The protestant eruption into modern Brazilian politics

Brazil's fast‐growing Protestantism has contributed to a resacralisation of national politics in recent years. This is largely due to the politics practised by some of the large Pentecostal churches since 1986, using their corporate political power to strengthen internal leaderships and structure Brazil's huge popular Protestant field, as well as to gain resources for religious expansion and dispute space in civil religion. Corporate Protestant politics have been marked by corruption scandals and by politically motivated attempts to create representative organs capable of mediating the increasingly important relationship with the state. One new Pentecostal group (the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) has established one of the largest media empires in the country and, in the 1994 elections, considerably augmented its political power and polarised the Protestant community with respect to its project of hegemony in the religious field. Thus, while Protestant politics can be considered generally positive for Brazilian democracy, the rise of such a politically powerful hegemonic force within the Protestant field gives a more sinister character to the ever‐present corporatist and triumphalist ambitions.     

Pupillometry system for use in social psychology

It is now relatively easy to implement pupillometry in social psychological research. We describe a system in which a Macintosh computer presents visual and auditory stimuli to subjects while monitoring an infrared pupillometer. The computer records information on subject, task, and pupil diameter into a data file for input into standard statistical analysis programs. Pupil diameter is measured continuously while subjects respond to stimuli that last for several seconds or minutes. A demonstration experiment verifies the usefulness of the system. The ability of the Macintosh computer to easily handle visual and auditory stimuli and to record responses lasting a considerable length of time makes the system well suited for studying pupil responses to complex social stimuli. This system is also well suited for the researcher initiating a research program using pupillometry. Ease of operation makes using a large number of subjects feasible.     

An optical encoder and XY oscilloscope interface for the IBM PC

This paper outlines a prototype dual-purpose interface card for the IBM PC for use in research on motor learning and control. The card enables automatic interfacing for up to four angular optical encoders and presents high-speed visual data on an XY oscilloscope. In addition, it uses two single-chip microcontrollers with minimal external hardware, providing a more powerful instrument than is available in discrete hardware. Two microcontrollers operate independently of the experimental computer (IBM PC), using a common interface allowing the exchange of data. This interface card frees the experimental computer from the workload associated with optical encoders and high-speed XY displays, resulting in less complex experimental setups and data collection programs.     

体操运动员比赛时尿内儿茶酚胺的排出量

测量了37名体操运动员在比赛前和训练前的血压和脉率,并测了25名运动员赛前、赛后和训练后尿内儿茶酚胺的排出量。结果发现男子组赛前舒张压比训练前为高。比赛后尿内去甲肾上腺素排出量男女组均显著高于比赛前,男子组训练后尿内去甲肾上腺素排出量比比赛后略低,而女子组则比比赛后有明显降低。说明男子组去甲肾上腺素的排出增加与情绪的关系较少,而女子组则与情绪关系较密切。赛后肾上腺素排出量男女组均有明显增加,训练后排出量均比比赛后排出量低。女子组在赛前、赛后、训练后肾上腺素排出量均比男子组为低,但差异未达显著水平。比赛中发挥好的肾上腺素排出量倾向较低。     

20岁至90岁成人的某些记忆活动的变化

本工作是我们过去关于记忆年老化研究的继续。记忆材料为自行设计并与全国若干单位协作编制的“试用临床记忆量表”。受试为健康成人210名.分为7个年龄组,各组性别、文化匹配。每组有20名并作韦氏成人智力量表检查。结果:1.成年至老年记忆变化总的趋势是,50岁组开始有明显减退,70岁后又有更显著的减退。2.在智力匹配条件下记忆年老化趋势相同(20、40、50、60、70岁年龄组)。3.无意义图形再认和有关联想学习年龄差异最小,无关联想学习和人像的姓氏,爱好特点回忆年龄差异最大,表明老年人建立无关的全新的联系困难。据此,作者指出老年记忆障碍可能是编码储存和提取困难相互作用的结果。     

Further tests of a meta-model of youthful marijuana use

This paper tests a meta-model of youthful marijuana use on students in Grades 11, 12 and 13. Although the specific models for each grade varied in detail, all followed a meta-model making the following assumptions: (1) that use or nonuse of marijuana depends primarily on attitude towards use; (2) that attitude largely reflects the perceived functional and dysfunctional consequences of use; and (3) that what people perceive as functional or dysfunctional depends on relevant personality characteristics. All three models showed satisfactory goodness-of-fit in terms of nonsignificant overidentification tests (minimum P > 0.25) and small discrepancies between observed correlations and the corresponding theoretically implied correlations. A notable feature of the Grade 13 data in contrast to those for Grade 12 and previously reported findings was the seeming unimportance of the perceived value of marijuana use for gaining acceptance from peers. It was suggested that this might reflect the selective survival into Grade 13 in the sampled community of more independently-oriented students.     

Social attitudes of schizophrenics

The Wilson-Patterson Conservatism Scale was given to 34 schizophrenic and 34 non-schizophrenic patients in a Dutch mental hospital. The absence of liberal-scoring schizophrenics was interpreted as consistent with the theory that the social withdrawal seen in chronic schizophrenia represents a strategy for coping with stimulus overload. Internal consistency analysis of C scale performance indicated that this test might be used to assess thought disorder in much the same way as the Bannister and Fransella Grid Test, but a great deal more economically. Furthermore, the questionnaire permits a more detailed examination of the source of inconsistency than does the repertory grid method.