Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance

The authors proposed a model suggesting that organizational environments supporting high levels of informal supervisor and coworker feedback are associated with lower employee perceptions of organizational politics. Furthermore, these lowered perceptions of politics were proposed to result in higher employee morale (as reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment) and, through morale, to higher levels of task performance and organizational citizenship. The proposed mediational model was supported with empirical results from 150 subordinate-supervisor dyads sampled across a variety of organizations. Higher quality feedback environments were associated with lower perceptions of organizational politics, and morale mediated the relationships between organizational politics and various aspects of work performance. These findings suggest that when employees have greater access to information regarding behaviors that are acceptable and desired at work, perceptions of politics are reduced and work outcomes are enhanced.     

Alternative to the wavelength interpretation of the auditory kappa effect

We argue that the simple wavelength interpretation of the auditory kappa effect proposed by Yoblick and Salvendy in 1970 is inadequate since only the frequency of an incoming soundwave is preserved at the tympanic membrane. Alternative explanations are proposed in terms of psychological variables. The kappa effect with tonal intervals is explained using an imputed velocity model in which frequency differences are equated to phenomenological "distances." The continuous tone effect is explained in terms of previously observed correlations between frequency and the volume or " bigness " of a tone and between size and perceived duration.     

Jealousy and the threatened self: getting to the heart of the green-eyed monster

Several theories specifying the causes of jealousy have been put forth in the past few decades. Firm support for any proposed theory, however, has been limited by the difficulties inherent in inducing jealousy and examining any proposed mediating mechanisms in real time. In support of a theory of jealousy centering on threats to the self-system, 2 experiments are presented that address these past limitations and argue for a model based on context-induced variability in self-evaluation. Experiment 1 presents a method for evoking jealousy through the use of highly orchestrated social encounters and demonstrates that threatened self-esteem functions as a principal mediator of jealousy. In addition to replicating these findings, Experiment 2 provides direct evidence for jealousy as a cause of aggression. The ability of the proposed theory of jealousy to integrate other extant findings in the literature is also discussed.     

Checking the Assumptions of Rasch's Model for Speed Tests

Two new tests for a model for the response times on pure speed tests by Rasch (1960) are proposed. The model is based on the assumption that the test response times are approximately gamma distributed, with known index parameters and unknown rate parameters. The rate parameters are decomposed in a subject ability parameter and a test difficulty parameter. By treating the ability as a gamma distributed random variable, maximum marginal likelihood (MML) estimators for the test difficulty parameters and the parameters of the ability distribution are easily derived. Also the model tests proposed here pertain to the framework of MML. Two tests or modification indices are proposed. The first one is focused on the assumption of local stochastic independence, the second one on the assumption of the test characteristic functions. The tests are based on Lagrange multiplier statistics, and can therefore be computed using the parameter estimates under the null model. Therefore, model violations for all items and pairs of items can be assessed as a by-product of one single estimation run. Power studies and applications to real data are included as numerical examples.     

Issues in the treatment of depressed children

Basic research into the cognitive, behavioral, familial, and physiological disturbances associated with depressive disorders during childhood is reviewed. Implications for the development of a treatment program are discussed and a comprehensive treatment model is proposed. The proposed model includes intervention strategies for the child, parents, family, and school. The child component consists of intervention strategies for the affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological disturbances that are evident from the existing research. The parent training component is designed to address disturbances in parenting due to cognitive disturbances and skills deficits. The family therapy component emphasizes changing interaction patterns that communicate schema-consistent maladaptive interactions. A school consultation component is proposed in which school personnel support the skills training through prompting use of the skills and reinforcement of the use of the coping skills.     

