Longitudinal Outcomes of Shyness From Childhood to Emerging Adulthood

The primary goal of this study was to explore links between childhood shyness and socioemotional functioning in emerging adulthood. Participants were part of a large-scale Canadian population-based longitudinal sample. Data were available for 3,514 children (8–9 years old) at Time 1 and 1,447 emerging adults (20–21 years old) again at Time 2. Parents completed a brief rating of child shyness at Time 1 and young adults self-reported indices of their socioemotional functioning at Time 2. Among the results, childhood shyness was a significant predictor of both interpersonal and intrapersonal adjustment difficulties at 20–21 years old. Moreover, some gender differences also emerged, with shyness predicting intrapersonal adjustment difficulties more strongly among female than among male participants. Results are discussed in terms of the long term consequences of childhood shyness for emerging adults.     

Longitudinal Predictors of Alcohol‐Related Harms During the Transition to Adulthood

While a range of factors have been found to increase the likelihood of alcohol‐related harms among young people, little is known about their relative importance. This article aimed to identify the risks for alcohol‐related harms at an age when alcohol use and problems tend to peak in Australia (19–20 years). A wide range of concurrent and antecedent factors from multiple domains were examined using path analysis, including individual characteristics, family environment, and externalising and internalising problems. The sample comprised of 941 individuals from the Australian Temperament Project, a large longitudinal community‐based study. The path model controlled for current risky drinking and revealed a number of variables that were significant longitudinal predictors of alcohol‐related harms within each of the domains, including adolescent antisocial behaviour and drinking behaviour, low agreeableness, impulsivity, and paternal drinking levels. The potential for developmental prevention approaches to reduce alcohol‐related harms by targeting externalising behaviour problems, interpersonal influences, and individual characteristics is discussed.     

History and time in Nichiren's Senji-shō

This present study is a reflection upon a case study of an Independent Charismatic Church in the light of Harvey Cox's book, Fire From Heaven. In particular, it seeks to re-examine the theory of Cox that within the emergence of postmodernity religious expression is becoming polarized into the forms of ‘fundamentalism’ and ‘experientialism’. Cox applies this analysis to Pentecostalism and suggests that even now the battle lines are drawn between these polarities. He speculates that glossolalia could be the focus of such a debate between belief and experience within postmodernity and may provide a resource which meets the current ‘ecstasy deficit’ in human spirituality. Evidence from this case study suggests that there are some indications of a cultural shift to postmodernity and that the tensions which Cox highlights are present within the case study. However, it is unclear whether the role of glossolalia in postmodernity will be as important as Cox anticipates. Rather, this study suggests that glossolalia will become merely one symbol among many which form the ‘spiritual bricolage’.     

The study of religion in West Africa 1959–1969

Messianic Judaism is an American-born movement of congregations that hold evangelical beliefs and follow Jewish practices. Scholars have viewed it chiefly as a new religious movement (NRM) or a controversial branch of Judaism. As a result, they have downplayed or ignored its largely evangelical Christian base. The first study of ‘gentile believers,’ this article argues that Messianic Judaism is best understood through the lens of religious seeking, a trend usually associated with alternative spiritualities and still under-theorized vis-à-vis conservative Christians, like evangelicals. First, it traces why Messianic Judaism appeals to growing numbers of North American Christians. Second, and more broadly, it argues that seeking is a spiritually satisfying religious practice that, for evangelicals, reiterates central themes of born-again life. Their experiences also clarify the limits that may constrain religious seeking; they seek to deepen and actualize a biblical worldview in religious sites viewed as proximate to their own.     

