SUPERVENIENCE, DETERMINATION, AND DEPENDENCE

Abstract:   I show how existing concepts of supervenience relate to two more fundamental ontological relations: determination and dependence. Determination says that the supervenient properties of a thing are a function of its base properties, while dependence says that having a supervenient property implies having a base property. I show that most varieties of supervenience are either determination relations or determination relations conjoined with dependence relations. In the process of unpacking these connections I identify limitations of existing concepts of supervenience and provide ways of overcoming them. What results is a more precise, flexible, and powerful set of tools for relating sets of properties than current concepts of supervenience provide. I apply these tools to a recalcitrant problem in the physicalism literature – the problem of extras.     

MASS COMMUNICATION AND BELIEF CHANGE: A TEST OF THREE MATHEMATICAL MODELS

Three mathematical models of communication and belief change were proposed and tested: a proportional change model, a belief certainty model, and an accumulated information model. A quick correlational check of the three models suggested that the accumulated information model was the superior with the belief certainty model being the most inferior of the three. Stronger support for the accumulated information model obtained using a more stringent test: a nonlinear bivariate regression which produced visual “plots” of empirical data that nearly duplicated the visual “plots” produced by the theoretical model. The accumulated information model states that belief change is proportional to the discrepancy between the original belief and the belief communicated in the message, and inversely proportional to the amount of information which the receiver has about the topic at the time the message is received. The belief certainty model was the most inferior of the three indicating that the degree to which a receiver is certain in conviction is unrelated to the communication-belief change relationship.     

FACTORS AFFECTING VALIDITY OF A REGIONALLY ADMINISTERED ASSESSMENT CENTER

Validity coefficients for a single assessment center implemented in multiple locations are presented. Correction for range restriction, criterion unreliability, and sampling error did not account for a large portion of the variability in these validity coefficients. The type of assessor used, the center's administrative arrangement, and prior assessor-assessee contact moderated these validities. It is suggested that the quality of the implementation of a selection procedure when there is local latitude in its implementation is an important factor in determining the procedure's effectiveness.     

Increasing Client Employability Through Skill Development

This article presents a three-part model for counseling in an employment setting. Three stages of the job cycle are identified: job preparation, search, and survival. The specific skills relevant to each stage represent potential content for individual and group employment counseling, but do not necessarily apply to all clients in all situations. The skills when learned have broad applicability to nonjob aspects of clients' lives, contributing to an overall improvement in personal effectiveness.     

Toward a Metacommunicational Framework of Couple Interactions

A multi-level, metacommunicational framework to understand couple interactions is presented. Five interactional levels are defined following a mode of abstraction that parallels the theory of logical types; case examples are offered of couples interacting at each of the levels. The clinical implications of the framework, as a metaphor for understanding transactional processes, are discussed with an emphasis on the pragmatics of working with punctuational diffferences, developing therapeutic strategies, measuring progress, and setting goals for therapy with couples.     

Paradoxical Communication as Interpersonal Influence

This paper is concerned with the strategic uses of paradoxical communication in therapy. Eight more or less distinct uses of paradoxical communication are described, and the proposition is put forward that the paradoxical interventions associated with the Milan group differ from those described by Haley and the Palo Alto group only in that they appear to be designed to influence simultaneously the behavior of several family members. The currently popular idea that such interventions should, or even can, be based on a systemic hypothesis, if “hypothesis” is understood in its usual sense as a statement amenable to empirical testing, is explicitly questioned.