Fear Appeals in Political Rhetoric about Terrorism: An Analysis of Speeches by Australian Prime Minister Howard

This paper explores fear-arousing content in Australian former Prime Minister John Howard's political rhetoric about terrorism. We coded 27 speeches delivered between September 2001 and November 2007 for the presence of statements promoting fear-consistent appraisals ( Smith & Lazarus, 1993 ). Fear-arousing content was present in 24 of these speeches, but the amount of fear-arousing content varied markedly. In particular, rhetoric that raised doubts about the capacity of Australia and its allies to cope with terrorism was most strongly present in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq and at times of declining support for government policies. Textual analysis of three key speeches confirmed a marked difference between Howard's speech given immediately after the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the second and third speeches presented prior to and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These findings indicate that Howard has not consistently employed fear-inducing rhetoric in his speeches about terrorism, but that particular speeches appear to take this form, raising the possibility that fear-arousing rhetoric may have been selectively deployed to support his political purposes at those times.     

ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE PROCESSES

Research reported here concerns neural processes relating to stimulus equivalence class formation. In Experiment 1, two types of word pairs were presented successively to normally capable adults. In one type, the words had related usage in English (e.g., uncle, aunt). In the other, the two words were not typically related in their usage (e.g., wrist, corn). For pairs of both types, event‐related cortical potentials were recorded during and immediately after the presentation of the second word. The obtained waveforms differentiated these two types of pairs. For the unrelated pairs, the waveforms were significantly more negative about 400 ms after the second word was presented, thus replicating the “N400” phenomenon of the cognitive neuroscience literature. In addition, there was a strong positive‐tending wave form difference post‐stimulus presentation (peaked at about 500 ms) that also differentiated the unrelated from related stimulus pairs. In Experiment 2, the procedures were extended to study arbitrary stimulus—stimulus relations established via matching‐to‐sample training. Participants were experimentally näive adults. Sample stimuli (Set A) were trigrams, and comparison stimuli (Sets B, C, D, E, and F) were nonrepresentative forms. Behavioral tests evaluated potentially emergent equivalence relations (i.e., BD, DF, CE, etc.). All participants exhibited classes consistent with the arbitrary matching training. They were also exposed also to an event‐related potential procedure like that used in Experiment 1. Some received the ERP procedure before equivalence tests and some after. Only those participants who received ERP procedures after equivalence tests exhibited robust N400 differentiation initially. The positivity observed in Experiment 1 was absent for all participants. These results support speculations that equivalence tests may provide contextual support for the formation of equivalence classes including those that emerge gradually during testing.     

Intensive (Daily) Behavior Therapy for School Refusal: A Multiple Baseline Case Series

The following multiple baseline case series examines school refusal behavior in 4 male adolescents. School refusal symptom presentation was ascertained utilizing a functional analysis from the School Refusal Assessment Scale (Kearney, 2002). For the majority of cases, treatment was conducted within a 15-session intensive format over a 3-week period. Treatment elements included cognitive-behavioral therapy with the adolescent, parent training sessions, or a combination of these strategies. Treatment was effective for 3 of 4 cases in the short term. At 3-year follow-up, all 3 of the acute treatment responders had switched to alternative educational programs, although parents rated them as significantly improved and less impaired compared to pretreatment. Obstacles to treatment, and recommendations for program improvement, are discussed.     

Evaluative pressure in mothers: effects of situation, maternal, and child characteristics on autonomy supportive versus controlling behavior

This study examined the effects of situational pressure and maternal characteristics (social contingent self-worth, controlling parenting attitudes) on mothers' autonomy support versus control in the social domain. Sixty 4th-grade children and their mothers worked on a laboratory task in preparation for meeting new children, with mothers in either an evaluation (mothers told their child would be evaluated by other children) or no-evaluation (no mention of evaluation) condition. Mothers in the evaluation condition spent more time giving answers to their children. Mothers with controlling parenting attitudes exhibited more controlling behavior. Further, mothers with high social contingent self-worth in the evaluation condition were most controlling. Results suggest the importance of interactions between situations and maternal characteristics in determining levels of mothers' autonomy support versus control and have implications for helping parents support children's autonomy.     

Assessment protocol for identifying preferred social consequences

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit deficits in social behavior. Because social consequences may be ineffective or evoke undesirable behavior, teaching interventions for this population may rely heavily on edible or activity reinforcers. This report describes a method, appropriate for young children with ASD, for rapidly identifying social reinforcers and assessing relative preferences among social consequences. The free‐operant behavior of three such children was analyzed in three Social Consequence conditions that alternated with an Extinction condition. The results identified some social consequences that functioned as reinforcers and others to which the child was relatively indifferent. The implications of this study may be particularly pertinent for teaching behavior, like joint attention skills, that is maintained by social reinforcers in the natural environment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simul What? Toward a Grace for the Fearful

The doctrines of forensic justification and simul iustus et peccator assume a primarily moral theo‐cosmology. However, the former constricts the excessiveness of divine grace, while the latter fails to adequately capture the fullness of the human condition. Freeing divine grace and theological anthropology from the moral requires a shift in emphasis toward suffering and an acknowledgment that a deep root of sin is creaturely vulnerability. In this case, the incurved self might symbolize the fearful, pulling goods toward the self for protection. While accountability for sin remains important, the first response to the fearful, who act from a sense of deep vulnerability, is compassion rather than judgment. In this way grace attends to but ultimately exceeds the moral.     

Social Class, Race, and Ethnicity: Career Interventions for Women Domestic Violence Survivors

This story describes a community intervention study conducted with women domestic violence survivors and a research dilemma related to the complex interrelationships between women's social class, race and ethnicity, and career development needs and experiences. The author presents diversity and research dilemmas related to facilitating women's critical consciousness of power dynamics at work in their lives. The influence of community context, career intervention curricula, and research team members' values on research decisions are described. This story highlights the importance of researchers examining their values and how those values impact the communities that they serve.     

Effects of induced emotional state on lexical processing in younger and older adults

The authors investigated the effects of an induced emotional mood state on lexical decision task (LDT) performance in 50 young adults and 25 older adults. Participants were randomly assigned to either happy or sad mood induction conditions. An emotional mood state was induced by having the participants listen to 8 min of classical music previously rated to induce happy or sad moods. Results replicated previous studies with young adults (i.e., sad-induced individuals responded faster to sad words and happy-induced individuals responded faster to happy words) and extended this pattern to older adults. Results are discussed with regard to information processing, aging, and emotion.     

Expanding White Racial Identity Theory: A Qualitative Investigation of Whites Engaged in Antiracist Action

This article presents outcomes of a qualitative exploration of White racial identity. Ten participants whose characteristics were reflective of Helms's ( 1990 ) autonomy status defined their racial identities and related lifestyle choices. Findings are conceptualized within the framework of Helms's ( 1990 , 1995 ) theory of White racial identity development. Suggestions are intended to enhance White racial identity theory and provide empirical support for characteristics of Whites who are engaged in antiracist activities.