Heroes and heroines among American adolescents

Based upon the analysis of questionnaire responses of 1092 high school students, an attempt was made to assess the type of heroes and heroines most often chosen. The major findings are that high school students have more heroes than heroines, that they have an approximately equal number of personal heroes and heroines, and that the preference for heroes is not altered when the sex or race of the respondents is considered. The findings are explained both by the greater numbers of males than females in public professional roles and by the greater salience of male than female professional role models. Implications of the possible effects of hero and heroine choices for sex-role identification are discussed.     

Development of regulation disorders into specific psychopathology

Underlying deficits in self‐regulation and sensory processing are seen in children with regulation disorders (RD) and might lead to emotional and behavioral problems as the child develops. However, little is known about the specific developmental course of RD. This follow‐up study was conducted to investigate the development of a clinical sample of RD children, diagnosed by means of the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised (DC:0–3R; ZERO TO THREE, 1994), toward specific psychopathology 4 to 10 years later based on parent‐ and teacher‐reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (T.M. Achenbach & L.A. Rescorla, 2007). Parental reports showed that 39 to 69% of children with RD had internalizing, externalizing, and total problems above borderline cutoffs, as compared to norm group data (16%). In addition, higher rates of affective, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional defiant, and conduct problems were reported. Analyses between RD subtypes showed significant differences on future attention problems and rule‐breaking behavior, wherein less favorable results were found for the Hypersensitive subtype Type A (fearful/cautious) in comparison to the sensory stimulation‐seeking/impulsive subtype. The current results indicate persistence of emotional and behavioral problems into middle childhood and adolescence in children with preschool RD diagnoses. More attention should be paid to differentiation of psychopathology in these children since developmental outcomes may differ between RD subtypes.     

Earth and Nature-Based Spirituality (Part I): From Deep Ecology to Radical Environmentalism

Earth and nature-based spirituality is proliferating globally. In Part I of this study, I argue that although participants in countercultural movements often eschew the label religion, these are religious movements, in which these persons find ultimate meaning and transformative power in nature. Focusing on the deep ecology movement, I further argue that (1) experiences of nature spirituality are evoked by practices as diverse as mountaineering, neo-shamanic ritualising and states of consciousness induced by hallucinogens; (2) earthen spiritualities are often contested and may be viewed as inauthentic or dangerous by practitioners of other forms of nature spirituality; and (3) despite significant diversity, a sense of connection and belonging to nature (sometimes personified as a transforming, if not transcendent power) unites these cross-fertilising and sometimes competing spiritualities. Part II examines additional forms of nature-oriented religion, searching further for continuities, discontinuities and ironies among its diverse forms.     

Changes in the manifestation of guilt perception in endogenous depression in advanced age

The manifestation of endogenous depressions has clearly changed in the last decades. Ideas of guilt and sin have decreased or changed their contents, whereas feelings of insufficiency, physical complaints and hypochondriac ideas have clearly increased. The importance of the experience of guilt in the case of endogenous depressions and transcultural aspects of the guilt phenomenon are pointed out. By means of 301 case-histories of depressive patients at the involutional period the change in the manifestation of the depression within four periods of time is pointed out and its possible causal relationships are discussed.