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Does Mind-Wandering Relate to Mood and Stress in Young Adults? A Narrative Review
Get PDFMind-wandering (MW) is ubiquitous and has been extensively studied in young adults. Studies have shown that MW, daydreaming, and sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms (SCT; e.g., staring, mental fogginess, confusion, hypoactivity, sluggishness, lethargy, and drowsiness) are interrelated constructs and all relate to mood and stress-related symptoms. The aims of the current review are to a) document the associations between MW (and related constructs: daydreaming, and SCT) and mood/stress-related symptoms (e.g., anxiety and depression symptoms) in young adults and b) identify potential mechanisms underlying these relationships. We conducted a narrative review of the literature on the subject. We searched MEDLINE (Ovid) and PsycINFO® (Ovid) databases and performed duplicate and independent screening. A total of 559 unique records were identified, and 22 records (published between 1978 and 2017) were included. We confirmed existing evidence of the associations between MW, daydreaming, SCT and mood/stress-related symptoms in young adults (aged 18 - 30 years). Although these associations are reported, our understanding of its directionality and underlying mechanisms remains incomplete. These findings highlight the need for further research combining experimental and correlational designs and including possible mechanisms of these associations in this population
Harden Not Your Hearts: An Examination of Conversion to and Indigenization of Christianity Among the Māori of New Zealand
Get PDFThis paper studies the Christianization, and consequent indigenization of faith, by the Māori on the North Island of New Zealand in the nineteenth century. The Christianization of the Māori illuminates the process of indigenization by which foreign faiths are adopted by native populations. In examining the Christianization of the Māori, one can come to understand the process of indigenization, that is the adoption of a foreign faith by a native population. Understanding the conversion process by the British on an indigenous population allows contemporary scholars to not only acknowledge the truth of the past, but also move forward with explanations regarding the current state of relations between settlers (Pākehā) and the indigenous (Māori), as well as between the Māori and their varying faiths. Specifically, in this paper Iargue that the process of conversion, as well as the impact of missionization and Pākehā desire for land, contributed to the development of Māori prophetic movements, an indigenized form of faith, which exemplified the complexities of British missionization in the nineteenth century.
Beth Caldwell\u27s Reading Experience
Get PDFNear the end of the nineteenth century, Sarah Grand coined the phrase "New Woman," which was influential throughout the first wave of the feminist movement. This paper examines how Sarah Grand\u27s representation of Beth Caldwell\u27s reading habits in her novel The Beth Book acts as a metaphor for the subversive femininity of the New Woman. My project explores the ways in which Grand\u27s feminist ideals are reflected in The Beth Book through the scenes when Beth is reading. I suggest that Beth\u27s atypical engagement with books as textual and physical objects can be equated to social dissent. However, Grand also portrays Beth reading within educational and marital institutions. These experiences lead Beth\u27s engagement with the text to become similar to common nineteenth-century reading practices. I conclude with the argument that Grand represents any personal engagement with a book, even if it is not especially radical, as capable of re-evaluating systemically-enforced interpretations
Canadian Citizens’ Helping Intentions toward Syrian Refugees
Get PDFAbstract
Since 2011, over 5 million refugees have fled civil war in Syria (UNHCR, 2018). Canada has responded tothe Syrian refugee crisis by resettling over 50,000 Syrian refugees and encouraging its citizens to supportthe integration process. Previous research has shown that when in-group members take the perspectiveof an out-group it leads to increased helping intentions toward that out-group (Mashuri, Hasanah,Rahmawati, 2013). To replicate and extend these findings in a Canadian context, the current study soughtto answer the question: How does national identity impact the relationship between perspective taking andhelping intentions toward Syrian refugees? The results indicated that when undergraduate participantsengaged in perspective taking, it led to increased financial helping intentions toward Syrian refugees,and this relationship was mediated by empathy. It was also found that individuals with a greater ethnicnational identity had lower levels of political and financial helping intentions toward Syrian refugees.
