Quantitative Parsimony and the Metaphysics of Time: Motivating Presentism

In this paper I argue that presentism—the view that only present objects exist—can be motivated, at least to some degree, by virtue of the fact that it is more quantitatively parsimonious than rival views.     

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You1

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom... —Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol     

The Contingent A Priori and Implicit Knowledge

By introducing a name 'one meter' and stipulating that it refers to the length of stick S, the stipulator appears to be in a position to gain immediate (and arguably a priori ) knowledge of a mind- and language-independent fact—the fact that the length of stick S is one meter. It appears that other users of the name can gain this knowledge only through empirical enquiry. I argue that this presents a paradox. After clarifying the nature of the paradox, I offer a solution by arguing that, contrary to appearances, other users of 'one meter' implicitly knew that the length of stick S is one meter before learning the name, as did the stipulator prior to introducing the name. There is some distinct knowledge that other users of the name can only gain empirically, but the stipulator cannot gain this knowledge without empirical enquiry either.     

PROCEDURAL INJUSTICE, VICTIM PRECIPITATION, AND ABUSIVE SUPERVISION

We used data collected from a field survey of 334 supervisor–subordinate dyads to test a model of the antecedents of abusive supervision. Path analytic tests of moderated mediation provided support for our prediction that supervisors' depression mediates the relationship between supervisors' procedural justice and subordinates' perceptions of their supervisors' abusiveness and that the mediation framework is stronger when subordinates are higher in negative affectivity. We discuss the study's implications for theory, research, and practice.     

APTNESS OF EMOTIONS FOR FICTIONS AND IMAGININGS

Many philosophical accounts of the emotions conceive of them as susceptible to assessments of rationality, fittingness, or some other notion of aptness. Analogous assumptions apply in cases of emotions directed at what are taken to be only fictional or only imagined. My question is whether the criteria governing the aptness of emotions we have toward what we take to be real things apply invariantly to those emotions we have toward what we take to be only fictional or imagined. I argue that what counts as a reason justifying an emotion can differ across real, fictional, and imagined domains.     

Relationship Between the OASIS-2 Aptitude Survey and Grades in College English and Psychology Classes

A total of 36 rising high school seniors (between the 11th and 12th grades), who were taking college classes in English and psychology as part of their participation in a summer program designed to encourage interest in attending college, were administered the OASIS-2 Aptitude Survey, Correlational analyses identified statistically significant relationships between grades in both classes and the general and verbal aptitude measures on the OASIS-2. No statistically significant relationships were identified between other OASIS-2 aptitude measures and grades. Implications for use of the OASIS Aptitude Survey are discussed.     

A System for Tailoring Change Measures to the Individual Family

The focus of this project is the problem of evaluating change in families. Prior work has tended to limit itself to anecdotal or self-report data. By and large, the studies that have evaluated a family intervention by observing family interactions have failed to demonstrate change. A major drawback in such studies has been the assumption that the few interaction variables selected (e.g., amount of silent time) have roughly the same salience and meaning for all the families studied. The measurement system described here was developed to fulfill four methodological requirements: (a) to represent the family as a whole; (b) to be sensitive to change; (c) to contain multiple measures; and (d) to be adaptable to the variation among families. The solution to these requirements, presented here, is a system for tailoring measures to individual families.     

ON THE INTERCHANGEABILITY OF OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: A META-ANALYSIS

A meta-analysis of studies containing both objective and subjective ratings of employee performance resulted in a corrected mean correlation of .389. This value, although significantly greater than zero, indicates that objective and subjective performance measures should not be used interchangeably. Moreover, in no moderator subgroup examined did the correlation suggest convergent validity. After discussing issues related to resolving the previous anomalies of primary and meta-analytic results, a secondary analysis suggested that objective and subjective measures of the same construct at the same level may be used inter-changeably. The secondary analysis, however, was based on a very limited sample. Future research should address the appropriate dimensionality of employee performance.