Citizen participation,perceived control,and psychological empowerment

The research integrates the citizen participation literature with research on perceived control in an effort to further our understanding of psychological empowerment. Eleven indices of empowerment representing personality, cognitive, and motivational measures were identified to represent the construct. Three studies examined the relationship between empowerment and participation. The first study examined differences among groups identified by a laboratory manipulation as willing to participate in personally relevant or community relevant situations. Study II examined differences for groups defined by actual involvement in community activities and organizations. Study III replicated Study II with a different population. In each study, individuals reporting a greater amount of participation scored higher on indices of empowerment. Psychological empowerment could be described as the connection between a sense of personal competence, a desire for, and a willingness to take action in the public domain. Discriminant function analyses resulted in one significant dimension, identified as pyschological empowerment, that was positively correlated with leadership and negatively correlated with alienation.     

Disputation of irrational beliefs about overeating

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Disputation of irrational beliefs about overeating     

Prior experience and complex procedures

The role of prior knowledge in learning complex procedures was investigated in a transfer task in which subjects learned two related procedures in sequence. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the conceptual and structural similarity between the two procedures; in Experiment 2, we manipulated whether the order of the steps within subprocedures was the same or different during training and transfer, or whether the order of the subprocedures was the same or different. The results lead us to hypothesize that transfer in complex procedures is mediated primarily by a memory for specific steps rather than by conceptual understanding or problem solving. In particular, we were able to model the results precisely on the assumption that subjects use superficial similarity to retrieve the sequences of steps needed to perform segments of the procedure.     

A recognition test of vocabulary using signal-detection measures,and some correlates of word and nonword recognition

In the first of three experiments, university undergraduates were presented a list of 300 words and 100 nonwords in two sessions. Their confidence that an item was a word was indicated for each item on a 6-point scale. This experiment demonstrated the feasibility of creating a recognition test of vocabulary. In Expeiment II, 100 items were chosen to form a subtest, and the subtest was cross-validated on a new sample of subjects. The tests in Experiments I and II were scored using signal-detection measures. The primary criterion, SAT (verbal) scores, correlated approximately .60 with the test scores. In Experiment III subjects scaled the words and nonwords for four psychological attributes. These were submitted to a stepwise regression with the confidence ratings from Experiment I as the dependent variable. It was concluded that associability. frequency, orthography, and pronounceability all may be components of word recognition. However, only frequency was found to be a significant predictor of the confidence of recognition of nonwords.     

Why not give your client a counter: A survey of what happened when we did

A perusal of the recent literature of behavior modification shows an increasing emphasis on the use of self-recording as a research tool (see for example, Barlow et al., 1969; Duncan, 1969; McFall, 1970; Johnson and White, 1971 ; and Ackerman, 1972). In addition, self-recording is being more frequently utilized as a method of teaching students, clients and patients to (a) observe themselves more precisely, (b) assess the effects of treatments which they apply to themselves, with or without the guidance of a counsellor or therapist, and finally (c) provide the latter with objective information (see for example, Stuart. 1967; Lindsley, 1969; Kanfer, 1970; Duncan, 1971; Watson and Tharp, 1972; Mahoney and Thoresen, 1974; Thoresen and Mahoney, 1974; Zimmerman, 1975).

Several researchers have suggested and provided evidence for the notion that self-recording of one's own behavior can be a reactive measure which leads to behavior change on the part of the recorder without the addition of further treatment (see for example, McFall, 1970; Johnson and White, 1971; McFall and Hammen, 1971; Kazdin, 1974; and Lipinski and Nelson, 1974). Preliminary results which each of the present authors have observed with some self-recording clients confirms the above observation. Furthermore, we have also observed that self-recording can sometimes lead to unexpected, therapeutic side-effects. For example, the junior author recently gave a golf counter to a 17-year-old female patient who reported having many impulses to “go back and check” things before leaving her home. These impulses were usually acted upon and one of the consequences of this was that the patient usually kept her parents waiting when the three had to go out. This patient was asked to wear a golf counter, which was given to her, to count the number of times each day that she had an “impulse to check”. In an interview with her following a 7-day counting period, she reported that she had not been aware that she had so many impulses (103 the first day of counting); she actually felt revulsion with herself upon clearly seeing how frequently she had these impulses; she had more impulses when nervous and fewer when relaxed; and finally, both the number of impulses and the actual number of times she acted upon them were markedly reduced over the 7-day counting period. This set of results, together with other (albeit less dramatic) results, suggested to us that some clients can benefit merely by self-recording their own behavior. For some the benefit may be greater awareness or knowledge of the self-recorded behavior, for some it could be actual behavior change, and for some both benefits might be achieved.

