艾耶尔在哲学史上的地位

其次,是对知识论中关于知觉、他人心理,历史、归纳等问题的一种有益的图式化表述,这些问题起源于那种由于各种信仰(关于物质事物、过去事件,他人心理、自然规律的)和用来证明它们的唯一证据(感觉材料,记忆及其痕迹、行为和观察到的规则)之间的鸿沟而导致的怀疑主义。和这种图式的其他支持者一样,艾耶尔认识到了对待这些鸿沟的四个基本途径。一是直觉,据称它可以直接到达鸿沟的另一端;二是关于一般原则的理论,它可以用作跨越鸿沟的桥梁;三是还原主义,它可以通过定义那些被断定用来证明它们的事物填平这一鸿沟;四是怀疑主义的忧郁选择。艾耶尔还想像出第五种被称之为“描述分析法”的途径,它似乎承认这种鸿沟,但又对它无可奈何。     

Detection of faking on the MMPI-2: differentiation among faking-bad, denial, and claiming extreme virtue

The purpose of this study was (a) to evaluate the ability of the existing validity indices of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) in detecting faking. bad and faking-good profiles, (b) to differentiate between two strategies for faking-good (denial and claiming extreme virtue), (c) to determine the effectiveness of the new MMPI-2 validity scale, the S scale, in detecting people's tendency to present themselves in a superlative manner, and (d) to explore the response strategy under conditions in which individuals we known to be distorting their responses to the MMPI-2 Participants were 167 undergraduate, college students who were administered the test under different conditions, and 50 hospitalized, psychiatric patients. Mean profile configurations and optimal cutoff scores obtained in this study were similar to those reported in previous studies. Accurate identification of faked profiles was achieved. The new S scale and its subscales, especially S2 (Serenity), S3 (Contentment With Life), and S5 (Denial of Moral Flaws), showed particular promise in detecting faking-good (denial and claiming extreme virtue) profiles, Participant's debriefing provided valuable information about the participants' understanding of the instructions and their deception strategies. The attempts to differentiate between two strategies for faking-good, denial and claiming extreme virtue, were not successful, However, these results should not be taken to indicate that the particular strategies assessed in this study cannot be differentiated. Methodological issues reviewed suggest that further research might yield more understanding of the nature of any deception efforts made by respondents. In addition, future, research is needed to discover if the findings from this study generalize to other clinical settings and populations.     

A multi-systems theory of the structure and dynamics of motor functions

A theoretical analysis of the structure and dynamics of human motor functioning is presented from the perspective of a general theory of individuality. Within multifactor-systems theory, the structural units of the six systems of integrative personality (i.e., sensory, motor, cognitive, affect, style, and value) are hierarchical factor structures. Integrative functioning, both within and among systems, is described via the principles of general systems and information-processing theory. Our theoretical synthesis of the structure and dynamics of human motor functioning involves conceptualizing the hierarchy of motor factors as: (a) the basic dimensions of individual differences in the motor domain, (b) classes of decomposable motor programs that specify the spatio-temporal organization of behavior, and (c) decomposable classes of processing components entailed by motor programs. Some of the implications for understanding the role of affect in motor functioning and some research suggestions were presented.     

The relative law of effect: effects of shock intensity on response strength in multiple schedules

Key pecking of four birds was reinforced with food according to a two-component multiple variable-interval 1-minute variable-interval 4-minute schedule. In addition, key pecking was punished by a brief shock according to a variable-interval 30-second schedule during both components of the multiple schedule. The intensity of the shock was varied. For all birds, punishment had a stronger suppressive effect on the responding maintained by the leaner food schedule, and the ratio of responding during the two components of the multiple schedule became closer to the ratio of reinforcement as shock intensity was increased, as the relative law of effect predicts. At the higher shock intensity, there was some evidence that the ratio of responses overmatched the ratio of reinforcements.