Moral agency and faith: A construal of Luther

The purpose of this essay is to identify aspects of Martin Luther’s view of moral agency and action. The study focuses on themes originating in the Treatise on Good Works, particularly the exposition of the Third Commandment: Thou shalt hallow the holy day. Here, the author presents the paradigmatic example of the experience of a participant in the liturgy of mass. The example shows that moral reflection about agency and action is inextricably linked, first, to the consciousness of the worshipper, second, to language—the use of metaphors, images and descriptive words—and third, to the normative, that is, a knowledge of the good. Moral change is a basic feature of Luther’s view of moral agency and moral reflection; it is construed as a transition from one state of consciousness or quality of mind to another such that moral life may be depicted under the metaphors of ‘pilgrimage’ or ‘journey.’ Applied to Luther’s example, this means that the one participating in the liturgical action of mass undergoes a progressive change through a sequence of states and qualities of mind. Unique to Luther’s view is the dominant role is explicated using a performative model to identify the several elements of faith including the related notions of cognition and volition. So construed, faith signals Luther’s attempt to identify a normative understanding of moral change at the heart of his theory of moral reflection. It does so by showing the development of faith through a series of gradations in levels of moral and spiritual awareness. As a person moves through this continuum there is a correlative and growing awareness of deception and reality, truth and falsity, good and evil as one seeks, struggles, learns and discovers. Moral life is thus envisaged as a process in which cognition and volition in the work of attention interact as the individual undergoes a process of education in faith. It is a process that moves toward a telos that Luther regards as a union of faith and love, eucharistia, and contextualized in an example of the marital relationship. While Luther’s understanding of moral-spiritual change is correlative with the development of a moral psychology, it is crucial to note that central to that psychology is the claim that the moral agent is enveloped in original sin construed as a destructive egoism which pits itself against any or all moral development. For the author of the Treatise on Good Works, the remedial strategies to address this are central in the struggle for Christian moral life, and they involve a serious attentiveness to powerful images as well as the repeated discipline of training known as askesis

Doctoral Colloquium

The 2015 iConference Doctoral Colloquium is made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation (#1519338). Additional funding was provided by the iSchools.Ope

Incite to practice: Development of a realist-informed program theory to support implementation of intersectoral partnerships

Donald Maciver - ORCID: 0000-0002-6173-429X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6173-429XPolicy internationally is supportive of intersectoral partnerships (ISPs) for promoting positive outcomes among people with complex social, psychological, and physical needs. This realist-informed study describes the development of a program theory to provide insight into enactment of effective ISPs. Interviews were completed with 18 senior staff with leadership roles in six ISPs, including voluntary, statutory, and commercial organizations, supporting people with complex health and social care needs. An iteratively developed and refined program theory, termed the “Incite” model, was developed, with collaboration with participants and an advisory group, including people with lived experience. Important contextual conditions that emerged included organizational culture, historical perspectives, policy, and social determinants of health. Mechanisms included desire for change, creating safe psychological spaces, establishing shared values, and talking about power. Outcomes included transformed world view, increased psychological safety, clarity of purpose, fluidity of relationships, and power shifting. Three phases of partnership development were also identified within the model. This study has led to a clearer, more rigorous, and systematic understanding, with recommendations for how ISPs might be developed or expanded. How the Incite model may be operationalized is discussed, as well as implications for policy, practice, and research.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We acknowledge funding contributions from the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Division and Mental Health Division and Community Covenant Grant.https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244021103831611pubpub

An enhanced individual placement and support (IPS) intervention based on the Model of Human Occupation (MoHO); a prospective cohort study

