Religious Dissenters, J.S. Mill, and the Importance of Starting Points for Apologetics

Book reviewed:
Mill on God: The Pervasiveness and Elusiveness of Mill's Religious Thought , Alan P.F. Sell, Ashgate Studies in the History of Philosophical Theology, Ashgate 2004 (0-7546-1666-5), pp. viii + 202, Pb £15.99
Philosophy, Dissent and Nonconformity 1689–1920 , Alan P.F. Sell, James Clarke & Co 2004 (0-227-67977-6), pp. 296, Hb £50     

Intellectual, behavioral, and personality correlates of violent vs. non-violent juvenile offenders

The overall aim of this study was to examine the relationship between offender status (violent vs. nonviolent) and selected predictor variables from personality, behavioral, and intellectual domains. The two main sub goals were (a) to determine which variables from these domains were most closely associated with offender status, and (b) to construct a stepwise logistic regression model that could help identify which juveniles were more likely to be incarcerated for violent vs. nonviolent offenses. The participants for this investigation were juvenile offenders referred to the Juvenile Court Assessment Center by the Juvenile Justice Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. The court-ordered assessment included the following measures: (a) The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI), (b) the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC), (c) the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (PPVT-III), (d) the Wide Range Achievement Test-Third Edition (WRAT-III), (e) the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT), and (f) records of school achievement. The ten variables that had the strongest association with offender status were entered into the stepwise logistic regression analysis; five of these strategically chosen predictor variables accurately differentiated violent from nonviolent offenders 86.3% of the time. Reading Percentile (β=-.051), PPVT-III (β=-.059), MACI-Inhibition (β=-.033), MACI-Eating Dysfunction (β=.051), and BASC-Sense of Inadequacy (β=-.072). Gender differences were explored.     

Matching, delay-reduction, and maximizing models for choice in concurrent-chains schedules.

Models of choice in concurrent-chains schedules are derived from melioration, generalized matching, and optimization. The resulting models are compared with those based on Fantino's (1969, 1981) delay-reduction hypothesis. It is found that all models involve the delay reduction factors (T - t2L) and (T - t2R), where T is the expected time to primary reinforcement and t2L, t2R are the durations of the terminal links. In particular, in the case of equal initial links, the model derived from melioration coincides with Fantino's original model for full (reliable) reinforcement and with the model proposed by Spetch and Dunn (1987) for percentage (unreliable) reinforcement. In the general case of unequal initial links, the model derived from melioration differs from the revised model advanced by Squires and Fantino (1971) only in the factors affecting the delay-reduction terms (T - t2L) and (T - t2R). The models of choice obtained by minimizing the expected time to reinforcement depend on the type of feedback functions used. In particular, if power feedback functions are used, the optimization model coincides with that obtained from melioration.     

Psychological adaptation and birth outcomes: the role of personal resources, stress, and sociocultural context in pregnancy.

Prenatal psychosocial predictors of infant birth weight and length of gestation were investigated in a prospective study of 120 Hispanic and 110 White pregnant women. Hypotheses specifying that personal resources (mastery, self-esteem, optimism), prenatal stress (state and pregnancy anxiety), and sociocultural factors (income, education, ethnicity) would have different effects on birth outcomes were tested using structural equation modeling. Results confirmed that women with stronger resources had higher birth weight babies (beta = .21), whereas those reporting more stress had shorter gestations (beta = -.20). Resources were also associated with lower stress (beta = -.67), being married, being White, having higher income and education, and giving birth for the first time. There was no evidence that resources buffered the effects of stress. The importance of personal resources in pregnancy is highlighted along with implications for understanding the etiology of adverse birth outcomes.     

Cinéma Divinité: Religion, Theology, and the Bible in Film – Edited by Eric S. Christianson, Peter Francis and William Telford (eds)

Book reviewed:
Cinéma Divinité: Religion, Theology, and the Bible in Film , Eric S. Christianson, Peter Francis and William Telford (eds), SCM press 2005 (0-334-02988-0), xvii + 373 pp., pb £19.99     

Once More . . .

