State vs trait anxiety: A case study in confirmatory factor analysis

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1970) originally divided anxiety into two factors: state anxiety, reflecting how an individual currently feels, and trait anxiety, reflecting how an individual generally feels. Recently, however, Spielberger revised his position to separate the presence and absence of anxiety symptoms within state and trait factors, yielding a hypothetical correlated 4-factor structure (Spielberger et al., 1980). Endler and Magnusson (1965) and Endler et al. (1976) have challenged the state vs trait distinction based upon their own factor analytical results. Since both sets of investigations used exploratory approaches, which do not postulate a particular factor structure, these studies do not provide an explicit test of the state vs trait distinction. A confirmatory factor analytic approach was used in the present study to evaluate Spielberger's 4-factor hypothesis. The subjects were large samples of male air force trainees and high school students for whom STAI data were available. The results of these confirmatory analyses indicated that the factors identified in exploratory analysis by Spielberger and his colleagues accounted for the data quite well.     

QUESTIONING POLANYI'S MEANING: A RESPONSE TO RONALD HALL

Abstract. Michael Polanyi's distinction between the indicative meaning of scientific statements and the symbolic and metaphorical meaning of art and religion, presented in Meaning , is based on an abstraction from concrete experience and betrays an inadequate understanding of religious discourse, particularly the discourse of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. In fact, Polanyi's vision in Personal Knowledge , which analyses the priority of personal action to all achievements of explication, seems either to be denied or forgotton by the positions taken in Meaning. Hence, the argument here is that Meaning is a deviation from Personal Knowledge and a step away from the resources necessary to grasp adequately the logic of religious discourse.     

RATIONALITY IN POLITICS

This essay examines current decision-making procedures in politics, especially those employed in parliamentary procedure, with a view to determining the extent to which they contribute to the making of rational political decisions. It concludes that political decision-making procedures are, on the whole, inferior to court-trial procedures, and proceeds to exploit this conclusion by describing a new method of political decision-making based on the concept of a political jury. This method, it is claimed, is more likely than present methods to produce sound legislation.     

Maternal perception of maladjustment in clinic-referred children: An extension of earlier research

The purpose of the present study was to extend earlier research examining predictors of maternal perceptions of maladjustment in clinic-referred children. Forty-five mothers and their clinic-referred children served as subjects. Maternal perceptions of child maladjustment were measured by the Parent Attitude Test. Maternal depression, marital adjustment, and family socioeconomic status were determined by the Beck Depression Inventory, Locke Marital Adjustment Test, and Myers and Bean index of social status, respectively. Child compliance and child deviant behavior (other than noncompliance) were obtained in home observations collected by independent observers. The results indicated that maternal depression was the best predictor of maternal perception of children. The remaining variables failed to contribute to the multiple regression analyses. Separate analyses also were performed on males and females and different predictor variables emerged for the two groups.The research reported in this study was supported by NIMH Grant 34193.     

Component analysis of ECG by computer

The present paper describes a set of interactive computer programs and methods (i.e., cardiac component analysis, CCA) that allow the collection, summation, and averaging of the time durations of the various ECG components. The programs are written in FORTRAN and run on a Texas Instruments minicomputer using an Intecolor 8001 terminal as the display device. The program’s features include analog-to-digital conversion, color display of individual heart-beats, operator interaction, and statistical summation with tabular output. Subroutines are well structured and easily transported to other machines. Although these programs may be used on-line, it has been more efficient to perform the analyses off-line, after a subject has completed the task. Various versions of the program have been used to analyze human, baboon, and dog ECGs in 2- to 30-sec epochs, at sample rates of 258 and 1,000 samples/sec. Preliminary results from an experiment of the effects of meditation and cognitive overload are discussed.     

Improved real-time control on the apple by mimicking an on-board 60-Hz clock

By delivering the vertical synch pulse to the maskable interrupt, it is possible to supply the Apple with a functional on-board 60-Hz clock that operates virtually independently of the CPU. This modification makes it easier to program more complex experiments involving independent control over stimulus exposure duration and the timing of response latency.     

CEDATS: A cognitive experimental design and testing system

CEDATS (cognitive experimental design and testing system) is a set of programs that allows students and instructors to easily create unique experiments even though they may have no experience with computers or knowledge of any programming language. Designs including up to six independent variables may be created, and from 24 to 31 stimulus presentation parameters may be manipulated or controlled. Responses and response times are recorded and printed and/or stored on disk.