Metaphysical Beliefs as Predictors of Death Anxiety

1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Naidu ◽  
Ambalika Sinha

The impact of four metaphysical beliefs on death anxiety was investigated. Beliefs about the existence and attributes of God, afterlife, and consequences of suffering were chosen for study. It was hypothesized that any belief which assures the individual a continued existence beyond death would reduce the degree of anxiety felt on encountering death-related stimuli. A test including pictures depicting death and non-death scenes was constructed to measure death anxiety. The sample included 120 householders (60 heads of unsettled and 60 heads of settled families). Half of them lived in high exposure to death sight areas and the other half lived in low exposure areas. Subjects from only low exposure areas revealed significant relationships between beliefs and death anxiety. The results of this study suggest that the beliefs play functional roles that are different for people with different needs.

Author(s):  
Anna Peterson

This book examines the impact that Athenian Old Comedy had on Greek writers of the Imperial era. It is generally acknowledged that Imperial-era Greeks responded to Athenian Old Comedy in one of two ways: either as a treasure trove of Atticisms, or as a genre defined by and repudiated for its aggressive humor. Worthy of further consideration, however, is how both approaches, and particularly the latter one that relegated Old Comedy to the fringes of the literary canon, led authors to engage with the ironic and self-reflexive humor of Aristophanes, Eupolis, and Cratinus. Authors ranging from serious moralizers (Plutarch and Aelius Aristides) to comic writers in their own right (Lucian, Alciphron), to other figures not often associated with Old Comedy (Libanius) adopted aspects of the genre to negotiate power struggles, facilitate literary and sophistic rivalries, and provide a model for autobiographical writing. To varying degrees, these writers wove recognizable features of the genre (e.g., the parabasis, its agonistic language, the stage biographies of the individual poets) into their writings. The image of Old Comedy that emerges from this time is that of a genre in transition. It was, on the one hand, with the exception of Aristophanes’s extant plays, on the verge of being almost completely lost; on the other hand, its reputation and several of its most characteristic elements were being renegotiated and reinvented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-157
Author(s):  
Liani Surya Rakasiwi

This study analyzed the impact of demography and socioeconomic status on individual health status in Indonesia. The data used Indonesia Family Life Survey 5 (IFLS 5). The study use logit regression model for analysis with health status variable as dependent variable. The other variable such as demography and socioeconomic status as independent variables. Socioeconomic status seen from two measures, namely education and income. The result of this study concludes the demography influence significantly on individual health status in Indonesia. Individual who lives in urban area has higher probability of being health by 1,02 percent compared to individual who lives in rural area. The other variable like socioeconomic status also influences significantly on the individual health status in Indonesia. Individual with longer years of education has higher probability of being health by 3,07 percent compared to individual with less years of education. Individual with high income has higher probability of being health compared to individual with low income.


2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 253-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najat Khalifa ◽  
Simon Gibbon ◽  
Conor Duggan

Aims and MethodTo study the views of staff and patients on the use of sniffer dogs to detect illicit drugs and the prosecution of in-patients suspected of taking illicit drugs. A 15-item self-report questionnaire was given to all in-patients and staff who had any contact with patients in a medium-secure unit. Responses to the individual statements were measured on a five-point Likert scale and staff and patients' responses were compared.ResultsWe achieved a response rate of 63% (patient response rate, 71.6%; staff response rate, 60.7%). Overall there were fewer differences than anticipated, although, as expected, staff viewed the impact of illicit drugs more negatively than patients, and on the other hand, patients viewed the use of sniffer dogs and police involvement more negatively than the staff did.Clinical ImplicationsNotice ought to be taken of the discordance between staff and patients' views (particularly in relation to consent and confidentiality) when attempting to detect and manage illicit drug use among psychiatric in-patients.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 288-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Cecilia de Burgh-Woodman

Purpose – This paper aims to expand current theories of globalisation to a consideration of its impact on the individual. Much work has been done on the impact of globalisation on social, political and economic structures. In this paper, globalisation, for the individual, reflects a re-conceptualisation of the Self/Other encounter. In order to explore this Self/Other dimension, the paper analyses the literary work of nineteenth-century writer Pierre Loti since his work begins to problematise this important motif. His work also provides insight into the effect on the individual when encountering the Other in a globalised context. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from literary criticism, the paper adopts an interpretive approach. Using the fiction and non-fiction work of Pierre Loti, an integrated psychoanalytical, postcolonial analysis is conducted to draw out possible insights into how Loti conceptualises the Other and is thus transformed himself. Findings – The paper finds that the Self/Other encounter shifts in the era of globalisation. The blurring of the Self/Other is part of the impact of globalisation on the individual. Further, the paper argues that Loti was the first to problematise Self/Other at a point in history where the distinction seemed clear. Loti's work is instructive for tracing the dissolution of the Self/Other encounter since the themes and issues raised in his early work foreshadow our contemporary experience of globalisation. Research limitations/implications – This paper takes a specific view of globalisation through an interpretive lens. It also uses one specific body of work to answer the research question of what impact globalisation has on the individual. A broader sampling and application of theoretical strains out of the literary criticism canon would expand the parameters of this study. Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to current theorisations of globalisation in that it re-conceptualises classical understandings of the Self/Other divide. The finding that the Self/Other divide is altered in the current era of globalisation has impact for cultural and marketing theory since it re-focuses attention on the shifting nature of identity and how we encounter the Other in our daily existence.


