An abductive theory of scientific method

A broad theory of scientific method is sketched that has particular relevance for the behavioral sciences. This theory of method assembles a complex of specific strategies and methods that are used in the detection of empirical phenomena and the subsequent construction of explanatory theories. A characterization of the nature of phenomena is given, and the process of their detection is briefly described in terms of a multistage model of data analysis. The construction of explanatory theories is shown to involve their generation through abductive, or explanatory, reasoning, their development through analogical modeling, and their fuller appraisal in terms of judgments of the best of competing explanations. The nature and limits of this theory of method are discussed in the light of relevant developments in scientific methodology.     

Using data augmentation to obtain standard errors and conduct hypothesis tests in latent class and latent transition analysis

Latent class analysis (LCA) provides a means of identifying a mixture of subgroups in a population measured by multiple categorical indicators. Latent transition analysis (LTA) is a type of LCA that facilitates addressing research questions concerning stage-sequential change over time in longitudinal data. Both approaches have been used with increasing frequency in the social sciences. The objective of this article is to illustrate data augmentation (DA), a Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure that can be used to obtain parameter estimates and standard errors for LCA and LTA models. By use of DA it is possible to construct hypothesis tests concerning not only standard model parameters but also combinations of parameters, affording tremendous flexibility. DA is demonstrated with an example involving tests of ethnic differences, gender differences, and an Ethnicity x Gender interaction in the development of adolescent problem behavior.     

Relationship Quality as a Moderator of Anxiety in Siblings of Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders or Down Syndrome

The purpose of this study was to examine typically-developing adolescents’ perceived relationship quality with their developmentally-disabled sibling, specifically siblings diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Down syndrome (DS). The 119 eleven through seventeen-year-old adolescent participants (M = 13.32, SD = 1.90) completed an online survey that assessed demographics, sibling relationship quality, and anxiety. Results showed that siblings of children with DS have a greater overall sibling relationship quality than do siblings of children with an ASD. Results further indicated that reporting more negative interchanges within the sibling relationship was related to higher levels of anxiety regardless of sibling disability type. Lastly, sibling relationship quality moderated the relation between sibling disability type and anxiety. These findings promote greater understanding of the sibling dynamic in families with children with developmental disabilities and suggest the need for establishing more research and greater clinical evaluation in this area. Furthermore, the current study suggests that therapeutic intervention to address the sibling relationship quality within children diagnosed with ASDs and their typically-developing siblings would be beneficial in order to increase social support within the relationship as well as decrease the amount of negative interchanges within the sibling relationship. Results also suggested that decreasing the amount of negative interchanges within the sibling relationship may decrease the level of anxiety the typically-developing sibling reports.     

Early Adolescent Growth in Depression and Conduct Problem Symptoms as Predictors of Later Substance Use Impairment

Most studies of adolescent substance use and psychological comorbidity have examined the contributions of conduct problems and depressive symptoms measured only at particular points-in-time. Yet, during adolescence, risk factors such as conduct problems and depression exist within a developmental context, and vary over time. Though internalizing and comorbid pathways to substance use have been theorized (Hussong et al. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 25:390-404, 2011), the degree to which developmental increases in depressive symptoms and conduct problems elevate risk for substance use impairment among adolescents, in either an additive or potentially a synergistic fashion, is unclear. Using a school-based sample of 521 adolescents, we tested additive and synergistic influences of changes in depressive symptoms and conduct problems from 6th to 9th grade using parallel process growth curve modeling with latent interactions in the prediction of late adolescent (12th grade) substance use impairment, while examining gender as a moderator. We found that the interaction between growth in depression and conduct disorder symptoms uniquely predicted later substance use problems, in addition to main effects of each, across boys and girls. Results indicated that adolescents whose parents reported increases in both depression and conduct disorder symptoms from 6th to 9th grade reported the most substance use-related impairment in 12th grade. The current study demonstrates that patterns of depression and conduct problems (e.g., growth vs. decreasing) are likely more important than the static levels at any particular point-in-time in relation to substance use risk.     

