Mechanical output about the ankle in countermovement jumps and jumps with extended knee

In this study the mechanical output (e.g., force, contraction velocity, instantaneous power) about the ankle was measured during a jump with and without occurrence of transportation of power and pre-stretch potentiation. To examine this, a model of the m. triceps surae was used. Eleven subjects performed a maximal one-legged countermovement jump (CMJ) and a maximal one-legged jump with extended knee (EKJ). Ground reaction forces, cinematographic data and electromyograms of m. triceps surae were recorded. The power output, defined as the product of moment and angular velocity, and work done about the ankle were higher during CMJ (1404 W, 130 J) than during EKJ (852 W, 76 J). The peak moments were the same during both jumps. The model of the m. triceps surae showed that the power delivered by m. triceps surae was higher during CMJ than during EKJ, as a result of catapult-action of m. gastrocnemius tendon. The difference in work done is explained, in addition to transportation of energy, by a greater contraction range of m. soleus during CMJ. There is no reason to assume that pre-stretch potentiation plays a role in the difference in mechanical output. The results show that the mechanical output of muscles in complex movements is strongly dependent on the dynamics of the movement, and not only on its contractile capacity.     

THE INFLUENCE OF SEX-ROLE IDENTITY AND OCCUPATIONAL ATTAINMENT ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN

This study examined the extent to which sex-role identity as defined by Bem's typology is related to occupational attainment, self–esteem, and work satisfaction for 161 employed Asian American women. Three major hypotheses were tested: (a) Masculine and androgynous Asian American women have a higher level of occupational attainment than those with feminine and undifferentiated sex-role identity; (b) androgynous Asian American women have a higher level of self-esteem and a greater degree of work satisfaction than those with other types of sex-role identity; and (c) the higher the level of occupational attainment secured by Asian American women, the greater their work satisfaction and the higher their self-esteem. As predicted, sex-role identity was significantly related to occupational attainment. Androgynous Asian American women and those with a high level of occupational attainment had a higher level of self-esteem and a greater degree of work satisfaction than those with other types of sex-role identity. The implications of these findings for Bem's formulation of androgyny, its relation to occupational achievement, and its consequences for psychological health and work outcomes are discussed.     

A ROWS is a ROSE: Spelling,sound, and reading

Skilled readers generally are assumed to make little or no use of words’ phonological features in visual word identification. Contrary to this assumption, college students’ performance in the present reading experiments showed large effects of stimulus word phonology. In Experiments 1 and 2, these subjects produced larger false positive error rates in a semantic categorization task when they responded to stimulus foils that were homophonic to category exemplars (e.g., ROWS for the category A FLOWER) than when they responded to spelling control foils. Additionally, in Experiment 2, this homophony effect was found under brief-exposure pattern-masking conditions, a result consistent with the possibility that phonology is an early source of constraint in word identification. Subjects did, however, correctly reject most homophone foils in Experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 3 investigated the source of this ability. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that subjects detected homophone impostors, such as ROWS, by verifying target foil spellings against their knowledge of the correct spellings of category exemplars, such as ROSE.     

Social phobia: individual response patterns and the effects of behavioral and cognitive interventions

In the present study, the role of individual response patterns in the treatment of social phobic patients was investigated. Seventy-four patients were diagnosed as social phobics. On the basis of extreme scores on a behavioral test (the Simulated Social Interaction Test) and on a cognitive measure (the Rational Behavior Inventory), the response patterns of 39 patients were analyzed, and the patients themselves were classified as either 'behavioral reactors' or 'cognitive reactors'. Half of the patients with each response pattern received a behavioral focused treatment, i.e. social skills training (SST), while the other half received a cognitive oriented treatment, i.e. rational emotive therapy (RET). Patients received group therapy in eight weekly sessions. Within-group differences showed a considerable improvement in all treatment groups. Between-group differences failed to lend support to the hypothesis that treatment that fits a response pattern (i.e. SST for behavioral reactors and RET for cognitive reactors) will result in a greater improvement than one that does not.     

Psychophysiological and subjective reactions of social phobics and normals to facial stimuli

Nine social phobics and 9 normal control subjects were exposed to slides of angry faces, happy faces, and neutral objects (i.e. flowers or mushrooms). Skin conductance responses (SCRs) to the stimuli and eyeblink rate (EBR) during stimulus exposure were recorded. In addition, subjects were asked to rate the stimuli in terms of pleasantness. While angry face stimuli elicited greater SCRs, stronger inhibition of EBR, and were evaluated more negatively than the other stimuli, there were no differences between social phobics and normals in these respects. Thus, the findings lend no support to the idea that social phobics are particularly sensitive to facial cues in general or to negative facial cues in particular.     

Job seeking, reemployment, and mental health: a randomized field experiment in coping with job loss

Cognitive theories of adherence to difficult courses of action and findings from previous survey research on coping with a major life event--job loss--were used to generate a preventive intervention, tested by a randomized field experiment. The aim was to prevent poor mental health and loss of motivation to seek reemployment among those who continued to be unemployed and to promote high-quality reemployment. Ss were 928 recently unemployed adults from southeastern Michigan, representing a broad range of demographic characteristics; they were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The experimental intervention included training in job seeking with a problem-solving process emphasizing inoculation against setbacks and positive social reinforcement. A pretest was administered, followed by posttests 1 and 4 months after the experiment. The experimental condition yielded higher quality reemployment in terms of earnings and job satisfaction, and higher motivation among those who continued to be unemployed.     

Discovery as the context of any scientific justification

Summary The analysis of philosophically important themes can depart from two different angles. The first one investigates the various answers that have been given to a certain issue, like that of the problem of knowledge, the justification of theories, the notion of culture, etcetera. These answers are often mutually contradictory which, by the way, facilitates their overview (like the schemes of rationalism-empiricism, justification-discovery, universalism-relativism). A second approach starts from the problems (or: problematique) behind the divergent answers (e.g., foundationalism behind both, empiricism and rationalism).In the following sections the issue of discovery is discussed. Here the second line of approach has been followed, not only by making visible a same problematique, but more by trying to set out the common context of the discussion about context of discovery and context of justification. The idea is that this discussion, or better the shift taking place in that discussion, finds its reason in a context in which the distance between traditional methodology and contemporary scientific practice, also between scientific knowledge and the experience of reality has become greater. This is related to the deepening awareness of the cultural context of scientific method. Man and world, scientific method and cultural context are always interacting.From this point of view quite different philosophical approaches show nevertheless similar features pointing to new solutions. A more psychological approach to scientific method (like: Gordon's and Grmek's, even perhaps Gutting's reinterpretation of Popper) and a sociological one (e.g., Barnes, Bloor, and already Durkheim) are opposed to a more logically structured analysis of Nagel, Hempel, and also Popper. Nevertheless the view on the flexibility of scientific method defended along different lines by for instance Achinstein, Bachelard, Hesse, Piaget, Polanyi, Toulmin manifests a certain convergence in those divergent standpoints, the more so since often the cultural context of science is being stressed (e.g., Ladriére, Prigogine, Needham).The miscellany of philosophical orientations, presented in the following sections, can in this way perhaps give profile to deeper tendencies: to relate again scientific method to the context of culture and of human strategy in general. This does not blend, however, the distinction between context of justification and context of discovery. By changing their roles a new overview of this dilemma becomes possible. There is no juxtaposition of both, nor has the one to be absorbed by the other. The conclusion will be that there are still two contexts, but that one is wider, less defined and demarcated from the wider field of daily culture, and that the other is more restricted, functioning as a kind of safetydevice on behalf of the wider strategy of discovery. In such a way discovery is regarded as the wider context of the more restricted context of justification.     

TEACHER POPULARITY AND CONTRAST EFFECTS IN A CLASSROOM TOKEN ECONOMY

There is a common fear that the use of a token economy in one classroom might harm pupil performance in situations where the contingencies are not in effect. This study investigated potential contrast effects on measures of children's productivity and attitudes toward teachers. Six children with reading deficits participated. A multiple baseline design was used to assess the effects of a token economy which was systematically introduced across three teachers. Dependent measures included two rating forms of teacher popularity and work rate on a programmed reading series. The results indicated that the token system was effective in increasing the children's productivity and that no consistent behavioral contrast effects occurred. Furthermore, children's attitudes toward teachers did not appear to be influenced by the token economy until only one teacher was not delivering tokens. At this point, her popularity declined until she also delivered tokens. The token economy manipulation appeared to have a specific, desirable effect on the targeted behavior (i.e., work rate) and had minimal negative or positive “side effects” on teacher popularity.     

The logical study of science

The relation between logic and philosophy of science, often taken for granted, is in fact problematic. Although current fashionable criticisms of the usefulness of logic are usually mistaken, there are indeed difficulties which should be taken seriously — having to do, amongst other things, with different scientific mentalities in the two disciplines (section 1). Nevertheless, logic is, or should be, a vital part of the theory of science. To make this clear, the bulk of this paper is devoted to the key notion of a scientific theory in a logical perspective. First, various formal explications of this notion are reviewed (section 2), then their further logical theory is discussed (section 3). In the absence of grand inspiring programs like those of Klein in mathematics or Hilbert in metamathematics, this preparatory ground-work is the best one can do here. The paper ends on a philosophical note, discussing applicability and merits of the formal approach to the study of science (section 4).I would like to thank David Pearce and Veikko Rantala for their helpful comments.