Aquinas and the Democratic Virtues: An Introduction

Can the theology of Thomas Aquinas serve as a resource for reflection on democratic civic virtue? That is the central question taken up by Mark Jordan, Adam Eitel, John Bowlin, and Michael Lamb in this focus issue. The four authors agree on one thing: Aquinas himself was no fan of democracy. They disagree, though, over whether Aquinas can offer resources for theorizing democratic virtues. Bowlin, Eitel, and Lamb believe he can, and propose Thomistic accounts of tolerance, civic friendship, and democratic hope, respectively. Jordan, in contrast, issues a cautionary note against such enterprises. This divergence is due in part to different judgments about what it would mean to claim certain resources as “Thomistic.” In part, too, it flows from a disagreement about whether Aquinas himself countenances genuine virtues among non‐Christian citizens, and about whether Christians and non‐Christians can be said to share even proximate ends. This conversation is an important one, since accounts of the democratic virtues constructed using Thomistic resources have the potential to move discussions of democratic and theological virtues beyond common impasses.     

A THEORETICAL APPRECIATION OF THE ETHIC OF SOLIDARITY IN POLAND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER

The remarkable movement known as Solidarity recently celebrated its twenty‐fifth anniversary in Poland. This essay provides a theoretical appreciation of the values and principles that guided and undergirded the movement, which greatly contributed to the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. This systematic overview of the ethic of the Solidarity movement fills a lacuna in the field of ethics because ethicists who are interested in the concept of solidarity have largely overlooked the Polish experience of the 1980s. This essay attempts to describe the key ingredients of the Polish ethic of solidarity by analyzing both Polish treatises on the subject and accounts of events on the ground. It elaborates conceptual categories and describes characteristic features of the movement in order to provide a phenomenological account of the nature of solidarity embodied in Poland during this era. These categories and characteristics include unity among differences, the foundation of hope at the movement's roots, self‐sacrifice and heroism, promoting the equality and dignity of all, the centrality of participation, the affirmation of “bread and freedom,” an option for the poor, and the insistence on life in truth. Although this essay does not attempt to demonstrate the relevance of this “thick” ethic of solidarity to capitalist, democratic societies today, by way of conclusion it raises questions pertaining to the contemporary significance of the Polish ethic of solidarity.     

Religious Values and the Development of Trait Hope and Self‐Esteem in Adolescents

Many studies have noted significant relationships between religious sentiment and psychological adjustment, but few have been able to comment on the direction of influence. We assessed the relationships between religious values, self‐esteem, and trait hope when participants were in grades 11 and 12. The variables showed moderate levels of rank‐order stability. Structural equation modeling revealed that religious values in grade 11 did not predict improvements in self‐esteem in grade 12, but they did predict improvements in hope. In contrast, hope did not lead to increase in religious values. These results held after controlling for personality (Big Five factors and Eysenck's psychoticism factor). Results are discussed with reference to the beneficial effects of religious values in adolescence.     

Deciphering Subjective Trajectories for Life Satisfaction Using Self‐versus‐Normative Other Discrepancies,Self‐esteem and Hope

Drawing on temporal and social comparison perspectives, we examined sources of the widespread belief that life gets better and better over time by determining how young adults evaluate their past, present and anticipated future life satisfaction (LS) relative to beliefs about normative others. We assessed whether patterns of subjective LS trajectories based on self‐versus‐normative other discrepancies varied as a function of self‐esteem and whether such patterns were accounted for by hope, encompassing goal‐related cognitions and motivations. University participants (n = 394) completed measures of their own and normative others' past, present and anticipated future LS, as well as self‐esteem and hope scales. Results from latent growth curve analyses demonstrated that high‐self‐esteem and low‐self‐esteem individuals perceived normative others' LS as progressing on a similar upward subjective temporal trajectory; however, high‐self‐esteem individuals perceived self‐improvement from past to present LS and self‐consistency from present to future LS relative to others. Low‐self‐esteem individuals perceived self‐consistency from past to present LS and self‐improvement from present to future LS relative to others. These associations were accounted for by hope. This research highlights the utility of combining temporal and social comparison perspectives for understanding how people envision their LS unfolding over time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Altruistic values in children’s spirituality: a study of children’s responses to the terror attacks in Oslo and on Utøya and issues of education

In reactions to the terror attacks in Oslo and on Utøya on July 22, 2011, belief in an open society, hope and altruism played an important part. This has led to research on the role of such values in Norwegian democracy. The present study explores messages given by children right after the event, using an approach based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogue. Several issues of educational significance are discussed: the meaning of ritual in children’s thinking, coping with offending, death, and understanding children’s spiritual and religious thinking when confronted with a critical event. It is argued that hope and altruism seem to be natural parts of children’s spirituality, but these values are not self-evident in a society. This is a challenge to education.     

