Religion and Subjective Well‐Being Across Religious Traditions: Evidence from 1.3 Million Americans

I examine the relationship between religious service attendance and two domains (cognitive and affective) of subjective well‐being using Gallup Daily Poll data, which has a sample size over 1.3 million. I find that religious attendance is positively associated with both domains of subjective well‐being in all religious traditions examined, including non‐Christian traditions and “religious nones.” The strength of the association varies significantly across the traditions: stronger among Christian groups—particularly among the groups that are, on average, more observant—than among non‐Christian religions or “religious nones.” The stronger association among the observant groups is partly due to the lower level of well‐being among nonattendees in those groups than nonattendees in less observant groups. I also find that the association is stronger among individuals who consider religion an important part of life than among those who do not. Finally, my findings suggest that religious service attendance is equally strongly related to both domains of subjective well‐being.     

播种圣贤教诲 读经己立立人——浅谈儿童读经教育

《大学》指出:“自天子以至于庶人,皆以修身为本。其本乱而末治者否矣。”现在的人们,实实在在早已忘记“正心修身”这个做人的根本。当今世界,我们看到的是:问题的青年,问题的学生,校园的暴力,青少年的犯罪以及由此衍生的家庭问题、社会问题层出不穷,已经到了触目惊心的程度。究其根源:我们丢弃了文化教育“承前启后,继往开来”的基本精神,我们已将国家民族的根本文化忘掉,已将古圣先贤的伦理道德抛弃,由此而导致的种种恶果,自然也就成为事所必至、理有固然的程度!慎终追远,民德归厚。要亡羊补牢,我们必须重新去认识我们的文化,去根植文化…     

技术现象学视域下的脑机增强

脑机增强是人类增强技术研究的重点和创新方向,它综合了生物端和机器端的优势,搭建起人-机协同智能系统,展现出人与技术相互融合、技术成为人的身体的一部分的特殊技术应用情境,具有技术具身性、技术透明性以及技术效应性三个方面的特征。脑机增强使人与技术之间的外在关系永久性消解,使二者融合为新的实体,以人-机融合的赛博格意向指向世界。这些新变化改变了人-技术-世界三者之间的原有结构,人与技术共同与世界组建新的关系,即基于后人类主体形成的与世界的交互关系,把人类社会向后人类时代推进。

     

When the poor excel: Poverty facilitates procedural learning

Recent research has shown that poverty directly impeded cognitive functions because the poor could be easily distracted by monetary concerns. We argue that this effect may be limited to functions relying on working memory. For functions that rely on proceduralized processes however, monetary concerns elicited by reminding of financial demands would be conducive rather than harmful. Our results supported this hypothesis by showing that participants with lower income reached the learning criterion of the information‐integration categorization task faster than their more affluent counterparts after reminding of financial demands.     

Evaluation of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale in a Sample of Korean Adults

This study explored the psychometric qualities and construct validity of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS; Ellison in J Psychol Theol 11:330–340, 1983) using a sample of 470 Korean adults. Two factor analyses, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, were conducted in order to test the validity of the SWBS. The results of the factor analyses supported the original two-dimensional structure of the SWBS—religious well-being (RWB) and existential well-being (EWB) with method effects associated with negatively worded items. By controlling for method effects, the evaluation of the two-factor structure of SWBS is confirmed with clarity. Further, the differential pattern and magnitude of correlations between the SWB subscales and the religious and psychological variables suggested that two factors of the SWBS were valid for Protestant, Catholic, and religiously unaffiliated groups except Buddhists. The Protestant group scored higher in RWB compared to the Buddhist, Catholic, and unaffiliated groups. The Protestant group scored higher in EWB compared to the unaffiliated groups. Future studies may need to include more Buddhist samples to gain solid evidence for validity of the SWBS on a non-Western religious tradition.     

The burden of filial piety: A qualitative study on caregiving motivations amongst family caregivers of patients with cancer in Singapore

Objective. This study explores (1) the motivations and challenges facing family caregiving for cancer in Singapore and (2) suggests a possible framework to guide culturally sensitive future work on caregivers.

Design. Twenty caregivers of patients being treated for cancer at a public hospital in Singapore were interviewed. A semi-structured interview format and inductive thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. Caregivers were asked about their motivations for caregiving and the challenges they faced.

Results. Caregivers’ motivations grouped into three categories: personal value and fulfilment, giving care because of societal expectations such as filial piety, and practical need. Challenges were grouped into interpersonal challenges, disclosure and finding balance. Caregivers with different primary motivations varied in their responses to these challenges. More autonomous caregivers cited learning points and reprioritised more effectively than less autonomous caregivers, who reported more internal conflict and less control over their situation.

Conclusions. In Singapore and Asia, sociocultural values of family caregiving are not uniformly experienced as positive, and may be burdensome for caregivers who give care primarily for extrinsic motivations. As family caregiving needs increase, targeted psychosocial support for caregivers with less autonomous behavioural orientations may pre-empt caregiver burnout and burden.     

Ease‐of‐retrieval effects on procedural justice judgements under conditions of informational and personal uncertainty

This study tests whether individuals' reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval processes when forming procedural justice judgements are moderated by informational and personal uncertainty. In Studies 1 and 2 we examined the predicted effects of informational uncertainty. Results indicated that participants in information‐uncertain conditions relied on ease‐of‐retrieval, whereas those in information‐certain conditions relied on content information to make procedural justice judgements. In Study 3 we examined the combined effects of informational uncertainty and personal uncertainty on reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval when forming procedural justice judgements. The findings of Study 3 indicated that personal uncertain participants who were in informational certain conditions based their procedural justice judgements on content information, whereas all other participants based their procedural justice judgements on ease‐of‐retrieval. This is the first paper to demonstrate that the joint effect of informational uncertainty and personal uncertainty on reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval is different from the two uncertainties acting alone.     

Perceived Injustice Mediates the Relationship Between Perceived Childhood Neglect and Current Function in Patients with Chronic Pain: A Preliminary Pilot Study

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Cumulative evidence supports the association between perceived childhood neglect and adulthood psychological and physical health. To date,...     

Slippery Slope Arguments in Legal Contexts: Towards Argumentative Patterns

Argumentation - Addressing the slippery slope argument (SSA) in legal contexts from the perspective of pragma-dialectics, this paper elaborates the conditions under which an SSA-scheme instance is...