A test of the equality of standard errors of measurement

A procedure is proposed for testing the significance of group differences in the standard error of measurement of a psychological test. Wilks' criterion is used to assure that the tests used in ascertaining reliability and hence variance of errors of measurement may be assumed parallel for each group. Votaw's criterion may be used to check whether the test scores of all the groups have the same mean, variance, and covariance. It is possible, however, for the variance and reliability of the test to differ widely from group to group, so that Votaw's criterion is not satisfied even though the variance of errors of measurement stays relatively constant. For this case a modification of Neyman and Pearson's criterion is developed to test agreement among standard errors of measurement despite group differences in mean, variance, and reliability of the test.The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful criticisms of Dr. Harold Gulliksen, who suggested the problem.     

What Is Music? Is There a Definitive Answer?

Philosophers frequently defend definitions by appealing to intuitions and contemporary folk classificatory norms. I raise methodological concerns that undermine some of these defenses. Focusing on Andrew Kania's recent definition of music, I argue that the way in which it has been developed leads to problems, and I show that a number of other definitions of interest to philosophers of art (and others) run into similar problems.     

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS? THE MOST “CENTRAL” MEMBERS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY ASSOCIATIONS CA. 1900

There are many different ways to assess the significance of historical figures. Often we look at the influence of their writings, or at the important offices they held with disciplinary institutions such as universities, journals, and scholarly societies. In this study, however, we took a novel approach: we took the complete memberships, ca. 1900, of four organizations—the American Psychological Association, the Western Philosophical Association, the American Philosophical Association, and the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology—and visualized them as a network. We then identified individuals who “bridged” between two or more of these groups and considered what might be termed their “centrality” to the psychological‐philosophical community of their time. First, we examined these figures qualitatively, briefly describing their lives and careers. Then we approached the problem mathematically, considering several alternative technical realizations of “centrality” and then explaining our reasons for choosing eigenvector centrality as the best for our purposes. We found a great deal of overlap among the results of the qualitative and quantitative approaches, but also some telling differences. J. Mark Baldwin, Edward Buchner, Christine Ladd Franklin, and Frank Thilly consistently emerged as highly central figures. Some more marginal figures such as Max Meyer, and Frederick J. E. Woodbridge, Edward A. Pace, Edward H. Griffin played interesting roles as well.     

AN EVALUATION OF METHODS TO SELECT RESPONDENTS TO STRUCTURED JOB-ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRES

The purpose was to evaluate methods for selecting respondents who would respond accurately to items on a job-analysis questionnaire. One general method involved obtaining from employees measures that assessed background, performance, and organizational information. This information could be used to identify respondents who were knowledgeable about the job and, therefore, able to rate the job accurately. A second general method involved collecting job-analysis data from all potential job-analysis respondents and, on the basis of indices computed on these data, selecting a subsample from them. Two indices were investigated: (1) the D index, which assessed similarity between an individual's ratings and the population's mean ratings, and (2) the carelessness index, which measured an individual's tendency to rate tasks known to be unrelated to the focal job as important. Both methods were applied to a sample of 343 mental-health workers. Four general postulates for job analysts were proposed on the basis of the results: (1) Different selection measures yield somewhat different job-analysis respondents. (2) Respondents are not equally accurate and, with the use of the carelessness index, may be screened for the tendency to make errors. (3) In some applications, the number of sampled respondents needs to be greater than three in order to obtain reliable results. (4) To the degree that the job is ill-defined and unstable, the selection of job-analysis respondents assumes greater importance and is riskier.     

Brief Christian and Non-Christian Rational-Emotive Therapy With Depressed Christian Clients: An Exploratory Study

The current outcome study operationalized a brief “Christian” form of rational-emotive therapy (CRET) and compared the therapeutic efficacy of this treatment with a standard version of brief rational-emotive therapy (RET) with depressed Christian clients. Results indicated that both treatments were effective in reducing depression and automatic negative thoughts, while only the CRET reduced clients' irrational beliefs. No between-group differences were obtained for clients' perceptions of the counselor. Findings are discussed in terms of applied integration issues and the long-standing antagonism of rational-emotive philosophy toward religious beliefs.     

DESCARTES' RESOLUTION OF THE DREAMING DOUBT

After resolving the dreaming doubt at the end of the Sixth Meditation, Descartes concedes to Hobbes that one could apply the criterion for waking experience in a dream and thus be deceived, but he no longer considers this possibility to have skeptical force. I argue that this is a legitimate response by Descartes since 1) the dreaming doubt in the Sixth Meditation is no longer a global skeptical hypothesis as it is in the First, and 2) the level of certainty that sensory experience must meet in the Sixth Meditation is lower than it must meet in the First.     

Formal thinking about correlation

Twenty-five adults were administered two tasks involving the data of 12,2X2 matrices. In the first, subjects were invited to make decisions on the basis of data which was presented as involving causal, one-way relationships. Four groups of subjects were distinguished in the level of their operational thinking. In task 2 the subjects were invited to make judgements on identical data, but presented as involving two-way noncausal relationships. Results showed changes in the level of thought: subjects employing concrete operations in task 1 regressed to lower levels of thought; subjects employing transitional formal thought in task 1 advanced to fully formal thought in task 2. It was concluded that the first task imposed a ceiling effect on the thought levels of the latter subjects. Results showed that the level of thought employed was a function of the frequency of the data in the cells of the matrices and that the emergence of illogical thought was related to task difficulty.