The implicit theories approach to the self-monitoring controversy

In the face of uncertainty and disagreement about the meaning and measurement of the self-monitoring construct, the author proposes an implicit theories approach to shed light on what self-monitoring scales may be tapping. The first study explored people's notions of what high and low self-monitors are like, based on the statements in the 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (Gangestad and Snyder, 1985). The second study compared that measure with Lennox and Wolfe's (1984) Revised Self-Monitoring Scale and examined defensive motivation within the scales. The third study consisted of two experiments to determine whether subjects perceived the items of Gangestad and Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale as reflecting a unitary latent entity or separate, contradictory variables. It was concluded that the implicit theories approach appears to be a useful complement to traditional factor analytic studies, providing new ways of looking at a personality construct, clarifying some theoretical issues, and generating hypotheses for future research.     

Children's knowledge of the earth: a new methodological and statistical approach

In the field of children’s knowledge of the earth, much debate has concerned the question of whether children’s naive knowledge—that is, their knowledge before they acquire the standard scientific theory—is coherent (i.e., theory-like) or fragmented. We conducted two studies with large samples (N = 328 and N = 381) using a new paper-and-pencil test, denoted the EARTH (EArth Representation Test for cHildren), to discriminate between these two alternatives. We performed latent class analyses on the responses to the EARTH to test mental models associated with these alternatives. The naive mental models, as formulated by Vosniadou and Brewer, were not supported by the results. The results indicated that children’s knowledge of the earth becomes more consistent as children grow older. These findings support the view that children’s naive knowledge is fragmented.     

The simultaneous chain: a new approach to serial learning

Recent advances have allowed the application of behaviorism's rigor to the control of complex cognitive tasks in animals. This article examines recent research on serially organized behavior in animals. 'Chaining theory', the traditional approach to the study of such behavior, reduces intelligent action to sequences of discrete stimulus-response units in which each overt response is evoked by a particular stimulus. However, such theories are too weak to explain many forms of serially organized cognition, both in humans and animals. By training non-human primates to produce arbitrary sequences that cannot be learned as chains of particular motor responses, the simultaneous chaining paradigm has overcome limitations of chaining theory in experiments on serial expertise, the use of numerical rules, knowledge of ordinal position, and distance and magnitude effects.     

A visual approach to statistical power analysis on the microcomputer

Computer programs for statistical power analysis typically require the user to provide a series of values and respond by reporting the corresponding power. These programs provide essentially the same functions as a published text, albeit in a more convenient form. In this paper, we describe a program that instead uses innovative graphic techniques to provide insight into the interaction among the factors that determine power. For example, fort tests, the means and standard deviations of the two distributions, sample sizes, and alpha are displayed as bar graphs. As the researcher modifies these values, the corresponding values of beta (also displayed as a bar graph) and power are updated and displayed immediately. By displaying all of the factors that are instrumental in determining power, the program ensures that each will be addressed By allowing the user to determine the impact that any modifications will have on power, the program encourages an appropriate balance between alpha and beta while working within the constraints imposed by a limited sample size. The program also allows the user to generate tables and graphs to document the impact of the various factors on power. In addition, the program enables the user to run on-screen Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate the importance of adequate statistical power, and as such, it can serve as a unique educational tool.     

Stress-buffering factors related to adolescent coping: a path analysis

To uncover those factors that buffer the impact of stressful negative experiences on adolescent adjustment, a theoretical model of adolescent stress and coping, with social support and social problem solving proposed as moderators, was investigated using path analysis. The study was conducted with 122 ninth-and tenth-grade nonreferred high school students. Using the LISREL statistical package (J?reskog & S?rbom, 1986), it was found that a recursive loop leading from stress outcomes back to negative stressors did not allow for a successful solution to the model. However, the effects of stressful events on adjustment were mediated by coping resources, which included a combination of problem-solving abilities and social support. Overall, the findings replicated previous investigations that have demonstrated direct relationships among stressful life events, social support, problem solving, and adolescent adjustment. While a successful fit to the theoretical model was not attained, it was concluded that a refined model may provide a more acceptable solution.     

Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language

A new theoretical approach to language has emerged in the past 10-15 years that allows linguistic observations about form-meaning pairings, known as 'constructions', to be stated directly. Constructionist approaches aim to account for the full range of facts about language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged 'core'. Researchers in this field argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and can illuminate what is required for a complete account of language.     

