Children's understanding of some temporal terms denoting order,duration, and simultaneity

This study examined the comprehension by children of the concepts of order, duration, and simultaneity as reflected in certain linguistic structures. The children in the study were 3, 5, and 7 years old. Temporal order was examined through children's comprehension of two-clause sentences containing the conjunctions after, before, since, and until. Temporal duration was examined through children's understanding of one-clause sentences containing the progressive aspect and two-clause sentences containing the conjunctions since and until. These two conjunctions signal duration in the main clause when they conjoin two clauses. Simultaneity was studied through children's comprehension of two-clause sentences containing while. The results revealed that the order sentence structures (before and after) were generally comprehended by the children before the duration or simultaneous sentence structures, although at 7 years of age children were still not performing above chance on the order relation in since and until sentences. The duration sentence structures were comprehended by the children before the simultaneous sentence structures. The results support the literature in cognitive psychology and in philosophy which argues that order is simpler than duration is simpler than simultaneity.This report is based on a dissertation submitted to the University of Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Ph.D.     

Systems theory and psychotherapy

All systems behave, interact, vary in their level of complexity, and are related in subsystem-suprasystem hierarchical relationships. The behaviour of the whole system is more complex than the sum of its parts. Systems are seen to evolve in complexity along a continuum from nonliving matter, to simple living matter with the ability to reproduce itself, and on to organisms with increasing levels of complexity and consciousness.     

The Relationship Between Family Factors and Adolescent Substance Use in Rural, Suburban, and Urban Settings

We tested the relationships and predictive power of family factors on rural, suburban, and urban adolescent substance use. A representative statewide survey of 11th grade students for gender, place of residence, and ethnicity was conducted. No significant differences were found between rural, suburban, and urban adolescents for substance use. For family sanction variables across all locations, adolescent substance involvement was significantly lower the more they perceived their families would stop them or care if they got drunk, smoked cigarettes, or used marijuana. Rural and suburban youth who reported that their parents talked to them about the dangers of smoking and getting drunk were less involved in substance use. While controlling for location, gender, and ethnicity, regression analyses showed that family sanctions against smoking cigarettes and marijuana explained a modest proportion of the variance in substance use. Finally, family talking about the dangers of cigarettes, family involvement in schools and belief that their families cared about them predicted lower substance use regardless of location, although minimal variance was explained. The findings have implications for social service providers regarding location settings, prevention, education, and intervention programming.     

Religious Parties, Religious Political Identity, and the Cold Shoulder of Liberal Democratic Thought

Elements of the relation between religion and politics are standard themes in political theory: toleration and free exercise rights; the parameters of separation of church and state; arguments for and against constraints imposed on religious discourse by philosophic norms of public reason. But religious parties and partisanship are no part of political theory, despite contemporary interest in value pluralism and in liberal democratic theory's capacity to address multicultural, religious, and ethnic group claims. This essay argues that religious parties are missing elements in discussions of identity politics. They play an important role not just in expressing but also in constructing and mobilizing religious political identity. Political activity linked to parties is a principal way of bringing diffuse, politically unorganized groups, whose leaders are self-appointed and not regularly accountable for the way they represent co-religionists in political life, into the democratic mainstream. With political organization and especially partisanship, the fact of pluralism is made concrete for democratic purposes.     

Gender specificity in value structures

Separate factor analyses of the value rankings of 53 male and 77 female college students yielded three factors for each gender. Interpretation suggested Creative Self-Determination versus Submissive Dependency, Personal Gratification versus Sociopolitical Consciousness, and Existential Responsibility versus Traditionalism as core concepts for the female respondents; while males' axiological dimensions were labeled Communal Idealism versus Entrepreneural Pragmatism, Hedonism versus Egalitarianism, and Sybaritic Bohemianism versus Traditional Sobriety. Each pole of the female factors was interpreted as reflecting a major ideological referent component of the Women's Liberation Movement, while male factors were construed as constituting perspectives for interpreting varieties of response to feminist ideology. Techniques for increasing individuals' levels of self-actualization by direct intervention in axiological organization were discussed.     

Equality of educational opportunity without the state?

