Ecumenism and Renewal in Brazil: an Appraisal

The ecumenical experience is a call to an experience of renewal, as it makes a challenge for a new form of being-a-church to all of the ecclesiastical proposals crystallized over the centuries. For this reason it demands a decisive opening to cultural, political and religious experiences. These do not always correspond to the criteria maintained by the ecclesiastical institutions, but they contain and manifest in their own way the fundamental values of the gospel.     

Aha over Haha: Brands benefit more from being clever than from being funny

We examine whether the cleverness of a brand's humor attempt affects consumers' brand attitudes and engagement. A clever humor attempt is any humor attempt wherein the consumer feels she must make mental connections to solve the joke (e.g., understand a cultural reference, understand the dual meaning of a pun). Across five studies, we demonstrate that as the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand. This effect is mediated by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by consumers' need for cognition.     

Perspectives of Indian Traditional and Allopathic Professionals on Religion/Spirituality and its Role in Medicine: Basis for Developing an Integrative Medicine Program

Allopathic medical professionals in developed nations have started to collaborate with traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) to enquire on the role of religion/spirituality (r/s) in patient care. There is scant evidence of such movement in the Indian medical community. We aim to understand the perspectives of Indian TCAM and allopathic professionals on the influence of r/s in health. Using RSMPP (Religion, Spirituality and Medicine, Physician Perspectives) questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey was conducted at seven (five TCAM and two allopathic) pre-selected tertiary care medical institutes in India. Findings of TCAM and allopathic groups were compared. Majority in both groups (75 % of TCAM and 84.6 % of allopathic practitioners) believed that patients’ spiritual focus increases with illness. Up to 58 % of TCAM and allopathic respondents report patients receiving support from their religious communities; 87 % of TCAM and 73 % of allopaths believed spiritual healing to be beneficial and complementary to allopathic medical care. Only 11 % of allopaths, as against 40 % of TCAM, had reportedly received ‘formal’ training in r/s. Both TCAM (81.8 %) and allopathic (63.7 %) professionals agree that spirituality as an academic subject merits inclusion in health education programs (p = 0.0003). Inclusion of spirituality in the health care system is a need for Indian medical professionals as well as their patients, and it could form the basis for integrating TCAM and allopathic medical systems in India.     

The Disciplines of Engineering and History: Some Common Ground

The nature of engineering and history as disciplines are explored and found to have some striking similarities, for example in the importance they place on context and practitioner involvement. They are found to be different from science, which focuses more on universal generalizations rather than on the particulars of given situations. The history of technology is paid special attention, because the discipline has developed in a way that incorporates both scientific (generalizing) and historical (context specific) characteristics. Proposals are made for giving historical studies greater space in engineering education.     

Academic promises and family (dis)enchantments: clues for guidance and counselling in higher education

Family has an undeniable influence upon the career construction of higher education (HE) students, since it is a primary source of their socialisation. This article presents a qualitative analysis of 30 interviews conducted with first-year students, aimed at understanding the relationship between family sociocultural status and career choice and the perceived meaning in the family of the enrolment of one of their elements in HE. Results show that HE students came mainly from economic, cultural and social upper classes. It was a ‘logic path’, for who would inherit in the adult age, not only the economic capital, but also the relational capital. The educational and economic resources of the students' families are key factors in the choice to pursue HE studies, rather than the professional world.     

Risk Factors for Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in the Preschool Years: Systematic Literature Review Based on the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5

Early childhood is a common period for the onset of internalizing and externalizing problems. Many are the risk factors that contribute to the emergence of these types of problems. Literature enhances the importance of viewing the child as part of a system, in order to better understand the origin, the trajectory and the impact of risk factors in child mental health in preschool age. The current systematic literature review aims to examine empirical evidence based on the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5 for risk factors related to the presence of internalizing and externalizing problems in children aged between 3 and 6 years old. The literature review includes articles published from January 2001 to December 2014. Twenty-eight articles that attend to pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria were reported throughout the review. In general, results indicate that risk factors for internalizing and externalizing problems in preschool age can be organized into three main groups of risks: environment factors, parental/parenting factors, and child factors. It is clear that frequently more than one risk related to the emergence of internalizing and externalizing problems in preschool age children are reported. It is also possible to note that are few risks factors consistently studied in this age, highlighting the need for further investigation.