The Psychological Outcome of Religious Coping with Stressful Life Events in a Swiss Sample of Church Attendees

Background: Recent research suggested thatreligious coping, based on dispositional religiousness and spirituality (R/S), is an important modulating factor in the process of dealing with adversity. In contrast to the United States, the effect of R/S on psychological adjustment to stress is a widely unexplored area in Europe. Methods: We examined a Swiss sample of 328 church attendees in the aftermath of stressful life events to explore associations of positive or negative religious coping with the psychological outcome. Applying a cross-sectional design, we used Huber’s Centrality Scale to specify religiousness and Pargament’s measure of religious coping (RCOPE) for the assessment of positive and negative religious coping. Depressive symptoms and anxiety as outcome variables were examined by the Brief Symptom Inventory. The Stress-Related Growth Scale and the Marburg questionnaire for the assessment of well-being were used to assess positive outcome aspects. We conducted Mann-Whitney tests for group comparisons and cumulative logit analysis for the assessmentof associations of religious coping with our outcome variables. Results: Both forms of religious coping were positively associated with stress-related growth (p < 0.01). However, negative religious coping additionally reduced well-being (p = 0.05, β = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.27–0.99) and increased anxiety (p = 0.02, β = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.10–3.39) and depressive symptoms (p = 0.01, β = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.27–4.06). Conclusions: The effects of religious coping on the psychological adjustment to stressful life events seem relevant. These findings should be confirmed in prospective studies.

The modulation of reading strategies by language opacity in early bilinguals: an eye movement study

Converging evidences from eye movement experiments indicate that linguistic contexts influence reading strategies. However, the question of whether different linguistic contexts modulate eye movements during reading in the same bilingual individuals remains unresolved. We examined reading strategies in a transparent (German) and an opaque (French) language of early, highly proficient French–German bilinguals: participants read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words while the First Fixation Location (FFL), its duration and latency were measured. Since transparent linguistic contexts and pseudo-words would favour a direct grapheme/phoneme conversion, the reading strategy should be more local for German than for French words (FFL closer to the beginning) and no difference is expected in pseudo-words’ FFL between contexts. Our results confirm these hypotheses, providing the first evidence that the same individuals engage different reading strategy depending on language opacity, suggesting that a given brain process can be modulated by a given context.

La memoria en el proceso creativo de Juan Muñoz = Memory in the creative process of Juan Muñoz

