Psychological type and religious orientation : do introverts and extraverts go to church for different reasons?

This study set out to profile an Anglican congregation in the south of England in terms of religious orientation, assessed by the New Indices of Religious Orientation, and in terms of psychological type, assessed by the Francis Psychological Type Scales, in order to test the hypothesis that motivation for church attendance (religious orientation) is related to personality (psychological type). The data demonstrated that this congregation (N = 65) displayed clear preferences for judging (72%) over perceiving (28%) and for sensing (62%) over intuition (39%), slight preference for extraversion (54%) over introversion (46%) and a fairly close balance between feeling (51%) and thinking (49%), and included attenders who reflected all three religious orientations: intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest. Moreover, extraverts recorded significantly higher scores than introverts on the measure of extrinsic religiosity, while introverts recorded significantly higher scores than extraverts on the measure of intrinsic religiosity, demonstrating a link between psychological type and religious orientation

Adobe Youth Voices Literature Review

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) received a grant from Adobe to conduct an evaluation of the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) program. As part of the evaluation, EDC conducted a review of relevant literature to situate AYV in a broader context, provide stakeholders with a framework for understanding goals and outcomes, and frame and inform the evaluation questions. EDC reviewed scholarly articles, program reports and evaluations, and research studies that addressed youth media programs, youth development, teacher professional development, and other areas related to AYV's goals.Among the findings, the literature review includes 6 key points that speak to the AYV program:1. The goals of youth media programs most commonly cited can be grouped into several categories: Youth voice -- the capacity for self-expression Youth development -- the process of developing the skills and personal attributes that enable young people to become successful adults Media literacy -- the ability to analyze, evaluate and produce information in a variety of media forms Skill development -- such as communication, critical thinking, technology, and media production skills Social action or civic engagement 2. Outcomes and impacts on participants of youth media programs commonly found in the literature include: Improved skills Improved community perception of youth Positive youth development Increased social action and civic engagement 3. Outcomes and impacts on participants of youth development programs frequently cited include:Improved communication, critical thinking, and related skills Increased self-esteem More positive attitudes towards school and their futures 4. There is broad agreement that traditional educational approaches do not adequately address 21st century skills. Education must adapt to be more compatible with the ways in which young people think and learn, as well as the tools and media that are part of their environment.5. Student engagement in education has been associated with positive youth development and 21st century skills. Engaging instruction often includes inquiry- or project-based, multidisciplinary, and authentic learning activities.6. Educator professional development is believed to be a key step toward improving student outcomes. While there is little research that can demonstrate this connection, there is new focus on evaluating the effectiveness of professional development activities. Elements of effective professional development include learning communities and collaboration, ongoing support and assistance, and active or applied learning

Coevolution of metallicity and star formation in galaxies to z=3.7: I. A fundamental plane

With the aim of understanding the coevolution of star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass (M*), and oxygen abundance (O/H) in galaxies up to redshift z=3.7, we have compiled the largest available dataset for studying Metallicity Evolution and Galaxy Assembly (MEGA); it comprises roughly 1000 galaxies with a common O/H calibration and spans almost two orders of magnitude in metallicity, a factor of 10^6 in SFR, and a factor of 10^5 in stellar mass. From a Principal Component Analysis, we find that the 3-dimensional parameter space reduces to a Fundamental Plane of Metallicity (FPZ) given by 12+log(O/H) = -0.14 log (SFR) + 0.37 log (M*) + 4.82. The mean O/H FPZ residuals are small (0.16 dex) and consistent with trends found in smaller galaxy samples with more limited ranges in M*, SFR, and O/H. Importantly, the FPZ is found to be redshift-invariant within the uncertainties. In a companion paper, these results are interpreted with an updated version of the model presented by Dayal et al. (2013).Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Providence College Library+Commons Promotional Branding Material: Library+Commons Graphics

A PDF file containing Library+Commons images and grapics used at Providence College

Organizing for Women and Children: Advocating for the ‘Reach Every Mother and Child’ Campaign

Every day families are left without mothers and children. Not only does this affect the family but it can have ramifications on the community. There is a link between the wellbeing of moms and that of their children, yet we lose thousands of women to maternal complications each year. Moreover, each day, thousands of children die before reaching their fifth birthday. The most tragic part is that most of these deaths are preventable. While these deaths have been halved in the last 15 years, there is still a lot of work to be done. There have been several initiatives which focus on reducing the under-five and maternal mortality rate, including those of the United Nations: first the Millennium Development Goals and now the Sustainable Development Goals. RESULTS, an organization that fights poverty, teamed up with a diverse group of 12 organizations with the purpose of addressing two of the worst aspects of impoverishment: global maternal and under-five deaths. With the launch of the ‘Reach Every Mother and Child’ campaign, the coalition added to an international movement to end child and maternal mortality. Although the campaign has done a good job of increasing issue awareness and getting support for the bill it created, its choice in policy does not truly address the key causes of maternal and child mortality, poverty. This capstone paper will introduce and analyze the campaign, RESULTS’ strategy, and my contributions to the campaign. As an Organizing and Advocacy Intern for RESULTS, my duties included increasing awareness and securing co-sponsorship for the bill proposed by the campaign. In my efforts to fulfill these responsibilities, I created several pieces of media, wrote letters to members of Congress and had an outreach event. After evaluating my contributions and RESULTS’ campaigning, I will share insights I gleaned from my experience

Perceptions of academic benefits of work-integrated learning among West Virginia community and technical college students

Global research notes the academic benefits of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) to be higher academic achievement and faster degree completion rates. Past studies have been chiefly conducted at baccalaureate degree granting institutions. The purpose of this descriptive, nonexperimental, post-facto study is to determine whether the West Virginia WIL programs delivered through community and technical colleges yield the same academic benefits that have been reported in the extant research concerning baccalaureate schools. The population of this study was to be 572 business and information technology majors at ten West Virginia community and technical colleges. Student-level data by classification of instructional programs (CIP) codes were analyzed that had been previously collected through the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission’s annual census for academic years 2011-2012, 2012 -2013, and 2013-2014. WIL experience data distribution throughout the population of the study, however, was skewed substantially and required a more normally distributed sample for purposes of analysis. A reduced sample, comprised of 117 participants enrolled at New River Community and Technical College, Pierpont Community and Technical College, and West Virginia Northern Community College during the same period, provided a more even distribution. The findings suggest WIL experiences did not have a significant effect on cumulative GPA or on demonstrated time-to-degree in the two-year graduation period, nor on the years to degree variable, for this sample. WIL experiences did appear to have a significant effect on demonstrated time-to-degree in the three-year graduation period, however. The lack of a conclusive determination that WIL has an effect on grade point average (GPA) for community college students could spur a reconsideration of the field’s understanding of the academic benefits of WIL experiences for researchers and professional practitioners

How homonegative is the typical Anglican congregation? : applying the Robbins-Murray Religious Homonegative Orientation Scale (RHOS)

This paper set out to assess and profile attitudes toward homosexuality within one typical Anglican congregation. The majority of attendees (n=65, 42% men and 58% women) completed the Robbins-Murray Religious Homonegative Orientation Scale (an instrument embracing the following views on homosexuality: theological aspects, normativity, moral judgement, legal proscription, and affective response), together with indices concerned with demographic factors, religious factors and personality factors. Overall, the data demonstrated that the majority of churchgoers did not espouse a negative view of homosexuality. More proscriptive attitudes were associated with being male, with being older, with regular attendance, and with being more conservative. Individual differences in personality, however, were not significant predictors of views on homosexuality