Book reviews

Dharmakirti's Theory of Hetu‐centricity of Anumāna. MANGALA R. CHINCHORE, 1989 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass i‐xvii+195 pp., Rs. 125.00

A Hindu Perspective on the Philosophy of Religion. ARVIND SHARMA, 1990 London, Macmillan 180 + xi pp., £35.00

Rationality and Mind in Early Buddhism. FRANK J. HOFFMAN, 1987 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 126 + xii pp., Rs. 75.00

Allah Transcendent: studies in the structure and semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology. IAN RICHARD NETTON, 1989 London, Routledge 383 pp., £45.00

Moses Maimonides. Arabic Thought and Culture Series OLIVER LEAMAN, 1990 London and New York, Routledge 190 + xii pp., £30.00 hb, £9.99 pb     

Medication use and the assessment of agoraphobic avoidance

Many anxiety disorder patients who present for behaviour therapy are already taking anxiolytic medications. The present study added a new subscale to the Mobility Inventory labelled ‘Without Medication’ to assess possible reliance on medication for coping with phobic situations. 121 Patients with panic-related disorders were administered the scale. The results supported the reliability and validity of the existing Mobility Inventory subscales in general and of the new subscale in particular. It appears to reliably assess a clinically important domain that is not measured in traditional self-report measures of phobic avoidance.     

The hyperactive child at adolescence: Cognitive,emotional, and social functioning

In view of the paucity of detailed followup studies on hyperactive children, the performance of 15 adolescents diagnosed hyperactive 5 years previously was compared to that of a control group of equivalent age, sex, intelligence, and social class. Eleven cognitive tests measuring sustained attention, visual-motor and motor skills, abstraction, and reading ability, as well as three self-assessment tests examining selfesteem, activity level, social functioning, academic status, and career aspirations were administered. The hyperactives performed significantly worse than the controls on the sustained attention, visualmotor, and motor tasks, and on two of the four reading tests. They also gave themselves significantly lower ratings on some of the selfesteem and sociability items. It would appear that the hyperactives at adolescence still have attentional and stimulus-processing difficulties, which affect not only their academic performance but also their social functioning.This study was supported by a Federal-Provincial Mental Health Grant to Dr. G. Weiss. The authors wish to thank Katherine Levine and Margaret Radigan for their assistance with test preparation and scoring. Thanks are also extended to Ken MacRae for his computer-processing advice, particularly his help with several multivariate and principal components analyses from which the present authors have derived their current theoretical position. Klaus Minde and Nancy Cohen are now at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, while Elizabeth Hoy is at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.     

Women in the Ottoman World: A bibliographical essay

Although research on women's history in the Ottoman Empire made a late start, the field has over the past few years expanded so rapidly that a bibliographical survey is an urgent desideratum. This essay is an introduction to important and representative monographs, edited volumes and articles which have appeared in Turkish, English, German and French. The selection may serve as a research tool, at the same time pointing out obvious lacunae in our knowledge of sources and our understanding of historical and social contexts.     

Therapieabbrüche in der stationären Psychotherapie

This article focuses on the patients’ view of the causes and consequences of premature therapy termination in inpatient psychosomatic setting. In this study, drop-out patients and non-drop-out patients were questioned in semi-structured phone interviews (n=62). The causes of early termination are seen in this study to be connected with an internal, somatic concept of disease, discontent with treatment, and social interaction problems in the hospital. In 80% of the examined cases more than two causes were reported. Consequently, early termination of treatment can be considered as an outcome of multifactorial influences. Furthermore, a group of “inner drop-outs” has been identified within the non-drop-out patients. Despite high discontent, these patients remained in treatment because they often feared possible negative consequences of early treatment termination. Both drop-outs and inner drop-outs scored lower in outcome analysis than the remaining patients. This study points to problem areas that can help identify potential drop-out patients.     

What must a psychological theory of reasoning explain? Comment on Barrouillet, Gauffroy, and Lecas (2008)

In this comment, it is argued that the modification of mental models theory of conditional inference proposed by P. Barrouillet, C. Gauffroy, and J.-F. Lecas to deal with truth value gaps merely patches up a problem in the theory, rather than accomplishing the fundamental and systematic revision that is necessary. It is argued that P. Barrouillet et al.'s modified mental model theory fails to meet the criteria of good theory of reasoning by invoking an algorithmic-level distinction to resolve a failing in the computational-level theory of the task.     

Hyperformulas and Solid Algebraic Systems

Defining a composition operation on sets of formulas one obtains a many-sorted algebra which satisfies the superassociative law and one more identity. This algebra is called the clone of formulas of the given type. The interpretations of formulas on an algebraic system of the same type form a many-sorted algebra with similar properties. The satisfaction of a formula by an algebraic system defines a Galois connection between classes of algebraic systems of the same type and collections of formulas. Hypersubstitutions are mappings sending pairs of operation symbols to pairs of terms of the corresponding arities and relation symbols to formulas of the same arities. Using hypersubstitutions we define hyperformulas. Satisfaction of a hyperformula by an algebraic system defines a second Galois connection between classes of algebraic systems of the same type and collections of formulas. A class of algebraic systems is said to be solid if every formula which is satisfied is also satisfied as a hyperformula. On the basis of these two Galois connections we construct a conjugate pair of additive closure operators and are able to characterize solid classes of algebraic systems. Presented by Wojciech Buszkowski     

The relationship between marital standards,dyadic coping and marital satisfaction

Different types of cognitions in close relationships have been identified. Yet, little is known about the nature and effects of most of them, such as marital standards. In our research project ‘What makes marriages last?’ we applied a German adaptation of the ‘Inventory of Specific Relationship Standards,’ a questionnaire measuring how much sharing, egalitarianism and investment spouses feel they should have and actually experience in their own marriage. We hypothesized that high, i.e., relationship‐focused standards, should be associated with dyadic coping processes as well as with marital satisfaction. Thereby, dyadic coping was expected to play a mediating role between standards and marital satisfaction. Based on a sample of 663 German married couples, we found significant correlations between standards, marital satisfaction, and dyadic coping processes. Moreover, supportive behavior in stressful situations had the expected partial mediating effect, which turned out to be slightly different for husbands and wives. Implications for preventive and therapeutic intervention are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.