Dynamic Regulation Responding to an External Stimulus: A Differential Equation Model

This study examines the dynamic regulation process responding to an external stimulus. The damped oscillator model has been used to describe this process. However, the model does not allow a nonzero steady state, even though the oscillations may continue and do not necessarily damp toward zero. This study introduces the driven damped oscillator model which has an additional parameter to identify different patterns of the steady state. Three methods, generalized local linear approximation, continuous time structural equation modeling, and analytic solutions of differential equations are provided to estimate model parameters. A simulation study indicates that parameters in the driven damped oscillator model are well recovered. The model is then illustrated using a data set on the daily reports of sales after a sale promotion. Potential applications and possible expansions of this model are also discussed.     

Modeling Interactions Between Latent Variables in Research on Type D Personality: A Monte Carlo Simulation and Clinical Study of Depression and Anxiety

Several approaches exist to model interactions between latent variables. However, it is unclear how these perform when item scores are skewed and ordinal. Research on Type D personality serves as a good case study for that matter. In Study 1, we fitted a multivariate interaction model to predict depression and anxiety with Type D personality, operationalized as an interaction between its two subcomponents negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI). We constructed this interaction according to four approaches: (1) sum score product; (2) single product indicator; (3) matched product indicators; and (4) latent moderated structural equations (LMS). In Study 2, we compared these interaction models in a simulation study by assessing for each method the bias and precision of the estimated interaction effect under varying conditions. In Study 1, all methods showed a significant Type D effect on both depression and anxiety, although this effect diminished after including the NA and SI quadratic effects. Study 2 showed that the LMS approach performed best with respect to minimizing bias and maximizing power, even when item scores were ordinal and skewed. However, when latent traits were skewed LMS resulted in more false-positive conclusions, while the Matched PI approach adequately controlled the false-positive rate.     

Evaluating Structural Equation Models for Categorical Outcomes: A New Test Statistic and a Practical Challenge of Interpretation

This research is concerned with two topics in assessing model fit for categorical data analysis. The first topic involves the application of a limited-information overall test, introduced in the item response theory literature, to structural equation modeling (SEM) of categorical outcome variables. Most popular SEM test statistics assess how well the model reproduces estimated polychoric correlations. In contrast, limited-information test statistics assess how well the underlying categorical data are reproduced. Here, the recently introduced C₂ statistic of Cai and Monroe (2014) is applied. The second topic concerns how the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) fit index can be affected by the number of categories in the outcome variable. This relationship creates challenges for interpreting RMSEA. While the two topics initially appear unrelated, they may conveniently be studied in tandem since RMSEA is based on an overall test statistic, such as C₂. The results are illustrated with an empirical application to data from a large-scale educational survey.     

Some thoughts about thought disturbance in adolescence

One of the principal aims of adolescence is the development of the capacity to think for oneself. The authors explore the difficulties caused by disturbances of thinking in borderline adolescents, pointing out the role that the analyst can take in promoting better functioning of their patients' mental processes. Two cases are explored, one through a supervision and the other through direct clinical experience. Both illustrate the efforts of the analyst to carry out 'management in the area of thinking' with those borderline patients who have not received help from their parents to think, and still need to be shown how mentation takes place. The authors propose some changes in technique in order to implement this improvement, including sharing with the patient the way in which the analyst thinks about him. Thinking itself can be an important integrating factor for these patients.

Une des tâches principales de l'adolescence est de développer la capacité à penser par soi-même. Les auteurs explorent les difficultés occasionnées par des troubles de la pensée chez des adolescents borderline et soulignent le rôle que peut jouer l'analyste pour favoriser un meilleur fonctionnement des processus psychiques chez ces patients. Deux cas sont étudiés dans cet article ; dans l'un, le matériel est extrait de séances de supervision, dans l'autre, il est tiré directement de la situation thérapeutique. Ces cas mettent en évidence les efforts de l'analyste pour aider le patient à mieux fonder ses processus de pensée ; dans les états limites, le patient bien souvent n'a jamais pu bénéficier de l'aide de ses parents dans ce domaine et devra encore apprendre comment mettre en ?uvre l'idéation. Les auteurs proposent quelques modifications techniques afin de faciliter l'activité mentale chez ce type de patient, visant notamment à lui faire part de la manière dont son analyste pense à lui. La pensée en elle-même peut être un facteur important qui favorise l'intégration psychique chez ces patients.