Common functional principal components analysis: a new approach to analyzing human movement data

In many human movement studies angle-time series data on several groups of individuals are measured. Current methods to compare groups include comparisons of the mean value in each group or use multivariate techniques such as principal components analysis and perform tests on the principal component scores. Such methods have been useful, though discard a large amount of information. Functional data analysis (FDA) is an emerging statistical analysis technique in human movement research which treats the angle-time series data as a function rather than a series of discrete measurements. This approach retains all of the information in the data. Functional principal components analysis (FPCA) is an extension of multivariate principal components analysis which examines the variability of a sample of curves and has been used to examine differences in movement patterns of several groups of individuals. Currently the functional principal components (FPCs) for each group are either determined separately (yielding components that are group-specific), or by combining the data for all groups and determining the FPCs of the combined data (yielding components that summarize the entire data set). The group-specific FPCs contain both within and between group variation and issues arise when comparing FPCs across groups when the order of the FPCs alter in each group. The FPCs of the combined data may not adequately describe all groups of individuals and comparisons between groups typically use t-tests of the mean FPC scores in each group. When these differences are statistically non-significant it can be difficult to determine how a particular intervention is affecting movement patterns or how injured subjects differ from controls. In this paper we aim to perform FPCA in a manner allowing sensible comparisons between groups of curves. A statistical technique called common functional principal components analysis (CFPCA) is implemented. CFPCA identifies the common sources of variation evident across groups but allows the order of each component to change for a particular group. This allows for the direct comparison of components across groups. We use our method to analyze a biomechanical data set examining the mechanisms of chronic Achilles tendon injury and the functional effects of orthoses.     

Informing the continuity controversy: a taxometric analysis of depression

Researchers and practitioners have long debated the structural nature of mental disorders. Until recently, arguments favoring categorical or dimensional conceptualizations have been based primarily on theoretical speculation and indirect empirical evidence. Within the depression literature, methodological limitations of past studies have hindered their capacity to inform this important controversy. Two studies were conducted using MAXCOV and MAMBAC, taxometric procedures expressly designed to assess the underlying structure of a psychological construct. Analyses were performed in large clinical samples with high base rates of major depression and a broad range of depressive symptom severity. Results of both studies, drawing on 3 widely used measures of depression, corroborated the dimensionality of depression. Implications for the conceptualization, investigation, and assessment of depression are discussed.     

A statistical approach to sensorimotor strategies: conjugate cross-correlations

A simple method, based on cross-correlation functions (CCFs) between two time series of kinematic or physiological measurements, is proposed for the analysis of multisegmental movements. Special emphasis is placed on measuring accelerations. When the movements of two body segments are coordinated but consistently time lagged, their CCF displays a peak at the corresponding time abscissa. The reproducible positions of the peaks reflect biomechanical or physiological constraints. Several significantly large peaks can be observed in a CCF. It is possible to identify coordinated movements involving more than two segments by applying simple rules of compatibility between the time lags and between the signs of the correlation peaks. With the method proposed, it is possible to determine the signs of relative variation and the time lags of the successive statistically correlated segmental movements. This is particularly useful in the case of both continuous and periodic sensorimotor control, where classical poststimulus methods cannot be applied. Unlike the classical poststimulus methods, this method does not require a time origin, and it is not necessary to monitor the muscles or even to specify exactly which ones are involved. The method is also applicable to experiments involving a time origin (e.g., and applied perturbation), although in this case it is less accurate than the averaging technique. Individual postural strategies can be identified, which suggests some interesting potential applications of the method to clinical studies.     

Towards statistical multicriteria decision modelling: a first approach

Many real life situations result from decisions taken by a very large number of decision makers. Among them, we may cite road traffic congestion, crowding during shopping, equity market behaviour, distribution of holiday destinations, etc. Furthermore, these decisions often depend on the optimisation of several conflicting criteria. In this paper, we introduce a new multicriteria tool based on Markov chains to model and manage these macroscopic phenomena. Finally, the road traffic congestion problem will be considered to illustrate the applicability of our approach. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comments on the Meehl-Waller (2002) procedure for appraisal of path analysis models

P. E. Meehl and N. G. Waller (2002) proposed an innovative method for assessing path analysis models wherein they subjected a given model, along with a set of alternatives, to risky tests using selected elements of a sample correlation matrix. Although the authors find much common ground with the perspective underlying the Meehl-Waller approach, they suggest that there are aspects of the proposed procedure that require close examination and further development. These include the selection of only one subset of correlations to estimate parameters when multiple solutions are generally available, the fact that the risky tests may test only a subset of parameters rather than the full model of interest, and the potential for different results to be obtained from analysis of equivalent models.     

