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.     

HUMANITY IN THE WORLD OF LIFE

Abstract. The position and role of humanity in the world of life is examined in the light of the ontological structure of life itself. This problem is approached by considering the possible units of life representing various modes of life phenomena. I argue that the only meaningful unit of life without interposing some special external conditions is "global life" framed in a star-planet system. Any other possible unit of life exhibited by various kinds of individuals is conditional in the sense that it would leave out an essential part as "co-life." The relationship between human being and the global life should be understood in this general scheme of individual and global life. It is emphasized, however, that human being occupies a unique position in global life in the sense that humanity can promote either a cancerous situation or a healthy higher-order enhancement of the global life.     

Playing to their strengths: Can focusing on typical in-group strengths be detrimental to people of colour?

With increasing awareness about racism, portrayals of communities of colour are shifting away from negative representations. Emphasizing their strengths could counter negative stereotypes about who they are and low expectations for who they can be, but could also backfire. In two experiments centring adolescents (n = 198) and adults of colour (n = 321), the effect of reflecting on a typical strength was moderated by perceived misalignments between racial/ethnic and ideal future selves (i.e., ethnic–ideal self-discrepancy). For participants perceiving them as aligned, reflecting on a typical in-group strength reduced actual–ideal self-discrepancy. However, for participants perceiving them as misaligned, reflecting on a typical in-group strength increased actual–ideal self-discrepancy. Reflecting on a typical strength also indirectly influenced engagement, through actual–ideal self-discrepancy. Reflecting on an atypical in-group strength did not yield significant effects. Thus, emphasizing typical aspects of stigmatized communities, even when positive, sometimes impede identity and motivation.     

Personality traits,coping strategies and quality of life in patients of hepatitis C

IntroductionIn recent decades, hepatitis has become a community health issue. A severe, asymptomatic and unobserved acute disease could be resulted by HCV and it could be treated completely in few cases or could result in chronic hepatitis.ObjectiveThe current research investigated the relationship among personality traits, coping strategies and quality of life in patients of hepatitis C in Pakistan.MethodTotal 102 patients of HCV were selected from government, semi-government and private hospitals. Mental Health Screening Questionnaire (Mirza & Kausar, 2008) was used to screen the patients. The Urdu versions of Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999), Coping Strategies Questionnaire (Kausar & Munir, 2004) and Quality of Life-BREF (1997) were used to measure the study variables.ResultsThe results showed that extraversion had positive relationship with the subscales of quality of life except physical health. Conscientiousness had positive relationship with physical and psychological health. Neuroticism had negative relationship with all the domains of quality of life. Openness to experience had positive relationship with psychological health and environment. religious coping and conscientiousness positively predicted physical health, whereas, agreeableness was the negative predictor of physical health. Psychological health and social relationships were positively predicted by active focused coping, whereas, neuroticism negatively predicted psychological health.ConclusionThe results of present research indicated significant contribution of personality traits and coping strategies in maintaining quality of life of HCV patients. The clinical implications to improve quality of life of HCV patients are discussed in light of results.     

The influence of mindset abstraction on preference for mixed versus extreme approaches to multigoal pursuits

Facing multiple conflicting goals, consumers may attempt to simultaneously pursue multiple goals by choosing mixed vice–virtue bundles in each consumption episode (mixed approach). Alternatively, they may maximize their pursuit of one goal at a time and sequentially manage multiple goals by alternating between pure-virtue and pure-vice bundles across consumption episodes (extreme approach). The current research proposes that consumer preferences between the two approaches depend on mindset abstraction. Across four experimental studies in the domains of food and financial decision-making, we demonstrate that, relative to an abstract mindset, a concrete mindset increases preference for the extreme approach over the mixed approach. Furthermore, by observing actual food choices over a seven-day period, this research provides a comprehensive picture of how a chronic mindset relates to multigoal management in long-term consumption patterns. The findings have both theoretical implications for the goal literature and managerial implications for marketers and policymakers.     

Evaluating public posting,goal setting,and rewards to increase physical activity in children

In this study, we evaluated several components of a pedometer-based intervention with children in an elementary-school-aged classroom, across 24-h sessions. The intervention included combinations of self-monitoring, goal setting, feedback, and reinforcement, and data were analyzed at both the classroom level (i.e., average daily step totals) and the individual level (i.e., daily step totals), across phases. The highest levels of physical activity were observed when components of self-monitoring, public posting, goal setting, and feedback with reward were applied concurrently.     

Does authenticity always breed mental health? A cross-cultural comparison between the United States and China

Numerous studies on Western cultures have suggested a strong linkage between authenticity and mental health. However, little is known about whether such an association can be generalized to Eastern cultures. This study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural comparison on the association between three dimensions of authenticity (authentic living, self-alienation, and accepting external influence) and two factors of mental health (negative and positive) across Western and Eastern cultures. Measurement invariance tests were carried out and multigroup structural regression models developed on two college samples from the US (n = 392) and China (n = 281). Results suggested that the associations between authenticity and the negative factor of mental health were consistent across cultures, where both self-alienation and accepting external influence were positively associated with anxiety. However, the associations between authenticity and the positive factor of mental health were different in the US and Chinese samples. Specifically, both authentic living and accepting external influence were significantly associated with life satisfaction in the US sample but not in the Chinese sample. Findings stress that having a nondistorted perception of the true self is critically related to lower levels of anxiety across cultures and highlighted the need to identify culture-specific promotive factors for life satisfaction.     

Using tenets from the Bhagavad Gita in counselling diaspora Hindu older adults: Impact on stress mitigation and improving quality of life

This article reports a study on the impact of a Bhagavad Gita (BG) text-based counselling programme for long-term immigrant diaspora Hindu older adults in the US and UK. Compared with the journal writing sessions, participants of the BG lessons reported lower stress and better quality of life post-test (p ≤ 0.025; Hedges' g = −0.65–0.36). Results of the latent class analyses highlighted complex behaviour patterns in the post-test dataset and foregrounded six classes/subgroups of participants likely to gain most from the BG programme: older adult females, diaspora Hindu older adults with postgraduate-professional qualifications, widowed older adults, those living alone or with other kith-kin, those with above threshold programme compliance (defined as those who attended 13–24 (>50%) BG lessons, and completed 13–24 (>50%) BG homework lessons). Overall, the results of the study endorse the connection between age and religiosity and support a BG text-based counselling programme as a workable strategy for long-term immigrant diaspora Hindu older adults. The BG text provides a firm ethnoculturally grounded counselling approach to work with diaspora Hindu older adult clients, taking cognisance of their intersectional realities. It may help them cope with the dynamics of the modern, traditional, and continuously shifting realities in a foreign milieu.     

Self-control: An integrative framework

Research on self-control has flourished within the last two decades, with many researchers trying to answer one of the most fundamental questions regarding human behaviour—how do we successfully regulate desires in the pursuit of long-term goals? While recent research has focused on different strategies to enhance self-control success, we still know very little about how strategies are implemented or where the need for self-control comes from in the first place. Drawing from parallel fields (e.g., emotion regulation, health) and other theories of self-regulation, we propose an integrative framework that describes self-control as a dynamic, multi-stage process that unfolds over time. In this review, we first provide an overview of this framework, which poses three stages of regulation: the identification of the need for self-control, the selection of strategies to regulate temptations, and the implementation of chosen strategies. These regulatory stages are then flexibly monitored over time. We then expand this framework by outlining a series of growth points to guide future research. By bridging across theories and disciplines, the present framework improves our understanding of how self-control unfolds in everyday life.