Stimulus familiarity,dogmatism, and the duration of attention

Thirtyeight males and 30 females viewed each of 30 black and white photographs for as long as they wished. Half the photographs were judged by the Es to be unfamiliar to college students. The remaining photographs were judged to be familiar. After the looking task all Ss cotnpleted the Dogmatism Scale. It was predicted that the open-minded Ss would spend more time looking at the novel stimuli than the closed-minded Ss, and, that all Ss would spend more time looking at novel stimuli than familiar stimuli. The results failed to confirm the hypothesis that open-minded Ss would look longer at the novel stimuli than closed-minded Ss. However, it was found that Ss spent more time looking at novel stimuli than familiar stimuli regardless of the degree to which their belief systems were opened or closed. The adwwtage of manipulating stimulus familiarity by E-selection of the stimuli was discussed.     

Cancer Recovery and the Spirit

The present study addresses the definition and exploration of the existential and spiritual experience of persons who had spontaneously remitted or made a remarkable recovery from cancer. Spontaneous remitters had experienced a remission without having allopathic treatment which could account for the cancer regression. Those with remarkable recoveries may have had treatment, but had been given a prognosis of less than a 20% chance of survival in a specific number of months or years, and had survived at least five years past this time. The narratives of the ten participants indicated that cancer proved to be a wake-up call propelling them into unprecedented existential and spiritual growth. Nine of the participants reported that they had healed not only at physical, but also at emotional and spiritual levels. Most described a new and intensely numinous relationship with the divine and with the unity of all beings which was not religiously oriented. Nine out of ten participants felt that cancer had been a gift.     

Theory and Method of Social Representations

This paper gives an overview of social representation theory, definitions of the key terms and of the social processes leading to a representation and to social identity. Six empirical studies are presented and details of their methods and findings are given to illustrate this social psychological approach. These studies are about the ontogenesis of gender, the public sphere in Brazil, madness on British television, images of androgyny in Switzerland, individualism and democracy in post-communist Europe and metaphorical thinking about conception. The methods are ethnography, interviews, focus-groups, content analysis of media, statistical analysis of word associations, questionnaires and experiments. Finally, social representation theory is compared to theories of attitudes, schemata and social cognition.     

Applying Primary Prevention Precepts to Campus Substance Abuse Programs

The authors identify five primary prevention programming precepts dealing with perspective, targets, methods, intentionality, and ethic. They describe how the United States Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) sponsored University of Cincinnati substance abuse prevention project was developed by following these precepts. They hope that this information will aid others in their development of primary prevention programs in college substance abuse (i.e., alcohol and other drug abuse) or in other areas.     

Differences in irrational beliefs of pregnant and never pregnant adolescents

Twenty-five pregnant and/or parenting adolescents were compared with sixteen nonpregnant adolescents on two irrationality measures: The Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality and the Adolescent Pregnancy Beliefs Questionnaire. Findings suggest that pregnant adolescents subscribe to a greater number of general irrational beliefs; to a greater number of irrational beliefs specific to sex, dating and birth control; to a greater number of beliefs consistent with promoting pregnancy; and to fewer beliefs that might deter pregnancy when compared to never pregnant adolescents.Karen Westphal holds a Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of South Carolina. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio.Susan Wagner worked with Dr. Westphal on this research while she was a graduate student at Cleveland State University. She is presently employed in the Mood Disorders Research Project at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio.     

Counselor preference and anticipated comfort ratings for a clinic sample of sexually abused versus non-abused girls

We compared counselor preference and anticipated comfort ratings for sexually abused and non-abused girls. Twenty-five sexually abused and 22 non-sexually abused girls between ages 7 and 17 participated in an initial psychological evaluation at a university outpatient clinic. Results obtained using the Counselor Preference and Comfort Survey revealed no significant difference between sexually abused and non-abused girls' ratings of their preference for male or female counselors and their anticipated comfort with male counselors; non-abused girls expressed significantly higher anticipated comfort with female counselors than did their abused counterparts. It was illustrated that younger girls', abused and non-abused, were more likely to prefer a female counselor and to anticipate being more comfortable with a female counselor. In addition, older non-abused girls were more likely to prefer a male counselor and more likely to anticipate being comfortable with a male counselor. Participants in both groups expressed a higher preference for and anticipated comfort with female counselors as compared with male counselors.