Catholic Women Religious Vocations in the Twentieth Century: The Slovenian Case

In the twentieth century, female monasticism in Slovenia enjoyed a dynamic period. In this paper, I present changes in numerical trends for the whole century and explore the broader social circumstances and conditions that influenced the dynamics of this phenomenon. The basic thesis is that the numbers of members of religious orders change depending on the manner in which monasticism is structured in the economic, political and cultural life of a certain society. The major part of the discussion focuses on the first half of the century, which saw the greatest growth. In comparing the Slovenian statistical regions, I found that the majority of women members came from regions in which the demographic imbalance favoring women over men and the influence of the Catholic Church on everyday life were the greatest. In Slovenia, the decline in female religious vocations started after WWII and, especially until the second Vatican Council, was part of a manifest secularization process rooted in political change. The numerical trend in Slovenian female monasticism differs from West European and USA trends; therefore, a different approach and explanation was needed. This enabled me to re-think the social circumstances and position of Catholic orders in Slovenian society.     

Induced power changes the sense of agency

Power differentials are a ubiquitous feature of social interactions and power has been conceptualised as an interpersonal construct. Here we show that priming power changes the sense of agency, indexed by intentional binding. Specifically, participants wrote about episodes in which they had power over others, or in which others had power over them. After priming, participants completed an interval estimation task in which they judged the interval between a voluntary action and a visual effect. After low-power priming, participants judged intervals to be significantly longer than judgments after high-power or no priming. Thus, intentional binding was significantly changed by low-power, suggesting that power reduces the sense of agency for action outcomes. Our results demonstrate a clear intrapersonal effect of power. We suggest that intentional binding could be employed to assess agency in individuals suffering from anxiety and depression, both of which are characterised by reduced feelings of personal control.     

Health-related behavioural change—a test of a new model

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that planned health education and health promotion interventions are not particularly successful in bringing about behavioural change. It is suggested that the reasons for this are the fallacious theoretical assumptions underlying many intervention strategies and the failure to place sufficient emphasis on the context in which health-related behaviours occur. Studies of self-initiated behavioural change suggest that the antecedents of change are often events or processes which bring a previously routinised and unremarked behaviour into new focus.

This paper describes a preliminary test of a new model of behavioural change in which a group of lay people were recruited to act as paid interviewers on a food survey in their own area. The survey was particularly concerned with the consumption of high fibre foods. he and post-test measures of the interviewers' own food habits as compared with those of a control group indicated modest support for the proposed model. Implications of this study for health education and promotion are discussed.     

Opening a donor's wallet: The influence of appeal scales on likelihood and magnitude of donation

We examine the influence of appeal scales on the likelihood and magnitude of donation in a large field experiment. We argue and show that the leftmost anchor on the appeal scale most strongly influences the likelihood of donating; the lower the anchor, the higher the donation likelihood. Furthermore, our findings indicate that increasing the steepness of the amounts on the appeal scale increases the magnitude of donations. Both effects are stronger for infrequent than for frequent donors. Our results demonstrate that by using what a charity knows about past donor behavior, it can alter appeal scales to change donation behavior.     

The consequences of mimicry for prosocials and proselfs: Effects of social value orientation on the mimicry–liking link

People often mimic each other's behaviors. As a consequence, they share each other's emotional and cognitive states, which facilitates liking. Mimicry, however, does not always affect liking. In two studies, we investigate whether the mimicry–liking link is influenced by people's social value orientations. More specifically, we examine whether prosocials and proselfs are differently affected when being mimicked or not. Prosocials and proselfs indicated their liking for the interaction partner after being or not being mimicked in a face‐to‐face interaction. The results of two studies showed that prosocials rated the interaction partner as less likeable when they were not mimicked than when they were mimicked. Proselfs, however, were not affected by mimicry. These results show that people's social motives play a role in whether or not the effects of mimicry on liking occur: Proselfs are less sensitive to the mimicry acts of others. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Achieving Sustainable Gains in Happiness: Change Your Actions, not Your Circumstances*

Although attaining happiness is a nearly universal goal, surprisingly little research has focused on how happiness can be increased and then sustained. Three studies test predictions of a model (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005) positing that sustainable happiness is possible through intentional activity changes, more so than through circumstantial changes. Study 1 shows that less hedonic adaptation is reported in response to activity changes than to circumstantial changes. Study 2 tests a dynamic process model, showing that while both positive activity changes and positive circumstantial changes predict rank-order increases in subjective well-being from Time 1 to Time 2, only activity changes predict maintained gains at Time 3. Study 3 replicates the Study 2 findings and extends them to psychological well-being (Ryff and Keyes, 1995). Implications for positive psychology and “the pursuit of happiness” are discussed. *This work was supported in part by grants from the Positive Psychology Network.     

How Do People Pursue Happiness?: Relating Personality, Happiness-Increasing Strategies, and Well-Being

Five hundred ethnically diverse undergraduates reported their happiness strategies – that is, activities undertaken to maintain or increase happiness. Factor analysis extracted eight general strategies: Affiliation, Partying, Mental Control, Goal Pursuit, Passive Leisure, Active Leisure, Religion, and Direct Attempts at happiness. According to multiple regression analyses, these strategies accounted for 52% of the variance in self-reported happiness and 16% over and above the variance accounted for by the Big Five personality traits. The strongest unique predictors of current happiness were Mental Control (inversely related), Direct Attempts, Affiliation, Religion, Partying, and Active Leisure. Gender differences suggest that men prefer to engage in Active Leisure and Mental Control, whereas women favor Affiliation, Goal Pursuit, Passive Leisure, and Religion. Relative to Asian and Chicano(a) students, White students preferred using high arousal strategies. Finally, mediation analyses revealed that many associations between individuals’ personality and happiness levels are to some extent mediated by the strategies they use to increase their happiness – particularly, by Affiliation, Mental Control, and Direct Attempts. The authors would like to thank Sabine French for comments on earlier drafts and Andrew Comrey, Dan Ozer, and Chandra Reynolds for their valuable statistical advice.     

The intention to commit driving violations – A qualitative study

This study was designed to carry out an in-depth exploration of an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Fifty licensed drivers took part in the study and each one was given three different driving scenarios; speeding in an urban area, dangerous overtaking and speeding on a major road. The results indicated that drivers usually find speeding acceptable although this was also related to a context, since speeding on a major road was more acceptable than on a minor one. The immediate response to the question about consequences of the act varied and depended on the perception of the situation. In a serious situation the response was purely affective and immediate whereas in a low risk situation it was more considered. The response to the question about subjective norm was sometimes difficult to answer or misunderstood which throws some light on its weak association with intention. Driving skills were explored in some detail together with its possible link to perceived behavioural control. In general those participants who believed themselves to be superior to others, expressed high degrees of control. The study also found that a low degree of perceived behavioural control (external or internal) could be used as a form of justification for carrying out an act although this only applied to a situation which they perceived as low risk. In a high-risk situation they always tried to maintain their own control. Habit, or rather past behaviour, influenced future behaviour when the experience had been positive. The police, or feelings of regret, could break this pattern. The implications of these findings in relation to theoretical and practical issues are discussed.