RESCUING RELIGIOUS NON‐REALISM FROM CUPITT

Don Cupitt's version of religious non‐realism based as it is on linguistic constructivism, radical relativism and the view that culture forms human nature has been attacked with devastating effect by realists in the last few years. I argue that there is another strand in Cupitt's thinking, his biological naturalism, that supports a different version of religious non‐realism and that he failed to see this possibility because of his global non‐realism and commitment to the strong programme in the sociology of scientific knowledge. Cupitt's biological naturalism should have led smoothly into evolutionary psychology, which has an account of religious belief that supports a non‐realist interpretation. Evolutionary psychology shows that religious beliefs are natural, normal and about matters of the deepest significance to humans. They gain their character from the operation of evolved structures of the mind and cannot be reduced to other sorts of belief. I argue that the form of religious non‐realism that emerges from taking biological naturalism seriously has a future because it respects the nature of religious belief and seeks to build on its capacity as a unique source of meaning in people's lives. There is also enough common ground with religious realism for there to be genuine dialogue between the two.     

IDENTIFYING OPTIMAL PREDICTOR COMPOSITES AND TESTING FOR GENERALIZABILITY ACROSS JOBS AND PERFORMANCE FACTORS

The initial examination of validity generalization in the Army Selection and Classification Project used data from a concurrent validation sample of 4,039 job incumbents drawn from a representative sample of nine jobs. The available data consisted of 24 predictor scores and five job performance factor scores on each individual. The major objectives were to determine (a) the degree of validity generalization across the major components of performance, with the job held constant, and (b) the degree of validity generalization across jobs within each major performance factor. After reducing the predictor set by eliminating variables that added no information, a modified confirmatory analysis was used to test the hypotheses that one equation would fit the data from all performance components and that one equation would fit the data from all jobs, given a particular performance component. The major findings were that different predictor equations were needed for each of the five criterion factors. For generalization across jobs, within each criterion factor, one equation fit the data for four of the five performance components. Different prediction equations were required for the component that reflects proficiency on the technical tasks specific to each job.     

DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIPLE JOB PERFORMANCE MEASURES IN A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF JOBS

The goal of criterion development in Project A was to construct multiple measures of the major components of job performance such that the total performance domain for a representative sample of the population of entry-level enlisted positions in the U.S. Army was covered. These measures were to be used as criteria against which to validate both experimental and existing predictors of job performance. The initial model specified that performance is multidimensional within two major categories of dimensions designated as organization-wide and job specific. The development strategy involved describing the total domain of job content via extensive task analyses and critical incident analyses, generating the critical performance dimensions that constitute it, constructing measures for each dimension, and evaluating each measure using expert judgment and field test data. The specific measures developed consisted of rating scales, tests of job knowledge, hands-on job samples, and archival records. The major steps in the job analyses, content sampling, instrument construction, and instrument evaluation are described, and the final array of criterion measures is presented.     

Rorschach-profile in panic disorder

The Rorschach test was applied to four groups: 41 Panic Disorder (PD), 14 Major Depression (MD), 11 Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and 18 normal subjects. The aims were to describe the test profile of PD patients and to discuss implications for cognitive processing ability and personality structure. A hypothesis of a borderline personality structure in PD patients, based on psychodynamic literature, was tested, but was not unambiguously supported. A "loose", borderline-like personality structure and disturbances in processing abilities, however, characterized PD-patients. The normal subjects surprisingly provided many Fabulized Combinations, a response type, considered suspect of borderline pathology, but also showed more signs of integrative and synthesizing abilities than the other groups.     

Attachment concerns of mothers as manifested in parental,spousal, and friendship relationships

The present study examined the relation between attachment concerns of mothers and three of their close relationships: with their husband, best woman friend, and infant. Forty-live mothers completed an Attachment Concerns Questionnaire based on the Hazan and Shaver attachment measure, and the Sharabany Intimacy scale regarding their relationships with their husband and with their same-sex best friend; they were also observed with their infants (aged 14 to 22 months) in the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure. Mothers’attachment concerns were significantly correlated both to their infants’attachment classifications and to reunion scores in the Strange Situation procedure (e.g., concern with closeness was positively correlated with avoidance; fear of abandonment was positively correlated with avoidance and resistance). Intimacy with husband and best woman friend were also correlated with mothers’attachment concerns (e.g., concern with closeness was negatively correlated with intimacy with the husband and fear of abandonment was negatively correlated with intimacy with the best friend). The findings are discussed in terms of the concept of an internal working model of attachment, and, in light of the similarity and the modular hypotheses regarding the nature of relationships and concordance among relationships.