The development of Marx's economic theory

Marx develops his economic theory in Capital in a rather peculiar way. This paper focuses on some of these peculiarities, especially his attempt to base his account of prices and derivative entities (profit, rate of profit, etc.) on the labour theory of value. Although he may be said to have failed in this, there is still some kind of Marxist theory of prices possible. This is due to both, the so-called fundamental theorem (linking profit and surplus-value) and the possibility, shown by Sraffa and others, to determine prices from the physical parameters of production. By adding on an earlier paper of mine, in which the surplus-value theory has been reconstructed within the structuralistic framework, this paper sketches such a reconstruction for the basic parts of a full-blown Marxist economic theory of capitalistic production.I am indebted to Prof. Peter Flaschel for some useful hints.     

Persistence and change in sex-role stereotypes

Persistence and change in sex-role stereotypes were examined by replicating in 1978 a study of sex-role conceptions published by Sherriffs and McKee in 1957. Results suggested that in many particulars sex-role stereotypes have changed little over the intervening two decades. Respondents of both sexes continued to view men as more forceful, independent, stubborn, and reckless than women; and women continued to be viewed as more mannerly, giving, emotional, and submissive than men. On the other hand, many changes in sex-role conceptions were also found to have occurred. Especially for female respondents, results suggested that stereotypes have changed in the direction of greater favorability toward women and less favorability toward men. The relevance of these findings to the psychological understanding of social change is discussed.     

Intuition in the context of implicit memory

Summary Most recent work concerned with intuition has demonstrated that people can respond discriminatively to coherence that they cannot identify. Specifically, in a gestalt-closure task subjects were shown slides of paired drawings. One of the drawings represented a fragmented picture of a common object, whereas the other was constructed by rotation of the elements of the coherent gestalt. When the subjects were unable to name the object, they were urged to make a forced-choice decision regarding which of the two drawings represented a real object. The results showed that the proportion of pictures not correctly identified, that were nevertheless correctly selected as coherent, was significantly higher than chance. The current experiment replicated these findings. In addition, it was shown that a study phase with either coherent or incoherent picture primes can bias intuitive judgments in the test phase in accordance with a processing view. Incoherent-picture primes reduced the forced-choice decisions to a level of chance. Moreover, priming was found to be dependent on the similarity between the study and the test stimuli. We argue that a more fluent reprocessing of coherent, or primed, stimuli may be a basis for intuitive judgments. Intuition may go wrong when priming has favored an incoherent solution.     

Book reviews

Facets of Buddhism Shotaro Iida, 1991 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 166 pp., Rs. 150 hb

Li Ao: Buddhist, Taoist, or Neo‐Confucian? T. H. Barrett, 1992 London Oriental Series, Vol. 39 Oxford, Oxford University Press x + 178 pp. £20

Spirituality & Emptiness Donald W. Mitchell, 1992 New York, Paulist Press, xvi + 224 pp. $12.95     

Divergent Perceptions of Jail Inmates and Correctional Officers: The “Blame the Other-Expect to Be Blamed” Effect1

Inmates and correctional officers in a Lwnty jail made attributions of responsibility and predicted each other's attributions in response to four hypothetical stimulus incidents varying in severity of the inmate's intentional misbehavior and the severity of the officer's intentional retribution. When the misbehavior and retribution were moderate, subjects blamed both participants about equally. However, both over- and underreactions to the stimulus inmate's misbehavior elicited defensiveness, with both officers and inmates more likely to attribute responsibility to their opposite role character. In addition, both inmates and officers appeared to respond defensively to severe but equitable retributions. Subjects blamed each other, and, anticipating the other's defensiveness, expected to be blamed. Examination of the data suggested that subjects may have responded stereotypically rather than empathetically, and that defensiveness impeded rather than facilitated predictive accuracy. Results were consistent with previous research, increasing the generality of the “blame the other-expect to be blamed” effect. Additional analyses indicated that inmates were more likely than officers to notice mitigating circumstances when considering the inmates' responsibility. Three recommendations were made which may help to forestall inmate reactivity to retributions: (1) Jail personnel should have objective and clear definitions as to what constitutes major and minor infractions; (2) inmates should be aware of these criteria; and (3) jail personnel should be sensitive to mitigating circumstances and moderate their retribution or anticipate possible reactivity from inmates.     

Impression formation and repeated measures: The design as a stimulus

This study investigates the possibility that results of within-subjects studies tend to be design-specific. In a study of impression formation 3×3 row-by-column designs were presented to two groups of judges. The first design (standard-design) included high. Medium, and low levels of the independent variables. The second design (comparison design) included a high/medium/low variation of one independent variable and a high/medium/high variation of the second variable. The judges were asked to reproduce informations. They received relevant informations (which should be reproduced) and additional informations (which were irrelevant for their task). The pattern of results is different within the two designs. While the standard-design reveals a significant main effect for the relevant information, the comparison-design reveals an additional interaction effect between relevant and irrelevant information. The results are attributed to the fact that the design itself is a stimulus.     

Stimulus generalization of the effects of punishment

Three pigeons were trained to respond to seven spectral stimulus values ranging from 490 to 610 mμ and displayed in random order on a response key. After response rates had equalized to these values, a brief electric shock was administered when the subject (S) responded to the central value (550 mμ) while positive reinforcement for all values was maintained. Initially, there was broad generalization of the resulting depression in response rate, but the gradients grew steeper in the course of testing. When punishment was discontinued, the rates to all values recovered, and equal responding to all stimuli was reattained by two of the Ss. Stimulus control over the effects of punishment was clearly demonstrated in the form of a generalization gradient; this probably resulted from the combined effects of generalization of the depression associated with punishment and discrimination between the punished value and neutral stimuli.