Emotion,Decision, and Risk: Betting on Gambles versus Betting on People

We examined the effects of two emotions, fear and anger, on risk‐taking behavior in two types of tasks: Those in which uncertainty is generated by a randomizing device (“lottery risk”) and those in which it is generated by the uncertain behavior of another person (“person‐based risk”). Participants first completed a writing task to induce fear or anger. They then made choices either between lotteries (Experiment 1) or between actions in risky two‐person decisions (Experiments 2 and 3). The experiments involved substantial real‐money payoffs. Replicating earlier studies (which used hypothetical rewards), Experiment 1 showed that fearful participants were more risk‐averse than angry participants in lottery‐risk tasks. However—the key result of this study—fearful participants were substantially less risk‐averse than angry participants in a two‐person task involving person‐based risk (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 offered options and payoffs identical to those of Experiment 2 but with lottery‐type risk. Risk‐taking returned to the pattern of Experiment 1. The impact of incidental emotions on risk‐taking appears to be contingent on the class of uncertainty involved. For lottery risk, fear increased the frequency of risk‐averse choices and anger reduced it. The reverse pattern was found when uncertainty in the decision was person‐based. Further, the effect was specifically on differences in willingness to take risks rather than on differences in judgments of how much risk was present. The impact of different emotions on risk‐taking or risk‐avoiding behavior is thus contingent on the type, as well as the degree, of uncertainty the decision maker faces. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of processing requirements on neurophysiological responses to spoken sentences

Ten English speaking subjects listened to sentences that varied in sentential constraint (i.e., the degree to which the context of a sentence predicts the final word of that sentence) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the presentation of the final word of each sentence. In the Control condition subjects merely listened to the sentences. In the Orthographic processing condition subjects merely listened to the sentences. In the Orthographic processing condition subjects decided, following each sentence, whether a given letter had been present in the final word of the preceding sentence. In the Phonological processing condition the subjects judged whether a given speech sound was contained in the terminal word. In the Semantic processing condition subjects determined whether the final word was a member of a given semantic category. A previous finding in the visual modality that the N400 component was larger in amplitude for low constraint sentence terminations than for high was extended to the auditory modality. It was also found that the amplitude of a N200-like response was similarly responsive to contextual constraint. The hypothesis that N400 amplitude would vary significantly with the depth of processing of the terminal word was not supported by the data. The "N200" recorded in this language processing context showed the classic frontocentral distribution of the N200. The N400 to spoken sentences had a central/centroparietal distribution similar to the N400 in visual modality experiments. It is suggested that the N400 obtained in these sentence contexts reflects an automatic semantic processing of words that occurs even when semantic analysis is not required to complete a given task. The cooccurrence and topographical dissimilarity of the "N200" and N400 suggest that the N400 may not be a delayed or a generic N200.     

Homemaking-role quality and the psychological well-being and distress of employed women

This paper examines the quality of employed women's experience in the homemaking-role and its relationship to their psychological well-being and distress. The subjects (N=403) were drawn from a random stratified sample of women, ages 25 to 55, who were employed as social workers or licensed practical nurses. Positive homemaking-role experience was associated with increased psychological well-being and lowered psychological distress. These associations were affected by the quality of the subjects' experiences in the paid work-role. Thus the favorable association of positive homemaking-role quality with psychological well-being and distress was enhanced by positive paid work-role quality, suggesting that the relationship of homemaking-role quality to the psychological outcomes is influenced by the effects of paid work-role quality on psychological well-being and distress.Data for this paper were collected as part of a larger project funded by the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (1 RO1-OHO-1968). The initial analyses and writing of this paper took place at the Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, and was supported by NIMH postdoctoral training grant no. MH-17058-053. We would like to express special thanks to the late Grace K. Baruch for her enthusiastic support and encouragement of this paper.     

Sex-role stereotyping,the motive to avoid success,and parental identification

Fifth- and tenth-grade girls were compared with respect to three sex-role-related variables: sex-role stereotyping; the motive to avoid success; and one aspect of identification motivation — the desire to emulate the father versus the mother. These variables were seen as reflecting certain conflicts and problems associated with feminine sex-role socialization. Age-related increases in stereotyping, the incidence of fear of success, and desire to emulate the father rather than the mother were expected. The motive to avoid success was expected to be associated with low stereotyping and with rejection of the maternal model. In the results, significant increases with age were found in stereotyping and father preference. The expected correlates of the motive to avoid success were found, but in each case for only one of the two age levels. Findings were discussed in relation to difficulties associated with feminine development.     