Esta tesis integra un estudio reflexivo sobre la relación de dependencia entre la creación y la memoria a través del análisis de la última obra del escultor Juan Muñoz: Double Bind (Tate Modern, Londres, 2001). Desde esta posición es obligado replantear el análisis de la obra, lo que hace necesario su estudio cubriendo el mayor espectro posible de información accesible más allá de la obra en sí, para aproximarse a la convergencia entre memoria y creación. La perspectiva de análisis propuesta abre camino a nuevas consideraciones so¬bre la relevancia del conocimiento en el desarrollo del proceso creativo. Este análisis no debe tan sólo suponer una aportación al conocimiento del trabajo de Juan Muñoz. Debe también desprenderse de él la innegable participación y necesaria lectura del pasado en el presente. La amnesia de los tiempos pasados impide completar el atlas de imágenes en las que se apoya la creación impidiendo el conocimiento del origen de las fuentes de inspi¬ración y las bases de la creación de una determinada obra. Este hecho limita y distorsiona sus posibles interpretaciones. Pretendo un acercamiento al entendimiento de la forma de mirar y de crear a través del tiempo que es memoria. La memoria tiene un cometido de crucial importancia para la actividad mental y juega un papel fundamental en la conducta y en la creación. La obra es el resultado de la búsqueda de una idea que exprese algo que el creador no puede ex¬presar de otra manera. Es la necesidad de expresar las ideas mediante un lenguaje que se desarrolla en el tiempo y en el espacio, reflejo del ser que responde al pensamiento. Es una forma de experiencia donde subyacen las sendas del pasado y donde se plantea el futuro. Sólo el creador accede a la obra desde dentro, el observador llega a ella desde el exterior y mediante su propia subjetividad. Las obras son formas de experiencia de sus autores, comunicar el mensaje de dicha experiencia supone por tanto interpretar. Persiguiendo la necesidad de saber y entender, pretender explicar el sentido de una cosa implica una apreciación intencionada asociada al entendimiento del intérprete. Las obras son produc¬tos que portan un mensaje y que contienen en su estructura las trazas del tiempo vivido por su creador. Si se quiere adquirir un acercamiento que represente la posición de un autor, será necesario no solo mirar a través de ella, si no introducirse en el contexto de su historia. Mirar hacia atrás, hacia la profundidad del presente para tener conciencia del pensamiento presente y futuro. Recorrer de este modo la instalación Double Bind de Juan Muñoz proporciona una síntesis de sus preocupaciones e intereses a la vez que aporta un conocimiento no necesariamente inmediato, pero relevante y trascendente de la obra, su creador y la historia. ABSTRACT This thesis comprises a reflective study of the dependence relationship between creation and memory through the analysis of the latest work by the sculptor Juan Muñoz: Double Bind (Tate Modern, London, 2001). From this position, it is mandatory to rethink the analysis of the work, making it necessary to cover the widest possible range of information available beyond the work itself, in order to obtain a closer view of the convergence between memory and creation. The proposed analytical approach opens up new considerations on the relevance of knowledge during the development of the creative process. This analysis should not only make a contribution to the knowledge of the work of Juan Muñoz. It should also infer the undeniable involvement and the necessary reading of the past in the present. Amnesia regarding past makes it impossible to complete the atlas of images on which the creation is based, blocking knowledge of the origin of the sources of inspiration and the basis for the creation of a specific work. This fact limits and distorts its possible interpretations. My intention is an approach to how to understand memory as the way of looking and creating over time. Memory has a crucial role to mental activity and plays a key role in behaviour and creation. The work is the result of finding an idea that expresses something that the creator can not express otherwise. It is the need to express ideas by means of a language that develops throughout time and space, a reflection of the being that responds to the thought. It is a way of experience underlying the paths of the past and where the future is set out. Only the creator can access the work from the inside. The observer sees it from the outside and in accordance with his/her own subjectivity. The works form a part of the experience of their authors, thus implying the interpretation of the message of their experience being passed on. The pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and trying to explain the meaning of something implies a deliberate appreciation associated with the understanding of the interpreter. The works are products bearing a message and containing in their structure traces of the time lived by their creator. If one wants to come close to what the author’s posture represents, it will not only be necessary to penetrate it, but also to introduce oneself into the context of its history. Take a look back, towards the depth of the present in order to become aware of present and future thinking. To go across the installation of Double Bind by Juan Muñoz in this way offers a synthesis of his concerns and interests while also providing a not necessarily immediate knowledge, but one which is relevant and important to the work, its creator and history.

Cognitive modelling and the behaviour genetics of reading

While it is well known that reading is highly heritable, less has been understood about the bases of these genetic influences. In this paper, we review the research that we have been conducting in recent years to examine genetic and environmental influences on the particular reading processes specified in the dual-route cognitive model of reading. We argue that a detailed understanding of the role of genetic factors in reading acquisition requires the delineation and measurement of precise phenotypes, derived from well-articulated models of the reading process. We report evidence for independent genetic influences on the lexical and nonlexical reading processes represented in the dual-route model, based on studies of children with particular subtypes of dyslexia, and on univariate and multivariate genetic modelling of reading performance in the normally reading population.

