Reconsidering Life Domains that Contribute to Subjective Well-Being Among Adolescents with Data from Three Countries

Several theoretical models and testing procedures are presented with the aim of identifying the most relevant items and domains to include in a model for evaluating adolescents’ subjective well-being, above and beyond those usually included in adults’ scales. Data were collected in three countries based on a list of 30 items regarding adolescents’ satisfaction with different domains or facets of life. Responses to these 30 items (including Personal Well-Being Index and Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale items) have been analysed by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis using different Structural Equation Models (SEM) on a pooled sample comprising 5,316 twelve to sixteen-year-olds from Spain, Brazil and Chile. Several models have shown good enough fit statistics. A model using 14 items shows excellent fit statistics and is conceptually coherent. However, the inclusion or non-inclusion of items related to satisfaction with religion or spirituality results in both advantages and disadvantages when comparing the alternative models analysed. The relevance of including these items may therefore depend on the socio-cultural context where data are collected and their inclusion makes cross-country comparison more statistically challenging. The 14-item model has also been tested using multigroup SEM in order to check comparability of data among the three countries. All things considered, multigroup models have shown good fit with constrained loadings, but not with constrained loadings and intercepts, suggesting we can compare correlations and regressions among countries, but not means. Additional multigroup SEM with the five age groups available from the pooled sample have demonstrated that responses—and means—are comparable across different age groups during early adolescence.     

Dissociation between the behavioural and electrophysiological effects of the face and body composite illusions

Several studies have reported similarities between perceptual processes underlying face and body perception, particularly emphasizing the importance of configural processes. Differences between the perception of faces and the perception of bodies were observed by means of a manipulation targeting a specific subtype of configural processing: the composite illusion. The composite face illusion describes the fact that two identical top halves of a face are perceived as being different if they are presented with different bottom parts. This effect disappears, if both halves are laterally shifted. Crucially, the effect of misalignment is not observed for bodies. This study aimed to further explore differences in the time course of face and body perception by using the composite effect. The present results replicated behavioural effects illustrating that misalignment affects the perception of faces but not bodies. Thus, face but not body perception relies on holistic processing. However, differences in the time course of the processing of both stimulus categories emerged at the N170 and P200. The pattern of the behavioural data seemed to be related to the P200. Thus, the present data indicate that holistic processes associated with the effect of misalignment might occur 200 ms after stimulus onset.     

The role of the head in configural body processing: Behavioural and electrophysiological evidence from the inversion and scrambling effect

The present study aimed to further explore the role of the head for configural body processing by comparing complete bodies with headless bodies and faceless heads (Experiment 1). A second aim was to further explore the role of the eye region in configural face processing (Experiment 2). Due to that, we conducted a second experiment with complete faces, eyeless faces, and eyes. In addition, we used two effects to manipulate configural processing: the effect of stimulus inversion and scrambling. The current data clearly show an inversion effect for intact bodies presented with head and faces including the eye region. Thus, the head and the eye region seem to be central for configural processes that are manipulated by the effect of stimulus inversion. Furthermore, the behavioural and electrophysiological body inversion effect depends on the intact configuration of bodies and is associated with the N170 as the face inversion effect depends on the intact face configuration. Hence, configural body processing depends not only on the presence of the head but rather on a complete representation of human bodies that includes the body and the head. Furthermore, configural face processing relies on intact and complete face representations that include faces and eyes.     

Portrait of the therapist as a shaman

What follows will show that an understanding of the nature and purpose of shamanism contains a number of insights that bring to light some important, but often obfuscated, aspects of Western therapeutic practices. the point of departure of the argument is the theory of shamanism developed by the inventor of structural anthropology: Claude Lévi-Strauss. It will be argued, in particular, that his theory of shamanism provides a key to the therapeutic action of symbols upon the body as well as to the broader social function of therapy in general.     

An Analysis of a Cross-Cultural Personality Inventory: The IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers in Croatia

We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales—Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition—showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.     

A Comparative Study of the Intelligence of Jewish Preschool Boys and Girls of Orthodox Parentage

Children aged 2-51/2 to 5-1/2 were pretrained on two three-choice simple discrimination problems presented consecutively, which were followed by training on 10 unique oddity sets. Transfer data were obtained from those Ss who learned the oddity problems by presenting five new oddity sets.

All three Groups learned the second pretraining problem more quickly than the first, although on both problems the two older Groups learned faster than the youngest Group. Nearly all the Ss learned to select the correct stimuli on the 10 three-choice oddity sets. Sixty-four percent of the children between 2-1/2 and 4-1/2 evidenced transfer to the five new oddity sets, indicating comprehension of the oddity relationship and the ability to respond on the basis of this higher-order solution. This finding is contrary to that predicted by contemporary theories of cognitive development (e.g., 3, 8).

The remaining Ss had either learned to choose the odd stimulus, but were unable to maintain a relational choice when presented with new sets, or solved the original discrimination by applying specific solutions to a 10-problem simultaneous three-choice discrimination problem.     

