Posttraumatic Growth Among Australian Farming Women After a Flood

There has been limited research into the impact of disasters on farming women, although it has been suggested that this population can face certain physical, social, and economic disadvantages that affect their recovery. In this study, we explored the impact of the 2010–2011 floods in the state of Victoria in Australia on the lives of six farming women with 20-50+ years of farming experience. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed that the women experienced posttraumatic growth, transitioning from helplessness and emotional distress to acceptance and understanding. Although further research is needed, the findings suggest that engagement in meaningful activity contributed to these women’s recovery after the flood. This knowledge may be used to inform the delivery of services and resources in flood-prone rural areas. Highlights: Three themes emerged from the data (helplessness, adapting to change, and self-discovery); findings can be related to dimensions of posttraumatic growth; and engagement in meaningful activity appeared to facilitate positive change.     

Posttraumatic growth in survivors of a natural disaster: the role of social axioms of religiosity,reward for application,and social cynicism

The positive psychology movement has impelled trauma research to focus not only on debilitating aspects of trauma experiences, but also on its positive outcomes such as posttraumatic growth (PTG). We investigated how the social themes of religiosity, reward for application, and social cynicism, as part of the individual’s distal culture, contribute to PTG among natural disaster survivors. We tested a model wherein social axioms of religiosity, reward for application, and social cynicism predict PTG, and their relationships are mediated by adaptive cognitive processing of trauma. The model was tested in a sample of Filipino survivors of typhoon Haiyan using structural equation modeling. The results support the proposed model except for the influence of social cynicism. The findings suggest that generalized beliefs about the social world play an important role in the development of PTG, and must be considered to understand how growth occurs in the aftermath of a traumatic event.     

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AS EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATIONS

Scholars employing an evolutionary approach to the study of religion and religious beliefs search for ultimate explanations of the origin, propagation, and persistence of religious beliefs. This quest often pairs in debate two opposing perspectives: the adaptationist and “by‐product” explanations of religion and religious beliefs. The majority of scholars prefer the by‐product approach, which is agnostic and even doubtful of the usefulness of religious beliefs. Despite this pervasive negativity, it seems unwarranted to deny the great usefulness of religious beliefs—particularly concerning their past utility. Instead, adaptationist explanations of religion and religious beliefs must be re‐established as interesting and useful approaches to the study of religious beliefs.     

A priori causal laws

Sober and Elgin defend the claim that there are a priori causal laws in biology. Lange and Rosenberg take issue with this on Humean grounds, among others. I will argue that Sober and Elgin don’t go far enough – there are a priori causal laws in many sciences. Furthermore, I will argue that this thesis is compatible with a Humean metaphysics and an empiricist epistemology.     

MARTIN LUTHER'S EXPERIENTIAL THEOLOGY AS A MODEL FOR FAITH-SCIENCE RELATIONSHIPS

The approach of experiential realism could indicate where science and faith deal with the same reality, where science questions faith assumptions, and where faith goes beyond the mandate and method of science. Although prescientific, Martin Luther's theology is the classical prototype of an experiential theology. We experience God's creative power in all of reality. We discern its regularities through observation and reason. So faith opens up all the space needed by science. However, experienced reality is highly ambiguous. It obscures God's intentions. God's intentions are revealed in the proclamation of the gospel: God is unconditionally for us and with us and not against us. This proclamation is a promise, appropriated in faith, and geared to a vision of what ought to become. It is based on the interpretation of a catastrophe—the cross of Christ—as God's pivotal redemptive act in human history. It goes beyond the mandate and method of science, yet it is capable of giving the latter a sense of purpose, criteria of acceptability, and authority to act in the interests of humanity and the earth. Theology challenges science to acknowledge the necessity of a transcendent frame of reference and moral accountability. Scientific insight challenges theology to reconceptualize its assumptions on God, creation, and eschatology to integrate best science.     

TRANSCENDENTALISM OR EMPIRICISM? A DISCUSSION OF A PROBLEM RAISED IN E. O. WILSON'S BOOK CONSILIENCE

Abstract. E. O. Wilson writes that the “choice between transcendentalism and empiricism” is this century's “version of the struggle for men's soul” (1998, 240). The transcendentalist argues for theism—that there is a God, a creator of the world. The empiricist instead makes the point that the notion of God, including morality and ethics, are adaptive structures of human evolution. Before entering the debate of the transcendentalist/empiricist controversy I analyze how things exist and suggest that all that is exists as united diversity, as identity in difference. I argue that oneness by itself is intangible because wholes are concrete only through their tangible parts. I briefly discuss this understanding of existence in the realm of art to show that transcendence and immanence are not mutually exclusive but constitute each other. I conclude that existence, the hypostasis of unity in diversity, might be seen as a gift from absolute existence. In this view, the world might reveal itself as a gift that reflects the trinitarian existence of the Giver.     

采用自由分类的方法探析汉族的人格结构

采用自由分类和多维标度的方法,分析了582名汉族被试的人格结构。结果表明,汉族拥有“积极/消极”、“性格/气质”和“外倾/内倾”这三种人格结构维度。     

Is A Purely First Person Account Of Human Action Defensible?

There are two perspectives available from which to understand an agent's intention in acting. The first is the perspective of the acting agent: what did she take to be her end, and the means necessary to achieve that end? The other is a third person perspective that is attentive to causal or conceptual relations: was some causal outcome of the agent's action sufficiently close, or so conceptually related, to what the agent did that it should be considered part of her intention? Recent goods based views in ethics are divided as to whether only the first person perspective, or a mix of both perspectives, are necessary to understand intention and action. But resolution of the issue is necessary if goods based views are to be able to deploy to principle of double effect; for that principle requires an account of how to distinguish what is genuinely a matter of intention in human action from what is not. I argue that the pure first person account is better than the mixed account.     

Equality of whom? a genetic perspective on equality (of opportunity)

Rawls’ principle of fair equality of opportunity has been regularly discussed and criticized for being inadequate regarding natural inequalities. In so far as this egalitarian goal is sound, the purpose of the paper is to see how the prospect of radical genetic intervention might affect this particular inadequacy. I propose that, in a post-genetic setting, an appropriate response would be to extend the same rules regulating societal inequalities to a regulation of comparable genetic inequalities. I defend this stance against recent arguments from the authors of From Chance to Choice and from Colin Farrelly’s alternative of the genetic difference principle. Thanks and appreciation to Dr. Pete Morris, Noreen McGuire and Ann Feeney for their support and encouragement. My thanks also to the participants of the Ninth Manchester Graduate (Brave New World 2005) Conference in Political Theory, where a shorter version of this paper was read.     

Mand acquisition across different teaching methodologies

Many children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder lack functional independent communication. The current study used a combined multiple‐baseline and alternating‐treatments design to evaluate whether the presence or absence of a verbal prompt (asking a question) during teaching affected independent verbal manding. Two teaching procedures were used to teach specific responses (two per teaching condition) and evaluate if the acquired response, once trained, occurred independently (in the absence of stimuli or supplemental prompts). One student learned more rapidly under the mand training condition whereas the other learned at a similar rate under both conditions. The assessment methodology presented may be beneficial in future practice to determine if one teaching procedure is more effective than the other for a learner.