Preferences for Spousal Support Among Individuals With Cancer1

Although it is known that individuals have preferences for different forms or amounts of social support from others when dealing with life events, such preferences have not been subject to extensive empirical examination. We examined preferences for spousal emotional and instrumental support, as well as preferences for spousal control-encouraging responses, among 151 individuals with cancer. Dispositional and situation-specific factors were placed into a hypothetical model predicting support preferences. Results confirmed predictions: Preferences for emotional and instrumental aspects of support were related to dispositional (affiliative need), person (gender), and contextual (disease impairment) variables. As predicted, higher affiliative need predicted higher preference for emotional support. However, functional impairment did not predict preferences for more instrumental support, and this variable only predicted preferences for more emotional support among female patients. Individuals’ preferences for control encouragement from their spouses were associated with attributions of personal responsibility for solving general life problems and indirectly associated with internal locus of control. These results provide an initial conceptual model for understanding cancer patients’ preferences for support.     

Letting Go: For Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Health

This article weaves together some fundamental spiritual and psychological principles, and draws on different perspectives on how people in the West can find healthy release in the concept of letting go.     

Effect of nutritional supplements on Attentional-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

This study reports the effects of two nutritional products upon the severity of symptoms in children with confirmed diagnoses of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a glyconutritional product containing saccharides known to be important in healthy functioning and a phytonutritional product containing flash-dried fruits and vegetables. Seventeen ADHD children were recruited from a local parent support group. Parents of five of the subjects did not have their children on methylphenidate. Of the remaining twelve, all on methylphenidate, six were left on prescribed doses (random assignment). The other six had their doses reduced by half after two weeks (study duration was six weeks). The subjects were assessed initially and three subsequent times over a period of six weeks (longitudinal nonrandomized design). The behavior disorder items for ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Conduct Disorder (CD) as listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) were rated by teachers and parents on a 3-point scale. Also included was a Side Effects Scale described by Barkley (1990). The children received the glyconutritional supplement for the entire six weeks. After three weeks, the phytonutritional supplement was added to the diet to increase the probability of positive results. The glyconutritional supplement decreased the number and severity of ADHD, associated ODD and CD symptoms, and side effects in all groups during the first two weeks of the study. There was little further reduction with the addition of the phytonutritional supplement. The three study groups did not differ statistically in degree of reduction over observations. Present results suggest that symptoms of ADHD may be reduced by the addition to the diet of saccharides used by the body in glycoconjugate synthesis.     

Book reviews

Déclarations Communes Islamo‐Chrétiennes 1954–1995: textes originaux et traductions françaises. Choix de textes présentés par: Juliette Nasri Haddad, sous la direction de: Augustin Dupré la Tour et Dr Hisham Nashabé, 1997. Beyrouth, Dar el‐Machreq, Distribution Librairie Orientale, B.P. 1986, Beyrouth, Liban. 376 pp. + 14 large charts, hb. np., ISBN 2 7214 5008 5

Ultimate Visions: reflections on the religions we choose. Martin Forward (Ed.), 1995. Oxford, One World Publications. 208 pp., pb. $14.95, ISBN 1 85168 100 0

Cross and Crescent: responding to the challenge of Islam. Colin Chapman, 1995. Leicester, Inter‐Varsity Press. 364 pp., pb. £9.99, ISBN 0 85110 992 6

Louis Massignon: the crucible of compassion. Mary Louise Gude, 1996. Notre Dame and London, University of Notre Dame Press. 283 pp., hb. np., ISBN 0 268 031308 X

The New Islamic Dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual. C. E. Bosworth, 1996. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 389 pp., hb. £49.50, ISBN 0 7486 0684 X

A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism. Majid Fakhry, 1997. Oxford, Oneworld. 151 pp., pb. £8.99, $13.95, ISBN 1 85168 134 5

Religion and Politics under the Early ‘Abbasids: the emergence of the proto‐Sunni elite. Muhammad Qasim Zaman, 1997. Leiden, Brill. 232 pp., hb, Nlg 137.00, US$85.75, ISBN 90 04 10678 2

NichtMuslimische Untertanen im Islam: Grundlage, Ideologie und Praxis der Politik frühislamischer Herrscher gegenüber ihren nichtMuslimischen Untertanen mit besonderem Blick auf die Dynastie der Abbasiden (749–1248). (Studies in Oriental Religions, 34). Wolfgang Kallfelz, 1995. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag. 180 pp., pb. np., ISBN 3 447 03720 2

Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought. Louise Marlow, 1997. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 194 pp., hb. np., ISBN 0 521 56430 1

