Navigation

Archive | Faculty Publications

This portion of the White Library site is dedicated to documenting the scholarly output of our faculty. This is by no means an all-inclusive list and there are many citations yet to be added. Clicking the title will either take you to the item’s location in the library catalog or database, or to an outside link where you can purchase it. If would like to suggest a faculty publication to be included, please send link to the source and a Chicago Style citation to facultypublications@arbor.edu.

Karen Klein Villa

By on May 3, 2006 in Faculty Publications

Klein Villa, Karen, Howard Shevrin, Michael Snodgrass, Ariane Bazan, and Linda A. W. Brakel. “Testing Freud’s Hypothesis that Word Forms and Word Meaning are Functionally Distinct: Subliminal Primary-Process Cognition and its Link to Personality.” Neuro-Psychoanalysis 8, no. 2 (2006): 117-138.

Abstract: One of Freud’s seminal hypotheses first appearing in his monograph On Aphasia (1891) posited that word meaning and word presentation (e.g., phonemic and graphemic properties) needed to be distinguished if aphasic symptoms were to be accurately understood. In his later psychoanalytic writing, this supposition was generalized to refer to the primary-process uses of language in dreams, symptom formation, and unconscious processes (1900, 1915). To test Freud’s hypothesis that word meaning and word presentation are functionally distinct when processed unconsciously (Freud, 1891, 1915), 50 participants were tested with a priming paradigm in which a “palindrome” prime, presented either subliminally or supraliminally, was followed by two target alternatives. In the forward condition, the prime (e.g. DOG) was followed with a semantic associate (e.g. CANINE) and a distractor. In the “palindrome” condition, the prime was followed with a semantic associate of the reversed word (e.g. ANGEL) and a distractor. The participants’ task was to choose the word they preferred. The supraliminal results confirm classical semantic priming, but only in the forward condition. Subliminally, however, while no main results emerged, there were interaction effects with self-rated personality factors and stimulus detectability. High trait anxiety induced priming facilitation, while in low anxiety there was inhibition, for both forward and palindrome conditions. On the other hand, high scores on the Hysteroid-Obsessoid Questionnaire, a measure of repressiveness, led to inhibition of the priming effect while facilitation was observed with low scores–but only for forward priming. Consistently, these interaction effects were even stronger when stimulus detectability was low than at higher levels of detectability, ruling out any skeptical account that the measured effects might be due to residual conscious perception. Taken together, these findings support Freud’s hypothesis that the perceptual object dimension of a word, being functionally distinct from its meaning, can give rise to novel sequential processing, an effect that is more likely to occur unconsciously (i.e., d́′ ≤ 0) and under conditions of anxiety.

Charles White

By on March 7, 2006 in Faculty Publications

White, Charles Edward. “God by the numbers: coincidence and random mutation are not the most likely explanations for some things.” Christianity Today 50, no. 3 (March 1, 2006): 44-47.

Abstract: Math and theology have had a long and checkered relationship. The Babylonians and Mayans both associated numbers with God. In fact, both societies named their gods with numbers. The Mayans used 13 and the Babylonians used 60. In the Greek world, followers of Pythagoras prayed to the first 4 numbers and thought they were the creator. On the other hand, in the 18th century, the French mathematician Laplace told Napoleon he had no need of God even as a hypothesis, and in 1744, John Wesley confessed: “I am convinced, from many experiments, I could not study either mathematics, arithmetic, or algebra … without being a deist, if not an atheist.”

Michael Buratovich

By on February 16, 2006 in Faculty Publications

Buratovich, Michael. “Dawkin’s God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life.” Christian Scholar’s Review 35, no. 2 (Winter, 2006): 280-283.

Abstract: With respect to Dawkins’ refutation of William’Paley’s “God as the Divine Watchmaker” hypothesis, McGrath points out that Paley’s Natural Theology “represents the late and final flowering of a movement that came into being in the aftermath of the great Newtonian revolution of the late seventeenth century, and which had completely lost its way by the middle of the eighteenth century” (69). Finally, the quote from River out of Eden that speaks of DNA as digital information and creatures as survival machines that act as mere vessels to carry this information can hardly mean that Dawkins wishes to reduce all social behavior to kin selection, since he said as much about human behavior in The Selfish Gene.

Martin Covey

By on January 13, 2006 in Faculty Publications

Covey, Martin. “Introduction: Technology and Families.” Michigan Family Review 11 (2006): 1-4.

