Fracturing Over Creation Care? Shifting Environmental Beliefs Among Evangelicals, 1984–2010

While evangelicals have been popularly portrayed as caring primarily about social issues including abortion and homosexuality, there have been more reports in recent years of evangelical leaders, congregations, and institutions shifting focus to environmental issues. Are evangelicals shifting attention to and becoming more progressive in their views on the environment? Moreover, are evangelicals fracturing over the issue of environmentalism, as some have suggested? Using content analysis of three evangelical periodicals (Christianity Today, Sojourners, and World) from 1984 to 2010, I find not only that attention to environmental issues has increased over time, but also that the discussion has grown increasingly polarized and politicized. This change represents a potentially important break with the Republican Party and the Christian Right, as moderate evangelicals have moved to the left on environmental issues. Even among highly religious, self‐identified evangelical political elites, there is more diversity in views and political leanings than is commonly assumed. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of a lack of alignment between evangelical elites, traditional Christian Right leaders, and the Republican Party.     

Strategy instruction for writing composition at school and at home

Abstract

The objectives of this study are 1) to analyze the effectiveness of a writing composition intervention program aimed to increase children's writing performance and other personal variables; 2) to analyze whether implementation in the environment (school and home) or responsible figures (parents and teachers) produced different effects in program effectiveness; and 3) to check whether increasing parental involvement in doing homework was sufficient to improve children's outcomes or whether prior family training is required to enable them to be efficient. The sample consisted of 112 students (5th-6th grade) and their families. 26 of them made up the EFP group (mothers implementing a writing program), 25 of them were assigned to the PAD group (mothers increasing help with writing homework), 35 to the PRO group (teachers applying a writing program) and 26 to the OC group (ordinary curriculum). We analyze the results and present and discuss our conclusions.     

Some thoughts and responses to The Francis Report

This response to the report by lawyer Robert Francis into the failure of National Health Service (NHS) care in Mid-Staffordshire is fairly positive about its conclusions but points out that without consideration of personal, psychosocial factors in care, on the ward, in the institution things are unlikely to improve, the report leaves much unconsidered. Francis emphasises that patient care is at the very centre of the NHS, this is obvious but so often forgotten. He comments that the unhelpful blame culture still exists. Missing from Francis’ analysis is a psychological perspective – the systemic factors he mentions are administrative not relational. This response is an attempt to redress the balance in thinking about the improvement of care for patients and of the working lives of staff.     

Loneliness and social behaviours in a virtual social environment

Feeling lonely motivates people to reconnect with others, but it can also trigger a vicious cycle of cognitions and behaviours that reinforces their loneliness. In this study, we examined the behavioural consequences of loneliness in a virtual social environment. A total of 176 participants navigated a character (protagonist) through a two-dimensional browser game and rated the character's loneliness multiple times during the game. In the first part of the game, another character is introduced as the protagonist's spouse. At one point, the spouse leaves for an undetermined period of time but later returns. Immediately before this separation, higher ascribed loneliness of the protagonist was associated with more frequent interactions with the spouse. After the reunion, however, higher ascribed loneliness was associated with less frequent interactions with the spouse. Ascribed loneliness was not significantly related to the frequency of interactions with others nor to the frequency of solitary activities. These patterns held after controlling for ascribed positive affect. Participants' levels of loneliness were related to the level of ascribed loneliness only when the spouse was present but not when the spouse was absent. In sum, these findings suggest that the conditions that trigger the vicious cycle of loneliness are person- and situation-specific.     

Parental Attitudes,Beliefs, and Responses to Childhood Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The Parental Attitudes and Behaviors Scale

ABSTRACT

This paper documents preliminary examination of the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Parental Attitudes and Behaviors Scale (PABS), an OCD-specific measure of parental attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral strategies related to childhood OCD. Employing a sample of 123 youth (mean age = 11.7; 59% male, 79% Caucasian) diagnosed with OCD in an outpatient child anxiety clinic, we used exploratory factor analysis to produce a 3-factor solution representing the following domains of parental responses to childhood OCD: accommodation, empowerment, and hostility/blame. These scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency and concurrent validity, providing preliminary evidence for the psychometric integrity of the PABS.     