Susan Prior - ORCID 0000-0003-3069-6961 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3069-6961Donald Maciver - ORCID 0000-0002-6173-429X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6173-429XKirsty Forsyth - ORCID 0000-0002-6732-1699 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6732-1699Replaced original VoR with updated VoR 2020-07-09Background: Employment is good for physical and mental health, however people with severe mental illness (SMI) are often excluded from employment. Standard Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is effective in supporting around 55% of people with SMI into employment or education. Current research considers enhancements to IPS to improve outcomes for those requiring more complex interventions. Clinicians need to better understand who will benefit from these enhanced IPS interventions. This study offers a new enhanced IPS intervention and an approach to predicting who may achieve successful outcomes.Methods: This prospective cohort study included people with SMI who participated in an enhanced IPS service and had prolonged absence from employment. Secondary data analysis was conducted of data gathered in routine clinical practice. Univariate analysis coupled with previous research and clinical consultation was used to select variables to be included in the initial model, followed by a backward stepwise approach to model building for the final multiple logistic regression model with an outcome of successful or unsuccessful goal attainment (employment or education).Results: Sixty-three percent of participants in the enhanced IPS successfully attained employment or education. Significant relationships from bivariate analyses were identified between outcomes (employment or education) and seven psychosocial variables. Adapting Routines to Minimise Difficulties, Work Related Goals, and Living in an Area of Lesser Deprivation were found to be significant in predicting employment or education in the final multiple logistic regression model R2 = 0.16 (Hosmer-Lemeshow), 0.19 (Cox-Snell), 0.26 (Nagelkerke). Model χ2(7) = 41.38 p < .001.Conclusion: An enhanced IPS service had a 63% rate success in achieving employment or education, higher than comparable studies and provides an alternative to IPS-Lite and IPS-standard for more complex populations. Motivational and habitual psychosocial variables are helpful in predicting who may benefit from an enhanced IPS intervention supporting people after prolonged absence from employment.Trial registration: NCT04083404 Registered 05 September 2019 (retrospectively registered).This study was funded by the Scottish Government. The funding body had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02745-320pubpu

An Experimental Investigation of the Reinforcing and Extinguishing Effects of Implicit Rewards on Children's Handwriting

Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of feedback of results, verbal praise, approval stamps and sweets as rewards for the correct letter-writing responses of typical elementary school children. The first study examined the effects of age and group-size upon the children's responses to variations in reward-administration procedures. Data were collected on the principal dependent variable of handwriting, comments and complaints were recorded, and a post-intervention questionnaire administered

What inpatients want: a qualitative study of what's important to mental health service users in their recovery (Wayfinder Partnership)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a qualitative analysis of the facilitators of recovery in inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation from the service users' perspective. Design/methodology/approach - Interviews with 31 in-patients were coded and analysed thematically at an interpretive level using an inductive approach. Findings - The dominant themes identified were hope, agency, relationships and opportunity. Totally, 20 subthemes were identified. Agency was more important to men than women and agency, hope and relationships were all more important to detained patients. Research limitations/implications - Interview data were collected in writing rather than taped. The results may not be transferrable to patient populations with significantly different demographic or service factors. Practical implications - Services need to target interventions at the areas identified by service users as important in their recovery. The findings suggest both environmental and relational aspects of care that may optimise recovery. Services also need to be able tomeasure the quality of the care they provide. A brief, culturally valid and psychometrically assessed instrument for measuring the recovery orientation of services is required. Originality/value - As far as the authors are aware no qualitative work to date has examined the recovery experiences of psychiatric rehabilitation in-patient service users in order to understand what services require to do to enable recovery from their perspective. The conceptual framework identified in this paper can be used to develop a service user self-report measure of the recovery orientation of services.sch_occ20pub3779pub

Associations between adolescent psychosocial factors and disengagement from education and employment in young adulthood among individuals with common mental health problems

