Marxist ideology and the Soviet economy

It is very tempting to reduce Soviet economic decisions and structures to pragmatic factors and to discount the influence of ideology. Without overemphasizing the influence of the latter, it seems clear that what happens in the Soviet economy is influenced by Marxism-Leninism, even though there is no question of making concrete predictions.     

Operators in the paradox of the knower

Predicates are term-to-sentence devices, and operators are sentence-to-sentence devices. What Kaplan and Montague's Paradox of the Knower demonstrates is that necessity and other modalities cannot be treated as predicates, consistent with arithmetic; they must be treated as operators instead. Such is the current wisdom.A number of previous pieces have challenged such a view by showing that a predicative treatment of modalities neednot raise the Paradox of the Knower. This paper attempts to challenge the current wisdom in another way as well: to show that mere appeal to modal operators in the sense of sentence-to-sentence devices is insufficient toescape the Paradox of the Knower. A family of systems is outlined in which closed formulae can encode other formulae and in which the diagonal lemma and Paradox of the Knower are thereby demonstrable for operators in this sense.I am deeply indebted to Robert F. Barnes and Evan W. Conyers, without whom these ideas might not have germinated and certainly would not have grown. Many of the results offered here evolved in the course of mutual discussion and correspondence. I am also grateful to an anonymous reviewer forSynthese for many very helpful suggestions.The current paper contains the technical results promised in Footnote 25 of Grim (1988) and Footnote 26, Chapter 3, of Grim (1991).     

Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory: obsessions and compulsions in a nonclinical sample

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is increasingly being studied in nonclinical samples. The self-report instruments used to select these samples, however, have not been validated with a diagnostic interview. This study thus investigated the predictive validity of the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS), a semi-structured interview created according to DSM-III guidelines. Four sections of the ADIS--generalized anxiety disorder, simple phobia, social phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder--were administered to 11 individuals who scored in the top 2% and 11 individuals who scored in the normal range of the MOCI 6-7 months prior to the interview. High nonclinical MOCI scorers reported more frequent and severe obsessions and compulsions as well as greater disturbance by these symptoms. In addition, the high MOCI group experienced more general worry and interference from worry, and more frequent and severe physiological symptoms when they worry. However, the two groups did not differ in terms of simple and social phobia symptoms. High MOCI scorers thus did not report a broad range of anxiety symptoms or fears, but specific obsessions and compulsions. These results provide further support for the validity of the MOCI in nonclinical samples over a 6-7 month interval.     

A coding of the countable linear orderings

Associate to any linear ordering on the integers the mapping whose value on n is the cardinality of {k<n; kn}: a purely combinatorial characterization for the mappings associated to the well-orderings is established.This work was partially supported by a CNRS grant PRC mathématiques and informatique.     

The role of compliance in hypnotic and nonhypnotic analgesia

We modified the standard procedure for administering finger pressure pain in order to assess the extent to which subjects biased their reports of pain reduction when exposed to compliance-inducing instructions. Experiment 1 used only highly hypnotizable subjects and found that compliance-induced reductions in reported pain were about half as large as the reported reductions produced by hypnotic analgesia suggestions. Experiment 2 used low as well as high hypnotizables and administered hypnotic or nonhypnotic analgesia instructions and compliance instructions to the same subjects on separate pain trials. Reported pain reductions produced by hypnotic and nonhypnotic analgesia suggestions and those produced by compliance instructions were substantially and significantly correlated. Furthermore, hypnotizability correlated with compliance-induced reported pain reductions as highly as it correlated with the reported reductions produced by hypnotic analgesia suggestions. Among high hypnotizables (but not low hypnotizables) compliant responding was predicted by social desirability. The findings of both studies indicate that compliance strongly influences the reports of hypnotic and nonhypnotic analgesia proffered by high hypnotizables. The role of compliance in the pain reductions reported by low hypnotizables is less clear-cut.     

Disruptive behaviors in the classroom: Initial standardization data on a new teacher rating scale

This study presents initial standardization data on the Sutter- Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory (SESBI), a teacher- completed measure of disruptive classroom behaviors. SESBIs were completed on 1116 children in kindergarten through fifth grade in a rural eastern Washington school district. Various analyses (Cronbach's alpha, corrected item- total correlations, average interitem correlations, principal components analyses) indicated that the SESBI provides a homogeneous measure of disruptive behaviors. Support was also found for three factors within the scale (e.g., overt aggression, oppositional behavior, and attentional difficulties). While the child's age did not have a significant effect on the SESBI, the child's gender did have a significant effect on scale scores as well as on most of the items, with males being rated more problematic than females. The SESBI was also able to discriminate between children in treatment for behavioral problems or learning disabilities and children not in treatment.The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the teachers in the Pullman School District, whose kind help and assistance made the study possible. Special thanks are also extended to Todd Sosna, Christine Ladish, and Lee Sternberger for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the paper. Preparation of this study was supported in part by funds provided to G. Leonard Burns by Washington State University.     

Psychosocial predictors of stress associated with the male midlife transition

This study was designed to examine the correlates of developmental psychological stress for 36 middle-aged professional men. Based on sex role convergence and role adjustment theories, two sets of predictor variables were hierarchically entered into a multiple regression equation with a third set of variables entered to control for individual stressors. Controlling for individual stressors, midlife stress outcome was found to be influenced only by role adjustment (R²=.3593). The sex role convergence cluster did not account for a significant increase in variance. Controlling for individual stressors, the best univariate predictors of stress outcome associated with the midlife transition were (a) the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship and (b) marital satisfaction.     

Ratings of Emotional Response to Pictorial Stimuli: Positive and Negative Affect Dimensions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the structure of emotional responses to pictorial stimuli within the affective space defined by orthogonal dimensions of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). College student participants (N = 151) viewed 60 color photographic slides from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1995) and rated their emotional responses to each slide using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). Consistent with prediction, affective reactions to pleasant slides were characterized as high in PA, and low in NA. Unpleasant slides produced elevations on the NA scale, but contrary to expectation, also produced elevated ratings of PA, with the magnitude of PA scale scores increasing systematically with NA scale scores. The results suggest an interesting divergence between the structure of pictorially elicited affective reactions and that of ad hoc mood states. Directions for future research are discussed in relation to the unique properties of the slide viewing paradigm.