Wesley Salmon's Complementarity Thesis: Causalism and Unificationism Reconciled?

In his later years, Wesley Salmon believed that the two dominant models of scientific explanation (his own causal‐mechanical model and the unificationist model) were reconcilable. Salmon envisaged a ‘new consensus’ about explanation: he suggested that the two models represent two ‘complementary’ types of explanation, which may ‘peacefully coexist’ because they illuminate different aspects of scientific understanding. This paper traces the development of Salmon's ideas and presents a critical analysis of his complementarity thesis. Salmon's thesis is rejected on the basis of two objections, and an alternative view of the relation between different types of explanation is proposed.     

Predicting compulsive Internet use: it's all about sex!

The objective of this research was to assess the predictive power of various Internet applications on the development of compulsive Internet use (CIU). The study has a two-wave longitudinal design with an interval of 1 year. The first measurement contained 447 adult heavy Internet users who used the Internet at least 16 h per week and had Internet access at home for at least 1 year. For the second measurement, all participants were invited again, of whom 229 responded. By means of an online questionnaire, the respondents were asked about the time spent on various Internet applications and CIU. On a cross-sectional basis, gaming and erotica seem the most important Internet applications related to CIU. On a longitudinal basis, spending a lot of time on erotica predicted an increase in CIU 1 year later. The addictive potential of the different applications varies; erotica appears to have the highest potential.     

Effects of Individual Differences on the Perceived Job Relatedness of a Cognitive Ability Test and a Multimedia Situational Judgment Test

Although there is a growing number of publications concerning applicant reactions to different selection instruments, the relationships between individual differences and applicant reactions have largely remained unexplored. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of several testing‐related and general individual differences (anxiety, self‐evaluations, and personality) on the most commonly studied dimension of applicant reactions, namely the perceived job relatedness of selection instruments. Participants were 153 psychology students, who completed a cognitive ability test and a multimedia situational judgment test as part of their educational program. Our results indicated that computer anxiety negatively affected perceived job relatedness and core self‐evaluations, subjective well‐being, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience positively affected perceived job relatedness. Openness to experience was the most consistent predictor of perceived job relatedness. The results of our study suggest that certain individuals may be more predisposed to react positively to selection instruments. Therefore, we concluded that the nature of the applicant pool should be carefully considered when designing interventions to improve applicant reactions.     

When competition merges people's behavior: Interdependency activates shared action representations

Previous research suggests that friendly, cooperative situations cause one to integrate a co-actor's actions into one's own action system. Departing from an interdependency perspective, we predict the activation of shared action representations even in hostile, competitive situations as a result of attending to the intentions of the co-actor. To test this, in Experiment 1 we manipulated the interdependency between actor and co-actor in a joint Simon task and observed a stronger activation of shared action representations in a cooperative as well as competitive context compared to an independent context. Experiment 2 replicated the competitive context effect on activation of shared action representations and provided additional evidence for the mediating role of attending to others’ intentions by taking into account the individual tendency to attend to others’ intentions. Together, our findings suggest that interdependency merges people's behavior even in competitive contexts, which we argue encourage actors to attend to others’ intentions.     

The relationship between organizational trust,resistance to change and adaptive and proactive employees' agility in an unplanned and planned change context

Modern organizations need to adapt quickly to on-going changes. The present study sought to examine employees' agility during periods of sudden, unplanned, and during periods of planned change. It was investigated to what extent one's trust in the organization and resistance to change could predict proactive agility and adaptive agility. Data came from employees (N = 188) in two different organizations, one undergoing an unplanned change and one undergoing a planned change. In both contexts, organizational trust had a negative relationship with resistance to change. In an unplanned change context (organization one), trust of employees in the organization had a positive effect on the adaptive component of agility through the (negative) mediation by affective resistance to change. In this context, trust did not have any (mediated) effect on the proactive component of agility. In contrast, in a planned change context (organization two), trust had a positive effect on the proactive component of agility, partially through the (negative) mediation by resistance to change. In this context, trust also had a positive effect on the adaptive component of agility, partially through the (negative) mediation by resistance to change. These results imply that trust works in different ways depending on the type of change. More trust through less resistance implies better adaptation during unplanned organizational change. More trust works directly and partially through less resistance to change to enhance employee proactivity and adaptability during planned change.     

