Evangelism Challenges the Church's Identity

The gospel of Christ has spread to hundreds of linguistic and cultural communities. Christian churches have come face to face with an extraordinarily positive but nevertheless perplexing problem: Can the churches find the common core message of the holistic gospel or will the actual content of faith become relativized into the interpretation of interpretations? Despite the many different definitions of evangelism/evangelization, evangelism always leads to consideration of the basic questions of faith: its profound understanding and its reception. Evangelism involves the questions of what I believe or believe in, and of what I commit to. In the midst of the constant flow of information and the hectic tempo of life, evangelism challenges the church again and again to reconsider how the gospel can be expressed compactly, but in a rich, understandable, and true‐to‐life way. In the ecumenical discussion, the concept of “witness” as a form of evangelism is becoming increasingly important, because it comprises all the essential dimensions of the whole gospel. Evangelism challenges churches and their members to boldly bear witness by word and deed to Jesus Christ.     

The Differential role of parenting,peers, and temperament for explaining interindividual differences in 18-months-olds’ comforting and helping

This study analyzes temperamental and social correlates of 18-month-olds’ (N = 58) instrumental helping (i.e., handing over out-of-reach objects) and comforting (i.e., alleviating experimenter’s distress). While out-of-reach helping as a basic type of prosocial behavior was not associated with any of the social and temperamental variables, comforting was associated with maternal responsible parenting, day care attendance, and temperamental fear, accounting for 34% of the total variance in a corresponding regression model. The data of the present study suggest that, while simple instrumental helping seems to be a robust developmental phenomenon, comforting is associated with specific social experiences and child temperament that constitute interindividual differences and thereby help to explain the domain-specific development of prosociality.     

Authoritarianism as a Group Phenomenon

A model of authoritarianism on a group level of analysis based on Duckitt's concept of authoritarianism is presented. This conceptualization is called group authoritarianism (GA), which is defined as the belief about the appropriate relationship that should exist between groups and their individual members. The process model of group authoritarianism connects traditional authoritarianism theories with the Social Identity Approach. According to this model group-authoritarianism reflects the situation-specific activation of an authoritarian disposition in group contexts. Thus, group authoritarianism provides a perspective according to which personality characteristics and general psychological mechanisms described by Social-Identity Theory (SIT) and Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) interact in predicting intergroup hostility and intergroup discrimination. This article describes the development of a group authoritarianism scale as well as an experimental study that tests the main assumption of the group authoritarianism process model. The results confirm the reliability and validity of the group authoritarianism scales and the main hypothesis of the group authoritarianism model.     

Adolescent peer crowd self‐identification,attributional style and perceptions of parenting

This paper examines the relationships between self‐identified crowd membership, attributional characteristics, and perceptions of parental style among students in their first year of high school (N = 893). The aim was to assess the extent to which group identity is reflected in self‐reported characteristics. Most students self‐identified either as studious, athletes, populars, rebels, or normals (N = 669) and also completed measures of perceptions of parental styles and attributional style. Consistent differences were observed between self‐identified studious and rebel teenagers. One‐way ANOVAS revealed significant group differences on mother's authoritativeness, father's authoritativeness, positive attributional style, and negative attributional style. These results are discussed with reference to the interplay between group influences and individual characteristics. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identity styles and causality orientations: in search of the motivational underpinnings of the identity exploration process

This study examines relationships between constructs based on two perspectives on the development of self‐governance, namely Self‐Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) and Berzonsky's (1990) identity style model. Theoretically predictable relationships are found between the three causality orientations defined by SDT (autonomous, controlled, and impersonal) and the three identity styles proposed by Berzonsky (informational, normative, diffuse–avoidant) in a sample of Belgian late adolescents. An autonomous causality orientation is positively related to an informational identity style and negatively related to a diffuse–avoidant style. A controlled orientation is positively associated with a normative identity style, and an impersonal orientation is positively related to a diffuse–avoidant identity style. Participants' gender does not moderate these relationships. The findings suggest that the causality orientations late adolescents employ may play an important role in how actively and thoroughly they explore identity‐relevant issues. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

教师教学风格的调查研究

采用教师教学风格量表(TST1),对142名教师的教学风格进行了调查。结果表明：(1)从总体上看,教师的教学风格以激进型、立法型、评判型和整体型四种教学风格为主,这四种教学风格是相对复杂、有创造性、效率较高的教学风格;(2)相对于教龄较短的教师,教龄在20年以上的教师教学风格更加倾向于保守型;(3)相对于文科教师,理科教师和其它学科教师更加倾向于执行型教学风格;(4)一般教师相对于高效能教师更加倾向于执行型、保守型的教学风格,而执行型、保守型是相对简单、效率低和不受欢迎的教学风格(5)1—4年教龄教师中高效能教师的比例远低于5年以上教龄的教师,说明教师进入成熟阶段以后在教学经验、教学风格等方面不断完善,教学效能得以极大提高。     

斯腾伯格思维风格理论述评

通过对传统学校教育弊端的分析,引入了斯腾伯格的“思维风格”理论,即三个层面上13种不同风格的心理自我管理理论,同时阐述了该理论与智力的关系,以及对学校教学改革的影响。我们通过保存多种风格形式,提升学校教学和评估环爷,将多种教育方式匹配于不同的风格类型,并积极教授之来实现对传统教学体制的改革。     

中小学教师应对方式相关因素研究

本文通过对530名中小学教师应对方式、一般自我效能感、社会支持的测试,探讨了三者之间的关系。结果表明：(1)教师一般自我效能感、社会支持对教师采用何种应对方式具有间接或直接的预测作用,且它们可能分别对某种类型的应对方式更具重要性。(2)高自我效能感、高社会支持的教师更倾向于采用适应性应对方式;低自我效能感、低社会支持的教师更倾向于采用情绪指向的应对方式。(3)教师一般自我效能感、社会支持的增加有助于教师压力的缓解和适应性应对方式的采用。     

720名中学生自我同一性地位研究

对中学生自我同一性实证研究表明,中学生自我同一性发展经由一个理慰朦胧——困惑疑为——现实提升的过程。中学生自我同一性地位度数分布中间大,两头小。中学生自我同一性地位存在性别差异。中学生自我同一性地位与学习成效自评交互影响。对中学生自我同一性教育训练应予以重视和加强。     

Impaired ability to give a meaning to personally significant events in patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness affecting sense of identity. Autobiographical memory deficits observed in schizophrenia could contribute to this altered sense of identity. The ability to give a meaning to personally significant events (meaning making) is also critical for identity construction and self-coherence. Twenty-four patients with schizophrenia and 24 control participants were asked to recall five self-defining memories. We assessed meaning making in participants’ narratives (spontaneous meaning making) and afterwards asked them explicitly to give a meaning to their memories (cued meaning making). We found that both spontaneous and cued meaning making were impaired in patients with schizophrenia. This impairment was correlated with executive dysfunctions and level of negative symptoms. Our results suggest that patients’ difficulties in drawing lessons about past experiences could contribute to explain the lack of coherence observed in their life trajectories and their impaired social adjustment abilities. Implications for psychotherapy are also discussed.