Story Coalitions: Applying Narrative Theory to the Study of Coalition Formation

This article explores the potential of incorporating narrative theory into the study of coalition formation. Following a discussion of the role of narratives in group‐formation processes in a coalition‐driven dynamic, we offer a theoretical framework to examine the ways political stories espoused by people are mirrored by the partisan system. We integrate theoretical assumptions of narrative studies with coalition‐formation theories in an attempt to frame coalition‐formation models in terms of voters' political stories. We test our theoretical framework by simulating various possible coalitions in the Israeli 2009 elections and assess the results based upon data from an exit poll survey.     

Abstracts From the Northern Lights Psychology Conference. University of North Dakota October 2001

The authors examined the effects of forbidden information on the employee-selection process. They presented the participants with 4 applicants for the position of cashier-stockperson. One of the applicants (the Target Applicant) provided a mixture of forbidden and job-relevant information; the remaining applicants gave no forbidden information. Some of the participants were told before they reviewed the applicants what types of information were to be considered as forbidden, and they were instructed to disregard any such information in the applications. The remaining participants were not aware of the presence of the forbidden information, nor were they instructed to disregard such information. The participants who were instructed to disregard the forbidden information rated the Target Applicant more favorably than did those who were not aware of its presence. Moreover, those in the disregard condition recalled less of the forbidden information and more of the job-relevant information about the Target Applicant than did those in the no-instruction condition. These data patterns support laboratory-based studies on intentional forgetting.     

Parental Relationships,Autonomy, and Identity Processes of High School Students

To examine the interrelations among parental relationships, emotional autonomy, and identity statuses, the authors asked 234 (105 male, 129 female) high school students to complete the Parental Bonding Scale (G. Parker, H. Tupling, &; L. B. Brown, 1979), Emotional Autonomy Scale (L. D. Steinberg &; S. B. Silverberg, 1986), and Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Scale-II (L. D. Bennion &; G. R. Adams, 1986). There continues to be controversy about whether adolescents’ identity formation is related to their emotional separation from their parents. According to Eriksonian and neo-Eriksonian theory (J. E. Marcia, 1980 Marcia, J. E. 1980. “Identity in adolescence”. In Handbook of adolescent psychology, Edited by: Adelson, J. 159–187. New York: Wiley.  [Google Scholar], 1984), adolescents who are successful in resolving their identity issues are better able to emotionally individuate from their parents. That is, adolescents have fewer conflicts with parents as they become more independent of them. Results of the present study indicate that adolescent perceptions of mother's caring behavior, but not father's caring behavior, predicted higher foreclosure identity status scores among adolescents. In addition, 2 dimensions of emotional autonomy (i.e., perceiving parents as people and parental deidealization) best predicted the adolescent identity statuses of moratorium and foreclosure. Results also indicate that future research may need to establish a better theoretical conceptualization of the constructs of interest in this study and better measures of emotional autonomy among adolescents.     

Testing Effects of Community Collaboration on Rates of Low Infant Birthweight at the County Level

Interorganizational collaboration has become a popular strategy for addressing population health and well-being. However, evidence for its effectiveness in achieving outcomes at the population level is limited, at least in part due to a variety of methodological challenges such as reduced sample size at the population level, the availability of suitable comparison groups of communities, and study durations that are too short to detect slowly emerging outcomes. The present study addresses these challenges by retrospectively examining the effectiveness of a mature network of community collaboratives, using latent growth modeling of longitudinal change in an archival community-level outcome, low infant birthweight, and propensity score matching of comparison communities. A group of 25 Georgia counties with collaboratives targeting low infant birthweight was compared to a weighted comparison group of counties from other southeastern states, using propensity score matching. We report results of full matching methods and outcome analyses examining differences in change in county rates of low infant birthweight from 1997 to 2004 between intervention and comparison counties. Results indicated significantly smaller increases in low weight birth rates in intervention counties than in comparison counties.     

“Using New Eyes”: Photography as a Spiritual Practice for Faith Formation and Worship

This article presents three cases of how Lutheran groups used photography as a spiritual practice in processes that led to group spiritual reflection for faith formation and worship: a photography club; a Photography as a Spiritual Practice mini‐course in a parish; and a six‐month parish project of communal art‐making of liturgical media art for one church's Easter Vigil readings.     