Social psychological aspects of rape: a study of recorded rape and images of rape victimisation

This thesis is organised into four parts. In Part 1 relevant literature is reviewed and presented in three chapters. Chapter 1 examines legal and cultural factors in identifying the. boundaries of rape. Chapter 2 discusses idiographic features· and causal characteristics of rape suspects and victims. Chapter 3 reviews the evidence relating to attitudes toward rape,. attribution of responsibility to victims and the routine management of rape cases by the police. Part II comprises an experimental investigation of observer perception of the victims of violent crime. The experiment, examined the processes by which impressions were attributed to victims of personal crime. The results suggested that discrepancies from observers' stereotypes were an important factor in their polarisation of victim ratings. The relevance of. examining . both the structure and process of' impression, formation was highlighted. Part III describes an extensive field study in which the West. Midlands police files on rape for an eight year period (1071-1978) were analysed. The study revealed a large number of interesting findings related to a wide range of relevant features of the crime. Further, the impact .of common misconceptions and "myths" of rape were investigated across the legal and judicial processing of rape cases. The evidence suggests that these "myths" lead·to differential biasing effects at different stages in the process. In the final part of this thesis,. salient issues raised by the experiment and field study .are discussed·within the framework outlined in Part 1. Potential implications for future developments and research: are presented.

Latent Space and Social Psychological Models of Diffusion

The problem of social diffusion has animated sociological thinking on topics ranging from the spread of an idea, an innovation or a disease, to the foundations of collective behavior and political polarization. While network diffusion has been a productive metaphor, the reality of diffusion processes is often muddier. Ideas and innovations diffuse differently from diseases, but, with a few exceptions, the diffusion of ideas and innovations has been modeled under the same assumptions as the diffusion of disease. In this dissertation, I develop two new diffusion models for "socially meaningful" contagions that address two of the most significant problems with current diffusion models: (1) that contagions can only spread along observed ties, and (2) that contagions do not change as they spread between people. I augment insights from these statistical and simulation models with an analysis of an empirical case of diffusion - the use of enterprise collaboration software in a large technology company. I focus the empirical study on when people abandon innovations, a crucial, and understudied aspect of the diffusion of innovations. Using timestamped posts, I analyze when people abandon software to a high degree of detail.

To address the first problem, I suggest a latent space diffusion model. Rather than treating ties as stable conduits for information, the latent space diffusion model treats ties as random draws from an underlying social space, and simulates diffusion over the social space. Theoretically, the social space model integrates both actor ties and attributes simultaneously in a single social plane, while incorporating schemas into diffusion processes gives an explicit form to the reciprocal influences that cognition and social environment have on each other. Practically, the latent space diffusion model produces statistically consistent diffusion estimates where using the network alone does not, and the diffusion with schemas model shows that introducing some cognitive processing into diffusion processes changes the rate and ultimate distribution of the spreading information. To address the second problem, I suggest a diffusion model with schemas. Rather than treating information as though it is spread without changes, the schema diffusion model allows people to modify information they receive to fit an underlying mental model of the information before they pass the information to others. Combining the latent space models with a schema notion for actors improves our models for social diffusion both theoretically and practically.

The empirical case study focuses on how the changing value of an innovation, introduced by the innovations' network externalities, influences when people abandon the innovation. In it, I find that people are least likely to abandon an innovation when other people in their neighborhood currently use the software as well. The effect is particularly pronounced for supervisors' current use and number of supervisory team members who currently use the software. This case study not only points to an important process in the diffusion of innovation, but also suggests a new approach -- computerized collaboration systems -- to collecting and analyzing data on organizational processes.

