A RAFT THAT FLOATS: EXPERIENCE,TRADITION, AND SCIENCES IN GUSTAFSON'S THEOCENTRIC ETHICS

Abstract. Although James Gustafson's use of the Christian Bible and tradition is not fully displayed in the essays published here, Bible and tradition are a crucial part of a composite rationale, which includes experience and the sciences, for his theocentric ethics. Gustafson's theocentric ethics employs the sciences to back, inform, and correct the Christian tradition and offers grounds for respecting the natural piety and morality of “nonreligious” persons while explaining and justifying why Christians draw on major themes and metaphors from their tradition that should penetrate their piety and morality. His proposal should reorient the thinking of theological ethics more than it has thus far.     

Job satisfaction related to tested congruence and differentiation

Tested personality-environment congruence and differentiation, singly and in combination, as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (J. L. Holland, Palo Alto, California, Consulting Psychologists Press, 1977b), were predictive of reported job satisfaction for teachers employed in five subject matter areas. Time-related variables and sex were not significantly related to the job satisfaction measure used in the study.     

Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear appeals and attitude change

The effects of fear appeals on persuasion were investigated in a factorial experiment that was designed to test a combined model of protection motivation theory and self-efficacy theory. As predicted, the probability of a threat's occurrence and the effectiveness of a coping response both had positive main effects on intentions to adopt a recommended preventive health behavior. More importantly, the findings provided support for self-efficacy expectancy as a fourth component of protection motivation theory: Self-efficacy had a direct influence on intentions and interacted with two other variables of protection motivation theory. The interaction effect was interpreted in terms of two new decision-making strategies that people use when confronted with a fear appeal: a precaution strategy and a hyperdefensiveness strategy. In addition, the results replicated previous findings on the relationship between self-efficacy expectancy and outcome expectancy. A model incorporating protection motivation theory and self-efficacy theory is presented as a possible general model of attitude change.     

Employee perceptions of the work environment and mental health: A suggestive study

The purpose of this study was to examine a model for investigating employee mental health in industrial environments and, more particularly, to determine the extent to which a worker's perceptions of the environment covaried with mental health criteria. The managerial segments of two divisions of a 35,000 employee company were represented in this study. In general, it was found that employees who perceived the environment as having clarity in the organizational structures, little administrative interference in work processes, equitable reward systems, and trust and consideration for employees tended to have more favorable scores on mental health indices. Also, some differences between the two work environments, as well as between male and female employees, were noted and discussed.     

Hypothesis analysis of sameness-difference learning-set by capuchin monkeys

Sameness-difference discriminations were presented to capuchin monkeys and hypothesis analysis was applied to the data. Learners and nonlearners evidenced differences in overall performance and in relative strengths of hypotheses. Learners initially displayed markedly more random than position responding whereas nonlearners evidenced more position than random responding and remained particularly prone to position habits. Stimulus preference and aversion, suppressed by learners by the end of training, reemerged at the onset of two-object discriminations containing previously preferred and aversive stimuli. Hypothesis analysis indicated that when preferred stimuli were positive the correct hypothesis was more evidenced, and stimulus preference or aversion as well as random hypotheses were less evidenced, than when aversive stimuli were positive.     

Generality and topic specificity of cognitive styles

A multitrait-multimethod strategy was used to assess eight structural properties of cognition applied to several classes of objects by 88 university students in Boulder, Colorado, United States, and 80 university students in Kyoto and Otsu, Japan. Each cognitive style was found to display some degree of generality over object classes and also some degree of class specificity. It is concluded that cognitive style depends on the subject, the class of objects considered, and an interaction between the two.     

A developmental model for the occupational socioeconomic status of American men

Prior research suggested that psychological, sociological and economic variables, measuring both differential and developmental dimensions, must be considered for an exhaustive analysis of adult vocational status. From the resulting estimated predictive model, occupational socioeconomic status was examined through 16 selected family, ecological, educational, ethnoreligious, and political predictor variables. The data were obtained from a national sample of 1355 American men. Factor analysis supported the hypothesized existence of an educational-socioeconomic factor and a political identification factor, plus a less discrete religiousity factor. Path analysis confirmed that a respondent's education, adult social class, and father's occupational socioeconomic status were principle predictors of the respondent's occupational socioeconomic status.     

Occupational mobility as measured by Holland's theory of career selection

This study examined the occupational mobility of men ages 45–59 as measured by Holland's theory of career selection and its relationship to men in the work force. Stability was discussed in two distinct ways: (1) stability within a job, and (2) stability in the kind of work a man does over a career. In his research Holland concluded that Realistic and Investigative personality types would change personality type less often and have more stable job choices in comparison to other personality types. The results of this study supported these findings to some extent, but also concluded that stability in a personality type was strongly influenced by the number of jobs available in a particular personality type and the structure of the labor market demand. In addition the results showed that psychological concepts seem to be more important in changing jobs than in selecting initial jobs.     

The psychology of farming: A review of twenty-five years of research

If all of mankind is to have an adequate diet, we must both stabilize world population and increase markedly world food supply. Moreover, attaining any such increase in food supply may be as much a problem in vocational psychology (e.g. the skill, knowledge, openness to change, and motivation of farmers) as in agricultural technology. The purpose of this review is to further psychological work on agricultural productivity by listing and evaluating a cross-section of relevant articles since 1945. Because psychologists have largely ignored agriculture, most reviewed studies were conducted by other behavioral scientists. Studies are grouped according to three broad areas: (1) predictors of choice, success, and satisfaction; (2) adoption of recommended practices; and (3) communal agriculture.