Reciprocal Causal Relationship Research Articles

The Longitudinal Association Between Forgiveness and Relationship Closeness and Commitment

Abstract This article examines the longitudinal relationship between forgiveness and the restoration of closeness and commitment in relationships that have been damaged by transgressive behavior. Participants were 201 university students who had recently incurred painful interpersonal transgressions. The revenge and benevolence dimensions of forgiveness appeared to facilitate later closeness and commitment, whereas the avoidance dimension of forgiveness appeared to have a reciprocal causal relationship with closeness and commitment. Ramifications for the association between forgiveness and reconciliation are discussed.

Anxiety disorders

Anxiety comprises a powerful emotional component associated with fearful thoughts and a physiological response. It may be considered pathological if it is excessive or uncontrollable, has an irrational focus, or has a significant negative effect on the individual. Pathological anxiety is often secondary to a disturbance of mood or thinking. In some patients, the abnormal anxiety response is the primary problem, and in these cases anxiety disorder is diagnosed. Anxiety symptoms have a physical and a psychological basis, and anxiety disorders respond to both medication and psychotherapy. Types of anxiety disorder include generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety disorder. It is vital to take a careful history in an empathic manner. Subtle differences between anxiety symptoms may be distinguished by careful inquiry, and the patient's functioning in terms of work, home and social life should be evaluated. Patients with certain medical disorders are at increased risk of anxiety disorder, and the presence of anxiety may confer a worse prognosis for a medical disorder. In these cases, detection and treatment of anxiety are vital. Several prospective studies demonstrate a reciprocal causal relationship between anxiety disorders and alcohol dependence. Options for management of anxiety disorders are psychological treatments, particularly individual or group cognitive behavioural therapy, and drug treatments. A serotonergic antidepressant is the first-line drug treatment in the major anxiety disorders. Benzodiazepines are less commonly used than in the past because of their side-effects, and because they do not treat co-morbid mood disorders.

Dao, Technology, and American Naturalism

Dao, Technology, and American Naturalism Joseph Grange The onset of the new spirit is the product of a widespread upheaval in various forms of culture, and the prize at the end of a complicated tortuous path.... But the actuality of this consists in ... [its] newly acquired meaning. Hegel, "Preface" to The Phenomenology of the Spirit1 New spirit, violence, effort, and new meaning. These are some of the themes involved in this conference on technology and human experience. I wish to extend and deepen Hegel's thoughts on the qualities involved at the onset of a new world situation. I do so by returning to two old texts: the Dao De Jing and one of the classics of American naturalism, John Dewey's Art as Experience. Technology is fundamentally about doing. In the act of doing there resides a mystery called creativity. It is to this moment of experience that I direct my remarks. The Dao tells us that activity in the form of ceaseless becoming and perishing constitutes the ultimate character of reality. The very first saying in the Dao De Jing proclaims a double aspect to this fundamental way of passage: Nameless (wu-ming), the origin (shih) of heaven and earth;Named (yu-ming), the mother (mu) of ten thousand things2 There is a dual source for the way things are. I take "the origin" and "the mother" as exceptionally apt metaphors for expressing the very being of reality. The named Dao refers to the realm of the practically true. The unnamed Dao lets this actual world of concrete practice express itself. Why are two aspects necessary for Dao? The answer resides in the relation between wu and yu.3 Neither is independent of the other, for wu as the act of letting go and yu as the act of being are always tied to each other. How else could beings be if they were not let be? Western thought loses this double insight when it speaks of Being and Nothingness. To be and not to be are moments in the same process of becoming and perishing. They do not stand opposed. Origin lets be and in so doing turns over the ten thousand things to the care of their mother. Dao as causal agency demands that the West stretch its notion of causal efficacy beyond the customary emphasis on material and efficient causality.4 The best way to do this is to concentrate on Plato's theory of the Good as that which gives simply because it is good.5 The reason why beings are is because they are good. To the extent that they are good they are also intelligible. Thus being, goodness, and intelligibility form a reciprocal causal relationship.6 The unnamed Dao is the source of the goodness that the named Dao mothers in the world of concrete practice. [End Page 363] Understanding the quality of goodness that this kind of doing creates brings us back to technology's place in the Third Millennium. There are two kinds of doing. There is the agency that provokes reality in such a way as to bring about a certain specific result. There is also the agency that evokes from reality the creativity latent in its processes. The first kind of doing often marks the contemporary use of technology. Outrageous provocation of the environment and the displacement of the human person for the sake of bureaucratic form are two familiar forms of this bad way of doing. Its irresponsibility resides in its thoughtlessness. The good way of doing is to be understood as the evocation of goodness from the womb of process. I use the maternal organ deliberately, for our word "technology" has its roots in the ancient Greek word for giving birth, tikto. Unnamed and named Dao meet when evocation replaces provocation. I regard such evocative practices as aesthetic achievements. They are characterized by intense ways of engagement that flow seamlessly from part to part by reason of the mediation of the whole. Goodness guides activity so as to produce a feeling of consummation when an experience is completed. All the stops and starts, the hesitations and the leaps forward, that usually characterize our way...

Prospective analysis of the relation between DSM-III anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders.

