The behavioral control of high blood pressure

Stress management and relaxation training lower the blood pressure of many mild hypertensives substantially through mechanisms that are as yet unclear but may include behavioral and cognitive change. It is almost certain that the reduction of weight in the obese, drinking in heavy drinkers, and increased exercise in the sedentary also reduces pressure usefully in hypertensives, and opportunites exist for the application of behavioral principles to improve the effectiveness of programs to alter these behavioral risk factors. It is fortunate that behavioral methods for the control of hypertension exist and are making progress since there are increasing doubts about the effectiveness of pharmacological solutions for mild hypertension. Notice to Readers: This is the second in a three-part series on Health Psychology. Part I appeared in the Spring ’87 issue (vol. 6, no. 1); copies may be purchased ($15 individuals, $20 institutions) by sending a check, moneyorder, or charge card number (MasterCard, Visa, American Express; include expiration date and signature) to: Current Psychological Research & Reviews, Transaction Periodicals Consortium, Dept. 4010, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. The author was supported by the Medical Research Council during the writing of this paper.     

Political periodicals in policy formation

This is an ethnographic report on a conference entitled “The Politics of Publishing” which featured editors and writers from leading magazines and journals of political opinion. The aim of the conference was to articulate the intellectual ground on which each publication is predicated. A further goal of these observations was to seek out a common ground, a consensual series of assumptions, that permits such journals and their leading participants to flourish amidst conflict and opposing viewpoints. The article is less a study of the relationship of knowledge and policy, as such, as much as it is a study of the weaker forms of these terms, namely, information and ideology. These remarks are thus intended as a contribution to the elite impact on mass public opinion at one level, and the cornucopia of political ideas at a somewhat more abstract level. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Transaction Publishers, located at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA 08903.     

Rationality,self-regard and the “healthiness” of personality disorders

Although irrationality has been consistently correlated with the intensity of acute clinical syndromes that are characterized by emotional or thought disorders, relationships between irrationality and personality disorders have not been investigated carefully. When they enter treatment, clients at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy (IRET) had personality trait scale scores that accounted for substantial variance in rationality scale scores on several well-validated instruments. The eleven scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) associated with the DSM-III axis II personality disorders had a pattern of relationships with rationality and irrationality that parallels their somewhat surprising relationships with measures of acute emotional distress. Scales 4, 5, 6, and 7 were almost always associated with hyperrationality on most scales and with enhanced self-esteem, as well as with relatively low distress; scales 1, 2, 3, 8, S, and C were associated with irrationality and low self-esteem, as well as with severe distress. The P scale had inconsistent and weak correlations with rationality and self-esteem, as it had with measures of intake distress.Russell C. Leaf is Associate Professor of Psychology at Rutgers. He also directs a research project at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, in collaboration with the four other authors of this article, on the relationships between intake personality and mental health. He is an Institute Fellow and Supervisor, and previously served as a staff therapist and as the Institute's Director of Clinical Evaluation.Albert Ellis is President of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.Roslyn Mass is Professor of Psychology at Middlesex County College. She is in charge of data processing and analysis for the collaborative research of this authorial team, and is a Fellow of and previously served as Administrative Director of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.Raymond DiGiuseppe is Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Johns and Director of Research and Director of Training at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.Diane Alington is Assistant Director and a core member of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers, where she conducts a research program on sex differences in adult development.     

An Integrated View of Empathy: Psychology,Philosophy, and Neuroscience

In this paper, we will examine and untangle a conflict mainly between a developmental psychologist, Martin Hoffman and a social psychologist, Daniel Batson. According to Hoffman, empathic distress, a vicarious feeling through empathy, is transformed into an altruistic motivation. Batson and others on the other hand, criticize Hoffman, claiming that empathic altruism has no relation with empathic distress. We will point out some problems with Batson’s position by referring to the results of fMRI experiments that suggest empathic distress and empathic altruism share a common basis, and defend Hoffman’s argument. This will also offer new insights into the evolution of empathy.

Local and normative rationality of science: The ‘content of discovery’ rehabilitated

The recent turn to the context of discovery and other postmodernist developments in the philosophy of science have undermined the idea of a universal rationality of science. This parallels the fate of the classical dream of a logic of discovery. Still, justificational questions have remained as a distinct perspective, though comprising both consequential and generative justification — an insight delayed by certain confusions about the (original) context distinction. An examination of one particular heuristic strategy shows its local rationality; even as an efficient procedure of hypothesis generation, it carries probative weight. It will be explored in which respects such a strategy can be normative or contain normative elements.Parts of this paper were published, in summary fashion, in Kirschenmann (1989).     

