Spiritual Inquiry and Well-Being in Life-Limiting Illness

ABSTRACT

Introduction: End of life, as a developmental phase, is accompanied by inner resources as well as losses. Spirituality is a potential inner resource for integrating illness that often occurs during this time. Despite the increase in spirituality research, how spiritual perspectives are used in life-limiting illness remains under-investigated. Better knowledge about this process may be useful for health care providers, family caregivers and patients themselves to enhance well-being at end of life. This study describes the process of how patients and family care-givers use their spiritual resources to facilitate well-being at the end of life.

Method: A qualitative study was designed, based upon the grounded theory method, that entails theoretical sampling of concepts (not sampling of people as in quantitative designs), and the analytic technique of constant comparison of the data until conceptual categories are saturated with supporting data and a theory can be identified. The sample consisted of 12 respondents: 6 dyads of elderly patients with a life-limiting illness and family caregivers. Interviews occurred over a 2-year period.

Results: Data analysis generated a theory about a process called “transcending life-limiting illness,” which derived from two related themes: spiritual inquiry and end-of-life dimensions.

Conclusion: The results expand existing knowledge about how people, either as patients or as family caregivers of persons facing end of life, live with life-limiting illness. The process of transcending life-limiting illness goes beyond merely coping to tap resources for well-being. This resource is expressed through an ongoing dialectic process of spiritual inquiry about life and death as supported by six critical life dimensions.     

The social image of drinking – mass media campaigns may inadvertently increase binge drinking

Mass media campaigns that promote responsible drinking are rarely tested for their usefulness in reducing heavy alcohol consumption. Existing campaigns that appeal to responsible drinking while simultaneously displaying young people in social drinking situations may even have paradoxical effects. To examine such possible effects, we drew on a real-world media campaign, which we systematically modified on the basis of recent prototype research. We pilot tested questionnaires (using n = 41 participants), developed two different sets of posters in the style of an existing campaign (n = 39) and investigated their effectiveness (n = 102). In the main study, young men were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: sociable or unsociable binge drinker prototype condition or a control group. Outcome variables were intention, behavioural willingness, attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, prototype evaluation and prototype similarity with respect to binge drinking. Binge drinking as a habit was included to control for the fact that habitual drinking in social situations is hard to overcome and poses a particular challenge to interventions. The manipulation check showed that the experimental variation (sociable vs. unsociable drinker prototype condition) was successful. Results of the main study showed that the sociable drinker prototype condition resulted in a higher willingness and – for those with less of a habit – a higher intention to binge drink the next weekend. The unsociable drinker prototype condition had no effects. The results imply that the social components of mass media campaigns might inadvertently exacerbate binge drinking in young men. We therefore advocate against campaigns including aspects of alcohol consumption that might be positively associated with drinker prototype perception. Finally, we provide suggestions for future research.     

Inviting perspective transformation: Sexual history awareness for professional formation

How do we deal with our own sexuality as teachers and as learners in the classroom? As a seminary professor in a mainline Christian context, I find that discussing sexuality increases student discomfort levels by threatening to raise questions about the connections between morality, behavior, and bodies of those in the room – questions we have been culturally trained to avoid. In order to decrease discomfort, many instructors approach sexuality only as content‐based subject matter. Particularly for ministry students, this approach can be a disservice to their discernment process and preparation for future ministry contexts, especially for those in turmoil regarding sexuality‐related issues. By explicitly engaging how personal experience and cultural contexts shape our sexuality, pedagogical models can promote critical self‐reflection and seek perspective transformation, not values change, as a resource for professional sexual ethics training in ministry.     

Teaching sexuality and Christianity for perspective transformation: Suggested resources and strategies

Sexual activity and desire have often been seen as inimical to Christian spirituality and practice, and many people have come to view Christianity as austere and shaming regarding sexuality. However, sexuality, religion, and policy‐making have become so intertwined, that to ignore how they intersect and affect particular individuals' lives does a disservice to students. This article presents resources and strategies for incorporating the topic of sexuality into liberal undergraduate and graduate theological classrooms. It provides guidance to instructors lacking research expertise in sexuality and focuses on three main pedagogical categories: perspective transformation; embodiment pedagogy; and sexual violence and trauma. One purpose of this article is to generate conversation: there is a need for further collaboration with colleagues who are experts in various disciplines to continue mining resources to offer diverse strategies and resources.     

