Religion and Coping: A Contribution from Religious Studies

Freud and Marx pegged religion as a beguiling painkiller. Recent social scientific research has exposed the not-so-simple reality of religious coping, identifying differential usage, means, and outcomes. Appropriately, psychologists, many with clinical training, lead the way. This article is a contribution from religious studies. It describes two thus far neglected modes of religious coping that are prominent in traditions and distinctly representative of religious responses to suffering—magical rituals and religious experiences. Consideration of these forms will address deficiencies and imbalances in the literature apparent from the study of religions. Specifically, the current investigation of religion and coping would benefit from historical perspective, greater attention to unconscious coping processes, heightened use of qualitative data, and fuller recognition of the challenges inherent in the therapeutic use of religion .     

Counselors' Views of Occupational Information Media

The authors investigate vocational counselors' views of the effectiveness of various types of occupational information media for themselves and their clients.     

Mothers' and fathers' negative responsibility attributions and perceptions of children's problem behavior

Parents' negative responsibility attributions about their child's misbehavior are related to a perception that the child has more behavior problems. This study used a dyadic framework to explore how mothers' and fathers' attributions relate to their own perceptions and to their partner's perceptions of the child's externalizing problems. Participants included 102 couples interviewed when children were 7 years old. Results confirmed that mothers reported more externalizing behavior problems in their children than did fathers, and fathers of boys reported more child behavior problems than fathers of girls. Dyadic analyses suggested that parents' negative responsibility attributions of the child's behavior were associated with greater perceptions of child externalizing problems on behalf of parents and their partners.     

The New Focus for Career Development Programs in Business and Industry

The continuing need to deal with technological change and increased economic uncertainty has had an impact on carer development programs in business and industry. The focus of existing career development programs has changed from a shared vision of meeting both individual and organizational goals to an emphasis on fulfilling organizational needs. Although the rationale for implementing these career development programs was to promote both career planning and career management for the individual and the organization, the current programs reflect a new trend. The research on the current economic factors that affect business and industry indicates that the current career development programs tend to stress career management for the organization. This focus on organizational goals leaves the individual employee with a greater responsibility for his or her own career planning. A review of the research results also provides new information and strategies that can assist employees in their career planning.     

Parental Autonomy

ABSTRACT We argue that in societies like our own the prevailing view that parents have both special responsibilities for and special rights over their children fails to give a proper understanding of the autonomy both of parents and of children. It is our claim that there is a logical priority of the separable interests of a child over the autonomy of its parents in the fulfilment of their special responsibilities for and the exercise of their special rights over their children. However, we believe that in acknowledging the child as a distinct locus of interests appropriate weight can still be given to parental autonomy. In particular, since raising a child is a long-term commitment which plays a central role in the life-plans of many adults it will be a legitimate exercise of an adult's autonomy strongly to influence the future of any children involved in such a plan. Such influence will be quite separate from paternalistic concern for those children. But the logical priority of the child's interests will at the same time show why parents are not entitled to behave proprietorially toward their children, even when paternalistic concern is called for.     

Seeking help from a female friend: Girls' competencies,friendship features,and intentions

Adolescent girls frequently manage problems by seeking help from friends. We examined girls' intentions of seeking help from a female friend and whether these intentions were related to their competencies (emotional competence, self‐disclosure) directly and/or indirectly via specific friendship features (companionship, closeness). Participants included 222 Canadian girls (Grades 9–12) who completed an anonymous survey at school. Results showed that girls had high intentions of seeking help from a female friend and that higher self‐disclosure competence was linked directly to higher intentions. Both competencies were linked indirectly to higher intentions mediated by friendship features. These findings indicate that competencies make help seeking by girls from girls likely in multiple ways and suggest how coping programs can address help seeking in girl–girl friendships.     

A Teambuilding Model: Appreciating Differences Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with Developmental Theory

Effective teambuilding is a critical aspect of management. The concept of appreciation of differences through understanding personality types and female/male developmental theory adds previously unexplored dimensions to teambuilding. The authors present a teambuilding model using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and female/male developmental theory. “And in understanding me you might come to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences.” (Keirsey & Bates, 1984, p. 1)