What Is in a Name? Understanding the Implications of Participant Terminology

The authors discuss the history of research terminology in American psychology with respect to the various labels given to those upon whom we conduct research (“observer”–“subject”–“participant”–“client”). This history is supplemented with an analysis of participant terminology in APA manuals from four historical eras, from the 1950s to the present. The general trend in participant terminology reflects the overall trends in American psychology, beginning with a complex lexicon that admitted both the passive and the active research participant, followed by a dominance of the passive term ‘subject’ and ending with the terminological ambiguity and multiplicity reflected in contemporary psychology. This selective history serves to contextualize a discussion of the meaning, functions, and implications of the transformations in, and debates over, participant terminology.

A Dangerous Movie? Hollywood Does Psychoanalysis

After the appearance of David Cronenberg’s film A Dangerous Method in 2011, dealing with the relationships of Sigmund Freud, C. G. Jung and Sabina Spielrein, Dr. Donald Ferrell published: A Dangerous Method, A Film Directed by David Cronenberg: An Extended Review (Ferrell 2012) in the Journal of Religion and Health. Upon its publication, Dr. Ferrell’s article was nominated for a Gradiva Award by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. On November 1, 2013, the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society held its annual conference at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Billie Pivnick, a member at large of the Board of Directors of the APCS and also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Religion and Health, persuaded the 2013 Conference Program Committee that Cronenberg’s film would make an interesting subject for discussion for conference participants. To that end, Dr. Pivnick invited Dr. Ferrell, C. G. Jung Institute of New York, Dr. Steven Reisner, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, and Dr. Martin Silverman, Training and Supervising Analyst and Supervising Child Analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education, NYU College of Medicine, Training and Supervising Analyst at the Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey, and Associate Editor of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly to serve as panel members to discuss: A Dangerous Movie? Hollywood does Psychoanalysis. Presentations on Cronenberg’s film and the early history of psychoanalysis were given by Drs. Ferrell and Reisner, followed by a response to their presentations by Dr. Silverman. Dr. Pivnick chaired the session. The articles presented here were given originally at the APCS conference by Dr. Ferrell and Dr. Silverman. Dr. Reisner declined the invitation to submit his presentation for publication. Dr. Silverman’s remarks were based not only on the presentation given by Dr. Ferrell at the session on A Dangerous Movie?, but also on his close and careful reading of the extended review of Cronenberg’s film Dr. Ferrell published in the Journal of Religion and Health, as well as Dr. Reisner’s presentation. It was appropriate for Dr. Silverman to serve in his capacity as discussant since he had earlier published a critical review of A Secret Symmetry. Sabina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud by Aldo Carotenuto (Silverman 1985).     

In search of origins

Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. 2 vols. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1987–1991. Vol. 1, pp. 575. Vol. 2, pp. 736. ISBN vol. 1 0–8135–1276‐X, 0–8135–1277 (paperback); vol. 2 0–8135–1583–1, 0–8135–1584‐X (paperback). Price: $17.95 per volume.     

Psychologists in Academic Health Centers: Traditions and Innovations in Education,Science, and Practice

Psychologists, interns, and postdoctoral fellows convened in Minneapolis May 3–5, 2007 for the 3rd National Conference of the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC): “Psychologists in Academic Health Centers: Traditions and Innovations in Education, Science, and Practice.” This paper reviews the development and organization of the conference, which built upon the two previous conferences of the Association of Medical School Psychologists. The articles in this special issue are based on a selected number of the 32 conference presentations, covering a range of timely topics that reflect the conference theme. Participants’ positive perceptions and satisfaction with the conference reveal the value of such conferences focused on the activities, interests, opportunities, and challenges of psychologists who work in academic health centers (AHCs) and teaching hospitals. Moreover, the content and success of the conference underscores the importance of APAHC as an organization serving the needs and promoting the interests of psychologists affiliated with AHCs.