Uno degli scopi principali dell'adolescenza e' lo sviluppo della capacita' di pensare per se stessi. Le autrici esplorano le difficolta' causate dai disturbi del pensiero in adolescenti borderline, sottolineando il ruolo che l'analista puo' avere nel promuovere un miglior funzionamento dei processi mentali dei loro pazienti. Vengono riportati due casi, uno attraverso l'esperienza di supervisione e l'altro attraverso l'esperienza diretta del lavoro clinico. In entrambi i casi viene illustrato lo sforzo dell'analista di portare avanti il 'management nell'area del pensare' con quei pazienti bordeline che non sono stati aiutati dai loro genitori a pensare, e che ancora hanno bisogno di capire come prende luogo il processo del pensare. Le autrici propongono dei cambiamenti nella tecnica per poter implementare tale miglioramento, compreso il condividere con il paziente il modo in cui l'analista pensa a lui. Il pensare puo' essere di per se' un importante fattore di integrazione per questi pazienti.

Eines der Hauptziele der Adoleszenz ist die Entwicklung der Fähigkeit, für sich selber zu denken. Die Autorinnen betrachten die Schwierigkeiten, die durch Denkstörungen bei Borderline- Jugendlichen verursacht werden, und stellen die Rolle heraus, die Analytiker einnehmen können, um ein besseres Funktionieren der mentalen Prozesse ihrer Patienten zu fördern. Es werden zwei Fälle betrachtet, einer durch Supervision und der andere durch direkte klinische Erfahrung. Beide illustrieren die Bemühungen der Analytikerin, 'Management im Bereich des Denkens' auszuführen mit diesen Borderline-Patienten, die von ihren Eltern keine Unterstützung zu denken erlangt hatten, und denen noch gezeigt werden muss, wie Denkprozesse stattfinden. Die Autorinnen schlagen einige Veränderungen in der Technik vor, um diese Verbesserung zu implementieren, einschliesslich dem, dass man dem Patienten mitteilt, wie die Analytikerin über ihn denkt. Denken selbst kann ein wichtiger integrierender Faktor für diese Patienten sein.     

Improving Classroom Quality with The RULER Approach to Social and Emotional Learning: Proximal and Distal Outcomes

The RULER Approach to Social and Emotional Learning (“RULER”) is designed to improve the quality of classroom interactions through professional development and classroom curricula that infuse emotional literacy instruction into teaching–learning interactions. Its theory of change specifies that RULER first shifts the emotional qualities of classrooms, which are then followed, over time, by improvements in classroom organization and instructional support. A 2-year, cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted to test hypotheses derived from this theory. Sixty-two urban schools either integrated RULER into fifth- and sixth-grade English language arts (ELA) classrooms or served as comparison schools, using their standard ELA curriculum only. Results from multilevel modeling with baseline adjustments and structural equation modeling support RULER’s theory of change. Compared to classrooms in comparison schools, classrooms in RULER schools exhibited greater emotional support, better classroom organization, and more instructional support at the end of the second year of program delivery. Improvements in classroom organization and instructional support at the end of Year 2 were partially explained by RULER’s impacts on classroom emotional support at the end of Year 1. These findings highlight the important contribution of emotional literacy training and development in creating engaging, empowering, and productive learning environments.     

