A dynamic analysis of the effects of intelligence and socioeconomic background on job-market success

We compare the effects of socioeconomic background (SEB) and intelligence on wage trajectories in a dynamic growth modeling framework in a sample that had completed just 12 years of education. I show that the main difference between the two is that SEB affected wages solely by its effect on entry pay whereas intelligence affected wages primarily by its effect on mobility. I argue that a major issue that has been at the center of the debate about the roles of intelligence and SEB in social success — the difficulty in accurately measuring SEB — is to a large extent resolved by these results.     

Prioritizing Patterns and Life Satisfaction among Ultra-Orthodox Jews: The Moderating Role of the Sense of Community

Abstract

Recent research suggests that individuals differ in the extent to which they seek activities that promote hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. Prioritizing positivity describes a strategy of pursuing happiness by seeking pleasurable activities or circumstances that can lead to naturally occurring positive emotions, while prioritizing meaning describes a strategy of cultivating well-being by purposefully seeking activities that are conducive to experiencing meaning in life. While these notions have been examined among the general population, little is known about how these prioritizing patterns are linked with well-being in closed religious groups, who often promote the benefit of the collective group in lieu of the individual’s personal choices and interests. Based on a sample of 407 Ultra-Orthodox Jewish individuals (mean age?=?33.58, SD?=?8.89), 55.5% of which were women, the results demonstrated that prioritizing meaning and sense of community were positively associated with life satisfaction. Moreover, a significant interaction of sense of community?×?prioritizing positivity was found, indicating a positive connection between prioritizing positivity and life satisfaction for individuals with a high sense of community, but a negative connection for those with a low sense of community. Our findings suggest that even in extremely close-knit community-oriented societies, a strong sense of belonging to a community enables individuals to prioritize more hedonic aspects of their lives in order to promote their life satisfaction.     

Nonmonotonic Reasoning and Causation

It is suggested that taking into account considerations that traditionally fall within the scope of computer science in general, and artificial intelligence in particular, sheds new light on the subject of causation. It is argued that adopting causal notions con be viewed as filling a computational need: They allow reasoning with incomplete information, facilitate economical representations, and afford relatively efficient methods for reasoning about those representations. Specifically, it is proposed that causal reasoning is intimately bound to nonmonotonic reasoning. An account of causation is offered that relies upon this connection, and compares this proposal to previous accounts within philosophy and artificial intelligence.