Age Discrimination in the Evaluation of Job Applicants

This study investigated the nature of age discrimination against older job applicants. One hundred fifty‐six participants (102 students; 54 organization based) evaluated a hypothetical job applicant's (aged 33–66 years) work‐related competences and likelihood of being hired. Applicant age affected hiring decisions for both samples where there was a preference for hiring applicants aged 42–48 years. Applicants at both the older and younger ends of the continuum were less likely to be hired, with the oldest applicants (over 54 years) being the least likely to be hired. Although the applicants' age negatively affected evaluations of their trainability and sociability, the effect of applicant age on hiring evaluations was not mediated by these work‐related competencies, suggesting that age discrimination occurs via direct bias against older workers.     

Perceptions and attitudes to sexual harassment: an examination of sex differences and the sex composition of the harasser–target dyad

This study examines the role of sex in determining attitudes toward sexual harassment (SH) and perceptions of SH, and studies the extent to which attitudes toward SH predict perceptions of SH by sex. All informants (146 men and 160 women) completed three questionnaires: personal information; perceptions of SH, including cases with variations on the perpetrators and victims' sex; and attitudes toward SH, with a male, female, or unspecified victim. The findings point to significant sex differences in the perception of behaviors as SH. Women were less tolerant of SH regardless of the victim's sex. In all cases, less tolerant attitudes toward SH predicted a stronger perception of behaviors as manifesting SH. In addition, women tended to perceive male harasser/male target behaviors as SH more than men.     

Alterations in Rorschach's Experience Balance under Conditions of Food and Sleep Deprivation: A Construct Validation Study

Clinard, Marshall B. (Ed.), Anomie and Deviant Behavior: A Discussion and Critique. New York, Toronto, London: Collier-Macmillan, Ltd., 1964, Free Press of Glencoe, xii, pp. 324. Reviewed by Leon J. Whitsell     

Visual prominence and representationalism

A common objection to representationalism is that a representationalist view of phenomenal character cannot accommodate the effects that shifts in covert attention have on visual phenomenology: covert attention can make items more visually prominent than they would otherwise be without altering the content of visual experience. Recent empirical work on attention casts doubt on previous attempts to advance this type of objection to representationalism and it also points the way to an alternative development of the objection.     

Stillness into Storm

Edward Edinger's Seminars: Transformation of Libido, 1994, C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles

Mystery of the Coniunctio, 1994, Inner City Books

The Mysterium Lectures, 1995, Inner City Books

The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology. 1994. By Edward F. Edinger. Edited by Deborah Wesley. Boston and London: Shambala.

Melville's Moby-Dick: An American Nekyia. 1995. By Edward F. Edinger. Toronto: Inner City Books.

Under Saturn's Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men. By James Hollis. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1994.

Dreaming the End of the World: Apocalypse as Rite of Passage. By Michael Ortiz Hill. Dallas: Spring Publications, 1994.

Incest Fastasies and Self-Destructive Acts: Jungian and Post-Jungian Psychotherapy in Adolescence. 1995. Edited by Mara Sidoli and Gustav Bovensiepen. New Brunswick, MD: Transaction Publishers.

If Someone Speaks It Gets Lighter. Year. By Lynda Share. New Jersey: The Analytic Press, Inc., 1994.     

Capes on the W-Defense

According to the principle of alternative possibilities (PAP), a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise. Widerker (Philosophical Perspectives 14: 181-201, 2000) offers an intriguing argument for PAP as it applies to moral blameworthiness. His argument is known as the “What-should-he-have-done defense” of PAP or the “W-defense” for short. In a recent article, Capes (Philosophical Studies 150: 61-77, 2010) attacks Widerker’s argument by rejecting the central premise on which it rests, namely, the premise that a person is blameworthy for his action only if in the circumstances it would be morally reasonable to expect him not to have acted as he did. In this paper, I show that Capes’ criticism does not undermine this premise and, to this extent, Widerker’s argument is safe from Capes’ attack.     

How Do Children Restrict Their Linguistic Generalizations? An (Un‐)Grammaticality Judgment Study

A paradox at the heart of language acquisition research is that, to achieve adult‐like competence, children must acquire the ability to generalize verbs into non‐attested structures, while avoiding utterances that are deemed ungrammatical by native speakers. For example, children must learn that, to denote the reversal of an action, un‐ can be added to many verbs, but not all (e.g., roll/unroll; close/*unclose). This study compared theoretical accounts of how this is done. Children aged 5–6 (N = 18), 9–10 (N = 18), and adults (N = 18) rated the acceptability of un‐ prefixed forms of 48 verbs (and, as a control, bare forms). Across verbs, a negative correlation was observed between the acceptability of ungrammatical un‐ prefixed forms (e.g., *unclose) and the frequency of (a) the bare form and (b) alternative forms (e.g., open), supporting the entrenchment and pre‐emption hypotheses, respectively. Independent ratings of the extent to which verbs instantiate the semantic properties characteristic of a hypothesized semantic cryptotype for un‐ prefixation were a significant positive predictor of acceptability, for all age groups. The relative importance of each factor differed for attested and unattested un‐ forms and also varied with age. The findings are interpreted in the context of a new hybrid account designed to incorporate the three factors of entrenchment, pre‐emption, and verb semantics.     

Sales Technology Applications: Interactive Video Technology in Sales Training: A Case Study

Interactive video (IV), a new technology for training, has had a recent surge in popularity. The use of interactive video technology has been reported to reduce training costs, increase quality, and decrease the amount of time required for training. The major characteristics of this new technology are presented. A state-of-the-art application of an IV system for sales training developed at BellSouth Services is discussed. The results confirm that IV is a promising new sales training tool.     

An anxiety-induced bias in the perception of a bistable point-light walker

Human sensitivity for social cues is exquisite, as illustrated by the ease with which simplified point-light movements invoke social and emotional responses. Compared to faces, these biological motion stimuli only recently started to be used to explore questions regarding social cognition and anxiety. We presented human point-light walkers that could be perceived as facing towards or facing away from the observer, and tested whether participants with high social anxiety would perceive these bistable stimuli differently, because this type of stimuli has particular relevance for them. The results showed that observers with high social anxiety tended to see walkers as facing away more frequently than those with low social anxiety. This may mean that high socially anxious observers are biased towards the more positive perceptual alternative because they are motivated to protect themselves against threatening social experiences, but we also explore alternative explanations. The findings are in line with the evidence for a positivity bias in perception, also called wishful seeing, but in contrast with the attentional negativity bias often found in social anxiety. We discuss reasons for this divergence and possible limitations of the current study.