Conclusion This essay took one of the externalities of education, equality of opportunity, and suggested that the more extensive state intervention argued for by the left was not needed for its provision. This was argued by saying that what the left wanted from equality of opportunity was not equality as such, but merely adequate resources for all. An adequate education it was suggested, could be provided without extensive state intervention for the great majority of children. Only for those children who were too poor, or whose parents were too irresponsible, would it be necessary for the state to intervene to ensure the provision of education, and then only to ensure that these children had access to sufficient funds to enable them to share in the educational experiences provided for other children.Several details in this argument need to be worked out in more detail, including the important matter of exactly what an adequate education might comprise. However, if these details could be worked out satisfactorily, the argument could serve to challenge the left's anxieties about moves towards a market in educational provision. The argument suggests that such moves need not lead to the sacrifice of those externalities which the left holds dear.     

The ω-rule

We prove that all proofs in -logic (a first order logic with -rule added) in which -rule is used finitely many times can be turned into proofs in which the -rule is used at most one time. Next, we prove that the word finitely above cannot be changed by the word infinitely.     

Illness as a crisis of meaning: Psycho-spiritual agendas in health care

The term psychosocial has come to refer to a host of issues in health care. Its wide, indiscriminate usage in referring to almost any non-biophysical aspect of illness obscures or distorts the experience of illness as a crisis of meaning. The term psycho-spiritual agenda is introduced to emphasize the problems of meaning associated with illness, and to avoid the potential reductionism, pathological skew, and interventionist bias of conventional psychosocial analyses of the illness experience.     

Illustrating two complementary enterprises at the interface of psychology and religion through reading Winnicott

Our work at the interface of psychology and religion can proceed in two complementary directions. When reading a psychological theory, (1) we may pay special attention to how certain concepts in particular, and the system of ideas as a whole, are being or might be used to interpret religious phenomena. We may focus on how those ideas may be involved in doing psychology of religion: the psychological interpretation of religious phenomena. Alternatively, (2) we may pay special attention to how certain concepts in particular, and the system of ideas as a whole, are being or might be used, either implicitly or explicitly, to make claims about human nature, about the meaning and purpose of life, about God. We may identify the psychology as religion-theology: psychological ideas potentially functioning in a religious-theological manner. I will illustrate this by: (a) examining D. W. Winnicott's article, Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena (1953/1986) in terms of three successive concepts or categories: transitional object, transitional phenomena, and a third intermediate area of experiencing; (b) considering how these categories can be used in psychology of religion; (c) reconsidering how the psychological categories may function as religious-theological. The discussion is intended to illustrate how we might more fully appreciate how and why a psychological theory may work well in doing psychology of religion when we more fully appreciate how that psychology implicitly functions as theology.     

Ghost Gestures: Phenomenological Investigations of Bodily Micromovements and Their Intercorporeal Implications

This paper thematizes the operative kinaesthetic style of world-experiencing life by turning to the ongoing how of our habitual bodily comportment: to our deeply sedimented way(s) of making a body; to schematic inner vectors or tendencies toward movement that persist as bodily ghost gestures even if one is not making the larger, visible gestures they imply; and to inadvertent isometrics, i.e., persisting patterns of trying, bracing, freezing, etc. All such micromovements witness to our sociality insofar as they are not only socially shaped, but perpetuate certain styles of intercorporeal interaction and sustain certain modes of responsivity. Reactivating the sediment -- retrieving the tacit choreography of everyday life from its anonymity and sensing our ongoing ways of living out the legacy of our communal body -- not only allows one's individual bodily style to shift, but can open new possibilities for healthy interkinaesthetic comportment. Such work can thus contribute to an embodied ethics in both theory and practice.     

The Uncanniness of September 11th

Sigmund Freud's concept of the Uncanny can serve as a means by which we can more fully comprehend the depth of our individual and collective reactions to the tragic eventsof September 11th. Through the interplay of the familiar and the unfamiliar, life and death, as well as through the concepts of the twin, repetition, and the evil but powerful figure, Freud helps us to understand how deeply this day in our history made signficant inroads into our psyche. The person of faith, in turn, can utilize these concepts to help with the hermeneutical process of making sense of what otherwise cannot be fathomed.     

Meaning, “nerves” and the urban-Appalachian family

In this article, the Franklian treatment methods of Network Intervention, Existential Reflection, and Social Skills Training are described as they can be used in family treatment with urban-Appalachian families suffering with a disruption in meaning awareness and the reactive problem of nerves. The author also provides information about treatment results with 28 urban-Appalachian families suffering with nerves, seen in Franklian treatment from 1982 through 1988.     

