Rejecting Darwinian Evolution: The Effects of Education,Church Tradition,and Individual Theological Stance Among UK Churchgoers

A sample of 2232 committed churchgoers from a range of churches in the UK completed a questionnaire that included a measure of rejection of Darwinian evolution. Respondents with undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications had slightly lower odds of rejecting evolution than those without degrees, but whether qualifications were in non-biological science, biology or theology made little difference to the likelihood of rejection. Those who attended Anglican or Methodist (AM) churches were much less likely to reject evolution than those who attended Evangelical or Pentecostal (EP) churches, but the effect of education on reducing rejection was similar in both groups. Individual theological conservatism was strongly associated with rejection, but whereas liberals showed declining rejection with increased education, there was no such effect for conservatives. Frequent church attendance and Bible reading both predicted rejection, and the effect of Bible reading was most pronounced among AM churchgoers. Higher education of any kind may reduce the likelihood of rejection of evolution among many UK churchgoers, but theological conservatives from any tradition will tend to maintain their belief that Darwinian evolution does not explain the origin of species whatever their educational experience.     

Physical Activity and Perceived Self‐Efficacy in Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of self‐efficacy in older adults, with physical activity, age, and sex as the predictor variables. Regression analyses revealed physical activity to be the only statistically significant predictor of self‐efficacy. These findings may be of interest to counselors who work with older people.     

Long-Term Psychological Health Among Individuals Pursuing Emerging Adulthood-Type Pathways in the 1950s and 1960s

We analyzed data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N?=?6390) to investigate how common an emerging adulthood-type lifestyle (e.g., delayed marriage and childbearing, pursuit of higher education) was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and what the long-term psychological-health correlates were of such a lifestyle. Cluster analyses of marital, childbearing, educational, and occupational variables from 1957 (high school graduation) to 1964 generated six clusters that we labeled: fast-starters (early marriage and childbearing, little education beyond high school, virtually all employed), very-educated/partnered (mean educational attainment well into graduate school and among the earliest to get married), moderately educated/family-oriented (mean years of education somewhat shy of a bachelor’s degree, early marriage and childbearing), educated singles (late marriage and childbearing, if at all, averaging a bachelor’s degree; most prototypical of emerging adulthood), work/military-first (little education past high school, late marriage and childbearing), and military/professional-aspiration (envisioning career requiring college education and pursuing one). The clusters were then compared on health and well-being measures from 1992 to 1993 and 2003 to 2005, controlling for family-of-origin socioeconomic status. In general, individuals whose life pursuits combined higher education, professional career aspirations, and marriage exhibited the best long-term psychological health. Results are discussed in terms of historical conditions when these individuals transitioned to adulthood.     

Cognitive load selectively interferes with utilitarian moral judgment

Traditional theories of moral development emphasize the role of controlled cognition in mature moral judgment, while a more recent trend emphasizes intuitive and emotional processes. Here we test a dual-process theory synthesizing these perspectives. More specifically, our theory associates utilitarian moral judgment (approving of harmful actions that maximize good consequences) with controlled cognitive processes and associates non-utilitarian moral judgment with automatic emotional responses. Consistent with this theory, we find that a cognitive load manipulation selectively interferes with utilitarian judgment. This interference effect provides direct evidence for the influence of controlled cognitive processes in moral judgment, and utilitarian moral judgment more specifically.     

Biases Influencing Recommendation Letter Contents: Physical Attractiveness and Gender1

This study investigated whether 2 well‐known biases, gender and physical appearance, influence readers' perceptions of different types of letters of recommendation (LORs; inflated vs. noninflated). Based on 244 participants, a main effect for letter type was found. Applicants with inflated letters were more likely to be hired and were predicted to become more successful, despite readers recognizing that the inflated letter contained exaggerations. A 3‐way interaction was also present. Gender and physical attractiveness did not influence reader perceptions when given an inflated letter, but when readers received a noninflated letter, attractive women were predicted to become most successful. These results demonstrate that readers may still be biased by irrelevant factors when reading LORs, emphasizing a need for letter reader training.     

The Importance of Program Evaluation: How Can it be Applied to Diverse Genetics Education Settings?

The role of a genetic counselor often entails providing education to patient, community and/or health professional groups. While counseling supervision assists genetic counselors to be reflective about their clinical work and to enhance clinical skills, evaluation is a rather analogous process in the provision of education. Program evaluation of education activities can be applied to provide information about the needs of the target group (needs assessment), the delivery of the program (process evaluation) as well as determining the extent to which the education activity has met its intended aims (summative evaluation). Evaluation assists the educator to assess the impact of their program and provides an evidence base about genetics education. Although program evaluation can be a complex activity, the tools are ones that can be used by individuals to evaluate single or simple education activities. The components of evaluation are discussed with reference to genetic counseling practice and three very different examples of actual evaluations are provided to illustrate the diversity of evaluation strategy and programs to which it can be applied.     

An Introduction to the Best Practices Section in the Journal of Counseling & Development

The authors present an introduction to the Best Practices section in the Journal of Counseling & Development. The section, announced in the fall of 2003, updates counselors on the latest research evidence to support their counseling practices. Four invited experts in the counseling profession (D. Bubenzer, J. G. Garci, T. Sexton, & J. West) discuss the role of best practices in counseling.     

Perception of illuminance flow in the case of anisotropic rough surfaces

Human observers estimate the illumination direction of rough surfaces rather precisely. When surfaces are rough, the illumination generates visible "texture" from differential shading at the level of the roughness, whereas differential illumination at the level of significant global surface curvature leads to the more familiar "shading". The shading is used in conventional shape-from-shading (SFS) algorithms, which ignore the illumination texture cue. Because of this simplification, SFS algorithms are typically formulated as global problems (partial differential equations, etc.). Human observers are likely to apply different methods than do these conventional SFS algorithms, however. When the roughness is not isotropic, one expects systematic errors in the visual detection of illumination direction, conceivably giving rise to erroneous shape estimates. Here we addressed this issue through systematic psychophysics on illumination direction detection as a function of the roughness anisotropy. Our expectations were fully borne out, in that the observers committed the predicted systematic errors. These results are precise enough to allow the inference that illumination direction detection is based on second-order statistics--that is, of edge detector (rather than line detector) activity.     

From Emic to Etic: Exporting Indigenous Constructs

The study of culture differs by methodology. This article distinguishes etic (global) and emic (focal) approaches to cross-cultural research, and uses empirical studies in personality and social psychology as examples to illustrate the pros and cons of these two approaches and examine their relationships. Then, the article reviews origins and trends of research on several culturally derived constructs, including face, harmony, filial piety, and modesty. The import and export processes of pan-cultural and indigenous constructs reveal that generalization and indigenization are interrelated, complementary. It is suggested that cultural similarities and differences be better conceptualized as malleable and dynamic, and that etic and emic approaches can be integrated to form a unified system, balancing universality and distinctiveness.