Experimental test of a planning intervention for forming a ‘higher order’ health-habit

Abstract

Objective: Habit-formation interventions may help individuals initiate and maintain behaviour change. This paper proposes and empirically tests the idea that it is possible for individuals to form ‘higher-order habits’, or behaviours that can be executed in more than one way, and still be habitual.

Design: Participants (N?=?82) were healthy adults randomly assigned to an action-and-coping-planning intervention for forming a ‘higher-order habit’ of filling half of their dinner plates with fruits and vegetables or a control condition. Key measures were collected at baseline and 1, 2 and 3 weeks post-baseline. Participants submitted 3 pictures per week of their dinner plates via snapchat/email.

Main Outcome Measures: Intrinsic motivation, habit strength and behavioural frequency for filling half their dinner plates with fruits and vegetables.

Results: Intervention participants reported significantly greater habit strength at each follow-up time point. Controls did show some degree of habit formation, despite not fully forming a habit. Behavioural automaticity increased despite consuming a variety of fruits/vegetables; results did not depend on participants’ intrinsic motivation to consume fruits/vegetables.

Conclusion: It may be possible for individuals to form ‘higher-order’ habits, which may be particularly important in health contexts, in which many target behaviours are complex and can be seen as higher-order.     

Living by the manual: Ego-oriented social character – pathogenic effects of globalization

Abstract

According to Erich Fromm and a relational psychoanalytic approach, changing economic and social requirements always impact human beings and their psychic structure. Because globalization leads particularly to a blurring of boundaries and limitations, the formation of a new character orientation that is driven to construct reality anew without limitations can be observed as a reaction in progress. The pathogenic effects of globalization can be studied through the analysis of this new character formation and the uncovering of repressed, unconscious feelings that characterize the new personality type, especially in regard to their sense of identity, their way of relating to others, and their de facto loss of ego strength – in contrast to the enacted “ego unlimited.” Finally, some aspects of transference and countertransference, as well as some particular defense reactions with which we psychoanalysts are confronted in the treatment of patients suffering from the pathogenic effects of globalization, will be discussed.     

Structural changes induced by low-energy electron irradiation in GaSb

Structural changes in GaSb (001) thin films upon low-energy electron (125?keV) irradiation have been studied by in situ transmission electron microscopy. No structural changes were observed for irradiation at room temperature. However, in a sample irradiated at 473?K domains of {110} variant, rotated 90° from each other, were formed in the matrix. The average diameter of the domains was approximately 18?nm in the sample irradiated to a fluence of 4.8?×?10²⁴?electrons/m². It is considered that the domains are pseudo-{110} planes in the matrix formed by electron-irradiation-induced Shockley partial dislocations.     

Assigning Integration: A Framework for Intellectual,Personal, and Professional Development in Seminary Courses

This article explores assignments as a core teaching practice essential to integrating the cognitive, personal, and professional identities of seminary students. These core practices emerge in seminary curricula where there is a strong focus on the teaching of canonical texts and a goal of achieving textual mastery. We propose that carefully chosen and constructive assignments achieve the kind of integration necessary for building content knowledge and the professional, spiritual, and religious identities of our students. While the difference between the educational goals of clergy‐training in a seminary and training graduate students in the academy can be sharp, we argue here for ways to make that contrast both productive and generative.     

New Worlds,New Civilizations? From Science Fiction to Science Fact

ABSTRACT

Although long predicted on theoretical grounds, prior to the 1990s there was no observational evidence of worlds orbiting distant stars; however, the development of new technologies has enabled the discovery of thousands of these exoplanets. The diversity of these worlds exceeds scientific expectations and rivals foreshadowing by the most creative science fiction writers. Extrapolations based on statistical arguments and our understanding of how planetary systems form suggest exoplanets may outnumber the roughly 10 million quadrillion stars in the observable Universe. There are compelling reasons to expect conditions conducive to life on many of these worlds, but the existence of extraterrestrial life remains an open question. Although galaxy-spanning civilizations envisioned in science fiction remain unlikely, future contact with extraterrestrial species is not implausible, and in any case, the likelihood of having a human presence on Mars within the next few decades lends urgency to global, cross-cultural religious and ethical discussions.