Keywords: Syrian Refugees, Immigrants, Newcomers, Canada, National Identity, Ethnic National Identity, Perspective Taking, Empathy, Helping Intention
Keeping the Song Alive in Mechanical Music Collections of New York and New Jersey
Get PDFMusic boxes, musical clocks, nickelodeons and similar objects are commonly referred to as mechanical music or musical automata. New York and New Jersey have rich histories of manufacturing and archiving these objects. Often enclosed in display cases, curatorial attention has not always been paid to the music historically central to these objects. Therefore, this study examined how museums connect the materiality of these objects with their associated music. By synthesizing perspectives from museum studies, music history, and the history of design, five collections of musical automata in New York and New Jersey were examined: The Buffalo History Museum, The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, The Guinness Collection at the Morris Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Museum. Specifically, this project explored how musical automata produced between 1770 and 1930 have been archived, displayed and interpreted. By interviewing curators and analyzing museum collections, it ultimately appears that the curatorial strategies for mechanical music objects in New York and New Jersey are greatly varied. Additionally, a correlation was found between the proportion of a museum’s collection dedicated to mechanical music and how interactive it is for the public
The Role of Primary Care in Asthma Control and Severity: Asthma and Primary Care in Alberta
Get PDFBackground: Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways affecting 3 millionCanadians. Primary Care Providers (PCPs) are integral to care coordination, enhanced through thedevelopment of a strong patient-PCP relationship with Continuity of Care (COC). A recent CIHI studynoted that 40% of Albertans do not have a COC model for primary care.Objectives: We aim to evaluate how primary care for adults with asthma impacts different measures ofcontrol.Methods: Prospective population-based recruitment of adults through various community venuesacross Alberta. Those who had self-reported asthma and were willing to participate completed a surveywhich included demographics, comorbidities, medication use (including biologics, allergy medications,steroids), Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ-5), Asthma Control Test (ACT), Quality of Life (QoL)measured through the mini-Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ) and health care utilization(including Emergency Department (ED) visits, hospitalizations and ICU stays for asthma).Results: Of the 1685 individuals approached, 61 (3.6%) reported having asthma, of which 47 lived inAlberta. Most (41, 87%) had a PCP, with 30 (64%) visiting their PCP at least twice a year. Uncontrolledasthma was noted in 21 (45%) with either the ACQ-5 or ACT. The mini-AQLQ indicated 5 (11%) withreduced QoL. Mean lifetime hospitalizations, lifetime Emergency Department (ED) visits, and ICU staysrelated to asthma were 1.52, 4.55 and 0.25 respectively. Further, mean hospitalizations and ED visits inthe past 12 months related to asthma were 0.05 and 0.30 respectively.Conclusions: Asthma control was poor in 21 (45%) surveyed individuals, suggesting sub-optimal asthmamanagement in Alberta. Knowledge of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) was low, while ED and hospitalusage was high
Re-Examining Israelite Patriarchy through Marriage Laws of Deuteronomy
No full textThe book of Deuteronomy in the Hebrew Bible contains an extensive list of laws, from cultic regulations tolaws addressing everyday affairs. As a legal collection, it can be observed as a symbol of practices and valuesof the ancient Israelites (the people by and for whom the Hebrew Bible was formed). Many prescriptionsin the Bible are perplexing and controversial according to our modern Western standards, especially thoseregarding gender equality in marital provisions. This essay examines the marriage laws of Deuteronomywithin its specific geographical, cultural, and historical context (the ancient Near East) including comparisonsto various law codes of nearby regional and other Biblical traditions, to argue that perspectives found inDeuteronomy are relatively progressive in protecting women’s rights. I challenge the common and oftenunquestioned assumption amongst scholars, religious followers and general readers that the Bible is sexistand misogynistic. More broadly, I advocate for the need to assess historical and religious works on gender intheir appropriate context, in order to obtain a more complex and earnest understanding of ancient traditions.
Problem Plays: Law, Comedy, and the Project of Genre in The Merchant of Venice
Get PDFWilliam Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is typically identified in scholarship as a comedy. However, the play’s fourth act is troubling, as Shylock loses his wealth and is forced to convert from his ancestral Judaism to Christianity, undermining the play’s comic nature. In this essay, I examine what are called surface and fundamental conventions of comedy to discuss whether The Merchant of Venice can be classified as a Shakespearean comedy. Surface conventions appear regularly in comedies, but are not necessary to classify a play as a comedy; fundamental conventions are less immediately obvious. Although the play subscribes to surface conventions of comedy, it fails to present the fundamental conventions of a just universe or comically satisfying ending, particularly in the legal proceedings of both the trial scene and the protagonists’ marriages. Noting comic tropes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in contrast to The Merchant of Venice, I argue that Merchant is, in fact, a “problem play” that does not fit neatly into any generic classification. While typical comedies offer justice in the sense that characters achieve deserved outcomes, justice in The Merchant of Venice is undermined through Portia’s intervention in the trial. Ultimately, I aim to understand with more nuance the complex role that the legal system plays in constructing genre in The Merchant of Venice, and to question the play’s traditional, though not universal, classification in Shakespeare scholarship as a “comedy.
A Preliminary Model for Conceptualizing the Contemporary Living Arrangements of Older Adults
Get PDFThe living arrangements of older adults are currently being impacted in multiple ways and are thus complexto study. Using the results of a rapid review of the 2000-2017 literature, the primary objective of this paper isto develop a conceptual model of older adults’ living arrangements worldwide. Such a model is an importantstep in teasing out which elements of older adults’ living arrangements influence various aspects of theirhealth and well-being. This paper describes a preliminary model which conceptualizes older adults’ livingarrangements as inclusive of a multiplicity of factors in older adults’ intimate, immediate, and broadersettings. While this model is a start, there is considerable work left to be done to finalize the model beforeit is representative of older adults’ living arrangements worldwide
The Anglo-Saxon Invasion of Britain: Beyond Gildas and Bede
Get PDFThe Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries is typically a story of slaughter anddestruction. This is largely because Gildas, the only known contemporary to write about the events,portrayed it as such, and subsequent writers have taken his interpretation as fact. However, Gildas wasnot a historian, nor did he claim to be. Modern archeological research has proven that Gildas exaggeratedmuch of the destruction he claims took place, but this has not changed the popular notion that theAnglo-Saxons conquered and subdued the native Britons. However, the literature, art, and language ofthe Saxons and the Britons prior to and during the Anglo-Saxon period indicates the two peoples musthave joined together in more than just war. However, the question remains: to what extent did thisaffect the peoples, and the culture that emerged from this period? This paper uses an interdisciplinaryapproach. First, it uses archeological evidence to critically examine the modern historiographicevidence for the conquer-and-destroy model of Anglo-Saxon colonization. It then uses literary analysisto demonstrate the Celtic story-telling influences in the Anglo-Saxon literary opus Beowulf, and finallyconsiders the linguistic evidence of Celtic language influences on Old English. Ultimately, though theAnglo-Saxon language (Old English) emerged as the dominant language of the island, there was far morecultural exchange between the two peoples than has previously been acknowledged. This is crucial tounderstanding this important era of British history and the development of British-English culture