TOWARD A NEW RELATION BETWEEN HUMANITY AND NATURE: RECONSTRUCTING T'IEN-JEN-HO-I

Abstract. The traditional Chinese idea of t'ien-jen-ho-i (Heaven and humanity in union) implies that humanity has to live in harmony with nature. As science and technology progress, however, the idea appears increasingly outmoded, and it becomes fashionable to talk about overcoming nature. Ironically, though, the further science reaches the more clearly are its limitations exposed. The exploitation of nature not only endangers many life forms on earth but threatens the very existence of the human species. I propose that a reconstruction of the traditional Chinese idea of T'ien-jen-ho-i will help us envisage a new and salutary relation between humanity and nature.     

The intergenerational transmission of relationship instability: A focus on emerging adult on-off relationships

This study extends prior research on the intergenerational transmission of relationship instability by examining parents' history of on-off relationships as a predictor of emerging adults' own cycling (i.e., breaking up and renewing with the same romantic partner). Data were collected at a large mid-western university from 702 emerging adults (18–25 years old). Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood that participants had cycled in a past or current relationship. Results show that parental cycling increased the likelihood of offspring cycling in a past or current relationship relative to never cycling, and greater uncertainty about the future of the relationship was a mechanism through which such transmission occurred. Findings from this study demonstrate that parental relationship instability can even be consequential for the transient relationships within emerging adulthood, making family history a productive area to explore for practitioners working with cyclical partners and/or emerging adults.     

Group Wrongs and Guilt Feelings

Can it ever be appropriate to feel guilt just because one's group has acted badly? Some say no, citing supposed features of guilt feelings as such. If one understands group action according to my plural subject account of groups, however, one can argue for the appropriateness of feeling guilt just because one's group has acted badly - a feeling that often occurs. In so arguing I sketch the plural subject account of groups, group intentions and group actions: for a group to intend (in the relevant sense) is for its members to be jointly committed to intend that such-and-such as a body. Individual group members need not be directly involved in the formation of the intention in order to participate in such a joint commitment. The core concept of joint commitment is in an important way holistic, not being reducible to a set of personal commitments over which each party holds sway. Parties to a group intention so understood can reasonably see the resulting action as "ours" as opposed to "theirs" and thus appropriately respond to the action's badness with a feeling of guilt, even when they themselves are morally innocent in the matter. I label the feeling in question a feeling of "membership guilt." A number of standard philosophical claims about the nature of guilt feelings are thrown into question by my argument.     

USING REINFORCEMENT-BASED METHODS TO ENHANCE MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT IN A VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION

The present study employed reinforcement-based methods to induce existing members to recruit new members to join a chamber of commerce. Three interventions took place during June and July of 3 successive years. The investigators trained chamber leaders to use reinforcement methods (e.g., contingent tokens) to reinforce recruitment and dues collections. All three interventions produced substantial increases in their targets.     

公立医院“医疗联合体”改革探析

公立医院“医疗联合体”改革模式为解决“看病难”问题提供了新思路, 其目的是促使优质医疗资源通过医疗联合体纵向下沉, 从而达到医疗资源最大化利用和居民就诊的合理分流。为了推进我国“医疗联合体”改革模式的发展, 首先分析了医疗联合体的作用和面临的障碍, 然后介绍我国上海、北京、湖北、重庆的“医疗联合体”改革实践模式, 在此基础上对我国“医疗联合体”改革发展提出相关建议, 期望对我国这种改革模式的实施推进提供一定的参考价值。     

The impacts of ignoring individual mobility across clusters in estimating a piecewise growth model

A three-level piecewise growth model (3L-PGM) can be used to break up nonlinear growth into multiple components, providing the opportunity to examine potential sources of variation in individual and contextual growth within different segments of the model. The conventional 3L-PGM assumes that the data are strictly hierarchical in nature, where measurement occasions (level 1) are nested within individuals (level 2) who are members of a single cluster (level 3). However, in longitudinal research, it is sometimes difficult for data structures to remain purely clustered during a study, such as when some students change classrooms or schools over time. One resulting data structure in this situation is known as a multiple membership structure, where some lower-level units are members of more than one higher-level unit. The new multiple membership PGM (MM-PGM) extends the 3L-PGM to handle multiple membership data structures frequently found in the social sciences. This study sought to examine the consequences of ignoring individual mobility across clusters when estimating a 3L-PGM in comparison to estimating a MM-PGM. MM-PGM estimates were less biased (especially in the cluster-level coefficient estimates), although we found substantial bias in cluster-level variance components across some conditions for both models.     

Christian Mysticism and Science: The Phenomenological Dimension

Abstract

In this second of three papers, I identify three fundamental phenomenological themes that have informed Christian mystical theology and then explore how these themes might be given further understanding via natural science. The first theme, detachment, minimizes any association with the secular world in favor of humility and openness to God. Detachment is chosen in consciousness using a resonant global workspace linked through the hippocampus to reconstructions of both declarative and emotional memory. The second theme, infused contemplation, is concerned with God's top-down revelation to the recollected mind of the mystic. The resulting top-down resonance creates an appropriate theory of mind for infused contemplation, as the human mind is now more perfectly linked with the mind of God. The third theme is mystical union, which both theology and science claim occurs within consciousness. Starting in intentional consciousness, the mystic undergoes an unmediated surrender beyond cognition to non-intentional consciousness. Because God fills the center of our being, a resonating luminosity can thus occur arising from the union of God and self within pure consciousness.     

Pathways to Risk Among Inner-City African-American Adolescent Females: The Influence of Gang Membership

Differential rates of participation in three categories of risk behaviors (i.e., sexual activity, substance use, violence) were explored, comparing gang members to nonmembers, within a sample of 1,143 inner-city African American adolescent females. The relationship between gang membership and risk behavior also was examined, by exploring the association between a variety of microsystemic influences (e.g., gang, family, school) and participation in risk behaviors. MANOVA analyses indicated that gang members, relative to nonmembers, reported higher rates of participation in each of the three categories of risk behaviors. Stepwise linear regression analyses indicated that gang membership was the variable with the most consistent predictive ability, across all categories of risk, as it entered early in all equations and remained in all three final models after controlling for other statistically significant contextual variables. Findings suggest that intervention efforts aimed at reducing adolescent females' participation in sexual activity, substance use, and violence should consider the influence of gang membership on the participation in these behaviors.     

A Psychoneurotic Inventory of Penitentiary Inmates

ABSTRACT

Identity fusion theory suggests that merging groups into one’s personal identity should result in heightened levels of group agency. Research on the self-expansion model complementarily indicates that including others into the self is linked to a greater feeling of self-efficacy. Across three correlational studies, we examined whether personal and group identity fusion is associated with stronger feelings of personal agency, and we propose that relatively stable feelings of clarity of self-concept would mediate this association. Individuals strongly fused with a country (Studies 1–3) and family (Study 2) exhibited greater feelings of agency and goal-adherence, and self-concept clarity emerged as a significant mediator of this association when controlling for group identification measures.