Structural vs. Expressive form in Music

A sample of 128 Ss differing in flying experience were compared in their travel preferences and in their drawings of airplanes. Significant sex differences were found, with males drawing more “realistic” airplanes; and females, larger airplanes. Those males who had flown and who indicated motion in their drawings tended to report some experience of motion sickness. Those females who had flown and who indicated motion in their drawings tended to report fear of high places.     

Behavioral Genetics and Personality Change

Although research on personality and behavioral genetics has focused on the continuity of traits, both fields and their interface will profit from the consideration of trait change. In this article we review personality research on age differences in heritability and propose the counterintuitive hypothesis that, when developmental changes in heritability are found, heritability tends to increase. We also focus on behavioral genetic analyses of long-term developmental change. Research to date suggests that genetic involvement in adult personality change is slight whereas personality change in childhood is governed substantially be genetic factors. Finally, we consider a new topic, genetic influence on short-term change in personality.     

农村选民选举行为的结构特征

以云南省两个县八个自然村的 2 62名选民为被试 ,采用心理测量原理与技术探讨了农村选民选举行为的结构特征。结果表明 ,政见取向由“政策效应”、“民生意识”、“村民权益”和“监督机制”4个因素构成 ,非政见取向由“候选人身份”、“候选人德能”、“选民社会关系”、“候选人背景”、“选民自我利益”、“选民自我权利”和“政党意见”7个因素构成。经检验 ,由此构成的农村选举行为问卷具有较高的内部一致性 ,问卷项目具有较高的区分度。文章讨论了农村选民选举行为的结构特征及其意义。     

Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia vs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia: Results of a Randomized Noninferiority Clinical Trial Among Veterans

The goal of this study was to compare a brief behavioral treatment for insomnia (BBTI), which has fewer sessions (4), shorter duration (< 30–45 minutes), and delivers treatment in-person plus phone calls to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI), which has 5 in-person sessions. The hypothesis was BBTI would be noninferior to CBTI. The Reliable Change Index was used to establish a noninferiority margin (NIM) of 3.43, representing the maximum allowable difference between groups on the pre-post Insomnia Severity Index change (ΔISI). Sixty-three veterans with chronic insomnia were randomized to either BBTI or CBTI and veterans in both groups had significant reductions of their insomnia severity per the ISI and improved their sleep onset latency, total wake time, sleep efficiency, and sleep quality per sleep diaries. While CBTI had a larger pre-post ΔISI, this was not significantly different than ΔISI BBTI and was less than the NIM. However, the 95% confidence interval of the between group pre-post ΔISI extended beyond the NIM, and thus BBTI was inconclusively noninferior to CBTI. Limitations, such as small sample size and high rate of dropout, indicate further study is needed to compare brief, alternative yet complementary behavioral insomnia interventions to CBTI. Still, evidence-based brief and flexible treatment options will help to further enhance access to care for veterans with chronic insomnia, especially in non-mental-health settings like primary care.     

Pro-Environmental Habits: Propensity Levels in Behavioral Change1

A proposed model for behavioral change is described as a process in several steps from habitual nonenvironmentally friendly behavior to environmentally friendly behavior. Every step is linked to factors promoting or impeding further progress. Data from a questionnaire addressed to a random sample of 500 Swedish adults supported the hypothesis that general factors such as environmental values and a sense of responsibility for the environment will be more influential in an early phase rather than in a later phase of changing established habits regarding purchases of washing and washing-up detergents, respectively. Furthermore, in a later phase of transition, specific beliefs about particular products will affect the testing and evaluation of a new behavior.     

Effects of Resolving to Change One's Own Behavior: Expectations vs. Experience

The “false-hope syndrome” suggests that unrealistic expectations are responsible for the cycle of repeated failure and renewed efforts at self-change characterizing many self-changers. Our hypotheses were that: (1) committing to a particular self-change task would inflate initial expectations, (2) participants would be unsuccessful relative to their expectations, and (3) more elevated expectations would lead to more negative outcomes. Participants were randomly assigned to either increase their physical activity or reduce their stress through meditating or were assigned to a no-change control group. In accordance with Hypotheses 1 and 2, exercise participants had more positive expectations about their resolutions immediately after committing to them, and both exercise and meditation participants were unsuccessful relative to their expectations. With respect to Hypothesis 3, however, having more positive expectations about one's resolution did not predict a worse outcome.     

