Personal Identity And Integration: Von Balthasar's Phenomenology Of Human Holiness

In the view of Hans Urs von Balthasar, what is needed to bring a human life to fulfilment—to become 'whole'—is the death of one's 'personality', and the acquisition of one's specific 'personhood', which is given to one, along with one's mission, by God. Moreover, according to von Balthasar, a human being becomes a 'unique person' when encountering God in contemplative prayer. And it is within contemplative prayer that one comes into contact with one's 'Idea', which is actualised when one' personal identity is fully developed, and which it is one's mission to conform to. Thus this article shows how the fundamental components of von Balthasar's distinctive phenomenological model of human holiness fit together, in actual practice as lived, around his core concept of 'mission'.     

Symposium: Recollections of B. F. Skinner

This symposium was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pavlovian Society, Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland, September 27, 1991.     

The politics of consulting for organizational change

This paper analyzes forms of political involvement among consultants engaged in planned organizational change. This analysis is intended to contribute to research and theorizing on organizational change and to help consultants and managers cope with the challenges posed by organizational politics. Four consulting styles are distinguished, those that vary in the sources of consultant power, the consultants’ degree of involvement in organizational politics, the processes on which consultants and their clients rely to implement organizational change, and the consultants’ definition of the main client. Factors accounting for variations in the use of the four consulting styles are noted, along with conditions that may influence the effectiveness of these styles. Implications for consulting practice also are discussed. He is also head of the department’s Graduate Program in the Sociology of Organizations. This article is a revised version of part of a paper presented at the World Congress of Sociology, International Sociological Association, Madrid, July, 1990. Thanks to Jean Bartunek, Jo Ann Harrison, Dafna Izraeli, Bruce Phillips, and Aryeh Shirom for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

The locus of semantic interference in the “Stroop” color-naming task

In two experiments, introductory psychology students responded in two ways to three lists of 60 words printed in different colors. The lists consisted of color words and two sets of words associated with the colors (e.g., SKY, BLOOD, etc.). When the subjects responded by naming the color in which each word was printed, it took longer for the color word list than for either list of associates, i.e., the classical Stroop interference effect. The other response required the subjects to say words from one of the association lists which corresponded to the color in which each word was printed, e.g., they saw the word BLACK (or NIGHT, or COAL) printed inred ink, and had to respond by saying “blood.” Using this response, it took longest for the subjects to complete the list of words which were the same as those required as responses. Color words were somewhat less difficult, and the other association words were completed most quickly. The results do not pinpoint the locus of interference, but clarify additional assumptions which must be accepted to maintain alternative hypotheses.     

Control of responding by sound location in monkeys: rapid acquisition in darkness.

Rapid control of responding by sound location is obtained in squirrel monkeys when sound stimuli are presented from one of two loudspeakers, each one adjacent to a response key. With this arrangement of loudspeakers and response keys, squirrel monkeys quickly learn to respond on the key near the source of the sound stimulus, and this pattern is the same whether or not responses near the sound source are differentially reinforcedmthis result may depend on a pre-experimental tendency in squirrel monkeys to orient head and eyes toward a sound, which would lead the animal to look at the response key in front of the loudspeaker producing the sound. The present experiment sought to determine whether visual stimuli are necessary for rapid control of responding by sound location. Two monkeys were trained in darkness in a sound-localization task similar to that described above. Results were similar to those obtained from animals trained in light, indicating that visual stimuli are not required for rapid acquisition of sound-localization behavior in monkeys.     

Transformations from adjectives to Scales for the Adjective Check List (ACL): ACLTRANS FORTRAN IV program

The ACLTRANS ANSI FORTRAN IV program transforms the 300 adjectives on the Adjective Check List (Gough, 1950. 1960) into 37 raw and T-standard psychological scales. This program has three advantages over scoring based ob theAdjective Check List Manual (Gough & Heilbrun, 1965, 1980, 1983): ease and speed of computing the raw scale scores; exact partialing of number of adjectives checked from standardized scale scores; and choice of parameter norms for standardization. By using the ACLTRANS program, the researcher can be confident of quick and accurate scoring, as well as appropriate standardization.     

Rapid acquisition of an auditory localization discrimination by rats

Acquisition of a sound localization discrimination by rats was investigated. Two loudspeakers were located outside an experimental enclosure containing two levers and a dipper feeder. In the same-side condition, responses on the lever nearest the sound-producing speaker were reinforced. Animals in this condition acquired the discrimination rapidly, generally within the first session. In the opposite-side condition, responses on the lever furthest from the sound-producing speaker were reinforced. Acquisition for animals in this condition began below the chance level (50% correct responses) and took on the order of 10 sessions to approach the final, high level. The course of acquisition in both cases appeared to depend upon an initial tendency of rats to respond on the lever nearest the source of sound in this situation. The rise-decay time of the 4-kHz tone burst signal clearly affected the performance level reached. It did not, however, affect the rate at which the discrimination was acquired.     

Psychiatric Symptomatology and Family Functioning in Children and Adolescents with Spina Bifida

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the occurrence of psychiatric symptomatology in children and adolescents with spina bifida, (b) investigate the relationship between psychiatric features and aspects of disability, and (c) explore the impact of spina bifida and psychiatric status on family functioning. Fifty-four children and adolescents ages 6 to 18 years (M = 12.94, SD = 3.59) were examined. Parents completed the Child Symptom Inventory (CSI) and the Family Assessment Device (FAD). Using the CSI, a psychiatric diagnostic screen, 43% of the sample obtained one, and 13% obtained two or more screening cutoff scores reflective of psychiatric diagnoses. The two most prevalent diagnostic categories were Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (33%) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (13%). The sample as a whole exhibited elevated levels of clinical symptoms, with internalizing symptoms more prominent than externalizing symptoms. No differences in diagnostic categories or overall symptomatology were found based on age, gender, ambulation status, or lesion level. Overall symptom counts were positively correlated with scales on the FAD reflecting problematic family functioning (.42–.65). Results suggest that psychiatric symptomatology occurs at a high rate in children and youth with spina bifida. Although ADHD was the modal diagnostic category, the sample as a whole exhibited extensive psychiatric symptoms independent of specific diagnostic categories. Psychiatric symptoms were also associated with increased problematic functioning in families.     

The control of responding by auditory stimuli: interactions between different dimensions of the stimuli.

Sounds have position in addition to other dimensions, such as intensity and frequency. Position rapidly gains control of spatially contiguous responses and this may interfere with control of responding by other acoustic dimensions. These experiments investigated interference of a tone-noise discrimination by the discrimination of acoustic position. Squirrel monkeys were studied when responding was differentially reinforced in the presence of both spectral content (tone-noise) and positional differences between the stimuli, and when responding was differentially reinforced only in the presence of spectral differences. Under the first condition, responding rapidly came under the control of the position of the noise in the two monkeys tested. The position of the tone controlled responding in one monkey; in the second monkey, responding came under the control of the spectral content of the tone. Under the second condition, responding was initially under the control of the noise in all three monkeys tested. This persisted for the duration of the condition for two of the monkeys; in one monkey, responding came under the control of the spectral content of the noise. Under the second condition, responding was also initially under the control of the position of the tone for all monkeys, but control by spectral content of the tone relatively rapidly developed in two of three monkeys.