Surprised by Syntax: Reading the Latinity of Paradise Lost

Stanley Fish in his monumental study argued that the reader of Paradise Lost is “surprised by sin” as he or she in the course of engaging with the text falls, like Adam and Eve, into sin and error and is brought up short. Through a “programme of reader harassment” the experience of the fall is re-enacted in the process of reading, wherein lies the poem’s meaning. And reader response criticism was born. But if for Fish the twentieth-century reader is “surprised by sin,” might not the twenty-first century reader, an all too frequently Latinless reader, be surprised by syntax, a syntax which despite of (or maybe because of) its inherent Latinity and associated linguistic alterity functions as a seductively attractive other? The reader, like Eve, is indeed surprised: enchanted, bemused, seduced by the abundant classicism, by the formal Latinate rhetoric achieved by a Miltonic unison of “Voice and Verse” and also by the language of a Satanic tempter who is—in the pejorative sense of the Latin adjective bilinguis—“double-tongued, deceitful, treacherous.” It is hardly an accident that this adjective (with which Milton qualifies hellish betrayal in his Latin gunpowder epic) was typically applied to the forked tongue of a serpent. This study argues that key to the success of the double-tongued Miltonic serpens bilinguis, is his use and abuse of Latinate language and rhetoric. It posits the possible case that this is mirrored in the linguistic methodology of the poeta bilinguis, the geminus Miltonus? For if, like Eve, the twenty-first century reader of Paradise Lost is surprised by syntax, by the Miltonic use and the Satanic abuse of a Latinate voice, might not he or she also be surprised by the text’s bilingual speaking voice?

Cognitive Component Skills of Reading Comprehension in Developing Readers

Die Fähigkeit, geschriebene Texte zu verstehen, d.h. eine kohärente mentale Repräsentation von Textinhalten zu erstellen, ist eine notwendige Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche schulische und außerschulische Entwicklung. Es ist daher ein zentrales Anliegen des Bildungssystems Leseschwierigkeiten frühzeitig zu diagnostizieren und mithilfe zielgerichteter Interventionsprogramme zu fördern. Dies erfordert ein umfassendes Wissen über die kognitiven Teilprozesse, die dem Leseverstehen zugrunde liegen, ihre Zusammenhänge und ihre Entwicklung. Die vorliegende Dissertation soll zu einem umfassenden Verständnis über das Leseverstehen beitragen, indem sie eine Auswahl offener Fragestellungen experimentell untersucht. Studie 1 untersucht inwieweit phonologische Rekodier- und orthographische Dekodierfertigkeiten zum Satz- und Textverstehen beitragen und wie sich beide Fertigkeiten bei deutschen Grundschüler(inne)n von der 2. bis zur 4. Klasse entwickeln. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass beide Fertigkeiten signifikante und eigenständige Beiträge zum Leseverstehen leisten und dass sich ihr relativer Beitrag über die Klassenstufen hinweg nicht verändert. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, dass bereits deutsche Zweitklässler(innen) den Großteil geschriebener Wörter in altersgerechten Texten über orthographische Vergleichsprozesse erkennen. Nichtsdestotrotz nutzen deutsche Grundschulkinder offenbar kontinuierlich phonologische Informationen, um die visuelle Worterkennung zu optimieren. Studie 2 erweitert die bisherige empirische Forschung zu einem der bekanntesten Modelle des Leseverstehens—der Simple View of Reading (SVR, Gough & Tunmer, 1986). Die Studie überprüft die SVR (Reading comprehension = Decoding x Comprehension) mithilfe optimierter und methodisch stringenter Maße der Modellkonstituenten und überprüft ihre Generalisierbarkeit für deutsche Dritt- und Viertklässler(innen). Studie 2 zeigt, dass die SVR einer methodisch stringenten Überprüfung nicht standhält und nicht ohne Weiteres auf deutsche Dritt- und Viertklässler(innen) generalisiert werden kann. Es wurden nur schwache Belege für eine multiplikative Verknüpfung von Dekodier- (D) und Hörverstehensfertigkeiten (C) gefunden. Der Umstand, dass ein beachtlicher Teil der Varianz im Leseverstehen (R) nicht durch D und C aufgeklärt werden konnte, deutet darauf hin, dass das Modell nicht vollständig ist und ggf. durch weitere Komponenten ergänzt werden muss. Studie 3 untersucht die Verarbeitung positiv-kausaler und negativ-kausaler Kohärenzrelationen bei deutschen Erst- bis Viertklässler(inne)n und Erwachsenen im Lese- und Hörverstehen. In Übereinstimmung mit dem Cumulative Cognitive Complexity-Ansatz (Evers-Vermeul & Sanders, 2009; Spooren & Sanders, 2008) zeigt Studie 3, dass die Verarbeitung negativ-kausaler Kohärenzrelationen und Konnektoren kognitiv aufwändiger ist als die Verarbeitung positiv-kausaler Relationen. Darüber hinaus entwickelt sich das Verstehen beider Kohärenzrelationen noch über die Grundschulzeit hinweg und ist für negativ-kausale Relationen am Ende der vierten Klasse noch nicht abgeschlossen. Studie 4 zeigt und diskutiert die Nützlichkeit prozess-orientierter Lesetests wie ProDi- L (Richter et al., in press), die individuelle Unterschiede in den kognitiven Teilfertigkeiten des Leseverstehens selektiv erfassen. Hierzu wird exemplarisch die Konstruktvalidität des ProDi-L-Subtests ‚Syntaktische Integration’ nachgewiesen. Mittels explanatorischer Item- Repsonse-Modelle wird gezeigt, dass der Test Fertigkeiten syntaktischer Integration separat erfasst und Kinder mit defizitären syntaktischen Fertigkeiten identifizieren kann. Die berichteten Befunde tragen zu einem umfassenden Verständnis der kognitiven Teilfertigkeiten des Leseverstehens bei, das für eine optimale Gestaltung des Leseunterrichts, für das Erstellen von Lernmaterialien, Leseinstruktionen und Lehrbüchern unerlässlich ist. Darüber hinaus stellt es die Grundlage für eine sinnvolle Diagnose individueller Leseschwierigkeiten und für die Konzeption adaptiver und zielgerichteter Interventionsprogramme zur Förderung des Leseverstehens bei schwachen Leser(inne)n dar.

