Intrinsic religious motivation and attitudes toward death among the elderly

Forty-five males and females ages 65 and older completed the Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale, a measure of faith development (based on Fowler, 1981), and two multidimensional measures of death anxiety (the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale-Revised and the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale). Individuals with intrin-sic religious motivation reported significantly lower levels of various types of death anxiety than did individuals with extrinsic religious motivation. No significant rela-tionships were found between stage of faith and attitudes toward death and dying.     

Illusion of control: invulnerability to negative affect and depressive symptoms after laboratory and natural stressors.

We examined whether individual differences in susceptibility to the illusion of control predicted differential vulnerability to depressive responses after a laboratory failure and naturally occurring life stressors. The illusion of control decreased the likelihood that subjects (N = 145) would (a) show immediate negative mood reactions to the laboratory failure, (b) become discouraged after naturally occurring negative life events, and (c) experience increases in depressive symptoms a month later given the occurrence of a high number of negative life events. In addition, the stress-moderating effect of the illusion of control on later depressive symptoms appeared to be mediated in part by its effect on reducing the discouragement subjects experienced from the occurrence of negative life events. These findings provide support for the hopelessness theory of depression and for the optimistic illusion-mental health link.     

Parenting and attachment among toddlers with congenital anomalies: Examining the Strange Situation and attachment Q‐sort

This study assessed parent and child predictors of attachment in a sample of 72 toddlers with neurological (e.g., cerebral palsy) and non‐neurological (e.g., cleft lip and palate) birth defects and their mothers. Parenting quality (e.g., sensitivity) was expected to be more important in predicting the attachment relationship than type and severity of child medical condition. Parenting and indices of severity of child condition were measured via researcher observation. Attachment was measured via the Strange Situation and parent reported Attachment Q‐sort. Parenting quality was better for children with more severe appearance disfigurements. Strange Situation and Q‐sort assessments of attachment were not significantly related. Children with neurological impairments were at greater risk for developing insecure attachments than were children with non‐neurological conditions. Parenting quality also directly predicted Strange Situation assessed attachment security and Q‐sort comfort seeking/exploration but not standard Q‐sort criterion scores. Parenting quality partially mediated the relation between child medical condition and attachment security. Results suggest child medical factors influence parenting, and thereby, child attachment. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

A Comparison of Batterers to Nonbatterers on Behavioral and Self-Reports Measures of Control

This study compared batterers to nonbatterers on self-report and behavioral measures of perceived control and desire for control. Differences were found for perceived control over general life events (batterers greater than nonbatterers), but not perceived control over relationship conflict or desire for control. Batterers low in desire for control and in perceived control over relationship conflicts reported higher levels of physical abuse. Perceived control was manipulated using Burger, Brown, & Allen's (1983 ) behavioral choice task. Batterers who were given no choice reported increased negative affect. Batterers appear to respond to loss of control with negative affect, which may be a factor contributing to abuse perpetration. These results highlight the complexity of the relationship of perceived control and intimate partner violence.     

Sacrifice as a predictor of marital outcomes

We investigated the prospective associations between attitudes about sacrifice and marital outcomes in 38 married couples. Specifically, a measure of satisfaction with sacrifice was proposed to be a potent longitudinal predictor of marital adjustment and distress based on existing cross-sectional studies and also to mediate the association between commitment and marital adjustment. Results demonstrated that attitudes about sacrifice discriminated between couples who would become distressed versus nondistressed over time. Sacrifice attitudes also predicted the maintenance of relationship adjustment over time even better than earlier relationship adjustment. Finally, sacrifice attitudes mediated the link between commitment and relationship adjustment for husbands, but not wives. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Student's metamemory knowledge about the impact of stereoscopic three‐dimensional presentations of science content

We investigated students' knowledge and beliefs about the impact of using three‐dimensional (3D) multimedia presentations. Students listened to a lecture about the ventricular system, which was presented alone (Experiment 1 only) or with a 3D or a 2D video illustrating the system. Afterwards, students judged how well they would perform on a criterion test. In Experiment 1, students judged that the 3D presentation would be superior to listening to the lecture alone (d = 0.81). Mean judgments were higher for the 3D than 2D presentation (d = 0.24), but this difference was not significant, so we estimated the effect size again. In Experiment 2, judgments were significantly higher after the 3D than 2D presentations (d = 0.40). Test performance was not significantly greater after the 3D than 2D presentations. A survey study again revealed that students believe 3D presentations are superior, and most students reported preferring them to 2D presentations.     

Veridiction and juridiction in Confessions of the Flesh

In an archived draft at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Foucault describes two questions haunting him since 1963: “Why are we obliged to tell the truth about ourselves? Which truth?” Foucault poses these two questions in 1980 in drafts for his lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, and I see in these two questions two argumentative threads that weave through Foucault's changing History of Sexuality series over his last decade. These two threads correspond to the dimorphism Foucault frames in Part III of Confessions of the Flesh between confessing monks and married men, that correlates with the distinction between “veridiction” and “juridiction” as two forms relating subjectivity and sexuality. To help tease out these threads, I make two recommendations for how to read Confessions of the Flesh in this following review essay: (1) situate Confessions of the Flesh in relation to Foucault's History of Sexuality series which spans his last decade from 1974 to 1984 and (2) untangle two major threads of Confessions of the Flesh in Foucault's treatment of Cassian and Augustine, as progenitors of veridiction and juridiction respectively, which together produce the conditions for modern disciplinary subjects.     

An Examination of the “Greening of Christianity” Thesis Among Americans, 1993–2010

Some environmental and religious scholars, religious leaders, and media figures have claimed there has been a “greening of Christianity” in the United States since the mid‐1990s. Such a trend would be socially significant, as the integration of Christian values and environmental values may invigorate both domains. Using nationally representative data from the 1993 and 2010 General Social Surveys, we analyze how green self‐identified Christians in the U.S. general public are in their pro‐environmental attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Using structural equation modeling, we find no clear evidence of a greening of Christianity among rank‐and‐file Christians in the general public between 1993 and 2010. Indeed, the patterns of our results are quite similar to those from earlier decades, which documented that self‐identified Christians reported lower levels of environmental concern than did non‐Christians and nonreligious individuals. We did find evidence of some greening among evangelical Protestants, especially relative to mainline Protestants, between 1993 and 2010. We close by suggesting a few fruitful avenues for further research in this area via variable‐oriented, case‐oriented, and experimental studies and discussing some theoretical implications of our findings.