RESCUING RELIGIOUS NON‐REALISM FROM CUPITT

Don Cupitt's version of religious non‐realism based as it is on linguistic constructivism, radical relativism and the view that culture forms human nature has been attacked with devastating effect by realists in the last few years. I argue that there is another strand in Cupitt's thinking, his biological naturalism, that supports a different version of religious non‐realism and that he failed to see this possibility because of his global non‐realism and commitment to the strong programme in the sociology of scientific knowledge. Cupitt's biological naturalism should have led smoothly into evolutionary psychology, which has an account of religious belief that supports a non‐realist interpretation. Evolutionary psychology shows that religious beliefs are natural, normal and about matters of the deepest significance to humans. They gain their character from the operation of evolved structures of the mind and cannot be reduced to other sorts of belief. I argue that the form of religious non‐realism that emerges from taking biological naturalism seriously has a future because it respects the nature of religious belief and seeks to build on its capacity as a unique source of meaning in people's lives. There is also enough common ground with religious realism for there to be genuine dialogue between the two.     

Critical Consciousness and the Christian Conscience: Making the Necessary Connections Between Faith-Based Learning and Critical Pedagogy

Critical pedagogy is a by product of postmodernism, which argues that reality is always subjective, and truth is identified through each person's experiences and environment. Can critical pedagogy be applied to faith-based education? The authors claim that it can. First, the theories and practices of critical pedagogy have strengthened faith-based education by emphasizing self-directed students, the teacher as facilitator, and well-organized learning experiences. In fact, Jesus knew that learning required an active knowledge-creating process through one's full participation in the class. He always encouraged his disciples to transcend superficial understanding. Jesus knew that learning was not simply memorizing facts or reciting the Law of Moses. His beliefs challenged the passive learning paradigm of memorizing content established by the Jewish leaders. This article concludes that both critical pedagogists and Christian teachers would endorse problem-posing methods to encourage full engagement and effective teachers' dispositions in the classroom.     

Adoptive Family System Dynamics: Variations by Level of Openness in the Adoption

This study examines the consequences of variations in levels of openness in adoption, especially focusing on the dynamics of the adoptive family system from the perspective of the adoptive parents. Participants included the father, mother, and at least one adopted child in 190 adoptive families, and 169 birthmothers, drawn from adoption agencies across the United States. Families included 62 confidential, 17 time-limited mediated, 52 ongoing mediated, and 59 fully disclosed adoptions. When compared to parents in confidential adoptions, those in open adoptions generally demonstrated higher levels of acknowledgment of the adoption, empathy toward the birthparents and their child, a stronger sense of permanence in the relationship with their child as projected into the future, and less fear that the birthmother might try to reclaim her child. Despite these mean differences, variations within all levels of openness were present, and results are discussed in terms of the ongoing process involved in building a family through adoption.     

Attachment concerns of mothers as manifested in parental,spousal, and friendship relationships

The present study examined the relation between attachment concerns of mothers and three of their close relationships: with their husband, best woman friend, and infant. Forty-live mothers completed an Attachment Concerns Questionnaire based on the Hazan and Shaver attachment measure, and the Sharabany Intimacy scale regarding their relationships with their husband and with their same-sex best friend; they were also observed with their infants (aged 14 to 22 months) in the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure. Mothers’attachment concerns were significantly correlated both to their infants’attachment classifications and to reunion scores in the Strange Situation procedure (e.g., concern with closeness was positively correlated with avoidance; fear of abandonment was positively correlated with avoidance and resistance). Intimacy with husband and best woman friend were also correlated with mothers’attachment concerns (e.g., concern with closeness was negatively correlated with intimacy with the husband and fear of abandonment was negatively correlated with intimacy with the best friend). The findings are discussed in terms of the concept of an internal working model of attachment, and, in light of the similarity and the modular hypotheses regarding the nature of relationships and concordance among relationships.     

Rorschach-profile in panic disorder

The Rorschach test was applied to four groups: 41 Panic Disorder (PD), 14 Major Depression (MD), 11 Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and 18 normal subjects. The aims were to describe the test profile of PD patients and to discuss implications for cognitive processing ability and personality structure. A hypothesis of a borderline personality structure in PD patients, based on psychodynamic literature, was tested, but was not unambiguously supported. A "loose", borderline-like personality structure and disturbances in processing abilities, however, characterized PD-patients. The normal subjects surprisingly provided many Fabulized Combinations, a response type, considered suspect of borderline pathology, but also showed more signs of integrative and synthesizing abilities than the other groups.     

Personality and developmental psychology

Research on personality and developmental psychology in Scandinavia in the seventies is presented according to what are considered important and significant research interests. Such interests are defined primarily from the viewpoint of general trends in society, e.g. research on infancy and preschool children and research on old age. Other interests are defined from an almost purely theoretical viewpoint. This applies to research from an interactional perspective. Future research in this branch of psychology seems to place priority on a methodological approach based upon external validity and the use of multidimensional models. As to the theoretical frame of reference, future research points to conceptualizations of the influence of society on structure, process and development of personality.     

Classification of art into style periods; a factor-analytical approach

Abstract.— An attempt was made to determine, primarily, along what dimensions a classification takes place, and secondarily whether the same dimensions appear in different style periods: renaissance, baroque, and rococo, when paintings and pieces of music were judged by the "semantic differential" technique. The factor-analysis produced six factors, which were interpreted as follows: I Aesthetic-qualitative evaluation, II Emotional tone, III Symbolism, IV Dynamics, V Clarity, and VI Stillness. Factors I, II, and III occurred in all style periods, both in painting and in music.