Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

An investigation of the validity of the SPSI and SPSI-R in differentiating high-suicidal from depressed,low-suicidal college students

The present study examined the validity of the Social Problem-Solving Inventory (SPSI) and SPSI—Revised in differentiating 65 high-suicidal from 63 depressed, low-suicidal college students. Results from multivariate analyses indicated overall differences in problem-solving between these two groups as measured by the SPSI but not by the SPSI-R. Further examination of these differences revealed the high-suicidal group was different in problem-solving orientation, rather than problem-solving skills, compared to the depressed, low-suicidal group. However, when depression was statistically controlled in hierarchical regression analyses, none of the problem-solving measures predicted group membership. The superiority of the SPSI to the SPSI-R in differentiating these two groups appears to be accounted for by the elimination of 28 items in the revised version, many of which measure orientation to problem-solving. Also explored was the possibility that objective measures of problem-solving provide a better prediction of adjustment than do self-report measures.     

公民的两种身份及其道德要求

“公民道德”意义上的公民具有两种身份,一是法律身份,一是社会身份。不同的身份决定了对个体不同的道德要求。一般来说,这两种身份统一于一个具有完全责任能力的个体之中,不同的身份只能出现在不同的场合或者承载不同的社会关系,场合不同、社会关系不同,对他的道德要求就不一样,二者不能混淆,即身份是不能僭越也不能放弃。但是,两种身份的道德要求在底线上是一致,这就是说,两种身份的责任和道德要求在特定的场合和社会关系之中可以融通。     

雍乾禁教时期的华籍天主教神职人员

清代雍正、乾隆时期,朝廷禁传天主教,天主教在中国的生存状况发生重大变化,外籍传教士先是被逐,后是被杀,传教任务逐渐落到华籍神职人员身上。本文分析了此一时期内华籍神职人员的身份构成、活动地区分布,以及其传教方式和特点等,借以说明华籍神职人员为天主教在中国的传播发挥了较前期更大的作用,推进了天主教在中国的本地化进程。     

语言产生中词频效应老化的神经基础与时间进程

词频效应指语言产生中人们对高频词汇的加工比低频词汇更快更准确的一种现象,它可能发生在语言产生中的不同阶段。对青年人和老年人词频效应的不同特点和加工机制进行比较,可以考察语言产生的认知老化机制。通过语言产生理论可对词频效应的老化进行预测,提出词频效应在个体发展和老化阶段的相对稳定性,分析老化导致词频效应相关的神经基础和加工时间进程的改变。未来研究可进一步分离词频效应与习得年龄效应对语言产生老化的影响,并扩展至神经退行性疾病患者中。     

资源保存理论在组织行为学中的应用：演变与挑战

资源保存理论(conservation of resources theory, COR)是组织行为学研究近30年中被引最高的理论之一。COR的提出源自Hobfoll对临床应激障碍的观察与思考,历经了多次修订后该理论逐步由一个压力–反应模型发展成了一个以个体资源存量及其动态变化解释行为动因的动机理论,形成了一个具有较广泛外延的理论体系。组织行为学是资源保存理论标志性文献的施引文献的核心来源。大量组织行为学研究对COR中的资源损失漩涡、获得螺旋等核心过程进行了实证检验,涉及广泛的研究议题,使COR成为了理解员工心理与行为动因的最具影响力的理论之一。COR在组织行为学中的应用面临一定的挑战,其中有来自认知评价理论、适应理论的观点挑战,也有其作为一个"跨界理论"带来的挑战。组织行为学研究在应用COR时应充分尊重其理论要义,避免削足适履。