Exposure to an urban environment alters the local bias of a remote culture

There is substantial evidence that populations in the Western world exhibit a local bias compared to East Asian populations that is widely ascribed to a difference between individualistic and collectivist societies. However, we report that traditional Himba - a remote interdependent society - exhibit a strong local bias compared to both Japanese and British participants in the Ebbinghaus illusion and in a similarity-matching task with hierarchical figures. Critically, we measured the effect of exposure to an urban environment on local bias in the Himba. Even a brief exposure to an urban environment caused a shift in processing style: the local bias was reduced in traditional Himba who had visited a local town and even more reduced in urbanised Himba who had moved to that town on a permanent basis. We therefore propose that exposure to an urban environment contributes to the global bias found in Western and Japanese populations.     

Cognition and lobar morphology in full mutation boys with fragile X syndrome

The aims of the present study are twofold: (1) to examine cortical morphology (CM) associated with alterations in cognition in fragile X syndrome (FXS); (2) to characterize the CM profile of FXS versus FXS with an autism diagnosis (FXS + Aut) as a preliminary attempt to further elucidate the behavioral distinctions between the two sub-groups. We used anatomical magnetic resonance imaging surface-based morphometry in 21 male children (FXS N = 11 and age [2.27-13.3] matched controls [C] N = 10). We found (1) increased whole hemispheric and lobar cortical volume, cortical thickness and cortical complexity bilaterally, yet insignificant changes in hemispheric surface area and gyrification index in FXS compared to C; (2) linear regression analyses revealed significant negative correlations between CM and cognition; (3) significant CM differences between FXS and FXS + Aut associated with their distinctive behavioral phenotypes. These findings are critical in understanding the neuropathophysiology of one of the most common intellectual deficiency syndromes associated with altered cognition as they provide human in vivo information about genetic control of CM and cognition.     

The Headscarf Effect: Direct Evidence from the Eyewitness Identification Paradigm

Internal and external features dominate familiar and unfamiliar face recognition, respectively. However, this finding is not universal; Egyptians showed a robust internal‐feature advantage for processing unfamiliar faces (Megreya & Bindemann, 2009). This bias was speculatively attributed to their long‐term experiences for individuating female faces with headscarves, which completely cover the external features. Here, we provided an empirical test for this suggestion. Participants from Egypt and UK were presented with a staged crime, which was committed by an own‐race woman with or without a headscarf. All participants were then asked to identify the culprit from a line‐up involving 10 faces with or without headscarves. British participants showed an advantage when the culprit left her hair uncovered. In contrast, Egyptian observers showed an advantage when the culprit wore a headscarf. This Egyptian headscarf effect was also replicated using British faces, suggesting that it reflects a specific characteristic of participant nationality rather than face nationality. These results therefore provide evidence for how culture influences cognition. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘How can we help when she won't tell us what's wrong?’ Professionals working with South Asian women who have experienced sexual abuse

In this paper, we explore some of the issues facing professionals in the UK currently involved in providing services for South Asian women who have experienced sexual abuse. The study describes part of a wider Economic and Social Research Council funded project, based upon interviews and focus groups with both professionals and women survivors of sexual abuse. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews and two focus groups with 37 professionals including psychological therapists, refuge and project workers, from a range of organisations, our aim in this paper is to provide a discursive analysis of some of the key dilemmas faced by professionals working with sexual abuse in South Asian communities by exploring two central interpretive repertoires: ‘culture not self’ and ‘symptom talk as solution’. The analysis indicates that professionals face a series of dilemmas when working with South Asian women survivors. They highlight the tension between individualised models of personhood in many psychological therapies and the challenge to these by South Asian communities who hold a more relational view of the person. One of the strategies used by professionals to work with the tensions between ‘culture’ and the ‘reality’ of the survivor's pain was the translation of women's distress into symptoms of mental disorder. However, the consequences of this intervention raised some serious issues, including further pathologisation and stigma. The implications of these findings will be discussed in terms of how to understand the experiences of South Asian women from a more socially grounded perspective and to explore the issues they face in accessing and receiving appropriate services to deal with the aftermath of sexually abusive experiences. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book Reviews

Religions sans Frontières? Present and Future Trends of Migration, Culture and Communication Roberto Cipriani, ed., for the Research Committee “Sociology of Religion”; of the International Sociological Association, Rome, Presidenza del Consiglio del Ministri, Dipartimento Per L'Informazione e L'Editoria, 1994 384 pp. no ISBN on book

Worldviews in Transition: An Investigation into the New Age Movement in South Africa Chrissie Steyn, 1994 Pretoria: University of South Africa (Studia Originalia 22) xvi + 367 pp., R79.00 or £14.86 (+ p&p) ISBN 0–86981–845–7

Women and Missions: Past and Present. Anthropological and Historical Perceptions Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood & Shirley Ardener, eds, 1995 Berg: Providence/Oxford xx + 279 pp., plates, £14.95 ISBN 9–780854968725

Syncretism/Anti‐Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis Charles Stewart & Rosalind Shaw, eds., 1994 London: Routledge 215 pp., £37.50 (hb), £12.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–11117‐X.

Beyond the Basilica: Christians and Muslims in Nazareth Chad F. Emmett, 1995 Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press xix + 303 pp., £17.50 US$22.00 pb, ISBN 0–226–20711–0

Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics and Jolentity among British Muslims Phillip Lewis, 1994 London: I. B. Tauris & Co. 250 pp., £11.95 ISBN 1–85043–861–7

Religion & Revelation: A Theology of Revelation in the World's Religions Keith Ward, 1994 Oxford: Clarendon Press 350 pp., £40 hb, £13.95 pb ISBN 0–19–826466–6 & 826375–9

Religiöser Pluralismus oder christliches Abendland? Herausforderung an Kirche und Gesellschaft Reinhart Hummel, 1994 Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 223 pp., DM39.80, FR40.80, ÖS311.00 ISBN 3–534–11717–4

A Short History of Judaism Lavinia & Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, 1994 Oxford: Oneworld Publications viii +148 pp., £5.95 ISBN 1–85168–069–1

Unforgotten Fragments Beryl Pogson & Others, compiled by Lewis Creed, 1994 York: Quacks Books 352 pp., £15.95 ISBN 0–948333–29–4

Centenary Fragments Beryl Pogson & Others, compiled by Lewis Creed, 1994 York: Quacks Books 379 pp., £15.95 ISBN 0–948333–36–7

A Plain Guide to Bible Theology: A Realistic Approach L. G. Hardinge, 1993 Swansea: Abertawe Desktop (OR: L G Publication, 1994) 217 pp., £10.50 (pb) ISBN 0–9524013     

Fraisse's theory of emotion and aggression.

This article shows how Fraisse's (1964) theory of emotion is a better explanation of aggression than any other theory of emotion. It discusses conceptual and methodological difficulties in existing theories of aggression and reports a study that supports a hypothesis based on Fraisse's theory. This study, which used Canadian university students equally divided by sex, supports the hypothesis that subjects would be more aggressive when faced with an unexpected annoyance than with an expected annoyance. Aggression was indexed by subjects' evaluation of the target person (confederate) as a source of annoyance.     

Month and season of birth are not associated with Extraversion and Neuroticism in an Egyptian sample

In a sample of 828 (383 men and 445 women) Egyptian undergraduates (M age = 19.6 yr., SD = 1.7), scores on Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were neither associated with the month nor the season of birth.