The drinker and the nurturer: College students' perceptions of men and fathers

This three‐part study examined 421 mid‐Atlantic university students' perceptions of the content of social stereotypes related to fathers‐ and men‐in‐general. College students viewed men‐in‐general as having far fewer positive parenting and personal qualities, but generally did not differ in breadwinning characteristics when compared to fathers‐in‐general. The results empirically supported the notion that younger adults generally do not view men‐in‐general as having the qualities associated with active fathering (e.g., being physically, financially, or emotionally involved with children), although they are seen as comparable providers. Men‐in‐general also are viewed much more negatively than fathers‐in‐general. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Priming and communication: Social determinants of information use in judgments of life satisfaction

Two experiments examined the effects of answering a question about a specific component of life satisfaction on respondents' assessment of their overall satisfaction with life. The results suggest that the use of primed information in forming subsequent judgments is determined by Grice's conversational norms. In general, answering the specific question increases the accessibility of information relevant to that question. However, the effect that this has on the general judgment depends on the way in which the two questions are presented. When the two questions are merely placed in sequence without a conversational context, the answer to the subsequent general question is based in part on the primed specific information. As a result, the answer to the general question becomes similar to that for the specific question (i.e. assimilation). However, this does not occur when the two questions are placed in a communication context. Conversational rules dictate that communicators should be informative and should avoid redundancy in their answers. Therefore, when a specific and a general question are perceived as belonging to the same conversational context, the information on which the answer to the specific question was based is disregarded when answering the general one. This attenuates the assimilation effect. The conditions under which these different processes occur are identified and experimentally manipulated, and the implications of these findings for models of information use in judgment are discussed.     

Perspectives on Models of Job Performance

Contemporary models of job performance are reviewed. Links between task performance, contextual performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, counterproductivity and organizational deviance are pointed out. Measurement issues in constructing generic models applicable across jobs are discussed. Implications for human resource management in general, and performance appraisal for selection and assessment in particular, are explored. It is pointed out that the different dimensions or facets of individual job performance hypothesized in the literature are positively correlated. This positive manifold suggests the presence of a general factor which represents a common variance shared across all the dimensions or facets. Although no consensus exists in the extant literature on the meaning and source of this shared variance (i.e., the general factor), rater idiosyncratic halo alone does not explain this general factor. Future research should explain the common individual differences determinants of performance dimensions.     

Unhealthy fear: Influence of general health on fear of crime

The current study proposed general health as a predictor of fear of crime with risk perception and general fear as mediating factors. Data were collected from a randomly selected household sample using face to face interviews (n = 300) and utilizing the following scales: general health, general fear, fear of crime, and perceived risk of victimization. Findings confirm hypothesis that persons with low general health will experience higher fear of crime, a relationship mediated by both general fear and perceived risk of victimization. A significant gender difference was observed with general fear significantly mediating relationship for females, and risk of perceived victimization mediating for males. Implications of findings are discussed in the context of previous and future research.     

Sex differences in general knowledge in German high school students

This study examines the hypotheses that (1) 17 domains of general knowledge can be identified; (2) these are positively intercorrelated and form a general factor of general knowledge; (3) there are sex differences in the different domains of general knowledge; and (4) males have more general knowledge in more of these domains than females and in the general factor. The study tests these hypotheses on a sample of 302 German high school students. All the hypotheses were confirmed. All the domains of general knowledge were positively intercorrelated. A general factor was found that explained 31.3% of the variance. Males achieved significantly and substantially higher scores than females in general knowledge of 0.60d. The only area in which females scored significantly higher than males was Nutrition for which there was a medium size effect size (d=0.50). The results are highly similar to those among university students in Northern Ireland reported by Lynn, Irwing, and Cammock (2002).     

Choice of task and goal under conditions of general and specific affective inducement

In this study we examine the role of general and task-specific affect on task and goal choice in a performance setting. We use video stimuli to induce a general positive or general negative affective state, and use rate-of-progress and absolute discrepancy feedback to manipulate task-specific affect. Analyses indicate that general affective states influenced task and goal choices, self-efficacy expectations, and performance. Rate-of-progress feedback influenced affective state, task choice, and self-efficacy expectations. Absolute discrepancy feedback influenced task choice modestly and self-efficacy significantly. Generally, positive affect promoted mood maintenance while negative affect promoted mood repair, and general and task-specific affect exerted similar effects. Results are discussed in terms of the motivational consequences of affective states (either general or task-specific) for task and goal choices.     

