Book reviews

The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jatakanidana) translated by N. A. Jayawickrama, Oxford, Pali Text Society, 1990, xvi, 141 pp. ISBN 0 860 293 5, £4.95.

Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, Issues in Contemporary Judaism. London, Macmillan Academic & Professional, 1991. ISBN 0 333 535 37.

Raymond L. Weiss, Maimonides’ Ethics— The Encounter of Philosophic and Religious Morality. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991. ISBN 0 226 8915 26.

Peter Harrison, ’Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, 277 pp. ISBN 0 521 38530 X, £35 (U.K.).

Michael Dames, Mythic Ireland. London, Thames and Hudson, 1992, 272 pp. ISBN 0 500 01530 9, £14.95 (hardback).

Stephen and Robin Larsen. A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell. New York, Doubleday, 1991, 636 pp. ISBN 0 385 26635 9. $30.00 U.S.     

Mechanically driven grain boundary relaxation: a mechanism for cyclic hardening in nanocrystalline Ni

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to show that cyclic mechanical loading can relax the non-equilibrium grain boundary (GB) structures of nanocrystalline metals by dissipating energy and reducing the average atomic energy of the system, leading to higher strengths. The GB processes that dominate deformation in these materials allow low-energy boundary configurations to be found through kinematically irreversible structural changes during cycling, which increases the subsequent resistance to plastic deformation.     

Testing for telepathy in connection with e-mails

This study investigated possible telepathic communication in connection with e-mails. On each trial, there were four potential e-mailers, one of whom was selected at random by the experimenter. One minute before a prearranged time at which the e-mail was to be sent, the participant guessed who would send it. 50 participants (29 women and 21 men) were recruited through an employment web site. Of 552 trials, 235 (43%) guesses were hits, significantly above the chance expectation of 25%. Further tests with 5 participants (4 women, 1 man, ages 16 to 29) were videotaped continuously. On the filmed trials, the 64 hits of 137 (47%) were significantly above chance.     

Perceptions of and by minority groups: The case of women in academia

Thirty seven academics participated in a field study in which perceptions of the size and attributes of a majority and minority group were obtained. (The groups concerned were male and female academics at a British university). These observations were used to examine the phenomenon of illusory correlation, and to test hypotheses concerning the perceived homogeneity and competence of ingroup and outgroup in majority-minority contexts. To test for the illusory correlation effect estimates of the numbers of male and female senior staff were elicited. These estimates were consistently inaccurate, producing a lower perceived correlation between gender and seniority than actually existed. Measures of intragroup homogeneity revealed that, as predicted from previous research, members of the minority group saw their own group as more homogeneous than the outgroup. For majorty group members the reverse was true. The intergroup evaluations generally favoured the minority group; this was especially evident in the evaluations from the minority group members themselves. Possible explanations of these findings and their correspondence with those obtained from laboratory research are discussed.     

Ingroup bias as a function of salience,relevance, and status: An integration

This paper reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of the results of 137 tests of the ingroup bias hypothesis. Overall, the ingroup bias effect was highly significant and of moderate magnitude. Several theoretically informative determinants of the ingroup bias effect were established. This ingroup bias effect was significantly stronger when the ingroup was made salient (by virtue of proportionate size and by virtue of reality of the group categorization). A significant interaction between the reality of the group categorization and the relative status of the ingroup revealed a slight decrease in the ingroup bias effect as a function of status in real groups, and a significant increase in the ingroup bias effect as a function of status in artificial groups. Finally, an interaction between item relevance and ingroup status was observed, such that higher status groups exhibited more ingroup bias on more relevant attributes, whereas lower status groups exhibited more ingroup bias on less relevant attributes. Discussion considers the implications of these results for current theory and future research involving the ingroup bias effect.     

Belief congruence and racial discrimination: Review of the evidence and critical evaluation

A review of the literature pertaining to Rokeach, Smith, and Evans' (1960) belief congruence theory provided a context for discussion of some methodological and theoretical issues relating to conceptualization of the dependent variables, beliefcontent, belief discrepancy, meaningfulness of the race—belief comparison, attitude—belief feedback loops, attitude structure, and the relation between self and ideal similarity. The literature was judged supportive of a weak version of belief congruence theory which states that in those contexts in which social pressure is nonexistent or ineffective, belief is more important than race as a determinant of racial or ethnic discrimination. Evidence for a strong version of belief congruence theory (which states that in those contexts in which social pressure is nonexistent, or ineffective, belief is the only determinant of racial or ethnic discrimination) and was judged much more problematic.     

The Measurement of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Are We Assuming Too Much?

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is assessed by measuring how frequently employees display extra-role and discretionary behaviors. One hundred forty-four managerial employees responded to an OCB scale and indicated the number of behaviors on the scale they believed to be formally evaluated. None of the behaviors were believed to be unevaluated by all employees. Data suggest that a typical OCB scale is not measuring citizenship behaviors for everybody, and that OCB measurement needs refinement. Best prediction of other organizational variables was obtained when both the OCB and an index of "unevaluated" behaviors were used as predictors. Supervisor fairness interacted with OCB when predicting organizational commitment, and this interaction was contingent on the extent OCBs were believed to be unevaluated.     

Effects of Contact on Children's Attitudes Toward Disability: A Longitudinal Study1

A quasi-experimental study was conducted on temporal effects of intergroup contact on nondisabled (ND) children's attitudes toward disability. Children from a mainstream primary school were involved in an integration program with children from a school for children with severe learning disabilities (SLD). ³ 3 Severe learning disabilities (SLD) is the term currently used in the U.K. to describe people who might formally have been described as having “severe mental handicap” or “severe retardation.” This term is interchangeable with “severe learning disabilities.”
Measures were administered 3 times over a period of 3 months to 26 integrating (experimental) and 24 nonintegrating (control) children. Social orientations in the experimental group became significantly more positive over time, while the control group showed little change. The experimental and control children initially categorized on the basis of gender and disability; subsequently the strategies of the experimental children were more idiosyncratic while the control children still used the same two dimensions.