The Janus face of schizotypy: enhanced spiritual connection or existential despair?

It has been asserted that schizotypy has a negative relationship with subjective well-being. By employing a multidimensional measure of spiritual well being with 400 British College students we report a more complex relationship. The Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Version were used and analysis made use of Canonical Correlational Analysis. Results suggested that two distinct relationships emerged between schizotypy and spirituality. First, a positive association between cognitive/perceptual features of schizotypy and spiritual connectedness emerged. Second a more global negative relationship between feelings of spiritual isolation and despair was found for all aspects of schizotypy. These findings challenge the previous literature based on one-dimensional subjective well being measures which have found only a negative relationship. However, the positive association between connectedness and cognitive-perceptual aspects of schizotypy raises import questions about the possible benefit of certain types of schizotypal experience.

First-time offender, productive offender, offender with dependents: why the profile of offenders (sometimes) matters in sentencing

Should a single mother of four young children who commits theft be sentenced to a lesser sanction than a woman who commits the same crime but has no dependents? Should a billionaire philanthropist be sentenced to a lesser penalty than the average citizen for assaulting a random bystander? Should a first-time thief receive a lighter sanction than a career thief for the same theft? The relevance of an offender’s profile to sentencing is unclear and is one of the most under-researched and least coherent areas of sentencing law. Intuitively, there is some appeal in treating offenders without a criminal record, those who have made a positive contribution to society, or who have dependents more leniently than other offenders. However, to allow these considerations to mitigate penalty potentially licenses offenders to commit crime and decouples the sanction from the severity of the offense, thereby undermining the proportionality principle. This article analyzes the relevance that an offender’s profile should have in sentencing. We conclude that a lack of prior convictions should generally reduce penalty because the empirical data shows that, in relation to most offenses, first-time offenders are less likely to reoffend than recidivist offenders. The situation is more complex in relation to offenders who have made worthy social contributions. They should not be given sentencing credit for past achievements given that past good acts have no relevance to the proper objectives of sentencing and it is normally not tenable, even in a crude sense, to make an informed assessment of an individual’s overall societal contribution. However, offenders should be accorded a sentencing reduction if they have financial or physical dependents and if imprisoning them is likely to cause harm to their dependents. Conferring asentencing discount to first-time offenders and those withdependents does not license them to commit crime or unjustifiablyencroach on the proportionality principle. Rather, it recognizes thedifferent layers of the legal system and the reality that sentencinglaw should not reflexively overwhelm broader maxims of justice,including the principle that innocent people should not suffer. Thisarticle argues that fundamental legislative reform is necessary toproperly reflect the role that the profile of offenders should have inthe sentencing regime.

Measuring retail productivity What really matters?

Retail productivity measurement has commonly used ratios of outputs, such as sales, and input factors like capital and labour to measuredifferent facets of productivity. However, these store-specific ratios are also likely to be influenced by other context-specific factors affectingthe reliability and validity of these measures. This paper contributes to the research on productivity measurement by developing and testing acomposite set of measures for retail productivity including exogenous factors. The empirical work is based on pharmacists in New Zealand(354) and Australia (336) using an instrument that is pretested in Canada (74) for both its external and internal validity. The data wereanalysed using LISREL to create comprehensive models of the relationships between and among the identified productivity factors. Thestudy revealed that some competitive factors and demand-related factors play a significant role in the productivity of the stores in both NewZealand and Australia. This implies that correct measurement of retail productivity must include exogenous factors to be accurate. Thetheoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.

Subject matters of science, technology, mathematics and engineering

This chapter offers a critical review of curriculum in the STEM disciplines, overviewing contemporary context and issues around the STEM acronym as a contested space, issues of inquiry, social justice, current concerns with student engagement and their history, theoretical perspectives on teaching and learning in these disciplines, and key forms and foci of inquiry into STEM curriculum.

Everything that matters is silvery white

When Jared Diamond asked acclaimed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr why Aristotle didn’t come up with the theory of evolution, Mays answered frage stellen or ‘a way of asking questions’ (ABC 2013). The idea that a particular way-of-asking might generate a particular way-of-knowing is applicable to the practice of creative writing. Modjeska unpacks the concept of ‘temporising’ (2002: 75), inviting us to consider the generative possibilities of the temporising space – as an imaginative space for writers – a way of asking questions.Research contributionThis work enacts the concept of temporising at the level of form and content, interrogating the connection between language and imagery, and the work of association and similarity and, following Aristotle, recognises the temporising space as a metaphorical playground. This method of asking questions involves alogical processes of association: supporting Freud’s ‘reciprocal relations’ between dissimilars (1900: 404) and Froeschels’ observation that ‘the subconscious [mind] considers similarity identical with identity’ (qtd. in Mavromatis 1987: 178).Research significanceThis work uses Modjeska’s analysis, and theories of subconscious processes of association, to enact an inquiry in the performative narrative space of the short story. It has been longlisted for the Australian Book Review’s Elizabeth Jolley Prize (2014) and the Séan Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition (Ireland) (2015), and was also a finalist in the Glimmer Train International Fiction Open Contest (USA) (2015).

It’s not all about language ability: motivational cultural intelligence matters in call center performance

his study focuses on the role of motivational cultural intelligence (CQ) in call center performance. Call centers mainly rely on verbal communication with language ability playing a significant role in delivery of tasks. This study argues that motivational CQ, or the interest and efficacy when interacting with individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds, plays a significant role in call center performance. This study was conducted in the Philippines, one of the top destinations for offshore services like call centers. Studies were conducted at two time points to determine the relationship between language ability, motivational CQ, and task performance. At Time 1, the language ability of 125 call center agent applicants was determined and assessed. At Time 2 which was conducted six months later, performance data were obtained and the level of the motivational CQ of the respondents measured. Results show that language ability is positively and significantly related to task performance. However, when motivational CQ was included, the relationship between language ability and task performance became non-significant, which conveys the full mediating role of motivational CQ in that relationship.