Assessing change with the extended logistic model

The purpose of this article is to define a method for the assessment of change. A reinterpretation of the extended logistic model is proposed. The extended logistic model for the assessment of change (ELMAC) allows the definition of a time parameter which is supposed to identify whether change occurs during a period of time, given a specific event or phenomenon. The assessment of a trend of change through time, on the basis of the time parameter which is estimated at different successive occasions during a period of time, is also considered. In addition, a dispersion parameter is calculated which identifies whether change is consistent at each time point. The issue of independence is taken into account both in relation to the time parameter and the dispersion parameter. An application of the ELMAC in a learning process is presented. The interpretation of the model parameters and the model fit statistics is consistent with expectations.     

Measurement of Social Freedom: The Starkweather Social Conformity Test Revised (SSCT-R)

Freedom to conform or not to conform to peer choices is one of the traits of a child with high creative potential. The Starkweather Social Conformity Test-Revised is described and compared to the original test. The Starkweather Social Conformity Test-Revised is useful for determining conformity, nonconformity, and freedom of young children when they are given the opportunity to make a book based on their personal preferences or on the preferences of pictures chosen for their friends. The test is individually administered; it may be given to a child who is involved in a group or to a child in a therapeutic setting.     

Le statut de la critique en psychologie du travail : une clinique de l’activité

The first purpose of the article is to take advantage of observations made on the status of criticism in sociology. This involves a diagnosis on the state of work psychology. The aim is to alter the trend of criticism and support a clinical approach to activity derived from Vygotski's research. The idea of critical psychology as a self-sufficient line of study is invalidated. An example is developed in order to describe the operating method. The last part of the article is devoted to a brief discussion of Beauvois's recent theories.     

Sinuosity and the Affect Grid: a method for adjusting repeated mood scores

Sinuosity is a measure of how much a travelled pathway deviates from a straight line. In this paper, sinuosity is applied to the measurement of mood. The Affect Grid is a mood scale that requires participants to place a mark on a 9 x 9 grid to indicate their current mood. The grid has two dimensions: pleasure-displeasure (horizontal) and arousal-sleepiness (vertical). In studies where repeated measurements are required, some participants may exaggerate their mood shifts due to faulty interpretation of the scale or a feeling of social obligation to the experimenter. A new equation is proposed, based on the sinuosity measure in hydrology, a measure of the meandering of rivers. The equation takes into account an individual's presumed tendency to exaggerate and meander to correct the score and reduce outliers. The usefulness of the equation is demonstrated by applying it to Affect Grid data from another study.     

Two apparatus assemblies for the study of real movement

Two forms of apparatus are described for the study of real movement. The first is characterized as a hydraulic system and is used where the S’s rate of movement threshold is to be deter-mined. The basis of the apparatus is a hydraulic cylinder with a piston rod carrying a crosspiece with a visual stimulus attached. The piston-crosspiece assembly is raised,by charging the apparatus with oil, which is then discharged back into a reservoir through a finely tapered adjustable needle valve. Velocity of motion may be regulated by varying the needle valve opening or a mass placed on the piston. The second apparatus is useful for determining the displacement threshold, the minimal distance through which a change of stimulus from one position to another can be perceived. The apparatus consists of a cathode ray display of a linear change of voltage from one value to another. Both total displacement and rate of displacement are adjustable. The S views the cathode ray trace through an optical system designed to minimize perception of extraneous motion.     

Reinforcement magnitude and the inhibiting effect of reinforcement

In a two-key concurrent variable-interval schedule (using pigeons), if the reinforcement frequency for one response is held constant while that for the other is increased, the rate of response on the constant key decreases. The immediate reinforcement for key pecking can usually be conceptualized as the change from a condition in which the key light is on and the food hopper light is off to one in which the key light is off and the hopper light is on. The prechange condition is associated with a delay to food of one-half the average interreinforcement interval in effect during this condition. The postchange condition is associated with a delay to food of about .5 seconds. The programming of additional reinforcement results in a decrease in the delay to food associated with the prechange stimulus condition, and thus a decrease in the value of the improvement that results from the change. This would appear to be analogous to a decrease in the amount of reinforcement, and thus sufficient explanation for the decrease in the rate of the response.     

