In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

The cultural origins of human cognition

Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy.

This study inventoried the types of developmental and negative experiences that youth encounter in different categories of extracurricular and community-based organized activities. A representative sample of 2,280 11th graders from 19 diverse high schools responded to a computer-administered protocol. Youth in faith-based activities reported higher rates of experiences related to identity, emotional regulation, and interpersonal development in comparison with other activities. Sports and arts programs stood out as providing more experiences related to development of initiative, although sports were also related to high stress. Service activities were associated with experiences related to development of teamwork, positive relationships, and social capital. Youth reported all of these positive developmental experiences to occur significantly more often in youth programs than during school classes.

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Differing profiles of developmental experiences across types of organized youth activities.

The pathways and processes through which empowering community settings influence their members, the surrounding community and the larger society are examined. To generate the proposed pathways and processes, a broad range of studies of community settings were reviewed, in the domains of adult well-being, positive youth development, locality development, and social change. A set of organizational characteristics and associated processes leading to member empowerment across domains were identified, as well as three pathways through which empowering settings in each domain contribute to community betterment and positive social change. The paper concludes with an examination of the ways that community psychology and allied disciplines can help increase the number and range of empowering settings, and enhance the community and societal impact of existing ones.

Empowering community settings: agents of individual development, community betterment, and positive social change.

Although existing literature demonstrates that developmental benefits are associated with religion for adolescents, little is understood about the dynamics of this relationship. Drawing on social capital theory, this study tested a conceptual model exploring socially embedded religious influences on moral outcomes. A three-dimensional model of social capital demonstrated how social interaction, trust, and shared vision enable social ties associated with religiousness to influence moral behavior. Structural equation modeling was used with data gathered from 735 urban youths to test a proposed model of the effects of religiousness on moral outcomes. Results suggested that religiously active youths report higher levels of social capital resources and that the influence of adolescent religiousness on moral outcomes was mediated through social capital resources. Suggestions for further research and implications for faith-based youth development organizations are considered.

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rel/S/1/34.pdf

Religion as a resource for positive youth development: religion, social capital, and moral outcomes.

The role of religious identity in positive youth development was examined in this study of personal meaning and prosocial concerns in adolescence. A structural equation model was tested on a sample of 801 urban public high school students. Participants responded to questionnaires assessing religious identity, personal meaning, and prosocial personality. Prototypical descriptors derived from Walker and Pitts's (1998) highly religious person concept were examined as a measure of religious identity. Findings demonstrate a positive relationship between religious self-understanding, personal meaning, and prosocial personality. Differences were noted in the relationship of personal meaning to prosocial personality across age and gender cohorts. The findings provide further support for considering religion as a developmental resource associated with personal meaning and a concern for others among youth.

Religion and Positive Youth Development: Identity, Meaning, and Prosocial Concerns

Religion as a resource for positive youth development: Religion, social capital, and moral outcomes.

In this article we present the results of a discovery-oriented task analysis research study identifying specific therapist behaviors that facilitate softening events in emotionally focused therapy (EFT) for couples. Therapy sessions conducted by an expert EFT therapist were examined. Six therapist content theme shifts were identified and specific interventions were delineated within each using an EFT coding scheme (EFT-CS) created for this study. This study extends the theoretical understanding of the softening process—a key change event in an empirically validated couples therapy approach—and provides a detailed clinical map for the training of therapists. Contemporary couple scholars are recognizing the powerful impact that emotion has on intimate relationships. Clinicians and researchers demonstrate an increasing interest in harnessing the power of affect to promote lasting change across a diverse range of couple therapy approaches. Gottman, Coan, Carrere, and Swanson (1998) illustrate this emphasis by challenging the heuristic application of “active listening” interventions with couples, recommending instead a focus on assisting partners with developing new patterns of emotional engagement and responsiveness in varying contexts. Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) for couples (Greenberg & Johnson, 1988; Johnson, 1996) promotes the experience of unacknowledged attachment-related primary emotion that fosters the development of secure bonds. Integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT; Jacobson & Christensen, 1996) emphasizes the expression of “soft” emotions and disclosures to promote emotional acceptance between partners. Imago therapy (Hendrix, 1988) encourages couples to develop a mutual understanding of their relationship that incorporates insight into childhood wounds leading to softer exchanges and positions in the interaction. Egoanalytic therapy (Wile, 1995) promotes the engagement of feelings by couples as a basis for connection, rather than distance. Although the expression of soft emotions is now recognized within each of these approaches, the meaning, importance, and intervention strategies for working with emotions varies greatly across models. Two clinical approaches specifically identify the softening of partners in the couple’s emotional expression and engagement with one another. In IBCT, the therapist prompts partners to share softened

http://www2.arnes.si/~rcvete/drugi%20letnik/analiza%20naloge/Toward%20A%20Mini-Theory%20Of%20The%20Blamer%20Softening%20Event_%20Tracking%20The%20Moment-By-Moment%20Process.pdf

Toward a mini-theory of the blamer softening event: tracking the moment-by-moment process.

Religious involvement is associated with a variety of positive developmental outcomes including restraint from risk, increased coping, and prasocial values and behavior. This study examines a model that explains religious influence on these positive outcomes through the mediating effects of developmental resources important in adolescence. Tests of the model, on questionnaire responses derived from a sample of 20,020 youthin grades 6-12 suggest that religious factors are associated with increased developmental assets that in turn predict positive behaviors and values among youth. Findings support the hypothesis that religious influences upon positive outcomes are mediated primarily through their effect on developmental assets. While differences in outcomes were noted across gender and grade cohorts, little variation in the proposed model was noted in cohort comparisons. Results of the study question the unique influence of religion on adolescent risk and prosocial behavior. Instead religious influence may be better understood as giving youth increased access to a variety of social and personal resources.

James L. Furrow

Papers

Religion as a resource for positive youth development: religion, social capital, and moral outcomes.

Religion and Positive Youth Development: Identity, Meaning, and Prosocial Concerns

Religion as a resource for positive youth development: Religion, social capital, and moral outcomes.

Toward a mini-theory of the blamer softening event: tracking the moment-by-moment process.

Religious involvement and developmental resources in youth