THE MEASUREMENT OF VERBAL PREDISPOSITIONS: SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION

A self-report instrument (PVB), designed to measure Predispositions toward Verbal Behavior, was found to have acceptable internal reliability, content validity, moderate construct validity, and strong criterion-related validity. Subjects were found to have a generalized cognitive orientation toward their speech patterning that correlated positively with number of words and duration of talk in both highly-structured interviews and unstructured discussion situations.     

Liberalism and Democracy

ABSTRACT Political liberalism and the democratic ideal together supply the foundation of almost all contemporary political thinking. This essay explores the relation between them. It argues that, despite common parlance, there is an inevitable tension between the two. Furthermore, attempts to resolve this tension by showing that democracy is a good thing in its own right, or that it is the inevitable development of liberal aspirations, or that it is conceptually connected to fundamental liberal ideas, all fail. The conclusion to be drawn is that liberalism requires a pragmatic rather than a principled approach to democratic aspirations.