Book reviews

Missing Persons: A Critique of Personhood in the Social Sciences Mary Douglas & Steven Ney, 1998 California: University of California Press 223 pp., US$24.95 ISBN 0–520–20752–1

Re‐forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity Philip A. Mellor & Chris Shilling, 1997 London: Sage Publications 234 pp., £40.00 (hb), £13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8039–7722–0 (hb), ISBN 0–8039–7723–9 (pb)

Transnational Religion and Fading States Susanne Hoeber Rudolph & James Piscatori, eds., 1997 Boulder, Colorado, & Oxford: Westview Press viii + 280 pp., US$69.00/£50.00 (hb), US$24.00/£13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8133–2767–9 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2768–7 (pb)

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Society William H. Swatos, Jr., ed., 1998 London: AltaMira Press (SAGE) xiv + 590 pp., £76.00 (hb) ISBN: 0 7619–9956–0

Power and the Church: Ecclesiology in an Age of Transition Martyn Percy, 1998 London: Cassell vii + pp. 239, £35.00 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–304–70107–6 (hb); ISBN 0304 701 05‐X (pb)

Faith and Power, Christianity and Islam in ‘Secular’ Britain Lesslie Newbigin, Lamin Sanneh & Jenny Taylor, 1998 London: SPCK 177 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0–281–05153–4

New Trends and Developments in the World of Islam Peter B. Clarke, ed., 1998 London: Luzac Oriental x + 400 pp., £37.00 ISBN 1–898–942–17‐X

Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics and Social Change in East‐Central Europe and Russia Sabrina P. Ramet, 1998 Durham & London: Duke University Press 424 pp, £66.50 (hb), £22.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8223–2056–8 (hb), ISBN 0–8223–2070–3 (pb)

New Religious Phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe Irena Borowik & Grzegorz Babinski, eds., 1997 Krakow: Nomos 392 pp., US$25 (+ p&p) ISBN 83–85527–56–7

Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition Rebecca Alpert, 1997 New York: Columbia University Press 214 pp., £19.95, US$28.00 (hb) ISBN 0–231–09660–7

Jesus is Dread: Black Theology and Black Culture in Britain Robert Beckford, 1998 London: Darton, Longman & Todd 194 pp., £10.95 ISBN: 0–232–52241–3

Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts & Geoffrey Samuel, eds., 1998 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 222 pp., £12.95 (pb) ISBN 0–7486–1057‐X

Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia Lynne Hume, 1997 Carlton South, Australia: Melbourne University Press xiii + 272 pp., $29.95 ISBN 0–522–84782‐X

Ageing and Spirituality Albert Jewell, ed., 1998 London/Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers 191 pp. £14.95 ISBN 1–85302–631‐X

Dying, Death and Bereavement in a British Hindu Community New Religious Identities in the Western World Volume 1 Shirley Firth, 1997 Leuven, Belgium: Peeters 240 pp., BEF 1070 (pb) ISBN 90–6831–976–0

Interpreting Death: Christian Theology and Pastoral Practice Peter C. Jupp & Tony Roger, eds., 1997 London: Cassell 218 pp., £16.99 ISBN 0–304–33784–6

Historical Dictionary of the Bahá'í Faith Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements, No. 17 Hugh C. Adamson & Philip Hainsworth, 1998 Lanham, Md., & London: The Scarecrow Press ix + 505 pp., US$ 65.00 (hb) ISBN 0–8108–3353–0

Taking With The Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff Thenomenon’ William Patrick Patterson, 1998 Fairfax, California: Arete Communications 149 pp., US$12.95 (pb) ISBN 1–879514–10–9     

Population psychology in perspective(1)

Many aspects of population, from fertility regulation to migration, may be viewed as examples of human behavior occurring within a particular socio-economic and environmental context, and thus appropriate for psychological research. Especially considered in this paper are (1) the current status of population growth and the importance of population processes as research topics for psychologists; (2) basic assumptions concerning the complementarity of behavioral and biomedical sciences in population research; (3) behavioral science contributions, specifically from psychology; and (4) recommendations for cooperative multidisciplinary efforts.     