The content, consequence and likeness approaches to verisimilitude: compatibility, trivialization, and underdetermination

Theories of verisimilitude have routinely been classified into two rival camps—the content approach and the likeness approach—and these appear to be motivated by very different sets of data and principles. The question thus naturally arises as to whether these approaches can be fruitfully combined. Recently Zwart and Franssen (Synthese 158(1):75–92, 2007) have offered precise analyses of the content and likeness approaches, and shown that given these analyses any attempt to meld content and likeness orderings violates some basic desiderata. Unfortunately their characterizations of the approaches do not embrace the paradigm examples of those approaches. I offer somewhat different characterizations of these two approaches, as well as of the consequence approach (Schurz and Weingartner (Synthese 172(3):415–436, 2010) which happily embrace their respective paradigms. Finally I prove that the three approaches are indeed compatible, but only just, and that the cost of combining them is too high. Any account which combines the strictures of what I call the strong likeness approach with the demands of either the content or the consequence approach suffers from precisely the same defect as Popper’s—namely, it entails the trivialization of truthlikeness. The downside of eschewing the strong likeness constraints and embracing the content constraints alone is the underdetermination of the concept of truthlikeness.     

The Kramer-Froehle controversy: a contribution to construct validity of the FIRO-B questionnaire

Replicated the conditions established by Kramer in his attempt to contribute to the construct validation of the FIRO-B. Froehle's apparent later replication produced significantly different results from Kramer's original study. In replicating Kramer's design this researcher wished to establish whether the earlier failure to replicate was due to a difference in design or to an actual lack of construct validity of the FIRO-B. Kramer's findings were supported and an alternative explanation for the difference in Kramer's and Froehle's findings is discussed.     

The analyst's reluctance to begin a new analysis

Given the decline in the average psychoanalytic practice, it is crucial to examine the variables affecting the individual analyst's practice. One such variable is the analyst's reluctance to begin a new analysis. Literature exploring its origins, possible manifestations, and effects on the analyst's thinking and practicing is reviewed. The analyst's reluctance is considered (1) as a defense against powerful affects, (2) as a co-created resistance, and (3) as a manifestation of the analyst's conflicts. Two clinical examples illustrate how this reluctance and its subsequent recognition influence the analyst's work. It is suggested that the present reality of a socioeconomic climate adverse to psychoanalysis, with fewer patients willing to engage in analysis from the outset, might be used to rationalize the analyst's reluctance to begin. It is also suggested that the analyst's reluctance to begin a new analysis is much more pervasive and influential than is presently recognized.     

The concept of privilege: a critical appraisal

In this essay, I examine the use of the concept of privilege within the critical theoretical discourse on oppression and liberation (with a particular focus on white privilege and antiracism in the USA). In order to fulfill the rhetorical aims of liberation, concepts for privilege must meet what I term the ‘boundary condition’, which demarcates the boundary between a privileged elite and the rest of society, and the ‘ignorance condition’, which establishes that the elite status and the advantages it confers are not publicly recognised or affirmed. I argue that the dominant use of the concept of privilege cannot fulfill these conditions. As a result, while I do not advocate for the complete abandonment of the rhetoric of privilege, I conclude that it obscures as much as it illuminates, and that the critical theoretical discourse on liberation and oppression should be suspicious of its use.     

Functional explaining: a new approach to the philosophy of explanation

In this paper, I argue that explanations just ARE those sorts of things that, under the right circumstances and in the right sort of way, bring about understanding. This raises the question of why such a seemingly simple account of explanation, if correct, would not have been identified and agreed upon decades ago. The answer is that only recently has it been made possible to analyze explanation in terms of understanding without the risk of collapsing both to merely phenomenological states. For the most part, theories of explanation were for 50 years held hostage to the historical accident that they far outstripped in sophistication corresponding accounts of understanding.