A test of reciprocal risk between undesirable economic and noneconomic life events

The proposition that undesirable life experiences are risk factors for each other was explored by testing several hypotheses concerning the temporal relationships between economic and noneconomic life events. The tests were conducted using data describing the incidence of stressful experiences among approximately 3,500 Anglo and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County. Findings suggested that Anglo men who have undesirable economic life experiences are at increased risk of subsequent undesirable noneconomic experiences. Anglo women, however, exhibited the opposite pattern in that those with undesirable noneconomic experiences were at greater risk of subsequent undesirable economic experiences. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDY INRELIGION AND SCIENCE, AND ZYGON: JOURNAL OFRELIGION AND SCIENCE-A TWENTY-YEAR VIEW

Abstract. This essay gives a brief history and presents an analysisof the aims and accomplishments of the two institutions as seen bythe author. The analysis seeks to describe and justify some of theirbasic presuppositions. Primary has been their belief that scientifi-cally informed understandings of religion do enrich our apprecia-tion of and faith in it. For instance, religion's recently discoveredroles in the evolution and development of sociocultural systemsand personalities provide new credibility and importance for reli-gious heritage. Recent translations between contemporary scien-tific and ancient religious concepts give new hope for religiousreform, revitalization, and effectiveness for human salvation in anage of science.     

The lawyer and the forensic expert: Boundaries of ethical practice

The role of attorneys in relationship to mental health experts is examined. Issues which are discussed include the necessity of expert testimony, selection of the expert, and the data underlying the expert opinion. In addition, the attorneys' responsibilities in presenting the mental health expert in court is discussed with reference to different elements of the trial process.     

The timing of major life events: Effects of departing from the social clock

It is widely believed that social norms govern the timing of major life events, such that events experienced off time are considerably more stressful than events experienced on time. Experiencing life events either earlier or later than one's peers presumably reduces opportunities for social support and may also invite social disapproval. Relatively few empirical studies have investigated these ideas, however, and those that have suffer from several limitations. The present study made use of a general population survey to investigate the effects of normative versus nonnormative timing of major life events on psychological functioning, interpersonal resources, and interpersonal tensions. Desirable and undesirable events were examined separately, as were the effects of departures from perceived versus statistical age norms. The results of the study offered only limited support for social clock theory. Implications for further research and for the relevance of the theory in a less age-differentiated society are discussed.     

PLEASURE AND REASON AS ADAPTATIONS TO NATURE'S REQUIREMENTS

The values which guide mental and physical behavior seem to be derived from evolutionary facts. In our brains, selection of genes has tied the experience of pleasure to motivating what nature requires us to do for the good of ourselves, our kinsmen, and our ecosystem. When our brains evolved to house also a cultural heritage (including religion, the motivation of sociocultural goals, and rational discourse), hellish tensions could arise to split brain function (minds) and societies. Salvation could and did come from natural selection's replacement of discordant elements in our heritages by better coadapted ones. In this replacement, human rational decisions participated. Selection also continued to adapt these symbiotic heritages to their common environment.     

Personal and professional integrity in relation to pastoral assessment

Though concerns about personal integrity have led some to de-emphasize the role of assessment and the pastor's professional viewpoint in pastoral care, as re-examined here these same concerns call for a recognition of the vital connection between professional and personal integrity. The relationship between personal and professional integrity as they shape pastoral assessment is analyzed in terms of respect, encounter, and anticipation. The relationship of a theology of hope or anticipation to the predictive validity of pastoral assessment presents a challenging agenda for pastoral ministry today.Dr. Underwood is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary     

Reminder-induced recovery of associations to an overshadowed stimulus

The possibility of reversing the deficit produced by overshadowing through the use of memory reactivation was investigated. Using lick suppression as a measure of associative strength, water-deprived rats were conditioned in a Pavlovian paradigm which produced reliable overshadowing of a flashing light by a tone. It was found, however, that exposure to the overshadowed stimulus outside of the conditioning context during the retention interval (reminder treatment) caused an increase in lick suppression during testing in animals that had undergone overshadowing, relative to nonreminded overshadowed animals. Subjects that received the reminder treatment but were conditioned without overshadowing showed no increase in lick suppression. Additional control groups ensured that the increase in suppression observed in the overshadowed subjects following reminder treatment was not due to nonspecific fear. The results suggest that the performance deficit produced by overshadowing is due at least in part to a reversible failure to efficiently retrieve associations to the overshadowed stimulus at the time of testing, rather than a failure to form those associations during conditioning.     

Reaction time to letter name or letter case

Subjects were shown two letters from the set BDGbdg. In one condition, subjects were required to decide whether or not the letters had the same name. In the other condition, subjects decided whether or not the two letters were presented in the same case. Reaction times were always faster when the two letters on a given trial were physically identical. However, there was no difference in the speed of a name match or a case match when the two letters were not physically identical. Since subjects could have based a case match on the presence or absence of a single feature — a protruding vertical line — it was concluded that subjects are not able to selectively attend to a single visual feature in order to identify a letter. Rather, a subject analyzes several features in parallel in order to arrive at a simultaneous decision about a letter's name or case.     

The initial standardization of the adolescent behavioral classification project instrument

An instrument has been developed through the Adolescent Behavioral Classification Project for assessing an adolescent's problems and for establishing a taxonomy of behaviors and of persons. Standardization has initially consisted of collecting from many sources 482 statements of problem behaviors and 30 positive behaviors, which can be observed by nonprofessional as well as professional persons; administering these behavior statements to 156 institutional and 94 noninstitutional mental health center adolescents and 376 of their parents; carrying out principal components analyses on the behavioral items and 3 demographic items, followed by Varimax and Promax rotations. Twentyfive factors scored on 410 items resulted from these procedures. Internal consistency coefficients for the factors range from .47 to .86. Test-retest reliabilities on a sample of 10 youths ranged from .24 to .94, with an average r_tt of .71. Factor scores for different classes of respondents were fairly well correlated from one set to another. The different classes of respondents did not differ significantly from one another on caution items. Similarities are noted, by inspection, between these factors and those derived from the Children's Behavioral Classification Project and between those other authorities have set forth and the ABCPAcknowledgements are gratefully extended to the ABCP team: Dr. Robert P. Baker, Greg Bennett, Dr. Millard J. Bienvenu, Sr., Dr. Ronald F. Boudreaux, Robert L. Compton, MSW, Dr. Thomas E. Deiker, Dr. M. K. Distefano, Dr. James R. Gay, Charles Granger, Dr. Wayne A. Greenleaf, Allison Hulse, Cathy Knighton, James Moss, Dr. Ronald S. Pryer, Dr. Felicia Pryor, Dr. Edith Schulhofer, Mrs. Annie A. Smart, Dr. T. T. Stigall. Special thanks go to Doctors Boudreaux, Greenleaf, and Pryer for permission to employ their patients from the Adolescent Unit of Central Louisiana State Hospital, and to Dr. Deiker for his provision of the listing of abnormal subjective perceptual experiences. Above all, many thanks are given to the necessarily unnamed adolescents and their parents who took part in the project at considerable inconvenience to themselves, and to the numerous personnel in the mental health centers who cooperated in the project.