Beliefs

Images of a Loving God and Sense of Meaning in Life

by Samuel Stroope

Although prior studies have documented a positive association between religiosity and sense of meaning in life, the... more Although prior studies have documented a positive association between religiosity and sense of meaning in life, the role of specific religious beliefs is currently unclear. Past research on images of God suggests that loving images of God will positively correlate with a sense of meaning and purpose. Mechanisms for this hypothesized relationship are drawn from prior work on attachment theory, religious coping, and symbolic interaction. We suggest that these mechanisms are complementary and that secure attachment styles, reliable coping strategies, and positive self-images work in tandem to facilitate a sense of meaning and purpose. Using a random, national sample from the second wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, we perform multivariate regression analysis that controls for key religious and demographic effects. In our full model, results indicate that the dependent variable is positively associated with student status, religious non-affiliation, congregational friendship networks, and frequency of prayer. Most important from the perspective of the present study, the connection between loving images of God and a sense of meaning and purpose is consistent and robust.

Social identity: Looking through micro-macro lenses

by Boushra Dalile

Too much ado about beliefs

by Elisabeth Pacherie

Dokic, J. & Pacherie, E. (2007) Too much ado about beliefs. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6: 185-200.

Three commitments guide Dennett’s approach to the study of consciousness. First, an ontological commitment to... more Three commitments guide Dennett’s approach to the study of consciousness. First, an ontological commitment to materialist monism. Second, a methodological commitment to what he calls ‘heterophenomenology.’ Third, a ‘doxological’commitment that can be expressed as the view that there is no room for a distinction between a subject’s beliefs about how things seem to her and what things actually seem to her, or, to put it otherwise, as the view that there is no room for a reality/ appearance distinction for consciousness. We investigate how Dennett’s third doxological commitment relates to his first two commitments and whether its acceptance should be seen as a mere logical consequence of acceptance of the firs two. We will argue that this is not the case, that Dennett’s doxological commitment is in need of independent motivation, and that this independent motivation is not forthcoming.

Social representations and beliefs

by Nikos Kalampalikis

Apostolidis, T., Duveen, G. & Kalampalikis, N. (2002). Représentations et croyances, Psychologie & Société, 5, 7-11.

The role of religion and spirituality on the quality of life of rare diseases patients

by Ioan Popoviciu

Salomea Popoviciu, Delia Birle, Serban Olah (2012). Review of Research and Social Intervention.

This study explored the relationship between religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs and the quality of life of... more This study explored the relationship between religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs and the quality of life of Romanian rare disease patients. Specifically, the study, firstly, analyzed the correlations between self-reported life satisfaction and
participants’ beliefs in heaven, afterlife and God. Secondly, correlations between self-reported optimism and participants’ belief in the role of spirituality and life meaning were studied. Thirdly, the relationship between self-reported health and
church attendance, importance of church and importance God for Romanian rare disease patients were examined. Implications for social workers, counselors and health providers were also discussed.

Against the Deflationary Account of Self-Deception

by José Eduardo Porcher

Published in Humana.Mente, Feb. 2012, Vol. 20, pp. 67–84.

Self-deception poses serious difficulties for belief attribution because the behavior of the self-deceived is deeply... more Self-deception poses serious difficulties for belief attribution because the behavior of the self-deceived is deeply conflicted: some of it supports the attribution of a certain belief, while some of it supports the contrary attribution. Theorists have resorted either to attributing both beliefs to the self-deceived, or to postulating an unconscious belief coupled with another kind of cognitive attitude. On the other hand, deflationary accounts of self- deception have attempted a more parsimonious solution: attributing only one, false belief to the subject. My aim in this paper is to critically examine this strategy and, subsequently, to suggest that its failure gives support to the neglected view that the self-deceived are not accurately describable as believing either of the relevant propositions.

Croyances relatives à la douleur: rôle dans le rapport aux soins et l'ajustement chez des patients douloureux chroniques

by Lionel Dany

Croyances relatives à la douleur : rôle dans le rapport aux soins et l’ajustement chez des patients douloureux chroniques

by Lionel Dany

Return? It never left. Exploring the ‘sacred’ as a resource for bridging the gap between the religious and the secular

by Matthew Francis

Co-authored with Professor Kim Knott
Do not cite without permission of authors.