Sumeyra Nur Tayfur - ORCID: 0000-0002-5151-850X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5151-850XTransition to adulthood can be a challenging developmental task for adolescents with common mental health problems and is linked to adverse outcomes such as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). This study investigated longitudinal associations between adolescent psychosocial factors (e.g., self-esteem, aspirations, bullying, physical activity) and later NEET status among individuals with common mental health problems (i.e., depression and anxiety). A secondary data analysis of the Next Steps cohort study was completed using waves 2 and 8. Psychosocial factors, mental health, and background characteristics were captured when participants were aged 15–16 years (wave 2) while still in compulsory education. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire was used to identify adolescents with common mental health problems. The study population consisted of 2224 participants (females 66.8%) of which 1473 (66.2%) were aged 15 years and 751 (33.8%) were aged 16 years in wave 2. The outcome was NEET status at ages 25–26 years (wave 8). The results showed that after adjusting for background characteristics, adolescent self-esteem, locus of control, bullying, physical activity, job aspirations, and attitudes to school predicted NEET status. Educational aspirations, substance use, and behavioural problems were not significantly associated with NEET status. These findings provide new insights into the role of adolescent psychosocial factors in the context of education and employment outcomes for youth at risk and highlight the necessity of targeted mental health support to improve life chances.This study was funded by Lothian National Health Service, and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland through a Ph.D. bursary.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01592-7pubpu

Can Text Messages Reach the Parts Other Process Measures Cannot Reach: An Evaluation of a Behavior Change Intervention Delivered by Mobile Phone?

BackgroundProcess evaluation is essential in developing, piloting and evaluating complex interventions. This often involves observation of intervention delivery and interviews with study participants. Mobile telephone interventions involve no face to face contact, making conventional process evaluation difficult. This study assesses the utility of novel techniques for process evaluation involving no face to face contact.MethodsText messages were delivered to 34 disadvantaged men as part of a feasibility study of a brief alcohol intervention. Process evaluation focused on delivery of the text messages and responses received from study participants. The computerized delivery system captured data on receipt of the messages. The text messages, delivered over 28 days, included nine which asked questions. Responses to these questions served as one technique for process evaluation by ascertaining the nature of engagement with the study and with steps on the causal chain to behavior change.ResultsA total of 646 SMS text messages were sent to participants. Of these, 613 messages (95%) were recorded as delivered to participants’ telephones. 88% of participants responded to messages that asked questions. There was little attenuation in responses to the questions across the intervention period. Content analysis of the responses revealed that participants engaged with text messages, thought deeply about their content and provided carefully considered personal responses to the questions.ConclusionsSocially disadvantaged men, a hard to reach population, engaged in a meaningful way over a sustained period with an interactive intervention delivered by text message. The novel process measures used in the study are unobtrusive, low cost and collect real-time data on all participants. They assessed the fidelity of delivery of the intervention and monitored retention in the study. They measured levels of engagement and identified participants’ reactions to components of the intervention. These methods provide a valuable addition to conventional process evaluation techniques

Co-infections of Adenovirus Species in Previously Vaccinated Patients

Adenoviral infections associated with respiratory illness in military trainees involve multiple co-infecting species and serotypes

Historic landscape management: a validation of quantitative soil thin-section analyses

The archaeological interpretation of past land management practices can be greatly enhanced through examination of soil thin sections. Features relating to manuring practice are among those key to interpreting agricultural practices. The sources and the pro¬cesses leading to the distribution of these manure materials may further improve knowledge of the past landscape utilisation. The use of quantitative analyses to examine soil thin sections opens the possibility of considering these relationships between manured areas in greater detail and to extract more subtle spatial and temporal changes in past management. In this study the validation of this methodology has been tested with quantitative image analysis methods used to examine manure inputs to a well-documented historical landscape of Papa Stour, Shetland, where intensive manuring has been practised until the 1960s. By using both historic and ethnographic evidence to validate the image analysis protocol, differences in spatial and temporal distribution are examined for the practices of manuring with both fuel residues and with turf. The validation of the hypotheses expected from ethnographic and historical data that quantitative soils-based evidence allows the definition of variations in manuring strategies and provides a more secure basis from which to interpret manuring management strategies in archaeological landscapes