The Brahmin and the fakir: Suburban religiosity in the cult of Shirdi Sai baba

Shirdi Sai Baba (?‐1918), whose cult in Bangalore city, India, is the case study of this paper, was a Maharashtrian saint closely identified with both the Pandharpur tradition of Vaisnavite devotion and Sufi genealogies in the region. My thesis is that in the cult of Shirdi Sai Baba, the holy mendicant/saint (fakir/sant) paradigm was associated historically with non‐urban locations; the paradigm of the spiritual guide (guru,) and, in later years, the incarnation (avatar), is to be found associated with suburban and urban sites. The religious imagination of a cult is a behavioural, communicational and spatial model that creates particular kinds of topological domains in different historical and social milieus. It achieves its coherence within these contexts through certain ‘root paradigms’, cultural codes in the minds of carriers of traditions that shape relationships, practices, and life‐stances of individuals. While it is common to identify an urban location by certain social science variables, such as the size of a settlement, industrialisation or a sophisticated communication system, 1 will instead view the urban topos of Bangalore through the root paradigms of a religious cult.     

Socioeconomic Status and Health: What is the role of Reserve Capacity?

ABSTRACT— A robust, linear association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health has been identified across many populations and health outcomes. This relationship is typically monotonic, so that each step down the SES hierarchy brings increased vulnerability to disease and premature mortality. Despite growing attention to health disparities, scientists and policymakers have made little progress toward confronting their causes and implementing effective solutions. Using the reserve capacity model ( Gallo & Matthews, 2003 ) as an organizing framework, the current article examines the contribution of resilient psychosocial resources to socioeconomic disparities in physical health. Findings suggest that deficient psychosocial resources, such as low perceptions of control and social support, may be one of many factors that connect low SES with poor health. Additional research is needed to test these relationships and their underlying mechanisms, to consider interventions to enhance reserve capacity, and to evaluate the efficacy of such efforts in fostering resilience to socioeconomic hardship.     

The Indian superstition scale: creating a measure to assess Indian superstitions

Despite humans’ capacity for rational thought, they are not immune to superstitions. Superstitions are strongly tied to cultural practices, especially in India. Although 17% of the world’s population resides in India, Indian culture is understudied, and there have not been sufficient attempts to understand Indian superstitions in a scientific manner from a psychometric standpoint. By creating a proper superstition measurement for the Indian population, we can better understand how Indians think and behave. The goal of the present research is to create a superstition measure specific to Indian culture. The results reveal 18 items reflecting Indian superstitions that can be generalised across contemporary India.     

The use of background and ability profiles to predict college student outcomes

To determine whether profiles of predictor variables provide incremental prediction of college student outcomes, the authors 1st applied an empirical clustering method to profiles based on the scores of 2,771 entering college students on a battery of biographical data and situational judgment measures, along with SAT and American College Test scores and high school grade point average, which resulted in 5 student groups. Performance of the students in these clusters was meaningfully different on a set of external variables, including college grade point average, self-rated performance, class absenteeism, organizational citizenship behavior, intent to quit their university, and satisfaction with college. The 14 variables in the profile were all significantly correlated with 1 or more of the outcome measures; however, nonlinear prediction of these outcomes on the basis of cluster membership did not add incrementally to a linear-regression-based combination of these 14 variables as predictors.