Perceived behavioural control,subjective norms,attitudes and intention to use condom: A longitudinal cross-lagged design

Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the purpose of this investigation was to examine the directionality of the association among condom use, intention, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. The present study investigated the nature of these relationships using a longitudinal cross-lagged design applied to data from a cohort of 958 randomly selected Italian adults. Using structural equation modelling, two cross-lagged panel analyses revealed reciprocal relationships between intention and attitudes and between intention and condom use. Contrary to expectations, baseline subjective norms and perceived behavioural control did not predict subsequent intention to use condom when controlled for the autoregressive effect of intention at T1 on the same variable at T2. Also, perceived behavioural control at T1 did not influence condom use at T2 after controlling for the effect of baseline intention. The possibility of reciprocity was also tested for all relations and significant results were found. The moderation effect of perceived behavioural control on the relationship between intention and condom use was not significant. The differences in age, gender and partnership status were taken into account in the analyses.     

Perfectionism and health: A mediational analysis of the roles of stress,social support and health-related behaviours

This study tested a model derived from personality theory in which perceived stress, perceived social support, health-risk and health-promotion behaviours mediate the relationship between perfectionism and perceived physical health. A sample of 538 undergraduate students completed a web-based survey assessing multi-dimensional perfectionism, perceived stress, perceived social support, health behaviours, physical health and a scale tapping elements of the five-factor model of personality. Analyses that account for the effects of traits from the five-factor model (e.g., neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion) indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with poorer physical health and this association was fully mediated by higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of perceived social support. Self-oriented perfectionism was related complexly to health such that it was related to poorer health via higher levels of perceived stress, but was also related to better health via higher levels of perceived social support. Our findings illustrate the need for considering key mediators of the link between perfectionism and poor health outcomes.     

Bartolomé Carranza de Miranda's ‘Little Treatise on how to attend Mass‘ (1555): A Translation

Abstract

Presented here is the first English and annotated translation of the Spanish sermon on congregational participation in the Mass delivered by the Dominican Friar, Bartolomé Carranza. It was originally preached at Whitehall, in the first week of Lent, 1555, before King Philip I and Queen Mary I of England. The text was subsequently written down by the preacher at the request of one of those present, the Duke of Medinaceli, and published in Salamanca and Antwerp. After a lengthy historical introduction, bolstered by quotations from Scripture, papal and conciliar documents, as well as from the writings of patristic and medieval theologians, the text is divided into three parts, which reflect the phases of the liturgy. The first covers the service from the entrance of the celebrating priest to the Preface of the Canon of the Mass; the second continues up to the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, and the third discusses the conclusion of the Mass. Then follows a short guide to help worshippers unfamiliar with Latin to participate as fully as possible in the service. Carranza rejects the medieval practice of bringing private prayer books to church for use during Mass, and instead urges full participation, as far as the rubrics of the liturgy permit, in the activity of the priest and his assistants at the altar. He also expresses a preference for frequent communion by the laity, which some Catholic reformers were advocating in the mid-sixteenth century. Although first preached in England, the published text was evidently as much directed at the Spanish market, where the writer evidently hoped that a reform of Catholic practice would help stave off Protestantism as well.     

Growth in agreement II: Reports and agreed statements of ecumenical conversations on a world level 1982–98∗

The French thinkers who influenced the American social activist Dorothy Day through Peter Maurin are representative of French progressive thought connected with the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum and its 1931 successor, Quadragesimo Anno. This article discusses the influence of Kropotkin, de Foucauld, Maritain and Mounier on Day. In France itself, this thought was often frustrated but Day provides an example of the implementation of Roman Catholic Personalism in the American setting. Day was both a popularising journalist and a tireless practitioner of the threefold platform deriving from Maurin's philosophy of Roundtable Discussion, Farming Communes and Houses of Hospitality. By the early 1950s, the tangential nature of Day's interest in the worker priest movement, when the question of its suppression had global prominence, shows that Maurin had been successful not in interesting her in his French influences for their own sake but in bequeathing to her a workable synthesis as a framework for her own efforts.