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: CIA-RDP96-
I’arapsychology Abstracts International
or
behavioral experiments.
The data suggest
that even
the
results
of
physical
experiments may
not
be
cumulative
in
the
absolute sense by
statistical
criteria.
It
is
argued
that
the
study
of
the
actual
cumulativeness
found
in
physical
data
could
inform
social
scientists
about
what
to
expect
from
replicated experiments under good conditions.
- DA
t
>
David
J.
Disobsessing
disobsession::
-!mb' <8*95*. . r|tual, and the social sciences m
Brazil.
Cut-
tural Anthropology, 1989 (May),
4(2),
182-193.
25 refs
If
it
has
become
commonplace
in
some
corners
of
anthropology
to
read
rituals
as
texts,
the
inverse
of
this
proposition,
that anthropological
texts
are
rituals
of
a
sort
is
perhaps
less
obvious
and
less
well
explored.
To
treat
texts
as
rituals
and
rituals
as
texts
is
to
collapse
both
categories
under
a
broader
realm
of
ideology
and
to
ex-
plore how the structures of the anthropologist’s
text repeat
those
of
the
interpreted
ritual.
As
a
result,
this kind
of
ethnographic
writing
and
reading
involves
rethinking
the
hierarchy
of
observer and
observed
by
looking
for
points
where
the
discourse
of
the
other
affects
one’s
own
dis-
course.
This
article
explores
the
relations
between
text
and
ritual,
observing
discourse
and
observed
discourse
by
ar-
ticulating
Geertz’s
position
(1973:448)
that
culture
and
ritual
can
be
interpreted
as
texts
with
Jonathan
Culler’s
argument
that
"critical
disputes
about
a
text
[read
‘ritual
’
religious
system’]
can
frequently
be
identified
as
a
dis-
placed
reenactment
of
conflicts
dramatized
in
the
text
[ntua
,
religious
system]"
(1982:215).
The
case
study
adopted
for
analysis
here
involves
disobsession
(disobsession),
a
type
of
exorcism
ritual found among
the
Spiritists
of
Brazil,
and
the
various
mappings
of
the
Brazilian
religious
system.
It
examines
critical
disputes
among
sociologists and
anthropologists
regarding
the
disob-
session
ritual and the position of Spiritism in
the
Brazilian
religious system, and
it
traces
these
disputes
back
to
con-
flicts dramatized both
within the
ritual and among the
dif-
xirfu-
!f
t0rS
ln
the
.
,
reli8ious
system
(see
section
4).
Within
the
ritual,
Spiritist mediums
receive
errant
spirits
that
represent
non-Spiritist
social
categories and
discourses;
or example.
Spiritists frequently "disobsess"
spirits that rep-
resent
the
Catholic
or
Afro-Brazilian
religions.
Likewise
fo lowers
of
Spiritism,
Catholicism,
or
the
Afro-Brazilian
religions
all
have
implicit maps
of
the
Brazilian
religious
system,
and
these
conflicting maps
play themselves
out
in
the
conflicting
interpretations
of
sociologists
and
anthropologists.
- DA
Hill, Theodore
P.
Random-number guessing
iqs«
Phenomenon.
Psychological Repom,
1988 (Jun), 52(3), 967-971.
refs;
1 table
Jo what
extent do
individuals
"absorb"
the
empirical
hW,r?
tleS
A°
f “VT
environmcnt
and
reflect
them
in
be-
havuor?
A
widely-accepted
empirical
observation
called
the
birst
Digit Phenomenon
or
Benford’s Law
says
that
in
collections of miscellaneous tables of data
(such
as physical
constants,
almanacs,
newspaper
articles,
etc.),
the
first
sig-
mf,cant
digit
is
much
more
likely
to
be
a
low
number
than
a high number.
In
this study, an
analysis
of
the
fre-
quencies of the
first and second
digits of "random”
six-digit
'1“'be
;
S 8uessed by people
suggests
that
people’s
responses
share some of the properties
of Benford’s Law;
first
digit
occurs much more frequently than expected;
first
digit 8 or
occurs much
less
frequently;
and
the
second
digits
are
much more uniformly distributed than the
first.
