The Romanian Pentecostal Agency for Foreign Mission (APME): A Case Study in Cross‐Cultural Mission Originating from Eastern Europe

This paper offers a short analysis of the ecclesiological and missiological context that led to the establishment of the Romanian Pentecostal Agency for Foreign Mission (APME). It states the main steps in the process of the development of the organization in its first decade of existence (2006–2016), during which it became one of the youngest and most dynamic missionary structures in Europe. It describes the process of the birth of APME and the important role the founding team played in the existence of the agency and in articulating the mission, vision, values, and work philosophy. The main section will present the components of APME's work strategy which led to implementing the vision and reaching the objectives: mobilizing the churches, recruiting, training, sending, supporting missionaries, and promoting the ministry. A short section will show the crucial importance of internal and foreign partnerships in the activity of APME. In the final part we will list the main lessons learned in the ten years of APME's existence that can be shared with other mission organizations, as well as the challenges that the organization faces over the next few years.     

Counseling and Mental Health Care in Palestine

The authors provide a brief overview of counseling and mental health care in Palestine, including their history and a summary of their current status. Finally, a discussion is presented of future trends in the development of the profession with regard to recent changes in the region.     

Assessing Innovation: A 360‐degree appraisal study

This study examines the evaluation of innovation in a wider competency framework and within a 360‐degree rating procedure among managerial‐level job holders. The total sample of 2,979 individuals consisted of 296 target employees and their 318 bosses, 1208 peers, 828 direct reports, and 329 others who provided ratings on a competency framework. The results showed significant differences in innovation‐related competence ratings between different raters. Self‐ratings were significantly lower compared to the overall observer ratings and were correlated only with peer ratings. Different patterns of results were found for the lower and upper quartiles based on self‐ratings. For instance, no correlations were observed between self‐ratings and the ratings of any observers in the group of best self‐rated individuals. Implications for practice and future research in assessment and evaluation of innovation are discussed in conclusion.     

Progression along the bipolar spectrum: a longitudinal study of predictors of conversion from bipolar spectrum conditions to bipolar I and II disorders

Little longitudinal research has examined progression to more severe bipolar disorders in individuals with "soft" bipolar spectrum conditions. We examine rates and predictors of progression to bipolar I and II diagnoses in a nonpatient sample of college-age participants (n = 201) with high General Behavior Inventory scores and childhood or adolescent onset of "soft" bipolar spectrum disorders followed longitudinally for 4.5 years from the Longitudinal Investigation of Bipolar Spectrum (LIBS) project. Of 57 individuals with initial cyclothymia or bipolar disorder not otherwise specified (BiNOS) diagnoses, 42.1% progressed to a bipolar II diagnosis and 10.5% progressed to a bipolar I diagnosis. Of 144 individuals with initial bipolar II diagnoses, 17.4% progressed to a bipolar I diagnosis. Consistent with hypotheses derived from the clinical literature and the Behavioral Approach System (BAS) model of bipolar disorder, and controlling for relevant variables (length of follow-up, initial depressive and hypomanic symptoms, treatment-seeking, and family history), high BAS sensitivity (especially BAS Fun Seeking) predicted a greater likelihood of progression to bipolar II disorder, whereas early age of onset and high impulsivity predicted a greater likelihood of progression to bipolar I (high BAS sensitivity and Fun-Seeking also predicted progression to bipolar I when family history was not controlled). The interaction of high BAS and high Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) sensitivities also predicted greater likelihood of progression to bipolar I. We discuss implications of the findings for the bipolar spectrum concept, the BAS model of bipolar disorder, and early intervention efforts.     

Modulation of motor area activity during observation of unnatural body movements

We investigated the processes underlying stimulus-response compatibility by using a lateralized auditory stimulus in a simple and choice reaction time (RT) paradigm. Participants were asked to make either a left or right key lift in response to either a control (80 dB) or startling (124 dB) stimulus presented to either the left ear, right ear, or both ears. In the simple RT paradigm, we did not find a compatibility effect for either control or startle trials but did find a right-ear advantage which we attribute to anatomical asymmetry of auditory pathways. In the choice RT paradigm, we found compatibility effects for both startle and control trials as well a high incidence of error for contralateral stimulus-response mapping. We attribute these results to automatic activation of the ipsilateral response, which must then be inhibited prior to initiation of the correct response. The presence of compatibility effects for startle trials also suggest that similar pathways are being used to initiate movements in a choice RT situation, as opposed to involuntary triggering that is thought to occur in a simple RT situation.     