On Revolutionizing the Theory and Practice of Psychotherapy

The original concepts psychological hurt and therapeutic catharsis are proposed as the basis for a revolutionary change in the theory and practice of psychotherapy. Psychological hurt, understood as any residual interference with psychological functioning from an adverse event(s), is proposed as the irreducible cause of any such difficulty. Therapeutic catharsis is proposed as the optimal healing process for psychological hurt. Such a transformational view of the theory and practice of psychotherapy is deemed as necessary because of the lack of unequivocal answers to the following fundamental questions: What causes psychological problems? What resolves them in the most optimal way?     

Acceleration model in the heterogeneous case of the general graded response model

A new model, called acceleration model, is proposed in the framework of the heterogenous case of the graded response model, based on processing functions defined for a finite or enumerable number of steps. The model is expected to be useful in cognitive assessment, as well as in more traditional areas of application of latent trait models. Criteria for evaluating models are proposed, and soundness and robustness of the acceleration model are discussed. Graded response models based on individual choice behavior are also discussed, and criticisms on model selection in terms of fitnesses of models to the data are also given.This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research (N00014-90-J-1456).     

Confidence Distribution for the Ability Parameter of the Rasch Model

Psychometrika - In this paper, we consider the Rasch model and suggest novel point estimators and confidence intervals for the ability parameter. They are based on a proposed confidence...     

Conditions of Cognitive Sanity and the Internalist Credo

BonJour has proposed background conditions on internalist justification, which Kornblith argues are inconsistent with a core internalist ‘credo’ – that subjects internally alike are justificationally alike – signaling the ‘death’ of internalism. The funeral arrangements are premature, though more systematic consideration of background conditions is needed. The majority of BonJour's conditions are not background conditions as their failure makes an epistemically relevant internal difference. This neutralizes Kornblith's criticisms and reveals how the proposed conditions are not departures from internalism. BonJour's background conditions are simply conditions, the credo remains intact, and Kornblith's objections do not spell problems for internalism, let alone death.     

Assessing the Relationship between Three Christian Theologies of Creation and Environmental Concern

This paper reports the development of an instrument to measure three different orientations of a theology of nature. A theoretical model is proposed, and then applied to a sample of churchgoers in the form of a Theology of Nature Scale. The empirical data support the existence of deism, theism and pantheism orientations as proposed by the model. The relationships between these three theological orientations and other measures of religiosity are considered. Finally, the effects of these orientations on levels of environmental concern are assessed.     

The Role of Cognitive Deficits in the Development of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders (ED), including anorexia and bulimia nervosa, are chronic illnesses with periods of symptom exacerbation and remission. Because symptoms are usually present from 6 to 24 months before a diagnosis is made, aetiological agents are believed to be active well before symptoms appear. It is proposed that neuropsychological deficits in various cognitive domains preexist and underlie the aetiology of ED. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature relevant to neuropsychological deficits in ED patients and explores the relationship between cognitive deficits, psychosocial development, and the development of ED. Although the role of neuropsychological deficits in the evolution of ED requires further research, the proposed association has significant implications for clinical practice.     

Language deficits and the theory of syntax

A new structural account of agrammatism is proposed, which analyzes the deficit in terms of one current theory of syntax. First, the motivation for accounts of this kind is given. Then, a variety of experimental findings from sentence comprehension in agrammatism are examined and accounted for in a unified way. It is shown that a minimal change in the syntactic model (achieved by imposing a special condition on a construct called trace), results in a model which accounts for all the data at hand. A number of possible objections to this proposal is then examined, and reasons are given to dismiss these objections. Also, it is shown that this proposal is preferable to other structural accounts which have been recently proposed. Finally, the empirical consequences of this account are discussed, with a special emphasis on the implications for models of language processing.     

