discrepant communication was presented to subjects who monitored light flashes by visual, vocal, manual, or vocal-manual means. Higher rates of flashes increased acceptance of the communication and decreased counterargument production. Vocal and manual tasks were equally effective in inhibiting counterarguments and increasing acceptance, while the vocal-manual task was most effective in increasing acceptance of the counterattitudinal communication. The results suggest that the level and complexity of activity elicited by a distraction task is as important a determinant of persuasion-yielding and counterargument inhibition, as is the direct inhibition of the subvocal formation of counterarguments by distraction requiring vocal responding.     

Counselling, careers education and pastoral care: Beyond the National Curriculum

The National Curriculum and other recent educational reforms in the UK have had the effect of compartmentalising children's education into the measurable—usually the academic—and of undervaluing its socio-emotional aspects. A symposium presenting different views of the implications of these reforms is introduced. A plea is made for all professionals involved in education to move from a reductionist view to one which truly enhances the whole child.     

Adult sex role orientation and perceptions of aggressive interactions between girls and boys

We explored how the sex role orientation of adult observers related to their perceptions of boys' and girls' aggression. Sex-typed and androgynous undergraduate subjects viewed videotaped scenes in which one member of a girl-boy pair behaved aggressively toward the other. Unlike androgynous subjects, sex-typed subjects judged boys' aggression to be more intentional than girls' and proposed more severe reprimands for aggressive boys than for aggressive girls. Androgynous subjects recommended more severe reprimands for aggressive girls than sex-typed subjects did. Overall, sex-typed subjects differed from androgynous subjects not in their assessment of the degree of aggressiveness boys and girls expressed, but in their perceptions of the purposefulness of boys' and girls' aggression and how harshly to respond to it. We speculated that sex-typed subjects did not consider girls' aggression to be serious enough to warrant severe reprimands. Thus, during socialization, sex-typed adults perhaps model less aggression in response to girls' aggressive acts than to boys'. In addition, sex-typed adults may convey to girls that their aggression is not an effective means of obtaining adult intervention.     

Fitting identity in the reasoned action framework: A meta-analysis and model comparison

Several competing models have been put forth regarding the role of identity in the reasoned action framework. The standard model proposes that identity is a background variable. Under a typical augmented model, identity is treated as an additional direct predictor of intention and behavior. Alternatively, it has been proposed that identity measures are inadvertent indicators of an underlying intention factor (e.g., a manifest-intention model). In order to test these competing hypotheses, we used data from 73 independent studies (total N = 23,917) to conduct a series of meta-analytic structural equation models. We also tested for moderation effects based on whether there was a match between identity constructs and the target behaviors examined (e.g., if the study examined a “smoker identity” and “smoking behavior,” there would be a match; if the study examined a “health conscious identity” and “smoking behavior,” there would not be a match). Average effects among primary reasoned action variables were all substantial, rs = .37–.69. Results gave evidence for the manifest-intention model over the other explanations, and a moderation effect by identity-behavior matching.     

Creativity and the artwork: the perspectives of a painter and a philosopher

Creativity in Robert Henri's view is a gratuitous act, shot through with mystery; what is left after such an act is the artwork itself as concrete evidence that such a heightened state of consciousness has been achieved. This paper will examine Henri's understanding of the nature of creativity from his perspective as a twentieth century New York painter, in conjunction with Eliot Deutsch's theoretical insights as a philosopher deeply interested in the nature of the experience of an artwork. In his Essays on the nature of art, Deutsch presents the view that the experience of an artwork involves the assimilation of the work's aesthetic force, the recognition of its meaning, the discernment of its formal dimensions, and ‘calls for a special appropriation that yields an integrated wholeness’. This paper presents commonalities between Henri's and Deutsch individual perspectives and discusses some value‐centred educational implications that could be drawn from these commonalities.     

"I need to talk about it": a qualitative analysis of trauma-exposed women's reasons for treatment choice

A significant proportion of individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder do not seek or receive effective treatment. Understanding the reasons why an individual chooses to seek treatment or prefers one treatment to another is a critical step to improve treatment seeking. To begin to understand these reasons, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the reasons women gave for choosing a cognitive-behavioral treatment, prolonged exposure (PE), or a pharmacological treatment, sertraline (SER). A community sample of women with trauma histories were asked to view standardized rationales, to choose among PE, SER, or no treatment, and to give 5 reasons for their choice. Women indicated that they were more likely to prefer the psychotherapy to the medication. Across reasons given, the most commonly cited reason for treatment preference highlighted why or how the treatment worked (e.g., I need to talk about it); and this reason emerged as the strongest predictor of preference for PE. Understanding this role of perceived treatment mechanism may aid clinicians and public health policy officials to identify and address help-seeking barriers regarding treatment.