Relationship between Social Axioms and Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Self-Regulation

by Chin Ming Hui

Hui, C. M., & Bond, M. H. (2010). Relationship between social axioms and subjective well-being: The role of self-regulation. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies, 11, 29-52.

This study was designed to examine the relationships among social axioms and four different dispositional components... more This study was designed to examine the relationships among social axioms and four different dispositional components of self-regulation, namely optimism, mindfulness, regulatory modes, and approach versus avoidance motivation. We focused on two dimensions of beliefs about the world—social cynicism, that constellation of beliefs judging the social world to be dominated by power, and reward for application, that constellation of beliefs judging the world to respond positively to inputs of human effort and investment of resources. Results indicated that two axiom dimensions, namely, social cynicism and reward for application, were related to this subset of self-regulatory orientations. Moreover, mediational analyses suggested that social cynicism was related to less adaptive self-regulatory orientations, which in turn compromised subjective well-being, whereas reward for application was related to more adaptive self-regulatory orientations, which thereby enhanced subjective well-being. The implications of these findings are discussed for interpersonal strategic orientations and psychological health.

Responding to News about a Natural Disaster: The Interplay of Group Identification and Social Cynicism in Perceived Prototypicality

by Chin Ming Hui

Chen, S. X., Guan, Y. J., & Hui, C. M. (in press). Responding to news about a natural disaster: The interplay of group identification and social cynicism in perceived prototypicality. International Journal of Intercultural Relations.

Two studies examined how members of Chinese subgroups, namely Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, perceived attributes... more Two studies examined how members of Chinese subgroups, namely Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, perceived attributes reflected by acts in positive and negative news about the Sichuan earthquake in China as prototypical of the superordinate category of Chinese as a whole. Mainland Chinese, but not Hong Kong Chinese, perceived positive acts as more prototypical of Chinese than negative acts, and identification with the superordinate category mediated this effect of subgroup membership on perceived prototypicality. In addition, cynical beliefs moderated the interaction between group identification and event valence on perceived prototypicality. When social cynicism was high, positive versus negative acts were considered as more prototypical of Chinese among high identifiers whereas the reverse pattern was found among low identifiers. However, when social cynicism was low, positive and negative acts were considered as equally prototypical regardless of Chinese identification. These results revealed the motivational and cognitive forces underlying the construction of group prototypes, and underscored the added value of social axioms in
understanding perceptions of culturally salient events.

The Mileage from Social Axioms: Learning from the Past and Looking Forward

by Chin Ming Hui

Hui, C. M., & Hui, N. H.-H. (2009). The mileage from social axioms: Learning from the past and looking forward. In K. Leung & M. H. Bond (Eds.), Psychological aspects of social axioms (pp. 13-30). New York: Springer.

Social axioms are proposed as fundamental psychological constructs tapping a person’s beliefs about the social world... more Social axioms are proposed as fundamental psychological constructs tapping a person’s beliefs about the social world and how it works, positioned centrally in the nomological network of broad psychological constructs and capable of predicting crucial psychological outcomes. This ambitious proposal has been put to empirical test across psychological domains around the world. In this chapter, we review all published empirical investigations on social axioms, demarcating them from other broad psychological constructs (e.g., personality and values) as well as examining if and how they could serve the four specific functions originally proposed, viz., “facilitate the attainment of important goals (instrumental), help people protect their self-worth (ego-defensive), serve as a manifestation of people’s values (value-expressive), and help people understand the world (knowledge)” (Leung et al., 2002, p. 288). We envisage social axioms as fundamental and useful psychological constructs that will continue to gain importance in social sciences research in the decades to come, and we propose a number of fruitful future research directions to promote this line of research.

Hyvää hoitoa ja huonoa suomea: Verkkokeskustelijoiden käsitykset filippiiniläishoitajien ammatillisesta kielitaidosta.

by Minna Suni

Virtanen, Aija & Suni, Minna 2011. Hyvää hoitoa ja huonoa suomea: Verkkokeskustelijoiden käsitykset filippiiniläishoitajien ammatillisesta kielitaidosta. Teoksessa Niina Nissilä & Nestori Siponkoski (toim.) Kieli ja etiikka. Käännöstiede, ammattikielet ja monikielisyys N:o 38. Vaasa: Vaasan yliopisto.