A comparison of human aggression committed by groups and individuals: An interindividual-intergroup discontinuity

Experimental research comparing aggressive behavior committed by groups and individuals is important but sparse. This experiment compared aggressive behavior (i.e., amount of hot sauce allocated for others to consume) in four types of interactions: intergroup, interindividual, group-to-individual, and individual-to-group. The results revealed that intergroup interactions were significantly more aggressive than interindividual interactions. In addition, groups allocated and received significantly more hot sauce than individuals. These effects were not explained by diffusion of responsibility or trait aggressiveness. The experiment reveals two noteworthy conclusions: (1) the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect extends to aggressive behavior and (2) interactions in which a group is either the source or target of aggression are situational influences that can increase it.     

Braking reaching movements: a test of the constant tau-dot strategy under different viewing conditions

Following F. Zaal and R. J. Bootsma (1995), the authors studied whether the decelerative phase of a reaching movement could be modeled as a constant tau-dot strategy resulting in a soft collision with the object. Specifically, they investigated whether that strategy is sustained over different viewing conditions. Participants (N = 11) were required to reach for 15- and 50-mm objects at 2 different distances under 3 conditions in which visual availability of the immediate environment and of the reaching hand were varied. Tau-dot estimates and goodness-of-fit were highly similar across the 3 conditions. Only within-participant variability of tau-dot estimates was increased when environmental cues were removed. That finding suggests that the motor system uses a tau-dot strategy involving the intermodal (i.e., visual, proprioceptive, or both) specification of information to regulate the decelerative phase of reaching under restricted viewing conditions. The authors provide recommendations for improving the derivation of tau;(x) estimates and stress the need for further research on how time-to-contact information is used in the regulation of the dynamics of actions such as reaching.     

Can Teleosemantics Deflect the EAAN?

Alvin Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism aims to show that the conjunction of contemporary evolutionary theory (E) with the claim that there is no God (N) cannot be rationally accepted. Where R is the claim that our cognitive faculties are reliable, the argument is:

1. The probability of R given N and E is low or inscrutable.
2. Anyone who sees (1) and accepts (N&E) has a defeater for R, and this defeater cannot be defeated or deflected.
3. Anyone who has an undefeated, undeflected defeater for R has an undefeated, undeflected defeater for everything she believes.
4. Therefore she has an undefeated, undeflected defeater for (N&E).

Plantinga (2011) defends the second premise. It examines and rejects several candidate defeater defeaters and defeater deflectors. One candidate is Millikan’s teleosemantics. I show that Plantinga’s motives for rejecting teleosemantics as a defeater deflector are inadequate. I then show that teleosemantics is not on its own an adequate defeater deflector. Then I offer an additional premise that constitutes a defeater deflector in conjunction with teleosemantics.     

“Seeing the Life”: Redefining Self-Worth and Family Roles Among Iraqi Refugee Families Resettled in the United States

Social and geographic displacement is a global phenomenon that precipitates novel stressors and disruptions that intersect with long-standing familial and social roles. Among the displaced are war-torn Iraqi refugee families, who must address these new obstacles in unconventional ways. This study explores how such disruptions have influenced associations between gender and apparent self-worth experienced by Iraqi refugee families upon relocation to the USA. Further, the psychosocial mechanisms requisite of any novel approach to a new social construct are explored and reveal that production in the family is at the core of instability and shifting power dynamics during resettlement, preventing family members from “seeing the life” in the USA that they had envisioned prior to immigration. Over 200 semi-structured qualitative interviews with Iraqi participants and mental health providers were conducted over the course of the study, which demonstrate a plasticity among social roles in the family and community that transcends the notion of a simple role reversal, and illustrate the complex positionalities that families under stress must approximate during such physical and social displacement.