‘We’re all poor nuts and things happen,and we just get mixed in wrong,that’s all’ lessons for psychotherapy from Eugene O’Neill’s play,Anna Christie

Anna Christie, by the Irish American playwright Eugene O’Neil, is a powerful play, depicting hurt emotions, injured selves and the hardened exteriors that people fashion to blame and afford a measure of protection. It relays the story of an abandoned daughter and her reunion with her father, their (relative) reconciliation, and meeting a new man, and the consequences of her revelation of prostitution. From textual analysis of the play, the paper explores themes of shame, repudiation and self-protection, including the formidable, or ultimate defence of ‘unassailability’. It is argued that the psychotherapist has something valuable to learn from this harrowing and evocative work of literature.     

Christianity in the world of Japan’s religions: reception,incorporation, separation

This article traces three key themes in the encounter of Christianity with Japanese culture: namely, reception, incorporation and separation. It argues that these three can also be traced in the much longer engagement of Buddhism with Japan, and that their complex interaction is a helpful way of understanding the tension of inner and outer in Japanese Christian experience.     

How do my students think about ME as an English-language teacher?

The concepts of student-centered classrooms, empowering students with communicative competences to be able to voice their ideas in the surrounding community, powerless and marginalized strata, are conspicuous and prevalent in recent research articles. Teachers are well-acquainted with pertinent underpinnings and theories of teaching methodologies; and some research is also conducted to see how those learned theories in pre-service and in-service programs are implemented in their real-life classrooms. But, the teachers’ reflection on implementation of their teaching practices in classrooms is still a venue which needs further investigation within an international scope. Here, my own teaching practice within a period of two semesters is reflected through the 61 male and female students’ sharp and meticulous eyes, which is reflected in their written responses to the posed question at the end of their final exams, and some of my notes from their comments in each of their classes. The Constant Comparative method was then used to unearth students’ comments and feedback on both my personality as an English-language teacher, and my teaching practice respectively.     

God’s Faithfulness and Dementia: Christian Theology in Context

Christian theology concerns the practical, contextual realities of life in the church and the world. What does this mean for a person with dementia? While much dementia care focuses on deficits, this article promotes a different starting point: God’s faithfulness rather than our forgetfulness. Using case studies from residential aged care, opportunities for meaningful pastoral care are explored, inviting us to see in the person with dementia a deep connection with ourselves. Drawn from a theological understanding of God as three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—“person-centered care” invites us into relationships of mutuality and reciprocity not dependent on words. Pastoral care of families is manifest through personal relationships where all aspects of dementia, including death and dying, can be discussed openly. Grounded in God’s faithfulness, the first and final word is love. Hope lies in the belief that we have already been found. We are blessed by the grace of God, called into community where the insightful and the forgetful flourish together.     

面孔对领导者有多重要?——领导者的面孔特征研究述评

近年来,面孔研究已渗透进领导力研究领域,并掀起了一股领导者面孔特征的研究热潮。目前,可操作化的领导者面孔特征主要包括:面孔年龄、面孔宽高比和面孔特质,这些面孔特征不仅会影响下属的态度和行为,还能提供客观的组织绩效信息。认知心理学的内隐领导理论、原型匹配理论和进化心理学的优良基因理论、本能释放理论是上述机制的重要依据。未来研究可探讨华人领导者的娃娃脸效应及权变因素。     

包容性领导与下属揭发意愿的关系:一个被调节的中介效应模型

通过332组在职MBA学员样本数据分析验证了包容性领导对下属揭发意愿的影响机制,结果表明:(1)包容性领导显著正向影响下属的揭发意愿;(2)组织支持感在包容性领导与揭发意愿之间起完全中介作用;(3)上司组织代表性调节包容性领导与下属组织支持感之间的关系,上司的组织代表性越高,二者间的正向关系越强;(4)上司组织代表性调节组织支持感对包容性领导与下属揭发意愿之间关系的中介作用。     

Judgments of blame and forgiveness: A comparison of young adults,older adults,and older adults with dementia

IntroductionAlzheimer's disease may modify moral judgment.ObjectiveIn two studies, we assessed the impact of dementia on blame and forgiveness. Study 1 compared the ways in which young adults, older adults, and older adults with dementia cognitively integrated two factors. Study 2 assessed the number of different factors that older adults with dementia were able to integrate during these moral judgments.MethodThe participants recorded their moral judgements in a blame task and in a forgiveness task. In study 1, the two questionnaires contained scenarios built from the combination of two factors. In study 2, the participants were confronted with the same tasks under three different conditions with scenarios that combined three, four or five factors.ResultsThe data from study 1 showed that the older adults with dementia did not combine the two factors in the same way as young adults did: the combination depended on the type of moral judgment. Study 2 revealed differences in moral judgment between older adults with dementia and adults without dementia in all tasks (i.e. with three, four or five factors combined).ConclusionDementia has an impact on moral judgments. Moral judgment among people with dementia is both task- and condition-dependant.     