Cross-sectional studies show a robust association between anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders (comorbidity); however, this methodology does not allow for the testing of causal models. The authors attempted to overcome this limitation by examining comorbid relationships prospectively. Male and female college students were assessed as freshmen (year 1), and then again at years 4 and 7, for selected 12-month anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and social phobia or panic) diagnosed according to the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) and DSM-III and for 12-month DIS/DSM-III alcohol use disorders (alcohol dependence alone and alcohol abuse or dependence). Cross-sectionally, the odds of having either an anxiety disorder or an alcohol use disorder were two- to fivefold greater when the other condition was present. Prospectively, the odds of developing a new alcohol dependence diagnosis at year 7 increased from 3.5 to five times for those diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at years 1 or 4. Conversely, the odds of developing a new anxiety disorder at year 7 increased by about four times for those diagnosed with alcohol dependence at years 1 or 4. When alcohol abuse and dependence were combined, the pattern of findings was similar, albeit weaker. Multivariate path models provide similar results and highlight the reciprocal influence of alcohol use disorders and anxiety disorders. Alcohol use disorders (especially alcohol dependence) and anxiety disorders demonstrate a reciprocal causal relationship over time, with anxiety disorders leading to alcohol dependence and vice versa.

Globalization and the Asian Financial Crisis

The Asian financial crisis is one of the most serious currency crises to affect international markets since World War II. It has serious implications for the Asian approach to economic and political modernization, and it illustrates some of the possible consequences of the process of “globalization.” The purpose of this article is to analyze the reciprocal causal relationship between globalization and the Asian financial crisis. Thus we shall examine the crisis first as a dependent variable, or a possible effect, of globalization, among other possible causes; then we shall analyze the crisis as an independent variable, with an interest in understanding its impact on Asian political and economic affairs.

Physical Activity as a Predictor of Health and Disability in 75- and 80-Year-Old Men and Women: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study

Identifying predictors of functional limitations among the elderly is essential for planning and implementing appropriate preventive services. The purpose of this prospective study was to examine baseline physical activity as a predictor of health and functional ability outcomes 5 years later in people age 75 and 80 years at baseline. A clear trend was observed: The more physically active subjects had better health and functional ability compared to their more sedentary counterparts. After controlling for the baseline status, the degree of physical activity did not predict future disability but still maintained its predictive role at the level of disease severity. It is suggested that the level of habitual physical activity is an important predictor of health and functional ability among elderly people. Presumably, however, there is a reciprocal causal relationship between physical activity and health in elderly people. Physical activity counseling should therefore be included in preventive health strategies for the elderly.

Reciprocal Causal Relationships among Drug Use, Peers, and Beliefs: A Five-Wave Panel Model

Interactional theory posits a reciprocal relationship among drug use, association with drug using peers, and beliefs about drug use. Using five waves of data from a panel study of high-risk adolescents, two models are estimated to examine these assumptions. The results support the main hypotheses from interactional theory. Drug use and peer drug use are involved in a reciprocal causal relationship with the effect from drug use to peer drug use being slightly larger. Beliefs about drug use and drug use are also reciprocally related although the effect of beliefs on drug use is relatively weak. The effect of peer drug use on beliefs is stronger in later waves as compared to earlier waves, supporting interactional theory's assumptions about the importance of taking into account developmental stages of drug use. The importance of these findings for both theoretical development and intervention strategies is discussed.

Prediction of handicap and emotional distress in patients with recurrent vertigo: Symptoms, coping strategies, control beliefs and reciprocal causation

Factors predicting handicap and distress were examined in a longitudinal study of 101 patients suffering from recurrent vertigo (dizziness). Analysis of a questionnaire assessing coping strategies yielded four distinct individualised coping styles: problem-focused information-seeking; distraction; denial; and relinquishing responsibility. After controlling for the severity of physical and psychological symptoms and distress, handicap was negatively related to internal locus of control and positively correlated with relinquishing responsibility. Symptoms of somatic anxiety predicted an increase in handicap over a 7 month period, while handicap and somatic anxiety symptoms predicted an increase in distress. These results are interpreted in terms of a reciprocal causal relationship between handicap and distress, mediated partly by somatic symptoms. Parallels with pain, panic and phobia suggest that patients with vertigo might benefit from psychological therapies.

Two Dimensions of Self-Esteem: Reciprocal Effects of Positive Self-Worth and Self-Deprecation on Adolescent Problems

The presumed relationship between adolescent's self-esteem and the occurrence of social problems is a recurring theme in academic and public discourse. Evidence for this relationship is limited by an overreliance on global measures of self-esteem that combine positive and negative self-evaluations in a single measure. My study uses this prior research on the relationship of global measures of self-esteem to adolescent social problems as a comparative reference point for an analysis of the link between negative and positive self-worth and youth problems. Using nonrecursive linear structural equation models and data from the Youth in Transition study, I compare the reciprocal interrelations of self-deprecation (negative self-evaluations), positive self-worth (positive selfevaluations), and global self-esteem (which includes both positive and negative evaluations) on high school grades, depression, and delinquency. Ifind that when self-deprecation and positive self-worth measures are employed, nuances are revealed that were previously overlooked in studies relying exclusively on global self-esteem. For example, I find a powerful reciprocal causal relationship between self-deprecation and depression and an effect of self-deprecation and positive self-worth on grades in school. These findings encourage theoretical developments of a bidimensional construct to measure selfesteem that includes, in particular, self-deprecation.