The Response of Social Crime Prevention Police to Cyberbullying Perpetrated by Youth in Rural Areas of South Africa

Recently, South Africa has seen a surge in violence, cyberbullying by learners against peers, and online malicious acts against teachers. In response, the South African Department of Basic Education invited the social crime prevention police to intervene. This study reports on the developmental issues contributing to cyberbullying and the police response to this violence in rural schools. An extensive literature review was conducted, and a conceptual framework was developed to guide the study and development of a mobile application. This framework was tested using data collected from focus groups, 8 police officers, 9 teachers, 52 grade-10 learners, and 27 grade-12 learners. The data were analyzed using thematic and quantitative techniques. The findings reveal some developmental issues. For instance, teachers are often targeted by learners online because they fail to take prompt action when learners report cyberbullying incidents. This finding is consistent with the developmental theory which predicts that lack of support would create a permissive context for cyberbullying. In addition, the popularity of cyberbullying has a stronger influence on older, rather than younger, adolescents. Older adolescents are more concerned about gaining popularity than being socially accepted. Recommendations are made which can be useful to schools, learners, and the police force in their fight against cyberbullying.

Visitation and quality of life among older adults in jail

Purpose The purpose of this paper aims to examine differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and quality of life (QOL) among older and younger jailed adults. The authors also explored the contribution of visitation to QOL among adults in this setting. The authors anticipated fewer visits and lower QOL among older adults. Framed by psychosocial developmental theory, the authors also anticipated a larger effect in the relationship between visitation and QOL among older rather than younger adults and that visitation would contribute most readily to psychological QOL. Design/methodology/approach Cross-sectional data from a large US jail were used (n = 264). The authors described the sample regarding visitation and QOL measures among older (≥45) and younger adults (≤44) and examined differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and QOL using independent sample t-tests and bivariate analyses. The authors explored the contribution of visitation to psychological, social relationships, physical and environmental QOL among jailed adults using hierarchical multiple linear regression. Findings Older adults had fewer family visits and lower physical QOL than younger adults, disparities were moderate in effect (d range = 0.33–0.35). A significant difference also emerged between groups regarding the visitation and environmental QOL relationship (z = 1.66, p <0.05). Visitation contributed to variation in physical and social relationships QOL among jailed adults (Beta range = 0.19–0.24). Originality/value Limited research exists among jailed older adults and scholars have yet to examine the relationship between visitation and QOL among persons in these settings.

About meaning making in the context of educational practice

This article describes the process of meaning making in the context of educational practice. It starts with presentations of chosen elements of construct-developmental theory. The Author presents models of constructive development researchers and shows their meaning in education. Then she describes patterns of meaning making in educational context. At the end she presents principles and practices of teaching in a developmental manner.

Dear Dr. D’Amour: Relational Psychoanalysis at the Heart of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Lissa D’Amour brings together relational psychoanalysis and developmental theory to offer practitioners of education an opportunity to unify theories of learning into a cohesive “dialectic model of learning and of learning’s refusal” (D’Amour, 2020, p. 142), a unification sorely needed in mathematics education as educators in Alberta feud over ‘back-to-basics’. Dr. D’Amour’s (2020) book, entitled Relational Psychoanalysis at the Heart of Teaching and Learning: How and Why It Matters, attempts to kick-start conversations about the relationships present in classrooms and offers respite from, and an alternative perspective of, the educational behemoth I have become a part of, one that increasingly ignores us humans, the relationships we have and our affective attunement with all that is around us.

Identity, Integrity, and Religious Doubt in Later Life

Erik Erikson argued that for religiously involved individuals, the resolution of two stages – Identity vs. Role Diffusion and Integrity vs. Despair – are of critical importance in adult development. Adults typically confront their parents’ religious affiliation in adolescence and young adulthood as they establish themselves as independent actors in the world, and in later life, older adults confront their own lived lives, and evaluate in light of their religious commitments whether they have lived meaningfully and with integrity. To examine Erikson’s views of religious development, we completed open-ended interviews of 278 community-dwelling older adults (55-101 years). In these interviews, participants describe the development of their religious faith, the nature and development of their religious questioning and doubt, and the relationship between their faith and doubt over their life span. Participants were from Northeast U.S., and were denominationally, racially, and ethnically diverse. More extensive religious doubts were reported during young adulthood regarding the meaningfulness of religion in their family of origin. By contrast, religious doubts are reported less during later life, and more emphasis is placed on the value of religious involvement for themselves and their families. This pattern varies between young-old (under 75 years) and old-old (over 76 years): whereas the young-old seem to be working through their religious doubts, the old-old are more focused on the value of their religious faith. These findings are discussed in terms of Erikson’s developmental theory and with respect to cohort differences in religious belief and practice.

