From Classroom to Controversy: Conflict in the Teaching of Religion

What happens when a class assignment becomes a source of controversy? How do we respond? What do we learn? By describing the controversy surrounding an assignment on religion and representation, this article examines conflict's productive role in teaching about New Religious Movements (NRMs) and religion. It suggests that we consider how our personal and institutional dispositions toward conflict influence our pedagogies. Moreover, it urges us to consider how teaching conflicts within and/or between disciplines can enhance our learning objectives and stimulate students' ability to think critically.     

Self-referenced interpersonal similarity phenomena: Theoretical specification and assessment at the individual,dyadic and group levels

A basic interpersonal task is assessing if another is similar to oneself, and is even observed among prelinguistic infants. In 450 highly acquainted dyads (150 from family, friend, co-worker groups), participants judged others' similarity to themselves, and predicted others' similarity ratings of them. Assumed reciprocity and reciprocity of similarity judgments were observed; the former was much stronger than the latter. Specific others were judged as uniquely similar; in families these judgments were reciprocated. People inaccurately predicted others', and specific others', similarity judgments. Common members of these groups (key person) judged others as similar to themselves, and predicted others' reciprocated similarity judgments, although they did not. Social relations modeling showed that interpersonal similarity assessments in different groups are multiple phenomena at multiple levels of analysis and should not be treated as a single, unitary phenomenon.     

Designing and evaluating an intelligent augmented reality system for assisting older adults’ medication management

Intelligent Assistive Systems (IASs) provide personalised support to individuals to increase their autonomy and competence in performing activities. The personalisation of such technology represents a particular challenge, for the individuals abilities typically change over time. The aim of this research was to explore a theory-based, activity-centred framework for the development of IASs that both facilitate the active involvement of caregivers and target users and allow for adaptation to the individual over time.Medication management was focused on as a case study. Three older adults and two caregivers were involved in a co-design process of an IAS prototype system, the MED-AR, which uses projection-based augmented reality as the user interface technology. The theoretical framework for the design and evaluation of the MED-AR was activity theory. For the decision-making process of the MED-AR, formal argumentation theory was used. The major contributions of the study are (i) a formal framework for understanding the level of independence in activities and the way an IAS can tailor support to an individual and a situation, including caregivers; and (ii) a model for involving older adults and caregivers in a co-design process in the first phases of developing IASs.     

Asian American Female College Students' Subjective Femininity Conceptualizations: Using a Mixed‐Methods Approach

This mixed‐methods study explored 184 Asian American female college students' subjective femininity conceptualizations and their associations with family conflict. A direct content analysis of responses identified 5 categories of subjective femininity conceptualizations: model minority, physical attributes, traditional femininity, subordinate roles, and modern femininity. Conceptualizations of subordinate roles were positively related to intensity of family conflict. Interdependent self‐construal moderated the relationship between subjective conceptualizations of subordinate roles, modern femininity, and intensity of family conflict. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Este estudio de métodos combinados exploró las conceptualizaciones subjetivas de feminidad y sus asociaciones con conflictos familiares entre 184 estudiantes universitarias asiático‐americanas. Un análisis directo del contenido de las respuestas identificó 5 categorías de conceptualizaciones subjetivas de feminidad: modelo de minoría, atributos físicos, feminidad tradicional, roles subordinados y feminidad moderna. Las conceptualizaciones de roles subordinados se relacionaron de forma positiva con la intensidad de los conflictos familiares. La autoconstrucción interdependiente moderó la relación entre las conceptualizaciones subjetivas de roles subordinados, la feminidad moderna y la intensidad de los conflictos familiares. Se discuten las implicaciones clínicas de estos hallazgos.     

中医“六淫”病因的逻辑思维特点及其科学意义

中医“六淫”病因学理论是中医学理论体系的重要组成部分, 是在“天人合一”的整体观指导下形成的, 这种整体观念也决定了古人在认识和总结病因理论时运用了独特的逻辑思维方法, 包括比较、分类、类比等, 这些逻辑思维方法的运用既有其优势也兼具不足。对其逻辑思维特点进行细致的剖析是深刻理解中医理论认识特点的重要切入点, 也有利于在教学中正确阐释中医病因学理论, 并且能够对中医“六淫”病因的相关科研设计提供方法学的借鉴和启发。     

La parole au travail a-t-elle un genre ? Dialogues hôtesse de l’air/steward en résolution de problème

Few studies have investigated the way conversational work is divided between men and women in work or problem-solving contexts. This study analyzed dialogues in the workplace between 13 pairs of male and female flight attendants asked to solve a problem adapted from the Wason task. Most previous work suggests that men speak more, interrupt more, and show a greater propensity to put forward a solution. Conversely, women’s speech acts tend to be mainly of an acquiescent or questioning type. Only the hypotheses concerning interruptions, acquiescence and putting forward a solution were confirmed.     

Self-concept and academic achievement: a meta-analysis of longitudinal relations

The relation between self-concept and academic achievement was examined in 39 independent and longitudinal samples through the integration of meta-analysis and path analysis procedures. For relations with more than 3 independent samples, the mean observed correlations ranged from .20 to .27 between prior self-concept and subsequent academic achievement and from .19 to .25 between prior academic achievement and subsequent self-concept. Globality/specificity of self-concept was the only significant moderating factor in the relation between (a) prior self-concept and subsequent academic achievement and (b) prior academic achievement and subsequent self-concept. As high self-concept is related to high academic performance and vice-versa, intervention programs that combine self-enhancement and skill development should be integrated.     

Does life satisfaction change with age? A comparison of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Sweden

In this study, the relationship between age and life satisfaction was examined over a period of 27 years (1982-2009) in four countries—Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Sweden—using nationally representative samples of adults between the ages of 15 and 100 from the European Value Survey, the World Values Survey, and the European Social Survey (total N = 39,420). Unlike in Finland and Sweden, the relationship between age and subjective well-being in Estonia and Latvia was best described as curvilinear, with younger and older people having higher levels of life satisfaction. The observed age differences in life satisfaction in Estonia and Latvia, however, seem to be due to an interaction of cohort and period differences.     

MOTIVES STILL DON'T MATTER: REPLY TO PYNES

Abstract This paper continues a dialogue that began with an article by Jeffrey Koperski entitled “Two Bad Ways to Attack Intelligent Design and Two Good Ones,” published in the June 2008 issue of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. In a response article, Christopher Pynes argues that ad hominem arguments are sometimes legitimate, especially when critiquing Intelligent Design (2012). We show that Pynes's examples only apply to matters of testimony, not the kinds of arguments found in the best defenses of ID.