Organizational and family systems factors in stress among ministers

Forty-one Protestant ministers completed measures of stress-related symptoms, family of origin contact, church governing body density, history of pastor-parish conflict in the church, and a measure of Bowen's (1959b/1985) concept of emotional triangles. A denominational executive provided ratings of each church's history of pastor-parish conflict. Path analysis using multiple regression showed support for a model in which governing body density and history of conflict predicted emotional triangles, and emotional triangles predicted stress symptoms. Contact with the pastor's family of origin moderated the relationship between emotional triangles and stress symptoms. Results suggest that the organizational and family ecology of the ministerial role can be important in understanding occupational stress among ministers.     

From the desk of the IFA president : International fluency association priorities: A poll of potential members

Potential members of the International Fluency Association (IFA) were polled regarding their fluency interests and perceived priorities for the organization during the year it was founded (in 1990). Results from 201 respondents indicated that a need for the IFA existed among researchers, clinicians, and representatives of self-help organizations for people who stutter. Improving the quality of treatment for those who stutter was considered the highest priority by all three groups. Researchers were of the opinion that the Journal of Fluency Disorders should be of higher quality than it had been in the past, and clinicians were most interested in reviews of new and relevant materials.     

The fear potentiated startle effect

A differential conditioning study examined whether an acoustic startle probe, presented during extinction of an aversively conditioned visual stimulus, potentiated the reflex eyeblink response in humans and whether this potentiation varied with the change in affective valence of the conditioned stimulus. Sixty college students were randomly assigned to view a series of two slides, depicting either unpleasant/highly arousing, unpleasant/moderate arousing, neutral/calm, pleasant/moderate arousing or pleasant/highly arousing scenes and objects (duration: 8 sec). During preconditioning (8 trials) and extinction (24 trials) acoustic startle probes (white noise bursts [50 ms; 95 dBA] were administered during and between slide presentation). During acquisition (16 trials) CS+ was reinforced by an electric shock. Startle response magnitudes significantly increased from preconditioning to extinction and were substantially larger to CS+. Conditioned startle reflex augmentation linearly increased with the pleasantness of the slides. Furthermore, subjects showed a greater post-conditioning increase of judged aversiveness to slides that they had previously reported to be more pleasant, exactly paralleling the startle reflex results.

     

The simultaneous and independent measurement of penile circumference and length

It has been recently shown that in the early stages of erection, the human penis undergoes a substantial length change that is not detected using circumferential measurement devices. The present report introduces a relatively simple device that can assess changes in both length and circumference. The device promises to provide a low-cost alternative to the precision and sensitivity associated with plethysmography.     

Serial learning in the pigeon.

Three pigeons learned to peck four colors in a particular sequence, regardless of how these colors were positioned on four response keys and without feedback following each response. This demonstrates that serial learning is possible in subprimate animals.     

"EVERYMAN'S ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT": A DISSIDENT VERSION

We must agree, I think, with Frank Ebersole that there is something preposterous in supposing that the God of religious belief, the God who handed down tablets to Moses on Mt. Sinai, etc., should be proven to exist by the ontological argument. Indeed, when we place the one, the ontological argument, by the side of the other, the God of religious belief, there seems hardly to be any connection between them. But if we agree to this perception of things, what sense can we make of the ontological argument, for example, the “pull” that it sometimes exerts on us?     

Psychoanalysis and systems in family therapy

This paper describes three frames of reference for understanding family function. The three frames are (1) The Life-cycle of the Family, (2) The Intergenerational, Historical Aspects of the Family, (3) The Interactional Structure of the Family. It is suggested that these three frames can provide a detailed formulation of family functioning and disturbance in order to plan rational foci, strategies, techniques and aims of family therapy.     

The use of teachers as behavioral observers

The effect of using teachers as behavioral observers on both student and teacher behavior was examined with eight teachers and 32 elementary school children. The frequency of prompts (but not praise or criticism) to those students observed by the teacher increased significantly from nonobserver to teacher observed experimental phases. In addition, students observed by the teacher showed more change in appropriate behavior than students who were not observed. The significance of these findings for research and therapy is discussed.