The escape-to-Israel syndrome: Variations on the geographic cure

The author conceptualizes a pattern of thought and behavior that can be called the escape-to-Israel syndrome. This pattern is a contemporary variety, appearing primarily in the Jewish population, of the geographic cure: that is, one can solve one's personal dilemmas by moving from one place to another. The syndrome is characterized by a tendency to idealize life in Israel. This idealization, and the viewers' fantasy of their own future in Israel, deflect solid confrontation with genuine personal problems. If, in fact, they do move to Israel, they may experience shock and trauma at the gap between expected reality and the discovered one. This may only compound their emotional difficulties.The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor Shamai Davidson, Clinical Director of the Shalvata Mental Health Center, Hod HaSharon, Israel, for his critical comments during the preparation of this article.     

A longitudinal comparison of couples with sex-typical and non-sex-typical orientations to intimacy

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship experience of males and females who do not conform to sex-typical orientations to intimacy. One hundred sixty-three couples' and 88 nondating singles' (total N=414) responses to the Relationship World Index—Version 2 (RWI-2) were analyzed via discriminant analysis to determine if subjects' sex could be predicted accurately upon the basis of their RWI-2 scores. One discriminant function was found which was significant by the Wilks' lambda test [x²(60)=140.57, p<.001]; the procedure correctly classified 76% of the respondents. Those who were classified correctly were considered sex-typical and the remaining 24% of the sample was considered non-sex-typical in their orientations to intimacy. Additional analyses using data from a 6-month longitudinal study located qualities which significantly distinguished sex-typical from non-sex-typical subjects and couples in which at least one member was non-sex-typical from couples in which both members were classified as sex-typical.     

Guidance and Counselling in Further and Higher Education

The publication in 1973 of Student Counselling in Practice signalled a new phase in the development of both careers and counselling services in the tertiary sector. The emergence of the professional careers adviser in higher education is described alongside the key role of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services. The gradual professionalisation of student counselling is shown to have taken a different form, as a result of the policies of the Association for Student Counselling with its insistence on role definition and the accreditation of practitioners. Developments in further education are briefly reviewed, and a final section considers the present situation and possible future trends.     

Ventral scent marking in Meriones unguiculatus may contribute to thermoregulation

Three experiments were conducted with adult male Meriones unguiculatus in an attempt to demonstrate that ventral scent marking can act to transfer body heat to the object marked. Experiment 1 showed that surgical removal of the ventral gland pad reduced the amount of heat transferred by 50%, even though intact and glandless animals did not differ in the average frequency of scent marking. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the difference in heat transfer due to the presence or absence of the scent pad was not due to differential pressure applied to the substrate during marking. Experiment 3 showed that the pattern of ventral hair spread that occurs as an animal moves over an object is different between intact and glandless animals but that this difference does not account for the difference in heat transfer. It is suggested that heat transfer to the environment with ventral scent marking may increase thermoregulatory competence and also may function to volatilize sebum used in chemocommunication.     

Color discrimination on Mangaia

Bornstein’s hypothesis that there is a loss of color discrimination in tropical areas was not supported in earlier research in the Cook Islands. Using a more sensitive color vision test (the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test), a loss of color discrimination in the red-purple and blue-green regions of the spectrum was found. The lack of sex differences in this color discrimination loss supports a physiological rather than a genetic explanation of the observed decrement.     

Contextual stimulus control of conditional vasomotor and electrodermal reactions to angry and friendly faces

An experiment with 42 human Ss used the transswitching procedure to examine tonic stimulus control of phasic and tonic conditioned vasomotor heart rate, and electrodermal reactions. The conditional stimulus (CSs) were photos of angry and friendly human faces, and the unconditional stimulus (US) was a human scream. In one tonic context (blue light), the CSs were paired with the US, in the other context (yellow light), the CSs were presented unpaired. Following acquisition, an extinction series was run with the US omitted during both tonic contexts. Phasic vasomotor and skin conductance reactions differed in the positive and negative tonic segments (stronger in positive). The skin conductance responses also differed during extinction, but the vasomotor responses did not. Tonic differences (following onset of the tonic stimuli) in unelicited skin conductance response frequency, finger pulse volume, and heart rate were also found, although these developed more slowly than the phasic differences. The finger pulse volume tonic difference was greater in extinction than the skin conductance response frequency. There was no effect of the angry-friendly facial expressions, either directly or in interaction with the transswitching effects. The results were interpreted to mean that the transswitching phenomenon is not limited to one another autonomic effector, but is more generalized across the ANS (sympathetic branch). The absence of influence of the facial expressions indicates the relative weakness of the “preparedness” hypothesis in comparison with more influential contextual factors.     

Memory deficits and memory surfeits: differential cognitive consequences of tokenism for tokens and observers

Historically, women and minority group members have been underrepresented in the professions and in better paying, high-status jobs. Even when they have been admitted to such positions, these underrepresented persons often have been the only member of their social category: a token. Previous field and laboratory research has shown that "tokens" attract disproportionate attention and are either evaluated unfairly or evaluated on the basis of their normal reactions to differential treatment by majority group members. We tested the possibilities of whether tokens might suffer more cognitive deficits than would nontokens, and whether they do so even when they are treated no differently. College students were led to believe that they were sharing their views on everyday topics with three other students (actually videotaped confederates), who were either all of the student's own sex or all of the opposite sex. In a later memory test, token participants remembered fewer of the opinions that they and the three other students had expressed than did nontokens. Observers, in contrast, remembered more of what token subjects said than what the three other students said. Theoretical and public policy implications are discussed.     

Reflex responses of human lip muscles to mechanical stimulation during speech

The role played by reflex pathways in the production of movement has been a significant issue for motor control theorists interested in a wide variety of motor behaviors. From studies of locomotion and chewing, it appears that gains in reflex pathways can be altered so that activity in these pathways does not produce destabilizing responses during movement. In speech production, recent experimental evidence has been interpreted to suggest that autogenetic lip reflexes (perioral reflexes) are suppressed during sustained phonation or speech production. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of phonation, direction of movement, and ongoing speech production on reflex responses of lip muscles. The present results suggest, in contrast to earlier work, that this reflex pathway is not suppressed or absent because the amplitude of the observed response depends upon the activation levels of the various muscles of the lower lip and, therefore, indirectly on the nature of the gesture the subject is instructed to produce.