Examining the Clinical Efficacy of Core Transformation: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This randomized clinical trial with a sample of adults (N = 129) from India explored the effects of a single core‐transformation session on symptom experience and psychological growth. The results over the total 8‐week study period indicated significant, moderate overall effect sizes (ds = 0.63 and 0.52) for symptom experience, emotional stability, affect balance, global well‐being, and purpose in life. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.     

The Origins of Religious Stratification in Colonial America

Religious stratification occurs when religion is institutionalized in the laws and/or customs of society as a criterion for the allocation of social positions and their attendant rewards. The result is a relatively stable ranking of religious groups in terms of their access to power, privilege, and prestige. In this article, we examine the social processes that contributed to the emergence of religious stratification in colonial America. Following Weber (1946), Lenski (1966), and Noel (1968), we use a "modified fair shares" theory that highlights the importance of three contributing influences: religious prejudice, competition, and differential power. After explaining the role played by each of these factors, we document the existence and enduring nature of religious stratification in the colonies. The evidence includes data on the religious establishments that arose in some colonies, other regulations governing access to scarce resources (such as the right to vote and hold public office), and differential access to economic and political power based on religious adherence. We conclude with observations about the need for further research on religious stratification in America.     

Aggregate Theory Versus Set Theory

Maddy's (1990) arguments against Aggregate Theory were undermined by the shift in her position in 1997. The present paper considers Aggregate Theory in the light of this, and the recent search for `New Axioms for Mathematics'. If Set Theory is the part-whole theory of singletons, then identifying singletons with their single members collapses Set Theory into Aggregate Theory. But if singletons are not identical to their single members, then they are not extensional objects and so are not a basis for Science. Either way, the Continuum Hypothesis has no physical interest.     

Evaluating the relative effectiveness of three aversion therapies designed to reduce craving among cocaine abusers

Crack cocaine use and dependence has been steadily increasing since the mid‐1980s. Treatment approaches vary from simple psychotherapy to intensive medication regimens. One clear phenomenon that has been implicated in the continued use and abuse of crack cocaine is craving. Craving is believed to be a response that has been conditioned with previous drug using episodes, and is elicited by environmental cues. The current study investigated the use of three aversion therapies (chemical, covert sensitization, and faradic) designed to eliminate craving for cocaine. Seventy subjects were randomly assigned to one of three aversion treatments or a relaxation control condition. Results indicate that aversion therapy reduces crack cocaine craving. The use of aversion therapy as an adjunct to traditional treatment programs for reducing craving is discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novelty,familiarity, and infant reasoning

Where stimuli are possibly discriminable but do not elicit spontaneous differential looking it is customary to use one or other variation of the habituation–dishabituation method in order to investigate their discriminability, and the literature abounds with such studies. However, there are many variations on habituation–dishabituation procedures, varying both within and between the sensory modalities investigated. Additionally, infant attention is a dynamic process which is likely to change over time, and given the great variations in procedures it can often be difficult to know whether infants are giving a familiarity or a novelty preference at test, which can make interpretation of results a difficult, and often controversial problem. Houston‐Price and Nakai give some clear examples of the changing nature of infant preferences, and relate them particularly to the amount of familiarisation prior to testing. The model they favour (and which receives a good deal of support) is that put forward by (among others) Hunter and Ames (1988) in which preferences change over the course of familiarisation time, from preference for neither familiarity or novelty, to familiarity, to no preference, to a novelty preference. They suggest that ‘If an attentional shift from what is familiar to what is novel is always found as the encoding of a familiar stimulus… is completed… then the pattern of change in preference over time should provide crucial information regarding the identity of the obtained effect’. I will argue that this attentional shift is not always found, and that in many instances we need converging evidence in order to clarify experimental findings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generativity Versus Stagnation: An Elaboration of Erikson's Adult Stage of Human Development

Erik Erikson's theory of human development posits 8 stages of life. This paper gives special attention to the adult stage of generativity vs. stagnation. A review of recent research provides new concepts that can be added to Erikson's chart of development in the form of 7 psychosocial conflicts that give breadth to the central crisis of generativity vs. stagnation. They are inclusivity vs. exclusivity, pride vs. embarrassment, responsibility vs. ambivalence, career productivity vs. inadequacy, parenthood vs. self-absorption, being needed vs. alienation, and honesty vs. denial. Each conflict is connected to one of Erikson's other stages of development. Given this framework, case studies of leaders could provide further knowledge about generativity as the intersection of society and the human life cycle.     

Visual processing of stimulus compounds in newborn infants

An experiment is described in which newborn infants' processing of stimulus compounds was investigated. After familiarization to two alternately presented stimuli which differed in colour and orientation, the newborns showed significant preferences for a stimulus which had a novel colour/orientation combination: the novel stimulus was produced by recombining features of the stimuli used for familiarization. This finding argues against the view that infants initially process separate components, or parts, of visual stimuli and are only able to attend to the correlations between them after about 3 months of age. Rather, the ability to process and remember stimulus compounds is present at birth.