A tool for measuring stress tolerance in elite athletes

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the nature of pre-performance routines used in golf. Six male international golfers were recruited to participate in this study (Age M = 29; handicap M = +1.5; years playing golf M = 16.25). The golfers were interviewed individually to gain an understanding of participants’ perceptions of the nature and function of their pre-performance routines. The data were thematically analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. In total, 9 super-ordinate themes emerged: allocation of attention, psychological skills, shot selection, routine mind set, routine composition, compulsive behaviors, routine evolution/application, top players, and moderating factors. Results suggest that the development of routines is dependent on the personality, coping resources, and situational appraisals of each individual performer.     

Religious Ego Identity and Its Relationship to Faith Maturity

The relationship between religious ego identity and religious faith maturity was investigated among college students (M age % 19.8 years) using J. E. Marcia's (1966) religious ego status classification system, which is based on the presence or absence in an individual of an exploration of religious values or beliefs and commitment to them; the system also contains a measure of religious faith maturity. Results showed that individuals with a diffusion status (no exploration, no commitment) were less mature in religious faith than those with a foreclosure status (no exploration, commitment), a moratorium status (exploration, no commitment), or those classified as achieved (exploration, commitment). Compared with individuals classified as foreclosed, achieved individuals integrated more effectively the religious faith maturity dimension of service to humanity and community as well as service of self to a transcendent reality.     

The Emerging Church as Corporatization’s Line of Flight

ABSTRACT

In the United States and elsewhere, many religious organizations have adopted structures, mechanisms, and ideologies that can be understood through the concept of corporatization. More than a process, corporatization creates a schema through which social relationships are structured and particular values and beliefs are emphasized (particularly, the valorization of the consumer). The authors of the present article draw on Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s conceptualization of ‘lines of flight’ to illustrate how the Emerging Church, a new religious movement, has leveraged the discontinuities within corporatization. The participants of this movement do so in order to resist institutionalizing systems that rigidify and indoctrinate participants. The authors use ethnographic field methods to demonstrate how Emerging Church participants rely on the tropes of ‘messiness’ and ‘conversation’ to embrace a radical contingency, to foster dialogue, and to avoid adopting rigid, rationalized systems of meaning.     

Factors Associated with Perceived Paternal Involvement in Childrearing

Interest in paternal involvement in child care has increased as the demands on the time and resources of maternal caretakers have increased. The purpose of the present study was to examine variables associated with perceived paternal involvement in child care. Participants were 137 (90 European American and 47 African American) fathers of children between the ages of 2 and 6. Hierarchical multiple regression and analyses of variance indicated that ethnicity, gender role orientation, and perceived skill at child care were associated with higher levels of perceived paternal engagement in and responsibility for child care. Partners' work status was associated with perceived paternal responsibility for, but not engagement in child care. Data suggest that fathers' perceptions of their abilities, gender role, and family requirements may combine to influence child care involvement.     

Religiosity and Mental Health: A Meta–Analysis of Recent Studies

A meta–analysis was performed in an attempt to clarify the proposed relationship between religiosity and psychological adjustment. Specific focus was given to the issue of definition, namely, whether differences in researchers' conceptualizations of religiosity and mental health could account for the various contradictory findings by psychologists of religion. Analysis of 34 studies conducted during the past 12 years revealed that the definitions of religiosity and mental health utilized by psychologists in this field were indeed associated with different types and strengths of the correlations between religiosity and mental health. Discussion of results assesses the fit between relevant theory and the pattern of change in effect size across categories of religion and adjustment, and concludes with implications for therapeutic uses of religious involvement.     

Parents of the Battered Child: A Multidisciplinary Group Therapy Approach to Life-Threatening Behavior

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the demographic findings and the experience of a three-year, multidisciplinary group psychotherapy program, with 31 child-abusing families. No predictive demographic characteristics were identified. The abuse of children ranged from mild bruising to severe brain damage and multiple fractures. Group therapy as an intervention procedure had its successes and failures. The dynamics of male-female co-therapists, the peer group sharing, and the capacity to ultimately verbalize inadequacies in the parenting role were crucial factors in therapy. As an experiential encounter the study gives a poignant insight into the personal and family pathology of parents who abuse their children.     

The effects of exposure duration and practice on the immediate memory spans of children and adults

Immediate memory spans for alphabetic items were determined for second-grade, fifth-grade, and adult subjects. Subjects were tested on three days, ten trials per day at each of three exposure durations: 15, 50, and 200 msec. One half of the subjects were presented with exposure durations in an ascending order, the other half in a descending order. The results indicated that immediate memory span increases with age and practice. The exposure duration effect depended on the order and day in which durations were presented. There was a suggestion that the exposure duration effect was also dependent upon the age and sex of the subject. The ordering of array positions from most accurately reported to least accurately reported was identical for all three age levels, indicating that scanning strategies are well established at an early age.     

Observing behavior in the albino rat: a within-subjects' comparison of increasing levels of visual complexity.

54 male CD strain Charles River albino rats were tested for complexity preference using a non-locomotor response. Each subject was presented an array of photographic slides containing an incremental series of complexity elements, i.e., 1, 2, 5 and 25 elements. All photographic slides were randomized both within and across subjects. Each photographic slide of each level of complexity was repeated three times. Results of an analysis of covariance, with luminance as the covariate, showed that cummulative viewing time increased with an increase in stimulus complexity. The relationship between looking and level of complexity was shown to be different when covariance procedures were used than without them.     

Pain cues and uncertainity as determinants of aggression in a situation involving repeated instigation.

In contrast to the Buss aggression paradigm, a situation was employed in which subjects were given an expanded range of response options and were exposed to instigation throughout their response period. It was found that (a) despite these changes pain cues depressed aggressiveness in the present situation as they generally do in the Buss paradigm, but that this effect only occurred where the subjects' aggression was initially ineffective in changing their target's behavior; (b) situational uncertainity, which is minimal in a Buss-type situation, was related to aggressiveness; (c) subjects tended to match rather than attempt to control the responses of the target; and (d) the present paradigm is capable of isolating a personality variable related to overall aggressiveness. These data are discussed in terms of other recent paid cue studies that deviate from the standard Buss situation. Generally, the findings suggest the potential of increasing the range of situations in which aggression is studied.     

The effect of adults' eating on young children's acceptance of unfamiliar foods

Adults presented unfamiliar foods to 14- to 20- and 42- to 48-month-old children individually in their homes. More children put the food in their mouths when the adults also were eating than when the adults simply were offering the food. More children put food in their mouths when their mothers were the source than when the source was a friendly adult “visitor”. However, even when alone with a child, the visitor's eating elicited reliably more tasting. Analysis of requesting behavior indicated that the adults' eating aroused a desire to eat in the children. There were no consistent sex differences or interactions between sex of visitor and sex of child in children's food acceptance. There was a suggestion that younger children were more affected by repeated offerings than were older children. It is concluded that a relatively “low level” form of observational learning—“social facilitation”—can account for the data.