Re-Interpretation in Historiography: John Dewey and the Neo-Humanist Tradition

Did John Deweys new philosophy of education really try to dissolve the whole block of tradition or is his debt namely to educational core-concepts of neo-humanism deeper than he was prepared to acknowledge? After some general remarks on the process of reception as productive re-adaptation and its implication for historiography I will deal with Deweys own contexts that shape the interpretative grid through which he receives the tradition. Two case studies attempt to illustrate both continuity and discontinuity with a specific part of this tradition, namely two critical perspectives within German neo-humanism: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Johann Friedrich Herbart.     

The Paraphrase Argument Against Collective Actions

This paper is about the status of collective actions. According to one view, collective actions metaphysically reduce to individual actions because sentences about collective actions are merely a shorthand for sentences about individual actions. I reconstruct an argument for this view and show via counterexamples that it is not sound. The argument relies on a paraphrase procedure to unpack alleged shorthand sentences about collective actions into sentences about individual actions. I argue that the best paraphrase procedure that has been put forward so far fails to produce adequate results.     

The watching eyes phenomenon: The role of a sense of being seen and public self‐awareness

In recent years, a growing number of researchers have examined the watching eyes phenomenon (i.e., increased prosocial and decreased antisocial behavior when subtle watching eyes are present in the environment). Somewhat surprisingly, the questions of how and under what conditions subtle cues of being watched operate have been unanswered so far. The present contribution addresses this research gap. In two studies, we document that (a) subtle cues of being watched induce a sense of being seen and (b) chronic public self‐awareness moderates the watching eyes phenomenon in that specifically individuals with strong chronic public self‐awareness show more prosocial behavior under conditions of watching eyes. The applicability of subtle cues of being watched in research on social presence is discussed.     

Individual‐ and group‐level effects of social identification on workplace bullying

A study of 494 employees nested in workgroups from 19 different organizations revealed group identification to be an important factor influencing work-related bullying at both the individual and the group level. Results show that the more employees identified with their group, the less likely they were victims of bullying, which is in line with previous social identity-based analyses of work stress. More importantly, the higher the average level of group identification in the organization, the lower the odds of being a victim versus not being a victim. The latter effect constituted a genuine context effect. These findings redress a neglect of the social bases of workplace bullying and suggest that bullying needs to be understood within a broader perspective of workgroup identities.     

Better to be optimistic,mindful, or both? The interaction between optimism,mindfulness, and task engagement

This paper investigates the relationships between optimism, mindfulness, and task engagement. Specifically, we hypothesized that optimism, mindfulness, and their interaction would facilitate individuals’ task engagement. We tested our research model in four studies: two surveys among gig workers and two experiments. The results of the two surveys among gig workers indicated that optimism predicted higher task engagement, but trait mindfulness did not, and that a multiplicative interaction existed between high optimism and high mindfulness in stimulating task engagement. Our two experiments confirmed a significant interaction between optimism and induced state mindfulness and showed that the most engaging situation is being high in both mindfulness and optimism. Although optimism predicted task engagement, the experiments indicated that the effect of the state mindfulness manipulation was above and beyond that of optimism. Finally, we discuss the nuances of the interaction between optimism and mindfulness in predicting task engagement.     

Modeling panel detection frequencies by queuing system theory: an application in gas chromatography olfactometry

In continuous vigilance tasks, the number of coincident panel responses to stimuli provides an index of stimulus detectability. To determine whether this number is due to chance, panel noise levels have been approximated by the maximum coincidence level obtained in stimulus-free conditions. This study proposes an alternative method by which to assess noise levels, derived from queuing system theory (QST). Instead of critical coincidence levels, QST modeling estimates the duration of coinciding responses in the absence of stimuli. The proposed method has the advantage over previous approaches that it yields more reliable noise estimates and allows for statistical testing. The method was applied in an olfactory detection experiment using 16 panelists in stimulus-present and stimulus-free conditions. We propose that QST may be used as an alternative to signal detection theory for analyzing data from continuous vigilance tasks.     

The Early Numeracy Test in Finnish: children's norms

This article concerns psychometric aspects of the Finnish Early Numeracy Test, which has been translated from the original Dutch Early Numeracy Test. The advantage of the test is that young children's numerical skills can be assessed systematically, which was not possible previously in Finland. A norm study was conducted in which the test was administered to a representative sample of 1,029 Finnish children. The reliability and validity results justify the use of the test as an early-childhood screening test and in research on number sense. The indicative effects of gender, parental professional education, domicile and number of siblings are discussed.     

Once more: is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Relative contributions of private and shared taste to judgments of facial attractiveness

Misconstruing the meaning of Cronbach's alpha, experts on facial attractiveness have conveyed the impression that facial-attractiveness judgment standards are largely shared. This claim is unsubstantiated, because information necessary for deciding whether judgments of facial attractiveness are more influenced by commonly shared or by privately held evaluation standards is lacking. Three experiments, using diverse face and rater samples to investigate the relative contributions of private and shared taste to judgments of facial attractiveness, are reported. These experiments show that for a variety of ancillary conditions, and contrary to the prevalent notion in the literature, private taste is about as powerful as shared taste. Important implications for scientific research strategy and laypeople's self-esteem are discussed.