Author(s):  
Vaughan Bell ◽  
Dorothy Wade

AbstractThe global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 has raised concerns about the potential mental health impact on frontline clinical staff. However, given that poor mental health is common in staff working in acute medicine, we aimed to estimate the additional burden of working directly with infected patients during epidemic and pandemic health emergencies. We completed a rapid review of the evidence and identified 74 relevant studies from outbreaks of COVID-19, Ebola, H1N1 influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Due to varying caseness criteria, a meta-analysis of prevalence was not possible. However, it was clear that levels of self-reported depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related symptoms were high, and somewhat higher in clinical staff working in high exposure roles. To assess the impact of high- versus low-exposure healthcare work more formally, we estimated the standardised mean difference (SMD) of scale means using a random effects meta-analysis. High exposure work was associated with only a small additional burden of acute mental health problems compared to low exposure work (anxiety: SMD=0.22, 95% CI 0.06 – 0.38; PTSD symptoms: SMD=0.21, 95% CI 0.01 – 0.4; depression: SMD=0.20, -0.07 – 0.47). This effect was potentially inflated by publication bias and there was a moderate risk of bias in the studies in the meta-analysis. A narrative review of candidate risk factors identified being a nurse, seeing colleagues infected, experiencing quarantine, non-voluntary role assignment, and experiencing stigma, as associated with particularly poor mental health outcomes. Protective factors included team and institutional support, use and faith in infection prevention measures, and a sense of professional duty and altruistic acceptance of risk. Notably, formal psychological support services were valued by frontline staff, although those with the highest burden of mental health difficulties were the least likely to request or receive support.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (29) ◽  
pp. 64-75
Author(s):  
Sofía Valdivielso Gómez

The text is a letter from a grandmother born in 1964 to her granddaughter born in August 2020. Through this letter, the grandmother tries to explain what the education she received in the seventies was like, as well as the events that took place during the transition from an isolated and dictatorial Spain to a democratic and open country. She does so from a double perspective. On the one hand, by focusing on women and, on the other, on the laws that have requested the educational system to introduce subjects into the curriculum that would highlight equality between men and women. The text has been structured over the decades to follow the lifeline that would allow the grandmother to describe and analyze some facts about the complex reality of the country. Among these facts, it examines the impact of the new discourses on gender identity in the education system. The new discourses reflected in the new laws move the gender discourse towards gender identity discourse. All of this takes place within the context of a capitalist and narcissistic post-modernity that has displaced the plural towards the singular, the collective towards the individual, and the right to desire.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-130
Author(s):  
Aziz Ismatov

Until recently, unofficial interpretations of the situation with human rights had remained as an unspoken taboo in Uzbekistan, whereas foreign observers harshly criticized the country, pointing out systematic violations and restrictions of rights by the state. Indeed, not many could predict that the new President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who was elected in 2016, would initiate steps towards improving the human rights situation and, simultaneously, face specific challenges. The 1992 Constitution was developed within the complex transition process from socialism to market economy. This Constitution devotes an entire chapter to human and citizens’ rights. Initially, some authors expected that the Constitution would integrate rights in the context of natural-legal ideas. However, Uzbekistan has largely preserved and strengthened the positivist approach towards constitutional rights, designating the state to grant and limit those rights. The paradox of this situation is that Uzbekistan’s tendencies conflict with the general trends of the post-socialist constitutionalism since the country practically did not change constitutional provisions’ evolutionary development. On the other hand, in the post-socialist Eastern European countries and some former USSR republics, the collapse of socialism led to a constitutional revolution. The author applies historical analysis and cognitive constitutionalism methods to explain a paradox of impossibility to root natural-legal ideas within the (1) deeply-rooted Soviet positivism and (2) revived pre-Soviet traditionalism. On the other hand, the historical 1992 Constitution preparatory process, guided by the special Working group and headed by Islam Karimov, and the theory of human rights in Uzbekistan inherited a strong influence from the doctrine of the Soviet constitutionalism; its positivism, dogmatism and normativism. On the one hand, the author focuses on the impact of traditionalism revived after 1991 in national customs, behavioural attitudes, or social values; and paternalism that had transformed into a “super-presidentialism”, which widely continued a principle of the state’s priority above the individual. In conclusion, the author points to the existing legal imperfections of the constitutional text, and offers approaches to shorten the gap between the supporters of positivism in the 1992 Constitution and the natural right theory’s followers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Vladimiras Gražulis

