Value priorities and preferences for a relationship partner

Despite extensive research into preferences for a romantic partner, previous work has not addressed the role of individual values in informing desires for a partner. The present study employed a recent comprehensive model of values [Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Beyond individualism-collectivism: new cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S-C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: theory, method and application (pp. 81–119). Newbury Park, CA: Sage] to examine the role of values and sex, age and education in partner preferences. One hundred general population respondents from two British towns completed the Schwartz Value Survey and rated the desirability of 13 partner characteristics. Correlational analyses confirmed 12 of the 17 expected relationships between value scores and partner preferences whilst regressions conducted on three preference factors underlined the importance of the sex and education of the respondent in their rating of some partner ideals. We conclude by considering the need for future studies of partner preferences to combine the study of values with a range of demographic factors studied across a number of cultural settings.     

Weight approximations in multi‐attribute decision models

The use of surrogate weights based on rankings has been proposed as a method for avoiding difficulties associated with the elicitation of weights in multi‐attribute decision analysis. When the simple multiattribute rating technique using swings (SMARTS) method is being employed it has been suggested that rank order centroid (ROC) weights are the best surrogate weights to use. This study shows that ROC weights are appropriate to use as a substitute for original weights that are constrained to sum to a fixed total (usually 1 or 100) as used in the point allocation method. If, however, the original weights are determined without any initial restrictions, as in the direct rating method, and are then normalized, which is the common procedure in SMARTS analysis, then the ROC weights do not provide the best approximations to the original weights. This paper shows how to obtain rank order distribution (ROD) weights that provide a better approximation than the ROC approach to unrestricted original weights. The paper also shows that, as the number of attributes in a decision problem increases, the ROD weights approximate to the more easily calculated rank sum weights. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The teacher-pupil interaction scale: An empirical method for analyzing the interactive effects of teacher and pupil behavior

The Teacher-Pupil Interaction Scale was developed for use by educational consultants to provide teachers with systematic data for analyzing and improving the learning of pupils. The scoring protocol provides for the simultaneous rating of sequential teacher-pupil interactions; a single mark is used to designate both teacher and pupil behavior at each five-second interval. Observations of a target pupil are alternated with other pupils in the classroom to serve as a point of comparison with the target pupil and to provide a general assessment of the classroom climate. Using the sequential record of their verbal and nonverbal interactions with students, teachers can pinpoint conditions serving both as antecedents and consequents of current student behavior. Armed with this information, teachers can effect changes in their instructional program to increase the rate of desired behaviors and eliminate or reduce unwanted responses.     

Reasoning about relations

Inferences about spatial, temporal, and other relations are ubiquitous. This article presents a novel model-based theory of such reasoning. The theory depends on 5 principles. (a) The structure of mental models is iconic as far as possible. (b) The logical consequences of relations emerge from models constructed from the meanings of the relations and from knowledge. (c) Individuals tend to construct only a single, typical model. (d) They spontaneously develop their own strategies for relational reasoning. (e) Regardless of strategy, the difficulty of an inference depends on the process of integration of the information from separate premises, the number of entities that have to be integrated to form a model, and the depth of the relation. The article describes computer implementations of the theory and presents experimental results corroborating its main principle.     

Reorganizing the experimentalists: the origins of the society of experimental psychologists

The "Experimentalists," created by E. B. Titchener in 1904, experienced growing pains and other stresses in the 1920s, raising concerns about its future. Those concerns became acute with Titchener's death in 1927. At the 1928 meeting, several "elders," hoping to maintain the group's vigorous advocacy of basic research in the positivist tradition, formed a reorganization committee of 5. The committee expanded to 15, 10 of whom met the following year to debate alternative plans for a new organization. The result was an honorary society for established researchers, the Society of Experimental Psychologists. E. G. Boring's highly personalized 1938 history of the original Experimentalists understated the value of the research contributions made by group members and, by overstating the degree of Titchener's influence, devalued the important contributions of others (e.g., Raymond Dodge).     

Attitudes towards marital counselling and the Family Law Act (1996) in a British Asian community

People of South Asian origin represent one of the largest ethnic minority population in Britain. However, research into the marital beliefs and attitudes towards relationship dissolution of British South Asians has tended to conflate together different South Asian groups of different religious and geographic origins. This study focused on one large religious group originating from one region (Hindus from Gujarat) resident in one large British town. 70 married couples participated in detailed interviews describing their attitudes to the use of formal and informal support counselling services available in times of marital crisis, and their response to the provisions of the new Family Law Act (1996) in Britain. Findings indicate that, whilst most British Hindu-Gujaratis are willing in principle to use counselling services to save a failing marriage, there are age, occupational and caste differences in knowledge of, and attitudes towards, counselling provision. Furthermore, there were important reservations across the sample about the location of services and the ethnic background of the counsellor employed.     

Freud and Erikson: Their Contributions to the Psychology of God-Image Formation

Sigmund Freud's construct of the father of personal prehistory (1961), provides the foundation for the argument that our earliest and most enduring representations of God emerge in infancy during a process Freud calls primary identification, that is an identification with this first father, whom Freud says is actually both parents and the flow of feeling between them. Erik Erikson's work on infants' earliest experiences provides support for this argument if it does not anticipate it. Pastoral psychotherapist in private practice in