Implicit Cultures: Towards a Psychosocial Theory of ‘Intuitive Religious Beliefs’

<p>This thesis defines and resolves some persistent criticisms of Justin Barrett and Jessie Bering’s shared contention that religious beliefs are compelled by ‘default’ cognitive systems. I contend that the source of these criticisms is correctly the ‘naturalness of religious belief’ metathesis. This metathesis justifies the methodological reductions that both use to account for ‘intuitive religious beliefs.’ Through a review of the critical literature sourced from various methodologies including anthropology, hermeneutics, and social neuroscience, I uncover a recurrent set of criticisms that I contend theories of ‘intuitive religion’ need to confront in order to strengthen the theoretical, and by inference, empirical validity of their theories. Yet I also discuss why it is that Bering and Barrett fail to incorporate insights relative to persistent criticisms of their research, emphasising that it is because they fail to see the experimental plausibility of alternative methodologies and theories. Somewhat proactively, I argue that Mathew Day’s proposal for a psychosocial theory of religion offers a step in the right direction. Day’s psychosocial theory rejects the ‘naturalness of religion’ metathesis. My own revision and application of psychosocial theory allows for the reinterpretation of Bering and Barrett’s findings from the vantage point of cultural psychology. I close by offering a developmental theory of ‘intuitive religious beliefs’ that includes the numerous theoretical perspectives addressed throughout this thesis and, crucially, is empirically grounded in research from cultural psychology. I propose a tentative empirical test to trial my claims.</p>

Latent classes from complex assessments

Latent variable mixture models are commonly used to examine patterns of students' knowledge. These models, including Latent Class Analysis (LCA), have proven valuable for uncovering qualitative variation in students' knowledge that is hidden by traditional variable-centered approaches, particularly when testing a particular cognitive or developmental theory. However, it is far less clear that these models, when applied to broader measures of student knowledge, have practical applications, such as identifying meaningful and actionable knowledge patterns on standardized achievement tests. In the present study, we probe the practical effectiveness of LCA for identifying valid patterns of students' knowledge on broadly defined achievement tests that provide added predictive value beyond overall scores and other known indicators of success. We examined the performance of 3481 fifth-grade students from a mid-sized school district in the western United States on two benchmark assessments of their mathematics achievement during the school year. Latent classes extracted from pass-fail scores on specific standards measured by these assessments were then used to predict students' end-of-year performance on a statewide-standardized mathematics assessment. Latent classes generally showed face validity and identified qualitatively different knowledge patterns. The predictive value of class membership for end-of-year test scores was greatly reduced when adjusting for overall benchmark scores and very small after also adjusting for additional pre-existing differences among students. These results suggest that, although LCA might improve the interpretability of achievement test scores, their predictive value is largely redundant with overall scores. These results are tentative; we encourage replication with different kinds of data, especially with finer-grained measures.

Implicit Cultures: Towards a Psychosocial Theory of ‘Intuitive Religious Beliefs’

<p>This thesis defines and resolves some persistent criticisms of Justin Barrett and Jessie Bering’s shared contention that religious beliefs are compelled by ‘default’ cognitive systems. I contend that the source of these criticisms is correctly the ‘naturalness of religious belief’ metathesis. This metathesis justifies the methodological reductions that both use to account for ‘intuitive religious beliefs.’ Through a review of the critical literature sourced from various methodologies including anthropology, hermeneutics, and social neuroscience, I uncover a recurrent set of criticisms that I contend theories of ‘intuitive religion’ need to confront in order to strengthen the theoretical, and by inference, empirical validity of their theories. Yet I also discuss why it is that Bering and Barrett fail to incorporate insights relative to persistent criticisms of their research, emphasising that it is because they fail to see the experimental plausibility of alternative methodologies and theories. Somewhat proactively, I argue that Mathew Day’s proposal for a psychosocial theory of religion offers a step in the right direction. Day’s psychosocial theory rejects the ‘naturalness of religion’ metathesis. My own revision and application of psychosocial theory allows for the reinterpretation of Bering and Barrett’s findings from the vantage point of cultural psychology. I close by offering a developmental theory of ‘intuitive religious beliefs’ that includes the numerous theoretical perspectives addressed throughout this thesis and, crucially, is empirically grounded in research from cultural psychology. I propose a tentative empirical test to trial my claims.</p>

Introduction: Cognitive Archaeology at the Crossroads

We look back at the field of cognitive archaeology by discussing the moment of insight that inspired one of its pioneers, Thomas Wynn, to apply Piagetian developmental theory to the question of human cognitive evolution as understood through geometric relations in stone tools. We also review the work of other pioneers in the field, including Colin Renfrew and John Gowlett. We briefly describe the articles contained in the volume. Lastly, we look forward at where the field of cognitive archaeology may be headed.

ANAMNESIS MORBI OF DOCTOR FREUD: PSYCHO-HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Sigmund Freud is known as a creator of psychoanalysis, developmental theory and models of personality. Freud's personality, his life story invariably attracts scientists, researchers and practitioners. This article is devoted to the history of Freud's illness, which lasted for 16 years, from 1923 until his death in 1939. Freud suffered from cancer of the upper jaw on the right. An attending physician who performed many operations and prosthetics for Freud was oral surgeon Hans Pichler. Freud bravely endured suffering of the illness. Despite the pains and difficulties in functioning, he continued to work on scientific works and receive patient visits. On September 21, 1939, family doctor Max Schur, at Freud's request, performed euthanasia by injecting a lethal dose of morphine. Among the factors that influenced Freud's decision to be euthanized, the hypothesis of loss of the meaning of further suffering is considered. The concept of meaning is implicitly embedded in understanding of functioning of the Ego in structural model of personality developed by Freud.