In recent decades teamwork has become not only a  popular topic for public discussion, but also the focus of numerous scientific insights. The abundance of publications on this subject suggests that organizing teamwork has become one of the phenomena of organi‑ zational activity. On the other hand, based on his numerous research, the author of the paper raises the question of whether the concept of teamwork analysed in such publications is studied within the framework of scientific concepts. For instance, some authors believe that the only distinguishing feature of a team is an efficiently working group; the formation of the team is a long‑term process and to achieve this the group needs to undergo several stages of development (Hersey, Blanchard, Tuckman, Jensen, Katzenbach, Smith, Liker, Kasiulis, Barvydienė, Savanavičienė, Šilingienė, Gražulis); other authors use these concepts as synonyms (Boddy, Peiton) and analyse them in the context of formal and informal sta‑ tus. Thus, the concept of effective and ineffective teams has become the additional object of the research. Numerous researchers limit their research to the analysis of functional roles within well‑established teams (Benne, Sheats), at the same time neglecting the impact of personality traits on the activity of the work group. Specialists do not agree on the team size (Manz, Sims, Miller, Stoner et. al.), purpose (Meskon, Katzenbach, Smith, Sakalas et. al.), and periodically arising constraints on the team development and the like. As a result, scholars and practitioners perceive the issues of team work differently, thus they often talk at cross purposes. The author of the paper believes that it is expedient to consider the information collected up to now on the topic of teamwork within the overall context of the development of management science, which at the same time would provide for the development of conceptual theoretical proposals for scientific teamwork models (systems).


2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne M. Berry ◽  
James C. Paton

ABSTRACT Although the polysaccharide capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae has been recognized as a sine qua non of virulence, much recent attention has focused on the role of pneumococcal proteins in pathogenesis, particularly in view of their potential as vaccine antigens. The individual contributions of pneumolysin (Ply), the major neuraminidase (NanA), autolysin (LytA), hyaluronidase (Hyl), pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), and choline-binding protein A (CbpA) have been examined by specifically mutagenizing the respective genes in the pneumococcal chromosome and comparing the impact on virulence in a mouse intraperitoneal challenge model. Mutagenesis of either the ply, lytA, or pspA gene in S. pneumoniae D39 significantly reduced virulence, relative to that of the wild-type strain, indicating that the respective gene products contribute to pathogenesis. On the other hand, mutations in nanA, hyl, or cbpA had no significant impact. The virulence of D39 derivatives carrying aply deletion mutation as well as an insertion-duplication mutation in one of the other genes was also examined. Mutagenesis of either nanA or lytA did not result in an additional attenuation of virulence in the ply deletion background. However, significant additive attenuation in virulence was observed for the strains with ply-hyl,ply-pspA, and ply-cbpA double mutations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gambelli ◽  
L. D'Addezio

The study was carried out on a group of wine consumers, healthy adults, living in one of the areas in Southern Italy, where the ochratoxin A (OTA) levels in wines were very high. OTA levels in consumed wine ranged from 0.2 to 2 ng/ml for 80% of the samples and from 2.10 to 5.40 ng/ml for the other 20%. OTA values in blood (exposure) were lower than 0.28 ng/ml for 30% of the subjects, ranged from 0.28 to 0.34 ng/ml for 43% of the subjects, and reached more than 0.34 ng/ml for 27% of the subjects. Mean OTA measured in urine was 0.43 ng/ml. No significant correlation was found between OTA concentration in blood and in consumed wine, neither between OTA in blood and ingestion levels. OTA levels were determined by HPLC. Individual food consumption habits, gathered in a questionnaire, were studied in association with experimental exposure by means of multiple correspondence analysis. Subjects consuming one or two glasses of red home-produced wine daily were characterised by medium exposure, while those consuming three glasses or half a litre per occasion showed a high exposure; low exposure was associated with weekly consumption of white commercial wine. High quantities of beer and daily consumption of bread and pasta characterised habitual wine consumers, while weekly consumption of beer, bread and chocolate characterised moderate wine consumers.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document