The Phenomenal Sorites and Response Dependence 1

Natural-kind essentialism faces an important but neglected difficulty: the problem of complex essences (PCE). This is the question of how to account for the unity of an instantiated kind-essence when that essence consists of multiple distinct properties, some of which lack an inherent necessary connection between them. My central goal here is to propose an essentialism-friendly solution to this problem. Along the way I also employ some points from that solution to argue for the necessary truth of essentialism (necessary, that is, in all possible worlds in which there are material objects), and to support the essentialist ontology of laws over and against a major rival.     

Neurobehavioral Assessment of Children Presenting Diverse Congenital Cardiopathologies

Brain maturation in 1–36 month old children suffering from congenital cardiopathologies was assessed after a study of psychomotor development. The Rogers’ test (Rogers et al., Developmental programming for infants and young children. Volume 2. Early intervention developmental profile, Revised edition, ESL/ELT Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1981) was applied to 65 children, of whom 21 presented with simple cardiopathologies (CpS) and 22 with complex cardiopathologies (CpC). All children were matched by age, sex and socioeconomic status to 22 healthy children in a control group (C). Mean differences between the three groups were established by applying the Kruskal–Wallis test, and mean differences between the C and CpS/CpC groups were determined using the Mann–Whitney test. The proportion of cases evaluated as “low” in each group was calculated by applying the Rogers’ test, and a test of proportion differences was applied between the C and CpS/CpC groups. CpS children performed similarly to the C, whereas CpC children scored significantly lower than C children on all variables. It is highly likely that the suboptimal psychomotor performance observed in CpC children was due to compromised hemodynamics and related to subclinical immaturity of cerebral development.     

To accept or not to accept a job offer: Examining inaction inertia in an organizational context

The purpose of this research was to investigate inaction inertia in a job offer context. Across two studies, we examined the influence of two situational factors (Study 1) and one dispositional factor (Study 2) on inaction inertia in a job offer context. Participants were asked to imagine they had to pass up an initial offer in which they were interested, but that they received a similar but less attractive offer (lower salary) later. Study 1 findings revealed participants in the loss‐framed condition were more likely to accept the second offer than participants in the neutral condition only when they were asked to imagine they were switching careers, versus being laid off. Study 2 results showed that maximizing tendency significantly and negatively predicted the likelihood to accept the second job offer. Exploratory analyses revealed that anticipated regret did not mediate the relationships between any of the factors and inaction inertia, suggesting that anticipated regret was not the causal mechanism underlying the occurrence of inaction inertia in the current research. Overall, this research shed light on the ways inaction inertia may be experienced in a job offer context.     

Emotional Reactions and Attitudes Prior to In Vitro Fertilization: An Inter-Spouse Study

In this study, spouse's emotional responses and attitudes to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment were examined. The participants were 113 childless couples who suffered from infertility of unknown or mechanical (women) cause. Both partners were evaluated prior to IVF treatment. Incompatible emotional responses and attitudes to the treatment between the partners usually reflected the men reporting less distress and worries than women. Women had significantly higher state and trait anxiety and depression scores than normative levels, irrespective of whether they were successful in conceiving. Husbands of conceiving women scored higher on depression than husbands of nonconceiving women. The nonconceiving husbands had depression and trait anxiety scores significantly lower than the normative level. In addition, high emotional responses to the treatment, especially in men, were positively associated with treatment success. Recommendations for family assessment and counseling are suggested on the basis of these results.     

Externalism and Identity

The main aim of this paper is to show that there is one version of supervenience of the mental on the physical which is entailed by token-token identity (I call this version change-supervenience); and to establish that of the other better known versions of supervenience in the literature (which I call difference-supervenience), none are so entailed. One consequence of this is that Burge's thought experiments while successful in refutingdifference-supervenience cannot in themselves refute identity thesis. However, the introduction of change supervenience leads me to devise an analogous thought experiment against change-supervenience, thus refuting identity thesis as well.     

How older adults use cognition in sentence-final word recognition

This study examined the effects of executive control and working memory on older adults’ sentence-final word recognition. The question we addressed was the importance of executive functions to this process and how it is modulated by the predictability of the speech material. To this end, we tested 173 neurologically intact adult native English speakers aged 55–84 years. Participants were given a sentence-final word recognition test in which sentential context was manipulated and sentences were presented in different levels of babble, and multiple tests of executive functioning assessing inhibition, shifting, and efficient access to long-term memory, as well as working memory. Using a generalized linear mixed model, we found that better inhibition was associated with higher accuracy in word recognition, while increased age and greater hearing loss were associated with poorer performance. Findings are discussed in the framework of semantic control and are interpreted as supporting a theoretical view of executive control which emphasizes functional diversity among executive components.     

International business travels and the work‐family interface: A longitudinal study

We examined fluctuations in the levels of work‐family conflict (WFC), family‐work conflict (FWC), and burnout during three different stages of international business trips among 66 business travellers. Participants completed questionnaires prior to the trip, during the stay abroad and after the trip. Analysis of variance detected differences in WFC, FWC, and burnout levels among the three stages of the trip, moderated by gender. The relationships of WFC and FWC with burnout were positive, whereas the direction of the relationship was reciprocal. This study advances the work‐family interface theory and research by focusing on both between‐ and within‐individual variations in work‐family attitudes. Thus it captures the dynamic of this phenomenon.     

The impact of vacation and job stress on burnout and absenteeism

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that vacation relief decreases psychological and behavioral strains caused by job stressors. We examined the impact of job stress and vacation on strain on 87 blue-collar employees in an industrial enterprise in central Israel. Whereas former respite research focused on the impact of vacation only on psychological strains such as burnout and job and life satisfaction, the current study also examined a behavioral strain, absenteeism. The employees completed questionnaires before and after vacation and again four weeks later. Our findings show that vacation alleviated perceived job stress and bumout as predicted, replicating findings that a respite from work diminishes levels of strain to lower than chronic, on-the-job levels. We found declines in burnout immediately after the vacation and a return to prevacation levels four weeks later, and a similar pattern with regard to absenteeism.     

A Comparison of a Subjective and Statistical Method for Establishing Score Comparability in an Organizational Culture Survey

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare the results of a subjective and a statistical method of detecting non-comparable items in 14 language-translated forms of a survey measuring organizational culture.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from a large multinational organization using a 60-item organizational culture survey. Each of 14 language-translated forms were administered to members of their respective language groups and compared to the original English (United States) form. Subjective reviews were conducted using fluent bilingual organizational members whom flagged items they did not believe were comparable. Statistical analyses using an item response theory (IRT) approach were used to detect problematic items from 14 samples with sizes ranging from 304 to 3,014. Detection patterns from these two approaches were compared.

Findings

The subjective approach identified far less items as problematic and did not agree with the statistical approach.

Implications

Our results suggest that the subjective approach as a pre-screening adaptation procedure has little added value over a careful translation/back-translation procedure.

Originality/Value

The use of language-adapted organizational surveys has become increasingly important to multinational organizations. In examining scores from such surveys the establishment of score comparability is essential. IRT analyses are often used to determine whether scores are comparable across language translations. It is also common for subjective reviews of item content to be utilized prior to statistical techniques to determine if the translated items are comparable to the original form. No research known to authors has compared modern statistical and subjective approaches to addressing these issues.