Educating Through Meeting: Reflections on a Dialogic Pedagogy for Teaching Religious Studies

This article originated as a brief reflection on pedagogical issues intended to catalyze collegial discussions at a meeting of the Comparative Religious Studies faculty at San Jose State University. The author distinguishes four interrelated elements that motivate his own teaching: human meaning, dialogic inter‐activity, responsible response, and multi‐methodologic study. Dialogic pedagogy is illustrated with concrete examples of how theory fits in the classroom. To further clarify the discussion, Martin Buber's theory of educating is applied to the teaching process, especially his understanding of “one‐sided inclusion.”     

The catastrophic misinterpretation model of panic disorder.

In the catastrophic misinterpretation model of panic Clark [Behav. Res. Ther. 24(1986)1461] proposes that panic attacks result from the misinterpretation of autonomic arousal stimuli as precursors to a physical or psychological emergency. The model has been widely examined, with many researchers suggesting that this specific cognitive bias is implicated in both the phenomenon of panic, and the aetiology and maintenance of panic disorder. Various research methodologies have provided only partial or inconclusive support for the model as being uniquely associated with panic, and as a cognitive process underpinning the experience of panic. This paper reviews the body of existing evidence and its implications for the model and proposes future research directions. The influence of implicit operational definitions of key terms in the catastrophic misinterpretation literature (e.g. 'catastrophe', 'threat', 'anxiety-related') are examined, and clarifications proposed. Inconsistencies and limitations in the measurement of catastrophic misinterpretation are highlighted, and subsequently developments to measurement instruments are proposed.     

How Separable Are Spirituality and Theology in Psychotherapy?

The authors respond to D. A. Helminiak's (2001) article “Treating Spiritual Issues in Secular Psychotherapy.” They focus particularly on Helminiak's argument for secular spirituality (whether spirituality can be independent of theology/religion) and his inherent biases in discussing the nature and existence of spirituality. The authors argue that all spiritual conceptions have theological implications—and thus a theology, broadly defined—and that theology, in this sense, pervades the theory and practice of all psychotherapists, whether or not they are religious.     

Career awareness and personal development: a naturalistic study of gifted adolescent girls' concerns

The role of social interaction and the importance of humor in the development of gifted adolescent females' beliefs about career options are explored in this paper. Findings are based on a qualitative study which utilized participant-observation and interviewing during a four-month career exploration seminar for gifted females. The results of this study indicate that gifted girls experience a unique conflict between expectations directed at gifted students, and their status as females. The use of humor functioned as a coping device to promote relaxation and release tension.     

The influence of sphincter control and genital sensation on body image and gender identity in women.

The development of one aspect of feeling female is hypothesized to account for certain phenomena in the treatment of young women patients. Fear of loss of genital pleasure experienced as contractions of the anal and genital-urinary sphincters is seen as the central issue in conflicts manifested in genital, oral, and anal modalities. It is suggested that the female's awareness of her genital arises from the generalization of sphincter sensation in the little girl, which is then represented in the body image. The body image is postulated as a link between genital pleasure and the valuing of femininity.     

Gender differences in the effectiveness of coping with dysphoria: A longitudinal study

This study examined whether men use more eflective means of coping with dysphoria on their own than do women. Forty-four male and female college students who reported feeling dysphoric were evaluated on their coping styles at three intervals in a six and a half week time span. The findings suggest that men and women do not use significantly different appraisal and coping techniques. For both sexes, problem-focused coping was associated with less dysphoria over time, whereas emotion-focused coping was associated with more dysphoria over time. Keeping anger in was associated with more dysphoria over time for women. In addition, the way in which the situation was appraised influenced the level of dysphoria over time for both sexes.     

Spatial cuing in a stereoscopic display: Evidence for a “depth-aware” attentional focus

Two experiments were conducted to explore whether attentional selection occurs in depth, or whether attentional focus is “depth blind,” as suggested by Ghiradelli and Folk (1996). In Experiment 1, observers viewed stereoscopic displays in which one of four spatial locations was cued. Two of the locations were at a near-depth location and two were at a far-depth location, and a single target was presented along with three distractors. The results indicated a larger cost in reaction time for switching attention inx,y and depth than inx,y alone, supporting a “depth-aware” attentional spotlight. In Experiment 2, no distractors were present, similar to the displays used by Ghiradelli and Folk. In this experiment, no effect for switching attention in depth was found, indicating that the selectivity of attention in depth depends on the perceptual load imposed on observers by the tasks and displays.     

Perceptual grouping in space and time: Evidence from the Ternus display

We report three experiments investigating the effect of perceptual grouping on the appearance of a bistable apparent-motion (Ternus) display. Subjects viewed a Ternus display embedded in an array of context elements that could potentially group with the Ternus elements. In contrast to several previous findings, we found that grouping influenced apparent motion perception. In Experiment 1, apparent motion perception was significantly affected via grouping by shape similarity, even when the visible persistence of the elements was controlled. In Experiment 2, elements perceived as moving without context were perceived as stationary when grouped with stationary context elements. In Experiment 3, elements perceived as stationary without context were perceived as moving when grouped with moving context elements. We argue that grouping in the spatial and temporal domains interact to yield perceptual experience of apparent-motion displays.     

Teaching problem solving skills to teachers-in-training: An analogue experimental analysis of three methods

This analogue study sought to determine the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods for teaching problem solving skills to teachers-in-training. Three instructional conditions (didactic, didactic + modeling, and didactic + modeling with rehearsal/feedback) and a control condition were compared on measures of problem identification and problem analysis. Results indicated that the didactic + modeling and didactic + modeling with rehearsal/feedback conditions were superior to didactic training in teaching problem-solving skills. Discussed are possible explanations for differences between the instructional conditions, the implications of these findings, limitations of this study, and directions for further teacher-training research in problem solving.