Abstract: This Michigan Family Review explores the influence of technology on developing individuals and families. Technologies examined include domestic technologies, information technologies, and mass media. Individual development, family tasks, peer relationships, gendered work and communication, and family interventions are discussed through the lens of technological change.

Robert Woods & Ines Jindra

By on November 13, 2005 in Faculty Publications

Knight, David A., Robert H. Woods Jr, and Ines W. Jindra. “Gender Differences in the Communication of Christian Conversion Narratives.” Review of Religious Research (2005): 113–134.

Abstract: Scholars have long sought to find the differences in the ways men and women communicate. Also, researchers have studied the field of religious conversion. Thisfirst-of-a-kind study has sought to find if gender differences arise when men and women communicate the story of their religious conversion. Forty structured in-depth interviews with 20 male and 20 female undergraduate students at a small, private Christian liberal arts university in the Midwest were used to address the stated research question. Five male and five females were selected from each grade level. A non-probability sampling procedure was used to select subjects. The final sample consisted of two Hispanics, one Black, and 37 White non-Hispanic participants. The average age of each participant was 20. Although some authors have suggested that conversion stories of men and women would be similar due to a rhythmic narrative formula and common structural elements, this study has found that significant gender differences in the communication of such narratives do arise in certain specific areas. The majority of men used adventurous metaphors, while the majority of women used peaceful metaphors to describe their conversion experiences. It was also found that the majority of men focused on themselves as the control character while most women focused on someone else. And, men described themselves as clever whereas women described themselves as foolish in their narratives.

Michael Buratovich

By on September 16, 2005 in Faculty Publications

Buratovich, Michael. “A Matter of Days.” Christian Scholar’s Review 35, no. 1 (Fall, 2005): 116-118.

Abstract: Instead of seeing all life as having descended from a common ancestor, Ross is a Progressive Creationist, contending that God episodically created, by divine fiat, different types of plants and animals to inhabit the earth over distinct periods of time; these episodic creations included, most recently, the miraculous creation of mankind. Third, sequencing of mitochondrial DNA from the haplochromines (cichlid fishes) of Lake Victoria, which is only 12,400 years old, has definitively shown that among fourteen fish species from distinct trophic groups (insect-eaters, fish-eaters, algae-scrapers, snail-crushers, shail-shellers and pedophages), only fifteen base substitutions have occurred amongst the more than eight hundred bases examined.

Robert Woods & Marsha Daigle-Williamson

By on May 7, 2005 in Faculty Publications

Alban Jr., Donald, Robert H. Woods Jr., and Marsha Daigle-Williamson. “The Writings of William Carey: Journalism as Mission in a Modern Age.” Mission Studies: Journal Of The International Association For Mission Studies 22, no. 1 (April 2005): 85-113.

Abstract: William Carey is reviewed as both product and producer of journalism, with an emphasis on the latter and its synergistic relationship to his mission work and the work of others. Carey’s philosophy of life was formed largely by the written works of his predecessors and contemporaries. Specifically, Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, Jeremy Taylor, Captain James Cook, and Robert Hall, among others, clearly affected his out-look on theology, missions, Bible translation, ecumenism, and a host of related topics. Writings by Cook opened Carey’s eyes to distant people, whom he evaluated in the light of his journalistically influenced theology. Consequently, Carey became concerned about the spiritual and moral state of the world abroad. His concern found expression in the Enquiry — a polemic for missionary work — and ultimately led him to Bengal, where his own attempts to influence people through journalism expanded. Carey’s own writings and those of his colleagues at the Serampore Mission are the most obvious examples of his journalistic works. But they hardly stand alone. Thus, after the authors describe the emergence and significance of the Enquiry and the Serampore Press, they refer to other publications printed either at Serampore or elsewhere in response to the press’ influence. Among these are works as diverse as textbooks, governmental publications, and periodical apologetics for Hinduism. The Serampore mission’s expansion of Indian literacy also is reviewed because of its relevance to understanding the influence of others’ writings on his life’s philosophy and work. It further helps to shed light on Carey’s distinct approach to evangelization, presented herein as a form of inculturation. Lastly, many would not have become readers of the mission’s works had it not equipped them to read through its network of native schools. The authors suggest that Serampore’s journalistic mission extended beyond the mere production of writings; it also included the production of a readership.

Michael Buratovich

By on April 16, 2005 in Faculty Publications

Buratovich, Michael. “Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing/Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design.” Christian Scholar’s Review 34, no. 3 (Spring, 2005): 382-386.

Abstract: Buratovich reviews Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals who Find Darwinism Unconvincing edited by William A. Dembski and Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross.