When Dreams Become Reality

In three experiments, we found that after a subtle suggestion, subjects falsely recognized words from their own dreams and thought they had been presented during the waking state. The procedure used in these studies involved three phases. Subjects studied a list of words on Day 1. On Day 2, they received a false suggestion that some words from their previously reported dreams had been presented on the list. On Day 3, they tried to recall only what had occurred on the initial list. Subjects falsely recognized their dream words at a very high rate—sometimes as often as they accurately recognized true words. They reported that they genuinely “remembered” the dream words, as opposed to simply “knowing” that they had been previously presented. These findings, which suggest that dreams can sometimes be mistaken for reality, have significant implications for the practice of psychotherapy.     

Personality and Attitudinal Predictors of Support of Proposition 187—California's Anti-Illegal Immigrant Initiative1

Right-wing authoritarianism, stereotypes about illegal immigrants relative to legal immigrants (and nonimmigrants), and collective self-esteem were investigated as predictors of attitude toward California's Proposition 187—the 1994 initiative making illegal immigrants ineligible for public services. Among both Latinos (n= 92) and Caucasians (n= 79), right-wing authoritarianism and negative stereotypes about illegal immigrants predicted Proposition 187 support and reported vote. For Latinos, low collective self-esteem and high levels of acculturation predicted support and vote in favor of Proposition 187. In contrast, high collective self-esteem among Caucasians was related to Proposition 187 support and vote. The results suggest that 3 perspectives on prejudice—personality, cognitive, and cultural—contribute to the understanding of attitudinal and behavioral support of Proposition 187.     

Gender and family factors as predictors of late adolescent emotional expressiveness and adjustment: A longitudinal study

This study examined the longterm effects of the socialization of emotion in a sample of European American families. Late adolescents, whose families had been more emotionally expressive and accepting of emotions when they were in fifth grade, were more likely to report showing emotions not traditionally associated with their gender roles—specifically, males reported a greater propensity for crying, and females reported a greater tendency to express anger. In addition, in late adolescence, greater frequency of showing fear and showing warmth or affection were associated with higher levels of social and psychological adjustment—whereas crying was associated with better adjustment for males and poorer adjustment for females. Overall, adolescent females tended to report a higher level of emotional expressiveness and a higher level of family support of emotions than did adolescent males.     

Womanist Identity and Mental Health

The authors explored the relationship between Helms's “womanist identity” attitudes and the mental health of Black and White women. Results showed that Black and White women have different patterns of responses to both womanist and mental health scales. For White women in the sample, Immersion-Emersion and, to a lesser extent, Encounter attitudes were related to 7 types of psychological symptomatology. For Black women, no such relationship between womanist attitudes and mental health was found.     

Awareness of Death Among Children: Does a Life-Threatening Illness Alter the Process of Discovery?

The authors review studies on death awareness among children who are healthy, chronically ill, and terminally ill. The review suggests that children with life-threatening diseases demonstrate increased understanding of death compared with children who are either healthy or chronically ill. In particular, children with terminal illness, especially during the end stage of their disease, show an advanced understanding of the death concepts of irreversibility and finality. In contrast, healthy and chronically ill children appear to require certain age, cognitive developmental level, or intelligence thresholds to understand these concepts. Possible explanations for the findings in this literature are discussed. The implications of death awareness research for counselors are used as a base for suggesting counseling strategies.     

Physiological,affective, and behavioral responses to interpersonal conflict among males from families with different levels of cohesion and adaptability

To examine the relation between characteristics of a person's family of origin and cardiovascular, behavioral, cognitive, and affective response to interpersonal conflict, responses of 15 young males from families rated as extreme (EXT) on scales of cohesion (enmeshed or disengaged) or adaptability (chaotic or rigid) were compared to those of 25 young males from families rated as balanced (BAL) on measures of cohesion and adaptability. Subjects participated in two interpersonal role-play conflict situations, one with a male confederate and the other with a female confederate. Measures of heart rate (HR), blood pressure, and indices of both positive and negative verbal and nonverbal behaviors were obtained during each scenario and self-reported measures of positive and negative cognitive self-statements and affective response were obtained following each conflict scene. Results showed that, in contrast to BAL males, EXT males exhibited more negative verbal and nonverbal behavior, less positive nonverbal behavior, higher ratings of state anxiousness during conflict, and higher HR responses during the interaction with the male confederate than the female confederate. These findings suggest that exposure to a family environment with extreme levels of cohesion and adaptability impacts how an individual responds to interpersonal conflict in young adulthood.     

Thyroid hormones,psychophysiological reactivity,and anxiety

Thirty-eight adults were assigned to three groups: posttreatment hyperthyroid (n=13), low euthyroid (n=12), and high euthyroid (n=13). Physiological and subjective responses to three anxiety-induction procedures—public speaking, personally distressing imagery, and threat of shock—were compared across groups. Although there were differences across stressors for physiological and subjective measures, group differences were not detected. Results are discussed with regard to the risk for residual anxiety following treatment for hyperthyroidism and the possible influence of thyroid function on the etiology or maintenance of anxiety.     

The Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute

Organizers of the Human Genome Project (HGP) understood from the beginning that the scientific activities of mapping and sequencing the human genome would raise ethical, legal, and social issues that would require careful attention by scientists, health care professionals, government officials, and the public. The establishment of the ELSI (ethical, legal, and social implications) programs at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) was thought to be vital to the success of the HGP in the United States. It also provided a novel approach to the simultaneous study of ethical, legal, and social issues and basic scientific issues. Eric Juengst, the first director of the ELSI program, described its origins in a previous issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal (Juengst 1991). Now in its seventh year, the ELSI program has accomplished much. This article summarizes the evolution and goals of the ELSI program at NHGRI, outlines the program's current research priorities with examples of activities within each priority area, and provides a look to the future, including the initiation of a strategic planning process.     

A New Typology of Religion Based on Needs and Values

Religious experience is notoriously difficult to classify, though various attempts have been made. This article presents a new typology based on Maslow's theory of motivation (popularly known as the ‘hierarchy of needs'), which places needs and values at the forefront of human psychology. I argue that his model can be applied to religion to help explain spiritual choices and consequently the interrelation between demand and supply, thus accounting for the diversity of religion available in contemporary society. The model is particularly applicable to new religious movements (NRMs) in which membership is by voluntary choice. Needs and values are the key factors determining why people join an NRM and which movement they choose.     

The Correlation Between Depression and Headache: The Role Played by Generational Changes in Female Achievement

The relationship between depression and somatic symptoms such as headache has never been explained. Both depression and headache appear to become more prevalent among women than among men only for cohorts that reach adolescence during periods of great change in opportunities for a female's academic achievement. In Studies 1a and 1b, the same pattern was found to apply to the correlation between depression and headache. In Studies 2a and 2b, self-report measures of depression and headache were found to share significant variance only among female adolescents who reported concerns regarding the limited achievements of their mothers. These females may view the roles of adult women as being limited and may experience stress and low self-esteem associated with depressive and somatic symptomatology.