Professional sociologists and the history of sociology: A survey of recent opinion

Using members of the American Sociological Association, we attempt to determine the amount and degree of interest in the history of sociology; the particular nature of that interest; and the special sources of that interest. We find that the most significant factor affecting both degree and nature of interest in the history of sociology is the speciality of the sociologist himself.     

Competitive equilibrium with intuitionistic agents

This paper studies an economy whose agents perceive their consumption possibilities subjectively, and whose preferences are defined on what they subjectively experience, rather than on those alternatives that are objectively present. The model of agents’ perceptions is based on intuitionistic logic. Roughly, this means that agents reason constructively: a solution to a problem exists only if there is a construction by which the problem can be solved. The theorems that can be proved determine how an agent perceives a set of alternatives. A dual model relates perceived alternatives to a shared language, which the agents use in trading. So perceptions relate objective alternatives to an agent’s subjective view of them, and reporting dually relates an agent’s subjective world to a shared language. It turns out that an appropriately modified notion of competitive equilibrium always exists. However, in contrast with standard results in economic theory, competitive equilibrium need not be efficient.

     

The Effort to Identify Empirically Supported Psychological Treatments and Its Implications for Clinical Research,Practice, and Training: Commentary on Papers by Lester Luborsky and Hans H. Strupp

The current emphasis on identifying empirically supported treatments (ESTs) can distort psychotherapy research by emphasizing the investigation of treatment in an atypical context, with atypical patients, in a contrived treatment contract. An alternative to comparing the efficacy of different types of therapeutic techniques for treating focal symptoms is to seek to identify the factors that facilitate therapeutic change in various types of therapeutic intervention. The emphasis on identifying ESTs also has the potential for distorting clinical training and limiting clinicians' ability to develop the skills necessary for becoming effective therapists.     

Mind wandering while reading easy and difficult texts

Mind wandering is a phenomenon in which attention drifts away from the primary task to task-unrelated thoughts. Previous studies have used self-report methods to measure the frequency of mind wandering and its effects on task performance. Many of these studies have investigated mind wandering in simple perceptual and memory tasks, such as recognition memory, sustained attention, and choice reaction time tasks. Manipulations of task difficulty have revealed that mind wandering occurs more frequently in easy than in difficult conditions, but that it has a greater negative impact on performance in the difficult conditions. The goal of this study was to examine the relation between mind wandering and task difficulty in a high-level cognitive task, namely reading comprehension of standardized texts. We hypothesized that reading comprehension may yield a different relation between mind wandering and task difficulty than has been observed previously. Participants read easy or difficult versions of eight passages and then answered comprehension questions after reading each of the passages. Mind wandering was reported using the probe-caught method from several previous studies. In contrast to the previous results, but consistent with our hypothesis, mind wandering occurred more frequently when participants read difficult rather than easy texts. However, mind wandering had a more negative influence on comprehension for the difficult texts, which is consistent with the previous data. The results are interpreted from the perspectives of the executive-resources and control-failure theories of mind wandering, as well as with regard to situation models of text comprehension.     

The WAIS Picture Arrangement Subtest as a Measure of Anticipation

Summary

Recent research and theory has stressed the importance of future extension as a parameter in psychological development and in psychopathology. One of the primary methods for assessing future extension has been through fantasy productions to TAT cards or to story stems. Both of these methods have been useful but they are limited because they are dependent in part on verbal fluency. It has been suggested that the Picture Arrangement (PA) subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale assesses anticipation and planning and, as such, it provides a non-verbal measure of future extension. PA scores were found in a pilot study to have a positive and significant relationship to future extension as measured in stories told to story roots, and in the present study to future extension as measured in TAT stories.