Cupid: A program for computations with probability distributions

This article describes Cupid, a program that performs computations with univariate probability distributions. Cupid can be useful in stochastic modeling and simulation, hypothesis testing, and examination of statistical procedures. The program runs on IBM-PC compatibles under the DOS operating system, and it is free for educational and noncommercial use.     

Positive priming: Locations containing relevant information are labeled accordingly

Individuals engaged in a location task where the relevancy status [relevant (stimulus) vs irrelevant (distractor) information] of these locations was reversed from one trial (prime) to the next (probe). The results produced by these reversals (Distractor-to-Stimulus and Stimulus-to-Distractor) indicated that both stimulus and distractor items are given relevancy status labels which participate in the future processing at the labeled locations. These findings support the view that selective processing involves both `facilitatory' and `inhibitory' components. Further, unlike identity tasks, the data indicated that neither the formation nor the subsequent use of these `location' labels (stimulus or distractor) is related to the presence of a response conflict.PsycINFO classification: 2330; 2340     

Validating the Ohio Scales in a Juvenile Justice Sample of Youth with Behavioral Health Issues

Between 65 and 75 % of juvenile-justice involved (JJI) youth present with at least one behavioral health disorder. Many communities have developed diversion programs that provide behavioral health services to JJI youth, often in lieu of detention. A key component of successful diversion programming is accurate screening and assessment. The Ohio Scales, a validated instrument designed to track service effectiveness in clinical samples of youth, are now being used with juvenile justice populations. The purpose of this study is to validate the Ohio Scales in a JJI youth population (N = 2246). The population (ages 12–18) is derived from Ohio’s Behavioral Health Juvenile Justice Initiative, a diversion program for JJI youth with behavioral health issues. We conducted Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) on all forms of the Ohio Scales (parent, youth and worker) to measure fit for one factor, four factor and four factor second order solutions. We also conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) on the Problem Severity factor in the youth form to determine the number of appropriate sub-factors. The EFA indicated that the Problem Severity factor should be broken into three hypothesized sub-factors: Externalizing, Internalizing and Delinquency. The CFA confirmed this solution. CFA results indicated the four factor second order solution fits superior to the other two solutions. Using the Ohio Scales Problem Severity measure as a three sub-factor measure may increase clinical applicability by allowing a clinician to specifically measure and target externalizing or internalizing issues during treatment.     

Economic Pressure,Individual and Family Processes,and Children’s Reticence in Romanian Families

Using Conger’s family stress model as a theoretical framework, a series of mediated associations among economic hardship, perceived economic pressure, parental depression, marital conflict, psychologically controlling parenting, and children’s reticent behaviors in Romanian families were studied. The sample consisted of 121 Romanian mothers and fathers of 4–5-year-old children. Children’s kindergarten teachers living in urban and rural locations evaluated child reticence. Findings generally support the family stress model. Structural equation modeling showed that after controlling for living in a rural location, economic pressure was indirectly linked with marital conflict through depression. Depression was indirectly related to psychological control through marital conflict, and marital conflict was indirectly linked to child reticence through psychological control. Directions for future research and recommendations for interventions and public policy are described.     

Ranking Theory and Conditional Reasoning

Ranking theory is a formal epistemology that has been developed in over 600 pages in Spohn's recent book The Laws of Belief, which aims to provide a normative account of the dynamics of beliefs that presents an alternative to current probabilistic approaches. It has long been received in the AI community, but it has not yet found application in experimental psychology. The purpose of this paper is to derive clear, quantitative predictions by exploiting a parallel between ranking theory and a statistical model called logistic regression. This approach is illustrated by the development of a model for the conditional inference task using Spohn's (2013) ranking theoretic approach to conditionals.     

Teaching Theology to Undergraduates: Are mature students easier to please?

A total of 1,687 course evaluation questionnaires, submitted by students attending undergraduate programmes in theology, indicated some significant age-related differences in responses. Overall, mature students displayed a higher level of appreciation for the lecturers, although they tended to be more critical when opportunities were not given for an interactive learning experience.     

Land, Culture and Justice: A Framework for Group Rights and Recognition

Meet the Sorbs. They are a Slavic people in Germany who number around sixty thousand. They are not mistreated or oppressed by the German government. They live in two German states, but they are interspersed with other Germans. Do the Sorbs deserve special, group rights to help maintain their culture? The recent arguments of many theorists suggest that they do. Iris Marion Young has recently argued that all marginalized groups should have group rights. Avishai Margalit and Moshe Halbertal maintain that all cultural groups have certain rights. Will Kymlicka suggests that all ‘societal cultures’ have group rights, which might include the Sorbs.     

Proximal and Distal Defense: A New Perspective on Unconscious Motivation

Death-related thoughts produce different effects on thought and behavior when they are in current focal attention and when they are on the fringes of consciousness. When such thoughts are conscious, people attempt to either remove them from consciousness or push death into the distant future by distorting their beliefs to logically imply that they have many remaining years to live. When such thoughts are highly accessible but outside current focal attention, people increase efforts to view themselves as persons of value living in a meaningful universe. In this way, awareness of the inevitability of death produces diverse effects on human thought and behavior that bear little obvious resemblance to the problem of death.