Course of Treatment During a Cohort-Based Inpatient Program for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

This study examined one group of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the course of a four month inpatient treatment program. The aim of the study was to examine treatment process factors that may contribute to the generally poor outcome reported in previous studies. Group members made weekly ratings in the domains of PTSD symptoms, morale, interpersonal relationships, and physical problems. Results contrasted with clinical assumptions usually made regarding the treatment process in these programs. Despite an appearance of cohesion among group members, variation of scores on functional domains was explained largely by individual differences. Progress through the program showed a strongly linear pattern, with no phase effects. Somatic complaints did not increase during the phase when traumatic material was explored. Degree of improvement or worsening was best predicted by level of PTSD symptoms at admission, indicating that more symptomatic veterans did worse in the program. Additional factors of race, combat exposure, childhood abuse, and application for disability had no effect on the process variables measured.     

Lay Theories Concerning Causes and Treatment of Depression

This study compared perceptions of the causes of, therapies for, and means of coping with, depression between two groups of currently nondepressed adults: one with a history of major depression and one with no history of depression. Currently nondepressed participants were selected so that effects of past experience of depression could be distinguished from those of current mood. Recovered depressed participants (RD) (n = 25) and Never depressed participants (ND) (n = 25) recruited via newspaper advertisements completed self-report measures of (a) the perceived utility of either professional or self-help coping strategies for managing their own experiences of depression; (b) likely effectiveness of several major therapies for depression; and (c) perceived accuracy of several etiological theories of depression. RD participants rated depression as being less amenable to everyday self-help methods of coping and more in need of professional intervention. However, RD and ND subgroups did not differ significantly in their perceptions of the plausibility of etiological theories of depression in general, nor in their ratings of the likely helpfulness of major therapies.     

Steep Cliff Arguments

In recent philosophical debates a number of arguments have been used which have so much in common that it is useful to study them as having a similar structure. Many arguments – Searle's Chinese Room, for example – make use of thought experiments in which we are told a story or given a narrative context such that we feel we are in comfortable surroundings. A new notion is then introduced which clashes with our ordinary habits and associations. As a result, we do not bother to investigate seriously the new notion any further. I call such an arrangement, which is perhaps a variation of the fallacy of presumption, a Steep Cliff argument. One remedy for the misdirection of a Steep Cliff argument is to tell a counterstory from the point of view of the rejected notion.     

Content Analysis of Cognitive Bias: Development of a Standardized Measure

The purpose of this research was to develop a standardized content analytic measure of cognitive bias as conceptualized in Beck's (1987) cognitive theory of depression. In a pilot study it was determined that a written stimulus format was preferable to an audiotaped stimulus format with respect to comprehensibility. Valence and expectancy ratings collected in this pilot study also served as the basis for selection of items for the final measure, balancing positive and negative, expected and unexpected events. In study 2 open-ended written responses to questions about the main cause of each event, and the justifications for these attributions, were coded for indices of bias, defined (as in Cook & Peterson, 1986) as justifications that fail to cite covariation of the ascribed cause with the effect. Cognitive bias scores in Study 2 showed internal consistency (positive item-remainder correlations) and high interrater reliability. As predicted, justifications of attributions for expected events were more biased and less rational than were justifications of attributions for unexpected events.     

Further Support for a Hierarchical Model of Affect: Reply to Green and Salovey

Green and Salovey agree with us that happiness and sadness are strongly bipolar, and that Positive and Negative Activation are not. However, Green and Salovey subscribe to the two-dimensional circumplex, a model we find wanting. Actually, the problems they discuss arise from the limitations of the circumplex rather than from issues fundamental to affective structure. And they do not consider the evidence, reported in our target article, that supports an alternative to the circumplex: a three-level hierarchical model. In this reply, we take a closer look at the empirical findings supporting this model, and we emphasize its heuristic promise.     

Distinguishing Language from Thought: Experimental Evidence That Syntax Is Lexically Rather Than Conceptually Represented

It is generally assumed that syntax is represented linguistically rather than conceptually, consistent with the more general view that language and thought are coded separately. This claim is widely defended on logical grounds, but it has received little experimental support. In the present study, we asked Spanish and English speakers to make semantic and syntactic categorizations for pictures and their corresponding names. Consistent with past results, latencies to semantically categorize pictures and words were similar. The new finding is that participants were faster to make syntactic decisions for words compared with pictures, suggesting that syntactic features such as grammatical gender and the count-mass distinction are more closely linked to lexical than conceptual representations.     

Cognitive Sciences Research: More Than Thinking About Drug Abuse

On May 23, 1997, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the American Psychological Society co-sponsored a conference titled "Cognitive Sciences Research: More Than Thinking About Drug Abuse." The conference highlighted important lines of research, both within and outside of drug abuse, that may elucidate the relationships between substance abuse and cognitive processes. This Special Section of Psychological Science presents a compilation of articles from that conference by scientists who are working in the forefront of this exciting new research area. The research questions posed by these articles take the following forms: What are the cognitive and developmental effects (i.e., the consequences) of substance abuse? What are the antecedents or precursors of drug use that render persons vulnerable to taking drugs? How do the effects of drugs, in turn, become antecedents for changes in perception, behavior, and cognition that further enhance vulnerability to drugs?     