The Self As a Complex Adaptive System,Part IV: Making Sense of the Sense of Self

This article proposes that when we speak of “the self,” reference is being made to the person and not to a homunculus that is located in a person's psyche; when we speak of the sense of self, we are referring to the person's mental activities, whether these are consciously, nonconsciously, or unconsciously experienced. It suggests that central to our understanding of our mental activities is an evolutionary perspective; in particular, the recognition process that permits us either to adapt to our environment or to reshape our environment to make it conform to our survival needs. Finally, it delineates some of the components and attributes of the sense of self that describe its major dynamics. These are discussed within the context of the three levels of analysis: the neuropsychological, the introspective, and the interpersonal domains.     

工作-生活平衡理念下的家庭支持:概念、维度及作用

家庭支持是帮助个体应对工作和生活领域的多重角色需求,维持工作-生活平衡的关键资源。在工作-家庭平衡研究的基础上,本文引入工作-生活平衡理念,对家庭支持概念的内涵进行拓展,探索了家庭支持的维度结构,并梳理了家庭支持对个体维持工作-生活平衡的积极作用。最后,对未来研究方向进行了展望。     

Plagiarism Among Iranian Graduate Students of Language Studies: Perspectives and Causes

In this study, we investigated the ability of Iranian students of applied linguistics to discern plagiarism in writing, their perceptions of its ethical aspects, their characterizations of plagiarists, and their perspectives on why they may commit plagiarism. In so doing, a slightly revised version of Deckert’s 1993 questionnaire, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, was electronically distributed among 156 graduate students of applied linguistics. The results of the quantitative data analysis revealed some understanding of the concept but an inconsistent performance in recognizing plagiarism. Regarding issues of ethics and fairness, they were concerned with their own needs along with the original writer’s rights more than with rights of their classmates, colleagues, or teachers. They regarded unfamiliarity with the concept and nature of plagiarism as the main reason for committing it. The analysis of the qualitative data yielded the following reasons for students’ plagiarism: students’ unfamiliarity with plagiarism, students’ low academic writing skills, teachers’ carelessness and leniency, students’ lack of time, students’ laziness and deceitfulness, educational system and its policies, students’ low language proficiency, students’ unfamiliarity with the subject of writing, and teachers’ high expectations. In conclusion, some suggestions are offered as to how to decrease the rate of plagiarism.     

科学发明情境中问题提出的fMRI研究

本研究中, 以76个科学发明问题(36个带有相关的原型, 40个不带有相关的原型)为实验材料,使用功能性磁共振成像(fMRI)技术探讨了科学发明情境中的问题提出以及新近获得的语义对有价值的科学问题提出的启发效应的大脑机制。对有原型提出有价值的科学问题与无原型提出一般问题这两种情况下被试反应的数据进行记录和分析。结果表明两种情况下共同激活的脑区(科学发明情境中问题提出的脑区)为左侧梭状回、左侧内侧额叶、左侧豆状核、右小脑和左侧中央前回。这些共同激活的脑区表明：左侧梭状回也许与各个语句的语义表征有关; 左侧内侧额叶也许与所有语句的整体语义表征以及提出各个语义之间的“问题”有关(左侧豆状核和右小脑配合内侧额叶分别负责控制注意、眼动的指向和注意资源的分配); 左侧中央前回可能负责用语句表述出所提出的语义之间的“问题”。对有原型提出有价值的科学问题和无原型提出有价值的科学问题这两种情况下被试反应的数据进行记录和分析。结果表明有原型提出有价值的科学问题比无原型提出有价值的科学问题显著激活的脑区(科学发明情境中新近获得的语义对有价值的科学问题提出的启发效应的脑区)为左侧楔前叶、左侧额下回、左侧颞中回。这些显著激活的脑区表明：楔前叶与情境记忆的贮存和提取有关; 额中回与认知控制和注意资源的分配有关; 颞中回与新异性原型的成功激活有关。     

One’s own reasoning

Abstract

Responding to Cappelen and Dever’s claim that there is no distinctive role for perspectivality in epistemology, I argue that facts about the outcomes of one’s own reasoning processes may have a different evidential significance than facts about the outcomes of others’.     

Parenting and Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Future Time Perspective

This study investigated the relations between maternal and paternal rearing practices and adolescents' depressive symptoms, and whether time perspective in adolescence explains these links. The sample included 306 students (158 girls), aged between 10.83 and 14.42 years. Adolescents completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance and psychological control, and of their future time perspective and depressive symptoms. Adolescents who rated their mothers as more accepting and those who rated their fathers as less psychologically controlling also reported lower levels of depressive symptoms and greater future time perspective. Further, adolescents who had greater future time perspective reported lower levels of depressive symptoms. Finally, time perspective partially mediated the relations of maternal and paternal acceptance, and paternal control with depressive symptoms in adolescence. The findings highlight the unique relations of maternal acceptance and paternal psychological control with adolescents' depressive symptoms, and that future time perspective is one mechanism that might explain why parenting strategies are linked with depressive symptoms in adolescence.