Work-related immigration has been under an intensive public debate in Finland since international recruitment of... more Work-related immigration has been under an intensive public debate in Finland since international recruitment of health-care personnel started to increase a few years ago. Nurses from the Philippines have given a face to this development. This paper shows that on open discussion forums, controversial beliefs about the language skills and other abilities of these nurses can be observed, and ethics are commonly commented upon when language issues of work-related immigration are discussed. Four long message threads on a discussion forum were analysed, and some samples of the data are discussed in more detail to illustrate the polarization of views and beliefs that occurs. The theoretical and methodological approach applied is rooted in dialogism (Bakhtin 1986; Aro 2009) which highlights the situational and dynamic nature of both language and beliefs. The results show that those who argue against international recruitment tend to echo authoritative voices that see language learning as an individual struggle and language skills as an either/or type of phenomenon, whereas those who welcome such recruitment use their own voice by sharing experiences and by describing learning as a gradual or socially driven process, where different compensational means are employed and other people have a role to play too.

Keywords: work-related language skills, dialogism, language skills, immigration, Finnish as a second language
Avainsanat: ammatillinen kielitaito, dialogisuus, kielitaito, maahanmuuttajat, suomi toisena kielenä

Queensland teachers' conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment: Comparisons with New Zealand teachers

by Gavin Brown

Acknowledgements: Funding for this research came from the Department of
Education, Assessment and New Basics Branch, Queensland and from The University of Auckland Research Office. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors only.

citation:
Brown, G. T. L., & Lake, R. (2006, November). Queensland teachers' conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment: Comparisons with New Zealand teachers. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Adelaide, Australia. Available: http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/bro06198.pdf

In 2003, Education Queensland conducted a survey of over 1500 primary and secondary teachers into their conceptions of... more In 2003, Education Queensland conducted a survey of over 1500 primary and secondary teachers into their conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment. Four different inventories were used (Pratt’s Teaching Perspectives Inventory, Entwistle, Tait, & Velda’s Approaches to Learning, Cheung’s Conceptions of Curriculum, and Brown’s Conceptions of Assessment) and the fit of each inventory to the data was established with confirmatory factor analysis. The relationship of the conceptions to each other was determined using multi-battery factor analysis and validated with confirmatory factor analysis. Initial analyses suggest that the teachers had four major conceptions: (a) surface learning is transmitted and accountability assessments measure it validly, (b) invalid assessment is ignored, (c) deep humanistic, nurturing learning is assessed for improvement, and (d) curriculum and teaching is about social change. Small but statistically significant differences were found between primary and secondary teachers. This paper will report these findings and compare them to similar data collected in 2001 in New Zealand and reported by Brown in 2003 at the AARE/NZARE conference in Auckland.

International collaboration as construction of knowledge and its constraints.

by Charis Psaltis

Psaltis, C. (2007) International collaboration as construction of knowledge and its constraints. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 41, 187-197.

In this paper I draw on Piaget and Habermas to underline the importance of the theoretical distinction between social... more In this paper I draw on Piaget and Habermas to underline the importance of the theoretical distinction between social relations of constraint and social relations of cooperation for reflecting upon inter-institutional projects. I argue that the socio-cultural approach to collaboration has some important limitations that restrict ideological critic and emancipatory research. The limitations of this approach can be located in its epistemological assumptions, a homogenized notion of culture and a weakness in articulating the intrapersonal, inter-personal, inter-group/positional and social representational/ideological levels of analysis. As an empirical example of this I discuss the SLOAN centres for family research.

First language acquisition and teaching

by Madalena Cruz-Ferreira

2011.
In Antje Wilton and Martin Stegu (eds.), Applied Folk Linguistics, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 78-87.

“First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the... more “First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child’s natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. “First language teaching” concerns schooling in the language that is intended to become the child’s first (or “main”) one. Mainstream teaching practices similarly take languages as formal objects, focusing on literacy skills, so-called phonological awareness, and other teaching about the language. This article gives a first overview of folk beliefs associated with language acquisition and teaching, highlighting whether and how they can guide applied linguists’ concerns about child language development and early pedagogical practices.

