Teaching the Devout Student: Faith and Scholarship in the Classroom

Increasing numbers of college students enrolling in religion courses in recent years are looking to develop their religious faith or spirituality, while professors of religion want students to use and appreciate scholarly tools to study religion from an academic perspective. Some scholars argue that it is not possible to satisfy both goals in the classroom, while authors in this journal have given suggestions on how to bridge the gap between faith and scholarship. I argue that such authors are correct and that, in my experience, historical‐critical methods can help devout students understand the original texts in their own religion better, comprehend why changes in interpretation have occurred over time, and appreciate the values in religions other than their own. Not all devout students are comfortable with an academic study of religion, but many can attain a more mature faith by such an approach.     

Priming divergent thinking promotes logical reasoning in 6- to 8-year olds: But more for high than low SES students

Divergent thinking is a component of creativity. In the following study, we argue that this form of thinking also underlies logical reasoning. A total of 205 early elementary school children in Grades 1 and 2, from high and moderately low SES environments, were given a short-term prime for divergent thinking and simple reasoning problems. Overall, receiving this prime significantly improved logical reasoning at both grade levels. High and low SES students had similar levels of working memory, inhibitory control, performance on the divergent thinking task, and levels of logical reasoning without the prime. However, also consistent with our predictions, only high SES students showed overall improved logical reasoning following the divergent thinking prime, with the SES difference concentrated in the younger students. These results suggest that environmental differences in openness to alternatives and divergent thinking might underlie developing SES differences in levels of logical thinking.     

Dialectical thinking: A cross-cultural study of Japanese,Chinese, and British students

Peng and Nisbett found that Chinese people are more apt to engage in dialectical thinking (DT) than Americans. We gave the Dialectical Self Scale questionnaire and 10 pairs of opposing opinions to high school and university students of Japanese, Chinese, and British nationality. We asked them to fill in the questionnaire, to rate how strongly they agreed with each opinion, and to rate how wise it is to think dialectically. The scores on the questionnaire were higher among Easterners than among Westerners and higher among university students than among high school students. But the results of opinion agreement indicated that the dialectical tendency was stronger among the Chinese and British than among the Japanese. Furthermore, however, Japanese participants judged DT as wiser than Chinese and British did, and Chinese university students believed it was wiser than Chinese high school students did. We propose that this effect is attributed to Marxist education in China.     

Is There a Developmental Slump in Creativity in China? The Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Creativity Development in Chinese Adolescents

The major objectives of this study were to determine the characteristics of creativity development of Chinese children, the creative organizational climate of Chinese schools, and the relations among them. The results provided evidence that the creativity scores of children in elementary school were significantly higher than those of children in middle school. The teachers' evaluation of the creative organizational climate of the elementary school was significantly higher than that of the middle school. When the two variables were analyzed together, both the creative organizational climate of schools and the creative thinking development of children decreased during the children's development. Moreover, the creativity and climate scores were highly correlated, and the results from a path analysis suggested that a school's creative organizational climate has a significant impact on all seven dimensions of creativity measured in this study.     

Thinking Styles and Academic Achievement Among Filipino Students

The authors' objective in this study was to determine whether the precepts of R. J. Sternberg's (1988, 1997) theory of mental self-government apply to a non-Western culture. They administered R. J. Sternberg and R. K. Wagner's (1992) Thinking Styles Inventory, which is based on the theory of mental self-government, to 429 Filipino university students. The results of item analysis, scale intercorrelations, and factor analysis were consistent with the general provisions of the theory. Correlational analysis between thinking styles and grade point average showed that thinking styles are related to academic achievement. The results are explained with respect to the concepts and practices of Philippine culture and schools and discussed in relation to the developmental assumptions of the theory of mental self-government.     

Stressful Events and Coping Responses Among Older Adults in Two Sociocultural Groups

In this study of the way 32 men and women between the ages of 60 to 90 coped with stressful situations, two instruments were used: the Life Experiences Survey and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Overall, health-related concerns were more frequently reported by older adults than any other stressful event. When coping responses were categorized according to four modes—intrapsychic, inaction, direct action, and information seeking—the Appalachian group was found to use the information-seeking mode; the Cherokee group, the intrapsychic mode. Significant differences were found between males and females in coping modes and life-stress categories. When groups were combined, significant correlations were noted between life stress, particularly health-related stress, and the coping modes of intrapsychic and information seeking.     

The Relationship Between Childhood Onset Obesity and Psychopathology in Adulthood

We administered the Symptom Checklist (Derogatis, 1975; SCL-90-R) to 37 obese subjects in outpatient treatment for obesity. Patients with early onset obesity demonstrated a greater frequency and higher levels of emotional distress and psychiatric symptomatology than patients with late onset obesity. Individuals who developed obesity in childhood showed more psychopathology than those who developed obesity later in life. Overall, these findings support the belief that obesity is characteristically associated with greater internal psychological conflict. These findings further suggest that childhood obesity could serve as a predictor variable for possible future psychological disturbance in obese populations.     

National piety: Religious equality,freedom of religion and national identity in Finnish political discourse

This paper analyses the legislative discourse regarding a Members' Initiative to enact a law which was discussed in the Finnish parliament in 2006 and which proposed changes to the constitution and several laws, the purpose of which was to balance the privileged position that the Lutheran Church of Finland enjoys. The author uses critical discourse analysis to examine four different discourses emerging from the debate: inequality of religions in the eyes of the law; the ‘completeness’ of the freedom of religion in Finland; the justified hegemony of the ‘folk church’; and the church as a value base in a pluralising world. He argues that the discursive struggle between the different positions is a struggle between ‘minimalist’ and ‘maximalist’ definitions of freedom of religion and that the discussion represents a case of ‘national piety’, a conflation of discourses of religious equality, freedom of religion and national identity that reproduces the status quo.     

意象思维与躯体化症状：疾病表达的文化心理学途径

意象思维是中国人的传统思维模式, 它通过观物取象和取象比类的方式认知世界、推演联系。这种思维模式塑造了中国人特有的身心不分而非两分的身体观、疾病观和治疗观。在中国人的观念中, 身体不仅仅是一具生理躯体, 还具有气、阴阳、五行等本土概念所体现的弥合物质与精神、联结生理与心理的模糊性与开放性。人们在表达疾病感觉时通常不分生理与心理, 任何一方面出现不适感觉即可认为自己生病, 在面对心理医生时也倾向于同时报告躯体状况与心理感觉, 从而使得临床报告出现较高的躯体化报告率。这正是文化心理影响疾病表达的体现。这也使得疾病不仅是一种医学现象, 也是一种文化现象; 医学不仅需要生理知识, 也需要人文知识。     

The Lessons of the Development of the First APA Ethics Code: Blending Science,Practice, and Politics

The Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association (APA) is a bedrock of the profession. The contextual factors of society affect the Ethics Code of the APA, resulting in an ever-changing document. The context of the reorganization of the APA after World War II created an initial impetus toward a formalized code. A key contextual feature of the Code's development was the use of the Critical Incident Technique, which was based in the empirical aspirations of the psychological field. This article explores the historical context around the APA's decision to draft an ethics code, reviews its development, and discusses its role for psychologists today.