Attending to simple auditory and visual signals

Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903 Is the quality of information obtained from simple auditory and visual signals diminished when both modalities must be attended to simultaneously? This question was investigated in an experiment in which subjects made forced-choice judgments of the location of simple light and tone signals presented in focused- and divided-attention conditions. The data are compared with the predictions of a model that describes the largest performance decrement to be expected in the divided-attention condition on the basis of nonattentional factors. The results of this comparison suggest that the difference in performance between focused- and dividedattention conditions is attributable solely to the increased opportunity to confuse signal with noise as the number of modalities is increased. Thus, there appears to be no evidence that dividing attention between modalities affects the quality of the stimulus representations of individual light and tone signals.     

BOOK REVIEWS

HANDBOOK OF RELIGION AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. Edited by Helen Rose Ebaugh. New York: Springer, 2005. xxii + 439 pp. $199.00 cloth, $69.95 paper.
A CHURCH OF OUR OWN: DISESTABLISHMENT AND DIVERSITY IN AMERICAN RELIGION. By R. Stephen Warner. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. ix + 307 pp. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
SACRED CIRCLES, PUBLIC SQUARES: THE MULTICENTERING OF AMERICAN RELIGION, by Arthur E. Farnsley II, N. J. Demerath III, Etan Diamond, Mary Mapes, and Elfriede Wedam. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004. 272 pp. $45.00 cloth.
SAVING SOULS, SERVING SOCIETY: UNDERSTANDING THE FAITH FACTOR IN CHURCH-BASED SOCIAL MINISTRY. By Heidi Rolland Unruh and Ronald J. Sider. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 323 pp. $35.00 cloth.
POLITICS AND RELIGION IN THE WHITE SOUTH. Edited by Glenn Feldman. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. xiii + 386 pp. $55.00 cloth.
AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE STRUGGLE FOR RACIAL INTEGRATION IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. By Brad Christerson, Korie L. Edwards, and Michael O. Emerson. New York: New York University Press, 2005. ix + 197 pp. $55.00 cloth; $19.00 paper.
A MOSAIC OF BELIEVERS: DIVERSITY AND INNOVATION IN A MULTIETHNIC CHURCH. By Gerardo Marti. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005. ix + 239 pp. $39.95 cloth.
T. D. JAKES: AMERICA'S NEWEST PREACHER. By Shayne Lee. New York: New York University Press, 2005. x+201 pp. $27.95 cloth.
QUOTING GOD: HOW MEDIA SHAPE IDEAS ABOUT RELIGION AND CULTURE. Edited by Claire Hoertz Badaracco. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2005. xv + 307 pp. $$29.95 paper.
THERE'S NEVER BEEN A SHOW LIKE VEGGIE TALES: SACRED MESSAGES IN A SECULAR MARKET. By Hillary Warren. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. 2005. $55.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.
SCHOLARSHIP AND CHRISTIAN FAITH: ENLARGING THE CONVERSATION. By Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. viii–190 pp. $35.00 cloth.     

Couple interaction: A study of the punctuation process

This study examined couples' punctuation of their own interactions. The association between causal explanations for the interactions on issues involving differences and the nature of relatedness (i.e., degree of distress) was the major purpose of the study. Punctuation was defined as a way of grouping sequences of interactions. Punctuational differneces were operationalized by measuring couples' causal explanations and attributions of responsibility concerning their own interactions. Twenty distressed and non-distressed couples, matched on age, income, education, and length of relationship, participated in an intensive 3-hour interview conducted at their homes. Two relationship measures to determine the degree of distress were administered. The interview involved: generating issues of important differences, improvisational role plays of interactions, responses to open-ended questions about self and other perspectives, and rankings of causal explanations and attributions of responsibility about the interactions. The results suggested that the nature of relatedness, as defined by degree of distress, was associated with the punctuation of interactions by the communicators, tentatively supporting the Watzlawicket al. (1967) metacommunicational axiom. The main finding was that distressed couples attributed responsibility to the mate rather than self, whereas in nondistressed douples responsibility was shared.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The senior author is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco     

The masculinity—Irrationality relationship explored: Searching for a common denominator

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relative empirical support for two alternative ways of interpreting the relationship between masculinity and irrationality. The common denominator in this particular relationship was theoretically assumed to either reflect a person's locus of control expectations or his/her level of self-esteem.Two separate empirical studies were performed with groups of undergraduate university students. Both studies replicated earlier results, thus supporting the masculinity hypothesis as the one accounting for the relationship between sex-role orientation and irrationality.Of the two possible common denominators explaining this relationship, level of self-esteem was the one receiving the strongest empirical support. Some interesting gender differences concerning these two possible common denominators were also found.Ole Johan Hovland, Cand.paed., is Assistant professor of Personality Assessment at the Department of Personality Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, and maintains a small private practice in Laksevåg, Bergen, Norway. FranÇoise De Lange Alsaker, Cand.psychol., is a Research fellow in the field of personality development at the Department of Personality Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. Fred Vollmer, Mag.art., is Senior Lecturer in personality psychology at the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.     

