Empirical bayes estimation of coefficients in the general linear model from data of deficient rank

Empirical Bayes methods are shown to provide a practical alternative to standard least squares methods in fitting high dimensional models to sparse data. An example concerning prediction bias in educational testing is presented as an illustration.The authors would like to thank the referees for several useful comments.The analysis of the data discussed in this report was part of a study funded jointly by the Graduate Management Admission Council and Educational Testing Service.     

Consultation with multidisciplinary teams: A program of development and improvement of team functioning

The purpose of this paper is to review a program designed to assist multidisciplinary teams engaged in screening and eligibility determination to assess their own functioning and set specific goals to improve their case handling procedures. The program was implemented in four elementary and one secondary school of a large suburban school district. In this paper, the approach is described and some preliminary data are provided on the usefulness of the program in assisting multidisciplinary teams to select and implement those changes which they feel will improve their case handling. Considerations for implementing the program on a district-wide basis are also noted.     

Some foundations and directions for applied developmental psychology

Applied developmental psychology (ADP) is an “umbrella” discipline which includes a range of psychological sciences and professions committed to use of the data base and methods of developmental psychology to address problems in education, health, human services and public policy. ADP emerges now as a manifestation of increasing recognition of the limits of developmental psychology's traditional models and paradigms, increasing recognition of our appropriate role in social problem-solving and public policy formation and an employment market which reflects these awarenesses. Consideration of clinical psychology as an ADP provides examples of synergies and distinctions helpful in defining ADP. The “linkage” concept inherent in a “scientist-practitioner” model is emphasized as a key in this definition and as a basis for designing appropriate doctoral training programs in ADP.     

Keeping track of locations during movement in 8- to 10-month-old infants

Infants of $\text{8}\text{1}\text{2}$ and $\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}$ mo of age were tested for the ability to “keep track,” i.e., to determine the location of an object hidden in one of two covered containers before their left-right positions were reversed. Infants in both age groups for whom the covers were the same color and younger infants for whom the covers were different colors were generally unable to keep track. Only the older infants provided with different colored covers were able to do so. An analysis which separated keeping track from the sensorimotor stage 4 error indicated that (a) there was no contingency between the two and (b) there were developmental differences in the nature of the error.     

A three-factor model of syllogistic reasoning: The study of isolable stages

Computer models of the syllogistic reasoning process are constructed. The models are used to determine the influence of three factors—the misinterpretation of the premises, the limited capacity of working memory, and the operation of the deductive strategy—on subjects’ behavior. Evidence from Experiments 1, 2, and 3 suggests that all three factors play important roles in the production of errors when “possibly true” and “necessarily false” are the two response categories. This conclusion does not agree with earlier analyses that had singled out one particular factor as crucial. Evidence from Experiment 4 suggests that the influence of the first two factors remains strong when “necessarily true” is used as an additional response category. However, the third factor appears to interact with task demands. Some concluding analyses suggest that the models offer alternative explanations for certain well established results.     

Evidence for the external validity of a social simulation measure of social skills

Two studies were conducted in order to obtain evidence regarding the external validity of a social simulation measure of social skills. The first study employed a contrasted group design, with the groups consisting of National Guardsmen and psychiatric patients. As predicted, trained judges rated the performances of the National Guardsmen in the simulations as more skillful and appearing less anxious than the psychiatric patients. In the second study, trained judges' ratings of psychiatric patients' performances in the simulations were found to be significantly related to ratings made by interviewers who had conducted a structured social history interview with the patients, nurses' ratings based on their observations of patients after 3 days on the psychiatric unit, a research assistant's ratings based on contact with the patient during the experiment, and finally, the subject's own self-ratings. In discussing the findings, it is hypothesized that one reason why support was found for the external validity of the simulation strategy in this study, in contrast to some previously reported studies, was the use of molar ratings in this study as opposed to the more molecular rating procedures used in those previous studies.These studies were funded in part by a research grant from the Veterans Administration.     

Liberating Ecological Reason Through Interdisciplinarity

The theory and practice of ecological reason have consistently suffered various shortcomings, versions of anthropocentrism and holism prominent among them. Even definitions of ecological reason that rely on philosophically informed policy studies and that explicitly take the functional and substantive moments of reason into account have not escaped these problems. An account of interdisciplinarity can shed light on how these intractable problems arise, since many of them fail to build interdisciplinarity as such sufficiently into the definition of ecological reason. Genuine interdisciplinarity, distinguished from both multidisciplinarity and metadisciplinarity, can thus be seen to be necessary (not sufficient) to liberate ecological reason and to illuminate its theory and practice for late moderns.     

Don Quixote as Moral Narcissist: Implications for Mid-Career Male Ministers

This essay uses the figure of Don Quixote to explore the mid-career crisis experienced by many male ministers. It proposes that Don Quixote is less problematic than Don Juan for ethical reasons, but employs psychoanalytic interpretations to reveal the complexity of his self-structure, focusing especially on his moral narcissism, proneness to paranoia and melancholia, and his fictive personality. While evidence of his disordered mind, these diagnoses also testify to his nobility under trying circumstances. Heinz Kohut's concept of the transformation of narcissism is introduced and implications for the future destiny of Don Quixote are drawn. These implications have relevance to the issue of survival in ministry after the effects of the mid-career crisis have been absorbed. Pastoral Theology at