An Experiment in the Prevention of Delinquency by Edwin Powers and Helen Witmer

A longitudinal clinical outcome study based primarily on a questionnaire method is the purpose of this two part paper. Techniques and approaches honed from fifteen years of para-analytic experience with one continuous Saturday morning group (seventy-five adolescents and young adults) are highlighted in this first part. Attention is focused on such pertinent issues as: lateness, selection, duration, individual sessions, physical setting, outside contacts, decreasing anxiety, parents and the important involvement of a female cotherapist. Catalyzing agents in the form of art therapy and mini-silent groups are described. The psychological position is presented for an age-mixed group (adolescents and young adults—age range twenty to thirty) to facilitate a natural flow of topics in the group dialogue rather than a “topic” format.     

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia in alcohol dependent patients: a randomized controlled pilot trial

In a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia to improve sleep and daytime symptoms, and to reduce relapse in recovering alcohol dependent (AD) participants. Seventeen abstinent AD patients with insomnia (6 women, mean age 46.2 ± 10.1 years) were randomized to 8 sessions of cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia for AD (CBTI-AD, n = 9) or to a behavioral placebo treatment (BPT, n = 8). Subjective measures of sleep, daytime consequences of insomnia and AD, alcohol use, and treatment fidelity were collected at baseline and post-treatment. Diary-rated sleep efficiency and wake after sleep onset, and daytime ratings of General Fatigue on the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory improved more in the CBTI-AD compared to the BPT group. In addition, more subjects were classified as treatment responders following CBTI-AD. No group differences were found in the number of participants who relapsed to any drinking or who relapsed to heavy drinking. The findings suggest that cognitive-behavioral insomnia therapy benefits subjective sleep and daytime symptoms in recovering AD participants with insomnia more than placebo. The benefits of treating insomnia on drinking outcomes are less apparent.     

The half-life of cognitive-affective states during complex learning

We investigated the temporal dynamics of students' cognitive-affective states (confusion, frustration, boredom, engagement/flow, delight, and surprise) during deep learning activities. After a learning session with an intelligent tutoring system with conversational dialogue, the cognitive-affective states of the learner were classified by the learner, a peer, and two trained judges at approximately 100 points in the tutorial session. Decay rates for the cognitive-affective states were estimated by fitting exponential curves to time series of affect responses. The results partially confirmed predictions of goal-appraisal theories of emotion by supporting a tripartite classification of the states along a temporal dimension: persistent states (boredom, engagement/flow, and confusion), transitory states (delight and surprise), and an intermediate state (frustration). Patterns of decay rates were generally consistent across affect judges, except that a reversed actor-observer effect was discovered for engagement/flow and frustration. Correlations between decay rates of the cognitive-affective states and several learning measures confirmed the major predictions and uncovered some novel findings that have implications for theories of pedagogy that integrate cognition and affect during deep learning.     

A comprehensive model and measure of compensation satisfaction

We describe the results of two studies designed to develop a comprehensive theoretical model and measure of compensation satisfaction. Our typology of compensation satisfaction consists of seven dimensions: four for pay (level, structure, raises, and variable pay procedures satisfaction) and three dimensions for benefits (level, determination, and administration satisfaction). We used new and existing items to develop the Comprehensive Compensation Satisfaction Questionnaire. In Study 1, we report the results of exploratory factor analysis that supports a seven‐factor structure. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analysis supported the same seven‐factor structure in a different sample. We examined relationships between the compensation satisfaction dimensions and their antecedents and consequences. Seven hypotheses regarding differential antecedents of compensation satisfaction were supported. Satisfaction with aspects of compensation procedures were related to perceived organizational support, and perceived organizational support mediated the relationships between these compensation satisfaction procedures and affective commitment and turnover intentions. Our final analysis yielded a 29‐item scale (including eight new items) which we recommend for use in future compensation satisfaction research.     

Effects of topic valence and pictorial distractor valence on verbalizing and evaluating topic-evoked visual imagery

We reasoned that if speakers must decide how long to reflect and how much to say about a topic, they use such guidelines as topic valence and valent situational distractors that compete for attention. We hypothesized that latency and extent of verbalization would be greater if topic valence were relatively negative, in that negative topics are “weightier” and hence deserve longer reflection and verbalization. Similarly, a negative distractor would cast a weightier aura over the task, with parallel effects. While subjects were imagining the visual scene evoked by a certain pleasant or unpleasant topic, a pleasant or unpleasant picture appeared toward the left or right, on a screen. After the picture faded subjects described the topic-evoked image. Topic valence had no effect on speech latency, whereas picture valence had the predicted effect. Negative topics increased latency of visual attention to pictures, though, as expected, subjects then looked sooner at negative pictures. Both topic valence and picture valence had the predicted effects on extent of verbalization. As predicted, too, unpleasant pictures elicited relatively negative evaluations of topic-evoked images.     

WHY ARROW'S IMPOSSIBILITY THEOREM IS INVALID

In 1951, Kenneth Arrow published his now celebrated book Social Choice and Individual Values. Although not the first book to be written on social choice, Arrow's work ushered in a voluminous literature mostly produced by economists but by philosophers and political scientists as well. Arrow's chief result was a proof of the impossibility of a social welfare function (hereafter "SWF"). He showed that there could be no decision procedure for aggregating individual preference orderings into a grand, overall social preference ordering. The result has been hailed by some as a sort of Godel Theorem of economics. It has seemed to many to have, if not the complexity of the Godel Theorem, at least the same astonishing counter-intuitiveness. On the other hand, some social choice theorists, while conceding the validity of the Arrow Theorem, have challenged its soundness by quarreling with one or more of its presuppositions.