On the Role of Biomedical Knowledge in Clinical Reasoning by Experts,Intermediates and Novices

In two studies the role of biomedical knowledge in the diagnosis of clinical cases was explored. Experiment 1 demonstrated a decrease in the use of biomedical knowledge with increasing expertise. This result appeared to be at variance with some findings reported in the literature (e.g., Lesgold, 1984), but supported those of others (e.g., Patel, Evans, & Groen, 1989). In Experiment 2, three possible explanations for this phenomenon were investigated: (1) rudimentation of biomedical knowledge, (2) inertia, and (3) encapsulation of biomedical knowledge under higher order concepts. Using a combined think-aloud and post-hoc explanation methodology, it was shown that experts have more in-depth biomedical knowledge than novices and subjects at intermediate levels of expertise. The findings generally support a three-stage model of expertise development in medicine consisting of acquisition of biomedical knowledge, practical experience, and integration of theoretical and experiental knowledge resulting in knowledge encapsulation.     

All for one or some for all? Evaluating informative hypotheses using multiple <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis> = 1 studies

Analyses are mostly executed at the population level, whereas in many applications the interest is on the individual level instead of the population level. In this paper, multiple N =?1 experiments are considered, where participants perform multiple trials with a dichotomous outcome in various conditions. Expectations with respect to the performance of participants can be translated into so-called informative hypotheses. These hypotheses can be evaluated for each participant separately using Bayes factors. A Bayes factor expresses the relative evidence for two hypotheses based on the data of one individual. This paper proposes to “average” these individual Bayes factors in the gP-BF, the average relative evidence. The gP-BF can be used to determine whether one hypothesis is preferred over another for all individuals under investigation. This measure provides insight into whether the relative preference of a hypothesis from a pre-defined set is homogeneous over individuals. Two additional measures are proposed to support the interpretation of the gP-BF: the evidence rate (ER), the proportion of individual Bayes factors that support the same hypothesis as the gP-BF, and the stability rate (SR), the proportion of individual Bayes factors that express a stronger support than the gP-BF. These three statistics can be used to determine the relative support in the data for the informative hypotheses entertained. Software is available that can be used to execute the approach proposed in this paper and to determine the sensitivity of the outcomes with respect to the number of participants and within condition replications.     

Upward and Downward Counterfactual Thought After Loss: A Multiwave Controlled Longitudinal Study

Counterfactual thoughts, mental simulations about how a situation may have turned out differently (i.e., “if only …, then …”), can reduce mental health after stressful life-events. However, how specific counterfactual thought types relate to post-loss mental health problems is unclear. We hypothesized that self-referenced upward counterfactuals (i.e., “If only I had done …, then the current situation would be better”) may serve as cognitive avoidance, thereby perpetuating loss-related distress. Conversely, downward counterfactuals (i.e., “If … had happened, then the current situation could have been [even] worse”) may facilitate benefit finding, thereby reducing distress. In a longitudinal survey, self-referent, other-referent, and nonreferent upward counterfactuals, and nonreferent downward counterfactuals were assessed at baseline. Prolonged grief and depression symptoms were assessed at baseline, and 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Multiple regression analyses assessed associations between counterfactual thoughts and symptom levels in 65 recently bereaved people who generated counterfactual thoughts about the loss-event. Moderator analyses assessed the unicity of significant effects in the previous step, by comparing these effects in 59 people generating loss-related counterfactuals with those in 59 propensity-score matched participants generating counterfactuals about other negative life-events. Multivariate analyses showed that nonreferent upward counterfactuals were uniquely strongly positively associated with prolonged grief and depression symptoms concurrently. Self-referent upward counterfactuals were uniquely positively associated with prolonged grief and depression symptoms longitudinally. Moderator analyses confirmed that thinking about how one’s (in)actions could prevent a death uniquely exacerbated prolonged grief and depression severity. Prolonged grief treatment may be improved by targeting self-blame and guilt.     

The implicit power motive predicts decisions in line with perceived instrumentality

Past research suggests that the implicit power motive (i.e., an unconsciously held motivational disposition to derive pleasure from having impact on others) predicts a preference to interact with individuals having submissive-looking faces. The present research extends this finding by testing whether the relation between the implicit power motive and approaching submissiveness depends on instrumentality. In two experiments, participants were assigned to a group that would ostensibly compete with another group. Within this intergroup context, they were asked to select persons as leaders or members for the in-group or the out-group. Potential leaders and members were displayed as submissive-looking or dominant-looking. Results showed that the implicit power motive predicted decisions favoring dominant-looking persons as in-group leaders, and submissive-looking persons as out-group leaders (Study 1) or in-group members (Study 2). These findings indicate that the tendency for people high in the implicit power motive to approach submissive-looking persons depends on the perceived instrumentality for gaining influence over others.