Sadhu Sundar Singh and his critics: An episode in the meeting of East and West

Robert Alun Jones, The Secret of the Totem: Religion and Society from McLennan to Freud. New York, Columbia University Press, 2005, 347 pp. £32/$49.50, ISBN 0 231 13438 X.

Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, 392 pp., $38.50/$25.50, ISBN 0 8122 3764 1.

Laurence Coupe, Kenneth Burke on Myth. New York, NY, Routledge, 2005, xivD206 pp., $85, ISBN 0 415 93640 3.

Eva Jane Neumann Fridman, Sacred Geography: Shamanism Among the Buddhist Peoples of Russia. Bibliotheca Shamanistica, vol. 12. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó , 2004, xivD323 pp., $87.89, ISBN 963 05 81140.

Jeanne Shami, John Donne and Conformity in Crisis in the Late Jacobean Pulpit. Cambridge, Brewer, 2003, xD318 pp., $85, ISBN 0 85991 789 4.

Gavin Flood, The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, xiiiD288 pp., $75.00 (hardback), ISBN 0 521 84338 3, $29.99 (paperback), ISBN 0 521 60401 X.     

Dialogue and faith

‘Dialogue’ between members of differing traditions is nowadays replacing polemics, debate, and monologue preaching of traditional missionary policy. Terms in which it can be conducted have not yet, however, been widely found. It will be illuminating to discover whether among diverse groups conversation in the terms propounded here could prove fruitful, or at least mutually intelligible. This will be a highly significant test of the theory, expecially in view of the possible importance of this activity for the world's future religious development.1 W. Cantwell Smith, The Meaning and End of Religion (Mentor ed. New York 1964), p. 177.      

Effect of Cheating Experience on Attitudes toward Infidelity

The present study investigated how cheating experience influences perception of others’ infidelity. Using vignette characters, we explored the hypothesis that a participant’s experience cheating on a partner and gender of vignette character moderate gender-differentiated perceptions of infidelity (i.e., men reporting more accepting attitudes toward infidelity than women). Participants (N = 320) were asked a series of questions evaluating both how ‘acceptable’ and ‘forgivable’ was a vignette character’s infidelity. Men and women with prior experience cheating found the cheating vignette character of their same gender significantly more acceptable and forgivable than the unfaithful character of the other gender. Participants who reported no history of infidelity found infidelity as generally unacceptable, regardless of character gender.     

Building career guidance capacity in the voluntary and community sector

A programme designed to develop the capacity of voluntary agencies and community groups to deliver information, advice and guidance (IAG) on learning and work to their clients and members is outlined. Four forms of capacity building are distinguished: internal IAG capacity building, based on developing IAG resources within the agency or group itself; external IAG capacity building, based on the agency or group offering IAG resources delivered by outside providers; learning capacity building, based on learning brokerage; and organisational capacity building, contributing to the development of the agency or group in broader terms.     

Personality profiles of environmentally responsible groups

The hypothesis that groups high and low on environmental responsibility have different personality profiles was tested using responses of 319 introductory psychology students (132 men and 187 women) who completed the ECOSCALE and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory for partial course credit. Results of discriminant function analysis supported the hypothesis, indicating that groups scoring high and low on Environmental Responsibility had significantly different personality profiles and that the standard discriminant function coefficients were quite substantial (> or = .50) for Openness (.72) and Agreeableness (.50).     

Interpretation of symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is an illness characterised by fatigue and other symptoms. Both psychological and biological aetiological factors have been proposed, but the disorder is of uncertain origin. The aetiology of the symptoms is therefore ambiguous. It has been suggested (a) that patients with CFS tend to interpret their symptoms as indicating physical illness and (b) they tend not to interpret these symptoms in terms of negative emotion. In order to test these hypotheses we developed a self-report questionnaire to assess the interpretation of symptoms in patients with CFS. It was administered to patients with CFS, patients with depression, patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and normal controls. Preliminary results suggest that the measure has acceptable psychometric properties. Patients with CFS were more likely than either depressed patients or normal controls to interpret symptoms (characteristic of CFS) in terms of physical illness, but did not differ in this from the MS patients. When compared with all three other groups (including the MS patients), the patients with CFS were least likely to interpret symptoms in terms of negative emotional states. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty: requisites of the fundamental fears?

Fears related to anxiety sensitivity (AS)-illness/injury sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, and fear of pain-may have important theoretical associations with intolerance of uncertainty (IU). In separate investigations, AS and IU have been independently related to the same anxiety-related psychopathology. AS and IU seem to share a basis in fearing unknown, potentially harmful consequences; however, their inter-relationship remains uncertain. IU regarding a specific stimulus, a physical sensation for example, may result in a variety of interpretations and responses, including the catastrophic appraisals that characterize AS. The association between AS and IU was examined in a sample of 293 undergraduates. Results of confirmatory factor and correlation analyses suggest the two constructs are related, but nonetheless independent. It appears that IU may be a required component of catastrophic misappraisals while being an important construct related to fear and anxiety in its own right. Future research directions and potential applications are discussed.     

A Second Look at Debriefing Practices: Madness in Our Method?

This article is a reconsideration of Tesch's (1977) Tesch, F. E. 1977. Debriefing research participants: Though this be method there is madness to it.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35: 217–224. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ethical, educational, and methodological functions for debriefing through a literature review and an Internet survey of authors of articles published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Journal of Traumatic Stress. We advocate for a larger ethical role for debriefing in nondeception research. The educational function of debriefing is examined in light of the continued popularity of undergraduate participant pools. A case is made for the methodological function of debriefing to clarify aspects of research participation. Recommendations are made to improve the conducting and reporting of debriefings.