The elusive homosexual: a reply to Stone and Schneider

Summary: In a rebuttal of the Stone and Schneider validation study of the Wheeler signs of homosexuality in the Rorschach, it was argued that (a) homosexuality is not a proper clinical diagnosis, (b) homosexuals do not differ in psychological functioning from hetereosexuals, and (c) the Wheeler signs represent an atomistic approach of use only to those defensive clinicians unwilling to encounter the unique character of their clients.     

Gesture, speech, and computational stages: a reply to McNeill

McNeill (1985) claimed that speech and its accompanying gestures "share a common computational stage" that is located early in the speech production process. This position depends on two crucial arguments that we believe are unsound: first, that gestures "are synchronized with linguistic units in speech" and, second, that gestures "have semantic and pragmatic functions that parallel those of speech." Careful analysis of the relevant data indicated that although the processes underlying gestural production are globally autonomous, they are linked to speech production at more than just one computational stage. An account is offered that explicates these links.     

Race, brain size, and intelligence: a reply to Cernovsky

Cernovsky's 1990 critique of my work on the relation between brain size and IQ inadequately presents my position. I did not address the issue of sex differences in brain size nor did I conclude that "women are less intelligent than men" (p. 337). In the autopsy study cited by Cernovsky, it was concluded that, when body size is controlled, the male-female difference in brain size is removed but the black-white difference in brain size remains. Cernovsky also ignores much additional data, including that Mongoloid populations have larger and heavier brains than Caucasoids. Here, I review evidence on the relation between (a) brain size and race and (b) brain size and intelligence. Data are also tabulated for personality, speed of maturation, and sexuality, on all of which the Caucasoid average consistently falls between those of Mongoloids and Negroids. This ordering may be explained by a gene-based evolutionary theory of r/K reproductive strategies in which Mongoloids are more K-selected than Caucasoids and Caucasoids more than Negroids.     

The theory of incubation: a reply to Bersh

Bersh's critique of Eysenck's theory of incubation is summarized, and some arguments are presented to indicate that while some criticisms are pertinent, they do not invalidate the theory.     

The theory behind Psychoticism: a reply to Eysenck

In this reply to Eysenck, we attempt to clarify why we have criticized Eysenck's Psychoticism model and have found it necessary to introduce our own alternative model. It is concluded that the validity of the P scale as a measure of Psychoticism has not been demonstrated and that the P construct itself is untenable.     

The sociobiology of bereavement: a reply to Littlefield and Rushton

This article offers a critique of Littlefield and Rushton's (1986) application of sociobiological principles to bereavement following the death of a child. The following general issues are considered: (a) whether behavior is always adaptive and (b) the distinction between proximate and ultimate explanations. It is argued that grief is a maladaptive by-product of another, adaptive feature and that hypotheses about the severity of grief are best derived from proximate considerations rather than genetic relatedness. The use of a single-item rating scale to measure grief is questioned, and it is noted that interspouse reliabilities reported in the article were low, a problem not solved (as claimed) by aggregation. Criticisms are made of the specific hypotheses, notably in terms of their origins in sociobiological theory. It is argued that functional hypotheses are not alternatives to proximate mechanisms, but enable some proximate mechanisms to be viewed from the perspective of evolutionary biology.