The interplay between parental beliefs about children's emotions and parental stress impacts children's attachment security

by Rebecca Stelter

Co-authored with Amy Halberstadt, published in Infant and Child Development

This study investigated how parental beliefs about children's emotions and parental stress relate to children's... more This study investigated how parental beliefs about children's emotions and parental stress relate to children's feelings of security in the parent–child relationship. Models predicting direct effects of parental beliefs and parental stress, and moderating effects of parental stress on the relationship between parental beliefs and children's feelings of security were tested. Participants were 85 African American, European American, and Lumbee American Indian 4th and 5th grade children and one of their parents. Children reported their feelings of security in the parent–child relationship; parents independently reported on their beliefs and their stress. Parental stress moderated relationships between three of the four parental beliefs about the value of children's emotions and children's attachment security. When parent stress was low, parental beliefs accepting and valuing children's emotions were not related to children's feelings of security; when parent stress was high, however, parental beliefs accepting and valuing children's emotions were related to children's feelings of security. These findings highlight the importance of examining parental beliefs and stress together for children's attachment security.

CRENÇAS DE PROFESSORES EM FORMAÇÃO SOBRE O ENSINO-APRENDIZADO DE LÍNGUA ESTRANGEIRA

by KATIA MULIK

Estudar as crenças de professores em formação sobre o ensino-aprendizado de língua estrangeira (doravante LE) é de... more Estudar as crenças de professores em formação sobre o ensino-aprendizado de língua estrangeira (doravante LE) é de extrema relevância, já que isso possibilita que professores do curso de Letras conheçam as crenças de seus alunos e possam influenciá-los a refletir sobre elas. Esse estudo teve por objetivo à identificação das crenças trazidas pelos formandos de Letras da PUC-PR sobre o ensino-aprendizado de LE. Para isso, foi entregue aos alunos um questionário (BALLI) que faz um inventário sobre crenças distribuídas em cinco categorias:
1) aptidão de língua estrangeira; 2) dificuldade de aprendizagem; 3) natureza de aprendizagem; 4) aprendizagem e estratégias de comunicação e 5) motivação. Os sujeitos participantes dessa pesquisa foram alunos dos últimos períodos dos cursos de Letras distribuídos nas licenciaturas duplas e simples de LE totalizando 32 pessoas. Esta pesquisa teve por base teórica os estudos de Horwitz (1987), Barcelos (2001/2006), Kudiess (2005), Sadalla (1998) entre outros. Os resultados obtidos revelam que a maioria dos alunos possui crenças como: “CDs e DVDs podem auxiliar no processo de ensino-aprendizado de LE”
(97%); “Saber uma LE facilita na comunicação e interação com outros povos” (97%); “Se eu aprender uma LE terei mais chances de conseguir um bom emprego” (93%) e“a universidade
não é o melhor lugar para se aprender uma LE” (93%) entre outras.Algumas das crenças diagnosticadas podem auxiliar no processo de ensino-aprendizagem, no entanto algumas
podem se tornar um empecilho para o mesmo. As crenças devem ser alvo de reflexão dentro dos cursos de Letras, pois têm total influência no aprendizado, nas práticas e metodologias.

Extending the Hegselmann-Krause model I

by Alexander Riegler

Douven I. & Riegler A. (2010) Extending the Hegselmann-Krause model I. The Logic Journal of the IGPL 18(2): 323–335.

Hegselmann and Krause have developed a simple yet powerful computational model for studying the opinion dynamics in... more Hegselmann and Krause have developed a simple yet powerful computational model for studying the opinion dynamics in societies of epistemically interacting truth-seeking agents. We present various extensions of this model and show their relevance to the investigation of socio-epistemic questions, with an emphasis on normative questions.

Extending the Hegselmann–Krause model III: From single beliefs to complex belief states

by Alexander Riegler

Riegler A. & Douven I. (2009) Extending the Hegselmann–Krause model III: From single beliefs to complex belief states. Episteme 6(2): 145–163.

In recent years, various computational models have been developed for studying the dynamics of belief formation in a... more In recent years, various computational models have been developed for studying the dynamics of belief formation in a population of epistemically interacting agents that try to determine the numerical value of a given parameter. Whereas in those models, agents’ belief states consist of single numerical beliefs, the present paper describes a model that equips agents with richer belief states containing many beliefs that, moreover, are logically interconnected. Correspondingly, the truth the agents are after is a theory (a set of sentences of a given language) rather than a numerical value. The agents epistemically interact with each other and also receive evidence in varying degrees of informativeness about the truth. We use computer simulations to study how fast and accurately such populations as wholes are able to approach the truth under differing combinations of settings of the key parameters of the model, such as the degree of informativeness of the evidence and the weight the agents give to the evidence.