Profile Characteristics and Behavioral Change Trajectories of Young Residential Children

We aimed to identify profile characteristics for a recent sample of young residential children, examine the differential impact that profile characteristics have on behavior change, and describe the relationship between behavioral symptomatology and length of stay in residential treatment. A sample of 142 consecutively admitted residential treatment children were studied over a five-year period. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was the primary statistical method used to analyze behavioral rating data for a subset of 57 children assessed by teachers and treatment staff using the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders. Younger age, female gender, and lower IQ were associated with increased levels of psychopathology. Residential length of stay was strongly linked to levels of behavioral symptomatology. HLM is a valuable analytic strategy that employs client profile characteristics to model behavioral change trajectories and help predict treatment responsiveness. System reform philosophies that promote expectations for rapid symptom improvement and removal of residential treatment from the continuum of care may exceed current treatment capacities.     

Predicting AIDS-Induced Behavioral Change in the General Population of Young People

Sets of individual-psychological and sociodemographic variables for predicting self-reported AIDS-relevant behavioral change were examined. The self-completing questionnaire used in the study contained scales of knowledge and attitudes about AIDS, sex and drug abuse experience scales, and six behavioral change scales. It was anonymously administered to 2,655 young people of both sexes, 15–30 years of age, living in 18 cities and towns, regularly employed or attending school. The overall level of knowledge was high and the attitudes moderately liberal. Regression analyses showed that only a small fraction of variance in any of the six behavioral change criteria (sex, drugs, personal concern, chance of contracting the disease, desire for more knowledge, and nonfunctional practices) could be attributed to the four predictors presumed to influence the criteria directly (sex risk index, drugs risk index, knowledge, and attitudes). The prediction improved when another 10 variables with assumed indirect influence were included. Socioeconomic status and the drug abuse risk index were most predictive of behavior change. Knowledge and attitudes proved to be poor predictors. It is stressed that the social and cultural specifics in planning prevention activities must be observed.     

Rules and Self-Rules: Effects of Variation Upon Behavioral Sensitivity to Change

The Psychological Record - Four experiments compared the effects of self-rules and rules, and varied and specific schedules of reinforcement. Participants were first exposed to either several...     

Structural Realism, Scientific Change, and Partial Structures

Scientific change has two important dimensions: conceptual change and structural change. In this paper, I argue that the existence of conceptual change brings serious difficulties for scientific realism, and the existence of structural change makes structural realism look quite implausible. I then sketch an alternative account of scientific change, in terms of partial structures, that accommodates both conceptual and structural changes. The proposal, however, is not realist, and supports a structuralist version of van Fraassen’s constructive empiricism (structural empiricism).     

Behavioral economics without anomalies.

Behavioral economics is often conceived as the study of anomalies superimposed on a rational system. As research has progressed, anomalies have multiplied until little is left of rationality. Another conception of behavioral economics is based on the axiom that value is always maximized. It incorporates so-called anomalies either as conflicts between temporal patterns of behavior and the individual acts comprising those patterns or as outcomes of nonexponential time discounting. This second conception of behavioral economics is both empirically based and internally consistent.     

Husserl vs. Derrida

This paper was presented as the Aaron Gurwitsch Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc., at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, October 1988.     

Sex vs. Gender

SUMMARY

This article was first published in D. R. Laub and P. Gandy, (eds), Proceedings of the Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on Gender Dysphoria Syndrome, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California, 1973, pp. 20–24. Prince argues that previous contributors to the symposium in using such terms as “gender conversion surgery” and “anatomic and genetic gender” were failing to grasp the distinction between sex and gender. Genital anatomy is about sex; gender role is about a lifestyle. Out of 100 people applying for a surgery perhaps only 10 percent should have it. The majority confuse sex and gender and fail to appreciate that what they are seeking is a gender change and not a sexual change. Prince likes the word “dysphoria” but argues for distinguishing sexual dysphoria from gender dysphoria. They are different and people should be treated according to which one they happen to be suffering from.     

Holism vs. Wholism

Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Akashic Field claims that there is a shift in Zeitgeist that allows us to view a field that entails coherence among residents of the universe, residents that hitherto have seemed far apart both in space and time. I agree with this claim but suggest that we need to clear up several ambiguities that have hindered understanding and therefore acceptance. Basic to clarification are an understanding of waves, spectra, and the formulations of quantum physics.