Professional Outreach Counseling Can Help the Juvenile Probationer: A Two Year Follow-up Study

Sixty-one subjects in a previously reported experimental evaluation of Project CREST were followed during a 2-year period after treatment and compared on official acts of misconduct. Over the 2 years, the 30 youths who had received the counseling services in addition to probation were charged with significantly fewer acts of misconduct at a lower monthly rate than the 31 youths in the control group who had received probation but no counseling. The upturn in offense rate among the control group was attributed to the removal of probationary control. The study's results, in conjunction with previous evaluation findings, indicated that short-term professional counseling coupled with probation can have more immediate and longer lasting effects than probation alone in reducing juvenile misconduct.     

PSYCHOANALYSIS AS APPLIED AESTHETICS

The question of how to place psychoanalysis in relation to science has been debated since the beginning of psychoanalysis and continues to this day. The author argues that psychoanalysis is best viewed as a form of applied art (also termed applied aesthetics) in parallel to medicine as applied science. This postulate draws on a functional definition of modernity as involving the differentiation of the value spheres of science, art, and religion. The validity criteria for each of the value spheres are discussed. Freud is examined, drawing on Habermas, and seen to have erred by claiming that the psychoanalytic method is a form of science. Implications for clinical and metapsychological issues in psychoanalysis are discussed.     

Anselmian Atheism

On the basis of Chapter 15 of Anselm's Proslogion , I develop an argument that confronts theology with a trilemma: atheism, utter mysticism, or radical anti-Anselmianism. The argument establishes a disjunction of claims that Anselmians in particular, but not only they, will find disturbing: (a) God does not exist, (b) no human being can have even the slightest conception of God, or (c) the Anselmian requirement of maximal greatness in God is wrong. My own view, for which I argue briefly, is that (b) is false on any correct reading of what conceiving of requires and that (c) is false on any correct reading of the concept of God. Thus, my own view is that the argument establishes atheism. In any case, one consequence of the argument is that Anselmian theology is possible for human beings only if it lacks a genuine object of study.     

Creativity,Mood Disorders,and Emotional Intelligence

The study addressed two findings in the creativity literature that show, on the one hand, that bipolar disorder and other clinical dysfunctions are overrepresented among eminently creative people, and that positive affect is positively associated with creativity. The central hypothesis of the study was that emotional intelligence could be an intervening variable between clinical conditions and creative production. A sample of 412 undergraduates completed a wide range of divergent thinking and creative production measures, and the Emotional Intelligence Scale; 11 percent of the sample reported that they had completed treatment for mood disorder and 5 percent report that they were currently in treatment. A combination of regression and ANOVA analyses revealed: The link between mood disorders and creative production persisted after emotional intelligence was statistically removed; the same was true for ideational fluency and flexibility of cognitive style. The link between emotional intelligence and creative production persisted after the effect of clinical disorders was removed. Ideational fluency and emotional intelligence were higher among people who completed treatment compared to people in treatment. The tentative interpretation is that emotional intelligence serves as a counterweight against mood disorders in enhancing creative production.     

Functions of Christian Prayer in the Coping Process

This research project sought to examine the multiple functions that prayer serves in the coping process for members of Christian groups. We used concept mapping to describe and organize a small group of participants' perceptions concerning the functions of prayer when coping with personal difficulties, as well as examined the frequency and perceived effectiveness of these prayer functions. The number and variety of items generated by participants indicates that prayer can be used in multiple ways to deal with personal problems. Inspection of these items and the resulting concept map yielded three bipolar dimensions that describe a variety of prayer functions: approach/avoidance; internal focus/external focus; and deferring/self-directing. The arrangement of items also corresponded roughly to a three-factor structure found in several existing coping measures. Participants reported that the most effective prayer functions involve seeking guidance and expressing gratitude .     

THE INCREMENTAL VALIDITY OF INTERVIEW SCORES OVER AND ABOVE COGNITIVE ABILITY AND CONSCIENTIOUSNESS SCORES

Recent research has suggested that scores on measures of cognitive ability, measures of Conscientiousness, and interview scores are positively correlated with job performance. There remains, however, a question of incremental validity: To what extent do interviews predict above and beyond cognitive ability and Conscientiousness? This question was addressed in this paper by (a) conducting meta‐analyses of the relationships among cognitive ability, Conscientiousness, and interviews, (b) combining these results with predictive validity results from previous meta‐analyses to form a “meta‐correlation matrix” representing the relationships among cognitive ability, Conscientiousness, interviews, and job performance, and (c) performing 9 hierarchical regressions to examine the incremental validity of 3 levels of structured interviews in best, actual, and worst case scenarios for prediction. Results suggested that interview scores contribute to the prediction of job performance over and above cognitive ability and Conscientiousness to the extent that they are structured, with scores from highly structured interviews contributing substantially to prediction. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Against Arguments from Reference*

It is common in various quarters of philosophy to derive philosophically significant conclusions from theories of reference. In this paper, we argue that philosophers should give up on such ‘arguments from reference.’ Intuitions play a central role in establishing theories of reference, and recent cross‐cultural work suggests that intuitions about reference vary across cultures and between individuals within a culture ( Machery et al. 2004 ). We argue that accommodating this variation within a theory of reference undermines arguments from reference.     

The Beauty of the Ugly: Balthasar, the Crucifixion, Analogy and God

Abstract:  In the first volume of The Glory of the Lord , Hans Urs von Balthasar asks how the crucified Christ can be considered an icon of a beautiful God. Because the crucifixion initially confronts us as morally and aesthetically ugly, no authentic analogy between worldly beauty and the beauty of divine revelation seems to obtain. In arguing to the contrary, Balthasar presents us with an original interpretation of Thomas Aquinas that yields fresh insights into the Christian doctrine of God. By placing the cross at the center of intramundane aesthetics, Balthasar forces us to rethink, not only the meaning of the divine simplicity, but the relation in God among being, beauty and love.