Dynamic and Static Balancing Ability of Preschool Children

Performance differences in dynamic and static balance ability of 150 preschool Ss aged 3,4, and 5 yr. were studied. Ss performed 4 balance-beam tasks and 2 balance-board tasks. An Age by Sex (3 × 2) factorial, design employing both univariate and multivariate ANOVA techniques were the statistics used. For both dynamic and static balance Age was highly significant, and the use of multivariate ANOVA indicated significant sex differences on the static balance tasks. The appropriateness of multivariate techniques where more than one dependent variable is measured on the same population was discussed, and the need to take into account the relationship between these variables when analyzing the data was noted.     

Disentangling the belief in God and cognitive rigidity/flexibility components of religiosity to predict racial and value-violating prejudice: A Post-Critical Belief Scale analysis

Past research indicates that being religious is associated with prejudice toward racial and value-violating out-groups. However, this past research treated religiosity as a unidimensional construct without taking into account how different components of religiosity—belief in a higher power and the rigidity/flexibility of religious beliefs—are associated with measures of prejudice. Two studies examined the relationship between these two components of religiosity, as measured by the Post-Critical Beliefs Scale, and racial (African Americans, Arabs) and value-violating prejudices (atheists, gay men). As the flexibility of religious beliefs increased (literal vs. symbolic dimension), attitudes toward racial and value-violating out-groups became more positive (Study 1). As belief in God strengthened (exclusion vs. inclusion of transcendence dimension), attitudes toward value-violating out-groups became more negative. Study 2 demonstrated that these two components of religiosity fully mediated the relationship between general religiosity and prejudice toward African Americans, Arabs, and gay men and partially mediated the relationship between religiosity and prejudice toward atheists. Results are discussed in light of reexamining the conclusion that simply being religious is associated with prejudice.     

Student poverty

Abstract

This article presents an exploration of the concept of student poverty from a psychoanalytic perspective. The hypothesis is made that the state of poverty, when applied to students in higher education, is a highly individual matter and relates as much to a construct of the mind as to financial hardship and associated environmental and social privations. Poverty status, it is postulated, is caused by an interplay between the unconscious and the external world of die student. Focus is concentrated on the differences in toleration and the coping strategies of students in the face of financial stringencies. This results in a body of knowledge which might aid counsellors in the task of assisting students to remedy, or appropriately manage, hardships which appear to be germane to student life in contemporary Britain.     

Overcoming Interpersonal Offenses: Is Forgiveness the Only Way to Deal With Unforgiveness?

Almost everyone is unforgiving at times. Many people seek to deal with the revenge and avoidance of unforgiveness by forgiving. The authors explore potential predictors of unforgiveness and forgiveness for a specific offense in 91 undergraduates. Positive feelings of forgiveness were uniquely predicted by dispositional forgivingness and by the participants' deliberate attempt to forgive the offense. Different patterns of predictors suggest that unforgiveness and forgiveness are not necessarily reciprocally related. This implies that interventions might be developed to reduce unforgiveness without attempting to promote forgiveness. This may be crucial in situations where forgiveness is not desirable.     

Book reviews

DIMSOND, S. The Double Brain. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. 1972.Pp. 229. £ 3.50.

ANDERSON, J. R. and BOWER, G. H. Human Associative Memory. Washington: V. H. Winston and Sons. 1973. Pp. 524. £ 8.55.

SOMMERHOFF, G. Logic of the Living Brain. London: John Wiley and Sons. 1974. Pp. 413. £ 5.75.

KLAUSMEIER, H. J., GHATALA, E. S. and FRAYER, D. A. Conceptual Learning and De-velopment. London: Academic Press. 1974. Pp 284. £ 7.00.

RATCLIFF, F. (ED.) Studies on Excitation and Inhibition in the Retina. A Collection of Papers from the Laboratories of H. Keffler Hartime. London: Chapman and Hall. 1974. Pp. 668. £ 8.50.

ROCK, I. orientation and Form. London: Academic Press. Inc. (London) Ltd. 1973-Pp. 165. £ 5.60.

BOWER, T. G. R. Devolopment in Infancy. Reading: W. H. Freeman and Co. 1974. Pp. 258. £ 2.90

CONNOLLY, K. J. and BRUNER,J. S. (Eds). The Growth of Competence. London: Aca-demic Press. 1974. Pp. 327. £ 6.80.

PIAGET, J. and INHELDER, B. (Translated by POmerans, A.) The Child's Construction of Quantities. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1974. Pp. 285. £ 5.75.

GARNER, W. R. The Processing of Information and Structure. Potomac: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1974. Pp. xi + 203. £ 6.00.

CARTERETTE, E. C. and FRIEDMAN, M. P. (Eds). Handbook of Perception. Vol. III. Bilogy of Perceptual System. London: Acadmic Press, Inc. (London) Ltd. 1973. Pp. 521. £ 00.00.     

Contour synchrony in binocular rivalry

Afterimages of rivalrous vertical and horizontal lines were generated simultaneously in each eye. Either a horizontal and a vertical line or two vertical lines were presented to one eye with the complementary rivalrous pair to the other eye. Synchrony of line pairs presented to the same eye was longer than predicted on the basis of independence, irrespective of the monocular configuration. Furthermore, there appeared to be a facilitatory effect for lines of the same orientation if they were presented to one eye rather than combined from both eyes.