Exploring the Process of Meaning-making after Partner Suicide

Meaning-making is increasingly recognized as a fundamental aspect of the grief experience. This study investigated the process of meaning-making in the narratives of individuals whose partners died by suicide, exploring their meaning reconstruction in response to this form of loss. The narratives of users of a public online grief support forum (n = 50) were analyzed using the Meaning of Loss Codebook (Gillies, Neimeyer, & Milman, 2014), which consists of core categories of meaning of loss in response to the death of a loved one. The results indicated that these individuals predominantly experienced negative affect, a lack of understanding associated with the loss, and a longing for their partners. The grief experience of participants in this study was marked by substantial psychological distress and an ongoing struggle to make sense of and find meaning in this type of loss. It is clear that grieving the loss of a partner as a result of suicide presents unique challenges to meaning-making in comparison to other types of loss. Given the importance of this aspect of adjustment to loss, these findings deepen the understanding of this component of grief and inform the provision of support for those grieving a loved one who died by suicide.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE LIBRARY CHILDREN "ALVAREZ MIRIAM BRENES" AND FAMILY IN THE FORMATION OF HABITS OF READING UNIVERSITY GARDENS CHILD POPULATION I AND II, Heredia, COSTA RICA: YEAR 2007 "

Constantly making efforts to strengthen reading habits in children from their earliest years of life, a process in which the family is established as the primary basis for the child to achieve the taste and interest in books. The school as being key to education supports and strengthens the skills taught in the home, with the help of technologies such as computers, disk reading, television, among other means, by which (as) children (as) found a door of communication with the outside world and everything around them. The children's library tends to use these technological means to attract children to reading, generating and taste for the various information resources, which over time will become a habit.This research is based on the "Contribution of the Library Miriam Alvarez Brenes and family in the formation of reading habits of children of the community of Garden I and II University in Heredia, through advocacy, in 2007 "

Psychosocial stressors perceived in the process of social reintegration and compliance time remaining in prison sentence

Introduction: This study shows the results obtained from evaluating the main psychosocial stressors perceived in the process of social reintegration and their relation to a remaining sentence time in prison. Material and methods: A questionnaire based on an ad hoc design was administered, using a Likert scale, with a total of 383 inmates serving sentences in southeast Spain. Results: Findings show that inmates with a remaining sentence period of more than one year, like those who had served more than a year of their sentence, showed greater concern about possible economic difficulties. Conclusions: The psychosocial stressors studied might provide relevant information to facilitate the process of social reintegration after the completion of a prison sentence.

