Faith for atheists and agnostics

Conclusion In this paper I challenge both the contemporary secular view that religious faith is not a virtue, and also the contemporary theistic view that religious faith is a virtue that is unavailable to nonbelievers. Although these views appear reasonable from the respective sides when faith is interpreted as belief, if faith is understood to be the entrusting of one’s ultimate concerns to whatever powers are in control (as I suggest), then such faith, with its accompanying ‘freedom from bondage’ (Spinoza), not only appears to be a virtue in itself, but it also appears to be one that can be achieved by nonbelievers as well as by theists. This is not to claim, however, that theists should hold the nonbeliever’s faith to be as viable as their own (or vice versa); rather, it is to claim that there is no more reason for theists to hold that nonbelievers must be without faith than there is for them to hold that nonbelievers must be without hope or love. Still, of course, it may be that God does exist and that the belief that he exists is part of the formula for the realization of some ultimate religious concern, such as eternal life. (For example, it could have been that there was a person conducting a rescue mission for the mountain climbers, but who refused to bring those who did not believe so to final safety, even though they has boarded the platform.) So, if God does exist and if the formula for eternal life, for example, does include the requirement that creatures believe that he exists, then atheists and agnostics will certainly have erred by not embracing theism. But their error then (assuming their doubts not to be the products of such vices as pride or dishonesty) will have been an error in calculative judgment, rather than a failure in virtue: they will have erred by not having engaged a hypnotist—at least in last resort— to equip them with a precautionary theism.     

The influence on recognition of spoken words that are misperceived

Two experiments were performed that involved an initial word-identification task in which the acoustic signal was degraded by either 50% or 60% compression of the recorded words. A control group was tested at the original recording rate (0% compression). The compression manipulation was successful in increasing the number of identification errors. During the second stage of the experiments, words were read at a normal rate. In Experiment 1, the subjects indicated whether each word had appeared on the prior list, and in Experiment 2, the subjects estimated the number of times each word had been read on the prior list. The false-negative rate decreased and frequency ratings increased as a function of the number of prior presentations (one, two, or three) of the target words. The most interesting result was that the effect of repetitions was present even for words that had been misperceived.     

An investigation into the relationships between gender and language

The present investigation focused upon the impact of gender and various powerful and less powerful linguistic features on the communication of unfamiliar male and female college students. Same-sex and mixed-sex dyads were recorded as they engaged in discussions regarding suggestions for a bogus freshman orientation booklet. Although few gender differences were found, the result of a factor analysis yielded three factors: questions, suggestions, and process variables. These factors are consistent with a power perspective in the use of various linguistic features. However, the present findings suggest that gender and power alone cannot explain differences in communication styles. Rather, the results suggest the need to consider other aspects of the speaker to explain differences that occur in the use of language.     

Quality of mental health services and method of payment: an empirical study

Data from a sample of clinicians are examined to study the relationship of the lower socio-economic client and therapist. Therapist practice variables are regressed on variables measuring client income and contrasting client's use of Medicaid with the use of private insurance or out-of-pocket funds. It is found that therapist practice variables can predict a significant proportion of the variance of these criterion variables. These relationships and their implications for the therapeutic needs of indigent clients with less severely impaired conditions are discussed.     

Vocational maturity in adulthood: Toward turning a model into a measure

It is postulated that adult vocational maturity needs to be assessed because of the changing developmental tasks encountered during the course of a career. Vocational maturity having been found to be multidimensional, existing undimensional inventories of adult vocational maturity are considered of limited although demonstrated validity. Relevant theories of adult vocational development and adjustment are reviewed. Super's proposed adult vocational maturity model is examined for the promise that it offers and for the problems that arise in developing a multidimensional measure of vocational maturity. A way of surmounting these problems is proposed as a basis for work now being undertaken.     

USE OF A SELF-RECORDING AND SUPERVISION PROGRAM TO CHANGE INSTITUTIONAL STAFF BEHAVIOR

The use of a self-recording and supervision program to increase interactions between direct care staff and profoundly retarded persons in a state residential facility was investigated. Following baseline, staff were provided with instructions regarding what to self-record, criteria for how many interactions to record, and a prepared card on which to make the recordings. Throughout the study, the staff supervisor monitored intermittently staff-client interactions. Observations indicated that when the staff recorded their interactions with clients in a loosely structured dayroom setting, the rate of interactions increased noticeably for each staff person. Behavioral ecology measures indicated that other staff responsibilities, such as maintaining the cleanliness of residents and the physical area, were not affected detrimentally when social interactions increased and actually showed small improvements. Additionally, small decreases in resident self-stimulatory and disruptive/aggressive behaviors occurred when the rate of social interactions from staff persons increased. Follow-up measures indicated that the rate of staff self-recording was variable, but when staff did self-record, the increased rate of staff-client interactions maintained.     