A comparison of error based and time based learning measures as predictors of general intelligence

Two methodological issues involved in determining the relationship between learning and general intelligence (g) are examined. They are firstly, the use of subject learning strategies in a paired-associated learning task and secondly the importance of time in the measurement of learning efficiency. Concerning the first issue, paired-associates learning scores of subjects who were instructed in the use of an appropriate learning strategy correlated significantly with general intelligence scores while those not so instructed did not. Concerning the second issue, a time based learning measure was developed to predice the time required for complete learning in the paired-associates learning task. This measure was compared learning with a number of error-based learning measures in their ability to predict general intelligence. The time based learning measure was clearly superior to the error based measures yielding a correlation of .59 with general intelligence.     

Two Challenges to the Requirement of Substantive General Covariance

It is generally acknowledged that the requirement that the laws of a spacetime theory be covariant under a general coordinate transformation is a restriction on the form but not the content of the theory. The prevalent view in the physics community holds that the substantive version of general covariance – exhibited, for example, by Einstein’s general theory of relativity – consists in the requirement that diffeomorphism invariance is a gauge symmetry of the theory. This conception of general covariance is explained and confronted by two challenges. One challenge claims, in effect, that substantive general covariance is not deserving of the name since, just as it is possible to rewrite any spacetime so that it satisfies formal general covariance, so it is also possible to rewrite the theory so that it satisfies the proffered version of substantive general covariance. The other challenge claims that the proffered version of substantive general covariance is not strong enough to guarantee the intended meaning of general covariance. Both challenges are discussed in terms of concrete examples. It is argued that both challenges fail but, at the same time, that they help to clarify what is at stake on the seemingly never ending dispute over the nature and status of general covariance.     

Instantiation of general terms in young and older adults

Instantiation of general terms in discourse requires inference from general world knowledge and use of linguistic context to particularize meaning. According to the semantic deficit hypothesis, older adults should be less likely than young adults to generate or to store such inferences. In Experiments 1 and 2 an indirect measure, relatedness judgment, was used to assess immediate comprehension and memory for inferences. In Experiment 3 a direct measure, cued recall, was used to tap memory for inferences. No age differences in immediate or delayed memory were observed in Experiments 1 or 2. In Experiment 3 older adults recalled fewer sentences, but there was no evidence for a specific decrement in storage of inferential material. Older adults are not impaired in ability to draw inferences based on general world knowledge, nor are they more likely than young adults to encode linguistic information in a general, stereotypic fashion.     

Contextual aspects of ethnic stereotypes and interethnic evaluations

The existence of context-specific ethnic stereotypes and their effect on evaluations of contact with ethnic groups is examined in a survey of 1694 Dutch secondary-school students. Interethnic evaluations and 13 trait attributions towards five ethnic groups were measured in three basic social domains: as neighbours, classmates and (marital) partners. The 13 trait attributions were also measured for ethnic groups in general and for ‘people in general’. The first hypothesis was that stereotypes operationalized as diagnostic ratios were better predictors of interethnic evaluation than stereotypes operationalized as percentage scores. The second hypothesis was that contextual stereotypes are better predictors of interethnic evaluation than general group stereotypes. It was found that diagnostic ratios do not predict interethnic evaluations better than percentage scores. For most ethnic groups contextual stereotypes are better predictors of interethnic evaluations than general group stereotypes.     

Distribution of probability assessments for almanac and future event questions

This study examines the distribution and calibration of probability assessments given to general knowledge questions and question concerning future events. Two experiments revealed that: (1) People use certainty responses less frequently in response to questions concerning then-future events than to general knowledge questions even when the then-future event questions are easier than the general knowledge questions. (2) Indonesian students previously thought to have little grasp of probabilistic thinking, are able to give realistic probability assessments for then-future events. Cultural and task influences on our findings are discussed in relation to a procedural model of the processes involved in answering a question. We conclude that, as most applications of decision analysis involve future uncertainty, research in probability assessment should concentrate on questions concerning future events rather than on general knowledge questions.     

A family of association coefficients for metric scales

Four types of metric scales are distinguished: the absolute scale, the ratio scale, the difference scale and the interval scale. A general coefficient of association for two variables of the same metric scale type is developed. Some properties of this general coefficient are discussed. It is shown that the matrix containing these coefficients between any number of variables is Gramian. The general coefficient reduces to specific coefficients of association for each of the four metric scales. Two of these coefficients are well known, the product-moment correlation and Tucker's congruence coefficient. Applications of the new coefficients are discussed.     