Book reviews

Christianity. Brian Wilson, 1999. Religions of the World. London, Routledge. 128 pp., pb. £6.99, ISBN 0 415 21161; hb. £25.00, ISBN 0 415 21342 8

Islam. Jamal J. Elias, 1999. Religions of the World. London, Routledge. 128pp., pb. £6.99, ISBN 0 415 21165 4; hb. £25.00, ISBN 0 415 21344 4

Islam. Jan Slomp, 1999. Kampen, Uitgeverij Kok. 142 pp., pb.NLf 19,90, ISBN 90 242 9372 3

Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim sources on spirituality and religious life. John Renard (Ed.), 1998. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press. xx + 431pp., pb. £15.95, ISBN 0 520 21086 7

Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond violence. Bruce B. Lawrence, 1998. Princeton, Princeton University Press. xix + 237 pp., hb. $17.95, ISBN 0 691 05769 9

Islam and Other Faiths. Ismail Raji al‐Faruqi, ed. Ataullah Siddiqui, 1998. Leicester, the Islamic Foundation and The International Institute of Islamic Thought. 370 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 86037 276 6

Christian‐Muslim Dialogue: theological and practical issues. Roland E. Miller & Hance A.O. Mwakabana (Eds), 1998. LWF Studies 3/1998. Geneva, Department for Theology & Studies—The Lutheran World Federation. 391pp., pb., n.p., ISBN 3 906706 63 X

Islam and the West: conflict, co‐existence or conversion?. Colin Chapman, 1998. Carlisle, Paternoster. 198 pp. pb. £12.99, ISBN 0 85364 781 X

The Rights of Women in Islam: an authentic approach. HaifaaJawad, 1998. London, Macmillan Press. 150pp., pb, £15.99, ISBN 0 333 73458 0; hb. £42.50, ISBN 0 333 65086 7

Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: the Graeco‐Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and early Abbasid society (2nd‐4th/8th‐10th centuries). D. Gutas, 1998. London, Routledge. 256pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 0 415 06123 6; pb. £14.99, ISBN 0 415 061334

Ibn ‘Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: the making of a polemical image in medieval Islam. Alexander D. Knysh, 1999. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press. xvi + 449 pp., pb. $27.95, ISBN 0 7914 3968 2; hb. $81.50, ISBN 0 7914 3967 4

Love, Religion and Politics in Fifteenth‐century Spain. Ian Macpherson & Angus MacKay, 1998. Medieval Iberian Peninsula Texts and Studies 13. Leiden, Boston & Cologne, Brill. 286 pp., hb. Nig. 165.00/US$ 97.25, ISBN 90 04 10810 6

Shi'i Scholars of Nineteenth‐century Iraq: the Ulama of Najaf and Kerbala. MeirLitvak, 1998. Cambridge Middle East Studies. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 264pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0521623561

Islam and Postcolonial Narrative. John Erickson, 1998. Cambridge, University Press. 243 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0 521 59423 5

Imperialism and Orientalism. Barbara Harlow & Mia Carter (Eds), 1998. Oxford, Blackwell. 416 pp., hb. £65.00, ISBN 1 55786 710 0; pb. £16.99, ISBN 1 55786 711 9

Islam et Occident face a face: regards de I'histoire des religions. Jacques Waardenburg, 1998. Geneva, Labor et Fides. 144 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 2 8309 0786 8

Against Islamic Extremism: the writings of Muhammad Sa'Id al‐'Ashmawy. Carolyn Fluehr‐Lobban (Ed.), 1998. Florida, University Press of Florida. 131 pp., hb. £39.95, ISBN 0 8130 1546 4

Spokesmen for the Despised: fundamentalist leaders of the Middle East. R. Scott Appleby (Ed.), 1997. Chicago, Chicago University Press. 438 pp., pb. £15.95, ISBN 0 226 02125 4; hb. n.p., ISBN 0 226 02124 6. Muslim European Youth: reproducing ethnicity, religion, culture. Steven Vertovec & Alisdair Rogers (Eds), 1998. Aldershot, Ashgate

215 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 1 84014 341 X

Islam in Germany and France. Muslime in Deutschland: Nebeneinander oder Miteinander. Ursula Spuler‐Stegemann, 1998 Freiburg, Herder. 352 pp; hb. DM 24,80, ISBN 3 451 04419 6

Musulmans de France: diversite, mutations et perspectives de l'islam francais,. Gilles Couvreur, 1998. Paris, Les editions de Fatelier. 112pp., pb. FF 65, ISBN 2 7082 3384 X

Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor 1919–1922. Michael Llewellyn Smith, 1998. London, Hurst. xxi + 401 pp., hb. £40.00, ISBN 185065 413 1; pb. £14.95, ISBN 1 85065 368 2

The History of Saudi Arabia. Alexei Vassiuev, 1998. London, Saqi Books. 576 pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 0863569358

City of Stone: the hidden history of Jerusalem. Meron Benvenisti, 1998. Berkeley, University of California Press. viii + 274 pp., pb. $16.95/£10.95, ISBN 0 520 20768 8

The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. Adeeb Khalid, 1998. Berkeley, University of California Press. xxiii + 335 pp., hb. $55.00, ISBN 0 520 21355 6; pb. $22.00, ISBN 0 520 21356 4

Ethnicity, Law and Human Rights: the English experience. Sebastian Poulter, 1998. Oxford, Clarendon Press. xxxvii +418pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 0 19 825773 2

Muslim Family Law. David Pearl & Werner Menski, 1998. 3rd edn. London, Sweet & Maxwell. xii + 551pp., pb. £55.00, ISBN 0421 52980 6

Religion in Prison: equal rites in a multi‐faith society. James A. Beckford & Sophie Gilliat. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. xiv + 232 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0 521 62246 8

Educating Muslim Girls: shifting discourses. Kaye Haw, 1998. Buckingham/Philadelphia, Open University Press. xii +203pp., pb. £15.99, ISBN 0 335 19773 6; hb. £50.00, ISBN 0 335 19774 4