Sacramental psychology: Treating intimacy failure in catholic priests

The treatment of intimacy failure in Roman Catholic priests in an outpatient program designed to treat sexual misconduct is discussed here. Three case vignettes highlight a particular feature of an intimacy deficit that sets the stage for the priests' sexual acting out. Intimacy, hypocrisy, and self-deception and the Catholic sacramental world view are discussed to shed light on the treatment of sexual addiction in the clergy. Tapping into a priest's beliefs regarding the divine power arising from his own ordination creates a nexus of healing where psychotherapy and spiritual direction join forces to produce a kind of “sacramental psychology.” This material was originally offered as part of a Grand Rounds presentation at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in New York City.     

A Social Dilemma Analysis of Commuting Preferences: The Roles of Social Value Orientation and Trust1

The current research advances a social dilemma analysis of commuting, examining the roles of preexisting personality differences in social value orientation (i.e., prosocial vs. proself orientation) and trust (i.e., a general belief in the honesty and cooperative intentions of others) in determining preferences for collectively desirable commuting options: preferences for commuting by public transportation (Study 1) and carpooling (Study 2). Consistent with predictions, both studies revealed that, relative to p of prosocials, preferences of proselfs were more strongly associated with beliefs about the relative efficiency of cars (i.e., an outcome affecting personal well-being). Also, greater preferences for collectively desirable actions were observed among prosocials with high trust—relative to prosocials with low trust and proselfs with high or low trust—providing support for the claim that 2 conditions (i.e., prosocial goals and trust in others) must be met to obtain collectively desirable commuting preferences.     

Group Consensus and Psychological Well-Being: A Large Field Study1

Models of group process propose that stressful social environments develop when there is a lack of consensus among group members about issues of relevance to the group. Based on these models, we expected that levels of consensus would be positively related to the average levels of psychological well-being in naturally occurring work groups. An examination of data from 3,546 respondents within 73 work groups revealed that levels of consensus about leadership and peer relations were positively related to the average psychological well-being of the group members, even after controlling for absolute level effects and covariates. In contrast, levels of consensus were not related to the average psychological well-being of group members when identical analyses were conducted using pseudogroups.     

Beliefs about stories: Parents' and therapists' explanations of childhood difficulties

Therapists and parents were given vignettes describing the behavioural and emotional difficulties of two nine-year-old children and were asked to rate the importance of a number of possible explanations for such difficulties. Broad agreement was found between parents and therapists, but also there were a number of significant differences. Parents endorsed more child centered explanations and put greater emphasis on physical and developmental factors, while therapists endorsed relationships factors and saw the beliefs of other family members as important. Therapists who were parents showed a pattern of responses that lay between those of parents and non-parent therapists.     

Attributional style,attributional retraining,and inoculation against motivational deficits

College students periodically experience many challenges in pursuit of their educational goals. Such experiences can have deleterious effects on subsequent motivation and performance when they are perceived as negative. Research shows that some students who experience negative events are buffered against motivational deficits, whereas others are motivationally at-risk. Several individual difference variables have been proposed to account for such diverse reactions. A longitudinal field study that involved three phases was conducted to extend this research. Phase I examined the motivational buffering effects of academic attributional style on students' performance, motivation, and emotions. Results indicated that attributional style related to students' performance, motivation, and emotions. Specifically, students who routinely made unstable and controllable attributions for negative academic events exhibited the greatest performance and motivation compared to students who typically made stable and uncontrollable attributions. Phases II and III were designed to examine the remedial benefits of attributional retraining for different attributional styles. Findings indicated that attributional retraining influenced motivation, emotions, and course grade. These results were qualified by the interaction between attributional style, attributional retraining, and time. Findings are discussed within Weiner's (1985, 1986) attribution theory. This research was based, in part, on the first author's dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) doctoral fellowship, a University of Manitoba doctoral fellowship, and a SSHRCC postdoctoral fellowship to the first author. In addition, the research was also supported by a SSHRCC research grant (#410911296) to the second author. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Bernard Weiner, Harvey Keselman, John Adair, Rodney Clifton, and Robert Altemeyer. Also appreciated was the assistance of Verena Menec and the Higher Education Research group.     

The protestant eruption into modern Brazilian politics

Brazil's fast‐growing Protestantism has contributed to a resacralisation of national politics in recent years. This is largely due to the politics practised by some of the large Pentecostal churches since 1986, using their corporate political power to strengthen internal leaderships and structure Brazil's huge popular Protestant field, as well as to gain resources for religious expansion and dispute space in civil religion. Corporate Protestant politics have been marked by corruption scandals and by politically motivated attempts to create representative organs capable of mediating the increasingly important relationship with the state. One new Pentecostal group (the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) has established one of the largest media empires in the country and, in the 1994 elections, considerably augmented its political power and polarised the Protestant community with respect to its project of hegemony in the religious field. Thus, while Protestant politics can be considered generally positive for Brazilian democracy, the rise of such a politically powerful hegemonic force within the Protestant field gives a more sinister character to the ever‐present corporatist and triumphalist ambitions.     

Introduction and overview: Global information ethics

This is an introduction to a set of papers on Computer Ethics from the conference ETHICOMP95. Taken as a whole, the collection of papers provides arguments and concepts to launch a new development in computer ethics: ‘Global Information Ethics’. A rationale for globalization is provided, as well as some early efforts which move in that direction. ETHICOMP95, an international conference on Computer Ethics, was held 28–30 March 1995 at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Co-directors were Terrell Ward Bynum and Simon Rogerson.     

Pupillometry system for use in social psychology

It is now relatively easy to implement pupillometry in social psychological research. We describe a system in which a Macintosh computer presents visual and auditory stimuli to subjects while monitoring an infrared pupillometer. The computer records information on subject, task, and pupil diameter into a data file for input into standard statistical analysis programs. Pupil diameter is measured continuously while subjects respond to stimuli that last for several seconds or minutes. A demonstration experiment verifies the usefulness of the system. The ability of the Macintosh computer to easily handle visual and auditory stimuli and to record responses lasting a considerable length of time makes the system well suited for studying pupil responses to complex social stimuli. This system is also well suited for the researcher initiating a research program using pupillometry. Ease of operation makes using a large number of subjects feasible.     

An optical encoder and XY oscilloscope interface for the IBM PC

This paper outlines a prototype dual-purpose interface card for the IBM PC for use in research on motor learning and control. The card enables automatic interfacing for up to four angular optical encoders and presents high-speed visual data on an XY oscilloscope. In addition, it uses two single-chip microcontrollers with minimal external hardware, providing a more powerful instrument than is available in discrete hardware. Two microcontrollers operate independently of the experimental computer (IBM PC), using a common interface allowing the exchange of data. This interface card frees the experimental computer from the workload associated with optical encoders and high-speed XY displays, resulting in less complex experimental setups and data collection programs.