Scripts we live by: on inheriting canonical texts

ABSTRACT

In this article, I theorize the interpretation of harmful canonical texts with special reference to John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. As a result of the actions and rhetoric of some of its North American evangelical readers, the Institutes has come to function as an intellectual foundation for certain expressions of modern homophobia. In conversation with Jacques Derrida on inheritance and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick on reparativity, I thus consider how queer evangelicals (especially those who wish to continue identifying themselves as such) ought to engage both Calvin’s text, particularly, as well as, more generally, those other canonical texts that are sources of trauma. In so doing, I proffer a capacious view of interpretation as not only what one says but also how one lives.     

Emotion dysregulation and posttraumatic stress disorder: a test of the incremental role of difficulties regulating positive emotions

Background and Objectives: Literature provides support for the role of emotion dysregulation in the development and course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among women victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, a dearth of studies have examined the contribution of emotion dysregulation stemming from positive emotions to PTSD. Extending research, the current study examined (1) the bivariate association of difficulties regulating positive emotions to PTSD symptom severity, and (2) the incremental role of difficulties regulating positive emotions in PTSD symptom severity beyond difficulties regulating negative emotions.

Design: Participants were 210 women victims of IPV involved in the criminal justice system because of their partners’ arrest (M age?=?36.14, 48.6% African American).

Methods: Participants completed empirically-supported self-report measures assessing difficulties regulating positive and negative emotions and PTSD symptom severity.

Results: Difficulties regulating positive and negative emotions (overall and across each of the specific dimensions) were significantly positively associated with PTSD symptom severity. Moreover, difficulties regulating positive emotions demonstrated an incremental relation to PTSD symptom severity beyond the variance accounted for by difficulties regulating negative emotions.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest the potential utility of targeting difficulties regulating positive emotions in interventions for PTSD among women victims of IPV.     

Investigating the Reliability of the Sentence Verification Technique

Reading comprehension plays an important role in achievement for all academic domains. The purpose of this study is to describe the sentence verification technique (SVT) (Royer, Hastings, &; Hook, 1979 Royer, J. M., Hastings, C. N., &; Hook, C. (1979). A sentence verification technique for measuring reading comprehension. Journal of Reading Behavior, 11(4), 355–363. doi:10.1080/10862967909547341[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) as an alternative method of assessing reading comprehension, which can be used with a variety of texts and across diverse populations and educational contexts. Additionally, this study adds a unique contribution to the extant literature on the SVT through an investigation of the precision of the instrument across proficiency levels. Data were gathered from a sample of 464 fourth-grade students from the Northeast region of the United States. Reliability was estimated using one, two, three, and four passage test forms. Two or three passages provided sufficient reliability. The conditional reliability analyses revealed that the SVT test scores were reliable for readers with average to below average proficiency, but did not provide reliable information for students who were very poor or strong readers.     

Does self-compassion protect adolescents who are victimized or suffer from academic difficulties from depression?

ABSTRACT

Adolescents face many social and academic difficulties which, if not managed properly, can lead to depression. Self-compassion, a kind and caring orientation towards oneself, has emerged as a possible resilience factor alleviating depression. Self-compassion comprises two factors: self-compassion and self-coldness. The present study set out to investigate whether self-compassion weakens or self-coldness strengthens the association between depression and two difficult circumstances: victimization and academic difficulties (ADs). The sample consisted of 2383 students who had recently made the transition to upper secondary education. The study was cross-sectional and employed a hierarchical regression analysis approach. Strongest interactions were followed up with simple slope analysis. Self-compassion (inversely), self-coldness, ADs, and victimization were statistically significant predictors of depression. Self-compassion weakened the association between ADs and depression. The results suggest encountering difficulties in adolescence and depression are related and that self-compassion may moderate the association.