The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings , Third Edition, Bart D. Ehrman, Oxford University Press 2004 (0-19-515462-2), pp. xxxvi + 506, Pb £21.99
A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages , Walter Ullmann with a new introduction by George Garnett. Routledge 2003 (0-415-30227-7), pp. xix + 339, Pb $19.99
Showing of Love , Julian of Norwich, translated by Julia Bolton Holloway, DLT 2003 (0-232-52503-X), pp. xxxiv + 133, Pb £9.95
The Encyclopedia of Christianity , Volume 3 (J-O), Erwin Fahlbusch et al. , Eerdmans 2003 (0-8028-2415-3) / Brill 2003 (90-04-12654-6), pp. xxix + 918, Hb £65/$100
Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and its Legacy , Revised Edition, Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth (eds), Westminster John Knox Press 2003 (0-664-22353-2), pp. xi + 499, Pb $29.95     

Neurology--psychiatry in Dresden from E. Kraepelin through S. Ganser to J. Suckow

The broad outline of the psychiatric-neurological care of hospitalised patients in Dresden from 1885 to 1963 is sketched, with special reference to the work and achievements of E. Kraepelin (1885), S. Ganser (1886-1913), E. Reiss (1925-1933), H. Krisch (1933-1945), and J. Suckow (1955-1963).     

Stimulus complexity, EEG abundance gradients, and detection efficiency in a visual recognition task.

Occipital EEG was monitored while subjects inspected 27 projected patterns. The number (N) and variety (V) of elements in the patterns were varied systematically. There were three levels of N (6, 12 or 24 elements) and three levels of V (circles, squares or hexagons occupying all, one half or one third of the element locations for all levels of N). Subjects were instructed that they would be required in a post-test to recognize the patterns, among patterns which had not appeared; they were also informed that the patterns had been constructed according to a set of simple rules, but the nature of these rules was not made fully explicit. The EEG was quantified by means of low-frequency analysis, yielding measures of abundance (theta, alpha and beta) and mean dominant frequency. For the recognition task, nine stimulus items were embedded among 45 items. Recognition efficiency was measured by means of the signal detection theory discrimination index (d'). The results were as follows: (i) Both N and V were inversely related to alpha abundance (P less than 0-01); (ii) the strongest relationship between stimulus parameters and the EEG held for N and EEG beta activity (13-5-19-5 Hz;P less than 0-001), where again the EEG and N were inversely related; (iii) there was a significant (P less than 0-05) direct relationship between N and theta activity; (iv) contrary to prediction, mean dominant alpha frequency decreased as N increased; (v) d' correlated significantly with a number of effects for N, i.e. subjects who exhibited greatest EEG discriminability of items during exposure of the patterns, subsequently obtained the higher detection scores in the recognition task. The work described therefore demonstrates that only only do stimulus parameters have systematic effects upon brain activity as measured by the EEG, but that such effects have functional value and reflect aspects of efficiency. The results are fully compatible with arousal theory constructs relating physiological reactivity and performance.     

G. C. Lichtenberg: dreams, jokes, and the unconscious in eighteenth-century Germany.

The German physicist and writer Lichtenberg (1742-1799) was well known during the nineteenth century as a humorist, thinker, and psychologist. He was also a favorite author of Freud, who read him beginning in his teens, quoted him frequently, and called him a "remarkable psychologist." Despite this, he has been ignored by psychoanalysts and historians of psychiatry alike, and most of his writing is still unavailable in English. An introduction to Lichtenberg as a psychologist is provided, stressing material dealing with dream analysis, association theory, and drives. Relevant excerpts are translated into English. Lichtenberg is shown to have insisted upon the need for a systematic and rationalistic study of dreams, to have analyzed individual dreams (describing them as dramatized representations of thoughts, associations, and even conflicts from his own waking life), and to have emphasized the functional link between dreams and daydreams. His remarks on drives and commentary on eighteenth-century association theory represent a significant practical application, and thus refinement, of Enlightenment rationalistic psychology. These achievements are assessed in light of Freud's early fascination with him; it is argued that Lichtenberg is an example of the relevance of the historical and cultural background of psychoanalysis to clinical practice.     

Psychosocial variables, external barriers, and stage of mammography adoption.