Are we all in this together?: co-victimization,inclusive social identity and collective action in solidarity with the disadvantaged

Common experience of injustice can be a potent motivator of collective action and efforts to achieve social change - and of such efforts becoming more widespread. In this research, we propose that the effects of co-victimization on collective action are a function of inclusive social identity. Experiment 1 (N= 61) demonstrated that while presence (compared to absence) of co-victimization positively predicted consumer (i.e., participants) willingness to act collectively in solidarity with sweatshop workers, this effect was mediated by inclusive social identity. In Experiment 2 (N= 120), the salience of inclusive social identity was experimentally manipulated and interacted with co-victimization to predict collective action. When inclusive social identity was salient, co-victimization enhanced collective action, including willingness to pay extra for products made ethically and in support of fair wages for workers. In contrast, collective action was attenuated when co-victimization took place in the absence of inclusive social identity. Implications for understanding when co-victimization is transformed into common fate and political solidarity with the disadvantaged are discussed.     

Revisiting the suitability of antisaccade performance as an endophenotype in schizophrenia

Poor performance on the antisaccade task has been proposed as a candidate endophenotype in schizophrenia. Caveats to this proposal, however, include inconsistent findings in first-degree relatives of individuals with schizophrenia, and substantial heterogeneity in individuals with the disorder. In this study, we examined antisaccade performance in patients and relatives, and sought to establish whether antisaccade measures could differentiate between two patients clusters identified in the Western Australian Family Study of Schizophrenia with either pervasive cognitive deficits (CD) or cognitively spared (CS). Ninety-three patients (CD = 47, CS = 46), 99 relatives and 62 healthy controls carried out a standard antisaccade task. Results showed: (i) significantly greater error rate, and prolonged latencies to correct responses and self-correction saccades in patients compared with controls; (ii) high error rates in relatives of poorly performing patients; (iii) longer latencies of self-correction saccades in relatives compared to controls; and (iv) higher error rate and longer latencies of self-correction saccades in the CD subgroup compared with CS. Unaffected relatives as a group were unimpaired in error rate as compared to healthy controls. These findings suggest that the antisaccade error rate and latency of self-correction saccades are useful measures in specific applications of genetic research in schizophrenia, without fully meeting endophenotype co-familiality requirements.     

Fathers' versus mothers' social referencing signals in relation to infant anxiety and avoidance: a visual cliff experiment

Infants use signals from others to guide their behavior when confronted with novel situations, a process called ‘social referencing’ (SR). Via SR, signs of parental anxiety can lead to infant anxiety. Little is known about differences in the effect of paternal and maternal SR signals on child anxiety. Using a visual cliff paradigm, we studied whether SR processes between fathers and their infants differed from mothers and their infants. Eighty‐one infants aged 10–15 months were randomly assigned to conduct the visual cliff task with their father (n = 41) or mother (n = 40). The infant was placed on the shallow side of the cliff and the parent, standing at the deep side, was instructed to encourage the infant to cross. Results showed that although mothers showed more intense facial expressions of encouragement than fathers, no differences occurred in how fast, and with how much anxiety, infants crossed the cliff with fathers and mothers. However, path analyses showed that paternal, but not maternal, expressed anxiety was positively associated with infant expressed anxiety and avoidance. For infants who participated with their mother, infants' anxious temperament was negatively associated with infant avoidance of the cliff. Infant anxious temperament moderated the link between paternal expressed anxiety and infant avoidance: the higher the level of infant anxious temperament the stronger the positive association between paternal expressed anxiety and infant's avoidance of the cliff. Lastly, parental encouragement was unrelated to infant expressed anxiety and avoidance. Our results suggest that SR processes between fathers and their infants differ from those between mothers and their infants.     

Space and Language in Conceptualizing Identity

In this paper, we discuss the conceptualization of space as a dimension relevant to personal identity and the central role that is attributed to language with respect to its constitution. It is argued that the identification with a certain geographical space and the use of (a) certain language(s) or linguistic variety can be regarded as crucial for the self-definition of individuals and also groups. We pursue a threefold goal: (1) to highlight the contribution of geographical research to our understanding of the self as a phenomenon situated in space; (2) to discern merits, but also problems related to the recent strong emphasis of the role of language with respect to identity constitution, especially in constructivist and poststructuralist approaches; and (3) on the basis of these findings, to draw conclusions concerning the given and constructed elements of identity, with a particular focus on space and language. In addition to a survey of relevant theoretical positions, empirical examples are presented with the aim to illustrate how geographically marked identity is constituted.