Improving parent–child interactions through interactive reading workshops

IntroductionMany authors agree on the importance of training parents in early literacy strategies.ObjectiveThis study analyses the effects of an intervention to improve parent–child interactions during reading sessions, using interactive reading techniques.MethodThe design is exploratory and includes a treatment group (n = 22), which benefited from four interactive reading workshops, and a control group (n = 18), which did not benefit from specific training. Both groups read the same books, three times a week, for 10 weeks. The children come from middle socioeconomic backgrounds and attend preschool or kindergarten (grades 1–3).ResultsThe analyses were conducted on the basis of pre- and post-intervention video observations, coded using the Adult–Child Interactive Reading Inventory (ACIRI). Results from an ANCOVA show that parental behavior, and in turn child behavior, improves in post-intervention: parents improve their children's attention to the text and implement literacy strategies, while the children become more involved in the interactions.ConclusionInteractive reading workshops for parents improve the quantity and quality of parent–child interactions when reading books in a natural and playful context.     

When to (or not to) trust intelligent machines: Insights from an evolutionary game theory analysis of trust in repeated games

The actions of intelligent agents, such as chatbots, recommender systems, and virtual assistants are typically not fully transparent to the user. Consequently, users take the risk that such agents act in ways opposed to the users’ preferences or goals. It is often argued that people use trust as a cognitive shortcut to reduce the complexity of such interactions. Here we formalise this by using the methods of evolutionary game theory to study the viability of trust-based strategies in repeated games. These are reciprocal strategies that cooperate as long as the other player is observed to be cooperating. Unlike classic reciprocal strategies, once mutual cooperation has been observed for a threshold number of rounds they stop checking their co-player’s behaviour every round, and instead only check it with some probability. By doing so, they reduce the opportunity cost of verifying whether the action of their co-player was actually cooperative. We demonstrate that these trust-based strategies can outcompete strategies that are always conditional, such as Tit-for-Tat, when the opportunity cost is non-negligible. We argue that this cost is likely to be greater when the interaction is between people and intelligent agents, because of the reduced transparency of the agent. Consequently, we expect people to use trust-based strategies more frequently in interactions with intelligent agents. Our results provide new, important insights into the design of mechanisms for facilitating interactions between humans and intelligent agents, where trust is an essential factor.     

Factors affecting motorcyclists’ behavior in car-following condition

Car-following (CF) maneuver plays an important role in both traffic flow analysis and road safety assessment. However, many studies on this issue have focused on the drivers’ behaviour, neglecting the different driving behaviour of the motorcycle riders and the vulnerability of this type of user. The aim of the present paper is to analyse the factors affecting the riders’ behaviour in CF condition, by using two surrogate safety indicators, Time Headway (TH) and Time To Collision (TTC). A field experiment was conducted to collect data. Twenty young motorcyclists participated in the study driving their own motorcycles, which were instrumented with a camera and a global positioning system device (GPS). A digital image processing algorithm was used to obtain CF related indicators. The results of the study showed that Time Headway (TH) and Time To Collision (TTC) are independent of each other, extending the result obtained in the literature for the four wheeled vehicles to the motorcycles. TTC and TH were therefore analyzed separately. As for TTC, it was observed that only in few cases (0.8%) the riders were found in risky condition (TTC < 5 s), confirming the role of this parameter for the detection of an impending risk. On the other hand, TH gives information about a potentially risky situation, and 99% of the riders were found in such condition (TH < 2 s). Due to the few cases in TTC risky conditions, only TH was further modelled by using the hazard-based duration analysis. Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) model specification was used, and the Weibull distribution provided the best fit of the data. The model identified four covariates affecting TH and all of them had the effect of reducing TH, increasing the collision risk. The time spent on CF condition, the speed of the motorcycle, the willingness of overtaking and the engine size of the motorcycle were the factors that reduced TH.The findings of this study could be considered in the development of microsimulation models; the factors that were found affecting the motorcyclists’ behavior in car-following condition could be considered for a more realistic simulation of the riders’ choice of Time Headway.