Rawls and Nozick: Justice without well-being

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Latent Structure of the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy

General social cognitive theory and its career-specific elaborations posit four primary sources through which self-efficacy beliefs are acquired and modified: personal performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and physiological states and reactions. We present two studies exploring the dimensionality of these sources within the context of career-relevant mathematics activities. In Study 1, 295 college students completed measures of the source variables. Testing two- through five-factor models, we found strongest support for a four-factor latent structure of the efficacy sources. In Study 2, involving 481 high school students, a five-factor model fit the data well. We also found evidence of a higher order factor structure in both samples. Several directions for further research on the sources of efficacy information are considered, along with implications for career and academic interventions.     

Eyewitness testimony and memory distortion

Abstract: Do memories change as we acquire new information? Recent research on memory distortion using implicit tests along with research using confidence is reviewed and new studies are presented. Two new studies asked misinformed subjects to provide reasons for their answers. In each study 15% to 27% of subjects said they remembered seeing items they had only read about. In another study subjects were asked to identify the source of misleading items they had seen in slides or read in misleading questions. Subjects were more likely to say they had seen in slides something they read about in the questions than they were to confuse information from two nearly identical sets of slides. Recent work shows that, not only is it possible to distort memory for events, it is possible to implant an entire memory for something that never happened. The evidence is now clear that we can become mentally tricked into making large as well as small changes in the way we recall the past.     

Social Perceptions of Termination of Medical Treatment: Suicide or Rational Decision?

In two studies, college students read about a critically ill patient who died after CPR attempts failed, CPR was not attempted pursuant to a "Do-Not-Resuscitate" (DNR) order, he terminated all medical treatment, or he self-administered a lethal injection. Death resulting from treatment termination was perceived as significantly more unconventional than were death by CPR failure or DNR order. Ending treatment and lethal injection were perceived as equivalent acts of suicide, and resulted in the patient's being seen as less rational and less capable of making health care decisions. Timing of the patient's decisions regarding treatment, as indicated by the presence or absence of Living Will information, did not alter these perceptions. Results are discussed in light of opposing hypotheses regarding views of "naive" social perceivers toward actions with identical outcomes: that acts of commission are perceived as causal and rated more negatively than acts of omission (Spranca, Minsk, & Baron, 1991), and that acts seen as abnormal are attributed greater causal impact (Hilton & Slugoski, 1986).     

Within-session Changes In Responding During Concurrent Variable-interval Schedules

Five rats and 4 pigeons responded for food delivered by several concurrent variable-interval schedules. The sum of the rates of reinforcement programmed for the two components varied from 15 to 480 reinforcers per hour in different conditions. Rates of responding usually changed within the experimental session in a similar manner for the two components of each concurrent schedule. The within-session changes were similar to previously reported changes during simple schedules that provided rates of reinforcement equal to the sum of all reinforcers obtained from the concurrent schedules. The number of changeovers also changed within sessions in a manner similar to the changes in instrumental responding. These results suggest that changeovers are governed by the same variables that govern instrumental responding. They also suggest that the within-session change in responding during each component of a concurrent schedule is determined by approximately the sum of the reinforcers obtained from both components when both components provide the same type of reinforcer.     

ITEM GENERATION PROCEDURES AND BACKGROUND DATA SCALES: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSTRUCT AND CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY

Background data measures are one of the best predictors of job performance. Nonetheless, questions have been raised about their content and construct validity. The present effort describes a set of procedures for developing construct and content valid background data items. Data gathered in seven field studies and six laboratory studies are presented bearing on the reliability and validity of the measures constructed using these item generation procedures. Findings in these studies indicate that construct-based item generation procedures yield reliable scales evidencing both content and construct validity. Furthermore, these scales are capable of predicting performance in a variety of settings. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the development and validation of background data measures are discussed.     

Erikson,psychology, and religion

The writings of the late Erik H. Erikson (1) have contributed directly to the psychological study of religion, (2) were amenable to the efforts of others to develop normative theological arguments, and (3) might be seen as themselves examples of contemporary, nontheological accounts of the religious dimension of human existence. This paper begins by reviewing the principal contributions that Erikson made to the psychological study of religion, followed by a review of the uses that have been made of Erikson's work for normative/constructive activities in such areas as practical theology and pastoral counseling. I will then argue that Erikson's writings — when viewed in the vein of William James's radical empiricism and functionalist accounts of human religiosity — identify an irreducibly religious dimension to normative human functioning. Erikson's functionalism constitutes a form of nontheological religious thinking that speaks directly to concerns presenting themselves in contemporary culture.     

Some uniqueness results for PARAFAC2

Whereas the unique axes properties of PARAFAC1 have been examined extensively, little is known about uniqueness properties for the PARAFAC2 model for covariance matrices. This paper is concerned with uniqueness in the rank two case of PARAFAC2. For this case, Harshman and Lundy have recently shown, subject to mild assumptions, that PARAFAC2 is unique when five (covariance) matrices are analyzed. In the present paper, this result is sharpened. PARAFAC2 is shown to be usually unique with four matrices. With three matrices it is not unique unless a certain additional assumption is introduced. If, for instance, the diagonal matrices of weights are constrained to be non-negative, three matrices are enough to have uniqueness in the rank two case of PARAFAC2. The authors are obliged to Richard Harshman for stimulating this research, and to the Associate Editor and reviewers for suggesting major improvements in the presentation.     

THE DANTO-WOLLHEIM MEANING THEORY OF ART

Arthur Danto in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace and Richard Wollheim in Painting as an Art have each advanced a certain meaning theory of art (MT), more specifically, a theory according to which something is a work of art just in case it expresses a proposition. The first part of this essay sets out that view in more detail, with textual support that Danto and Wollheim do in fact hold that theory. The second part offers reasons against accepting MT. (1) There seem to be persuasive counterexamples to MT: objects that are clearly works of art but which do not appear to exhibit any tendency towards propositionality. (2) Neither theorist provides an explanation as to why someone with something to say would choose to, as it were, hide his thought behind a painting. (3) MT will force a theory of the evaluation of art that parallels the evaluation of (say) scientific or philosophical thought. Artworks will be judged according to the profundity of the thoughts they express rather than by their aesthetic features – which would make Duchamp a greater artist than Monet!