The multiple partnership. Scientist, university, agency, and government

In the United States a large and significant percentage of scientific effort is carried out in universities and financed by government and private agencies. The partnership between universities and research support agencies relies on individuals representing their scientific organizations, their universities, and their agencies. These individuals deal with the ideas, the proposals, and advocacies that push and shape the programs that ultimately become established. The organizational and political realities that drive and influence this partnership are described in a way that highlights the ensuing richness, diversity, and the sometimes wasted efforts that characterize American science. Present-day science advocacy in the United States is placed in perspective as it is compared with an ideal, advocacy-free system and to other systems that have existed historically.     

Satisfaction in interpersonal interactions as a function of similarity in level of dysphoria

This study compared dysphoric and nondysphoric male and female undergraduates as they conversed with dysphoric or nondysphoric undergraduates of the same sex. Subjects rated their satisfaction with the conversation after each turn. The results showed that people in homogeneous dyads (i.e., both partners were dysphoric or both partners were nondysphoric) were more satisfied with the interaction, and their satisfaction increased as the conversation proceeded. People in mixed dyads were less satisfied, perceived each other as colder, and spoke about increasingly negative topics. Thus, in accord with other research showing that similarity leads to liking, the crucial determinant of interactional satisfaction was neither the mood of the subject nor the mood of the partner, but their similarity in mood.     

Rhetorics of truth,justice and secrecy in Pascal's text

Beginning from a definition of philosophical discourse which states the necessity of rhetoric meant as the whole of the linguistic devices aiming to persuade the interlocutor of truth and justice, the author points out that Pascal's text would be an outstanding example of such a discourse, while showing, nevertheless, the specificity of the rhetoric he employs. Such a specificity would aim to carry out a complex logic of the secret, concerning chiefly the ackowledgement and identification procedures of the subject of the discourse-enunciation, and its pronominal and nominal markers.The author studies this logic on one hand by starting from the pragmatic patterns developed by the linguistics of enunciation, and on the other taking into account the philosophical, ethical and religious themes of the Jansenist thought in the XVIIth century. The distinction between concealment and secret leads the author to set up the forms of political rhetoric against the actual Pascalian aspects of philosophical rhetoric. Such a logic of the secret, which is the projection of the hidden God teologema into the field of philosophical discourse, would enable us to position as absent the subject producing this discourse and thus to transform what he states into a discourse of truth and justice. The very careful examination of the anonymity strategies and mostly of the writing tactics concerning the author's real name (anagram) would seem to confirm this conception of the rhetoric of Pascal's philosophical discourse.     

Locus of semantic generalization of the galvanic skin response and possible inhibitory influence of conditional stimuli upon unconditional response following conditioning with innocuous and noxious unconditional stimuli

Two different problems were investigated using the GSR index of the orienting reflex (OR): 1) the locus of semantic generalization: and 2) a possible inhibitory influence of the CS upon the UCR. Two experiments were conducted. One experiment employed an innocuous USC, and a second similar experiment used a loud noise as the UCS. Unidirectional word associates were employed in the test of the direction of semantic generalization. Constant and varying CS words were used to test the possible inhibitory influence of the CS upon the UCR. Evidence was obtained of semantic generalization occurring in the training and in the test situation. There was no evidence of the CS developing inhibition over the UCR. Theoretical interpretations of both phenomena were considered. The need for developing theories of conditioning of the OR in humans was emphasized in contrast to current efforts to apply inappropriate cognitive animal learning theories which fail to consider biologic constraints. Supported in part by University Grant 1322.     

The Effects of Bifurcation and Death Qualification on Assignment of Penalty in Capital Crimes1

An experiment was conducted to test the effects of the bifurcated trial procedure and the death qualification process on sentencing and verdicts in death penalty cases. Forty-four 12-person juries, assigned to one of five trial conditions, returned verdicts indicating that death qualified, bifurcated juries gave the most severe verdicts and the highest proportion of guilty verdicts, while non-death qualified, trial only, juries returned the least severe verdicts and the highest proportion of not guilty or hung outcomes. Thirty-seven penalty phase juries, of which 20 had previously assigned guilt, were distributed among five penalty conditions. The sentencing data revealed that the most severe sentences were given by the death qualified, bifurcated juries. The least severe sentences were returned by the non-death qualified, bifurcated juries. Juries impaneled for the penalty phase only and death qualified meted out moderate sentences.     