Guided by H. Triandis's (1980) theory of behavior and the transtheoretical model, the study purpose was to examine differences in psychosocial variables and external conditions by stage of mammography adoption. Sampled from a statewide population, participants (N=509) were women aged 51-80. They had been contacted by telephone, screened for eligibility (e.g., no history of cancer or recent mammogram), and interviewed 3-6 months later. Higher utility beliefs, social influences, and practitioner interactions about mammography were associated with improved stage of adoption, as were lower negative affect and external barriers regarding mammography. Higher decisional balance scores, with and without negative affect toward mammography were associated with improved stage. Controlling for variables reflecting pros and cons, negative affect toward mammography further distinguished among stages. A richer set of pros and cons measures could explain screening more fully.     

Recovery in memory function, and its relationship to academic success, at 24 months following pediatric TBI.

While a number of research papers have reported findings on memory deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI), only limited studies have monitored the recovery of these skills over time. The present study examined memory ability and its effect on academic success in a group of children who had sustained a mild, moderate, or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Results showed that the severe TBI group exhibited greater deficits on memory tasks, irrespective of modality, in the acute, 6-, 12-, and 24-month postinjury stages, in comparison to mild and moderate TBI groups. Performance on academic measures was dependent on both injury severity and task demands. Preinjury academic ability and verbal memory indices best predicted academic success.     

The slippery context effect in psychophysics: intensive, extensive, and qualitative continua.

When subjects gave magnitude estimates of 500- and 2500-Hz tones at various SPLs, they judged a 500-Hz tone of 60 dB to be as loud as a 2500-Hz tone of 57 dB in one context (low SPLs at 500 Hz, high SPLs at 2500 Hz), but as loud as a 2500-Hz tone at 40 dB in another context (high SPLs at 500 Hz, low at 2500 Hz) (Marks, 1988). Such shifts in matches derived from judgments of multidimensionally varying stimuli are termed slippery context effects. The present set of seven experiments showed that slippery effects were absent from judgments of pitch of tones at different loudnesses, duration of tones at different pitches, and length of lines at different colors, though a small effect emerged in judgments of duration of tones and lights. Slippery context effects were substantial when subjects gave magnitude estimates of loudness of 500- and 2500-Hz tones under conditions in which the pitch at each trial either was cued visually beforehand or could be known through the regular stimulus sequence, and with instructions to make absolute magnitude estimates. The results are consistent with the view that slippery context effects occur automatically and "preattentively."     

A meta-analytic review of gender variations in adults' language use: talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech.

Three separate sets of meta-analyses were conducted of studies testing for gender differences in adults' talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Across independent samples, statistically significant but negligible average effects sizes were obtained with all three language constructs: Contrary to the prediction, men were more talkative (d = -.14) than were women. As expected, men used more assertive speech (d = .09), whereas women used more affiliative speech (d = .12). In addition, 17 moderator variables were tested that included aspects of the interactive context (e.g., familiarity, gender composition, activity), measurement qualities (e.g., operational definition, observation length), and publication characteristics (e.g., author gender, publication source). Depending on particular moderators, more meaningful effect sizes (d > .2) occurred for each language construct. In addition, the direction of some gender differences was significantly reversed under particular conditions. The results are interpreted in relation to social-constructionist, socialization, and biological interpretations of gender-related variations in social behavior.     

Arbitrary norms and social change in high- and low-authoritarian societies.

Following Jacobs and Campbell's methodology for replacing confederates and naive subjects over 11 successive generations, this study considered the impact of authoritarianism on the rate of social change of arbitrary norms in laboratory societies. Subjects were 116 college students scoring high and low on the California F scale who participated in an autokinetic experiment either with no confederates (control), confederates who made estimates in a range of 9 to 15 inches (22.86-38.10 cm) (moderately arbitrary), or those who estimated in a range of 15 to 21 inches (38.10--53.34 cm) (extremely arbitrary). Results indicated: (a) High-F societies perpetuated arbitrary norms (both 9-15 and 15-21) for more generations than low-F societies; (b) in low-F societies, the 9-15- and 15-21-inch norms rapidly declined; and (c) in high-F societies, the 15-21-inch norms gradually declined, while the 9-15-inch norm declined very little. Overall, the results suggested that an interaction model would better described social change than do presently existing theories of social change.     

