Advancing workplace spiritual development: A dyadic mentoring approach

Workplace spirituality has become the focus of several major business organizations and scholars. Research has found spirituality to be most beneficial when fostered at the individual rather than collective level (Herman & Gioia, 1998; Krishnakumar & Neck, 2002). Yet, little is known about how leaders deploy workplace spirituality to the individual level and sustain it over time. To address this question, the case is made that spirituality at work may best be fostered through a dyadic mentorship. Accordingly, a concept of spiritual mentoring is proposed, which takes an authentic self perspective to spirituality while approaching spiritual development as best served through a co-created, dyadic process. Drawing on previous research, spiritual mentoring is organized into three categories – inner life, meaningful work, and context/connectedness – and presented as a temporal process through which leaders may provide these supportive behaviors. Prospective outcomes of spiritual mentoring are described, and potential barriers are considered.     

The Use of Self-Instructional Units on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in a University Setting

Abstract

In an attempt to promote prevention of cardiovascular disease among college students, a study was conducted to determine whether an educational program originally designed to increase high school students' knowledge of cardiovascular disease would be effective with college students. The specific objectives of the study were to determine college students' baseline knowledge regarding primary and secondary risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, to ascertain their knowledge of the warning signs and appropriate emergency procedures for heart attack and stroke victims, and to evaluate the effectiveness of self-instructional units on the “Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Diseases, Parts I and II” and “Warning Signs and Emergency Procedures for Heart Attack and Stroke Victims.”

The results of the study found that the college students were not sufficiently aware of the risk factors of cardiovascular disease or the warning signs and emergency procedures for heart attack and stroke victims. The educational program effectively instructed these students in these areas, and the participants found the materials suitable for college curricula and expressed a desire for more of them.     

Contingency Learning and Reactivity in Preterm and Full‐Term Infants at 3 Months

Learning difficulties in preterm infants are thought to reflect impairment in arousal regulation. We examined relationships among gestational age, learning speed, and behavioral and physiological reactivity in 55 preterm and 49 full‐term infants during baseline, contingency, and nonreinforcement phases of a conjugate mobile paradigm at 3 months corrected age. For all infants, negative affect, looking duration, and heart rate levels increased during contingency and nonreinforcement phases, whereas respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA, an index of parasympathetic activity) decreased and Cortisol did not change. Learners showed greater RSA suppression and less negative affect than nonleamers. This pattern was particularly evident in the preterm group. Overall, preterm infants showed less learning, spent less time looking at the mobile, and had lower Cortisol levels than full‐term infants. Preterm infants also showed greater heart rate responses to contingency and dampened heart rate responses to nonreinforcement compared to full‐term infants. Findings underscore differences in basal and reactivity measures in preterm compared to full‐term infants and suggest that the capacity to regulate parasympathetic activity during a challenge enhances learning in preterm infants.     

Infant development and the sense of self: Stern VS. Mahler

Recent research into infant development and the development of the sense of self appears to contradict Mahler's theory of separation-individuation. The author proposes that these theories are not as divergent as first appears. Discerning shared features of these theories should prove clinically relevant and will enhance the social work clinician's understanding of early development and its relation to adult psychopathology.     

Trans Men: Embodiments,Identities, and Sexualities

This article examines the experiences of 25 persons who were assigned female status at birth but do not wish to live as women and take on a masculine or queer gender identity. We employ the concept of “gendered embodiment” and introduce the concept of “sexualized embodiment” to highlight what is involved in this process. We ask how experiencing a masculine gender identity is reflexively tied to a trans man's sexuality and the ways in which these two embodiments are tightly, moderately, or loosely coupled. For example, a tight coupling appeared when trans men began to use testosterone and obtained surgery such as breast removal; a moderate coupling was found where gender validation was sought from a sexual partner (with this being related to sexual preference identities as well as the interpretation of vaginal penetration); the loosest coupling of the gender‐sexuality embodiments was linked to the liberality of the locale and whether “queer” identities could be easily adopted. In sum, our research demonstrates the link between gender and sexuality as a result of the body work trans men do and the historical and geographical situations in which they find themselves.