The Dual Nature of Islamic Fundamentalism. Johannes J. G. Jansen, 1997. Ithaca, Cornell University Press/London, Hurst & Co.. 197 pp., hb. £25.00, ISBN 1 85065 274 0

Islam and Democracy. John Esposito & John Voll, 1996. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 232 pp., pb. £16.99, ISBN 0 19 510816 7

New World Order: Western fundamentalism in action. S. M. KORESHI, 199?. Islamabad, Institute of Policy Studies and Islamabad Publications. 306 pp., hb. Rs.250.00, ISBN 969 448 039 6

Das Eigene als Fremdes: Chancen und Bedingungen des christlich‐islamischen Dialogs. Ralf Geisler, 1997. Hannover, Lutherisches Verlagshaus. 104 pp., hb. DM24.80, ISBN 3 7859 0741 9

Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Barbara D. Metcalf (Ed.), 1996. Berkeley and London, University of California Press. xix + 264 pp., hb. $50, £40, ISBN 0 520 20403 4; pb. $20, £15, ISBN 0 520 20404 2

Allah in the West: Islamic movements in America and Europe. GILLES KEPEL, 1997. Oxford, Polity Press. 273 pp., pb. £13.95, ISBN 0 7156 1558 9

An Occasion For War: civil conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860. Leila Tarazi Fawaz, 1994. Berkeley, University of California Press. 302 pp., pb. $17.00, ISBN 0 520 20086 1

Master and Disciple: the cultural foundations of Moroccan authoritarianism. Abdellah Hammoudi, 1997. Chicago & London, Chicago University Press. 195 pp., hb. £30.50, ISBN 0 226 31527 4; pb. £11.92, ISBN 0 226 31528 2

Islam in South‐East Asia: a study for Christians. Robert A. Hunt, 1997. New York, General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church; Petaling Jaya [Malaysia], Methodist Church of Malaysia. vii+ 172 pp., pb. np., ISBN 1 890569 04 6     

Premature termination: A risk in eating disorder groups

This study examines the influence of combined vs. conjoint psychotherapy on the phenomenon of premature termination in eating disorder groups. Thirty-eight women with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa or bulimia enrolled in group psychotherapy were designated as group completers or premature terminators using individually defined treatment objectives. Those eating disorder patients in combined group and individual psychotherapy showed a lower frequency of premature termination than patients in conjoint group and individual psychotherapy.     

A prospective study of life events,social support,and psychological symptomatology during the transition from high school to college

Life events, perceived social support, and psychological symptoms were studied prospectively among older adolescents during the transition from high school to college. These variables were reciprocally related to one another in patterns which changed over a period of 6 months. The findings are supportive of a transactional model of stress that emphasizes reciprocal, rather than linear, paths of influence. Further, the study highlights the importance of studying stress and social support during life transitions that may constitute periods of greater vulnerability to life events.     

Romantic Love,Altruism, and Self-Respect: An Analysis of Simone De Beauvoir

I examine Beauvoir's moral assessment of Romantic Love in The Second Sex. I first set out Beauvoir's central philosophical assumptions concerning the nature and situations of women, setting the framework for her analysis of the intersubjective dynamic which constitutes the phenomenology of romantic loving. In this process four double-bind paradoxes are generated which can lead, ultimately, to servility in the woman who loves. In a separate analysis, I ask whether it is wrong for a woman to aspire to and/or choose this form of servitude. I distinguish two kinds of considerations: (1) those having to do with the intrinsic moral nature of the commitment or decision, and (2) those based on considerations of harm: first, to the woman who loves; second, to the loved Other; third to the nature of the relationship; and fourth, to society in general.     

Characteristics of the mentally retarded adolescent offender and their implications for residential treatment design

While numerous residential programs for mentally retarded adolescent offenders have been established throughout this country, no empirically-based population characteristics have been compiled which are sufficient to guide their systematic design. This study assessed 65 such young offenders along various treatment-relevant dimensions, and used the resultant data to portray an average, hypothetical youth. Based on that profile, a compatible habilitation model was derived. It was concluded that a basic point economy, augmented by timeout procedures and supported by a secure (locked) setting, seems to be a viable approach for initiating treatment with these youth. Thereafter, programming should continue in a nonsecure group home, and finally, on an outpatient basis, in the generic community service system.     

Differential effects of congenital left and right brain injury on intelligence

IQ performance was compared in 28 prepubertal children with unilateral left vs. right hemisphere preperinatal injury. Results indicated statistically superior FSIQ and VIQ in the left-lesioned group. Findings were interpreted as consistent with the hypothesis of a left-right maturational gradient, whereby early right hemisphere damage has a more severe effect on overall intellectual functioning than early left injury. Findings also lend support for a greater crowding effect, as seen in the sparing of verbal skills, after early left hemisphere injury.