Nava R Silton

• Ph.D.
• Professor of Psychology at Marymount Manhattan College

This article reviews Maslow's theory of motivation wherein he proposes a hierarchy of human needs. First, it describes the principal elements of Maslow's theory and discusses considerations relating to the flexibility of the hierarchy. Second, it explains the relationship among Maslow's theory of human needs, attachment theory, and evolutionary thr...

Religious participation has been shown to increase certain factors thought to be protective of health, including social support and positive health habits. The current study considers whether religious participation may likewise have a positive influence on health by increasing forgiveness and diminishing hostility. A structural equation analysis o...

The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly problematic for vulnerable populations. Elderly individuals with cognitive disabilities were a particularly high-risk group. The present review utilized the findings of previous studies to examine the implications of COVID-19 on the lives of elderly populations living with cognitive disabilities, such as mild...

The chapter will begin by defining empathy and theory of mind (ToM), key constructs for showcasing the importance of simulations and immersive experiences to help typical children better understand the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities. The authors will delineate strengths and limitations associated with Autism, ADHD, Visual, Heari...

This chapter describes how the Realabilities Comic Book Series and the Addy & Uno Off-Broadway Musical feature five characters with disabilities, who harness the special strengths-associated with their disabilities (Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Visual, Hearing and Physical Disability)-to save their school from bullies. The inte...

High quality interventions, which employ an extended contact model, wherein stories, roleplaying, and other appealing informational media are used to promote more positive intergroup attitudes, tend to be effective at enhancing the attitudes, intentions, and interests of typical children toward their peers with differences. The following four studi...

This chapter provides an overview of the complex experience of parenting children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) from an attachment-based perspective. The role of parental sensitivity, intrusiveness, and self-efficacy will be discussed in detail. These parental characteristics were indeed found to positively affect the parent-ASD-child bond...

This chapter delves into the history of emotional intelligence, from early allusions in the 1920s to contemporary times. It describes the various facets and components of emotional intelligence, discusses how it can be measured, and will discriminate between the emotional quotient (EQ) and the intelligence quotient (IQ) in terms of predicting futur...

High quality interventions, which employ an extended contact model, wherein stories, roleplaying, and other appealing informational media are used to promote more positive intergroup attitudes, tend to be effective at enhancing the attitudes, intentions, and interests of typical children toward their peers with differences. The following four studi...

This chapter describes how the Realabilities Comic Book Series and the Addy & Uno Off-Broadway Musical feature five characters with disabilities, who harness the special strengths-associated with their disabilities (Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Visual, Hearing and Physical Disability)-to save their school from bullies. The inte...

Although stigma negatively impacts autistic people globally, the degree of stigma varies across cultures. Prior research suggests that stigma may be higher in cultures with more collectivistic orientations. This study aimed to identify cultural values and other individual differences that contribute to cross-cultural differences in autism stigma (a...

The chapter will begin by defining empathy and theory of mind (ToM), key constructs for showcasing the importance of simulations and immersive experiences to help typical children better understand the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities. The authors will delineate strengths and limitations associated with Autism, ADHD, Visual, Heari...

This chapter delves into the intricacies of liking, attraction, online dating, successful marriage and the roots of divorce to better explicate the rich, but complex development and maintenance of romantic relationships. More specifically, the chapter explores familiarity, similarity, gender, short and long-term dating intentions, trustworthiness,...

This literature review will explore the relationships of individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and their fears of how their relationships will be affected after coming out of the closet. This chapter will review the stages in Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Stages of Development that most pertain to the coming out years; s...

Children with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be victimized by bullying than their typical peers (Carter & Spencer, 2006). Since half of all preschool children with disabilities are now in mainstream classrooms (Diamond & Hong, 2010), it's imperative to reduce bullying and to enhance sensitivity to peers with disabilities. Since...

This chapter presents Jewish perspectives on disabilities that informed the creation of two prosocial interventions to enhance typical children’s sensitivity, intentions, and attitudes towards children with special needs. The first intervention involved a four-part curriculum designed to teach typical students about autism, blindness, cerebral pals...

This chapter explores Realabilities, a video-based children's television program featuring unique characters, each with a distinct disability. Beyond utilizing video technology to directly teach cognitive and social-emotional skills to children with autism, Realabilities demonstrates how video can be used to foster positive behavioral intentions an...

The present study was specifically designed to examine the associations among religious commitment, belief in meaning and purpose in life, and psychiatric symptoms among the general public using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey (BRS). The BRS obtained data from a nationwide sample of 1,714 U.S. adults, 1,450 of which are included in the cu...