A comment on Tooley's Abortion and Infanticide

Tushnet and Seidman attempt to show that, even if Michael Tooley is correct that fetuses have no right to life, others may have a right to their continued existence. Rights-bearing third parties with an interest in the fetus might be biological fathers, prospective adoptive parents, or even society as a whole. Criteria for assessing the legitimacy of claims of interest must be developed and then balanced against the claims of those who support abortion. The authors also discuss principles of bodily autonomy, the destruction as well as the removal of the fetus, and the question of whether legislation prohibiting abortion is mandatory, permissible, or optional.     

Socio-cognitive conflict and peer interaction: Development of compensation

The purpose of this study was to examine under which social conditions cognitive development of children at the same cognitive development level will be stimulated. One hundred and two children (mean age 7.8 years), understanding conversation of area quantity, but not yet able to grasp the compensatory relationships between the dimensions of length and width of an area, participated in two experimental conditions in which the developmental processes of socio-cognitive conflict and coordination were evoked. The results indicate that the resolution of the socio-cognitive conflict and the occurence of coordination is higher in individual than in dyadic conditions, and higher in (inter-group) competitive and (adult) supervised conditions than in conditions were task execution was left to the spontaneous initiative of the children themselves. Cognitive developmental progress generalized from the area concept to liquid and mass concepts.     

Using Clinicians’ Ideal Social Climate Ratings in Group Therapy Training: Staff Development,Supervision, and Teaching

A group’s norms are reflected in the group’s social climate, and social climate dimensions have been associated with treatment outcomes in group therapy. However, novice group therapists are often not clear about which norms to develop in a given group. We describe a procedure in which clinicians specify their ideal social climate for a therapy group or a treatment setting on the Group Environment Scale (Moos, 2002) or the Community-Oriented Program Environment Scale (Moos, 1988) and compare their ideals with various reference groups and with one another. Discrepancies in ideal social climate ratings between co-therapists or among clinical staff can be explored in order to enhance coordinated interventions. This procedure has been used with experienced clinicians, trainees, and graduate students in group therapy courses.     

Using Tablets to Collect Data From Young Children

Mobile, touch-screen devices are increasingly ubiquitous in children’s lives. The extensive use of such devices presents an exciting opportunity for data collection. We describe a simple method for creating cross-platform, interactive tablet experiments using open Web-based resources. We illustrate this method by collecting data from 1- to 4-year-old children in a word-recognition paradigm, using 3 different techniques: tablets, eye tracking, and an in-person storybook paradigm. Both accuracy and reaction-time data from the tablet compared favorably with the other methods. Tablets should be considered as a viable method for collecting low-cost, well-controlled developmental data.     

Passion for a Cause: How It Affects Health and Subjective Well‐Being

Using the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand et al., 2003), this research investigated how harmonious passion (HP) or obsessive passion (OP) for a cause can affect volunteers' health and subjective well‐being. Three studies with volunteers for local (local emergency crises and community help) and international (humanitarian missions) causes assessed physical and psychological health using cross‐sectional and longitudinal designs. Study 1 (N = 108) showed that HP was positively related to satisfaction with one's involvement in the cause and unrelated to physical injuries due to cause involvement. OP was unrelated to satisfaction but positively associated with injuries. Findings were replicated in Study 2 (N = 83). Moreover, self‐neglect mediated the positive and negative effects of HP and OP, respectively, on injuries. Study 3 (N = 77) revealed that HP predicted an increase in satisfaction and health over a 3‐month mission. OP predicted an increase in physical symptoms and a decrease in health. Furthermore, OP before a mission was positively related to self‐neglect that was positively associated with physical symptoms after a mission. OP also positively predicted rumination that was conducive to posttraumatic stress disorder. HP was unrelated to these variables. Findings underscore the role of passion for a cause in predicting intrapersonal outcomes of volunteers.