Deterministic blockmodelling of signed and two-mode networks: A tutorial with software and psychological examples

Deterministic blockmodelling is a well-established clustering method for both exploratory and confirmatory social network analysis seeking partitions of a set of actors so that actors within each cluster are similar with respect to their patterns of ties to other actors (or, in some cases, other objects when considering two-mode networks). Even though some of the historical foundations for certain types of blockmodelling stem from the psychological literature, applications of deterministic blockmodelling in psychological research are relatively rare. This scarcity is potentially attributable to three factors: a general unfamiliarity with relevant blockmodelling methods and applications; a lack of awareness of the value of partitioning network data for understanding group structures and processes; and the unavailability of such methods on software platforms familiar to most psychological researchers. To tackle the first two items, we provide a tutorial presenting a general framework for blockmodelling and describe two of the most important types of deterministic blockmodelling applications relevant to psychological research: structural balance partitioning and two-mode partitioning based on structural equivalence. To address the third problem, we developed a suite of software programs that are available as both Fortran executable files and compiled Fortran dynamic-link libraries that can be implemented in the R software system. We demonstrate these software programs using networks from the literature.     

ETHICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY Ecclesial Existence in a Postmodern Era

This essay endeavors to show that application of a universalist epistemic method in theological ethics results in a construal of God, which is, from a biblical perspective, reductionist, and is a form of ethics in which universality is achieved at the expense of plurality. It argues for the formal possibility of an ecclesial ethics grounded in a tradition‐centered rationality. It further argues that such an ethic need not result in a narrow and defensive sectarianism, a rigid and static orthodoxy, or an authoritarian dogmatism. The posture of an ecclesial ethic based on the kind of critical realism advocated here may retain an apologetic and dialogical relation with the broader society, as it seeks to embody the incarnational narrative in its particular context.     

OVERVIEW OF THE STRUCTURE OF A SCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEW

Abstract. Understanding the structure of a scientific world view is important for the dialogue between science and religion. In this essay, I define comprehensive worldview and distinguish it from the more focused non comprehensive worldview. I explain that scientists and the public at large agree that modern research works in a scientific as opposed to nonscientific worldview. I give some of the essential elements of any scientific worldview that differentiate it from nonscientific ones. These elements are the general pre suppositions of science, the methods of science, and the articles of justification for the conclusions science puts forward. I question whether a scientific worldview can allow philosophical and theological tenets, which might appear to stand opposed to scientific paradigms, and conclude that the answer lies in the scope of its comprehensiveness.     

Relationships Between Locus of Control, Coping Strategies and Emotional Well-Being in Persons with Spinal Cord Lesion

Relations between locus of control, coping strategies and emotional well-being in persons with traumatically acquired spinal cord lesion (SCL) were examined. The sample included 132 community-residing adults. Structural equation modelling, including confirmatory factor analysis, was used. A model was hypothesized based on the transactional theory of stress and coping where coping strategies mediated the relation between locus of control and emotional well-being. The model showed acceptable fit to the data and was compared with five alternative models. The alternative models fitted the data less well or were difficult to interpret. In the preferred model, persons indicating internal control reported more coping strategies (Acceptance, Fighting spirit) related to increased well-being, whereas persons indicating external control reported a coping strategy (Social reliance) related to poorer well-being. The findings support the stress and coping framework in medical rehabilitation and illustrate why some persons need coping effectiveness training to enhance emotional adjustment.     

大学生心理健康、创造性人格与创造力关系的模型建构

通过问卷法对我国八大行政区10所不同类型学校的1043名大学生进行调查研究。从创造性思维和创造性人格多侧面认识大学生创造力的特点,从医学模式以及人格角度了解大学生心理健康的状况,在此基础上,借助现代统计技术———结构方程模型,揭示心理健康、个性和创造力之间的关系;将创造力作为内源潜变量,心理健康和创造性人格作为外源潜变量,三者构成的结构模型是可以接受的,该模型表明,大学生的创造力受其创造性人格和心理健康的积极影响。     

Choosing normative properties: a reply to Eklund’s Choosing Normative Concepts

ABSTRACT

The literature surrounding Horgan and Timmons’s Moral Twin Earth scenarios has focused on whether such scenarios present a metasemantic problem for naturalist realists. But in Choosing Normative Concepts, Eklund uses a similar scenario to illuminate a novel, distinctly metaphysical problem for normative realists of both naturalist and non-naturalist stripes. The problem is that it is not clear what (if anything) would suffice for the sort of ardent realist view that normative realists have in mind – the view that reality itself favors certain ways of acting and valuing. Eklund then offers a metasemantic view that he thinks can provide the best solution to this problem. In this reply to Eklund, I argue that Eklund’s treatment of the problem and his solution re-entangle metaphysical and metasemantic issues that ought to be kept separate. I also argue that there is a purely metaphysical solution to the problem at hand, which Eklund’s own solution seems to implicitly rely upon. While these criticisms do not suggest that Eklund’s positive view is false, they do undermine some of the broader lessons that Eklund hopes to draw from the view.     

The role of structural consistency between categories and attributes in hierarchical category learning

This study investigated how consistency between categories and attributes determines attribute selection in hierarchical category learning. Participants learned six categories for which number and color were equally relevant attributes, followed by a transfer task, to test which attribute was used. Before that, half of them learned embedding higher-level categories for which numbers were likely to be used. Orthogonal to this factor, the hierarchical structure was made explicit for half of them by category labels. The results showed that participants used numbers in the prior learning, but that the use of numbers was inhibited in the subsequent six-category learning task. However, this inhibitory effect was reduced when the hierarchical structure was explicit. The pattern of results suggests that attribute selection is determined by structural consistency between categories and attributes, not by a prior use of an attribute.     

To the Nothingnesses Themselves: Husserl’s Influence on Sartre’s Notion of Nothingness

In this article I argue that Sartre’s notions of nothingness and “negatity” are not, as he presents it, primarily reactions to Hegel and Heidegger. Instead, they are a reaction to an ongoing struggle with Husserl’s notion of intentionality and related notions. I do this by comparing the criticism aimed at Husserl in Sartre’s Being and Nothingness to that presented in his earlier work, The Imagination, where he discusses Husserl more elaborately. Furthermore, I compare his criticism to Husserl’s own criticism of the “doctrine of immanent objects”, in order to show that Sartre’s notion of nothingness is a continuation of Husserl’s criticism, and that he turns Husserl’s own arguments against himself.