The teaching of reading English in a foreign language in Libyan universities: methods and models

This study focuses on the learning and teaching of Reading in English as a Foreign Language (REFL), in Libya. The study draws on an action research process in which I sought to look critically at students and teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Libya as they learned and taught REFL in four Libyan research sites. The Libyan EFL educational system is influenced by two main factors: the method of teaching the Holy-Quran and the long-time ban on teaching EFL by the former Libyan regime under Muammar Gaddafi. Both of these factors have affected the learning and teaching of REFL and I outline these contextual factors in the first chapter of the thesis. This investigation, and the exploration of the challenges that Libyan university students encounter in their REFL, is supported by attention to reading models. These models helped to provide an analytical framework and starting point for understanding the many processes involved in reading for meaning and in reading to satisfy teacher instructions. The theoretical framework I adopted was based, mainly and initially, on top-down, bottom-up, interactive and compensatory interactive models. I drew on these models with a view to understanding whether and how the processes of reading described in the models could be applied to the reading of EFL students and whether these models could help me to better understand what was going on in REFL. The diagnosis stage of the study provided initial data collected from four Libyan research sites with research tools including video-recorded classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with teachers before and after lesson observation, and think-aloud protocols (TAPs) with 24 students (six from each university) in which I examined their REFL reading behaviours and strategies. This stage indicated that the majority of students shared behaviours such as reading aloud, reading each word in the text, articulating the phonemes and syllables of words, or skipping words if they could not pronounce them. Overall this first stage indicated that alternative methods of teaching REFL were needed in order to encourage ‘reading for meaning’ that might be based on strategies related to eventual interactive reading models adapted for REFL. The second phase of this research project was an Intervention Phase involving two team-teaching sessions in one of the four stage one universities. In each session, I worked with the teacher of one group to introduce an alternative method of REFL. This method was based on teaching different reading strategies to encourage the students to work towards an eventual interactive way of reading for meaning. A focus group discussion and TAPs followed the lessons with six students in order to discuss the 'new' method. Next were two video-recorded classroom observations which were followed by an audio-recorded discussion with the teacher about these methods. Finally, I conducted a Skype interview with the class teacher at the end of the semester to discuss any changes he had made in his teaching or had observed in his students' reading with respect to reading behaviour strategies, and reactions and performance of the students as he continued to use the 'new' method. The results of the intervention stage indicate that the teacher, perhaps not surprisingly, can play an important role in adding to students’ knowledge and confidence and in improving their REFL strategies. For example, after the intervention stage, students began to think about the title, and to use their own background knowledge to comprehend the text. The students employed, also, linguistic strategies such as decoding and, above all, the students abandoned the behaviour of reading for pronunciation in favour of reading for meaning. Despite the apparent efficacy of the alternative method, there are, inevitably, limitations related to the small-scale nature of the study and the time I had available to conduct the research. There are challenges, too, related to the students’ first language, the idiosyncrasies of the English language, the teacher training and continuing professional development of teachers, and the continuing political instability of Libya. The students’ lack of vocabulary and their difficulties with grammatical functions such as phrasal and prepositional verbs, forms which do not exist in Arabic, mean that REFL will always be challenging. Given such constraints, the ‘new’ methods I trialled and propose for adoption can only go so far in addressing students’ difficulties in REFL. Overall, the study indicates that the Libyan educational system is underdeveloped and under resourced with respect to REFL. My data indicates that the teacher participants have received little to no professional developmental that could help them improve their teaching in REFL and skills in teaching EFL. These circumstances, along with the perennial problem of large but varying class sizes; student, teacher and assessment expectations; and limited and often poor quality resources, affect the way EFL students learn to read in English. Against this background, the thesis concludes by offering tentative conclusions; reflections on the study, including a discussion of its limitations, and possible recommendations designed to improve REFL learning and teaching in Libyan universities.