Political periodicals in policy formation

This is an ethnographic report on a conference entitled “The Politics of Publishing” which featured editors and writers from leading magazines and journals of political opinion. The aim of the conference was to articulate the intellectual ground on which each publication is predicated. A further goal of these observations was to seek out a common ground, a consensual series of assumptions, that permits such journals and their leading participants to flourish amidst conflict and opposing viewpoints. The article is less a study of the relationship of knowledge and policy, as such, as much as it is a study of the weaker forms of these terms, namely, information and ideology. These remarks are thus intended as a contribution to the elite impact on mass public opinion at one level, and the cornucopia of political ideas at a somewhat more abstract level. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Transaction Publishers, located at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA 08903.     

Dynamic models of development and the mechanistic-organismic controversy

Starting with a prototypical model of Newtonian mechanics, a sequence of dynamic models with increasing structural complexity is presented. The implicated smooth variation along a dimension of structural complexity yields dynamic models which display organismic properties such as stagewise development and emergent self-organization. Consequently, it is concluded that dynamic models of development are inherently neutral with respect to the mechanism-organicism controversy. Accordingly, a unitary research program is proposed in which these dynamic models serve as building blocks for the construction of a coherent explanatory system of development.     

Sequential effects in two-choice reaction time: Subjective expectancy and automatic after- effect at short response-stimulus intervals

Between three serial two-choice reaction-time tasks, the response-stimulus interval (RSI), stimulus-response compatibility, and practice were varied in order to examine two determinants of sequential effects — subjective expectancy and automatic aftereffect. It appears that subjective expectancy is absent when the RSI is below a critical minimum. In an incompatible task, however, this minimum is greater. This is interpreted in support of the single-channel hypothesis: the subject only builds up expectancies when the “central processor” is unoccupied. The automatic aftereffect increases as the RSI decreases. The decay of the aftereffect seems to take place mainly during the RSI and only to a minor degree during the reaction process. Normally, a strong aftereffect operates in a general way, but after extensive practice it becomes stimulus specific. A model is presented, which assumes that only at the initial stages of practice is the unused “neural pathway” inhibited each time the stimulus is an alternation.     

Training group therapists through the study of countertransferences

This article presents an experiential approach to supervision which evolved over a 15 year period. Through the use of the feelings induced in a group of colleagues, the countertransferential difficulties of the presenter can be ascertained. From there the dynamics of the group under discussion can be sorted out, and interventions can be developed. Various forms of countertrans-ferential reactions are described. Examples are offered to link practice with theory.Address delivered at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapies Conference on Supervision: Theory and Process on November 3, 1979.     

Figurai vs. configural effects in the filled duration illusion

Patterns varying in form goodness and size were presented for 15, 30, and 45 msec. The experiment included three independent groups of subjects. Half of the first group were presented size variations with good figures, while the other half were shown size variations with poor figures. Half of the second group were presented goodness variations with small figures, while the other half were shown goodness variations with large figures. A third group experienced variations in both goodness and size. The major findings were: (1) poor figures and large figures were judged “longer” than good or small figures when varied within a session; (2) this effect vanished when the different levels of size or goodness were presented to separate groups of subjects; (3) the magnitude of the difference in temporal estimation was the same for size and goodness when each was varied in isolation; (4) when size and form goodness were varied orthogonally in the same session, both dimensions produced reliable changes in temporal estimation. These data are discussed in light of current theoretical explanations of the filled duration illusion.     

The recovery of feelings in a folktale

The purpose of this essay is to explore the symptom of the denial of feelings and the subsequent recovery of feelings in relation to the task of uniting the human self. The spiritual, emotional, and physical implications of an exemplary narrative from the collection edited by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are discussed in relation to the telescoping of the emotion of fear, the sensation of shuddering, and the experience of anxiety about the integrity of the self. The reader is cautioned that the study of folktales enriches our telling of them and is itself justified by that telling.     

A reexamination of sex differences in job preferences

Previous research has found conflicting answers to the question of whether males and females share similar preferences for various job characteristics. It is difficult to determine if the different findings are due to the different populations sampled, the various methodologies employed, or to a real change in the phenomenon itself. This study essentially replicates earlier work by having 130 male and 84 female college students rate the importance of 10 job characteristics for both themselves and members of the opposite sex. Both sexes rated motivators as important, but females also placed importance on the hygienes. Males tended to underestimate the importance of the motivators for females, while females overestimated the importance of hygienes for males. The subject's sex could be predicted by both the importance for self and importance for opposite sex ratings, contrary to the earlier study. The difference in results and interpretation was shown to be due to the type of analyses used. Additionally, it was found that females' job preferences were related to their mothers' educational achievement.