Conceptualizing Religion and Spirituality: Points of Commonality, Points of Departure

Psychologists' emerging interest in spirituality and religion as well as the relevance of each phenomenon to issues of psychological importance requires an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of each construct. On the basis of both historical considerations and a limited but growing empirical literature, we caution against viewing spirituality and religiousness as incompatible and suggest that the common tendency to polarize the terms simply as individual vs. institutional or 'good' vs. 'bad' is not fruitful for future research. Also cautioning against the use of restrictive, narrow definitions or overly broad definitions that can rob either construct of its distinctive characteristics, we propose a set of criteria that recognizes the constructs' conceptual similarities and dissimilarities. Rather than trying to force new and likely unsuccessful definitions, we offer these criteria as benchmarks for judging the value of existing definitions.     

Communities of Place? New Evidence for the Role of Distance and Population Size in Community Attachment

Historically, ecological features of a community, such as population size, were considered fundamental aspects of the community experience. Yet methodological advances and the rise of globalization have challenged many classical assumptions rooted in the ecological tradition. Using recent data—the Montana Health Matters Study 2010 (N = 3,508)—we explore whether community attachment links with distance and population size in Montana. Surprisingly, a statistically significant relationship to community attachment appears only when distance from urban centers and community population size are modeled together. Perceived quality of community services partly explains this relationship, but only for the distance measure. Altogether, as globalization is undoubtedly transforming rural life, we argue that “communities of place” may still endure when distance to urban centers and population size are simultaneously accounted for.     

The liquidity crisis of German open-end real estate funds and their impact on optimal asset allocation in retirement

In course of the recent turmoil in the financial markets, several open-end real estate funds froze redemption of their units, resulting in unanticipated and unprecedented liquidity and performance shocks for investors. Against this background, we analyze the long- and short-term risk and return profiles of open-end real estate funds and their role in efficient multi-asset retirement portfolios. To this end, we introduce the Retirement Efficient Frontier, describing those investment strategies that minimize the lifetime probability of ruin for specific levels of periodic withdrawals from a given retirement wealth. We find that for low to moderate periodic withdrawals, efficient portfolios consist of up to 85% real estate fund investments in case fund units are continuously redeemable. Moreover we show that even if there is a monthly probability of 2.5% that redemption of fund units is temporarily suspended, the allocation into real estate funds in risk-efficient portfolios is only slightly affected. Yet, if funds additionally face a high risk of having to depreciate their property portfolio during a liquidity crisis, their share in efficient retirement portfolios is reduced significantly.     

The Response of Social Work to the Depression,by Jacob Fisher. Schenkman Publishing Co., Cambridge,Mass., and G. K. Hall and Co., Boston, 1980. $23.95.266 Pp.

Abstract

This article presents an innovative refinement in the use of group process records for educational purposes, reviews the history of Rothman's Committee for the Preparation of Teaching Materials, and discusses the Committee's development of a comprehensive framework for teaching records. The teaching record fosters student attentiveness to practice context and complexities, regard for ongoing self-evaluation, and interest in cooperative learning. Teaching records also provide a structure for integrative learning through the identification, elucidation, linkage, and illustration of practice concepts and principles. The five key parts of the teaching record—major teaching themes, overview of group characteristics, group process record, teaching points, and teaching strategies—are described, and excerpts from an illustrative teaching record of a session with nursing home residents are presented.     

The smell of distance: Wallace Stegner’s definition of western non-fiction

Wallace Stegner has argued that land, scale, and aridness are defining characteristics of both the American West and writings about the West. Stegner’s definition is analyzed using his own works and Mark Twain’s Roughing It.     

Setting goals in a professional service firm

Given the complex structure and rapid rate of change of today's society, it is critically important that a professional service firm properly set and periodically monitor its goals. This article describes how one consultant organization has formalized this process. The experience has led to important modifications of their goals. Perhaps a greater benefit is that the process of formalization has been a substantial aid in identifying and sensitizing individuals to crucial issues, in generating and evaluating alternatives, in isolating and resolving conflicts of judgement and priorities, and in communicating among members of the management of the firm concerned.