MORE ABOUT JUDGMENT AND REASON

Abstract: This paper is a response to Siegel 2004 . I take Siegel's remarks as a basis for clarifying, defending, and further developing my account of the role of judgment in a theory of rationality.     

THE EFFECT OF VERBAL SELF-GUIDANCE TRAINING ON COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AND TEAM PERFORMANCE

Although organizations frequently use teams, few studies have systematically examined training methods designed to improve collective efficacy and team performance. As such, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of verbal self-guidance (VSG) training, adapted from Meichenbaum (1975,1977), on collective efficacy and team performance. Using a quasi-experimental design, undergraduate students ( n = 184) were assigned to 42 teams. These 42 teams were assigned to 2 training conditions (verbal self-guidance/comparison). Results revealed that verbal self-guidance had a main effect on collective efficacy and performance. Collective efficacy was found to mediate the VSG training-performance relationship; it also correlated significantly with both team performance and the use of verbal guidance skills.     

The impulse to infidelity and oedipal splitting

Freud suggested that the child perceives parental intercourse as an act of infi delity by the desired but unfaithful parent. Parental sexual infi delity is felt to be a major narcissistic injury that gives rise to fantasies of revenge. A defensive organization arises to manage this trauma and its attendant revenge fantasies. That organization involves splitting of the desired parent into faithful and unfaithful parts, displacement of hostility on to the rival parent, and identifi cation with the desired but unfaithful parent resulting in the impulse to infi delity. Romantic fantasies of escape and rescue from evil rivals provide guilt free ways of satisfying fantasies of oedipal revenge. In those fantasies the evil rival is turned into an injured third party who gets his or her just deserts as the romantic couple gets to live happily ever after. This defensive organization may embroil patients in complicated love triangles as adults for which they may seek treatment. Analyzing the repudiated narcissistic wound of parental infi delity and the disguised revenge fantasies that defend against that wound may provoke narcissistic rage towards the analyst as a moralistic, possessive, controlling, envious, and spoiling oedipal parent.     

Adjustment to relationship dissolution in gay,lesbian, and heterosexual partners

Twenty-six gay, 24 lesbian, and 49 heterosexual (19 male and 30 female) individuals who were separated from their relationship partner for about 6 months provided reasons why their relationship ended and rated their current separation distress. Relative to partners in heterosexual couples, those in gay or lesbian couples did not differ in reasons for the separation or in level of separation distress. Aspects of relationship quality assessed shortly before the separation occurred did not predict later separation distress. However, individuals who indicated that problems with intimacy were the cause of the separation were unlikely to be distressed by the separation, whereas individuals who indicated that problems with communication were the cause of the separation were likely to be distressed by the separation. Separation distress was positively related to the severity of neurotic symptoms reported when the relationship was intact and was negatively related to the extent to which the separation was expected. It is concluded that separation distress is more strongly related to personal strategies for coping with stress than to relationship-related events leading to separation.     

LOWERING FLOORS AND RAISING CEILINGS: A LONGITUDINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF AN EARNINGS-AT-RISK PLAN ON PAY SATISFACTION

The attitudes of 101 bank employees were measured before and after the implementation of an earnings-at-risk (EAR) incentive pay plan which reduced base pay and increased employee risk and uncertainty with respect to total pay. Pay outcome satisfaction and pay process satisfaction both declined significantly over time, but the decrease in pay outcome satisfaction was the greater of the two. An examination of pay satisfaction antecedents at both points in time revealed relatively stable across-time relationships and provided information about some of the reasons for the changes. Perceived reward-to-effort ratio, which declined significantly over time, influenced both dimensions of pay satisfaction at both points in time. Perceived understanding of the pay system, which also declined over time, had a somewhat greater influence on pay process satisfaction than on pay outcome satisfaction, particularly at Time 2. In contrast to actual pay levels, changes in incentive and base pay amounts added more explained variance to the pay outcome satisfaction regression model. The study points out the potential for negative employee reactions to EAR incentive plans, and indicates that managers must ensure that employees understand these systems and feel that EAR plans will reward them equitably for their efforts.     

Parental Communication Deviance as a Predictor of Competence in Children at Risk for Adult Psychiatric Disorder

Measures of communication deviance derived from three different Rorschach situations were obtained from parents of 62 children vulnerable to future psychiatric disturbance. The families were maritally intact, with one parent having a history of previous psychiatric hospitalization and a male index child, 7 or 10 years of age. Amount of parental communication deviance in one situation was not significantly related to amount of communication deviance observed in another setting. However, mothers who exhibited high levels of communication deviance in both the Individual and Family Consensus situations tended to have offspring who were judged as low functioning in multiple settings, based on teacher ratings, peer ratings, and parental report. Conversely, children judged as high functioning in multiple settings had mothers who were free of high levels of communication deviance in both Rorschach situations.     

An Analysis of Counselor Verbal Interventions in Group Counseling

This study of verbal interventions of counselors during group counseling with predelinquent urban youth revealed that of the 12 counseling skills rated, 3 accounted for 2/3 of the verbal interventions used by the counselors.     

CROSS-SITUATIONAL SPECIFICITY IN MANAGERs' PERCEPTIONS OF SUBORDINATE PERFORMANCE, ATTRIBUTIONS, AND LEADER BEHAVIORS

Managers' perceptions of subordinates' performance, causes (attributions) of subordinates' performance, and the leader behaviors they employed toward subordinates were examined from the standpoint of cross-situational consistency versus cross-situational specificity. Cross-situational consistency would be indicated if managers' perceptions of performance, attributions, and leader behaviors were stable over different situations, whereas cross-situational specificity would be indicated if these same perceptions indicated reliable variation, as a function of situation. Empirical results for 377 Navy managers provided strong support for cross-situational specificity. Results are discussed in relation to prior research, generated by interactional theory on consistency versus specificity of responses across situations, and in relation to research and developmental needs in leadership, attribution theory, and performance evaluation.     

Types of Paradoxical Intervention and Indications/Contraindications for Use in Clinical Practice

A review of theoretical mechanisms underlying paradoxical interventions is undertaken in an effort to classify them into three broad types: redefinition, symptom escalation and crisis induction, and redirection. A list of individual and family patient characteristics and problems particularly applicable to each type of paradoxical intervention is presented along with contraindications for use. Last, implications for training and cautions as to their use are presented.