Public Storylines in the British Transition from Rail to Road Transport (1896–2000): Discursive Struggles in the Multi-Level Perspective

ABSTRACT

An analysis of the transition from railways to highways as the dominant British transport system during the twentieth century shows that public storylines about competing niche and regime technologies can have a powerful influence on socio-technical transitions. These storylines are developed by supporters and opponents of the competing technologies, with each group attempting to frame their favoured technology positively. The public salience of these storylines can be evaluated by assessing how highly they score on four elements of frame resonance: empirical fit, experiential commensurability, actor credibility, and macro-cultural resonance. These storylines can be seen at play across the entirety of the transition to a road-based transport system, from the very early history of the automobile through to the turn of the millennium, when public opposition to road transport was becoming increasingly pronounced. This case study uniquely traces discursive conflict over the entire course of a multi-decade transition. While existing literature in the multi-level perspective typically emphasises the disadvantages faced by niche-innovations, this case study shows that powerful storylines, enabled by the right cultural repertoires and possibly negative storylines about existing socio-technical systems, can create powerful political support for a new technology, giving it an advantage against more established incumbents.     

Comments on Monte Carlo simulations of void-lattice formation

We study the coalescence of neighbouring voids along close-packed directions in recent computer simulation studies of void-lattice formation. The stability against coalescence of a developing void lattice is found to depend very much on the detailed geometry of the local void distribution. The possibility of void coalescence as an artifact, caused by the incorrect assumption of homogeneous void nucleation in these simulations, is suggested and discussed.     

Are True Scores and Construct Scores the Same? A critical examination of their substitutability and the implications for research results

Relations between constructs are estimated based on correlations between measures of constructs corrected for measurement error. This process assumes that the true scores on the measure are linearly related to construct scores, an assumption that may not hold. We examined the extent to which differences in distribution shape reduce the correlation between true scores on a measure and scores on the underlying construct they are intended to measure. We found, via a series of Monte Carlo simulations, that when the actual construct distribution is normal, nonnormal distributions of true scores caused this correlation to drop by an average of only .02 across 15 conditions. When both construct and true score distributions assumed different combinations of nonnormal distributions, the average correlation was reduced by .05 across 375 conditions. We conclude that theory‐based scales intended to measure constructs usually correlate highly with the constructs they are constructed to measure. We show that, as a result, in most cases true score correlations only modestly underestimate correlations between different constructs. However, in cases in which the two constructs are redundant, this underestimation can lead to the false conclusion that the constructs are ‘correlated but distinct constructs,’ resulting in construct proliferation.     

The Relationship Between Implicit Beliefs,Anxiety, and Attributional Style in High-Level Soccer Players

We assessed the role of parental behaviors on sport performance anxiety. Measures of trait anxiety, parental pressure, and parent-initiated motivational climate were administered to youth swimmers throughout the season. High parental pressure within either a low mastery or a high ego motivational climate was associated with the highest levels of anxiety at all time points. An early-season, high-pressure/low-mastery combination was also associated with relative increases in anxiety over the season, whereas high pressure within a high mastery climate was associated with relative decreases. Results indicate that parental pressure can have differential effects depending upon motivational climate.     

Making Sense of the APA: A History of the Relationship Between Psychology and the Military

The American Psychological Association (APA) has been steadfast in its position that psychologists must have the right to participate in interrogations in U.S.-run illegal detention centers. One wonders why the APA is so resolute in this view especially in light of the opposition to involvement in these sites by all other relevant professional organizations. This paper offers an answer to this question by means of an exploration of the historical bond between American psychology and the military. It is demonstrated that the dramatic growth of psychology after World War II is attributable to resources supplied by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. It is argued that the historical and current dependency of psychology on the military for research funds as well as clinical training and treatment has resulted in a historical and current debt on the part of psychology to both of these organizations. This debt is repaid by an unquestioned endorsement of military policy, no matter how questionable its ethical or legal basis might be.     

Some Contributions of Empirical Infant Research to Adult Psychoanalysis: What Have We Learned? How Can We Apply It?

The direct links among early development, a model of the mind, and the content of the transference are challenged from two vantage points—empirical infant research and motivational systems theory. A discussion of these contributions and of their application in two case vignettes suggests a new view of therapeutic change—a view involving (a) recognition of the coconstruction of the analytic relationship, (b) contributions of self- and interactive regulations, of their disruption and repair, and of heightened affective moments to the ongoing analyst-patient interchange, (c) emphasis on the analyst's recognition of the patient's communications as developmental strivings, (d) tracking of sequences of disruption and repair, and (e) dialectic between repetition and transformation. These various interactions develop in a patient new expectations of being understood, of being understandable, and of participating in a dialogue that does not, for example, require bolstering the other or sacrificing oneself to the other. These new expectations lead to new themes as well as to the transformation of old themes that organize experience.     

The Effects of Interpatient and Group Influences in a General Hospital

This article discusses the leader's use of metaphor in outpatient, psychodynamic group psychotherapy. Four clinical examples are provided that illustrate how the phase of group envelopment informs the leader's use of metaphor. Therapeutic features and uses of metaphor include (1) the development of ego skills that transform passivity into activity and foster the examination of unhealthy norms; (2) the modulation and rechanneling of potentially destructive affect and the intensification of affect that is denied, minimized, or avoided; (3) the creation of a verbal play space in which shared group language evolves; (4) and the provision of various levels of concreteness and abstraction as well as differing perspectives. Abuses of metaphorical interventions are discussed.