The Present State of Workplace Spirituality: A Literature Review Considering Context,Theory, and Measurement/Assessment

This article seeks to review the growing body of research in the field of workplace spirituality, extending the earlier and broader literature review work of Danna and Griffin; Miller and Gorsuch; Hill and Hood; the Fetzer Institute; Moberg, Mohamed, Hassan, and Wisnieski; Day; and Lund Dean and Fornaciari. This article also seeks to advance future psychometric scale development in the burgeoning field of workplace spirituality; by suggesting a rubric for understanding the literature (manifestation, development, and adherence), and analyzing the scale validity and reliability, the authors hope to expand conceptual imagination for new scale research.

This article argues that the previous research which has begun to address important aspects of research scale development, though it has been limited in its applicability to workplace contexts, does not address diverse religious traditions and fails to understand how and the degree to which individual or collective spirituality integrates and manifests itself in the workplace. To this end, this article will codify and extend the aforementioned work by identifying the drivers for the field, exploring the connections between spirituality/religion and organizations, reviewing existing scales and instruments, discussing the literature review findings, and identifying gaps within the research, and it will resolve by suggesting specific areas for further research.     

Reference Ethics: Theological Librarianship in Conversation with ALA Reference Ethics Guidelines

This particular article will look at one ethical concern that is likely to be very familiar to most theological reference librarians. This question is what the theological reference librarian's ethical responsibilities are when the American Library Association's Code of Ethics seems to conflict with an institution's expectations for an employee of that institution. In order to adequately solve this question, the article will first summarize the basic elements of the American Library Association's Code of Ethics that relate to the reference interview. Next, the special nature of theological reference librarianship will be discussed. Third, the Association of Theological Schools accreditation guidelines will be examined to determine the relationships that theological librarians have to their religious institutions. Fourth, in light of the theological librarian reference ethics that emerge from the proposed investigation, possible ethical solutions will be suggested. The article will conclude that the article's research question is actually a false question, not because theological librarians have not raised it or because it is not worth considering, but because the American Library Association's Code of Ethics and the Association of Theological Schools accreditation standards expect the same thing from their librarians.     

A structural dynamic of form: Displacements in memory for the size of an angle

Memory for the angular size of a chevron (V) shaped target was examined in four experiments. When the target was stationary, memory was displaced inwards (i.e., towards a smaller angle), and the magnitude of displacement increased with increases in absolute angle size. When the target moved vertically or horizontally, memory was displaced inwards, but the effect of absolute angle size was weakened, and displacement was not influenced by whether the direction of motion and the direction in which the angle pointed were the same or different. When the target expanded or contracted (i.e., increased or decreased in angular size), memory for expanding targets was displaced inwards more than was memory for contracting targets, and displacement was not influenced by whether motion was coherent or incoherent. Implications of the data for the possibility of dynamic aspects of mental representation based on the shape of a stimulus are discussed.     

A Comparison of Multilevel Imputation Schemes for Random Coefficient Models: Fully Conditional Specification and Joint Model Imputation with Random Covariance Matrices

Abstract

Literature addressing missing data handling for random coefficient models is particularly scant, and the few studies to date have focused on the fully conditional specification framework and “reverse random coefficient” imputation. Although it has not received much attention in the literature, a joint modeling strategy that uses random within-cluster covariance matrices to preserve cluster-specific associations is a promising alternative for random coefficient analyses. This study is apparently the first to directly compare these procedures. Analytic results suggest that both imputation procedures can introduce bias-inducing incompatibilities with a random coefficient analysis model. Problems with fully conditional specification result from an incorrect distributional assumption, whereas joint imputation uses an underparameterized model that assumes uncorrelated intercepts and slopes. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that biases from these issues are tolerable if the missing data rate is 10% or lower and the sample is composed of at least 30 clusters with 15 observations per group. Furthermore, fully conditional specification tends to be superior with intraclass correlations that are typical of crosssectional data (e.g., ICC?=?.10), whereas the joint model is preferable with high values typical of longitudinal designs (e.g., ICC?=?.50).     

Influence of Practice Schedule on Testing Schema Theory Predictions in Adults

Since the publication of Schmidt’s (1975) schema theory of motor learning, numerous studies have assessed the variability of practice hypothesis. Of these, only research using children as subjects has provided consistent results. Findings from adult studies have been equivocal. Two experiments were conducted to assess the possibility that the schedule of variable practice during acquisition may be a clue to this equivocality, since only experiments (using adults as subjects) that have provided random variability of practice conditions have consistently supported the tenets of schema theory. Using a two movement rapid timing task, subjects learned to control their actions under one (constant) or four (variable) parameters, with variable practice conducted under either a blocked or a randomized schedule. Results for variable error and absolute constant error showed that random-variable practice provided strong support for the schema theory prediction, whereas blocked-variable practice provided only relatively weak support. Two contrasting implications of these results are discussed with respect to support versus non-support for Schmidt’s schema theory.     

Moral Beliefs,Isolation from Peers,and Abstention from Delinquency

Criminological research has established that the vast majority of young people engage in some level of delinquency and drug use during the period of adolescence. Thus young people who completely refrain from delinquency and drug use are atypical and, as such, are deserving of scientific scrutiny. Perhaps because they have been impressed by the statistical abnormality of delinquency abstention, some researchers have explained this behavior in terms of the characterological abnormality of abstainers, arguing that abstention may be less the result of positive characteristics (such as strong moral beliefs) than the result of pathological traits that serve to isolate abstainers from their peers. In this study, data from a large survey of adolescents are used to help assess the respective roles of moral beliefs and peer isolation in delinquency abstention. The findings challenge certain previous interpretations of delinquency abstention and shed additional light on the forces that help to sustain adolescent conformity. The findings also raise intriguing questions about the stigma attached to delinquency abstainers.