EFFECTS OF AMOUNT, FORMAT, AND LOCATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON QUESTIONNAIRE RETURN RATE AND RESPONSE BIAS OF SENSITIVE AND NONSENSITIVE ITEMS

Three characteristics of demographic questionnaire items were manipulated on a job satisfaction survey administered to 888 faculty members in order to assess effects on survey return rate and response bias. Demographic factors analyzed were Amount (number of demographic items), Format (questionnaires with all categorical answers versus those with a combination of categorical and continuous answers), and Location (demographic items placed before versus being placed after attitudinal items). Analysis of the 461 questionnaires which were returned revealed significant results for the Format rnanipulation, in that responses indicating higher satisfaction were obtained when the survey instrument contained questions which required both categorical and continuous answers rather than only questions requiring categorical responses. Also, this format-induced response bias occurred more frequently among sensitive than nonsensitive job satisfaction items. Implications of the results for questionnaire design are discussed.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND DEVELOPMENT INTERVIEWS: REPLICATION AND EXTENSION1

Eight performance review interview characteristics were related to 7 interview outcomes. Several of these individual variables had been examined in previous research. Two hundred seventy nursing personnel described their last review interview. Five of the interview characteristics were related to most of the outcomes, replicating earlier research as well as adding new findings. Implications for improving the conduct of appraisal interviews in organizations are offered.     

Perception and Representation

I oppose the popular view that the phenomenal character of perceptual experience consists in the subject's representing the (putative) perceived object as being so-and-so. The account of perceptual experience I favor instead is a version of the "Theory of Appearing" that takes it to be a matter of the perceived object's appearing to one as so-and-so, where this does not mean that the subject takes or believes it to be so-and-so. This plays no part in my criticisms of Representationalism. I mention it only to be up front as to where I stand. My criticism of the Representationalist position is in sections. (1) There is no sufficient reason for positing a representative function for perceptual experience. It doesn't seem on the face of it to be that, and nothing serves in place of such seeming. (2) Even if it did have such a function, it doesn't have the conceptual resources to represent a state of affairs. (3) Even if it did, it is not suited to represent, e.g., a physical property of color. (4) Finally, even if I am wrong about the first three points, it is still impossible for the phenomenal character of the perceptual experience to consist in it's representing what it does. My central argument for this central claim of the paper is that it is metaphysically, de re possible that one have a certain perceptual experience without it's presenting any state of affairs. And since all identities hold necessarily, this identity claim fails.     

Thoughts Without Distinctive Non-Imagistic Phenomenology

Silent thinking is often accompanied by subvocal sayings to ourselves, imagery, emotional feelings, and non-sensory experiences such as familiarity, rightness, and confidence that we can go on in certain ways. Phenomenological materials of these kinds, along with our dispositions to give explanations or draw inferences, provide resources that are sufficient to account for our knowledge of what we think, desire, and so on. We do not need to suppose that there is a distinctive, non-imagistic 'what it is like' to think that p , and a different non-imagistic 'what it is like' to think that q. Nor need we suppose that there is a proprietary 'what it is like' to have one propositional attitude type rather than another.     

EXPLICATING THE IMPLICIT: THE LOCAL LEVEL AND THE MICROPROCESS OF CHANGE IN THE ANALYTIC SITUATION

This paper proposes a method of examining the micro-events of the analytic process that borrows heavily from developmental research. The increasing importance of illuminating the microprocess of interaction to understanding the process of change in analytic treatment is emphasised. A set of constructs and terminology is proposed for the study of the moment-to-moment interactive process in psychoanalytic therapy referred to as the local level. A theory of therapeutic action based on 'local-level' process is then explicated. Its central element involves a step-by-step process of 'fitting together', which leads to changes in implicit knowing through alteration of emotional procedures.     

The educational boundary1

In this contribution, the authors defi ne and discuss the educational boundary in analytic training, which they believe is an often neglected and useful concept in psychoanalytic education. The framework on which their discussion rests includes the recent attention of psychoanalysts to issues of boundaries and ethics. Their understanding of how clinical work affects the mind of the analyst educator, as well as the ways the personalities of various analysts affect their dealings with faculty peers and students, are the other cornerstones of their discussion. The authors contend that many of the institutional problems encountered in the training of analysts can be better understood when viewed through the prism of the educational boundary. They present examples which illustrate several of the ways psychoanalytic educators complicate the training experience of candidates, offer specifi c explanations as to why analysts struggle as they try to manage their educational interventions, and indicate in a discussion of potential remedies that those behaviors might be avoided if the educational boundary is in focus. They also provide an example of how the educational boundary can be more effectively managed.     

The desire for sexual variety as a key to understanding basic human mating strategies

Different authors have proposed competing evolutionary theories of human mating. Some argue that both sexes are designed to pursue a singular long‐term mating strategy. Others contend that both sexes are designed to function as essentially multiple maters. Sexual Strategies Theory (SST; D.M. Buss & D.P. Schmitt, 1993), in contrast, proposes that men and women have evolved short‐term and long‐term mating strategies that are pursued differently by each sex depending on theoretically derived dimensions of context. According to SST, the sexes tend to differ in the nature and prominence of the short‐term component of human mating–particularly the short‐term desire for sexual variety. The current research was designed to test competing empirical predictions from these contrasting theories by focusing on sex differences in the desire for sexual variety. Study 1 (N= 1,049), consisting of five separate samples, found large and consistent sex differences in the desire for short‐term sexual variety, even after employing statistical methods to control for skewed distributions and statistical outliers. Study 2 (N= 192) confirmed the results of Study 1 using an older, more mature sample. Study 3 (N= 50) again replicated these sex differences using an observer‐based method of inquiry. Study 4 (N= 167) found evidence that short‐term mating was unrelated generally to psychological dysfunction and may be related to mentally healthy personality characteristics in men. Discussion focuses on the viability of pluralistic compared with monomorphic evolutionary theories of human mating strategies.