The association of racial attitudes and spiritual beliefs in post-apartheid South Africa

Previous research has investigated the complex association between religious beliefs and racism. Many studies have found that fundamentalist religious beliefs are positively associated with racial prejudice among European and European American populations. However, few studies have examined whether this association is found in other cultures or whether the association also characterizes spiritual beliefs. Data from 493 South African university students from three racial backgrounds revealed significant differences among the groups. A positive association between fundamentalism and racial prejudice was found among participants, but general spiritual beliefs were negatively associated with racist attitudes. The results emphasize the need to address contextual factors that influence the association between religious beliefs and racism within a given culture.     

Global Predictions of Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease: Evidence for Preserved Metamemory Monitoring

Previous researchers have argued that there is a metamemory monitoring deficit in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) because patients tend to overestimate their recall performance on a word list. We propose that these previous results are a misleading by-product of the methodologies used, rather than evidence of an underlying metamemory deficit. In two experiments, AD patients and older adult controls made predictions of performance both before and after encoding a to-be-remembered list. Metamemory function was measured by observing the shift in predictions made with, and without, an opportunity to monitor the list. Experiment 1 found that although there were differences between the groups’ accuracy for their prestudy predictions of recall, both groups were equally accurate after encoding. Experiment 2 explored this using four lists that varied in item difficulty and semantic relatedness. This experiment replicated the findings of Experiment 1, and it was also found that the AD group became more accurate at predicting their performance with more exposure to study-test trials. These studies suggest that metamemory monitoring is intact in AD, because AD patients utilize information gained during processing the to-be-remembered items to revise their predictions of subsequent performance.     

Do friends always help your studies? Mediating processes between social relations and academic motivation

Previous studies suggest that social relations can increase one’s motivation to learn in school. However, other evidence showed that having more friends may also distract from one’s academic involvement. To understand the mechanisms behind this apparent contradiction, this study identified and tested the effects of a potentially important positive and negative mediator between social relations and academic motivation. A total of 226 university students were used to test the hypothesized path model. Results showed that the impact of social relations on students’ academic motivation was negatively mediated by alcohol use, but positively mediated by their place attachment to the university, although the model fit differed for women and men. Implications for social relations, school policy and freshman orientation programs are discussed.     

Russell T. McCutcheon's manufacturing religion

Jeremy Carrette. Religion and Culture by Michel Foucault (selected and edited by Jeremy Carrette). Manchester University Press. 1999.

Jeremy Carrette. Foucault and Religion: Spiritual Corporality and Political Spirituality. London and New York: Routledge. 2000.     

The Development of Graphophonological-Semantic Cognitive Flexibility and Its Contribution to Reading Comprehension in Beginning Readers

Reading-specific and general color-shape cognitive flexibility were assessed in 68 first and second graders to examine: 1) the development of graphophonological-semantic cognitive flexibility (the ability to process concurrently phonological and semantic aspects of print) in comparison to color-shape cognitive flexibility, 2) the contribution of reading experience to graphophonological-semantic flexibility, and 3) the unique contribution of graphophonological-semantic flexibility to reading comprehension. Second graders scored significantly higher than first graders on both cognitive flexibility tasks; the general flexibility task was easier for all children than the graphophonological-semantic flexibility task; reading experience contributed uniquely to children's graphophonological-semantic flexibility; and graphophonological-semantic flexibility contributed significant, unique variance to children's reading comprehension, consistent with Cartwright's (2002 Cartwright , K. B. ( 2002 ). Cognitive development and reading: The relation of reading-specific multiple classification skill to reading comprehension in elementary school children . Journal of Educational Psychology , 94 , 56 – 63 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) work with second- to fourth-grade students and adults (2007 Cartwright , K. B. ( 2007 ). The contribution of graphophonological-semantic flexibility to reading comprehension in college students: Implications for a less simple view of reading . Journal of Literacy Research , 39 , 173 – 193 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).     

Procrastination and the Priority of Short‐Term Mood Regulation: Consequences for Future Self

Procrastination is a common and pervasive problem associated with a range of negative outcomes across a variety of life domains that often occurs when people are faced with tasks that are seen as aversive. In this paper, we argue that as a form of self‐regulation failure, procrastination has a great deal to do with short‐term mood repair and emotion regulation. Moreover, we contend that a temporal understanding of self and the mood‐regulating processes involved in goal pursuit is particularly important in understanding procrastination, because the consequences of procrastination are typically borne by the future self. After summarizing the research on the priority of short‐term mood regulation in procrastination, we then draw the connection between the focus on short‐term mood repair and the temporal disjunction between present and future selves. We present research that exemplifies these intra‐personal processes in understanding temporal notions of self characterized by procrastination, and then link these processes to the negative consequences of procrastination for health and well‐being. We conclude with a discussion of possible avenues for future research to provide further insights into how temporal views of the self are linked to the dynamics of mood regulation over time in the context of procrastination.     

PAS in Kedah: cultural politics of pigs and development

On March 8, 2008, PAS led the coalition to victory in Kedah, winning 16 seats, while Barisan National won only 14 state seats. This paper highlights cultural dimensions of the shift from BN to the opposition coalition in this state of the Malay heartland. The PAS manifesto and campaign speeches in Kedah emphasized Islamic ethics, a just, clean, and pure government which would strive to improve the conditions of all the people. These notions of a “just” and “unmixed” party struggling to “strengthen Islam” resonated with many Malays in Kedah. In contrast, UMNO was depicted as corrupt practitioners of bribes and money politics who prioritize the interests of the rich over the needy. They were criticized as materialist, elitist figures stuck in their ways like the Pharaoh, while PAS’ commitment to upholding Islam was likened to the prophets. In addition, this paper discusses the way PAS approaches the issue of the “social contract” between Malays and other ethnic groups and the way their construct of Malay identity spoke to many Malay voters. I argue that PAS rhetoric must be viewed as more than political use of Islamic symbols, and that its effectiveness rests in the way it evokes more extensive cultural models. Finally, this paper considers the controversial post-election demolition of a pig slaughterhouse in a predominantly Malay kampong in Kota Setar, Kedah. Here I argue that this case embodies and reaffirms the cultural politics of the general election.