The within-list distributed practice effect: Tests of the varied context and varied encoding hypotheses

The present studies provided separate tests of the varied context and varied encoding hypotheses of the MP-DP effect. The investigation of varied encoding used an incidental learning procedure in which the nature of the orienting task was manipulated such that the subject attended to different attributes of words (varied encoding) or only one attribute (same encoding). While the prediction that the recall of MP-DP items should be comparable under comparable levels of encoding was not supported, differences were obtained in recall of items under same and variable orienting task conditions. An MP-DP effect was obtained under the incidental learning procedure. Tests of varied context involved the presentation of target items in list contexts which were the same or different from list contexts on previous occurrences of the item. The prediction that recall of items surrounded by different context should exceed that of items surrounded by the same context was not supported.     

Response patterning on an avoidance schedule as a function of time-correlated stimuli

Control of avoidance response patterning by time-correlated stimuli was studied in rhesus monkeys. At several shock-shock = response-shock intervals, the intervals were divided into 8, 4, or 2 time segments by correlating, respectively, 1, 2, or 4 discrete lights of an eight-light display with each successive segment. A further condition examined response patterning when the avoidance interval was not segmented: all eight lights of the display were lit throughout the interval. Reversal of the order in which the lights were lit in sequence was also examined. Generally, increasing the number of lights lit at one time (decreasing the number of signalled time segments) increased response rates and shifted interresponse time distributions to the left. When the lights were lit one at a time, signalling eight discrete time segments of the interval, response rates were consistently low.     

Some situational determinants of the motives attributed to the person who performs a helping act

Two studies were directed at the assessment of donor motives for and appropriateness and evaluation of an unsolicited helping act directed at a high versus a low power person by self or other Results of the first study demonstrated no differences between self and other, but highly significant differences between high and low power on all three dependent measures, with an act directed at a high power person being seen as more self-seeking and being more negatively evaluated. A manipulation of liking for other in the second study resulted in significant differences between self and a disliked other on all three measures, with more negative attributions and evaluations of die disliked other As predicted, there were no differences between self and a liked other Power differences remained significant over all conditions of self and other Results were considered not to be attributable to trans-situational need states of the low power person, however, the act was consistently viewed as more appropriate when directed at a low power person.     

Effects of educational and career exploration system on vocational maturity

An experimental group of 792 tenth graders spent from 1 to 17 hr (average 3 hr) on ECES, a computer-based educational and occupational exploration system.Gains on a test of vocational maturity administered at the beginning and end of the school year were compared with a control group of 1453 tenth graders, matched on relevant variables. ECES users showed larger gains than nonusers in (1) degree of planfulness and (2) knowledge and use of resources for career exploration, as measured by the Career Development Inventory, not in information about education, occupations and career decision making. Gains were related to amount of time spent on ECES but male-female differences were not exhibited.     

Repeated acquisition of response sequences: stimulus control and drugs.

Pigeons obtained food by making four responses on three keys in a specified sequence, e.g., left, right, center, right. Under the "tandem-learning" condition, all three keys were the same color throughout the response sequence, and the sequence was changed from session to session. After total errors per session (overall accuracy) and within-session error reduction (learning) had stabilized, the effects of varying doses phenobarbital and chlordiazepoxide were assessed. For comparison, the drug tests were also conducted under a "tandem-performance" condition, in which the response sequence was the same from session to session, and under corresponding "chain-learning" and "chain-performance" conditions, where different colored keylights were associated with the response sequence. Under all four baseline conditions, the largest dose of each drug impaired overall accuracy. Under the two learning conditions, the error rate decreased across trials within each session, but the degree of negative acceleration was less in the drug sessions than in the control sessions. In contrast, under the two performance conditions, the error rate was relatively constant across trials, but was higher in the drug sessions than in the control sessions. Of the four baselines, the chain-learning condition was the most sensitive to the drug effects.     

Memory for unique personal events: Effects of pleasantness

College students recorded unique personal events for a 3-month period. At the time of recording, they rated the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the event. Subsequent memory ratings showed no effect of type of affect (i.e., pleasant vs. unpleasant events) but a strong influence of intensity of affect. In contrast, the data for estimating the date of occurrence of events showed an effect of type of affect, with pleasant events estimated more accurately than unpleasant events. A detailed analysis of the data indicated that the effect could not be attributed to the predictability of pleasant events. A red-letter day effect was proposed as an explanation for the estimation data.