Programs of religious/spiritual support in hospitals - five “Whies” and five “Hows”

A contemporary orientation of the hospital experience model must encompass the clients’ religious-spiritual dimension. The objective of this paper is to share a previous experience, highlighting at least five reasons hospitals should invest in this direction, and an equal number of steps required to achieve it. In the first part, the text discourses about five reasons to invest in religious-spiritual support programs: 1. Religious-spiritual wellbeing is related to better health; 2. Religious-spiritual appreciation is a standard for hospital accreditation; 3. To undo religious-spiritual misunderstandings that can affect treatment; 4. Patients demand a religious-spiritual outlook from the institution; and 5. Costs may be reduced with religious-spiritual support. In the second part, the text suggests five steps to implement religious-spiritual support programs: 1. Deep institutional involvement; 2. Formal staff training; 3. Infrastructure and resources; 4. Adjustment of institutional politics; and 5. Agreement with religious-spiritual leaders. The authors hope the information compiled here can inspire hospitals to adopt actions toward optimization of the healing experience.     

Two types of perseveration in the Dimension Change Card Sort task

In the Dimension Change Card Sort (DCCS) task, 3-year-olds can sort cards well by one dimension but have difficulty in switching to sort the same cards by another dimension when asked; that is, they perseverate on the first relevant information. What is the information that children perseverate on? Using a new version of the DCCS, the experiments in this article reveal that there are two types of perseverators: those who perseverate at the level of dimensions and those who perseverate at the level of values (stimulus features). This novel finding has implications for theories of perseveration.     

Selective attention and attention switching: towards a unified developmental approach

We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children’s performances in an attention‐switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control during the preschool years. The second literature encompasses a large and robust set of phenomena for the same developmental period that indicates a protracted course of development for selective attention in children. We ask whether developmental changes in processes of selective attention may contribute to more flexible attention switching. We consider the two sets of phenomena with respect to this question and propose an empirical agenda for their joint study that may lead ultimately to a unified account of the development of selective attention and attention switching.     

Body image dissatisfaction among adolescent schoolgirls in Jordan

The present study has investigated the occurrence of body image dissatisfaction among adolescent schoolgirls in Amman, Jordan, and the risk factors that are known to predispose it including individual, familial and social variables. A sample of 326 adolescent girls aged 10–16 years was recruited from public and private schools in Amman. Participants completed a socio-demographic data sheet, eating attitude test, and body shape questionnaire. Approximately, 21.2% of participants displayed body image dissatisfaction in which physical changes associated with puberty and exhibiting negative eating attitudes were associated with this dissatisfaction. Additionally, mass media messages, as well as peers and family pressures towards thinness were associated with participants’ preoccupation with their body image. In conclusion, negative body image perception was observed in the present sample. Therefore, well-controlled prospective studies and development of intervention programs on body image among adolescent girls in Jordan are needed.     

The effect of conspicuous consumption on men’s testosterone levels

Using evolutionary psychology as a theoretical framework, it is argued that conspicuous consumption serves as a means by which men communicate their social status to prospective mates. Accordingly, men’s endocrinological responses, particularly their testosterone levels, are responsive to fluctuations in their status as triggered by acts of conspicuous consumption. Study 1 reports that men’s testosterone levels increased and decreased partially (directionally), after driving an expensive sports car and an old family sedan, respectively. Additionally, the location of the drive, either a busy downtown area or a semi-deserted highway, partially moderated this response. Study 2 demonstrates that when men’s social status was threatened by the wealth displays of a male confederate in the presence of a female moderator, their testosterone levels increased. This is suggestive of an evolved mechanism for responding to intra-sexual challenges. Collectively, these constitute the first set of studies to measure hormonal outcomes in consumer behavior.     

Calories,beauty, and ovulation: The effects of the menstrual cycle on food and appearance-related consumption

The menstrual cycle has been largely ignored within the consumer research literature. Using a survey panel, women's food and appearance-related consumption was tracked for 35 consecutive days. As predicted, food-related desires, dollars spent, and eating behaviors were greater during the luteal (non-fertile) phase, whereas appearance-related desires, dollars spent, and beautification behaviors increased during the fertile phase. Dollars spent on products unrelated to food or beautification were not significantly influenced by the menstrual cycle. Hence, women's consumption desires, preferences, and dollars spent in evolutionarily relevant product categories (food and mating) fluctuate across their ovulatory cycle. Branding-related implications are briefly discussed.     