Hope and positive religious coping as predictors of social justice commitment

The present study tested a theoretical model of dispositional hope and positive religious coping as unique predictors of social justice commitment over and above impression management in a sample of graduate students (N?=?214) in helping professions at an Evangelical Protestant university in the USA. This empirical study utilised a cultural psychology approach with a theoretical framework developed from (a) an earlier cultural psychology study of hope and social justice using the social philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr, Cornel West, and Paulo Freire and (b) several liberation and Pietistic theologians. Results supported the discriminant validity hypothesis with dispositional hope and positive religious coping each predicting social justice commitment over and above a measure of spiritual impression management. Implications are considered for contextually sensitive training and future empirical and interdisciplinary research on social justice commitment.     

Reconceptualising hope within the context of vulnerability in South Africa

This study was aimed at clarifying conceptualisations of hope amongst vulnerable young people in a high HIV/AIDS prevalence South African setting. Participants were four young people ranging from 15 to 19, and interview data were collected on their household conditions, lived experiences in the communities and schools, and family support systems. Analysis applied grounded theory process to characterise main themes. Four mechanisms characterised the nurturing of hope processes in the context of vulnerability, namely: predatory, protective, promotion and possibility processes. Six protective intrapersonal themes were also identified: finding purpose, building a sense of the future; building faith in a higher power; embracing educational opportunities; thinking positively; building on strengths; and adopting supportive networks. Findings suggest that conceptualisations of hope need to be grounded in social context and the imperatives of social justice to support vulnerable young people in realising their future aspirations.     

Psychological Strengths as Predictors of Postgraduate Students' Academic Achievement

This study sought to predict students' Grade Point Average (GPA) from their personal sense of coherence, locus of control, hope and research self-efficacy. Participants were 429 postgraduate students at a large South African university (males = 86, females = 311, age range = 20 to 53, mean age = 30, SD = 6.77). They completed measures of sense of coherence, locus of control, hope orientation and research self-efficacy. Data were analysed using logistic regression. Results revealed that only research self-efficacy significantly predicted academic achievement. Although of small practical significance, it seems that students' beliefs about their own potential and abilities regarding research could influence their success to some degree. It is recommended that research self-efficacy, together with other psychological strengths, be further investigated as a predictor of academic success.     

Hope and optimism as related to life satisfaction

This study explored the hope and optimism constructs and their unique variances in predicting life satisfaction. The subscales (Agency and Pathways) of the Adult Hope Scale (Snyder, Harris et al., 1991 Snyder, CR, Harris, C, Anderson, JR, Holleran, SA, Irving, LMSigmon, ST. 1991. The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60: 570–585. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and optimism and pessimism as measured by the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) were compared in terms of ability to predict life satisfaction as measured by the domain-specific Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI®; Frisch, 1994 Frisch, MB. 1994. Manual and treatment guide for the Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI), Minneapolis, MN: National Computer Systems.  [Google Scholar]; Study 1, N?=?331) and the global measure Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985 Diener, E, Emmons, RA, Larsen, RJ and Griffin, S. 1985. The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49: 71–75. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Study 2, N?=?215). The Agency subscale of the Adult Hope Scale was the better predictor of life satisfaction in both studies. The implications of these findings for theory and measurement of hope and optimism are discussed.     

Cognitive-behavioral,solution-focused life coaching: Enhancing goal striving,well-being,and hope

Research is in its infancy in the newly emerging field of coaching psychology. This study examined the effects of a 10-week cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching group programme. Participants were randomly allocated to a life coaching group programme (n =?28) or a waitlist control group (n =?28). Participation in the life coaching group programme was associated with significant increases in goal striving, well-being and hope, with gains maintained up to 30 weeks later on some variables. Hope theory may explain such positive outcomes. Life coaching programmes that utilize evidence-based techniques may provide a framework for further research on psychological processes that occur in non-clinical populations who wish to make purposeful change and enhance their positive psychological functioning.