The Socioeconomic Status,Intelligence, and Psychometric Pattern of Native-Born White Homeless Men

Build-up of proactive interference (PI) with visual-picture and auditory-verbal input modalities and the subsequent release from PI following a change in modality was investigated in three experiments with boys and girls, as follows: Experiment I (n = 64) at two mean age levels, 7–6 and 10–5; Experiment II (n = 64) at mean age 7–6; and Experiment III (n = 48) at age 11–4. PI build-up occurred in both modalities for all ages tested. Release from PI occurred following a change from auditory to visual input but not following a visual to auditory shift. In the final experiment, this asymmetrical improvement in performance was dependent upon an interaction between the modality of the input and distractor task on the final or release trial; changing to visual input produced a release effect regardless of the distractor task modality, while auditory input was associated with improvement in recall if a visual distractor task was employed whether or not a shift in input modality had occurred. This improvement was hypothesized to represent a decrease in retroactive interference rather than a release from proactive interference.     

Logic of paradoxes in classical set theories

According to Cantor (Mathematische Annalen 21:545–586, 1883; Cantor’s letter to Dedekind, 1899) a set is any multitude which can be thought of as one (“jedes Viele, welches sich als Eines denken läßt”) without contradiction—a consistent multitude. Other multitudes are inconsistent or paradoxical. Set theoretical paradoxes have common root—lack of understanding why some multitudes are not sets. Why some multitudes of objects of thought cannot themselves be objects of thought? Moreover, it is a logical truth that such multitudes do exist. However we do not understand this logical truth so well as we understand, for example, the logical truth ${\forall x \, x = x}$ . In this paper we formulate a logical truth which we call the productivity principle. Rusell (Proc Lond Math Soc 4(2):29–53, 1906) was the first one to formulate this principle, but in a restricted form and with a different purpose. The principle explicates a logical mechanism that lies behind paradoxical multitudes, and is understandable as well as any simple logical truth. However, it does not explain the concept of set. It only sets logical bounds of the concept within the framework of the classical two valued ${\in}$ -language. The principle behaves as a logical regulator of any theory we formulate to explain and describe sets. It provides tools to identify paradoxical classes inside the theory. We show how the known paradoxical classes follow from the productivity principle and how the principle gives us a uniform way to generate new paradoxical classes. In the case of ZFC set theory the productivity principle shows that the limitation of size principles are of a restrictive nature and that they do not explain which classes are sets. The productivity principle, as a logical regulator, can have a definite heuristic role in the development of a consistent set theory. We sketch such a theory—the cumulative cardinal theory of sets. The theory is based on the idea of cardinality of collecting objects into sets. Its development is guided by means of the productivity principle in such a way that its consistency seems plausible. Moreover, the theory inherits good properties from cardinal conception and from cumulative conception of sets. Because of the cardinality principle it can easily justify the replacement axiom, and because of the cumulative property it can easily justify the power set axiom and the union axiom. It would be possible to prove that the cumulative cardinal theory of sets is equivalent to the Morse–Kelley set theory. In this way we provide a natural and plausibly consistent axiomatization for the Morse–Kelley set theory.     

Multidimensionality of Right‐Wing Authoritarian Attitudes: Authoritarianism‐Conservatism‐Traditionalism

Traditionally Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) has been seen as a unidimensional construct. Recently, however, researchers have begun to measure three distinct RWA dimensions (Feldman, 2003; Funke, 2005; Van Hiel, Cornelis, Roets, & De Clercq, 2006). One of these new multidimensional RWA approaches has conceptualized these three dimensions as Authoritarianism, Conservatism, and Traditionalism (ACT), which are viewed as expressions of basic social values or motivational goals that represent different, though related, strategies for attaining collective security at the expense of individual autonomy. Findings are reported from two studies to assess the validity and predictive utility of the multidimensional ACT approach. First, a direct cross‐national comparison showed that the three ACT dimensions were reliable and factorially distinct and demonstrated the measurement invariance of the three latent constructs across Serbian and NZ (New Zealand) samples. The three ACT dimensions predicted self‐reported behavior differentially in both samples, and a comparison of latent means showed the Serbian sample higher than the NZ sample on the ACT dimensions of Authoritarianism and Traditionalism but markedly lower on Conservatism. Second, a reanalysis of previously collected NZ data showed that the three ACT scales differentially predicted three dimensions of generalized prejudice in a theoretically meaningful manner. These findings underline the importance of studying ideological attitudes, such as RWA, multidimensionally.     

Deductive temporal reasoning with constraints

When modelling realistic systems, physical constraints on the resources available are often required. For example, we might say that at most N processes can access a particular resource at any moment, exactly M participants are needed for an agreement, or an agent can be in exactly one mode at any moment. Such situations are concisely modelled where literals are constrained such that at most N, or exactly M, can hold at any moment in time. In this paper we consider a logic which is a combination of standard propositional linear time temporal logic with cardinality constraints restricting the numbers of literals that can be satisfied at any moment in time. We present the logic and show how to represent a number of case studies using this logic. We propose a tableau-like algorithm for checking the satisfiability of formulae in this logic, provide details of a prototype implementation and present experimental results using the prover.