Fundamentalist religion and its effect on mental health

The national self-help group, Fundamentalists Anonymous (F.A.), has focused attention upon mental problems that may be caused or exacerbated by authoritarian religion. In this article we outline assertions about the mental problems caused by membership in fundamentalist religion, illustrate these with two case histories, briefly discuss intervention strategies, and describe conceptual and empirical issues. While former members have presented problems severe enough to warrant professional treatment, a causal link between their symptoms and their religious membership has not yet been established, because there is little empirical work on the subject.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York in August 1987.The authors express gratitude to Stephen Strack, Ph.D.; Robert Meagher, Ph.D.; Herman Feifel, Ph.D.; and Ted Schoenberger, M.D., for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper.     

Conceptualizations of valence and instrumentality: A fourfold model

Within the framework of valence-instrumentality (VI) theory, a fourfold model is developed to predict the contribution which is made by one outcome of an alternative to the valence of that alternative. The proposed model uses four subjective conditional probabilities which are based on the presence and absence of an alternative, and on the occurrence and nonoccurrence of an outcome. Valence is defined as the difference between the attractiveness values of the occurrence of an alternative (or an outcome) and the nonoccurrence of an alternative (or an outcome). Also, differences between subjective probabilities replace instrumentalities. Alternative valence-instrumentality formulations are analyzed in relation to the proposed fourfold model. The proposed model can be understood as a consistent application of Vroom's model (1964, Work and motivation, New York: Wiley), while other models are judged to be relatively deficient. The fourfold model, in combination with a matrix formulation of expectancy concepts, addresses a number of criticisms of VI theory and makes possible a test of the theory within the limits of its own assumptions.     

Technology and the structuring of jobs: Employee satisfaction,performance, and influence

This research investigated the relationships between technology, interdependence, job characteristics, and employee satisfaction, performance, and influence. Technology was operationalized at the individual level of analysis to include the dimensions of input uncertainty, conversion uncertainty, and output uncertainty. Pooled, sequential, and reciprocal interdependence was assessed. The results indicated that input and conversion uncertainty and interdependence were strongly related to such job characteristics as autonomy, skill variety, task identity, task significance, and task feedback. While the job characteristics related positively to employee satisfaction, input and conversion uncertainty related negatively to satisfaction, thus creating a mutual suppression effect. Although the uncertainty dimensions did not relate significantly to performance, there is some evidence that this negative relationship was being suppressed by the positive relationship between job characteristics and performance. Both the job characteristics and the technology dimensions related positively to influence. Results were discussed in terms of appropriate matches between technology and job characteristics.