Rescuing the Baby from the Bathwater: Continuing the Conversation on Gender, Risk, and Religiosity

In this short response, we selectively address some of the key issues and criticisms raised by our esteemed commenters. First, we clarify our standpoint vis à vis "biological" arguments, underscoring that our article is not to be read as hostile to all forms of explanations that incorporate biology into the explanation of religious behavior and belief, but only against those explanations that attempt to imply that socialization plays no role ("the it's all biology" argument). Second, we defend the explanatory scope of our proposal by showing that our argument is not vulnerable to the "simpler" counterexplanation proposed by Hoffmann. Finally, we contextualize where our contributions fit in terms of more encompassing arguments regarding the operation of gender and gendering processes as multicausal, multilevel phenomena, as well as explicitly stating our perspective on the role that "risk" should play in the explanation of religious behavior and belief.     

Using the MMPI-2 to Predict Symptom Reduction During Psychotherapy in a Sample of Community Outpatients

In the present study, potential MMPI-2 predictors of psychotherapy outcome were examined in a community clinical sample of 51 patients seeking treatment at a university training clinic. Results indicated that particular MMPI-2 scales (L, F, Pd, Pa, Sc, Trt) were the most predictive of initial levels of patient distress, whereas three other clinical scales (Hs, D, Hy) were significantly associated with actual symptom reduction over time. The clinical implications of these data include the use of the MMPI-2 in clinical practice as a means to frame the provision of direct feedback to patients regarding the likelihood of treatment response, which in turn, might actually have therapeutic benefits. The limitations of the study are reviewed and suggestions for future research are offered, including the potential use of widely known and utilized instruments in helping to predict response to psychotherapy.     

Assessment of Discipline Styles Among Parents of Preschool Through School-Age Children

The Parenting Scale (D.S. Arnold, S.G. O'Leary, L.S. Wolff, & M.M. Acker, 1993) is a self-report measure of parenting practices that has demonstrated sound psychometric properties when used with the parents of young children. However, less is known about the use of this measure with parents of older children. This study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Parenting Scale in a normative sample of parents with children 2–12 years old. Findings reveal that the psychometric properties remain strong among the parents of elementary school children, with minimal differences in scores as a function of children's age. However, the data suggest that the factor structure may differ from that proposed by the authors. Although statistically significant correlations with ADHD symptoms were revealed, the magnitude of these correlations was relatively small. Suggestions for future research and clinical use of this scale are discussed.     

The appearance of surfaces specified by motion parallax and binocular disparity

The experiments reported in this paper were designed to investigate how depth information from binocular disparity and motion parallax cues is integrated in the human visual system. Observers viewed simulated 3-D corrugated surfaces that translated to and fro across their line of sight. The depth of the corrugations was specified by either motion parallax, or binocular disparities, or some combination of the two. The amount of perceived depth in the corrugations was measured using a matching technique.

A monocularly viewed surface specified by parallax alone was seen as a rigid, corrugated surface translating along a fronto-parallel path. The perceived depth of the corrugations increased monotonically with the amount of parallax motion, just as if observers were viewing an equivalent real surface that produced the same parallax transformation. With binocular viewing and zero disparities between the images seen by the two eyes, the perceived depth was only about half of that predicted by the monocular cue. In addition, this binocularly viewed surface appeared to rotate about a vertical axis as it translated to and fro. With other combinations of motion parallax and binocular disparity, parallax only affected the perceived depth when the disparity gradients of the corrugations were shallow. The discrepancy between the parallax and disparity signals was typically resolved by an apparent rotation of the surface as it translated to and fro. The results are consistent with the idea that the visual system attempts to minimize the discrepancies between (1) the depth signalled by disparity and that required by a particular interpretation of the parallax transformation and (2) the amount of rotation required by that interpretation and the amount of rotation signalled by other cues in the display.     

Book reviews

Blanchard, R. J. & Blanchard, D. C. (Eds.). (1986). Advances in the study of aggression, Volume 2. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press. Pp. 228. ISBN 0-12-037702-5. $60.00 (hardback).

Dobbing, J. (Ed.). (1987). Sweetness. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Pp. 282. ISBN 3-540-17045-6. £42.

Ellen, P. & Thinus-Blanc, C. (Eds.). (1987). Cognitive processes and spatial orientation in animal and man. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff. Vol. 1. Experimental animal psychology and erhology. Pp. 331. ISBN 90-247-3447-9. £60.95. Vol. 2. Neurophysiology and developmental aspects. Pp. 321. ISBN 90-247-3448-7. £60.95     

Age-Related Differences in Memory Illusions: Revelation Effect

Older adults are often more susceptible to various illusions and distortions of memory than young adults. In the experiments reported here, we explored the question of whether normal aging was associated with a larger revelation effect, an illusion of memory in which items that are revealed gradually during a recognition test are more likely to be called old than unrevealed items that are shown in their entirety. Contrary to expectations, older adults were not susceptible to this memory illusion. A revelation effect occurred for young but not older adults, even when older adults were similar to young adults on measures of recognition and repetition priming. When data across experiments were combined, there was evidence for a negative revelation effect in older adults in which revealed items were less likely called old than unrevealed items. These results place boundary conditions on the claim that older adults are more susceptible than young adults to memory illusions, and imply that one or more mechanisms underlying the revelation effect are age sensitive.