Using human inquiry groups in counselling research

The nature of human inquiry groups and their use in counselling research are explored. A key feature of such a group is that the details of what is researched and how it is researched are decided by the group rather than by the researcher alone. Human inquiry groups proceed through a process of cycling. The first stage involves group members gathering together to agree on the nature and the methodology of the research and on the action to be taken. The next two stages involve taking the agreed action and fully experiencing it. Finally, group members reflect together on the research so far, including drawing conclusions and initiating further research cycles. The value of human inquiry as a qualitative methodology for counselling research is considered, including a comparison between the role of the human inquiry researcher and that of the counsellor. The initiator of a human inquiry group may well make use of counselling and group-work skills. Possible problems include role conflict, collusion, how to avoid the human inquiry group turning into a therapy group, and other validity issues. The key question of how to analyse the data produced by such a group is examined. The grounded-theory approach of Glaser and Strauss is considered as one way to analyse human inquiry data. Potential difficulties with such an analysis are explored and the use of a bricolage is presented as one possible solution. Human inquiry is seen to be an important and innovative approach to counselling research which is particularly appropriate for exploratory studies.     

Measuring rationality independent of social desirability

The development of a test to measure Elli's concept of rationality is described. In the first study discussed, a 58-item test is developed to measure rationality, and the reliability and convergent validity of the test is described. In a second study, the discriminant validity of the test is examined. An attempt is also made to reduce social-desirability content in the test by eliminating items most highly correlated with a Social Desirability Scale. The final 44-item test is found to be high in both reliability and validity. The factor structure of the test is also examined.     

The Equiprobability Bias from a Mathematical and Psychological Perspective

The equiprobability bias (EB) is a tendency to believe that every process in which randomness is involved corresponds to a fair distribution, with equal probabilities for any possible outcome. The EB is known to affect both children and adults, and to increase with probability education. Because it results in probability errors resistant to pedagogical interventions, it has been described as a deep misconception about randomness: the erroneous belief that randomness implies uniformity. In the present paper, we show that the EB is actually not the result of a conceptual error about the definition of randomness. On the contrary, the mathematical theory of randomness does imply uniformity. However, the EB is still a bias, because people tend to assume uniformity even in the case of events that are not random. The pervasiveness of the EB reveals a paradox: The combination of random processes is not necessarily random. The link between the EB and this paradox is discussed, and suggestions are made regarding educational design to overcome difficulties encountered by students as a consequence of the EB.     

The relation between the difficulty and the differential validity of a test

Using scores of 1200 students on a long test as a criterion, each of five subtests of different difficulty has maximum correlation with the criterion when the criterion is dichotomized at a value appropriate to the difficulty of the subtest. A 50-item test element is scored on an all-or-none basis with different standards for passing, and the percentage of passes for successive points on the criterion variable is computed. The Constant Method is applied to this relationship. The limen thus computed is a measure of difficulty, the dispersion is a measure of average (or total) validity, and the slope of the curve is a measure of differential validity. The difficulty of a test element is thus directly related to the maximum differential validity.     

Creating a Secure Family Base: Some Implications of Attachment Theory for Family Therapy

The aim of this article is to make attachment research findings available in a form that family therapists can use. In attachment theory, parents are conceptualized as providing a secure base from which a child can explore. Family therapists, however, need a systemic concept that goes beyond the parent/child dyad. The concept of a secure family base is proposed, in which a network of care is made available for all family members of whatever age so that all family members feel secure enough to explore, in the knowledge that support is available if needed. Factors that contribute to the security or insecurity of the family base are outlined. The overall aim of therapy is to establish a secure family base from which the family can explore new solutions to family problems both during and after therapy. The role of the therapist is to help to resolve conflicts that threaten relationships, and to explore relevant belief systems that may be contributing to a sense of insecurity. The conceptual framework presented allows for an integration of family therapy techniques and ideas into a coherent whole. A new school of family therapy is not proposed.     

Conceptual interrelatedness and caricatures

Concepts are interrelated to the extent that the characterization of each concept is influenced by the other concepts, and are isolated to the extent that the characterization of one concept is independent of other concepts. The relative categorization accuracy of the prototype and caricature of a concept can be used as a measure of concept interrelatedness. The prototype is the central tendency of a concept, whereas a caricature deviates from the concept's central tendency in the direction opposite the central tendency of other acquired concepts. The prototype is predicted to be relatively well categorized when a concept is relatively independent of other concepts, but the caricature is predicted to be relatively well categorized when a concept is highly related to other concepts. Support for these predictions comes from manipulations of the labels given to simultaneously acquired concepts (Experiment 1) and of the order of categories during learning (Experiment 2).     

