Poverty, Patriotism, and National Covenant: Jonathan Edwards and Public Life

In this essay I address three ways in which Edwards can inform Christian understanding of public life. First I show how Edwards provides both philosophical and theological rationales for social engagement and thereby resists the separation of religion from public life, and use his consideration of poverty as an illustration. Part II examines Edwards's dialectical treatment of patriotism, demonstrating both its importance to the Christian life and its susceptibility to deceptive accommodation to culture. Finally, in Part III I discuss Edwards's use of "national covenant," which despite its temptation to chauvinism Edwards used to undermine national pride. In the conclusion I assess what we can use from Edwards for contemporary Christian understandings of public life.     

The Rate and Characteristics of Suicide Attempters in the Native Hawaiian Adolescent Population

Native Hawaiian high school students, N = 1779, were surveyed for symptoms of psycho-pathology and suicide attempts in the previous 6 months. Seventy-seven (4.3%) of the students reported making a suicide attempt. There were no significant differences in prevalence rates for males and females. Depression, anxiety, aggression, substance abuse symptoms, and low family support, but not peer support, were significantly correlated with suicide attempts. On logistic regression, depression, substance abuse, and family support independently predicted attempts. The lack of gender difference may indicate a cultural characteristic of the Hawaiian population that differentiates it from mainstream American populations but likens it to the Native American population.     

The relationship of parental drug use and parents' attitude concerning adolescent drug use to adolescent drug use

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of two variables, parental drug use and parental attitude toward adolescent drug use, both as perceived by the adolescent respondent to his or her own use or nonuse of drugs. A sample of 106 drug-using and 96 nondrug-using adolescents was obtained through the use of the anthropological " snowball " technique. All respondents were administered a drug use history profile and a personal data questionnaire. In order to be classed as drug users, respondents had to have been using two or more recreational substances on a regular basis. Nondrug users were those who used no recreational drugs, although individuals who had tried alcohol or tobacco experimentally were included in this group. On the personal data form, respondents were asked to describe their parents' use of alcohol, tobacco, or other substances, and to indicate their parents' attitudes concerning adolescent use of drugs. Parental attitudes were classed as permissive if the respondent indicated that parents were indifferent about drug use, if they accepted a certain range of drugs, or if the decision were left up to the youth. A nonpermissive attitude was defined as one which would not accept drug use by the adolescent. Four 2 x 2 Chi-square analyses were used to determine significance of the relationship between adolescent drug use and parents' use or nonuse of drugs, parents' attitudes about adolescent use or nonuse and actual adolescent use or non-use, and this same attitudinal relationship looking at parent users and nonusers separately.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Process and content in an outpatient schizophrenic group

Process and content issues were evaluated during the first six months of an outpatient schizophrenic group. Compared with groups composed of neurotic and characterological patients, the schizophrenic group scored higher in the Avoiding dimension of the Group Climate Questionnaire (GCQ-S). There was more cohesion and less interpersonal conflict as time went on. Although topics related to engagement and differentiation were discussed, there was no obvious GCQ-S evidence of these first two stages of group development. However, the data supported the presence of stage 3 (individuation) during sessions 20–26. Interpersonal topics dominated the group discussions, followed by issues involving reality-testing, expression of emotions, and advice-giving.The authors wish to thank Dr. K. Roy MacKenzie for his helpful comments on a draft of this paper.     

The renormalisation group and effective field theories

Much apprehension has been expressed by philosophers about the method of renormalisation in quantum field theory, as it apparently requires illegitimate procedure of infinite cancellation. This has lead to various speculations, in particular in Teller (1989). We examine Teller's discussion of perturbative renormalisation of quantum fields, and show why it is inadequate. To really approach the matter one needs to understand the ideas and results of the renormalisation group, so we give a simple but comprehensive account of this topic. With this in hand, we explain how renormalisation can and should be understood. One thing that is revealed is that apparently very successful theories such as quantum electro-dynamics cannot be universally true; resolving the tension between success and falsity leads to a picture in which any theory may be viewed as irreducibly phenomenological. We explain how, and argue that the support for this view is tenuous at best.We are very grateful to Stephen Shenker in his patient efforts to help us understand this material, and to the helpful comments of Paul Teller and two anonymous referees. Some of the ideas presented here are based on material in the Ph.D. thesis of one of us (Huggett) submitted to Rutgers University.     

The course of aggression in first-grade children with and without comorbid anxious symptoms

We studied the course of aggressive behavior in an epidemiologically defined sample of first graders with and without comorbid anxious symptoms. Our primary purpose in doing so was to understand whether the stability of aggression in young children was attenuated or strengthened in the presence of comorbid anxiety. Previous studies of older children and adolescents had produced equivocal findings in this regard. Data on anxious symptoms were obtained through an interview of the children, whereas aggressive behavior was assessed through the use of a teacher interview and peer nominations. Assessments were performed in the fall and spring of first grade. In contrast to children classified as aggressive alone in the fall of first grade, boys and girls classified as aggressive and anxious in the fall of first grade were significantly more likely to be classified as aggressive in the spring in terms of teacher ratings and/or peer nominations of aggression. Thus our findings suggest that the link between early and later aggression may be strengthened in the presence of comorbid anxious symptoms, rather than attenuated. Future studies are needed to identify the mechanisms by which the course of aggression is influenced by the presence of comorbid anxiety.The writing of this paper was supported by the following National Institute of Mental Health grants: Epidemiologic Prevention Center for Early Risk Behavior (P50 MH38725); Periodic Outcome of Two Preventive Trials (1RO1 MH42968). The authors would like to thank the Baltimore Public City School System and the children and parents who participated in this study.     

The PsyCLE project: Developing a psychology computer-based learning environment

PsyCLE is a 3-year project involving over 30 United Kingdom universities to develop multimedia resources for introductory psychology courses. Our goal is to support active learning and encourage students to form a sound understanding of concepts under study. The developments focus on interactive tasks, illustrative case study material, and tools to support critical thinking and analysis. We discuss the rationale for the approach adopted and describe the developed resources and their evaluation and use.