An analysis of motor coordination components for various localization tasks

Localization abilities of subjects in three perceptual-motor tasks were considered before and after an exposure to a visual distortion. During this distortion the subject observed his hand ballistically point to an invisible but audible target while either receiving or not receiving knowledge of results (KR) concerning pointing accuracy. Also, subjects either received a 1- or a 4-sec rest period between each of 30 exposure ballistic pointing actions. The pre- and postexposure tasks involved the ability of a subject to accurately point to an occluded and stationary auditory target, to point to the straight-ahead position in space, and to indicate when a moving, auditory target was perceived as being in the straight-ahead position. For these tasks, the pre- vs. postexposure localization difference scores are referred to as the negative aftereffect, the proprioceptive shift, and the auditory shift, respectively. Wilkinson's (1971) two-component additive model (negative aftereffect = proprioceptive shift plus auditory shift) held when KR was given regardless of amount of rest between exposure pointing responses. With a 4-sec rest and no KR, the relationship between coordination components was nonadditive (negative aftereffect greater than proprioceptive shift plus auditory shift).     

Avoidance extinction in goldfish

Independent groups of goldfish trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox situation were presented with several extinction procedures in which the relationships between the conditioned stimulus and shock were altered and/or response contingencies removed. Random shock presentations, equivalent to the number of shocks received during avoidance acquisition, resulted in response decrements similar to those obtained when the conditioned stimulus was presented alone. Pairing the conditioned stimulus with shock on every trial, however, served to maintain response levels. When response-contingent punishment was superimposed upon these Pavlovian pairings, performance was facilitated slightly although punishment alone resulted in somewhat faster response reduction than that produced by exposure only to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction of avoidance responding produced by exposure to the conditioned stimulus alone was dependent on the total duration of exposure and independent of both number of stimulus onsets and response prevention. These experiments demonstrated that, in general, the procedures used to reduce avoidance responding in rats were equally effective for goldfish, with one exception: the introduction of a Pavlovian contingency following avoidance acquisition, making the previously avoidable shock unavoidable, maintained response probabilities near previously established levels.     

Profiles of stutterers' and nonstutterers' affective, cognitive, and behavioral communication attitudes

The purposes of this investigation were 1) to profile the affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitudinal dimensions of stutterers' and nonstutterers' communication attitudes and 2) to describe membership characteristics of each profile. To this end, 76 stutterers and 81 nonstutterers completed the Inventory of Communication Attitudes. This self-report inventory obtained ratings of different types of speaking situations, using five response scales reflecting behavioral, affective, and cognitive aspects of attitudes. Exploratory cluster analysis identified six attitudinal clusters or profiles. Some profiles were more typical either of stuttering respondents or of nonstuttering respondents, whereas one profile reflected attitudes of proportionately equal numbers of stutterers and nonstutterers. Examination of profile membership characteristics revealed two significant discriminators, classification as a stutterer or nonstutterer and an overall speech rating. Nondiscriminatory characteristics included sex, age, education, therapy experiences, stuttering severity self-rating, onset of stuttering, total therapy time, current therapeutic status, and familial history.     

Development and evaluation of an inventory to assess adult stutterers'' communication attitudes

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a procedure to assess adult stutterers' communication attitudes. To this end, the investigation was divided into two phases. In Phase I, an assessment inventory based on a tripartite attitudinal model was developed and administered to 107 adult stutterers. Reliability and validity of these procedures were examined, and the inventory was refined. In Phase II, reliability and validity of the attitude assessment procedures were reassessed, and the attitudes of 26 stutterers and 56 nonstutterers were examined. Assessment procedures involved a self-report inventory, which obtained ratings of items in 13 situational subscales representing different speaking situations. These situations were rated using four response scales reflecting behavioral, affective, and cognitive aspects of attitude. Situational responding, response scale scores, and response scale interrelationships are examined. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential value of the inventory and future investigations.