Book Reviews

Book Reviewed
The Politics of Cultural Differences. By David C. Leege, Kenneth D. Wald, Brian S. Krueger, and Paul D. Mueller. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2002. 304 pp. $21.95 paper, $60 cloth.
The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders. Edited by Jerrold M. Post, M.D. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. 2003. 412 pp.
FDR's Body Politics: The Rhetoric of Disability. By Davis W. Houck and Amos Kiewe. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. 2003. 141 + xii pp.
The Power of Legitimacy: Assessing the Role of Norms in Crisis Bargaining. By Christopher Gelpi. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2003. 232 pp. $39.50.     

Effect propensity

In a choice between two options, decision makers can often be roughly divided into three groups: those who strongly prefer the first option, those who strongly prefer the second option, and those whose choices are most sensitive to the specific conditions (Switchers). In any reference state, such as the experimental control, Switchers’ choices are unlikely to be exactly equally divided between the options, which potentially creates a ceiling effect among those most susceptible to influence by the particular conditions or experimental manipulations. The limited growth potential of the option favored by Switchers in the reference state can produce “effect propensity,” whereby any condition or manipulation applied to the reference state is more likely to increase the share of the other option. We test this proposition in a series of studies in the context of choices between safe and risky options and between lower-price/quality and higher-price/quality options. The results indicate that a large majority of conceptually unrelated manipulations tend to increase the choice share of risky and higher-price/quality options. This effect propensity can be reversed when the risky and higher-price/quality options are the status quo alternatives or asymmetrically dominating in the reference state. Alternative explanations for effect propensity are examined. We discuss the implications of effect propensity for the interpretation of research findings, the selection of controls, and theory tests.     

Context Specificity of Excitation and Inhibition in Ambiguous Stimuli

Two experiments examined the susceptibility of excitation and inhibition to contextual change when the conditioned stimulus (CS) was ambiguous using an appetitive conditioning paradigm. In Experiment 1, excitation to a CS was lost with a context switch when inhibition had been learned to the CS in a prior feature-negative (FN) discrimination. Control groups that had received either more or less excitatory conditioning in the absence of inhibitory pretraining showed no loss. In Experiment 2 inhibition was lost with a context switch in a group that had received excitatory and then inhibitory conditioning with the CS. No loss was observed in a group that had not received excitatory pretraining. The results suggest that contexts are especially likely to control performance to ambiguous CSs when they can modulate the second of two learned associations. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for occasion setting and modern conditioning theory.     

How sleeping neonates smile

Infants over one month of age tend to produce two types of smiling during especially positive social interactions, Duchenne smiles involving cheek raising and open‐mouth smiles. Little is known, however, about the prevalence, frequency, duration and organization of these smiles among neonates. Twenty‐five full‐term, healthy neonates (12 female) were videotaped during six minutes of sleep. Smiles were identified and analysed using an anatomically based coding system (FACS/Baby FACS). One‐half of the neonates showed bilateral Duchenne smiles. One‐quarter of the neonates showed bilateral Duchenne smiles at a mature level of intensity whose median duration was 1? s. By contrast, open‐mouth bilateral smiles occurred in less than one‐tenth of the sample. The contrast between the more frequent bilateral Duchenne smiles and the less frequent open‐mouth smile is discussed in terms of the early synergistic functioning of facial muscles and contrasted with the smiling patterns of older infants.     

Feminist Slants on Nature and Health

Ecological feminism (or ecofeminism) and feminist bioethics seem to have much in common. They share certain methodological and epistemological concerns, offer similar challenges to traditional philosophy, and take up a number of the same practical issues. The two disciplines have thus far had little or no direct interaction; this is one attempt to begin some conversation and perhaps stimulate some cross-pollination of ideas. The email dialogue engaged an active ecofeminist scholar, Karen Warren, and an active feminist bioethicist, Hilde Nelson, in an exchange of ideas. Jessica Pierce, whose research cuts between environmental philosophy and bioethics, served as moderator.     

Puzzling Pairs

Philosophical Studies - Propositional attitude ascribing sentences seem to give rise to failures of substitution. Is this phenomena best accounted for semantically, by constructing a semantics for...     

Seeking for Authentic Self in Community

Misconceptions about counseling, being anxious about losing face, not having enough resources, and losing the traditional therapeutic community which Koreans once had are the key reasons for the increase of mental problems among Koreans. The author explores the Korean mindset and thus is able to provide more effective and adequate counseling services for people from a Korean cultural background. This article emphasizes the importance of healing community in Korean culture and provides some practical suggestions for the psychological well-being of Koreans from a pastoral counseling perspective.     

The use of drawings as concrete referents in conditional reasoning problems

A mixed group containing university students, mostly studying mathematics, and some senior school pupils took two paper‐and‐pencil conditional reasoning tests in varying order with a one‐week interval between the tests. One test consisted of five problems presented entirely in written form. The second test took one of two forms, both identical to the first test except that in the first form inessential drawings were added to the presentation of four of the problems and in the second form drawings, which acted as concrete referents and were essential, were added to the same four problems. Irrespective of the order of testing, subjects' performance on the problems with drawings used as concrete referents was significantly worse than on the corresponding problems presented in written form. Furthermore, the results of the initial testing session showed the school group performed significantly worse on both the form of test with inessential drawings and the form with concrete referents than on the written form. In addition, a group of students with recent training in reasoning significantly outperformed all others. Finally, negative conclusion bias was only observed for the Modus Tollens inference. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disclosure of Divorce Plans to Children: What the Children Have to Say

Divorce has become a common experience for children. One part of the process that children of divorcing parents experience is the time when they are informed of their parents' approaching separation or divorce. In this study, 20 adults from eight families who had experienced the divorce of their parents when they were younger were interviewed using a guided interview format. At least two siblings from each family except one was interviewed. Qualitative analyses of data revealed interesting themes around the questions of how the participants were told about the impending separation or divorce, who told them, whether or not siblings were present, how they reacted to the news, and how they would have preferred being told.