A factor analysis of a 100-item fear survey inventory

A 100-item fear survey schedule was constructed by compiling all previously published fear surveys to effect a more comprehensive assessment technique. It was administered to 435 college students. Reliability estimates of this instrument approximated 0.87. An orthogonal factor analysis was performed, and yielded 21 interpretable factors within each sex. Sixteen of these were similar across sex. The major areas of fear response were: social criticism; medical intervention; contamination; sudden noises; cars; death.

Previous research had indicated a four factor structure. Results of this study indicate that the number of factors varies with the number of input items. The present study presents a more comprehensive picture of the underlying factor structure of fear responding.     

Constructing New Realities: Integrating Womanist Traditions in Pastoral Counseling with African-American Women

Womanist cultural and spiritual themes are rich resources for pastoral counseling with African-American women. The authors describe womanist cultural themes, present a case example of an African-American woman struggling with identity issues, and provide specific strategies for incorporating womanist cultural and spiritual patterns in counseling African-American women. Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education atCounseling Psychology and Counselor Education at     

Psychological Contracts, Organizational and Job Commitment

Increased use of time-limited contracts as the mainstay of employer-employee relations has implications for the psychological character of the exchange relationship. To investigate this, the current study is framed by Rousseau's (1995) psychological contract model (PCM). The psychological contract pertains to beliefs held by individuals about their contractual terms and conditions. The findings yield evidence for Rousseau's distinction between two types of contractual belief (relational and transactional), as well as the explanatory potential of the PCM over and above the concept of organizational commitment. As predicted. temporary workers were more transactional than relational in their contractual orientation. The findings are discussed with reference to a need to develop a theoretical basis for research on organizational involvement.     

Positive weighing of the other's collective narrative among Jewish and Bedouin‐Palestinian teachers in Israel and its correlates

Teachers play a pivotal role in the educational discourse around collective narratives, and especially the other's narrative. The study assumed that members of groups entangled in a conflict approach the different modules of the other's narrative distinctively. Jewish and Palestinian teachers, Israeli citizens, answered questionnaires dealing with the narrative of the other, readiness for interethnic contact, negative between‐group emotions and preferences for resolutions of the Israeli–Palestinian (I–P) conflict. Positive weighing of the other's narrative among Jewish teachers correlated with high levels of readiness for interethnic contact and low levels of negative between‐group emotions, across the various modules of the Palestinian narrative. Preferences for a peaceful resolution of the I–P conflict and rejection of a violent one were noted in two of the modules. Among Palestinian teachers, positive weighing of the other's collective narrative was exclusively noted for the Israeli narrative of the Holocaust, and this stance negatively related to negative between‐group emotions and preference for a violent solution of the I–P conflict, and positively related to readiness for interethnic contact and preference of a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Practical implications of these findings for peace education are discussed.     

Commentary on high-performance computing and its promises for the behavioral sciences

Even with the advent of magnetic resonance imaging and other sophisticated physiological research, we have not made a great leap forward in creating a physiological map relating each neuron to its activity involved in simple day-to-day psychological processes. In contrast to notable progress in human vision research, we have yet to model the simplest of our daily memory processes in memory research.     

High-performance computer applications in the behavioral sciences

This symposium revisited the 1985 conference on Advanced Computing for Psychology. That meeting examined the application of new supercomputers in the behavioral sciences. The present symposium reviewed high-performance computing as applied to psychological models, human vision, neuralphysiological processes, and statistical analysis. The recent past and the projected future of high-performance computing in the behavioral sciences were evaluated.     

Balm in Gilead: Spiritual Dimensions in Counseling African American Women

The authors describe African American cultural and spiritual traditions that are the bedrock for therapeutic work with this population. Through the use of a clinical case, they link African American women's emotional issues with healing interventions borrowed from their rich heritage of religious and spiritual rituals and practices.