Book reviews

Religion in Europe: Contemporary Perspectives SEAN GILL, GAVIN D'COSTA & URSULA KING, eds, 1994 Kampen: Kok Pharos 213 pp., £22.50 ISBN 90–390–0508–7

Religion in Contemporary Europe JOHN FULTON & PETER GEE, eds, 1994 Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Meilen Press 181 pp., £39.95 ISBN 0–7734–9028–0

Pluralisme religieux et Laïcités dans l'Union européenne ALAIN DIERKENS, ed., 1994 Brussels: Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles (Problèmes d'histoire des religions, No. 5) 176 pp., 700 Belgian francs, 129 French francs ISBN 2–8004–1097–3

Religion and the Transformations of Capitalism: Comparative Approaches RICHARD H. ROBERTS, ed., 1995 London: Routledge xi + 347 pp., £60.00 ISBN 0–415–11917–0

The Sociology of Religion: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives MALCOLM B. HAMILTON, 1994 London: Routledge 238 pp., £13.99 ISBN 0–415–02187–1 (hb), 0–415–10659–1 (pb)

American Congregations Volume 1: Portraits of Twelve Religious Communities JAMES P. WIND & LAMES W. LEWIS, eds, 1994 Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press xi + 712 pp., US$34.95 ISBN 0–226–90188–6

Volume 2: New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations ix + 292 pp., US$22.50 ISBN 0–222–90188–20

A History of the Quaker Movement in Africa ANE MARIE BAK RASMUSSEN, 1995 London: British Academic Press 190 pp., £34.50 (hb) ISBN 1–85043–904–4

Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices in an Industrialized Society JAN VAN BREMEN & D. P. MARTINEZ, eds, 1995 London: Routledge 286 pp., £40.00 ISBN 0–415–11663–5

Choose Peace: A Dialogue between Johan Galtung and Daisaku Ikeda J. GALTUNG & D. IKEDA, 1995 London: Pluto Press 172 pp., £40.00 (hb), £13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–7453–1039–7 (pb), 07453–1040–0 (hb)

The Toronto Blessing—Or Is It? STANLEY PORTER & PHILIP RICHTER, eds, 1995 London: Darton, Longman & Todd 130 pp., £6.95 ISBN 0–232–52130–1

Sex, Slander, and Salvation. Investigating the Family/Children of God JAMES R. LEWIS & J. GORDON MELTON, eds, 1994 Stanford, CA: Center for Academic Publications xi + 288 pp., £5.99 ISBN 0–9639501–2–6

Christians in the Holy Land MICHAEL PRIOR & WILLIAM TAYLOR, eds, 1994 London: World of Islam Festival Trust 235 pp., £10.00 ISBN 0–905–035–32–1

City of Wrong: a Friday in Jerusalem M. KAMEL HUSSEIN, translated by KENNETH CRAGG, 1994 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 234 pp., £7.95 ISBN 1–85168–072–1

>Faith in Dialogue Number One: Faiths in Britain Together CHRISTOPHER LAMB, ed., 1995 61 pp., £2.00

Faith in Dialogue Number Two: Jewish and Christian Mysticism RABBI PROFESSOR DAN COHN SHERBOK, 1995 20 pp., £1.00

Faith in Dialogue Number Three: Jewish Views of Jesus HYAM MACCOBY 20 pp., £1.00 London: Centre For Inter‐Faith Dialogue ISSN 13585045

Jewish & Christian Mysticism: An Introduction DAN COHN‐SHERBOK & LAVINIA COHN‐SHERBOK, 1994 New York: Continuum viii +186 pp., £15.99 ISBN 0–85244–259–9

Sabbath and Synagogue. The Question of Sabbath Worship in Ancient Judaism HEATHER A. MCKAY, 1994 Leiden: E. J. Brill xiii + 279 pp., Nlg. 125,00, US$71.50 ISSN 0927–7633

The Road to Canterbury: A Modern Pilgrimage SHIRLEY DU BOULEY, 1994 London: Harper Collins 245 pp., £15.99 (hb) ISBN 0–00–627693–8     

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-INJURY AND SELF-RESTRAINT

It has been suggested that self-restraint, a phenomenon often correlated with self-injurious behavior (SIB), may be maintained by negative reinforcement in the form of escape from the aversive properties of SIB (e.g., pain). We examined the effects of blocking SIB (and presumably removing any aversive effects) on the self-restraint of a 19-year-old male with severe mental retardation. Consistent with the negative reinforcement hypothesis, blocking SIB resulted in near-zero levels of SIB and moderate reductions in self-restraint.