Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary

Starting from the context in which there is an increasing emphasis on ecclesial revitalisation and churchplanting, the analytical model of the Australian National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research is introduced and described in its background and characteristics. The model shows particular interest in a specific church profile which is created based on local church surveys. The article describes the profile, examines the theological concepts and argues for in-depth empirical research in a Dutch context concerning the use of the profile.     

The Second Vatican Council 50th anniversary: visions and re-visions

On 21 November 2014, the 50th anniversary of the solemn promulgation of Lumen Gentium and Unitatis Redintegratio was celebrated. Between ‘aggiornamento’ and ‘ressourcement’ the Catholic Church had been striving to understand itself and its Tradition more precisely, in order to be newly relevant, lastingly true and authoritative in the future ? an indispensible task, if the gospel were to be proclaimed to the contemporary world, but not an easy one. It is little wonder that this completion of the Council's endeavours was preceded by its so-called ‘black week’. Questions remain as to the outcome of it all, and the articles assembled in this issue assess the reception of these two conciliar texts after 50 years. Where do the achievements lie? Where are the shortcomings? Where do questions need to be asked today that reach beyond the horizon of Vatican II?     

Gender: Genetics,Genitality, Generosity (Grace), Gentility

After acknowledging that gender is defined at many levels and that definitions may not be concordant across all of these layers of human development, this essay illuminates how these threads intertwine with one another to produce a final product that we call a person. Gene expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, and anatomic structures are not always coterminus. Arbitrarily assigning an infant child with maldefined genitalia to a socially defined gender role on the basis of surgical convenience may (should) be perceived as an act of violence, and an untruth. A further intent of this article is to help in pastoral settings to respond to events which raise points of anxiety and concern, among persons of faith, which are sometimes associated with instances of discrepancy.     

The Duty to Rescue and the Limits of Confidentiality

Surveys and routine clinical procedures applied in research protocols are typically considered only minimally risky to participants. The apparent benign nature of "minimal risk" tasks increases the chance that investigators and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) will overlook the probability that clinical tools will identify signs, symptoms, or definitive test results that are clinically-relevant to subjects' welfare. "Minimal risk" procedures may also pose a particular hazard to participants in clinical research by increasing the therapeutic misconception because the tasks mimic clinical care and are often conducted in clinical settings. Investigators should anticipate which measures could yield clinically-important findings and should describe explicit plans for data monitoring, disclosure, and follow-up. Protocols that include reliable and valid clinical measures should prompt a more detailed risk assessment by the IRB, even when the tasks meet the regulatory criteria for minimal physical, psychological, or emotional risk.     

Will the “Real Boy” Please Behave: Dosing Dilemmas for Parents of Boys with ADHD

The use of Ritalin and other stimulant drug treatments for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) raises distinctive moral dilemmas for parents; these moral dilemmas have not been adequately addressed in the bioethics literature. This paper draws upon data from a qualitative empirical study to investigate parents' use of the moral ideal of authenticity as part of their narrative justifications for dosing decisions and actions. I show that therapeutic decisions and actions are embedded in valued cultural ideals about masculinity, self-actualization and success, as well as in moral conceptions of authenticity and personal freedom. I argue that this investigation of parents' moral justifications and dosing dilemmas raises questions about the validity of authenticity as a transcendent moral principle. Moreover, this study demonstrates that in order to be relevant, bioethical analysis of neurocognitive enhancement must engage with ground-up studies of moral principles and decision-making in context.     

Curriculum-Based Measurement

Abstract

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) has evolved as a reliable and valid method for measuring and monitoring student performance in basic academic skills. While the efficacy of CBM for assessing reading skills is not in question, issues remain regarding whether or not a difference exists between CBM probes derived directly from the instructional curriculum and generic probes. The current study extends previous research comparing the utility of two types of CBM reading probe materials. Both types of probes were administered to 13 second grade students twice weekly for 5 weeks. No significant differences were found between the two probe types' measurement of performance or progress over time, which suggests that school psychologists and educational professionals can use generic or curriculum-dependent probes in curriculum-based measurement.     

Multicriteria Classification with Unknown Categories: A Clustering–Sorting Approach and an Application to Conflict Management

This work proposes an approach to cluster and sort a set of alternatives considering multi‐criteria categories with a partial order structure. It can be considered a heuristic approach because it does not attempt to derive an optimal partial order among all conceivable clusters of alternatives. Rather than this, it intends to be a simple approach that is transparent to the Decision Maker (DM) whose assistance is sought to help shaping the results. The approach proposed arises from the conjugation of traditional Clustering analysis and Multi‐criteria sorting tools. At the outset, the number of categories and their characteristics is unknown. First, we need to detect only the clusters themselves on the basis of a similarity measure independent of the preferences of the DM. Next, we detect potential partial order relations that might exist between them, according to the subjective preferences of the DM. Such preferences are elicited only after the DM has examined the clusters detected and deemed that these categories made sense. The new approach performs very well in a real‐world problem of management of intragroup conflicts and conflict handling strategies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coping with Intimate Partner Violence: Battered Women's Use and Perceived Helpfulness of Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies

This study investigated intimate partner violence (IPV) victims' emotion-focused coping efforts, as well as their retrospective ratings of the perceived helpfulness of these efforts, in the context of a longitudinal study of battered women's experiences over time. Four hundred and six primarily African American, low-income battered women who had experienced IPV within the previous 12 months were interviewed. Patterns of coping use and perceived helpfulness were explored. The correlation between prevalence of use of emotion-focused coping strategies and perceived helpfulness of these strategies was examined, and results showed that the strategies used by more battered women were less helpful in dealing with feelings about abuse. Implications for clinical interventions with battered women are discussed.     

Batterer Program Directors' Views on Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence

This article reports on a national survey of batterer intervention program (BIP) directors (N?=?150). The beliefs of these directors on the relationship of substance abuse and domestic violence is reported and discussed. BIP director's opinions are important because they make programmatic and treatment decisions. Most BIP directors believe that for many of their clients, both men and women, perpetrator and victim, violence and substance abuse is related. Treatment and methodological considerations are discussed.     

History and Analysis of Delayed Discovery Statutes of Limitations in Adult Survivor Litigation

Summary

In this chapter, attorney Mary R. Williams examines how while Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases share many of the types of facts for which delayed discovery, mental incapacity, equitable estoppel and other legal statutes of limitations doctrines were created, the combination of factors of CSA cases, including unusual social dynamics and long-term psychological effects, does not fit exactly with any of these legal doctrines. She explores the historical development of delayed discovery statutes of limitations, evaluates the different types of statutes and case law, and analyzes the problematic use of the concept of repression in legislation. This chapter interprets her ground-breaking state-by-state tabulations of delayed discovery statutes of limitations and reported appellate decisions on limitations in CSA actions, published in this volume as appendices A, B, and C.