Lewis S. Ford,Transforming Process Theism,Foreword by Robert Cummings Neville

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Suicide Ideation and Creative Problem Solving

This investigation utilized the recent technology for the assessment of creativity to examine the association between problem solving and suicide ideation. Three kinds of problem-finding and -solving tasks were administered to 81 (nonclinical) college students. One of these tasks assesses “problem generation” and was expected to be particularly informative, given that individuals considering suicide may perceive many problems but find few solutions. Results supported this expectation: Problem generation scores were significantly correlated with suicide ideation, even after stress was statistically controlled. A secondary analysis suggested that the originality and flexibility of solutions may be influenced by the particular problem an individual faces.     

EFFECTIVENESS OF FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING WITH AND WITHOUT EXTINCTION AND PUNISHMENT: A SUMMARY OF 21 INPATIENT CASES

Functional communication training (FCT) is a frequently used treatment for reducing problem behavior exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities. Once the operant function of problem behavior is identified by a functional analysis, the client is taught to emit an appropriate communicative response to obtain the reinforcer that is responsible for behavioral maintenance. Studies on FCT have typically used small numbers of participants, have reported primarily on clients for whom FCT was successful, and have varied with respect to their use of other treatment components. The main purposes of the present study were to evaluate the efficacy of FCT for treating severe problem behavior in a relatively large sample of individuals with mental retardation (N = 21) and to determine the contribution of extinction and punishment components to FCT treatment packages. FCT with extinction was effective in reducing problem behavior for the majority of clients and resulted in at least a 90% reduction in problem behavior in nearly half the applications. However, when demand or delay-to-reinforcement fading was added to FCT with extinction, treatment efficacy was reduced in about one half of the applications. FCT with punishment (both with and without fading) resulted in at least a 90% reduction in problem behavior for every case in which it was applied.     

A validation of the five-factor model of personality in academically talented youth across observers and instruments

Four instruments—the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), the Adjective Check List (ACL), the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the California Child Q-Set (CCQ)—and two data sources—self reports and parental ratings—were used to assess personality dimensions according to the five-factor model of personality in 870 academically talented youth (mean age = 13.77) from the U.S.A. Data from the parents of 565 of these children were also analysed. The factor structure of the self and parent reports, the convergence between the two sources of reports and the correlations of the adjectives in the ACL with the scores on the NEO-FFI were all consistent with previous results obtained from adults. The findings largely support the notion that the five-factor model as derived from data from adults is applicable to academically talented youth.     

Psychological Type: A 32-Year Follow-Up

This study is a follow-up to three previous studies of psychological type published in this Journal in 1964, 1976 and 1978 by Bradway, Bradway and Detloff, and Bradway and Joseph Wheelwright. Participants in all of our studies were limited to Jungian analysts and candidates. Participants of the first two studies and of the current study were from California; participants of the 1978 study included the participants from the previous study plus persons attending the 1974 International Congress in London. In 1993 we sent letters to the 232 current analysts and candidates in the San Francisco and Los Angeles C.G. Jung Institutes, as well as to the nine participants in our 1974 study who were no longer members of the Institutes but could be located, asking them to fill out a questionnaire that included self-typing, and to self-administer the Gray-Wheelwrights Jungian Type Survey (GW). The response rate was high: 196 or 81% of the 241 persons to whom we sent letters returned filled-in questionnaires and GWs; all 67 or 100% of the participants in the 1974 study who could be located returned the filled-in material. Eight of those 67 had also been in the 1961 study. The current study provides data on the changes in psychological type over time, in some instances over a period of 32 years. It added for the first time a consideration of analysts' rating of themselves as primarily clinically or symbolically orientated, and a survey of analyst opinions as to the determinants of psychological type. Summarizing the results: A smaller percentage of analysts typed themselves as intuitive thinking than in 1961; the percentages of congruence between self-typing and the Gray-Wheelwrights scores in the three dimensions (introvert/extravert, sensation/intuition, and thinking/feeling) in 1961, 1974 and 1993 are between 76% and 96%; changes in typology from 1961 to 1993 occur more frequently in the younger age group than in the older age group; 65% of the participants considered the distinction between clinical and symbolic important, but only 41% rated themselves as either primarily clinically oriented or symbolically oriented with essentially no relationship between that orientation and typology; a sub-study of typology of partners within this study does not support the concept that opposites marry; according to the opinion of this group of analysts and candidates as to the determinants of adult typology, genetics (chromosomes) is distinctly the strongest contributor with family dynamics a not-very-close next contributor.     

Logic and the consistency of the world

The claim that nature is self-consistent has recently been contested by a number of paraconsistent logicians. In this paper I will survey the arguments which paraconsistent logicians have presented for the thesis that nature is actually inconsistent. My conclusion is that these arguments all fail.The paraconsistency programme has to date been concerned primarily with outlining the philosophical inadequacy of classical logic, and detailed discussions of issues bearing upon the philosophical adequacy of the paraconsistency position itself are not to be found as yet in the literature. This inadequacy will be illustrated here with respect to the question of the self-consistency of nature.     

The effect of continuous, intermittent, and "placebo" reinforcement on the effectiveness of the conditioning treatment for enuresis nocturna

It has been suggested that intermittent reinforcement may be of value in reducing the rate of relapse in bedwetting conditioning therapy. An experiment was conducted with 30 enuretic boys to examine acquisition and extinction parameters of continuous (100%), intermittent (70% variable ratio), and “placebo” (0%) reinforcement schedules. Reinforced trials were administered as in the typical Mowrer conditioning procedure. Non-reinforced trials were achieved by means of a time delay with the subsequent alarm being activated in the parent's room rather than in the child's room. These procedures required the development of a new conditioning device which could be programmed to automatically administer the desired schedule of reinforcement. The results of the field investigation revealed that continuous reinforcement (CR) and intermittent reinforcement (IR) groups attained acquisition in approximately the same number of trials and with essentially the same success rate. Relapse rate was significantly greater in the CR group than in the IR group. The placebo group showed no improvement over the 6 weeks of treatment. The results of this study may be interpreted as supporting the tenet that relapse can be viewed and treated as an extinction of the acquired response.     

Human Freedom and The Counselor

The nature and the source of human freedom have prompted considerable discourse and controversy among behavioral scientists and practitioners. Some believe that man's behavior results from a series of free choices while others contend that all behavior is determined and is therefore not free. This apparent dilemma often leads to the erroneous conclusion that we must either see man as determined and treat personal experiences of freedom as illusory, or preserve the existential experience of being free by denying prior causes for behavior. But there is no essential inconsistency in viewing all behavior as caused while also accepting and valuing the existential experience of being free. Counselors who acknowledge the causes of free experiences are in a position to establish the conditions necessary for such experiences for their clients.     

Detection theory,micromatching, and the constant-ratio rule

The conformance of detection theory and micromatching with the constant-ratio rule (CRR) was determined by calculations for sets of three stimuli and subsets of two stimuli. For an arbitrary selection of sets, the CRR would be expected to hold quite well if either detection theory or micromatching lay behind the responses. For specific stimulus configurations, however, detection theory and micromatching differ considerably from one another and from the CRR. These configurations are found particularly for the univariate distributions, and this corresponds to empirical findings that the CRR holds better for multidimensional than for unidimensional stimuli. It is shown how the differences between the three theories in the implied constancies of ratios can be used in diagnosis of the basis ofempirical confusion matrices.