Beyond Total Effects: Exploring the Interplay of Personality and Attitudes in Affecting Turnout in the 2009 German Federal Election

This article addresses the role of personality traits in shaping electoral participation. Utilizing data from a survey conducted after the 2009 German federal election, we demonstrate that agreeableness and emotional stability increase electoral participation. Yet, the main contribution of this article is to link personality traits to attitudinal predictors of turnout. First, we demonstrate that attitudinal variables, including party identification, civic duty, political interest, and internal and external efficacy, serve as intervening variables that mediate the impact of personality on turnout. Second, we show that personality traits exhibit conditioning effects by increasing or decreasing the impact of attitudinal factors on electoral participation. By and large, the evidence suggests that openness, agreeableness, and extraversion render attitudes (somewhat) less powerful in affecting turnout while conscientiousness and emotional stability increase the impact of certain attitudes. Third, we put indirect and conditioning effects together and find that emotional stability and conscientiousness exhibit particularly interesting patterns of effects: They shape attitudes in a way conducive to higher turnout and make these attitudes more powerful in affecting voter participation.     

Psychological wellbeing and quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A review

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with a progressive and rapid course that, so far, cannot be stopped or reversed. The psychological impact of the disease is huge, on both patients and caregivers. This review summarizes studies that have investigated quality of life, depression, anxiety, pain, spiritual and existential issues, hope, and hopelessness in the ALS field, with attention to both patients and their caregivers. Psychological support and the possible role of psychologists in the ALS field are also discussed.     

Combating the Suicide Epidemic: The Effects of Leisure Engagement on the Incidence of Depression and Poor Life Satisfaction in Soldiers

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship of leisure engagement to levels of depression and life satisfaction in U.S. Army Soldiers. The relationship between overall time engaging in leisure, as well as categories of physically active and sedentary leisure, on the incidence of depression and poor life satisfaction were examined. Results from self-report survey of 230 soldiers revealed higher amounts of time spent engaged in leisure correlated with reported lower levels of depression and higher life satisfaction. The categories physically active and sedentary leisure did not demonstrate a distinct relationship to levels of depression, but both positively related to life satisfaction.     

A new member of the family? The continuum of being,artificial intelligence,and the image of God

Abstract

Are the scientific and religious definitions of life irreconcilable or do they overlap in significant areas? What is life? Religion seems to imply that there is a qualitative distinction between human beings and the rest of creation; however, there is a strong tradition in Christianity and in Eastern thought that suggests that the natural world also has a relationship with God. Human dominion over other parts of creation exists, but does not obviate this connection, nor give humans a circle unto themselves. The concept of humans being created in the image of God can be used to explain why we might believe humans are in a circle unto themselves, yet we can expand this concept to include artificially intelligent computers, a new potential member of the cognitive family. Our quest for artificial intelligence tells us both what we value in our humanity, and how we might extend that valuation to the rest of creation.     

Religions in a Secular World

The task of astrotheology is to speculate on the theological, cultural, and ethical implications of space exploration, especially the exploration of astrobiologists into the (1) origin of life; (2) a second genesis of life; and (3) expansion of life beyond earth. When assumptions within the field of astrobiology are examined, we find that the Darwinian model of evolutionary development is imaginatively projected onto extrasolar planets; and this model includes a built-in doctrine of progress. The assumption of progress within evolution permits astrobiologists to look forward to contact with an extraterrestrial civilization that is more intelligent and more advanced than that on earth. Such an extraterrestrial civilization will allegedly have an advanced science that can save earth from its primitive and under-evolved propensity for violence. However, no empirical evidence for a more highly evolved or advanced civilization currently exists, despite these beliefs. The theologian labels the constellation of scientific assumptions here the “ETI myth.” Astrotheology celebrates hard-nosed empirical science and even encourages space exploration; but the mythical assumptions regarding the doctrine of progress within evolution are here given critical analysis.     

