Rights and resources

I would like to thank Arthur Kuflik, Alan Nelson, Phil Valera, Michael Fry and other participants at the Ethikon and School of International Relations at USC-sponsored conference of October, 1987 for helpful comments.     

Frequency effects in the processing of lexicalized and novel nominal compounds

The processing of lexicalized and novel noun-noun compounds of high interpretability was investigated. In Experiment 1, the familiarity of the lexicalized compounds had a significant effect on lexical decision times, but no frequency effects were observed for the constituent nouns. In Experiment 2, a frequency effect was found for the first noun of novel compounds, but not for the second noun. This result was replicated in Experiment 3 with different types of nonwords. A negative word frequency effect for the first noun was found in Experiment 4 in which the novel compounds functioned as nonwords. A frequency effect for the first noun was also observed in Experiment 5, in which a semantic classification task was used. Results point to a decomposition second model according to which access is initially based on the whole compound. If this is unsuccessful the compound will be decomposed and the constituent nouns will be processed separately. It is argued that in novel compounds, nouns are processed sequentially, and different orders of processing are discussed.     

Dimensions of same-gender student-faculty role-model relationships

This study investigated factors important in the establishment of same-gender student-faculty role-model relationships. Subjects were 33 females and 24 male graduate students enrolled in the same academic department who responded anonymously to scales assessing four characteristics of the role model (personal attributes, life-style and values, power and influence, and professional achievement), three parallel areas of perceived similarity between student and role model (personality, attitudes and values, and professional goals), and students' self-esteem and achievement orientation. As predicted, female students rated the role-model relationship as more important to their professional development than did male students and rated the model's personal attributes and the model's life-style and values as more important in selecting a role model. Consistent with recent theoretical views, female and male students rated both the professional skills and the personal characteristics of the faculty role model as important in establishing the role-model relationship. These findings are interpreted within a framework that considers the continuing effect of belief systems about women's and men's roles on the professional development of women.     

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.