An Excel macro for transformed and weighted averaging

An Excel macro is presented for averaging spreadsheet data. The macro has several special features: (1) The data are weighted by the inverse variance of each datum to decrease the contribution-of noisy outliers. (2) There is a provision for a power or a log transform of the data before averaging. The rationale for transforming the data before averaging is discussed (3) The output includes the average value, its standard error, and the reduced chi-square that measures the goodness of fit (4) The standard error is corrected by a heterogeneity factor based on the reduced chi-square The averaging of data is rarely done properly, and the intent of this article is to clarify the issues and provide a tool that allows researchers to improve their averaging techniques.     

Plato's Criticism of the ``Democratic Man' in the Republic

The article discusses two puzzles about Plato's account of the democratic person: (1) unlike his account of the democratic city, his characterization of a democratic person is markedly incorrect. (2) His criticism of a person so characterized is criticism of a straw man. The article argues that the first puzzle is resolved if we see it as a result of Plato's assumption that a democratic person is a person whose soul is isomorphic to a democratic constitution. Such a person has a desire satisfaction theory of good and adopts liberty and equality of desires as a basis for action. The article then argues that Plato's criticism brings up two problems endemic to desire satisfaction theories of good, the problem of bad desires and the problem of conflicts of desires. The criticism is that the democratic person's way of dealing with these problems, by applying the social principles of liberty and equality to his desires, is irrational.     

The induced effect,vertical disparity,and stereoscopic theory

The induced effect is an apparent slant of a frontal plane surface around a vertical axis, resulting from vertical magnification of the image in one eye. It is potentially important in suggesting a role for vertical disparity in stereoscopic vision, as proposed by Helmholtz. The paper first discusses previous theories of the induced effect and their implications. A theory is then developed attributing the effect to the process by which the stereoscopic response to horizontal disparity is scaled for viewing distance and eccentricity. The theory is based on a mathematical analysis of vertical disparity gradients produced by surfaces at various distances and eccentricities relative to the observer. Vertical disparity is shown to be an approximately linear function of eccentricity, with a slope or gradient which decreases with observation distance. The effect of vertical magnification on such gradients is analyzed and shown to be consistent with a change in the eccentricity factor, but not the distance factor, required to scale horizontal disparity. The induced effect is shown to be an appropriate stereoscopic response to a zero horizontal disparity surface at the eccentricity indicated. However, since extraretinal convergence signals provide conflicting evidence about eccentricity, they may attenuate the induced effect from its mathematically predicted value. The discomfort associated with the induced effect is attributed to this conflict.     

Tarasoff v. confidentiality

The Tarasoff decision is discussed as a logical extension of evolving legal doctrine imposing a special duty on caretakers. The mental health professions are being held to a standard of negligence and perhaps even to a standard of strict liability. Tarasoff is viewed as a part of society's interest in using the information disclosed in confidential relationships as a means of social control. This in turn is seen as part of a disquieting trend to curtail First Amendment rights. The adversarial nature of the relationship between the 1974 Tarasoff decision and the constitutional rights of patients to privacy, confidentiality, and privilege is discussed. The author re-asserts: “As asepsis is to surgery, so is confidentiality to psychiatry” (Beigler, 1978, p. 255).     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a working guide for a technique for the initial interview in marital therapy. There is a discussion of the seating arrangement and the opening. The therapist lays out ground rules and suggests a theoretical framework for the couple. Each partner is asked to do a self-assessment scale aimed at assessing his or her desire to stay in the marriage. This is followed by a discussion of family behavior. The session is terminated with homework for each of the partners, and a therapeutic contract is made. Nonsystematic feedback suggests the technique is useful.     

Postmodern consciousness in psychotherapy

Modern consciousness is a cultural and historical achievement in the West and a developmental task for each person now. Modern consciousness consists in the emancipation from the power of community, animistic nature and the unconscious. It is connected with neurosis and psychotherapy because it has to do with inner conflicts. But today there is an increasing number of cases which are characterized by dissociation and acting out, without the feeling of conflicts. Consciousness seems to be changing toward a new conception which might be called 'postmodern consciousness'. The essence of postmodern consciousness is shown by interpreting two dreams internally. The first dream from a case of depersonalization indicates that it is not necessary to be entangled with the object. There is a different kind of coniunctio in the mode of seeing. The second dream from a case of dissociative disorder shows a world which has neither traces of pre-modern cosmology-high and low, here and the beyond-nor modern interiority. There is only surface and self-reflection without content. The discussion of dreams suggests that postmodern consciousness is not to be understood as premature and pathological. It is therapeutically important to refine and deepen postmodern consciousness.