Follow-up effects of social comparison information on the quality of life of cancer patients: The moderating role of social comparison orientation

Objective: To examine how social comparison orientation (SCO) moderates the effects of three types of social comparison information on the global quality of life of cancer patients 2 weeks and 3 months later. Design: Cancer patients (n?=?226) were provided with social comparison information just prior to undergoing radiation therapy, using audiotapes. Each participant was confronted with one of three tapes: (1) focusing on procedural aspects, (2) focusing on emotional reactions and (3) focusing on coping strategies. Main outcome measures: Quality of life as measured with the Cantril self-anchoring scale [Cantril, H. (1965). The pattern of human concerns. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press]. Results: With increasing SCO, a lower quality of life was reported after listening to the emotion tape, while a higher quality of life was reported after listening to the coping tape. These effects were found 2 weeks as well as 3 months after the radiation therapy had ended. Conclusion: Social comparison information may have longitudinal effects on quality of life, but these effects are to an important extent dependent on the nature of the information and individual differences in SCO.     

Response to the critiques of ‘“fundamentalism” Christian and Islamic’ by Bruce Lawrence and Azim Nanji

Alicia Suskin Ostriker, The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions. New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 1994, xv + 260 pp. ISBN 0 8135 2125 4.

Daniel Pals, Seven Theories of Religion. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996, vii + 294 pp., $19.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 19 508724 0, $13.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 19 508725 9.

Grady Scott Davis, Warcraft and the Fragility of Virtue: An Essay in Aristotelian Ethics. Moscow, Idaho, University of Idaho Press, 1992, x+196 pp., $19.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 8930 1 1541.

Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996, xi+235 pp., $39.50, £33.50 (hardback) ISBN 0 691 03184 3, $13.95, £10.95 (paperback) ISBN 0 691 00870 1.

Mark J. Rozell and Clyde Wilcox, Second Coming: The New Christian Right in Virginia Politics. Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, xii+285 pp., $32.95 ISBN 0 8018 5297 8.     

Between Science and Nature: Interpreting Lactation Failure in Elizabeth von Arnim's The Pastor's Wife

Interpreting a scene of lactation failure allows us to represent breast-feeding as a contested social practice. This essay reads a novelistic scene of lactation failure in the context of the decline of breast-feeding in the twentieth century. The protagonist's ignorance of the female experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation is an effect of her objectification within the opposition between science and nature. Unnatural as a woman because she is a natural individual, the pastor's wife exemplifies the dilemmas of breast-feeding as a biosocial practice of maternity in a technological society which features the breakdown of traditional female networks in which knowledge about maternity and breast-feeding are circulated.     

Bullying and victimisation in school children: the role of social identity, problem-solving style, and family and school context

The relationship between social identity, family and school context, problem-solving style, self-esteem, health behaviour, psychological distress, and victimisation, was explored in a quasi-experimental survey of 461 children aged between 11 and 15 years old. There was a high prevalence of victimisation (29%) in the group and 44% of those victimised scored above the clinical cut-off on the GHQ. Victims exhibited higher levels of psychological distress, lower self-esteem, more unhealthy behaviours, less support from parents and teachers, poorer problem-solving styles, and lower perceived social identity. Girls had a higher prevalence of victimisation than boys. The best predictors of victimisation were sex, family situation, social identity and problem-solving style. Some implications for interventions are discussed.

Adolescent Satisfaction with School-Based Mental Health Services

Examining adolescents' satisfaction with mental health services is an important program evaluation activity. Their perceptions of whether services were beneficial and resulted in improved functioning are indices of treatment quality. Assessment of adolescent satisfaction with school-based mental health programs has been limited. In our study, adolescents receiving services from a School Mental Health Program (SMHP) completed satisfaction surveys. Participants were predominantly minority youth residing in an urban area. Results indicated that students were highly satisfied with their mental health services. Students valued the therapeutic relationship, catharsis associated with therapy, and skills they learned during therapy. Several factors influenced satisfaction ratings including clinician training and availability.