Religion,Race, and Discrimination: A Field Experiment of How American Churches Welcome Newcomers

This article reports the results of a nationwide audit study testing how Christian churches welcome potential newcomers to their churches as a function of newcomers’ race and ethnicity. We sent email inquiries to 3,120 churches across the United States. The emails were ostensibly from someone moving to the area and looking for a new church to attend. That person's name was randomly varied to convey different racial and ethnic associations. In response to these inquiries, representatives from mainline Protestant churches—who generally embrace liberal, egalitarian attitudes toward race relations—actually demonstrated the most discriminatory behavior. They responded most frequently to emails with white‐sounding names, somewhat less frequently to black‐ or Hispanic‐sounding names, and much less to Asian‐sounding names. They also sent shorter, less welcoming responses to nonwhite names. In contrast, evangelical Protestant and Catholic churches showed little variation across treatment groups in their responses. These findings underscore the role of homophily, organizational homogeneity, and the costs of racial integration in perpetuating the racial segregation of American religious life.     

THE ANTEROOM: A CAMERA OBSCURA FOR GRASPING ASPECTS INVISIBLE IN THE CLASSICAL SETTING

The anteroom ¹ , ² is not only an architectural space, but also a location in the field where analyst and patient meet in a different frame of mind from the therapeutic attitude that characterizes their relationship in the consulting room. Drawing a parallel with the variations in perception generated by the camera obscura in the experience of a painter, the author investigates how new aspects of the conscious and unconscious relationship between analyst and patient can emerge within a different setting. Observation of these variations suggests the possibility of regarding the setting no longer as an invariant of the field, but instead as one of the factors that can actively mold the analytic relationship.     

Dialogue with Elizabeth Seale-Scott,Director, Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

SUMMARY

In an effort to fully understand the role of the office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Drs. Netting and Ellor went to Washington, DC and interviewed the Director, Elizabeth Seale-Scott. This important dialogue is recorded here to further understand particularly the role of this office as it impacts the Administration on Aging and Aging programs.     

Asymmetry and performance: toward a neurodevelopmental theory

Hemispheric asymmetry implies the existence of developmental influences that affect one hemisphere more than the other. However, those influences are poorly understood. One simple view is that asymmetry may exist because of a relationship between a mental process' degree of lateralization and how well it functions. Data scaling issues have largely prevented such investigations, but it is shown that scaling effects are minimized after correction for ceiling and floor effects. After correction, lateralization-performance correlations are pervasive. However, while some correlations are positive, others are negative, with the direction depending on the underlying lateralized process. Two hypotheses are proposed that can account for these relationships by pointing either to individual differences in maturation of the corpus callosum or to developmental limits encountered at different ages of childhood. Their investigation should contribute toward a neurodevelopmental theory of hemispheric asymmetry.     

不同认知方式个体图形一致性判断过程中的ERP研究

使用ERP技术对选取的27名右利手大学生（场独立14名,场依存13名）在图形一致性判断过程中的ERP进行分析,结果表明：1）在图形一致性的判断任务中,场依存者的前额叶与中央区在200ms之前的N85与P160峰-峰之差明显大于场独立者,在枕叶区的负波N120波幅明显高于场独立者,这说明场依存者在对图形一致性比较的视觉信息处理的早期阶段即进行了更深度的加工。2）场独立者的N290波幅高于场依存者,而N290潜伏期比场依存者明显的长,这说明场独立者在后期对图形进行了更深入的分析比对。     

脂多糖免疫激活对强迫游泳应激导致的抑郁样行为的影响

应激导致抑郁样行为的同时导致免疫激活敏感化, 但是免疫激活对应激导致的抑郁样行为的影响目前并不清楚。研究目的：利用脂多糖(Lipopolysaccharide, LPS)作为外周免疫激活启动剂, 强迫游泳应激(forced swim stress)作为应激模式, 考察免疫激活背景是否影响应激导致的抑郁样行为。方法：42只SD雄性大鼠随机分为四组：LS组(LPS + swim, n=12), LC组(LPS +空白, n=10), AS组(生理盐水+swim, n=10), AC组(生理盐水+空白, n=10)。在实验期第一天根据分组分别注射脂多糖(LPS, 50 μg/kg, 腹腔注射)或生理盐水一次, LS组和AS组大鼠于注射后2小时进行第一次游泳应激, 此后持续应激2周。分别在应激一次后, 应激2周, 应激结束后1周和应激结束后2周测定大鼠的糖精水偏爱、旷场行为和高架十字迷宫行为。结果显示：应激一次后, 应激2周, 应激后1周LS组大鼠与AC组相比较, 糖精水偏爱分数, 旷场中的水平活动显著下降; 应激2周, AS组大鼠相对于AC组大鼠的糖精水偏爱分数以及旷场中的水平活动都显著下降, 结论：慢性强迫性游泳应激导致抑郁样行为, 应激前LPS免疫激活能够促使应激导致的抑郁样行为更容易出现, 症状加剧, 并持续较长的时间。     

Emergent Monism and the Classical Doctrine of the Soul

Traditional Christian belief in the existence of human life after death within a transformed material universe should be capable of rational justification if one chooses carefully the philosophical scheme underlying those claims. One should not have to appeal simply to the power of a loving God to justify one's beliefs. A revision of Whitehead's metaphysical scheme is proposed that allows one to render these classical Christian beliefs at least plausible to a broad range of contemporary thinkers as a consequence of a cosmology based on the principle of universal intersubjectivity and the need for a common ground between opposing subjectivities.     

Metaphor and Thinking in Science and Religion

Excerpts from Chapters 1 and 3 of New Maps for Old: Explorations in Science and Religion (Gerhart and Russell 2001) explore the ramifications of metaphoric process for changes in thinking, especially those changes that lead to a new understanding of our world. Examples are provided from science, from religion, and from science and religion together. In excerpts from Chapter 8, a double analogy—theology is to science as science is to mathematics—is proposed for better understanding the contemporary relationship between science and religion. A conservation of epistemological sufficiency is disclosed as one moves from mathematics to empirical science to theology—a move from one discipline to another that involves a sacrifice of one aspect of thought to gain another.     

高中生认知方式特点及其与学绩关系的研究

采用认知方式图形测验,对94名普通高中生进行实验研究,探讨了当前普通高中生认知方式特点及其与学绩的关系。结果表明：随着年级的增高,高中生的场独立性增强。高中生的认知方式场依存性、场独立性与学习成绩的相关不显著。在初中毕业刚进入高中,学生的认知方式存在显著的性别差异,但随着年级增长、个体成熟,这种差异逐渐缩小。文理分科对高中生的认知方式发展没有明显的影响。     

Women and Men Go to University: Mathematical Background and Gender Differences in Choice of Field in Higher Education

Gender segregation in higher education is well documented. Female students major in mathematics, technology, and sciences less often than men, and they concentrate in humanities and social sciences. Using multinomial logit on the 6,139 applicants to Tel Aviv University in Israel in 1994, I examined the claim that one of the roots of gender segregation in higher education lies in course-taking patterns in high school. The main findings are as follows: Women are underrepresented among the applicants to the mathematics-related fields of study; mathematical background in high school is particularly effective in narrowing the gender gap in applying to selective and attractive, but not mathematically related, fields of study at the university; women rely on high qualifications more than men when applying to selective and male-dominated fields of study. Several explanations of the findings will be discussed.