Six-year-old children's understanding of sentences adjoined with time adverbs

The adjoining of clauses with temporal links is the basis for many sentences that convey sequence of events. The present study attempts to delineate 6-year-old children's (N=30) understanding of the meaning sequences imparted by sentences adjoined with after, before, and until. Their performance of the meaning sequence for each of 24 carefully constructed sentences is compared to an adult model. Analysis of the results (using a Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Rank Test) indicated that: (1)Ss understood sentences adjoined with after according to an adult model more frequently than before adjoined sentences (P<0.01); (b) Until adjoined sentences with a negative marker in the main clause were understood according to an adult model more often than until adjoined sentences with no such negative element, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01; (3)Ss understood before adjoined sentences according to an adult model more often than until adjoined sentences, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01. In general, the results indicated that 6-year-olds have not yet completed development of an adult grammar with respect to adjoining clauses with temporal links, after, before, and until.     

Synonymous Logics

This paper discusses the general problem of translation functions between logics, given in axiomatic form, and in particular, the problem of determining when two such logics are synonymous or translationally equivalent. We discuss a proposed formal definition of translational equivalence, show why it is reasonable, and also discuss its relation to earlier definitions in the literature. We also give a simple criterion for showing that two modal logics are not translationally equivalent, and apply this to well-known examples. Some philosophical morals are drawn concerning the possibility of having two logical systems that are empirically distinct but are both translationally equivalent to a common logic.     

"Solar love": Nietzsche,Merleau-Ponty and the fortunes of perception

Both Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty repudiate the mirror view of perception and embrace what Nietzsche refers to as solar love or creative perception. I argue that Merleau-Ponty thinks of this type of perception primarily in terms of convergence and Nietzsche in terms of divergence. I then show how, contrary to their own emphases, Merleau-Ponty's notion of flesh and Nietzsche's idea of chaos suggest that convergence and divergence are abstractions from an ontologically prior realm of hybrid perceptions. In this realm, each perception is shot through with the others, simultaneously inside and outside one another. The creative tension among these perceptions continually produces new perspectives or voices, that is, a realm whose very being is metamorphosis. Moreover, this realm of hybrid perceptions suggests a political principle that might prove attractive for communities in an age of diversity and cultural hybridity.     

Thinking about the Needy: A Reprise

This article discusses Jan Narvesons Welfare and Wealth, Poverty and Justice in Todays World, and Is World Poverty a Moral Problem for the Wealthy? and their relation to my Thinking about the Needy, Justice, and International Organizations. Section 2 points out that Narvesons concerns differ from mine, so that often his claims and mine fail to engage each other. For example, his focus is on the poor, mine the needy, and while many poor are needy, and vice versa, our obligations may differ regarding the poor than regarding the needy. Also, Narveson invokes a narrow conception of morality as those rules that government or society may compel people to follow. Given a broader, more plausible, conception of morality, many of Narvesons claims actually support my substantive views. Section 3 shows that many of Narvesons claims are relevant to the best means of aiding the needy, but do not challenge the validity of that end. This is true, for example, of his claims about the role of poor governments, the importance of freedom, the undesirability of mere handouts, and the effects of bad economic policies. Section 4 defends the importance of my distinction between acting justly and acting for reasons of justice. It illustrates that on several widely shared conceptions of justice there might be agent-neutralreasons of justice to aid the needy, even if from an agent-relative perspective one would not be acting unjustly if one failed to do so. Section 5 contests Narvesons portrayal of egalitarianism as concerned about inequality of wealth, per se, as insensitive to prior wrongs, and as holding that the worse-off have a right to be made better off at the expense of the well-off. In addition, it rejects Narvesons contention that egalitarians violate impartiality, and aim to impose their personal tastes on others. Section 6 challenges a fundamental assumption underlying Narvesons doctrine of mutual advantage. In addition, it denies that egalitarians are irrational merely because equality can conflict with the pareto principle. More generally, by appealing to impersonal ideals, it challenges the widely held view that the pareto principle is a condition of rationality. Section 7 argues that Narvesons meta-ethical assumptions are controversial, internally inconsistent, in tension with his normative views, and ultimately a version of skepticism. In addition, it challenges Narvesons view about the role intuitions play in moral theory. Section 8 clarifies points where Narvesons discussion of my views may be misleading. Finally, the paper notes the role that moral reasons may play in deliberation and action, but emphasizes the philosophical and theoretical nature of my work. My aim is to determine the moral considerations that are relevant to how people should act regarding the needy. Whether people will actually be moved to so act, for those reasons or otherwise, is another matter.     

