What Can the Systems Community Contribute to Ensure the Survival of Civilization

Much of what we need to plan for our survival is already known, but what we know, how we know, and who knows is divided up between disciplines. Thus much of the problem of ensuring our survival is a matter of learning across the disciplines. We identify four modes through which we bring disciplinary knowledge together: the unity of science, integrated assessment, heuristic models, and distributed learning networks. Although none of them are perfect, we can learn how to put our knowledge together across the disciplines much better than we do.     

Book reviews

Gott ist schön und Er liebt die Schönheit: God is Beautiful and He Loves Beauty. Alma Giese and J. Christoph Bürgel, 1994. Bern, Peter Lang. 474 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 3–906750–90–6.

The Concept of Islamic International Criminal Law. Farhad Malekian, 1994. London, Graham & Trotman. 213 pp., £55.00, $92, ISBN 1859660851.

Religion in Europe: contemporary perspectives. S. Gill, G. D'Costa, and U. King (Eds), 1994. Kampen, Kok Pharos. 213 pp., pb., Fl 49.90, ISBN 90–390–0508–7.

Religious Freedom and the Position of Islam in Western Europe. W. A. R. Shadid and P. S. van Koningsveld, 1995. Kampen, Kok Pharos. 229 pp., pb., Fl 64.90, ISBN 90–390–0065–4.

Christianity in the Arab World. HRH Crown Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, 1994. Amman, Arabesque. 120pp., hb.

Holymen of the Blue Nile: the making of an Arab‐Islamic community in the Nilotic Sudan 1500–1850. Neil MHugh. Evanston Illinois, Northwestern University Press. 280pp., hb., $54.95, ISBN 0–8101–1069–5.     

Effect of boredom proneness on time perception

As part of a larger study examining attribution differences in boredom, the effect of Boredom Proneness on perception of time passage was investigated in 110 undergraduates completing a tedious number-circling task. Highly boredom-prone individuals perceived time as passing more slowly during the task than low boredom-prone persons, but the two groups did not differ in their objective or chronometric time-passage estimates. The findings support the contention that depressed affect produces a subjective slowing of time but does not alter the perception of objective passage of chronometric time.     

A Randomized, Double-Blind, Crossover Comparison of MK-0929 and Placebo in the Treatment of Adults With ADHD

Objective: Preclinical models, receptor localization, and genetic linkage data support the role of D4 receptors in the etiology of ADHD. This proof-of-concept study was designed to evaluate MK-0929, a selective D4 receptor antagonist as treatment for adult ADHD. Method: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study was conducted in adults with primary ADHD. The primary end point was changed from baseline in total score on the Adult ADHD Investigator Symptom Rating Scale following a 4-week treatment regimen. Additional measures included Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale and D4 genotype analysis. Results: No statistically significant treatment differences were found between MK-0929 and placebo in any of the primary or secondary assessments. Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that blockade of the D4 receptor alone is not efficacious in the treatment of adult ADHD.     

A multi-dimensional model of the origins of attitude certainty: teachers’ attitudes toward attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

This research tested and extended a laboratory-derived model of the origins of attitude certainty using a real attitude object: Teaching children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In Study 1, an experiment manipulated the amount of information, thought, and consistency of information delivered to pre-service teachers ( $n = 224$ ) with no prior experience with ADHD. Structural equation modelling (SEM) of Study 1 did not support the original model, in which relationships between attitude certainty and objective knowledge, thought, and consistency were mediated by perceived knowledge, thought, and ambivalence. Instead, objective amount of information, thought, and consistency interacted in their effect on attitude certainty. Study 2 ( $n = 368$ ) used a survey to test whether experiences with ADHD (personal, direct and indirect) among in-service and pre-service teachers were antecedents of attitude certainty, and to test perceived accessibility as a mediator. SEM supported both these hypotheses. Perceived accessibility and perceived knowledge mediated the relationship between attitude certainty and prior experiences with ADHD, and between attitude certainty and objective knowledge. Together, the results suggest that psychological processes underlying strong attitude certainty differ according to the familiarity and personal relevance of the attitude object, and the context and stage of attitude formation. The results have practical utility for teacher training at pre-service and in-service levels.     

Reliability and factor structure of the Finnish version of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire

The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and factor structure of the Finnish version of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire, a measure which examines cognitive and motivational functions of imagery. The final sample comprised 231 participants drawn from 34 sports and ranging in age from 14 to 49 years (M = 20.9, SD = 5.8). Internal consistency and confirmatory factor analyses were undertaken to evaluate the reliability and factorial validity of the scale. Fit indices and modification data generated from examining the 30-item five-factor model were equivocal, suggesting minor amendment and recategorization of several items rather than major adjustment to the proposed latent factor structure. Cronbach coefficients alpha indicated the scale is reliable. Overall, these results provide positive additional support for the claim that the Sport Imagery Questionnaire has a reproducible factor structure and is a reliable test for measuring imagery use in Finnish athletes.     

Correlates of Dispositional and State Flow in Tennis Competition

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychological correlates and flow in tennis competition. Using a cross-sectional design, the sample of 261 junior tennis athletes showed moderate-to-strong correlations between flow (dispositional and state) and confidence (r _disp = .59; r _state = .35), imagery use (r _disp = .58; r _state = .32), and action control (r _disp = .41; r _state = .40), whereas absorption was orthogonal to flow. Commonality analysis revealed that imagery and confidence accounted for 34.2% of the variance in dispositional flow. The results are discussed for the development of intervention studies in order to enhance flow in competition.     

I. Feuer on guilt and logic

Recent work in the theory of action by analytical philosophers has focused on explaining actions by citing the agent's motivating reason(s). But this ignores a pattern of explanation typical in the social sciences, i.e. situating the agent in a reference group whose members typically manifest that behavior. In some cases the behavior of such groups can itself be shown to be the product of social forces. Two extended examples of this explanatory pattern are studied. In each case the motivating reasons of the agents concerned can scarcely be understood apart from reference to the groups of which the agents are members and the social forces which work on those groups. However, attention to the agent's own reasons for action remains important, in part because of action theory's critical potential to help liberate people from arbitrary, hypostasized social forces.