Challenging Discourse Themes Reproducing Gender in Heterosexual Dating: An Analog Study

Societal discourses tied to gender play apowerful role in shaping ideas and views about normalsexual experience. This study investigated whether“male sexual drive” discourse themes inheterosexual dating could be reproduced in a laboratorysetting, and whether these themes could be disrupted bymeans of a laboratory intervention. Young, single,heterosexual adults, most of whom were Caucasian and middle class, role played a series of datingscenarios. In half of the 37 dyads, male participantswere instructed to initiate a first date and then latergreater sexual intimacy, to which their female partners were instructed to say they were notready (the condition designed to reproduce dominantdiscourse themes). In the other half, the instructionsfor the male and female partners were reversed (the condition designed to change or disruptdominant discourse themes). Analysis of the role-playeddialogues indicated that dominant discourse themesassociated with the male sexual drive discourse wereprevalent in both experimental conditions. Ways ofbroadening our understanding of how gender processes arereproduced and disrupted are discussed in the context ofheterosexual dating relationships.     

Book reviews

E1 Evangelio de San Bernabé: un evangelio islámico español. Luis F. Bernabé Pons, 1995 Alicante, University Press 260 pp., hb. n.p. ISBN 84 7908 223 2

Muhammad and Jesus. William. E. Phipps, 1996 300 pp., pb. £14.95, ISBN 0 334 02630 X

Arabic Grammar and Qur'anic Exegesis in Early Islam.. C. H. M. Versteegh, 1993 Leiden, E. J. Brill xi + 230 pp., hb. ISBN 9004098453.

Religious Truth for Our Time. William Montgomery Watt, 1995 Oxford, Oneworld 109 pp., pb. £5.95, ISBN 1 85168 102 7

Dialogue of Life: a Christian among Allah's poor. Bob McCahill, 1996 Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books 109 pp., pb. $13, ISBN 1 57075 066 1

Questioning the Secular State: the worldwide resurgence of religion in politics. David Westerlund (Ed.), 1996 London, Hurst & Company xii + 428 pp., pb. £14.95, ISBN 1 85065 241 4

Religion and Globalization. Peter Beyer, 1994 London, Sage Publications vi + 250 pp., pb. $21.95

A Critique of the Origins of Islamic Economic Thought. Yassine Essid, 1995 Leiden, E. J. Brill 257 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 90 04 10079 2

Muslims in the Margin: political responses to the presence of Islam in Western Europe. W. A. R. Shadid & P. S. van Koningsveld, 1996 Kampen, KOK Pharos 288 pp., hb. F169.90, ISBN 90 390 0520 6

Muslim Eurasia: conflicting legacies. Yaacov Ro'i (Ed.), 1995 London, Frank Cass xii + 330 pp., hb. and pb., $47.50, ISBN 0714646156     

Alcohol and creative writing.

A repeated-measures design was used to test for the effects of alcohol on creative writing as measured by use of novel figurative language. 11 male social drinkers participated in a creative writing task under two conditions, alcohol (high dose: 1.1 ml. ethanol/kilogram body weight) and placebo. In the alcohol condition, within-subject comparisons indicated significantly greater quantity of creative writing while intoxicated. These results were interpreted as supporting the belief that alcohol can reduce "writer's block," at least amongst nonalcoholic subjects.     

Interference in memory for tonal pitch: Implications for a working-memory model

The degree of interference caused by different kinds of stimuli on memory for tonal pitch was studied. Musically trained and untrained subjects heard a sequence of two tones separated by an interval of 5 sec. The tones were either identical in pitch or differed by a semitone. Subjects had to decide whether the tones were identical or not. The interval was filled with tonal, verbal, or visual material under attended and unattended conditions. The results revealed clear group differences. Musically trained subjects' retention of the first test tone was only affected by the interposition of other tones. In contrast, the performance of musically untrained subjects was also affected by verbal and visual items. The findings are discussed in the framework of Baddeley's (1986) working-memory model.     

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SCIENCE IN THE DIALOGUE PROPOSED BY WILLIAM KLINK?

Abstract. Klink rejects the use of ecological models in environmental decision making because their predictions cannot be tested by rigorous scientific methods. I argue that models that cannot be tested according to the rigorous standards of the physical sciences can still be considered “scientific”; they are useful (and, in practice, used) for assessing the impacts of human actions on the environment and choosing between alternative courses of action. It is, however, important to be aware of the uncertainties and to make corrections as new data and insights become available. The interplay between (1) model-based decisions and action and (2) their consequences and subsequent corrections can be regarded as a dialogue between humans and nature (or God) in the sense proposed by Klink. Klink also claims that future actions should be informed by the larger vision of theology and should not be based on science. I suggest that science has an indispensible role. The larger vision is needed to respond to the fundamental religious question: How should I live—and why? But this question cannot be answered without first addressing the fundamental scientific question: How does the world work? I suggest that responses to the first question can be formulated as visions of a future state of existence that we feel compelled to strive to realize, and that science is necessary to provide “maps of reality” needed to realize visions. I also suggest that Christian traditions can probably provide adequate visions; the crucial need is for improving our “maps of reality.”     

Ethical issues in the treatment of severe psychopathology in university and college counseling centers

Increasing numbers of students with severe personality disorders are presenting for psychological services at college and university counseling centers. The influx of these students poses a number of ethical dilemmas for counseling centers. Clinical decisions about appropriate treatment modalities, philosophical decisions about agency mission, and available resources to carry defined missions converge and influence ethical decisions in this area. It is misguided kindness, as well as being ethically unwise and legally risky, to attempt to carry out a treatment mission with inadequate resources. It is not abandonment to have selection criteria grounded in the treatment literature and executed with fairness if the duty to refer is upheld.     

Spouses' family work participation and its relation to wives' occupational level

Past statistical and conceptual limitations may mistakenly overstate women's and men's unequal participation in family work. The present study used log-linear models to examine spouses' participation in household work and parenting and their perceptions of equity regarding this participation. Wives' occupational level, an important but often overlooked source of variation, was used to classify couples according to three family types—single-wage traditional (TR)—and two types of dual-wage families—dual-earner (DE) in which wives held jobs while husbands held jobs or careers, and dual-career (DC). Data were taken from a study of 81 couples of comparable socioeconomic status and age who had an adolescent child living at home. As hypothesized, results indicated more sharing of household work in dual-wage families than typically reported, particularly for DC families. Husbands and wives in all family types were largely in agreement regarding the distribution of responsibility for household and parenting tasks, but perceptions of equity varied by family type. Spouses with comparable perceptions of fairness reported higher marital satisfaction.Appreciation is expressed to Sue Lucas and Darl Lewis for their assistance with this study. Portions of this paper were presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC June, 1991.     

Assessing perceptions of occupational-family integration

Consideration of how to integrate occupational and family roles is crucial to the psychological development of adolescents and young adults today. This paper reports on a self-report instrument designed to assess perceptions of involvement in occupational and family roles in young women and men. The Orientations to Occupational-Family Integration consists of three separate scales that reflect three types of orientation—(1) male traditional, (2) female traditional, and (3) male and female atraditional. Reliability and validity data are reported from two studies, one with 81 adolescent girls and one with 122 college women and men. Uses of the measure for research and educational purposes are described briefly.Appreciation is expressed to Sue Lucas and Darryl Lewis for their assistance in data collection for Study I, and to the University Research Institute at the University of Texas at Austin for grant awards for each of the two studies. The order of the third and fourth authors is alphabetical. L. Suzanne Dancer is now at the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee.