Recommendations for research on the effects of organizational diversity on women

This paper discusses some of the possible effects of increasing organizational diversity on four areas of concern to women: 1) hiring discrimination; 2) appraisal, promotion, and advancement problems; 3) problems related to managing and leading; and 4) sexual harassment. Recommendations for research are offered for each of these areas.     

Book reviews

Enlightenment East and West Leonard Angel, 1994 Albany, State University of New York Press 388 pp.

Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism Bernard Faure, trans, by Phyius Brooks, 1996 Princeton, Princeton University Press 329 pp.

Pāli Buddhism. Curzon Studies in Asian Philosophy Frank J. Hoffman & Deegaixe Mahinda (Eds), 1996 Richmond, Curzon Press xiii + 233 pp., ISBN 0 7007 0359 4, hb £40

Friendship East and West: philosophical perspectives Oliver Leaman (Ed.), 1996 Richmond UK, Curzon Press ix + 288 pp., ISBN 0 7007 0358 6, hb £40

Heidegger's Hidden Sources: East Asian Influences on his work Reinhard May, trans, by GRAHAM PARKES, 1996 London, Routledge xviii+ 121 pp., hb £35.00, pb £11.99

The Social Self in Zen and American Pragmatism Steve Odin, 1996 Albany, SUNY Press xvi + 482 pp., ISBN 0 9714 2492 8, pb $24.95

The Art of living. Aesthetics of the Ordinary in World Spiritual Traditions Crispin Sartwell, 1995 Albany, State University of New York Press xiv+ 163 pp., hb

East‐West Encounters in Philosophy and Religion Ninian Smart & B. Srinivasa Murthy (Eds), 1997 London, Sangam Books xxiii + 411 pp., ISBN 0 8613 2375 0, hb £24.95

Confucianism and Christianity: a comparative study of Jen and Agape Xinzhong Yao, 1996 Brighton, Sussex Academic Press viii+ 164 pp., ISBN 1 8987 2325 7, hb £35 and $55     

Process characteristics of worry and obsessive intrusive thoughts

One hundred and twenty-five university students were administered a battery of self-report measures to assess worry disposition and content, frequency of obsessive intrusive thoughts, and 10 conceptually derived appraisal dimensions of worry and obsessional intrusions. Process ratings indicated that the worrisome thoughts were considered more disturbing than the ego-dystonic intrusive thoughts. Worry was also distinguished by a focus on the possible consequences of negative events, whereas concern about the personal meaning of the thought was a unique process dimension for obsessive intrusive thoughts. Both content and process variables are important in differentiating worry and obsessive-like intrusive thoughts in a nonclinical population.     

Jung in the academy: devotions and resistances

Jung's position in the contemporary mainstream English-speaking university is problematical indeed. For various historical and ideological reasons, Jung is generally not included in the courses in academic psychology, and in the humanities and social sciences his reception is lukewarm to say the least. He has only a marginal place in religious studies. This notorious academic resistance to Jung is compensated, some would say overcompensated, by student interest and enthusiasm, which sometimes seeks to make a religious dogma out of Jung's psychology. In a sense, cynical resistance to Jung and fanatical devotion to Jung can be seen to generate each other in a sort of binary opposition. This situation is unfortunate because neither extreme presents a fair or balanced view of Jung's thought or of his contribution to intellectual history. These and other problems associated with the teaching of Jung in a university setting are briefly outlined in this paper.     

“Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” A rejoinder to Scruggs and Mastropieri

Scruggs and Mastropieri (Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 879–883, 1994) take issue with criticisms of their PND (Percent of Nonoverlapping Data) statistic that we offered in our recent article (Allison & German, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 621–631, 1993), which advocated a regressionbased method for obtaining effect sizes in single-subject studies. They contend that their PND approach has several advantages over our approach because: (1) they believe that, unlike ours, it can take advantage of the small number of observations that are typically available in single-case studies; (2) it is simple to compute; (3) it frees researchers from traditional regression assumptions of normality, homogeneity of variance, and independence of observations and residuals; and (4) it correlates with visual judgements made by experts. As we shall argue, these claims are built upon very questionable assumptions and they are very difficult to substantiate. In addition, we show that the expected value of the PND is so strongly related to sample size as to be rendered meaningless.     

Deterrence, Opportunity, and Choice

Traditional studies of deterrence have focused on punishment with less regard for the rewards of both crime and noncrime. Influenced by work in economics and behavioral psychology, more recent studies have departed from tradition by incorporating rewards for crime. To this extent, they should be regarded as advances over the more traditional approaches. Notwithstanding these advances, variations in both the probability and magnitude of reward for noncrime have not been systematically included in these more recent theories of choice. In an attempt to determine whether opportunities for noncrime are either central or trivial to the criminal decision-making process, the present study fitted two alternative models to experimental data involving risk-taking: (a) the economic utility model employed by Piliavin, Gartner, Thornton, and Matsueda (1986) in their study of criminal choice; and (b) the satisfaction balance model developed by Gray and Tallman (1984). Results showed that while both models explained significant amounts of variation in the dependent variable, the Gray-Tallman model provided a substantially better fit of the data. Despite limitations inherent in experimental studies as, for example, limitations surrounding the issue of external validity, the findings strongly suggest that opportunities for noncrime are as important as rewards and costs for crime in the process by which criminal decisions are made.     

The Belief in Equality Inventory and Leadership Behavior: A Construct Validation

The belief-in-equality construct is defined as the belief that general ability and potential are widely distributed throughout the human population, rather than being limited to an elite minority. Data from a 21-item belief-in-equality inventory and from two construct-validation tasks were gathered using a liberal-arts undergraduate sample of 201 students. Of the two validation tasks, one indicated strong construct validity ( p < .015), however, the second one produced correctly patterned but insignificant results. The results showed that leaders with a high belief in equality put more funds into training their subordinates and had a tendency to delegate more authority to them than leaders with a weak belief in equality.     

Avoidance Responses to Alternative Alcohol Warning Labels1

A preference-based measure of responses to warning labels was used to study alternative alcohol warning labels that differed in: (a) length, (b) presence of qualifier words, (c) alternative content, and (d) specific beverage. The specific risks mentioned were more important than the overall label length, qualifier words reduced avoidance responses, various alternative warnings elicited more avoidance responses than the existing alcohol warning label, and more avoidance responses were made to labels on a whiskey bottle than on a beer bottle. Warnings with the words “poison,”“cancer,” or “health problems” were the most powerful. The results for college students in Study 1 were replicated in a high-school sample in Study 2.     

Effect of Persuasive Appeals in AIDS PSAs and Condom Commercials on Intentions to Use Condoms1

The study compared the effect of five persuasive appeals used in AIDS PSAs and condom commercials (fear arousal-no sex/condom theme; fear arousal-sex/condom theme; erotic; humorous; factual) on 122 male and 114 female college students' i]ntentions to use and taking of condoms. Results showed that the two fear appeals were more effective than other appeals in increasing intentions to use condoms with a new partner. The fear appeal–no sex/condom theme was more effective than other appeals for increasing intentions to use condoms with a steady partner. Compared to men, women rated commercials as more effective for increasing intentions to use condoms with a new partner. Persuasive appeals had no effect on the taking of free condoms. The best predictor of commercial effectiveness was the degree to which a commercial evoked a high fear of AIDS. Other significant predictors were subjects' a]ttitude toward condom use and commercial qualities of being humorous, romantic, credible, and factual. Implications are that all five types of appeals are potentially effective for use in AIDS PSAs. Recommendations include combining appeals (e.g. fear with erotic) and emphasizing the positive features of condom use.