Children in psychodynamic psychotherapy: changes in global functioning

This study was part of the Erica Process and Outcome Study. The aim was to investigate if children's global functioning improves after psychodynamic psychotherapy. Variables that may predict changes in global functioning were examined both statistically and qualitatively, for example, the child's age and gender; diagnosis and comorbidity; treatment variables. The sample consisted of 33 children (five to 10 years of age) who participated in psychodynamic psychotherapy with parallel work with parents. Twenty-nine children had at least one DSM-IV diagnosis, and 15 children had comorbid conditions. At the start of psychotherapy, the most frequent diagnoses were attention disorder and disruptive behaviour. Child psychotherapists rated the children's global functioning using CGAS and HCAM. Large effect sizes were obtained (d = 1.80 and d = 1.98). However, no statistical correlations were found between global functioning and the selected variables. In order to illuminate the complex connection between process and outcome the study was complemented with in-depth case studies where data were taken from questionnaires, completed by the child therapists every third month. Two child therapies were selected: one in which the therapist rated a large change and one in which a small change was rated (CGAS). The analysis showed that important individual change, for example, attainment of formulated goals, was not always reflected in the change rated using the CGAS. Findings suggest that psychodynamic child psychotherapy can be beneficial. However, further research is needed to identify factors that contribute to change in children's global functioning.     

The Dawning of a Thought and the Role of Play and Trauma

A critical scrutiny of Freud's case the Rat Man elucidates the implications of the built-in contradictions that Freud made while evolving the psychoanalytic method. By comparing the published case of the Rat Man with Freud's private notes we get access to two different perspectives. Wishing to mould a clinical situation that would confirm his theories and uphold the image of the psychoanalyst as an authority figure, Freud was partly blind to some irrational distortions in how he perceived the interaction between the patient and himself. Contradictory explicit and unconscious “theories” and the emergence of a more modern understanding of transference, which includes inter-subjective dimensions, are expounded.     

Genetic and Environmental Transmission of Political Orientations

This article reports results from the first twin study of adults in the United States that focuses exclusively and comprehensively on political traits. These data allow us to test whether a common set of genetic and environmental influences act upon a broad variety of values, personality traits, and political attitudes. In short, it allows us to empirically investigate whether there are a core set of predispositions that form the basis of our political orientations and, if so, whether these predispositions are shaped by the same environmental and innate forces. The key finding from our analysis is that there are core political predispositions that are rooted in common genetic and environmental influences and that these predispositions are empirically distinct from broader personality traits.     

Common ground on object use associates with caregivers’ gesturese

Caregivers modify their communication when interacting with infants, and these modifications have been related to children's language development. However, the factors influencing caregivers’ modification of gestures are understudied. This study examined whether infants’ object knowledge, considered as common ground shared with the caregiver, relates to caregivers’ gesturese. Six caregiver-infant dyads were videotaped every two months for 15 min in their homes, from child age 8-to-16 months, while they played with two separate objects (i.e. toys). Results indicated that the changes in infants’ object knowledge were paralleled by associated changes in caregivers’ gestures: parents increased both the amount and the complexity of their gestures.     

Does high educational level protect against intellectual decline in older adults?: A 10‐year longitudinal study

This study examined the relation between educational level and intellectual change in Japanese older adults. Participants (age = 65–79 years, n = 593) comprised the first‐wave participants of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences‐Longitudinal Study of Aging (NILS‐LSA). They were followed for 10 years and were tested six times. Educational levels were divided into two groups (low‐educated or high‐educated), and intellectual changes for the 10 years were assessed using the Japanese Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised Short Forms (JWAIS‐R‐SF); subtests included Information, Similarities, Picture Completion, and Digit Symbol. General linear mixed‐model analyses revealed that education had not affected 10‐year changes of the Information, Similarities, and Picture Completion subtest scores. In contrast, education was significantly associated with a change in the Digit Symbol subtest score; individuals with higher levels of education showed greater decline than those with less education, although they had higher ability at every time point. These findings suggest that higher education does not protect against intellectual decline in late life, although it is associated with long‐term individual differences in intelligence.     

Science,Scripture, and the Hermeneutics of Ascension

Abstract

From the perspective of the science–religion dialogue, the ascension of Jesus represents one of the most challenging of all Christian doctrines to negotiate. It necessitates, on the one hand, the interpretation of richly allusive and diverse biblical texts, and on the other hand, the resolution of scientific and theological paradoxes at the edge of conceptualization. I suggest a possible way forward which makes use of a conversational approach informed by Gadamerian hermeneutics. This keeps the peculiarities and particularities of individual texts foremost, and allows the perspectives of science, theology and biblical studies to engage at first hand over them.