This chapter explores Realabilities, a video-based children's television program featuring unique characters, each with a distinct disability. Beyond utilizing video technology to directly teach cognitive and social-emotional skills to children with autism, Realabilities demonstrates how video can be used to foster positive behavioral intentions an...

More than ever, emerging technology is assisting individuals with autism in a variety of ways. However, many parents, schools, and special education professionals are not aware of the recent technological developments that are available to assist these individuals. Innovative Technologies to Benefit Children on the Autism Spectrum brings together r...

The relationships among age, forgiveness, hostility, and subjective health were examined in a sample of 1,629 US adults who completed a Web-based survey sponsored by Spirituality and Health magazine. A structural equation model was used to test hypotheses about the relationships between age, forgiveness, hostility, and poor health. The model confir...

This study examines the association between beliefs about God and psychiatric symptoms in the context of Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, using data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults (N = 1,426). Three beliefs about God were tested separately in ordinary least squares regression models to predict five classes of psychia...

Although prayer is one of the most common chaplain interventions, there is a dearth of information pertaining to prayer in the chaplaincy literature. This study was therefore conducted to obtain basic information from professional chaplains about their use of prayer with patients. Eight professional chaplains participated in a 90-min focus group to...

This experimental study examined the potential additive benefit of peer strategies (PS) and strengths information (SI) over descriptive and explanatory (D+E) information in enhancing typical children's behavioral intentions and cognitive attitudes towards children with autism. Participants were 158 typical students from fourth, fifth and sixth grad...

Background: Medicine has long acknowledged the role of chaplains in healthcare, but there is little research on the relationship between chaplaincy care and health outcomes. The present study examines the association between chaplaincy services and end-of-life care service choices. Methods: HealthCare Chaplaincy purchased the AHA survey database...

Data from the 2010 Baylor Religion Survey were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to test five hypotheses: (1) that religious commitment is positively related to belief in life-after-death; that belief in life-after-death is (2) positively related to belief in an equitable world, and (3) negatively related to belief in a cynical world;...

This study examines the association between various religious beliefs and practices and fears pertaining to death and dying in a national sample of liberal Protestant U.S. adults. Data were analyzed from a 2002 survey of members and elders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) (N = 935). Four measures of religion were tested together in models predict...

Smiling has been reported to be a signal of submission/lower status, or a sign of cooperation. In the present study, use of smiling and flirtation to "make people receptive to my ideas" was conceptualized as mild aggression, since it is mildly manipulative of the perception of others as to one's internal emotional status. For 91 participants (55 fe...

Rabbis' children experience unique stresses which may make them particularly susceptible to various forms of psychopathology. Fifty-three rabbis' children completed questionnaires assessing their frequency of religious service attendance, their reactions towards being a rabbi's child, empathy levels, depressive, anxious, and disordered eating sympt...

A 90-minute focus group was conducted with five male and two female Jewish professional chaplains from Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox backgrounds. This study describes and discusses eight principal themes that emerged from the focus group: (a) the identity, (b) role, and (c) practices of a chaplain; (d) Jewish chaplaincy prayers; (e) practices...

Religious professionals completed an online survey of their use of health related practices currently known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). They indicated how often they engaged in these practices and how often they had used these practices when helping other people. The majority of religious professionals used at least one of the...

The present study used data from the General Social Survey, collected between 1972 and 2006 (N = 45,463) to analyze changes over time in three aspects of religion among American adults: religious affiliation, frequency of attending religious services, and strength of faith. The last two measures were analyzed only for survey participants who had a...

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how video games, which incorporate eye toy technology, can be utilized to teach social learning to children with autism directly through video modeling and multimedia social story interventions and indirectly through engaging typically developing students with educational video games that increase their...

Asperger's syndrome is a pervasive developmental condition characterized by features of autism. As observed in clinical practice, individuals with Asperger's syndrome present an impairment related to inflexibility in their everyday routine, an immediate manner of experiencing and relating, and difficulties in estimating periods of time. Following a...

A total of 91 university community participants were evaluated on the five personality factors (NEO–Five Factor Inventory; NEO-FFI) and with the Conners Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Gender differences for the Conners CPT variables were found such that the men were faster and less variable in their reaction times than the women, and the women...

This study added peer strategies and strengths information to descriptive and explanatory information in order to determine whether or not there was an additive benefit of presenting alternative forms of information in enhancing typical children's knowledge, positive behavioral intentions and cognitive attitudes towards children on the autism spect...

Analysis of Covariance was conducted on quantitative data collected by chaplains from January 2005 to December 2008. Data from 82 Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant chaplains, consisting of 53 CPE students and 29 professional chaplains were used in this study. Overall, chaplains exhibited a statistically significant higher rate of prayer with patient...