When-questions: A study of how children linguistically encode temporal information

Sixty children between the ages of 4 and 7 years and 10 adults were presented with a series of stories illustrated by five pictures in a comic strip format. Each story was follwed by either a when-, why-, or control question. With respect to the when-questions, some of the stories involved causally related events while others did not. An analysis of the responses supported the hypotheses that causal relationships play an important role in the development of the ability to encode temporal relationships in response to when-questions.This research was supported by PSCBHE Grant No. 6-62123 from the City University of New York to the second author. The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of the directors, teachers, and children of the Chatsworth Avenue Elementary School, the Larchmont Avenue Church Nursery School, the Larchmont Temple Nursery School, and the Little School in Larchmont, New York. We would also like to thank Dr. Louis Hsu for his advice concerning     

What Will Become of Epiphanies? A Psychoanalytic Reading of James Joyce's “The Dead”

James Joyce's story, The Dead, is read in the tension between sameness, circularity, restraint, deadness as against possibilities for change, vitality, passion, and loving intimacy. The author plays two different readings of The Dead against each other to generate such tension in life and death struggles. Epiphanies are seen as beckoning us with the possibilities for radical transformation—an impossible illusion—but sufficient to tempt us to struggle against detachment, isolation, and restraint toward moments, of variable length, of intimate connectedness with ourselves and with others.     

Eine informationstheoretische Methode zur Bestimmung der ästhetischen Wirkung von Flächenmustern

Zusammenfassung In dieser Arbeit entwickeln wir eine Form der informationsanalytischen Charakterisierung von Flächenmustern, welche es ermöglicht, schön wirkende von häßlich wirkenden Mustern zu trennen. Wir betrachten ein Flächenmuster als eine Menge von Rasterpunkten. Jeder Rasterpunkt kann hinsichtlich der drei Variablen horizontale Lage, vertikale Lage und Farbton kategorisiert werden. Wir charakterisieren durch eine multivariate Informationsanalyse die statistischen Beziehungen zwischen den genannten Variablen mit zwei Kennwerten. Diese Kennwerte sind die Interaktion zwischen den drei Variablen und ein Balancekoeffizient für die Variablen horizontale und vertikale Lage. Hinsichtlich dieser beiden Kennwerte unterscheiden sich Muster, die von Vpn als schön empfunden werden von solchen, die als häßlich empfunden werden. Schöne Muster haben signifikant höhere Interaktionen und signifikant niedrigere Balancekoeffizienten als häßliche. Hinsichtlich beider Parameter streuen schöne Muster signifikant weniger als häßliche.

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An information analytic method to estimate the esthetical effect of pictures

Summary In this paper we show, that multivariate information analysis can be used to separate pictures regarded as nice from pictures regarded as ugly. A picture may be considered as a set of pictureelements. Each pictureelement can be classified with regard to three variables, namely vertical position, horizontal position and colour tone. We characterize the statistical relations between these variables by multivariate information analysis which results in two parameters. These parameters are the interaction between the variables and a balance coefficient for the variables vertical- und horizontal-position. In respect of these parameters pictures, which are regarded as nice by human subjects are separable from ugly pictures. Nice pictures show significantly higher interactions and lower balance coefficients than ugly ones. The dispersion of interactions and balance coefficients is lower at nice pictures.

     

The artist as transgressor in Mandel'štam's poetry

In Mandel'tam's writing, artistic creativity is described as based on the indispensable yet contradictory modes of compliance and deviation. The artist, by his artistic nature, must be an obedient disciple to the tradition that inspires him, and, at the same time, a violator who renders what inspires him in an individual form. Thus, art implies iterability through novelty. In the totalitarian state, this double nature of art acquires a sinister context and brings the artist to an unavoidable conflict with the state. He has a choice between a servile compliance with the state's command and artistic independence. If the artist complies, he loses his ingenuity; if, on the other hand, he has the courage to break away from the established order, his fate is martyrdom. The criteria of truth and falsehood, the issue of loyalty, of compromise and collaboration or resistance become most relevant. Such words as outcast or non-contemporary acquire the meaning of non-collaborationist or enemy of the people. In the totalitarian state a genuine artist is viewed as a law-breaker, and his art leads him to crime. The notions of compliance and deviation cease being merely aesthetic terms and assume in Mandel'tam's poetry complex, subtle and tragic overtones.I would like to express my gratitude to John Barnstead, Thomas Blakeley, James Doull, Elena Glazov-Corrigan, Gregory Glazov, Leonard Kazdan, Peter Kussmaul, Malcolm Ross, Detlev Steffen, and Ieva Vitins for their valuable criticism, suggestions, and revisions of my English.