The Adams and Reis observations revisited

This experiment was designed as a replication of the Adams and Reis (1971, 1974) experiments, which posited a direct relationship between frequency of stuttering and the number of “off-on” laryngeal adjustments during speech. Twenty adult stutterers read two prose passages equivalent in length, word length, and semantic content. The first passage contained a normal distribution of syllable-initial voiced and voiceless consonants whereas the second contained only voiced phonemes. The results demonstrated significantly greater stuttering during reading of the all-voiced passage (P?0.05). These results did not confirm the earlier observations of Adams and Reis and mitigate the hypothesized relationships between stuttering frequency and “off-on” laryngeal adjustments.     

I—Marilyn McCord Adams

ABSTRACT In this paper I begin with Aristotle's Categories and with his apparent forwarding of primary substances as metaphysically special because somehow fundamental. I then consider how medieval reflection on Aristotelian change led medieval Aristotelians to analyses of primary substances that called into question how and whether they are metaphysically special. Next, I turn to a parallel issue about supposits, which Boethius seems in effect to identify with primary substances, and how theological cases–the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and of the human soul's separate survival between death and resurrection–call into question how and to what extent supposits are metaphysically special. I conclude with some reflections on various senses of being metaphysically special and how they pertain to primary substances and supposits.     

Jefferson and Adams on the mind-body problem

Amidst the voluminous correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are several letters pertaining to the material basis of mental life. These reveal in a most suggestive way the substantial differences between them. Well informed on prevailing scientific and philosophical perspectives, Jefferson and Adams used the issue to express their positions on the nature and limits of knowledge, the relative authority of scientific methods and speculations, and the larger question of human perfectibility. At the same time, their exchanges illuminate the prevailing and divergent perspectives on human psychology adopted by major leaders of thought in the New World.     

The holy grail of cognitivism: a response to Adams and Aizawa

In their papers for this issue, Sterelny and Sutton provide a dimensional analysis of some of the ways in which mental and cognitive activities take place in the world. I add two further dimensions, a dimension of manipulation and of transformation. I also discuss the explanatory dimensions that we might use to explain these cases.     

A review of Frederick Adams and Kenneth Aizawa, The Bounds of Cognition

In The Bounds of Cognition, Fred Adams and Kenneth Aizawa treat the arguments for extended cognition to withering criticism. I summarize their main arguments and focus special attention on their distinction between the extended cognitive system hypothesis and the extended cognition hypothesis, as well as on their demand for a mark of the mental.     

Gerry Adams and the Northern Ireland Peace Process

This research note uses Hermann's personality-at-a-distance (PAD) method and applies it to negotiating behavior. Gerry Adams's personality and its effect upon his negotiating behavior in the current peace process in Northern Ireland is used as an illustration of the expanded application of PAD in a negotiating context.     

The truncated nuclear family

The truncated nuclear family is defined: it is the garden-variety family pathology found. The critical role of polarized continuity and discontinuity values in producing the truncated nuclear family is discussed. There is a brief review of factors in American society which, over the decades since the Second World War, have evolved the nuclear family as a dominant family unit, and of how those and other factors in society have produced the large numbers of truncated nuclear families seen in clinics, particularly in the past decade. Family therapy is the treatment of choice for the truncated nuclear family, provided there is a readiness of the family to undertake the stress of therapy.Dr. Zuk is family therapy consultant to agencies in New Orleans and elsewhere, and clinical professor (psychology) in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University Medical School.This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming 2nd edition ofProcess and Practice in Family Therapy, to be published by Human Sciences Press of New York City in 1985.     

The Melancholy Boy and the Religion of Humor: The Case of S. S. Adams

Drawing on earlier writings (Capps, Men, religion, and melancholia: James, Otto, Jung, and Erikson, 1997, 2004) in which I argue that male melancholia has its origins in the boy’s emotional separation from his mother at age 3–5 years old, and that the three main forms of male religion—honor, hope, and humor—are responses to this loss, I focus in this article on S. S. Adams, the inventor of several practical jokes, as an illustration of the religion of humor. I suggest that Adams, son of Danish immigrants, coped with his melancholia through the invention of practical jokes, including the Dribble Glass, the Razzberry Cushion, and the Joy Buzzer. I contend that these inventions have similar iconic value in the religion of male melancholia to the prayer cards, rosary beads, and votive candles of traditional Christianity. I also propose that the S. S. Adams Factory in Neptune, NJ, USA may be viewed as a pilgrimage site for devotees of male melancholic religion.     

The impact of family functioning on family racial socialization processes

This longitudinal study evaluated the relationship between family functioning and family racial socialization processes in a clinical sample of African American youth referred for drug abuse treatment. Participants were 77 African American adolescents and their parents. Results showed that participants assigned to structural ecosystems therapy experienced a greater increase in family racial socialization processes during treatment than participants assigned to the treatment as usual in community settings condition. Participants in structural ecosystems therapy also demonstrated a greater increase in family functioning than participants in community settings condition, and this improvement in family functioning mediated the relationship between treatment condition and family racial socialization processes. Research and clinical implications are discussed.