Attachment, Acculturation and GHQ-30 of Chinese Students in Japan

This study examines how attachment and acculturation are associated with the general mental health of Chinese students in Japan. The participants were 194 Chinese students living in Japan, who were asked to complete a set of self-reported measures. The results showed that attachment anxiety predicted all subscales of general mental health, and attachment avoidance and acculturation predicted some aspects of general mental health. In addition, the number of years of residence in Japan was also found to be associated with the general mental health. The findings help improving intercultural communication between Asian countries as well as to facilitate clinical intervention and prevention.     

Towards a general theory of representation

Summary The models of science are representations of a part of reality. Every science has its own specific rules of constructing models, but there are many common rules that must be followed. These rules are to be part of what may be called a general theory of representation. This paper discusses some general aspects of representation that must be considered before such a general theory can be created. There are five sections: (1) an introduction to the topic of representation in general; (2) an overview of some general types of representation, such as goal-directed and self-organizational representations; (3) a short discussion of representation in some specific disciplines; (4) some formal aspects of representations; and (5) a discussion of epistemological aspects of representation, especially scientific reduction and mental causation.This paper was written during participation in the Research Project Mind and Brain, at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, BRD.     

A Meinongian Way out of the Polish Proofs Against General Objects

The triangle in general or the man as such are general objects. These are objects that possess the properties common to all the individual objects in their range. Stanis?aw Le?niewski and Tadeusz Kotarbiński, two Polish philosophers and logicians belonging to the Lvov-Warsaw School, produced several proofs aiming to show that such objects are impossible because the principles that govern them lead to a contradiction. In this paper I first clarify the structure of their proofs. Then I suggest a way to elude their conclusion. In order to do that I use two Meinongian distinctions: the distinction between complete and incomplete objects, on the one hand, and the distinction between nuclear and extranuclear properties, on the other hand. I claim first that general objects are incomplete objects, i.e. they do not satisfy the ontological principle of the excluded middle, and second that the principle that governs the relations between the properties of general objects and the properties of the individual objects in their range should be restricted to nuclear properties.     

Soccer,rooms, and the quality of your life: Mood effects on judgments of satisfaction with life in general and with specific domains

Two studies on the impact of temporary moods on judgments of satisfaction with life in general and with specific life-domains are reported. It was hypothesized that individuals simplify the complex task of evaluating their life in general by referring to their mood at the time of judgment, but evaluate specific life-domains on the basis of domain-specific information. In accordance with this hypothesis, both studies demonstrated strong mood effects on judgments of general life-satisfaction but only weak and non-significant effects on judgments of specific domain-satisfactions. The findings are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that affective states serve informative functions.     

A general theory of learning and conditioning: Part I

In the first of two parts in which a general mathematical theory of non-symbolic learning and conditioning is constructed, the sections of the theory dealing with non-symbolic learning and conditioning are presented, and a number of its qualitative implications are compared with available experimental results. In general, the agreement is found to be rather close.     

The construct of general intelligence

The construct of general intelligence is discussed in a number of different contexts. The fundamental empirical basis for it is the positive trend among the smallest correlations among cognitive measures. Differences among factor models which recognize this in different ways are discussed. Evidence for the general factor in intelligence is also found in the difficulty in finding evidence for differential validity of tests from one criterion to another. Performance on Piagetian tasks reflects mainly general intelligence. Individual differences in aural comprehension of language anticipate later individual differences in intellectual development. Selective forces which produce differences among schools operate largely on the general factor. To the extent that there is a genetic contribution to individual differences on cognitive tests, it appears to be to the general factor variance. Social class differences among whites appear to be largely on the general factor, but black-white differences require other dimensions. Although the general factor is, in a sense, real, it is not interpreted as an entity within the organism. Instead it is an abstraction resulting from the many genes, the many environmental pressures, and the many neural structures involved in the wide variety of human behaviors which can be labelled cognitive or intellectual.     

The bias function of the maximum likelihood estimate of ability for the dichotomous response level

Samejima has recently given an approximation for the bias function for the maximum likelihood estimate of the latent trait in the general case where item responses are discrete, generalizing Lord's bias function in the three-parameter logistic model for the dichotomous response level. In the present paper, observations are made about the behavior of this bias function for the dichotomous response level in general, and also with respect to several widely used mathematical models. Some empirical examples are given.