To our knowledge, no study has been conducted which has surveyed such possible benefits of self-recording across a number of clients and under conditions in which many therapists are involved. The purpose of the present study was to explore the effects of self-recording, per se, across many clients who were being seen by many different therapists. We did so by recruiting therapists who would be interested in trying out the procedure of having one or more clients self-record.     

The critique of natural rights and the search for a non-anthropocentric basis for moral behavior

Conclusion MacIntyre, Clark, and Heidegger would all agree that the current problem with moral theory is its lack of a satisfactory conception of human telos. This lack leads us to resort to such fictions as rights, interests, and utility, which are disguises for the will to power. These thinkers would also agree that modern nation-states are cut off from the roots of the Western tradition. Modern political economy, with its individualism, its acquisitiveness and its elevation of the values of the market to a central social place is leading us into the coming age of barbarism and darkness. MacIntyre's grim depiction of the future, which Heidegger calls the time of the darkening of the earth and the flight of the gods, can only be met by re-appropriating our own tradition. Although Aristotle has much to tell us, I believe Heidegger is right to turn to Heraclitus for a non-anthropocentric conception of humanity's place in Nature. Other writers, however, such as Arne Naess, George Sessions, and Stuart Hampshire, argue that the writings of Spinoza may offer the most helpful vision of humanity needed to guide our efforts to find a more appropriate basis for our behavior toward each other and toward the non-human world as well. Yet Aristotle, Qark, Heidegger, Heraclitus, Maclntyre, and Spinoza all agree that in order to behave fittingly, we must understand what it means to be human.At this time, I would like to acknowledge the importance of the following objection to what I have been arguing here: While it may be true that the concept of human rights is a fiction, it is nevertheless a very useful fiction for changing how human beings relate to each other. The doctrine of the rights of man justified the American and French revolutions, which brought forth new and important human freedoms. Today, most of humanity still lacks the protection afforded by constitutionally guaranteed human rights. Moreover, even in constitutional democracies there are frequent abuses of and attempts to curtail human rights. Until far more people become committed to protecting human rights, it is unlikely that there will be a big movement to extend rights to non-human beings, much less to overcome the anthropocentrism inherent in the concept of rights. What the Buddhist tradition calls skillful means is appropriate in our current situation. We must approach people in a way sensitive to their current self-understanding. Before we can pass on to the stage of planetary unity made possible by non-anthropocentric thinking, we need to find ways that promote mutual respect among human beings. Out of such respect there can also arise respect for the non-human as well.While largely in agreement with this point of view, I would like to note that our means must be very skillful, indeed, if we are to transform our relationships to each other and to the natural world before irreparable damage is done to the earth, through nuclear war or environmental destruction. The time grows short for the transformation needed to bring us from the stage of anthropocentrism to a deeper awareness of our internal relationship to the whole world. Some people, such as Peter Russell, argue that we are witnessing the evolution of a non-anthropocentric mode of planetary consciousness that will be supported by the revolution in communications and computers. Other people, such as Jeremy Rifkin, maintain that the coming computer age promises ever greater intrusions into natural processes, such as the drive for control of genetic structures. In my view, while it is important to extend the idea of human rights wherever possible, it is also crucial that we consider seriously the possibility that the idea of human rights is merely a transitional way of conceiving of morality. As we learn more about the interrelationship of human life with all other aspects of the earth's life, our self-understanding will no longer be in harmony with the human-centered morality we know today. We will either learn to respect all beings and act toward them in appropriate ways, or else we will continue down the road we are now headed - a road which seems to have a very disturbing destination. Learning to dwell appropriately on earth is the most pressing moral issue of the day.

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On resolving conflicting views of cognitive conflict

F. B. Murray's (Developmental Review, 1983, 3, 54–61) conclusion that a theoretically ambiguous relationship exists between cognitive conflict and Piaget's notion of equilibration was considered. It was suggested that theoretical clarity can be achieved if a distinction is drawn between conflict induction (disequilibrium) and conflict resolution (equilibration). Murray's suggestion that in Piaget's theory internal (cognitive) conflict can be mentally created was disputed. G. N. Cantor's (Developmental Review, 1983, 3, 39–53) concerns about the adequacy of the measures of internal conflict in B. J. Zimmerman & D. E. Blom's (Developmental Review, 1983, 3, 18–38) study due to their independence from external conflict manipulations was discussed. We agreed with Cantor that such findings obviate direct disconfirmation of an internal conflict construct; however, we suggested that evidence of conservation learning in the absence of either external or internal conflict renders Piaget's account less tenable.