The God Who Believes: Faith, Doubt, and the Vicarious Humanity of Christ – Christian D. Kettler

Book reviewed:
The God Who Believes: Faith, Doubt, and the Vicarious Humanity of Christ , Christian D. Kettler, Cascade 2005 (1-59752-188-4), xiv + 194 pp., pb $24.00     

Relationships among depressive symptoms, benefit-finding, optimism, and positive affect in multiple sclerosis patients after psychotherapy for depression.

OBJECTIVE: While many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience psychological problems, such as depression, benefit-finding is commonly reported. Using the Broaden-and-Build Model of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001) and the Expectancy-Value Model of optimism (Carver & Scheier, 1998) as two related, yet, distinct conceptual frameworks, this study examined positive affect and optimism as mediators of the relationship between improved depression and enhanced benefit-finding. DESIGN: MS patients (N=127), who participated in a larger, randomized clinical trial comparing two types of telephone psychotherapy for depression, were assessed at baseline, midtherapy (8 weeks), end of therapy (16 weeks), and 6- and 12-month posttherapy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Depression was measured with a telephone administered version of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression; Positive Affect was measured with the Positive Affect Subscale from the Positive and Negative Affect Scale; Optimism was measured with the Life Orientation Test-Revised; Benefit-Finding was measured with the revised version of the Stress-Related Growth Scale. RESULTS: Data were analyzed with multilevel random-effects models, controlling for time since MS diagnosis and type of treatment. Improved depression was associated with increased benefit-finding over time. The relationship between improved depression and benefit-finding was significantly mediated by both increased optimism and increased positive affect. CONCLUSION: Findings provide support to both theoretical models. Positivity appears to promote benefit-finding in MS.     

Speech monitoring skills in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and normal aging.

We examined the abilities of 15 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), 22 patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD), and 141 healthy subjects (ranging in age from 30 to 79 years) to detect and correct their own speech errors. Each subject was shown the Cookie Theft picture of the BDAE (Goodglass & Kaplan, 1972. The assessment of aphasia and related disorders. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger.) and instructed to tell the examiner the "...story of what's happening in the picture." Self-monitoring performance was assessed by tabulating the number of uncorrected errors as well as repaired errors. We divided repairs into two types based on the psycholinguistics literature (van Wijk & Kempen, 1987. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 403-440). Speech corrections were judged to be lemma repairs when the reparandum was a single word, and reformulation repairs when a new syntactic constituent was added to the reparandum. Patients with DAT corrected only 24% of their total errors and patients with PD only 25%. Healthy subjects, by contrast, corrected from 72 to 92% of their total errors. Patients with DAT tended to rely on reformulation repairs while patients with PD used both repair types about equally often. While healthy elderly Ss (in the 70s group) utilized lemma repairs more often than the reformulation strategy, all other healthy Ss used both strategies about equally often. Across all groups naming performance correlated negatively with numbers of undetected errors. Results point to a previously unrecognized communication disorder associated with PD and DAT and manifested by an impairment in the ability to correct output errors. This impairment may be related to attentional and frontal dysfunction in the two patient groups.     

Harvesting Martin Luther's Reflections on Theology, Ethics, and the Church – Edited by Timothy J. Wengert (ed.)

Book reviewed:
Harvesting Martin Luther's Reflections on Theology, Ethics, and the Church , Timothy J. Wengert (ed.), Lutheran Quarterly Books, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 2004 (8-028-2486-2), xiv + 260 pp., £21.99     

Sexual Assault,Overweight, and Suicide Attempts in U.S. Adolescents

Associations between overweight, sexual assault history, and suicide attempts were examined among 31,540 adolescents from the combined 2009 and 2011 nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Surveys samples. These variables have not previously been studied concurrently. It was hypothesized that overweight and sexual assault, together, would interact and result in increased suicide attempts. Findings across analyses included (a) no significant associations between sexual assault and overweight in females or males (p = .65 and p = .90, respectively), (b) statistically significant associations between female (but not male) overweight status and suicide attempts (p = .001), (c) a strong association between sexual assault and suicide risk in males (p < .001) and females (p < .001), and (d) an elevated risk for suicide in overweight males with co‐occurring sexual assault, with over 33% of males with such histories attempting suicide. Preliminary findings have powerful implications for research and secondary prevention.