Psychometric Properties and Factorial Structure of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Version (STAI-T) in Caribbean University Students

The study investigated the psychometric properties of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory—Trait Scale (STAI-T: Spielberger, 1983) in a Caribbean university student sample. Participants were 415 undergraduate students (75% female) who completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Version (STAI-T; Spielberger, 1983), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996), the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS; Zung, 1965), the Ego Resiliecy-89 (ER-89; Block, 1989), and the Perceived Stress Scale-Ten Item Version (PSS-10; Cohen et al., 1983). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the trait anxiety scale in terms of factor structure, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validities. CFA results revealed that a two-factor solution (trait anxiety absent and trait anxiety present) provided significantly better fit than the one-factor model of trait anxiety. There was clear evidence of convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity of the scale. Results support the psychometric adequacy of the STAI-T for use with Caribbean university students.     

The ministry of silly walks’ report: representational momentum sensitive to awkwardness following action,not single posture

ABSTRACT

Completing a representational momentum (RM) task, participants viewed animations of a human cartoon or a robot figure with three levels of awkwardness in the walk and indicated if the final posture was identical to the final frame of the animation. Animations were shown forward and backward, and the level of awkwardness influenced the extent of RM (Experiment 1: N?=?30). Positive distortions decreased with increased awkwardness for forward actions. Negative distortions for the backward animations meant either participants were falling behind the depicted action, or that continuing familiar actions forward is a stronger bias than continuing presented (backward) actions. Following a single posture (Experiment 2: N?=?19), positive distortions were observed, but no pattern regarding awkwardness. A single posture is sufficient to elicit forward distortions, but the awkwardness effect requires viewing the action.     

当代情绪发展理论述评

本文从情绪的定义、情绪发展的实质、情绪在个体发展中的作用等方面,评述了当代比较有影响的情绪发展理论不同的情绪发展观。这些情绪发展理论有生物观点、机能主义观点、认知观点、组织观点和社会文化观点。     

Neuropsychological Performance in Gulf War Era Veterans: Traumatic Stress Symptomatology and Exposure to Chemical–Biological Warfare Agents

Because complaints of diminished concentration and memory are among the most common health symptoms reported by Gulf War (GW) veterans with unexplained illnesses, this study investigated neuropsychological functions among GW veterans and controls. Relationships between neuropsychological performance, severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and exposure to chemical–biological warfare agents (CBW) were assessed. Participants were 225 veterans recruited from three cohorts: GW-deployed veterans from Ft. Devens, MA ( n = 141) and New Orleans, LA (n = 37), and Germany-deployed veterans from a Maine National Guard unit (n = 47). A comprehensive evaluation was completed. Severity of subclinical PTSD symptomatology was significantly related to scores on specific neuropsychological tests. PTSD symptom severity in GW-deployed veterans was found to be greater and associated with a broader range of neuropsychological deficits than in Germany-deployed veterans. PTSD severity was associated with lower performance on a range of neuropsychological tasks, whereas CBW exposure contributed to performance deficits on specific cognitive tasks.     

关于731部队鼠疫报告书的初步解读——基于美国解密日本细菌战档案的调查

“Q报告”保存在美国国会图书馆,是731部队于1943年对长春和农安地区鼠疫感染者进行解剖的报告书.依据“Q报告”所记录的解剖数据,心脏、肺、扁桃体等器官感染路径和感染程度等信息,梳理分析了“Q报告”的主要内容、研究类型和研究方法,进一步揭露了731部队以“防疫”为名实际进行细菌感染研究的历史事实.     

A Theological Challenge: Coordinating Biological, Social, and Religious Visions of Humanity

This paper attempts two tasks. First, it sketches how the natural sciences (including especially the biological sciences), the social sciences, and the scientific study of religion can be understood to furnish complementary, consonant perspectives on human beings and human groups. This suggests that it is possible to speak of a modern secular interpretation of humanity (MSIH) to which these perspectives contribute (though not without tensions). MSIH is not a comprehensive interpretation of human beings, if only because it adopts a posture of neutrality with regard to the reality of religious objects and the truth of theological claims about them. MSIH is certainly an impressively forceful interpretation, however, and it needs to be reckoned with by any perspective on human life that seeks to insert its truth claims into the arena of public debate. Second, the paper considers two challenges that MSIH poses to specifically theological interpretations of human beings. On the one hand, in spite of its posture of religious neutrality, MSIH is a key element in a class of wider, seemingly antireligious interpretations of humanity, including especially projectionist and illusionist critiques of religion. It is consonance with MSIH that makes these critiques such formidable competitors for traditional theological interpretations of human beings. On the other hand, and taking the religiously neutral posture of MSIH at face value, theological accounts of humanity that seek to coordinate the insights of MSIH with positive religious visions of human life must find ways to overcome or manage such dissonance as arises. The goal of synthesis is defended as important, and strategies for managing these challenges, especially in light of the pluralism of extant philosophical and theological interpretations of human beings, are advocated.     

Appreciating a Scientist-Theologian: Some Remarks on the Work of John Polkinghorne

Perhaps the greatest irony about the contemporary religion-science dialogue is the fact that, despite their own strongly articulated denials, many thinkers implicitly accept the "warfare" thesis of A. D. White—that is, they agree with White that traditional theology has proved unable to engage science in fruitful conversation. More than most others, John Polkinghorne understands just how badly White misread the history of Christianity and science, and how much theology has been impoverished by its failure to challenge this core assumption of modernity.     

生物自然主义:塞尔对自由意志的解释

在对自由意志问题的解答中,传统的相容论和心理决定论都存在一定的缺陷,未能令人满意地回答这一问题。塞尔试图把自由意志的心理状态说明与神经生物学解释结合起来,认为在自由意志行为中存在间隔。在解释我们的自由意志行为时我们有必要先设一个不可约减的非休谟式的自我。这种阐释虽然符合我们的日常经验和科学说明,但却引发了一个新难题:我们的神经元系统的决定性是如何与意志自由行动中的间隔相一致的?     

关于进化论的生命科学质疑

现代科学远未弄清楚生命是什么,所以,肯定生命是偶然生成的观点是不符合时代的科学精神的。遗传变异不能产生新的物种,也没有证据表明基因突变导致生物进化产生了新物种。按照小群突变的新达尔文主义来推断人类进化,既缺乏事实根据,也有悖于逻辑推理。