The gift of the world: A note on political theology

This paper reads Carl Schmitt and the responses to Schmitt by his interlocutors and critics such as Erik Peterson, Jacob Taubes, Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida in order to argue that the concept of political theology cannot be exhausted in the sense of the term determined by Carl Schmitt. Taking up to analyse Schmitt's politico-theological appropriation of Søren Kierkegaard and reading Kierkegaard in the light of Jacob Taubes and Jacques Derrida anew, the paper hints at the possibility of reading Kierkegaard more radically than Schmittean reading. Such radical possibility of Kierkegaard for us would lie, not so much in the legitimisation of the profane order of the world-historical politics in the name of a theological foundation, but more radically in the delegitimation of any earthly sovereignty as such. Such radical possibility, passing through a deconstruction of sovereignty, must open itself to a new eschatology or a new messianic thought of justice that defers and differs the execution of judgement by any earthly power, opening thereby to the gift of the world in the spacing that separates the political from the theological.     

Traumatic Attachments and Self-Harm Behaviors

Abstract

Work and the structure it affords is one of the most important vehicles for the expression of worth in our society. With so much invested in the external world of position and achievement, threats to job security pose fundamental challenges to individual identity. Recent upheavals in the workplacedownsizings, early retirements, and corporate reorganizationshave shaken the psychological equilibrium of many of our clients, giving rise to feelings of despair and hopelessness. When disruptive and unwanted changes occur later in life, they become additionally tinged with latent concerns about aging and finding meaning as a mature adult.     

Spiritual Inquiry and Well-Being in Life-Limiting Illness

ABSTRACT

Introduction: End of life, as a developmental phase, is accompanied by inner resources as well as losses. Spirituality is a potential inner resource for integrating illness that often occurs during this time. Despite the increase in spirituality research, how spiritual perspectives are used in life-limiting illness remains under-investigated. Better knowledge about this process may be useful for health care providers, family caregivers and patients themselves to enhance well-being at end of life. This study describes the process of how patients and family care-givers use their spiritual resources to facilitate well-being at the end of life.

Method: A qualitative study was designed, based upon the grounded theory method, that entails theoretical sampling of concepts (not sampling of people as in quantitative designs), and the analytic technique of constant comparison of the data until conceptual categories are saturated with supporting data and a theory can be identified. The sample consisted of 12 respondents: 6 dyads of elderly patients with a life-limiting illness and family caregivers. Interviews occurred over a 2-year period.

Results: Data analysis generated a theory about a process called “transcending life-limiting illness,” which derived from two related themes: spiritual inquiry and end-of-life dimensions.

Conclusion: The results expand existing knowledge about how people, either as patients or as family caregivers of persons facing end of life, live with life-limiting illness. The process of transcending life-limiting illness goes beyond merely coping to tap resources for well-being. This resource is expressed through an ongoing dialectic process of spiritual inquiry about life and death as supported by six critical life dimensions.     

新生代员工自杀意念的产生机理

新生代员工的自杀意念正在引起研究者的关注.本研究立足于职业健康心理学和积极心理学视野,汲取自我决定理论和生命意义理论的思想精髓以构建“动机-生命意义”模型,系统考察社会、组织和个体因素对自杀意念的综合影响,对揭示无精神疾患员工自杀意念产生的影响机制和心理动力机制、促进研究范式从病理取向转向积极取向具有重要的理论价值;此外,还有望开发出一套“社会-组织情境→动机→生命意义”干预方案,引导企业与政府反思其现有管理体系,帮助管理者审视其管理哲学并改善其管理行为,针对尚无自杀意念或意念处于萌芽期的员工,多层次、多途径构建员工自杀的一级防控体系和心理援助机制,促进员工与企业、社会的整体和谐发展.     

Friends and family: A cross-cultural investigation of social support and subjective well-being among college students

Despite the growing number of cross-cultural studies focusing on well-being, little is known about social support outside of western civilization, particularly among people in Middle Eastern cultures. The current study examined the relationships between perceived social support and components of subjective well-being (i.e. positive and negative affect, satisfaction with life) among college students in Iran, Jordan, and the United States. Perceived support from family significantly predicted each aspect of well-being within each country. However, perceived support from friends did not predict any component of well-being in Iran; yet, in Jordan and the US, friend support predicted higher levels of positive mood. These results will be examined in terms of roles and relationship norms in these countries.