Mental Health, Depression, and Dimensions of Spirituality and Religion

The author explores the relationship between spirituality and religion and human growth and development, specifically examining emotional well-being during adulthood. Dimensions of spirituality to be explored are meaning in life, a transcendent purpose, intrinsic values, and spiritual community. The argument is made that spirituality is related to emotional well-being during adulthood. Implications for further research and relevant information for counselors, psychologists, and educators are included.     

Work Organization, Work Characteristics, and Their Psychological Effects on Nurses in the Netherlands

The aim of the current study was to examine relationships between organizational characteristics, work characteristics, and psychological work reactions in nursing work. We used several theoretical frameworks to select our research variables. In line with the contingency and sociotechnical system approaches, we selected complexity, uncertainty, and decision authority to represent the organizational characteristics. As to the work characteristics, we selected the variables of the Demand–Control–Support model (autonomy, social support, workload), role conflict, and role ambiguity. In order to measure the psychological work reactions, burnout, psychosomatic health complaints, job satisfaction, and intrinsic work motivation were assessed in questionnaires distributed to 1,855 nurses working in general hospitals in the Netherlands. Using correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the main results showed that high decision authority predicted high social support andhigh autonomy. High decision authority predicted high job satisfaction and high intrinsic work motivation. Finally, high complexity was indirectly predictive for high burnout. Workload operated as a mediator variable in this relationship.     

TYPES OF PRAYER,HEART RATE VARIABILITY,AND INNATE HEALING

Spiritual practices such as prayer have been shown to improve health and quality of life for those facing chronic or terminal illness. The early Christian healing tradition distinguished between types of prayer and their role in healing, placing great emphasis on the healing power of more integrated relational forms of prayer such as prayers of gratitude and contemplative prayer. Because autonomic tone is impaired in most disease states, autonomic homeostasis may provide insight into the healing effects of prayer. I report on observations in five volunteers engaging in five types of prayer. Using heart rate variability as a measure of autonomic tone and adaptability, I review the potential correlation of type of prayer with autonomic rebalance as measured specifically by psychophysiological coherence ratios. The five types—supplication, devotion, intercession, gratefulness, and contemplative prayer—elicited varying degrees of improvements in heart rate variability and corresponding psychophysiological coherence. These observations suggest a correlation of innate healing to prayer type that is consistent with teachings from the Christian healing tradition and with modern research. Further research is warranted to verify these hypotheses.     

When Effort Is Enjoyed: Two Studies of Intrinsic Motivation for Personally Salient Activities

Distinctions between two philosophical conceptions of happiness, hedonism and eudaimonism, were applied to the study of intrinsic motivation. Modified versions of the Personally Expressive Activities Questionnaire (PEAQ) were used in two studies to contrast activities, all of which were enjoyed, but which differed in the level of effort involved. In Study 1, 173 college students were free to choose any type of activity that met the selection criteria. In Study 2, the activities chosen by 95 undergraduates were limited to activities associated with a particular leisure time or hobby activity in which the respondents engaged on a regular basis. Consistent results across the two studies indicate that High Effort–Liked activities, in comparison to Low Effort–Liked activities, were associated with greater interest, flow, and feelings of personal expressiveness, greater perceived competence, and higher scores for both self-realization values and importance. These differences are discussed for their implications for the conceptual understanding of intrinsic motivation.     

内外动机对青少年记忆的影响及其神经机制

动机是一切行为的核心, 动机可分为外在和内在动机。青少年时期既是记忆的关键期, 也是动机发展的特殊时期。然而, 目前关于内外动机影响青少年记忆的研究才刚刚起步, 尚不清楚外在和内在动机影响青少年记忆的规律和机制是否一致, 也不清楚二者如何交互影响记忆。本研究将结合认知范式和脑成像技术, 考察外在和内在动机如何分别影响以及交互影响青少年记忆。这将有助于更加全面、深刻理解内外动机影响青少年记忆的独特规律和机制, 为科学提升青少年动机和记忆效果提供研究证据。     

Rethinking Intrinsic Value

According to the dominant philosophical tradition, intrinsic value must depend solely upon intrinsic properties. By appealing to various examples, however, I argue that we should at least leave open the possibility that in some cases intrinsic value may be based in part on relational properties. Indeed, I argue that we should even be open to the possibility that an object's intrinsic value may sometimes depend (in part) on its instrumental value. If this is right, of course, then the traditional contrast between intrinsic value and instrumental value is mistaken.     

Hyperventilating about Intrinsic Value

Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Brentano, Moore, and Chisholm have suggested ’’marks‘‘ or criteria of intrinsic goodness. I distinguish among eight of these. I focus in this paper on four: (a) unimprovability, (b) unqualifiedness, (c) dependence upon intrinsic natures, and (d) incorruptibility. I try to show that each of these is problematic in some way. I also try to show that they are not equivalent – they point toward distinct conceptions of intrinsic goodness. In the end it appears that none of them is fully satisfactory. Insofar as none of these succeeds, a fundamental problem remains for those who make use of the concept of intrinsic value. Precisely what do we have in mind when we say that some sort of value is “intrinsic”?     

空间知识记忆和提取的理论模型

对物理空间知识记忆和提取规律的探讨一直是空间认知领域研究中的一个重点和热点。对其进行深入研究,不仅有助于了解人类的空间行为,而且为相关的诸如界面设计、虚拟环境等空间认知应用领域（研究）提供支持。该文从空间记忆的内在参照系理论、坐标系统模型、空间情境模型和位置记忆的空间类属模型4个方面对当前有关物理环境中空间知识记忆和提取的理论或模型进行了回顾并作了初步评价。     

Context reinstatement and memory for intrinsic versus extrinsic context: The role of item generation at encoding or retrieval

According to many theoretical accounts, reinstating study context at the time of test creates optimal circumstances for item retrieval. The role of context reinstatement was tested in reference to context memory in several experiments. On the encoding phase, participants were presented with words printed in two different font colors (intrinsic context) or two different sides of the computer screen (extrinsic context). At test, the context was reinstated or changed and participants were asked to recognize words and recollect their study context. Moreover, a read‐generate manipulation was introduced at encoding and retrieval, which was intended to influence the relative salience of item and context information. The results showed that context reinstatement had no effect on memory for extrinsic context but affected memory for intrinsic context when the item was generated at encoding and read at test. These results supported the hypothesis that context information is reconstructed at retrieval only when context was poorly encoded at study.     

Service job lawyers are happier than money job lawyers,despite their lower income

Giving too much emphasis to extrinsic values and too little emphasis to intrinsic values is known to depress well-being. But is simply working in an extrinsic job also risky, even if that job delivers the money? We compared 1414 ‘Money’ (extrinsic) lawyers, 1145 ‘Service’ (intrinsic) lawyers, and 3415 ‘Other’ lawyers as to their income, values, well-being, and drinking behavior. Although service lawyers had much lower incomes, they also experienced more well-being and less negative affect compared to money lawyers, and drank less and less often. ANCOVAs showed that the intrinsic vs. extrinsic job-type effects were independent of rated intrinsic vs. extrinsic values, current income, years of work experience, and class rank at graduation, suggesting that the job-contexts themselves were operative. We discuss the difficult choice that pre-professional students face, between two versions of the American dream: one emphasizing wealth and status, and the other, service and personal development.