Japanese Religion as Ritual Order

It is argued in this paper that beneath the superficial analysis of Japanese 'religions' such as Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism and the New Religions, there is one dominant ideological complex which, following some Japanese scholars, can conveniently be dubbed 'The Japanese Religion' or Nihonkyo. This Japanese religion is a ritual order based on the hierarchical concept of 'ie' and its variations such as 'kigyoushugi' at the level of the company and 'katei' at the domestic level. This ritual order pervades all major institutions in Japan and the main mechanism for its reproduction is the school system. In analysing the latter a distinction between training and education is adopted, and it is argued that the concept of liberal education, which is based on the concept of the autonomous rational and moral individual, is essentially missing from the Japanese school system which is better described as a system of training. It is suggested further that training can be linked conceptually with ritual: training is a form of ritualized behaviour though with a heavily pragmatic content. It is hoped that the approach to Japanese religion which is argued here will prove more fruitful in the Religious Studies context than one which begins with an explicit or implicit concept of religion centred on beliefs about salvation, the supernatural and life after death.     

Pavlovian conditioning with ethanol and lithium: effects on heart rate and taste aversion in rats

Rats received paired injections of either ethanol or saline as the conditioned stimulus and lithium chloride as the unconditioned stimulus (US) in a Pavlovian differential conditioning paradigm. Lithium chloride evoked a large deceleration in heart rate (80-100 beats per minute) as an unconditioned response. As a result of 10 conditioning trials, the substance paired with LiCl elicited a lower average heart rate than that elicited by the unpaired substance. Moreover, animals that received ethanol-LiCl injections subsequently were more averse to the taste of ethanol than animals receiving saline-LiCl pairings. However, there were no differences in ethanol's ability to serve as the US to induce an aversion to a novel flavor solution (i.e., the Avfail phenomenon was not observed). The overall pattern of results underscores the value of using multiple indexes of learning in drug-drug conditioning paradigms.     

An existential view of adolescent development

In clinical work with adolescents there is a stark similarity between what they experience and the concepts of existentialism. However, surprisingly very little has been written in terms of how the concepts of existentialism can or should be applied to this age group. Rather, existentialism seems to be a concept reserved for its application to the adult population. In fact, a search of the literature included in PsychINFO under "existentialism" and "adolescent development" results in only 5 hits. Perhaps by avoiding the use of these ideas as they might apply to adolescents, for various reasons a disservice is being done. Drawing on ideas posited in existential literature will not only benefit adolescents, it will assist caring adults in their work with them and encourage professionals to expand on existing ideas when conducting research and developing theories that apply to this age group.     

Neuropsychological executive functioning in children at elevated risk for alcoholism: findings in early adolescence

One component of individual risk for alcoholism may involve cognitive vulnerabilities prodromal to alcoholism onset. This prospective study of 198 boys followed between 3 and 14 years of age evaluated neurocognitive functioning across three groups who varied in familial risk for future alcoholism. Measures of intelligence, reward-response, and a battery of neuropsychological executive and cognitive inhibitory measures were used. Executive functioning weaknesses were greater in families with alcoholism but no antisocial comorbidity. IQ and reward-response weaknesses were associated with familial antisocial alcoholism. Executive function effects were clearest for response inhibition, response speed, and symbol-digit modalities. Results suggest that executive deficits are not part of the highest risk, antisocial pathway to alcoholism but that some executive function weaknesses may contribute to a secondary risk pathway.     

Parental ratings of son's behavior problems in high-risk families: convergent validity,internal structure,and interparent agreement

In this research, we examined the convergent validity, internal structure, and interparent agreement of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991a) using data from a community sample of 317 high-risk families. The sample consisted of 218 families with alcoholism (biological mother, father, and son) and 99 matched comparison families without alcoholism; all families were intact and included a 3- to 5-year-old son at first contact. Evidence was found for the convergent validity of the CBCL. In addition, although interparent agreement was low, the internal structure was confirmed, and structural invariance was high between mothers and fathers and in families with and without alcoholism. The effects of parental psychological and cognitive functioning on parent agreement were examined and found to have a minimal effect on parent agreement. These results demonstrate the validity of the CBCL for use by parent raters with alcoholism and their sons and emphasize the importance of including both versus only 1 parent in research using the CBCL.     

Preliminary evaluation of an abstinence-based program for 7th grade students from a small rural school district

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an abstinence-based program designed for 7th grade students (n = 59) from a rural school district. Analysis suggested that after the program more students intended to avoid having sex before marriage but no change was noted for knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy.