“Idiographic” vis-à-vis “idiodynamic” in the historical perspective of personality theory: Remembering Gordon Allport, 1897–1997

The centenary of Gordon W. Allport provides an occasion for reappraising his special position regarding uniqueness in personality. Allport's theory of personality, as first presented in his 1937 textbook, highlighted the idiographic in conjunction with the nomothetic approach, and the fundamental unit in his formulation was the trait. He described common and unique traits as well as the unique organization of traits. In contradistinction, the idiodynamic orientation, introduced by Saul Rosenzweig in 1951 and, in more detail in 1958, focused on events which over a lifespan constitute an idioverse—a population of phenomenological events. Allport's original emphasis on the idiographic and his later confusion concerning idiodynamics, can, in considerable measure, be understood by recognizing the role of religious spirituality in his conception of the person. That conception, which derived from an early religious indoctrination, asserted itself with renewed vigor in his later years. His scientific conception of personality thus remained unconsummated, subordinated by him to the unsolvable mysteries of ontology which properly belong, he believed, in the domain of faith. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Cross‐Cultural Conflict Resolution in the Schools: Some Practical Intervention Strategies for Counselors

The authors present a context for understanding the increase in school violence as a function of poor conflict resolution skills. They provide counselors with selected cross‐cultural approaches for conflict resolution and problem solving. They also discuss how the methods could be implemented in a school setting. A case study is used to demonstrate the approaches in action.     

PLACING OURSELVES

Abstract This essay set the stage for the 2003 Star Island conversation on “Ecomorality” by remembering the cosmic, geological, and ecological context in which we live. It reflects on the immense journey that matter and life have traveled from the beginning and reminds us that, throughout that journey, all that was and is emerged from a fertile mix of individual well‐being and reciprocity. But to sense the meaning of the story and to know our place in it takes more than hearing its broad outline. We need to remember the individual actors who have gone before us; to read their stories in particular places, like the rocks and ecosystems of Star Island; and to listen carefully for the meaning to be found in those actors and those places. Those stories, actors, and places invite us to sense the sacredness of our time and place and to reconsecrate our selves and our energies to developing an ethic that honors our common ancestry.     

Predicting Breast Self‐Examination: A Test of the Information‐Motivation‐Behavioral Skills Model1

The present research utilizes the information‐motivation‐behavioral skills (IMB) model (Fisher & Fisher, 1992, 2000) to predict breast self‐examination (BSE) and related behaviors in women. Results from a cross‐sectional survey study of 166 women found deficiencies in BSE‐related information, motivation, and behavioral skills, as well as insufficient rates of BSE‐related behaviors. Structural equation modeling indicated that IMB model variables account for significant variance in BSE and BSE‐related behaviors, and that the predicted relationships between the constructs of the 1MB model were supported. The present research extends the utility of the IMB model beyond preventive behaviors such as HIV prevention into the domain of detection behaviors such as BSE.     

Facilitating the emergence of convergent intraverbals in children with autism

Convergent intraverbals represent a specific type of intraverbal in which multiple components of one speaker's verbal behavior control a specific verbal response from another speaker (e.g., Speaker 1: What wooly, horned animal lives in the high country? Speaker 2: Bighorn sheep). To foster the development of advanced language, Sundberg and Sundberg (2011) proposed prerequisite skills that may engender the emergence of novel, convergent intraverbals. We used a multiple‐probe design with both nonconcurrent (across participants) and concurrent (across stimulus sets) components to evaluate the effects of training these prerequisite skills on the emergence of convergent intraverbals with four children with autism. Participants showed the emergence of convergent intraverbals at mastery levels after they displayed mastery performance on all of the prerequisite skills identified by Sundberg and Sundberg, lending support to their characterization as prerequisites. We discuss these findings in terms of operant mechanisms that may facilitate the development of generative language.     

Organisms and the form of freedom in Kant's third Critique

In the second half of the third Critique, Kant develops a new form of judgment peculiar to organisms: teleological judgment. In the Appendix to this text, Kant argues that we must regard the final, unconditioned end of creation as human freedom, due to reason's demand that we regard nature as a system of ends. In this paper, I offer a novel interpretation of this argument, according to which judgments of freedom within nature are possible as instances of teleological judgment. Just as individual organisms are to be regarded as governed by supersensible teleological laws, so too is nature as a whole to be regarded as given laws from a supersensible ground. This supersensible ground in the case of nature as a whole is freedom. Freedom and teleological judgments are to be regarded as unifiable with mechanism in the supersensible, and we are to subordinate mechanical explanations to teleological judgments as well as to freedom. This interpretation makes sense both of Kant's claim that he overcomes the “incalculable gulf” between nature and freedom in the third Critique, and also of the location of this argument, as following after and relying on the results of the Dialectic of Teleological Judgment.     

Donald C. Williams’s defence of real metaphysics

In the middle of last century metaphysics was widely criticized, ridiculed, and committed to the flames. During this period a handful of philosophers, against several anti-metaphysical trends, defended metaphysics and articulated novel metaphysical doctrines. Donald C. Williams was one of these philosophers. But while his contributions to metaphysics are well known his defence of metaphysics is not and yet it played a key part in the development and revival of metaphysics. In this paper I present his defence of metaphysics in its historical context. I also show how his defence is relevant in response to recent attacks on metaphysics.