Religious Identity and Borderless Territoriality in the Coptic e-Diaspora

In recent decades, Coptic Egyptian immigrants have steadily adopted new homelands throughout the world, most significantly in Europe, North America, and Australia. Their efforts perpetuate their religious and cultural identity and connect diaspora communities and experiences to the mother church as well as to the realities of marginalization and persecution of their co-religionists in Egypt. However, relatively little research has been carried out on the virtual or digital presences of diaspora Copts, all the more significant in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring. Focusing on religious identity, this article fills a lacuna by analyzing three case studies of electronic identity mediation and preservation in the Coptic diaspora: (1) the online ecclesiastical-pastoral and educational presence of Bishop Suriel of Melbourne, (2) the spiritual-social-cultural mission of the Los Angeles-based Coptic television station LogosTV, and (3) the global collaborative academic project of the digital Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia. These are part of an emerging electronic Coptic diaspora (e-diaspora)—a form of borderless territoriality—that functions to compensate for the loss of territorial and socio-religious-cultural-political control in Egypt and provide Copts with virtual territorial gains and borderless space for community and consciousness raising.     

The effect of a psycho-educational intervention on weight management in obese military personnel

Obesity is a serious health problem for many population groups, including military personnel. Model-based health education programs have been shown to be effective in reducing weight. This study assessed the efficacy of an educational intervention based on a trans-theoretical model (TTM) targeting weight loss among active duty military. A single group experimental study using a before-after design was conducted in 49 military personnel with obesity. Constructs such as self-efficacy, decisional balance, stages of change, and processes of change as well as anthropometric measures including weight, waist circumference, and body mass index (BMI) were assessed at three times (baseline, 2 months after the intervention, and 4 months later). The intervention consisted of 10 educational sessions developed based on TTM constructs. At baseline, 30 (61%) and 19 (39%) persons were in the pre-action and action stages, respectively. By 2 months after the intervention, only 24 persons (49%) were in pre-action stages and 25 (51%) were in the action stages. Four months later, one (2%) and 43 (88%) were in pre-action and action stages. The mean changes in self-efficacy (25.7 ± 4.1 to 29.3 ± 2.4), decisional balance (9.2 ± 3.6 to 13.8 ± 1.9), total cognitive (74.7 ± 8.5 to 84.7 ± 6.3), and total behavioral change (60.8 ± 9.8 to 71.7 ± 7.8) were significantly different across the three time points. Reductions in weight (99.8 ± 10.4 to 93.0 ± 9.6), waist circumference (105.9 ± 14.2 to 100.2 ± 13.0), and BMI (32.5 ± 5.2 to 30.3 ± 4.5) from baseline to 4 months after the intervention were also significant (p < 0.05). An educational program based on TTM may be effective in reducing weight among obese military staff.     

Radical moral encroachment: The moral stakes of racist beliefs

Historical patterns of discrimination seem to present us with conflicts between what morality requires and what we epistemically ought to believe. I will argue that these cases lend support to the following nagging suspicion: that the epistemic standards governing belief are not independent of moral considerations. We can resolve these seeming conflicts by adopting a framework wherein standards of evidence for our beliefs to count as justified can shift according to the moral stakes. On this account, believing a paradigmatically racist belief reflects a failure to not only attend to the epistemic risk of being wrong, but also a failure to attend to the distinctively moral risk of wronging others given what we believe.     

A causal argument for dualism

Dualism holds (roughly) that some mental events are fundamental and non-physical. I develop a prima facie plausible causal argument for dualism. The argument has several significant implications. First, it constitutes a new way of arguing for dualism. Second, it provides dualists with a parity response to causal arguments for physicalism. Third, it transforms the dialectical role of epiphenomenalism. Fourth, it refutes the view that causal considerations prima facie support physicalism but not dualism. After developing the causal argument for dualism and drawing out these implications, I subject the argument to a battery of objections. Some prompt revisions to the argument. Others reveal limitations in scope. It falls out of the discussion that the causal argument for dualism is best used against physicalism as a keystone in a divide and conquer strategy.