Sorokin and Parsons at Harvard: Institutional conflict and the origin of a hegemonic tradition

The early history of Harvard sociology is closely entwined with the careers and personalities of Pitirim Sorokin and Talcott Parsons. The processes and conditions that led to Parsons's rise and Sorokin's decline are essential to understanding the development of Harvard sociology. Edward Tiryakian's work on theory schools and hegemonic traditions in the social sciences is a useful framework for analyzing and discussing these developments. Following Tiryakian, one can simultaneously trace the operating factors in Sorokin's failure to achieve lasting power and the development of a Parsonian sociology which would vie for hegemony in the discipline. Personality, milieu, forms of theorizing, and sociology's movement toward maturation are keys to the major changes in Harvard sociology during the 1940s. Analysis of this case deepens understanding of the conditions that contribute to the emergence of important intellectual traditions.     

Cycloheximide blocks the retention of maternal experience in postpartum rats

Two studies were done to determine the effects of cycloheximide (CYX), a protein synthesis inhibitor, on maternal experience effects in rats. In the first study eight groups received a 2-h maternal experience 36 h after cesarean (c)-section and two groups received no post c-section experience. Among the experienced groups, two received icv injections of CYX or saline (SAL) 30 min before the maternal experience, two received CYX or SAL 10 min after the experience, and two received the injections 24 h after the experience. One inexperienced group received CYX and the other received SAL 36 h after c-section. Tests for maternal behavior occurred 10 days after c-section. CYX was not able to block or disrupt the "acquisition" or expression of ongoing maternal behavior during the 2-h experience phase. However, CYX was able to block the long-term "retention" of a 2-h maternal experience if the drug was present during or immediately after the experience, prior to "consolidation." The second study investigated the effects of CYX administered immediately after the maternal experience on the expression and retention of maternal behavior 4 and 6 days after c-section, to determine whether the hormonally mediated short-onset latencies of the 4-day group would be blocked by CYX. Eight groups of animals were tested for maternal behavior. Four were tested 4 days after c-section and four were tested 6 days after c-section. Within each of these groups two were experienced and two inexperienced; within each experience condition one group received CYX and one received SAL. Day 4 groups exhibited shorter onset latencies than Day 6 groups. There was also a CYX-SAL difference in maternal onset latencies among experienced Day 6 groups but not among Day 4 groups. These data indicate that the blocking effects of CYX can be seen only when hormonal priming of maternal behavior is no longer in evidence.     

Infants and their families at risk: Assessment and intervention

One of the basic premises of child-rearing and intervention models is that infant behavior is part of a communication system with the caregiving environment. However, infants vary in the messages that they convey to the caregiving environment, and parents vary in their ability to interpret their infants' signals and provide appropriate caregiving. This paper examines some of the tension that may exist between infant communication and appropriate caregiving. We examine research findings from several different populations of at-risk infants and their mothers in which infant signals and parental responses are variously effective in providing clues for appropriate caregiving. Some kinds of fits or matches between infant characteristics and maternal characteristics may be better than others for optimal infant development. The implications for intervention are also discussed.     

Morally Respectful Listening and its Epistemic Consequences

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of morally respectful listening. I defend a specific requirement for respectful listening in the context of disagreement. According to it, when listening occurs in the context of disagreement, the morally respectful listener must be open to the possibility that the speaker will surprise the listener with her positive epistemic qualities. That is, the listener must be open to what I call “epistemic surprise.” I also argue for a specific interpretation of this openness: to be open to epistemic surprise is to be open to unexpected changes in confidence levels concerning the proposition in question. I close by arguing that respectful listening is incompatible with a listener's being certain, and I apply this conclusion to three recent debates in epistemology to show that the phenomenon of listening has potentially far-reaching consequences for epistemology.     

Comorbidity of Symptoms Among Junior and Senior High School Suicide Attempters

This paper examines comorbidity among depressive symptoms, conduct problems, and alcohol and drug abuse, in a sample of 1050 junior and senior high school students. Adolescents reporting high levels of depression along with either alcohol abuse or conduct problems were more likely to have made a suicide attempt than were adolescents reporting only one of these disorders. Adolescents reporting comorbid drug abuse plus either depression or conduct problems were more likely to have made a prior suicide attempt than those reporting only depression or conduct problems without drug abuse. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature on comorbidity and suicide attempts in community and clinical samples.