Internal consistency and reliability of alternate short forms of the college women's assertion sample: Clinical and research implications

Assertive behavior is most often assessed with self-report or role-play measures. The latter modality is preferred because it provides for the sampling of the structure of behavior and for the consideration of the situational context. MacDonald (1978) has developed such an assessment device but it is limited by the length of time for administration and scoring. Two studies were conducted to reconstruct reliable alternate short forms. The first study describes the selection of items and demonstrates the internal consistency of the alternate forms. The second study demonstrates the alternate form and retest reliability and provides normative statistics. We conclude that reliable alternate short forms have been constructed to be used in research in clinical applications.This research was supported by the Marie Wilson Howells Fund.Alternate short forms of the CWAS may be obtained from the first author.     

Simple knowledge structures for perceptual classification expert systems

A new approach is described for the development and structure of perceptual knowledge-based systems. This systematic method for acquiring perceptual knowledge for use in knowledge-based systems and for representing perceptual knowledge within the systems has revealed that two broad classes of perceptual activity can each be characterized by a single logical operator. The number of rules necessary to accomplish particular perceptual tasks can also be estimated.     

Medical hermeneutics: Where is the “text” we are interpreting?

The present paper is a commentary on an article by Drew Leder [1]. Leder identifies a series of texts in the clinical encounter, emphasizes the central role of interpretation in making sense of each of these texts, and articulates ordering principles to guide the interpretive work.The metaphor of clinical work as textual explication, however, creates the expectation that there is a text somewhere to be found. Such an expectation invites doctors and patients to search for the text and runs the risk of conceptualizing patients as more static than they are. If one is to use the textual metaphor, one must appreciate the radical extent to which the clinical encounter is a mutually produced and shifting entity. The qualities of mutuality and indeterminacy are not those one usually associates with texts. One might ultimately be better served by a different metaphor based more directly on uncertainty.     

Who Uses the Cost-Benefit Rules of Choice? Implications for the Normative Status of Microeconomic Theory

We find three factors to be associated with use of cost-benefit rules in everyday decisions. These are effectiveness in achieving desirable life outcomes, intelligence, and training in economics. We argue that these empirical findings support the claim that cost-benefit reasoning is normative.     

HIV Disease: Current Concepts

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes a chronic, progressive, immune deficiency disease, the most severe phase of which is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV is a newly characterized human retrovirus transmitted only by direct exposure to blood or blood derivatives, certain acts of sexual intercourse, or transfer from infected mother to fetus or infant. In this article the author reviews the most important current epidemiologic, clinical, and virologic information about HIV and HIV disease and provides a factual framework for understanding the issues created by the epidemic.