FEMALE VS. MALE ABSENCE RATES: A TEMPORAL ANALYSIS

The purpose of this research is to test the importance of temporal trends within absenteeism data for males and females. The data support previous findings of higher absenteeism rates for women when compared to men. The data also indicate the importance of temporal trends as suggested by Dansereau, Alutto, and Markham (1978). Conclusions are drawn concerning the use of absence rates as dependent variables.     

JOB-RELATEDNESS OF A POSTTRAINING JOB KNOWLEDGE CRITERION USE TO ASSESS VALIDITY AND TEST FAIRNESS

Significant job-relatedness was found for a posttraining job knowledge test criterion using an application of Lawshe's content validity method. The aide test was used as a criterion to assess the predictive validity of a vocabulary test and a civil service test with samples of black ( N = 43) and white ( N = 62) psychiatric aides. Significant validities were found on both tests, but a vocabulary test proved to be the better predictor of the criterion in both samples. The obtained validities were discussed in terms of differential validity, test fairness, and sample size. This study demonstrated that a content validity method could be applied to criteria as well as selection tests. It was concluded that content validity methods may be able to help solve the problem of criterion relevance in validation research by providing quantitative evidence of the job-relatedness of criteria.     

COHERENTISM AND THE EPISTEMIC JUSTIFICATION OF MORAL BELIEFS: A CASE STUDY IN HOW TO DO PRACTICAL ETHICS WITHOUT APPEAL TO A MORAL THEORY

This paper defends a coherentist approach to moral epistemology. In “The Immorality of Eating Meat” (2000), I offer a coherentist consistency argument to show that our own beliefs rationally commit us to the immorality of eating meat. Elsewhere, I use our own beliefs as premises to argue that we have positive duties to assist the poor (2004) and to argue that biomedical animal experimentation is wrong (2012). The present paper explores whether this consistency‐based coherentist approach of grounding particular moral judgments on beliefs we already hold, with no appeal to moral theory, is a legitimate way of doing practical ethics. I argue (i) that grounding particular moral judgments on our core moral convictions and other core nonmoral beliefs is a legitimate way to justify moral judgments, (ii) that these moral judgments possess as much epistemic justification and have as much claim to objectivity as moral judgments grounded on particular ethical theories, and (iii) that this internalistic coherentist method of grounding moral judgments is more likely to result in behavioral guidance than traditional theory‐based approaches to practical ethics. By way of illustrating the approach, I briefly recapitulate my consistency‐based argument for ethical vegetarianism. I then defend the coherentist approach implicit in the argument against a number of potentially fatal metatheoretical attacks.     

Performance on patterned string problems by common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

This experiment examined the performance of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) on a series of patterned string problems to assess the marmosets’ understanding of means–ends relationships. One marmoset, Jet, was exposed to a series of problems that were ordered in terms of perceived difficulty during two testings that were separated by 1 year. In the second testing, Jet received problems that had been used during the first testing along with three new problems. Each of the new problems was designed to be an exemplar of the type of problem that Jet had experienced difficulty with in the first testing. A second marmoset, Peaches, was tested on the same set of problems given to Jet in the second testing. Results indicated that the marmosets’ performance on these problems fell into three categories. In one category, some problems were solved without evidence of trial-and-error learning. In a second category, there were problems in which the marmosets responded at chance levels initially but evidenced improvement as a function of extended testing. In a third category, some problems appeared to be virtually unsolvable even with extended testing. Taken together, these results indicate that the marmosets were able to learn the means–ends connection between pulling a string and obtaining food. This learning was best characterized as a trial-and-error process for some problem forms, while for others there appeared to be rapid learning that did not require extensive practice. The instances of rapid learning may be the result of the application of a simple spatial proximity rule in which the marmosets chose the string that was closest to an imaginary line drawn between the marmoset and the reinforcer.