History and Method of Charles V. Gerkin’s Pastoral Theology: Toward an Identity-Embodied and Community-Embedded Pastoral Theology,Part I. History

The purpose of this article is to explore the legacy of Charles V. Gerkin’s pastoral theology and to construct a method of pastoral theology. In Part I, I will trace within a larger context of pastoral theology the history of Gerkin’s pastoral theology since his early clinical praxis. In Part II, I will explore his method of developing pastoral theology and construct a renewed critical and constructive method of pastoral theology, reflecting on the implications of exploring the history and method of his pastoral theology.     

Introduction to symposium on Philosophy and the art of writing by Richard Shusterman

This introductory piece provides context for this symposium on Richard Shusterman's new book, Philosophy and the Art of Writing. The piece reflects on the symposium genre from Plato's classic dialogue to its form today. It claims that Shusterman's work asks us to take this kind of philosophical writing more seriously, and for that reason the symposium itself has taken on a different structure. The piece discusses how each of the contributors responding to the book (with Shusterman leading the way), Eli Kramer, Randall Auxier, and Charles Johnson, have engaged in practicing, nurturing, and supporting broad modes of philosophical writing, and in turn why they have chosen to do so in this context.     

Effects of socialization on the physiological detection of deception

Effects of socialization on the physiological detection of deception using the control question test (CQT) were explored in three mock crime experiments. Subjects were 168 volunteers from criminal, community, and college student populations. Socialization was measured by the Socialization (So) scale of the California Psychological Inventory. All subjects were given a CQT using standard field techniques. The physiological data were blindly evaluated by a semiobjective field scoring technique and previously developed discriminant function. There were no effects of socialization on the accuracy of classification by the semiobjective field scoring or the discriminant function. A modest negative relationship was found between socialization scores and differential reactivity in the CQT as indicated by correlations with the semiobjective (r = −.22) and discriminant scores (r = −.17). It was concluded that socialization is not an important variable for field applications of the CQT.     

The miscommunication of deception: An adaptive perspective

Undergraduates were videotaped as they told lies and truths about their last job. Later, these undergraduates viewed the videotape and tried to guess which of their fellow subject were lying. Monetary incentives had been offered for successful lying and lie detection. Our subjects showed a “demeanor bias”—some looked honest even when they were lying; others looked dishonest even when they were telling the truth. These differences in apparent honesty were the primary determinant of deception judgments; perceivers' detection skills played a lesser role. Honest-looking subjects were predisposed to perceive others as dishonest. In general, our liars used hand gestures, maintained eye contact, and refrained from smiling. Perceivers misconstrued these behaviors as signs of honesty and could not often detect deceit—unless the lie was being told by a subject who had earlier told the truth. We draw on sociobiological concepts and offer an adaptive perspective on human deceit.     

Modeling: An analysis in terms of category accessibility

It is proposed that many of the releasing or disinhibiting effects caused by models can be accounted for by information-processing mechanisms, without recourse to the concept of reinforcement. More specifically, it is suggested that the process of viewing a model's behavior involves the activation of an interpretive schema. This renders the information the schema incorporates more accessible for subsequent use. If the schema incorporates (or is closely related to) behavior-specifying information, that information becomes more accessible as well, thus making it more likely to influence overt behavior. Two studies are reported that assessed the plausibility of this reasoning. In Experiment 1 subjects who had viewed an aggressive model perceived greater hostility in the behavior of an ambiguous stimulus person that they subsequently encountered than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that the model's behavior activated a conceptual schema for use in interpretation. In Experiment 2 subjects in whom an aggressive schema had been activated under a guise displayed greater aggression in their subsequent behavior in a different context than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that activating the conceptual schema also activated behavioral information. The discussion centers on the implications of the findings.     

A perceptual comparison between paired stimulus and single stimulus methods of presentation of the fluent utterances of stutterers

This investigation compared tape recordings containing the fluent utterances of treated stutterers with those of normal speakers as paired stimuli and single stimuli as presented to 20 sophisticated judges. Fluent utterances were obtained from stutterers successfully treated in one of the following programs: (1) Van Riperian, (2) metronome-conditioning speech retraining, (3) delayed auditory feedback, (4) operant conditioning, (5) precision fluency shaping program, and (6) holistic therapy. In addition, a group of partially treated stutterers were included. The original tape recordings containing matched samples of the fluent utterances of a stutterer and normal speaker were presented as paired stimuli. These paired samples were then separated, randomized, and assembled individually on another tape recording and presented as single stimuli to the same judges. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the fluent utterances of treated stutterers was perceptibly different from the fluent utterances of nonstutterers, regardless of the method of stimulus presentation.     

The relation of esteem and vocational counseling to range of incorporation scores

Range of incorporation scores is a potential outcome measure of vocational counseling. Post-test analysis was used to examine the relation of vocational counseling and esteem to 69 Vietnam veterans' ranges of incorporation scores. Measures of esteem and incorporation for eight professions were obtained from 36 veterans who had just completed 10 hr of group counseling and 33 who were just beginning counseling. ANOVA of the ranges of the incorporation scores indicated that high-esteem veterans had higher ranges than low-esteem veterans (p <.05), and suggested that counseled veterans had higher ranges than noncounseled veterans (p ? .10).     

Effects of sucrose concentration and goal units on runway behavior in the rat

Experiment 1 investigated the between-S and within-S effects of sucrose concentration (32 and 6%) and number of goal units (equal volumes of sucrose presented in single or multiple goal cups). The goal-unit variable had no effect on behavior under any of several test conditions employed. Within-S effects of sucrose concentration were approximately equal to between-S effects; no contrast effects were found. When 64 and 6% sucrose solutions were used as reinforcers in Experiment 2, a simultaneous, but not a successive, negative contrast effect was found. Results were discussed in terms of possible functional differences between the successive and simultaneous contrast paradigms and between sucrose solutions and solid food as reinforcers.     

The New Darwinian Naturalism in Political Theory

There has been a resurgence of Darwinian naturalism in political theory, as manifested in the recent work of political scientists such as Roger D. Masters, Robert J. McShea, and James Q. Wilson. They belong to an intellectual tradition that includes not only Charles Darwin but also Aristotle and David Hume. Although most political scientists believe Darwinian social theory has been refuted, their objections rest on three false dichotomies: facts versus values, nature versus freedom, and nature versus nurture. Rejecting these dichotomies would allow the social sciences to be linked to the natural sciences through Darwinian biology.     

FROM BELIEF TO UNBELIEF–AND HALFWAY BACK

Abstract. Through autobiography, I explain why I cannot accept conventional Christianity or any other form of religious belief. I sketch how, through modern evolutionary theory, I try to find an alternative world-picture, one which is, however, essentially agnostic about ultimate meanings. I characterize my position as being that of "David Hume brought up-to-date by Charles Darwin." I express sad skepticism about ever realizing the hopes on which Zygon was founded.