The Moral Argument for the Existence of God and Immortality

This essay tries to show that there exist several passages where Kierkegaard (and his pseudonyms) sketches an argument for the existence of God and immortality that is remarkably similar to Kant's so‐called moral argument for the existence of God and immortality. In particular, Kierkegaard appears to follow Kant's moral argument both when it comes to the form and content of the argument as well as some of its terminology. The essay concludes that several passages in Kierkegaard overlap significantly with Kant's moral argument, although Kierkegaard ultimately favors revealed faith over natural theology in general and Kant's moral faith in particular. Whereas Kant uses the moral argument to postulate the existence of God and immortality, Kierkegaard mainly uses it as a reductio ad absurdum of non‐religious thinking.     

Does Gustave Dax deserve to be forgotten? The temporal lobe theory and other contributions of an overlooked figure in the history of language and cerebral dominance.

Gustave Dax played an important role in the early history of cerebral dominance for language. He not only sent the 1836 memoir of Marc Dax, his deceased father, to Paris in 1863, but saw to it that this important document was published before Paul Broca's own article on cerebral dominance appeared later in 1865. In addition, he supported his father's contention that the left hemisphere is special for speech with 140 additional clinical cases. Gustave Dax's own unique contribution, however, has been almost completely overlooked. Although his theory lacked specificity, he preceded Meynert, Schmidt, and Wernicke in suggesting that the left temporal lobe may be especially important for speech.     

Evaluating Outcome Domains Assessing Caregivers of Individuals with Mental Illness: A Review

In this article, we describe the properties and consider the outcome dimensions of a collection of self‐administered questionnaires that assess caregivers of offspring with mental illness. To this end, we searched the MEDLINE, Web of Science, and PsycINFO databases, as well as reference lists of studies published between 1980 and 2012. We reviewed 43 instruments, and found multiple outcome domains, associated with either objective burden or subjective burden, or both. A number of tools captured additional negative aspects of caregiving (e.g., strain, stress, and worrying) as well as positive aspects (e.g., personal growth, strength, support, rewards, and satisfaction), supplemented by measures assessing caregivers' perceptions and attitudes toward their offspring with SMI (e.g., insight, stigma, and efficacy). This current review of existing measures and their specific domains contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the caregiving experience and allows both clinicians and researchers to select the most appropriate measurement tools for their purposes.     

Exploring the meaning in meaningful coincidences: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of synchronicity in therapy

Synchronicity experiences (SEs) are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (e.g. thought, dream or vision) and one or more external events occurring simultaneously or at a future point in time. There has been limited systematic research that has investigated the phenomenology of SEs in therapy. This study aimed to redress this by exploring the process and nature of such experiences from the perspective of the practitioner. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of nine practitioners who reported SEs in their therapeutic sessions (three counsellors, three psychologists and three psychotherapists), and focused on how participants make sense of their experiences of synchronicity in therapy. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify three superordinate themes: sense of connectedness, therapeutic process, and professional issues. Findings suggest that SEs can serve to strengthen the therapeutic relationship and are perceived as useful harbingers of information about the therapeutic process, as well as being a means of overcoming communication difficulties, as they are seen to provide insights into the client’s experiencing of themselves and others, regardless of whether or not the SE is acknowledged by the client or disclosed by the therapist.     

Trust within teams: The relation with performance effectiveness

The acknowledgement that trust is important for the functioning of organizations has increased the demand for research showing how this importance is reflected on the behaviour of its members. In this article we focus on trust within teams and explore the relation with performance effectiveness. A model was tested relating trust with perceived task performance, team satisfaction, relationship commitment, and stress. In this model trust is presented as a multi-component variable with distinct but related dimensions. These include propensity to trust, perceived trustworthiness, cooperative and monitoring behaviours. Data from 112 teams collected in three social care institutions in The Netherlands were analysed with structural equation modelling to test the model. The results are supportive of the multi-component structure of trust and confirmed the importance of trust for the functioning of teams in organizations. The results suggest that trust is positively related with perceived task performance, team satisfaction, and relationship commitment, and negatively related with stress. In addition, perceived task performance was positively related with team satisfaction.     

Value incongruence,job autonomy,and organization-based self-esteem: A self-based perspective on organizational cynicism

Combining the perspectives of person-environment fit and self-theory, a model was postulated in which both the incongruence between personal and perceived organizational values and job autonomy precede organizational cynicism, while organization-based self-esteem, as a psychological explanation for cynicism, was hypothesized to mediate both relationships. The model and corresponding hypotheses were tested on a sample of 174 Dutch workers. Polynomial regression results indicated that value incongruence and job autonomy add significantly to the prediction of organizational cynicism. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem. Results indicated that self-esteem partially mediates both relationships. These results support the conceptualization of organizational cynicism as a self-defensive response to problematic events and circumstances in the work environment.     

Just more of the same,or different? An integrative theoretical framework for the study of cumulative interruptions at work

We propose a theoretical framework that explores the accumulation of work interruptions and their effects. Most research studies have dealt with interruptions as isolated phenomena, ignoring the simultaneous or sequential occurrence of interruptions common in everyday life. We fill this gap and provide insight into the process of the accumulation of interruptions by mapping deep-level regulation onto an observable sequence of actions. Furthermore, we explain how cumulative interruptions can lead to qualitatively different effects because of the interaction and joint development of isolated effects, identifying some mediating and moderating factors. In doing so, we disclose the relationships between the effects of single interruptions found in laboratory studies and the impacts on health and well-being of multiple interruptions found in applied research.     

“What’s your definition of dirty,baby?”: Sex in music video

As sexuality in music video becomes more intense and more frequent, it requires more attention by scholars. This essay summarizes the findings of two decades’ worth of research on music video, most of which focuses on sexual and violent content in the videos. In addition, we suggest a typology of how sexuality is indicated and used by artists—especially female artists—to define their images and attract audiences.     

Counselor Advocacy: Affecting Systemic Change in the Public Arena

This article provides direction for developing advocacy competency in the public arena. Direction for increasing public awareness, affecting public policy, and influencing legislation is presented. A process of creating change entailing establishing a sense of social/political urgency regarding an issue, organizing and educating a group of people to initiate social/political change, developing a vision and strategy for such change, communicating the vision for that change, empowering broad‐based action, and generating actual change is detailed.