- DA
03753.
Kihlstrom, John
F.
The cognitive unconscious
Sacncc,
1987 (Sep), 227(484), 1445-1452
refs
Vol.
7, No. 2
December 1989
Contemporary research
in cognitive psychology
reveals
the impact
of nonconscious mental
structures and
processes
on
the
individual’s
conscious
experience,
thought,
and
ae-
tion.
Research
on
perceptual-cognitive
and
motoric
skills
indicates
that they are automatized through experience, and
thus
rendered
unconscious.
In
addition,
research
on
sub-
liminal
perception,
implicit memory, and
hypnosis
indicates
that
events
can
affect
mental
functions
even
though
they
cannot
be
consciously
perceived
or
remembered.
These
findings suggest
a
tripartite division
of the cognitive uncon-
scious
into
truly unconscious mental
processes operating on
knowledge
structures
that may
themselves
be
preconscious
or subconscious.
- DA
03754.
Kukla, Andre.
Nonempirical issues in psychol-
lf
y
'
cts
American Psychologist,
1989
(May),
44(5),
785-794.
The
general
decline
of
radical
empiricism
has
led
to
a
renewed
appreciation
of
the
role
of
nonempirical
con-
tributions
to
the
advancement
of
science.
In
psychology
this has meant
the development
of a
theoretical wing com-
parable
to
the
well-established
theoretical
traditions
that
exist
in
other
scientific
disciplines.
Theoretical
psychology
is no
longer
the
collection
of vague
generalities
that
once
made up
the
traditional
"systems and
theories"
course.
It
is
an
active
subdiscipline
with
a
well-articulated
research
program
and
a
growing
corpus
of
special
methods
and
results.
This
article surveys
the
types
of
issues dealt with
by
theoretical
psychologists
and
discusses
the
relation
be-
tween
their work and empirical
research.
- DA
i
*
*
?
Awning
uKLiy
siories: me
rhetoric of the new psychology, 1880-1920.
Journal of
t,' Jf'sto
.ry °f the Behavioral Sciences,
1987
(Oct),
315-331.
refs
’
, This
is
a
story
about
the
New
Psychologists
who
strove
at
the
turn
of the century
to
institutionalize a new
science
and
to
create
a
new
set
of
professional
roles.
More
particularly,
it
is
about
the
rhetorical
fabric
they
wove
around
the
nascent
science
of
psychology.
The
ar-
ticle
focuses,
one
by
one,
on
different
strands
of
this
fabric--on
(1)
what
persuaded
the
first
generation
of
American
psychologists
to
take
an
interest
in
the New
Psychology;
(2)
the
arguments
these
aspiring
psychologists
presented
to
presidents
and
trustees
to
insure
that
thev
sTtWnwi,
thdr
intCreSt
Withil*
Particular
institutional
settings,
(3) the arguments they put
forth against
the
rights
°‘her
Persons
engage
in
similar,
competing
pursuits;
(4)
the
arguments
they
laid
before
various
administrators
officials,
interest
groups,
and
the
general
public
to
guarantee
continued
and
even
increased
support-
and
(5)
the arguments
they presented
in
the
form
of
theories and
practices
developed
between
approximately
1880
and
1920.
In
this
way,
it
attempts
to
construct
a
likely
story
about
the establishment of the New Psychology in America.
- DA
03756
Nardi, Peter M.
Toward a social psychology of
1984
C1
r
7fn^
n
i-j m
?8^
(C0
?
jurin «)-
Symbolic Interaction,
1984,
7(1), 25-42.
chart;
refs
The
dynamics
of
everyday
social
interactions can
of-
en
be
clarified
by studying
the
social
organization
of
un-
usual
realms
of
activity.
One
such
activity
is
conjuring-
magic
performed
as
entertainment.
This
article
discusses
various
sociological
and
social
psychological
dimensions
in
the
performance
of
magic.
It
focuses
on
the
similarities
between
a
magic
act
and
the
social
interactions
of
everyday
life.
It
also discusses the
dialectic between magic
reasoning
and
mundane
reasoning-between
the
audience’s
expectations
built
from
the
organization
of
everyday
life
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