Book reviews

Charisma and Social Structure: A Study of Love and Power, Wholeness and Transformation. Raymond Trevor Bradley New York: Paragon House, 1987

The Leadership Challenge: How to Get Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, (fall) 1987. $21.95 hardback. 362 pages.

Mind Matters: How the Mind and Brain Interact to Create Our Consciousness Lives Michael S. Gazzaniga Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. 269 pages. Hardcover $17.95, Softcover $8.95.     

Creative People Use Nonconscious Processes to Their Advantage

Although contentious, there is evidence to suggest that nonconscious processes contribute to creative output, particularly during refractory periods. However, no one has examined whether this break benefit differs as a function of creative ability. To address these issues, this investigation examined Wallas's (1926 Wallas , G. ( 1926 ). The art of thought . New York , NY : Harcourt Brace . [Google Scholar]) seminal theoretical framework of creativity. More specifically, the most controversial stage postulated by Wallas, the incubation phase, was empirically tested. A regression analysis demonstrated that productivity is significantly increased when creative people activate nonconscious processes in off-task or incubation periods. There is ongoing debate about the cause(s) of this incubation effect. This research provides evidence that the incubation effect results, at least partially, from nonconscious processing and that it provides greater benefit to more creative individuals. This suggests that highly creative people should be exposed to focus problems/challenges well in advance of objective deadlines, and have freedom to generate solutions outside of structured evaluation times.     

The Evil Eye: A Cautious Look

This article analyzes the superstition of the evil eye from a psychosocial perspective. The commonly employed antidotes to the evil eye are discussed. These include knock on wood, kenehora, and various other culturally prescribed protective measures. The sin of envy, the role of God, Scripture, and Satan are examined. The author concludes with a statement of his own way of dealing with the evil eye and its underlying essence.     

Embedded-Figures Performance and Telecourse Achievement

This study was conducted to determine if there is a relationship between the cognitive style of community college students and their achievement in a broadcast telecourse. The subjects were 134 community college students enrolled in one of six telecourses. Witkin's Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was used to ascertain whether the students' cognitive style was field dependent or field independent. Achievement was defined by the grade the student earned in the telecourse. Results of chi-square tests indicated that students with a field-independent cognitive style earned higher grades, had a higher telecourse completion rate, and were more satisfied with the experience.     

Approaches to Learning and Academic Achievement of Filipino Students

Research has shown that a critical variable in determining academic achievement in different cultures and educational systems is approaches to learning. In this study, the author sought to determine whether this variable influences academic achievement among Filipino college students. The Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ; J. B. Biggs, 1987) was used to assess approaches to learning. The results indicated that (a) the LPQ was a valid instrument to assess the learning approaches of non-low-achieving Filipino college students; (b) the Deep and Achieving subscale scores of the LPQ were positively related to academic achievement even when the effects of school ability and prior academic achievement were controlled; and (c) with some slight exceptions, the relationship between the LPQ scale scores and academic achievement were génerally similar between male and female Filipino students. Implications for the study of student approaches to learning in different cultures and educational systems are discussed.     

Hope and Internal Working Models of the Self and Others: A Correlational Study on Filipino Adolescents

The study seeks to contribute to research on understanding the antecedents of hope cognitions by exploring how internal models of self and others are related to hope. Correlational analysis of Filipino adolescent students’ responses to the hope scale and life positions scale indicated that internal model of the self is positively associated with hope cognitions, but internal model of others is not. The results are discussed in relation to importance of cognitive representations of the self that emerge from person’s early attachment relationships.     

Book reviews

Gunnel Borgegard, Olav Fanuelsen, Christine Hall (ed.), The Ministry of the Deacon, 2. Ecclesiological Explorations (Uppsala: Nordic Ecumenical Council, 2000), 91–85564–10–9, 285 pp.

Dennis M. Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2000) 1–57075–327‐X, ix + 195 pp.

Nicholas M. Healy, Church, World and the Christian Life: Practical‐Prophetic Ecclesiology. Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine 7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 0–521–78650–9 (pbk), 199 pp.     

The military chaplain: a study in ambiguity

This article looks at the ambiguities in the role of the military chaplain from three points of view. The first considers the nature of the constituency within which the chaplain ministers, paying particular attention to the degree – or otherwise – of secularisation and the reasons for this. The second examines the role of the chaplain in relation to the two institutions which he or she serves (i.e. church and state) and the tensions that emerge as a result. These are articulated in terms of ‘an angle of eschatological tension’. The third is concerned with ‘the roles within the role’ – that is the variety of tasks that make up the role of chaplaincy and the degree to which these are compatible with each other. The significance of theology in the resolution of the ensuing issues is set against diminishing societal resources in terms of religious literacy.     

Narrative self-appropriation: embodiment,alienness, and personal responsibility in the context of borderline personality disorder

It is often emphasised that persons diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show difficulties in understanding their own psychological states. In this article, I argue that from a phenomenological perspective, BPD can be understood as an existential modality in which the embodied self is profoundly saturated by an alienness regarding the person’s own affects and responses. However, the balance of familiarity and alienness is not static, but can be cultivated through, e.g., psychotherapy. Following this line of thought, I present the idea that narrativising experiences can play an important role in processes of appropriating such embodied self-alienness. Importantly, the notion of narrative used is that of a scalar conception of narrativity as a variable quality of experience that comes in degrees. From this perspective, narrative appropriation is a process of gradually attributing the quality of narrativity to experiences, thereby familiarising the moods, affects, and responses that otherwise govern ‘from behind’. Finally, I propose that the idea of a narrative appropriation of embodied self-alienness is also relevant to the much-debated question of personal responsibility in BPD, particularly as this question plays out in psychotherapeutic contexts where a narrative self-appropriation may facilitate an increase in sense of autonomy and reduce emotions of guilt and shame.     

Cognitive risk factors explain the relations between neuroticism and social anxiety for males and females

The hierarchical model of vulnerabilities to emotional distress contextualizes the relation between neuroticism and social anxiety as occurring indirectly through cognitive risk factors. In particular, inhibitory intolerance of uncertainty (IU; difficulty in uncertain circumstances), fear of negative evaluation (FNE; fear of being judged negatively), and anxiety sensitivity (AS) social concerns (fear of outwardly observable anxiety) are related to social anxiety. It is unclear whether these risk factors uniquely relate to social anxiety, and whether they account for the relations between neuroticism and social anxiety. The indirect relations between neuroticism and social anxiety through these and other risk factors were examined using structural equation modeling in a sample of 462 individuals (M age = 36.56, SD = 12.93; 64.3% female). Results indicated that the relations between neuroticism and social anxiety could be explained through inhibitory IU, FNE, and AS social concerns. No gender differences were found. These findings provide support for the hierarchical model of vulnerabilities to emotional distress disorders, although the cognitive risk factors accounted for variance beyond their contribution to the relation between neuroticism and social anxiety, suggesting a more complex model than that expressed in the hierarchical model of vulnerabilities.