The Function of Confession: A Study Based on Experiences

In Finland, confession has been an object of discussion within the Church for a long time. While people have demanded that its role be increased, it has almost solely been discussed in terms of quantity. This study examines people's experiences of confession on the basis of 200 letters. These experiences show that it is not the form of confession that is the central issue, but rather its function, that is, giving relief. Thus the artificial borderline between confession, pastoral counselling, and psychotherapy is blurred. The goal should thus be not to stimulate confession, but rather to stimulate ways of helping people. The starting point must be a person's distress and on the basis of this one should decide which form of help is the most relevant in any given situation.     

What is a nice smile like that doing in a place like this? Automatic affective responses to environments influence the recognition of facial expressions

An affective priming paradigm with pictures of environmental scenes and facial expressions as primes and targets, respectively, was employed in order to investigate the role of natural (e.g., vegetation) and built elements (e.g., buildings) in eliciting rapid affective responses. In Experiment 1, images of environmental scenes were digitally manipulated to make continua of priming pictures with a gradual increase of natural elements (and a decrease of built elements). The primes were followed by presentations of facial expressions of happiness and disgust as to-be-recognized target stimuli. The recognition times of happy faces decreased and the recognition times of disgusted faces increased as the quantity of natural/built material present in the primes increased/decreased. The physical changes also influenced the evaluated restorativeness and affective valence of the primes. In Experiment 2, the primes used in Experiment 1 were manipulated in such a way that they were void of any recognizable natural or built elements but contained either similar colours or similar shapes as primes in Experiment 1. This time the results showed no effect of priming. These results were interpreted to give support for a view that the priming effect by environmental pictures is due to the primes representing environmental scenes and not due to the presence of certain low-level colour or shape information in the primes. In all, the present results provide evidence that perception of environmental scenes elicits automatic affective responses and influences recognition of facial expressions.     

Cloninger's temperament dimensions and threat, stress, and performance appraisals during different challenges among young adults

ABSTRACT We examined the relationship of Cloninger's temperament factors—Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Persistence—to perceived threat and stress and performance appraisals during different challenges, i.e., mental arithmetic, the reaction time task, and three public speaking tasks, among 97 young adult men and women. Temperament was measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory. The results showed that, although some of the predictions made by Cloninger's model were confirmed, some were unsupported. The results revealed also some associations between temperament and cognitive appraisals that were intelligible, but not predicted by Cloninger's model. There were considerable domain specificity and gender differences in the associations found. Cloninger's temperament dimensions are related to threat, stress, and performance appraisals, thereby influencing individual's stress vulnerability, adjustment, and personal functioning.     

Neurocognitive Impairment in Early Adolescence Following Prenatal Alcohol Exposure of Varying Duration

The aims of the study were, first, to perform a comprehensive assessment of neurocognitive status in early adolescence of children exposed to alcohol prenatally; and, second, to examine whether duration of exposure continues to be predictive of outcome at this age. Twenty-seven exposed 12-14-year-olds and 39 nonexposed 13-14-year-olds underwent neuropsychological assessments (WISC-III, NEPSY subtests) of attention and executive functions, language, visuomotor functions, and memory. The group of non-exposed children was used to develop preliminary test norms for the 13-14-year-old exposed children whereas published test norms could be used for the 12-year-olds. The results demonstrated neurocognitive impairment across all types of tasks. Impairment varied in degree according to the duration of alcohol exposure. Children exposed throughout pregnancy, most of who had diagnoses of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE), performed well below the average range. It was concluded that the neurocognitive effects of alcohol exposure tend to be widespread and generalized. Attention and executive functions do not seem to be selectively affected. Further, the relationship between duration of prenatal alcohol exposure and neurocognitive development continues to be significant in early adolescence.     

Career practitioners' conceptions of competency for social media in career services

This article reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into career practitioners' understanding of competency for social media in career services. Sixteen Danish and Finnish practitioners with experience using social media in career services were interviewed in focus groups. Competency for social media in career services was conceived as (i) an ability to use social media for delivering information, (ii) an ability to use social media for delivering career services, (iii) an ability to utilise social media for collaborative career exploration and (iv) an ability to utilise social media for co-careering. The findings can be used to develop pre-service and in-service training of career practitioners and support for the deepening of their competency, using the critical aspects that were identified.     

ICT – the new frontier? Pushing the boundaries of careers practice

Much progress has been made in integrating information and communications technology (ICT) into careers practice, but there is still room for improvement. An international lens is adopted to examine some key elements that contribute to the successful integration of ICT into careers practice. We start by exploring the role of policy, using the UK as a case study. Next, the perceptions that Finnish career practitioners have of ICT are reviewed using research findings into the different ways they think about social media and its purpose in career services. Finally, lessons learned from the design and integration of online services within career development programming in Canada are discussed that ensure accessibility both to practitioners and their clients.     

Discovering oscillatory interaction networks with M/EEG: challenges and breakthroughs

The systems-level neuronal mechanisms that coordinate temporally, anatomically and functionally distributed neuronal activity into coherent cognitive operations in the human brain have remained poorly understood. Synchronization of neuronal oscillations may regulate network communication and could thus serve as such a mechanism. Evidence for this hypothesis, however, was until recently sparse, as methodological challenges limit the investigation of interareal interactions with non-invasive magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG) recordings. Nevertheless, recent advances in M/EEG source reconstruction and clustering methods support complete phase-interaction mappings that are essential for uncovering the large-scale neuronal assemblies and their functional roles. These data show that synchronization is a robust and behaviorally significant phenomenon in task-relevant cortical networks and could hence bind distributed neuronal processing to coherent cognitive states.