Do sedentary motives adversely affect physical activity? Adding cross-behavioural cognitions to the theory of planned behaviour

The purpose of this study was to explore whether sedentary behavior cognitions explain physical activity (PA) intention and behavior when integrated within the theory of planned behavior framework (TPB). A random community sample of 206 adults and a sample of 174 undergraduate students completed measures of the TPB pertaining to PA and four popular leisure-time behaviors (TV viewing, computer use, sedentary hobbies, and sedentary socializing) and an adapted Godin Leisure-Time Exercize Questionnaire (community sample = cross-sectional, undergraduate sample = 2-week prospective). Results using ordinary least squares regression provided evidence that TV viewing intention explains additional variance in PA behavior, and affective attitude (community sample) and perceived behavioral control (undergraduate sample) towards TV viewing explains additional variance in PA intention even after controlling for PA-related TPB constructs. These results underscore the potential value of adding sedentary control interventions in concert with PA promotion.     

How highlighted utensils influence consumption in a dark setting

Abstract

Objective: Previous research has shown that people consume less food in the dark compared to normal vision conditions. While this effect is commonly attributed to increased attention to internal cues, it could also be caused by increased difficulty to maneuver in a dark setting. This study investigated this potential alternative explanation.

Design: A 2 (dark versus normal vision setting)?×?2 (highlighted versus non-highlighted utensils) between-subjects design was employed.

Main outcome measures: Perceived difficulty of maneuvering and consumption of yoghurt were assessed as main outcome measures.

Results: Participants consumed marginally less in dark compared to normal vision conditions, and experienced higher difficulty of maneuvering. Importantly, both effects were qualified by a significant interaction with highlighting, which increased consumption and reduced perceived difficulty compared to no highlights. Difficulty of maneuvering did not mediate the interactive effect of vision and highlighting on consumption.

Conclusion: Difficulty to maneuver should be considered when investigating eating behaviour under dark conditions. In line with an embodied cognition account, results also reveal the necessity of visual information for interaction with objects in the environment and imply that detail-deprived object information may be sufficient for activation of the motor system.     

Contextual analysis of home environment factors influencing the acquisition of early reading skills in Zambian families

This study examined the effect of home environment factors in the acquisition of early reading skills (orthographic awareness and decoding competence). To assess these factors, a sample of seventy-two (72) first grade learners (females?=?55%; age range?=?7–8 years) and their maternal parents (age range 26–61 years old) from low SES in Zambia's capital city, Lusaka were recruited. Parents, in response to a home literacy questionnaire, reported on their attitudes towards reading, literacy teaching in the home, the home literacy environment, presence of reading materials for adults and children, parental education, occupation, family size and family possessions. Two measures of reading skill were administered at school. Correlations revealed that parental education, occupation and the size of the family were not significantly associated with the reading measures. Family possessions, parental reading attitudes, literacy activities, and reading materials significantly predicted orthographic awareness. In predicting decoding competence, only family possessions, parental reading attitudes and literacy activities were predictive. Regardless of the context, children experience literacy in varied forms and quantities.     

Change in physical self-perceptions across the transition to secondary school: Relationships with perceived teacher-emphasised achievement goals in physical education

ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the effects of change in perceived teacher achievement goal emphasis in physical education (PE) on physical self-perceptions and self-esteem across the transition to secondary school.Design & methodsA longitudinal design was adopted with three time points, one at the end of primary school and two during the first year of secondary school. Participants (N = 491) were cross-classified by primary (N = 42) and secondary (N = 46) PE class in order to examine the association between perceived class-level teacher-emphasised goals and within-class student goals with self-beliefs.ResultsPersonal approach goals and class perceptions of teacher mastery approach goal promotion were all positively associated with ratings of co-ordination, sport competence, flexibility, and endurance in primary school. More favourable perceptions of coordination, sport competence, strength, flexibility, and endurance during the first year of secondary school were predicted by an increase in performance approach goal emphasis, whereas ratings of sport competence and flexibility were negatively associated with an increase in mastery approach goal emphasis.ConclusionsAlthough not entirely consonant with theoretical predictions, current findings suggest that teacher-emphasised performance approach goals in PE can promote development of several physical self-perceptions in the initial year of secondary school.     

The earth is the Lord's: the biblical view of the environment

The Church needs a characteristically Christian voice in environment discourse. The Bible offers this in the form of symbols and stories. Familiar terms such as righteousness, covenant and atonement originated in the biblical teaching about creation, and the liturgy of the Temple was to maintain the creation. Angels and their music described the powers of creation and cosmic harmony, and Adam lost all this when he chose secular knowledge rather than Wisdom from the Tree of Life.