Can Prayer Increase Charitable Giving? Examining the Effects of Intercessory Prayer,Moral Intuitions,and Theological Orientation on Generous Behavior

This study was designed to investigate the effects of intercessory prayer, moral intuitions, God concept, and theological orientation on generous behavior in the form of charitable giving. Christian participants (N = 313) were assigned to engage in either intercessory prayer or a secular reflection over a 2-week period on the hardships faced by either Christians (religious ingroup) or Muslims (religious outgroup) in Myanmar/Burma being persecuted by the Buddhist majority. Contrary to hypotheses and previous research, multiple regression analyses revealed that the prayer condition was associated with less monetary generosity than a nonreligious control condition. Ingroup versus outgroup status of the target of prayer/reflections was not a significant predictor of charitable giving. Moral intuitions related to the harm/care and fairness/reciprocity foundations as well as traditional God concept moderated the effects of prayer.     

Developing the Good Physician: Spirituality affects the development of virtues and moral intuitions in medical students

The Project on the Good Physician is a national longitudinal study of moral and professional formation of American physicians over the course of medical training. The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes by which spirituality influences the development of three virtues (mindfulness, empathic compassion, and generosity) in medical students as mediated by the moral intuition to care/harm, as well as make predictions as to how this type of study could be generalizable to other populations. Study participants were 563 medical students recruited by the University of Chicago from 24 medical schools across the U.S. (54.7% male, 57% white) who completed measures assessing virtue formation 9 months apart. Path analysis of a cascade model showed that spirituality (but not religiousness) was directly and indirectly related to change in the virtue empathic compassion, and also indirectly related to change in the virtue generosity. Moreover, the moral intuition to care/harm partially mediated the association between spirituality and the virtues of empathic compassion and generosity (but not mindfulness).     

Napping promotes inter-session habituation to emotional stimuli

The effects of a daytime nap on inter-session habituation to aversive visual stimuli were investigated. Healthy young adult volunteers viewed repeated presentations of highly negative and emotionally neutral (but equally arousing) International Affective Picture System (IAPS) photographs during two afternoon sessions separated by 2.5h. Half of the photographs were shown at both sessions (Repeated Sets) and half differed between sessions (Novel Sets). For each stimulus presentation, evoked skin conductance response (SCR), heart-rate deceleration (HRD) and corrugator supercilii EMG response (EMG), were computed and range corrected using respective maximum session-1 responses. Following each presentation, subjects rated each photograph on dimensions of pleasantness and arousability. During the inter-session interval, Nap subjects had a 120-min polysomnographically monitored sleep opportunity, whereas Wake subjects watched a non-stimulating video. Nap and Wake subjects did not differ in their subjective ratings of photographs. However, for Repeated-Set photographs, Nap subjects demonstrated greater inter-session habituation in SCR and EMG but a trend toward lesser inter-session habituation in HRD. These group differences were absent for Novel-Set photographs. Group differences across all measures were greater for negative stimuli. Occurrence of SWS during the nap was associated with greater inter-session habituation of EMG whereas occurrence of REM was associated with lesser inter-session habituation of SCR to negative stimuli. Sleep may therefore promote emotional adjustment at the level of somatic responses. Physiological but not subjective inter-session habituation to aversive images was enhanced by a daytime nap.     

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF RECOGNITION MEMORY FOR FACES1

The hypothesis that subjects would show superior memory for faces of members of their own ethnic group compared with those of a different ethnic group was tested in a cross-cultural experiment. Thirty two African and 32 European subjects were presented with coloured photographs of ten black Africans and ten white Europeans, with the instruction to try to remember them. Twenty four hours later, the subjects were presented with the same photographs shuffled with an equal number of new photographs of Africans and Europeans, and were asked to identify those they had seen before. The index d' was used as a measure of recognition. As predicted, European subjects were superior at recognising European faces compared with African faces, and African subjects were superior at recognising African faces compared with European faces. Response bias data indicated that European subjects had a differential response bias for the photographs of the two ethnic groups, but African subjects did not differ in their bias towards the two ethnic groups. African subjects did, however, show differential response bias for sex within the European faces. The results were discussed in terms of perceptual discrimination and stereotyping.     

A six-month follow-up of adolescents' sexual risk-taking,HIV/AIDS knowledge,and attitudes to condoms

A follow-up study was conducted to investigate change in sexual behaviour, knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission, and attitudes to condoms over a 6-month period in a sample of late-adolescent students. The study also obtained subjective reports of HIV/AIDS-relevant change. Overall there was a decrease in sexual risk-taking behaviour with casual partners but no change occurred in sexual behaviour with regular partners, knowledge about HIV/AIDS, attitude towards condoms, or intention to use a condom on next sexual encounter. Examination of individual data revealed that, for some adolescents where behavioural change had occurred, this was in the direction of less safe sex. There were few self-reports of change in sexual behaviour, intention to take precautions against HIV/AIDS, or concern about HIV/AIDS over the preceding 6 months. Subjective reports of behaviour change did not correspond with reports of actual behaviour. Low rates of behaviour change are attributed to the failure of adolescents to personalize the threat of AIDS and to their trust in the safety of sex with a regular partner as well as to the lack of relevance of HIV/AIDS education campaigns to this group.     

Factors contributing to the survival of self-help groups

Despite the growing utilization of self-help groups, there have been only a handful of studies that have examined the factors that contribute to their survival. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to self-help group survival by examining their relationship with external sources (i.e., national and local self-help organizations, professionals) and group organizational characteristics (i.e., leadership diversification, recruitment, attendance at group meetings). Representatives from 245 active and 94 recently disbanded self-help groups were included in the analysis. Results indicated that the primary factors that discriminated between active and disbanded groups were the number of new people to attend a meeting, average group meeting attendance, length of existence, leadership diversification, outreach to potential group members, and support from national and local organizations. Results are discussed in terms of what national self-help organizations, self-help clearinghouses, and others who interact with self-help groups can do to empower and support them.     

Gaze direction and maternal pitch in surprise-eliciting situations

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that not only do babies use emotional signals from adults in order to relate emotions to specific situations (e.g., Campos & Stenberg, 1981) but also that mothers seek out emotional information from their infants ( Emde, 1992). Three groups of mothers and their infants, 3, 5 and 9 months old were video- and audio-taped, while playing in their homes with a soft toy and a remote-control Jack-in-the-box. During surprise-eliciting play with the Jack-in-the-box, maternal and infant gaze direction and their emotional expressions of surprise, pleasure, fear and neutral expressions were coded in three regions of the face. In addition, the mean fundamental frequency of maternal surprise-vocalisations was analysed. Maternal exclamations of surprise were compared with similar utterances of these mothers while playing with a soft toy as a baseline. During the surprise event, maternal and infant gaze directions as well as infant age were analysed in relation to maternal pitch. Results are discussed in terms of maternal use of the pitch of her voice to mark surprising situations, depending on the gaze-direction of the infant.     

Fighting Like Brother and Sister: Sibling Relationships and Future Adult Romantic Relationship Quality

Many factors influence the quality of a romantic relationship, and there has been increasing evidence that early attachment plays a vital role in adult bonds, including romantic relationships. However, most of the literature has focused on the role of parent–child and peer attachments with little focus on sibling attachments. Using the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire, we asked a sample of New Zealand university students to retrospectively rate the relationship they had with a significant sibling during their adolescence, and to rate their current romantic relationship quality using the Relationship Assessment Scale. We found no significant correlations between the subscales of the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire and the Relationship Assessment Scale. However, further analysis uncovered a significant association between the Relationship Assessment Scale, birth order, and relationship length.