Avoiding degeneracy in multidimensional unfolding by penalizing on the coefficient of variation

Multidimensional unfolding methods suffer from the degeneracy problem in almost all circumstances. Most degeneracies are easily recognized: the solutions are perfect but trivial, characterized by approximately equal distances between points from different sets. A definition of an absolutely degenerate solution is proposed, which makes clear that these solutions only occur when an intercept is present in the transformation function. Many solutions for the degeneracy problem have been proposed and tested, but with little success so far. In this paper, we offer a substantial modification of an approach initiated bythat introduced a normalization factor based on thevariance in the usual least squares loss function. Heiser unpublishedthesis, (1981) and showed that the normalization factor proposed by Kruskal and Carroll was not strong enough to avoid degeneracies. The factor proposed in the present paper, based on the coefficient of variation, discourages or penalizes nonmetric transformations of the proximities with small variation, so that the procedure steers away from solutions with small variation in the interpoint distances. An algorithm is described for minimizing the re-adjusted loss function, based on iterative majorization. The results of a simulation study are discussed, in which the optimal range of the penalty parameters is determined. Two empirical data sets are analyzed by our method, clearly showing the benefits of the proposed loss function.The authors would like to thank the editor, an associate editor, and three reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of this work.This revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.     

Development of the comprehension and appreciation of fables

The authors proposed and tested a model of fable comprehension and appreciation. They proposed that fables are metaphoric in that they teach moral lessons about human activity, and that apprehension of the moral derives from a belief in a just world. In Study 1, children from kindergarten to 8th grade and college students received Aesop fables, reversed-outcome Aesop fables, and fable-like stories. As predicted, kindergartners and some 1st graders did not demonstrate a belief in a just world and did not differentiate between normal and reversed-outcome Aesop fables. Quality of morals provided by older participants was superior to that of younger participants. In Study 2, the quality of fable moral was found to be significantly correlated with quality of proverb and metaphor interpretation. Also, memory for goal or intention story elements was found to be related to quality of moral produced. Directions for future research are identified.     

Combining standardized mean differences using the method of maximum likelihood

A maximum likelihood procedure for combining standardized mean differences based on a noncentratt-distribution is proposed. With a proper data augmentation technique, an EM-algorithm is developed. Information and likelihood ratio statistics are discussed in detail for reliable inference. Simulation results favor the proposed procedure over both the existing normal theory maximum likelihood procedure and the commonly used generalized least squares procedure.     

A Framework for the Classification of Personality Components

ABSTRACT Psychologists working within different theoretical traditions have proposed the existence of hundreds of personality components since the turn of the century. For example, psychoanalysts proposed such components as the id, ego, and superego, and trait theorists proposed such components as introversion and extraversion. Because each proposed component models a part of internal psychological functioning, it would make sense to combine the components into a single more meaningful set. Such components, however, are generally discussed only within the specific theoretical tradition in which they originated. This article presents a classification system that treats personality components together as a group. Personality components were first defined and then several hundred components were collected in a preliminary theory-by-theory classification. A new relational classification system was then developed that organized the components according to their interrelated nature, without regard to their originating theories. This classification system can be used to construct a relational table of personality components that is loosely analogous to a chemist's periodic table of the elements. The re-lational classification system's potential contribution to personality psychology is discussed.     

Proposal for Centers for the Study of Biblical Psychotherapy

This paper describes the need for a Biblically based psychotherapy to replace a psychotherapy dominated by Greek mythology. Centers for Biblical Psychotherapy are proposed and sample curriculae are discussed.     

Dependent effect sizes in meta-analysis: incorporating the degree of interdependence

In the present article, a commonly used meta-analytic procedure for handling dependent effect sizes from a single sample was examined, and 2 revised procedures that estimate and incorporate the degree of interdependence were proposed. The authors' simulation results reveal that the commonly used procedure that averages the effect sizes from a single sample (denoted as the samplewise procedure) underestimates the degree of heterogeneity. The proposed variations are less biased than the samplewise procedure in estimating the degree of heterogeneity in most of the situations that we examined. Future directions to further improve the procedures for handling dependent effect sizes from a single sample are discussed.     

On the Possibility of Presentism with Occurrents

Philosophia - This paper defends the possibility of admitting occurrents in a presentist ontology. Two ways of doing so are proposed, the first one involves Meinongian presentism. By using the...