A Probabilistic and Individualized Approach for Predicting Treatment Gains: An Extension and Application to Anxiety Disordered Youth

The objective of this study was to extend the probability of treatment benefit method by adding treatment condition as a stratifying variable, and illustrate this extension of the methodology using the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study data. The probability of treatment benefit method produces a simple and practical way to predict individualized treatment benefit based on pretreatment patient characteristics. Two pretreatment patient characteristics were selected in the production of the probability of treatment benefit charts: baseline anxiety severity, measured by the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale, and treatment condition (cognitive-behavioral therapy, sertraline, their combination, and placebo). We produced two charts as exemplars which provide individualized and probabilistic information for treatment response and outcome to treatments for child anxiety. We discuss the implications of the use of the probability of treatment benefit method, particularly with regard to patient-centered outcomes and individualized decision-making in psychology and psychiatry.     

Why Jesus?

Jesus plays potentially a uniquely important role in relation to the world's greatest needs. To respond to the global crisis, we need historical consciousness. The source of historical consciousness is the prophetic tradition. Through Jesus the prophetic tradition became widely available and important. However, this consciousness has been responsible for great evil as well as great good, often bound up with we/they thinking and the use of violence. Jesus’ teaching of love of the enemy in principle overcomes this tendency and points to way forward.     

The View from Way Below: Inter‐Species Encounter,Membranes, and the Reality of Christ

Viewing modern life from the perspective and world of those whose lives are treated as expendable commodities in our current economic systems—humans and creatures of every other species—creates, Bonhoeffer asserts, the most reliable hermeneutical standpoint for seeing and living in reality. This essay attempts to fashion in broad strokes a Christian theology of creaturely re‐engagement: learning to live again “way below,” in literal and metaphoric touch with reality. I assert that Bonhoeffer's theology of I/Thou encounter as the means of humans’ ethical formation has the potential to ground a broader theology of inter‐species encounter as well.     

A SYSTEMS MODEL OF SPIRITUALITY

Within the scientific study of spirituality there are substantial ambiguities and uncertainties about relevant concepts, terms, evidences, methods, and relationships. Different disciplinary approaches reveal or emphasize different aspects of spirituality, such as outcomes, behaviors, skills, ambitions, and beliefs. I argue that these aspects interdepend in a way that constitutes a “systems model of spirituality.” This model enables a more holistic understanding of the nature of spirituality, and suggests a new definition that disambiguates spirituality from related concepts such as religion, cultural sophistication, and prosocial behavior in animals. It also exposes important open questions about the nature of spirituality. To support the emerging scientific approach to the study of spirituality, I propose the development of a “philosophy of spirituality” that can clarify the conceptual terrain, identify important research directions, and facilitate a comprehensive and interdisciplinary investigation into the nature, validity, and implications of spirituality's conceptual and practical entailments.     

Manager–salesperson congruence in customer orientation and job outcomes: The bright and dark sides of leadership in aligning values

To create customer-oriented organizations, managers are often asked to promote a values-based vision. Yet, many managers struggle with transferring their values to employees making strategic value changes difficult. Despite this challenge, research has yet to demonstrate how managers effectively align values within the sales force, or the impact alignment has on job outcomes. Therefore, we develop and empirically test a conceptual framework to examine the role of transformational leadership in aligning salesperson customer orientation (CO) values. We find that transformational leadership is a strong mechanism in creating perceived value congruence, yet may have a surprising dark side. Results suggest that transformational managers achieve congruence by raising or, contrary to conventional wisdom, lowering salesperson CO values to meet the perceived values of the manager. Response surface modelling results support the importance of perceived manager values. Customer-oriented salespeople have higher job satisfaction and sales performance when they perceive their manager to also have high CO. When values are misaligned, job satisfaction increases more for low CO salespeople as perceptions of manager CO increase. Exploratory findings show that performance was higher under situations of perfect alignment but also under severe misalignment suggesting that values generate performance under complementary or supplementary conditions.     

Eyewitness identification discriminability: ROC analysis versus logistic regression

To reach conclusions regarding the respective accuracy of two conditions, eyewitness researchers evaluate correct and false identification rates computed across participants. Two approaches typically are employed. One approach relies on ratio-based probative value measures; but Wixted and Mickes (2012) and Gronlund, Wixted, and Mickes (2014) showed that these measures fail to disentangle an assessment of accuracy (i.e., discriminability between guilty and innocent suspects) from response bias (i.e., a willingness to make a response). Our focus is on a second approach, logistic regression analyses of the correct and of the false identification rates. Logistic regression also fails to disentangle discriminability from bias. Therefore, it only can denote the most accurate condition in limited circumstances. The best approach for reaching the proper conclusion regarding which condition is most accurate is to use receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis. Simulated ROC data illustrate the problem with a reliance on logistic regression to assess accuracy.     

Re‐Presentations of Space in Hollywood Movies: An Event‐Indexing Analysis

Popular movies present chunk‐like events (scenes and subscenes) that promote episodic, serial updating of viewers’ representations of the ongoing narrative. Event‐indexing theory would suggest that the beginnings of new scenes trigger these updates, which in turn require more cognitive processing. Typically, a new movie event is signaled by an establishing shot, one providing more background information and a longer look than the average shot. Our analysis of 24 films reconfirms this. More important, we show that, when returning to a previously shown location, the re‐establishing shot reduces both context and duration while remaining greater than the average shot. In general, location shifts dominate character and time shifts in event segmentation of movies. In addition, over the last 70 years re‐establishing shots have become more like the noninitial shots of a scene. Establishing shots have also approached noninitial shot scales, but not their durations. Such results suggest that film form is evolving, perhaps to suit more rapid encoding of narrative events.