Book Reviews

The Advancement of Science: Science Without Legend, Objectivity Without Illusions Philip Kitcher, 1993 Oxford University Press pp. ix + 421, £30.00, ISBN 019 504628 5

Mind, Brain, Behavior. The Mind‐Body Problem and the Philosophy of Psychology Martin Carrier & JÜrgen Mittelstrass, 1991 Berlin, Walter de Gruyter pp. 314, £51.82, ISBN 3 11012876 4

Rewriting the History of Madness: Studies in Foucault's Histoire de la Folie Arthur Still & Irving Velody (Eds), 1992 Routledge pp. x + 225, £45, ISBN 0 415 06654 9

Economics and the Philosophy of Science Deborah Redman, 1993 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. xiv + 252, £10.95 (paperback), ISBN 019 508274 5

The Disorder of Things John Dupré, 1993 Cambridge, MA/London, UK, Harvard University Press pp. viii+ 308, £27.95, ISBN 0 674 21260 6

The Philosophy of Vacuum Simon Saunders & Harvey R. Brown (Eds), 1991 Oxford, Oxford University Press pp. 291, £37.50, ISBN 0 19 824449 5

The Laboratory of the Mind James R. Brown, 1991 London, Routledge pp. xi+ 175, £11.99 (paperback), ISBN 0 415 095794

The Revision Theory of Truth A. Gupta & N. D. Belnap, 1993 Cambridge, MA, MIT Press pp. xii + 299, £31.50, ISBN 0 262 07144 4     

Experimental induction of emotional states--does addition of music improve self disclosure?

Two procedures to experimentally induce negative and neutral emotional states are compared: self-referent emotional statements (Velten, 1968) presented alone vs. combined with music. For female subjects selected according to their baseline mood, it could be shown that negative statements alone induced anger whereas in combination with music they evoked sadness, i.e. dependent on the procedure applied, the quality of the induced negative emotion changed. For the induction of a neutral state the combined procedure proved to be superior, especially to reduce a positive baseline mood.     

Experimental induction of emotional conditions--alternatives to the Velten method]

The technique most often used to induce emotion is based on self-referent statements read by the subjects (Velten, 1968). This technique is known to be of intermediate efficiency. Therefore film and hypnosis-like procedures were investigated as alternative techniques. Efficiency was tested using two selected scales of a mood questionnaire (SES by Hampel, 1977). The subjects were male and female students. Both alternative procedures allowed us to induce significant changes in Ss' moods. The film method was more efficient than the Velten-technique in inducing a negative mood, whereas it was equally efficient in inducing a positive mood. The hypnosis-like procedure, however, was not more efficient than the Velten-technique. Obviously film is a quite efficient and easy applicable alternative technique to induce moods.     

“This story is right on”: The impact of regulatory fit on narrative engagement and persuasion

When people read a story, feelings of rightness from regulatory fit (consistency between regulatory state and strategic means) could suggest that the story is “right on” relative to feelings of wrongness from regulatory nonfit. Under these conditions, individuals who are experiencing feelings of rightness should engage more with the narrative and be more persuaded by its implicit messages. Results from two experiments supported these hypotheses. Participants in Experiment 1 were more mentally engaged (transported) by the story when they experienced regulatory fit. We replicated this effect in Experiment 2 and extended it to endorsement of story‐consistent beliefs, an indicator of persuasion via narratives. Additionally, we found that drawing participants' attention to an earlier event as a source of feelings of rightness eliminated the regulatory fit effects on transportation and persuasion, suggesting attribution of feelings of regulatory fit/nonfit to the plausibility of the narrative world. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affectionate Writing Reduces Total Cholesterol: Two Randomized,Controlled Trials

In two 5‐week trials, healthy college students were randomly assigned either to experimental or control groups. Participants in the experimental groups wrote about their affection for significant friends, relatives, and/or romantic partners for 20 minutes on three separate occasions; on the same schedule, those in the control groups wrote about innocuous topics. Total cholesterol was assessed via capillary blood at the beginning of the trials and again at the end. Participants in the experimental groups experienced statistically significant reductions in total cholesterol. Control participants in the first study experienced a significant increase during the same period, whereas those in the second study did not. Cholesterol changes were largely unmoderated by linguistic features of the writing produced in the intervention. Potential therapeutic implications are discussed.     

Affectionate communication,health, and relationships

A robust body of research attests to the mental and physical health correlates and consequences of affectionate communication. Like much research on personal relationships, however, this work may overrepresent certain portions of the population, may underrepresent others, and may not effectively account for intersections of identities. We define intersectionality as comprising the unique effects of two or more social identities interacting with each other. To assess this literature with an eye toward intersectionality and representation, the present article reports a systematic review of 86 individual empirical studies representing 26,013 participants. The review concludes that there is no explicit or implicit attention to intersectionality in the existing research on affectionate communication and health, and that U.S. Americans, women, younger individuals, white individuals, and students are overrepresented in research samples. The review ends with future directions to encourage more inclusive research on this topic.     

The longitudinal effects of alexithymia on romantic relationships

Using the tenets of Affection Exchange Theory, the study predicted longitudinal effects of alexithymia on both romantic relational outcomes (satisfaction and commitment) and relational communication (affectionate communication and relational maintenance behaviors). The study also predicted that Time 2 levels of relational communication would mediate the longitudinal effects of alexithymia on the relational outcomes. The results largely supported the predictions, with Time 1 alexithymia significantly negatively related to both relational outcome measures, affectionate communication, and two types of relational maintenance behaviors (understanding and assurances) at Time 2. Alternate models predicting alexithymia at Time 2 using the relational variables were nonsignificant. Finally, mediation was shown for both affectionate communication and understanding. Implications and possible directions for future research are explored.