A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Alienation on Public and Private School Females

The levels of alienation of American female school students (N = 431; 256 public, 175 private) were assessed to determine the extent of the influence of the school environment on the student's level of alienation and the dimensions of isolation, normlessness, and powerlessness. It was hypothesized that substantially different school settings would have no significant effects because student alienation is influenced by a series of complex environmental factors. The Dean Alienation Scale (1961) was used to assess levels of alienation. There were no significant differences in terms of total alienation and powerlessness. Private school students, however, were more isolated (p < .001) and public school students had higher levels of normlessness (p < .05).     

The moderating effect of humor style on the relationship between interpersonal predictors of suicide and suicidal ideation

This study investigated how positive and negative humor styles relate to suicidal ideation, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness. Analyses indicated that affiliative and self-defeating humor style moderated the relationships between thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation as well as perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation when controlling for depression. The clinical importance of assessing and tracking humor styles as potential coping mechanisms against suicidal thinking is discussed.     

Agency and the theory of quantum vacuum interaction 1

Laszlo's theory of quantum vacuum interaction describes the evolution of all order in the universe as a result of the interaction between the holofield, a subquantum field of potential energy, and the multi‐level hierarchy of matter and living systems. A review of the scheme reveals two problems which question its application to psycho‐social interaction. One is the use of classical holography (image processing), which is inherently deterministic. The second is Laszlo's view of the brain as a passive processor of information. Both preclude human agency in the generation of psycho‐social organization. An alternative approach is developed here that aims to solve both of these problems. First, I draw on Piaget's work to show how thought and reason, and thus agency, is produced by the logic of cooperative interaction. And second, I use both classical holography and quantum holography (information processing) to develop a nondeterminist account of communication in social collectives. The principles of classical holography are used to describe how purposeful action is imaged and processed; and the principles of quantum holography are used to describe how a stable order of endogenous organization is generated by the processing of information about the interactions among members. By describing how the collective's normative order (the system of shared values, beliefs, and norms) operates to effect the construction and regulation of the collective's communicative structure, I show how indeterminacy is introduced and, hence, the potential for an active human agent in social life.     

Self-concern From Priestley To Hazlitt

This article argues that the Fourth and Fifth of John Toland's Letters to Serena are best understood as a creative confrontation of Spinoza and Leibniz – one in which crucial aspects of Leibniz's thought are extracted from their original context and made to serve a purpose that is ultimately Spinozistic. Accordingly, it suggests that the critique of Spinoza that takes up so much of the fourth Letter, in particular, should be read as a means of `perfecting' Spinoza (via Leibniz), rather than as the outright dismissal it might appear to be. In order to make its case, the article outlines: the supposed problems that Toland finds in Spinoza; what Toland takes from Leibniz, and what he discards, in order to solve these `problems'; and the imprint of Spinoza's naturalism on the eventual `solution' that Toland offers. The article concludes that, whatever the success of this `solution', Toland's speculative labours should still be treated as creative, perspicuous and intrinsically significant.     

Exemplification and Supervisor‐rated Performance: The moderating role of ethical leadership

This study examined the relationship between exemplification and supervisor‐rated performance in the context of ethical leadership. Using a sample of employees from automotive dealers in central China, this study showed that the use of exemplification positively affected extra‐role rather than in‐role performance ratings. Ethical leadership, on the other hand, moderated the relationship between exemplification and in‐role performance rating, but not the relationship between exemplification and extra‐role performance rating.     

Coping Functions of Prayer and Posttraumatic Growth

Research on prayer and posttraumatic growth (PTG) indicates that those who pray report more PTG. Research is beginning to identify which types of prayer may be operating in this relationship. We sought to identify specific prayer functions related to PTG while considering differences due to the types of trauma experienced. Participants were trauma survivors from diverse, Midwestern Christian churches (N = 327). Participants completed questionnaires assessing trauma history, prayer coping functions, and PTG. Multiple linear regression analyses found that praying for calm and focus was independently related to higher levels of PTG. When considering all variables in the model, the relationship between prayer for calm and focus and PTG was not significant for those whose most significant trauma was interpersonal in nature, but significant for those with noninterpersonal trauma.     

Oculomotor inhibition of return: Evidence against object-centered representation

ABSTRACT

Intermixing central, directional arrow targets with the peripheral targets typically used in the Posnerian spatial cueing paradigm offers a useful diagnostic for ascertaining the relative contributions of output and input processes to oculomotor inhibition of return (IOR). Here, we use this diagnostic to determine whether object-based oculomotor IOR comprises output and/or input processes. One of two placeholder objects in peripheral vision was cued, then both objects rotated smoothly either 90 or 180 degrees around the circumference of an imaginary circle. After this movement, a saccade was made to the location marked by a peripheral onset target or indicated by the central arrow. In our first three experiments, whereas there was evidence for IOR when measured by central arrow or peripheral onset targets at cued locations, there was little trace of IOR at the cued object. We thereafter precisely replicated the seminal experiment for object-based oculomotor IOR (Abrams, R. A., & Dobkin, R. S. (1994). Inhibition of return: Effects of attentional cuing on eye movement latencies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20(3), 467–477; Experiment 4) but again found little evidence of an object-based IOR effect. Finally, we ran a paradigm with only peripheral targets and with motion and stationary trials randomly intermixed. Here we again showed IOR at the cued location but not at the cued object. Together, the findings suggest that object-based representation of oculomotor IOR is much more tenuous than implied by the literature.