The community alcohol use scale: A scale for use in prevention programs

The Community Alcohol Use Scale (CAUS) was developed as a continuous, reliable, valid, and acceptable measure for primary prevention studies. Items were written following a comprehensive review of the literature on alcohol dependence and alcoholism. Based upon the responses of 315 respondents to the 100-item initial version of the scale, the 45-item CAUS was developed. The CAUS was then cross-validated on a local sample (n = 274) and a provincial sample (n = 745). Estimates of internal consistency were .91, .96, and .94, respectively, for the initial and cross-validation samples. Correlations of .48 and .69 were obtained between the CAUS and the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test for the initial and local cross-validation samples. In the provincial cross-validation sample a correlation of .62 was obtained between the CAUS and the Usual Weekly Alcohol Index. Preliminary cutting scores were developed to identify those at risk for alcoholism, and alcoholics. The CAUS has potential use as an evaluative and predictive instrument in a variety of primary prevention programs.     

Child care and influence among the mekranoti of central brazil

Various researchers have argued that women's influence may be limited by child-care requirements. This study uses quantified data from the Mekranoti-Kayapó of Central Brazil to examine some specific arguments. Among the Mekranoti, women who spend more time caring for children rate lower on influence. But the reasons for this correlation are less clear. Child care does not seem to hinder a woman's ability to contribute to subsistence. Nor does it seem to have much effect on the personality characteristics that might affect the leadership potential of child caretakers. Child care may, however, restrict a woman's ability to acquire the personal connections needed to exercise influence.This article is based on a chapter from the author's doctoral dissertation. The author thanks Daniel R. Gross, Carol R. Ember, Madeline Ritter, Nancy Flowers, Daniel G. Bates, and Robert A. LeVine for their many helpful suggestions in preparing the study. The author also thanks various people for help in carrying out the fieldwork on which they study is based: S. Gross, G. Verswijver, R. Thomson, K. Jefferson, M. Stout, F. Leoi, and R. Cardoso de Oliveria, G. Diaz, K. Taylor, A. Ramos, G. Zarur, R. De Barros Laraia, L. Vidal, D. Montagner Melatti, J. C. Melatti, and J. Bispo dos Santos. The study was generously supported by NSF grants BNS 76-03378, BNS 73-25295, and BNS 78-24706.     

Book reviews

Lack and transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism. David Loy, 1996 New Jersey, Humanities Press 186 pp.

Obscenity, Anarchy, Reality. Crispin Sartwell New York, State University of New York Press 192 pp.

Extracting the Essence of the Sruti.. The Srutisārasamuddharanam of Totakācārya Michael Comans (Trans.), 1996 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers xxvi + 122 pp., hb Rs 195, ISBN 81 208 1410 x     

Attributions About Acquaintance Rape: The Role of Alcohol and Individual Differences1

Reactions to an acquaintance rape scenario were examined for effects of respondent gender and portrayals of different levels of alcohol intoxication on attributions of responsibility and blame. Comparisons of conditions in which both victim and perpetrator were described as experiencing equivalent levels of intoxication revealed that participants rated the victim as more, but the perpetrator as less, responsible and blameworthy after consuming alcohol-particularly when drinking was accompanied by clear signs of behavioral impairment. In contrast, when the victim was more intoxicated and impaired than her assailant, intoxication of the perpetrator did not serve to excuse his behavior, but actually incriminated him more. Women generally assigned more blame to the victim. Individual differences in rape myth acceptance also influenced attributions.     

Book reviews

The I?varapratvabhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva with the Author's Vrtti. Critical edition and annotated translation. Serie Orientale Roma LXXI. Raffaele Toreha, 1994, Roma, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, LIV+ 273 pp., pb L. 110.000

Jung and Eastern Thought: a Dialogue with the Orient. John James Clarke, 1994, London, Routledge, vii +217 pp., £12.99

Abu Ya^cqub al‐Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary. Paul E. Walker, 1996, London, I. B. Tauris, xv + 132 pp.

Religious Pluralism and Truth: Essays on Cross‐cultural Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Thomas Dean, 1995, Albany, SUNY Press, xi + 271 pp., 0 7914 2123 6 hb, 0 7914 2124 4 pb, $19.95

The Body, Self‐cultivation, and Ki‐energy. Yuasa Yasuo, trans, by Shigenori Nagatomo and Monte S. Hull, 1993, Albany, SUNY Press, xxxvi + 229 pp. 814.95     

Avoidance learning in a social situation- extinction resistance and defense reaction under stress. A pilot study

Two successive experiments were conducted resulting from observations of the stability (resistance to extinction) of avoidance reactions and the manifestation of such reactions beyond the specific avoidance conditions in which they were acquired: a) 15 subjects were set the task to avoid an aversive acoustic stimulus for a helpless experimental partner. They could achieve this by reacting with contraction of either the forearm or the calf muscles in a difficult discrimination task. The stability of these avoidance reactions was assessed on different levels of forced extinction. Measures taken were HR, GSR and EMG of the avoidance reactions. Specific courses of the two autonomous measures evolved (Fig. 1,2). 14 of the 15 experimental subjects showed the avoidance behaviour during all phases of forced extinction. b) Six weeks after the experimental subjects had acquired the motor avoidance reactions all subjects were exposed to a relatively unspecific stress situation. Comparisons between experimental and control group (which consisted of the experimental partners) showed a tendency but not a significant difference as far as the reaction of the calf muscles was concerned. Contraction of the forearm muscles, however, occurred significantly more often in the experimental group. The subjects executed these reactions without being aware of it.     

Perspectives in psychology

The Psychological Record - The traditional S-R position that in systematic psychology the IV’s are to be identified with environmental conditions is critically discussed. The advantages of...     

Book reviews

Confucianism and the Family. Walter H. Slote & George A. Devos, 1998, Albany, State University of New York Press, xiv + 390 pp.

Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Lawrence A. Babb & Susan S. Wadley (Eds), 1997, (1st edn, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, viii + 298 pp., hb Rs 295, ISBN 81 208 1448 7; pb Rs 195, ISBN 81 208 1453 3

Yoga. Discipline of freedom. The Yoga Sutra attributed to Patañjali (A translation of the text, with commentary, introduction and glossary of key words), Barbara Stoler Miller (Trans. & Ed.), 1996, Berkeley, University of California Press, xiv + 114 pp., ISBN 0 520 20190 6