FROM CRITICAL REALISM TO A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH: RESPONSE TO ROBBINS, VAN HUYSSTEEN, AND HEFNER

Abstract. Critical realism is a problematic philosophical doctrine that unnecessarily complicates attempts to relate theology and science. A more satisfactory approach employs the scientific methodology of Imre Lakatos for the reconstruction of theology along scientific lines. Theological research programs would automatically include auxiliary hypotheses of both theological and scientific origin.     

Speech act conditions as tools for reconstructing argumentative discourse

According to the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation, for analysing argumentative discourse, a normative reconstruction is required which encompasses four kinds of transformations. It is explained in this paper how speech act conditions can play a part in carrying out such a reconstruction. It is argued that integrating Searlean insights concerning speech acts with Gricean insights concerning conversational maxims can provide us with the necessary tools. For this, the standard theory of speech acts has to be amended in several respects and the conversational maxims have to be translated into speech act conditions. Making use of the rules for communication thus arrived at, and starting from the distribution of speech acts in a critical discussion as specified in the pragma-dialectical model, it is then demonstrated how indirect speech acts are to be transformed when reconstructing argumentative discourse.     

Conditional covariance structure of generalized compensatory multidimensional items

Some nonparametric dimensionality assessment procedures, such as DIMTEST and DETECT, use nonparametric estimates of item pair conditional covariances given an appropriately chosen subtest score as their basic building blocks. Such conditional covariances given some subtest score can be regarded as an approximation to the conditional covariances given an appropriately chosen unidimensional latent composite, where the composite is oriented in the multidimensional test space direction in which the subtest score measures best. In this paper, the structure and properties of such item pair conditional covariances given a unidimensional latent composite are thoroughly investigated, assuming a semiparametric IRT modeling framework called a generalized compensatory model. It is shown that such conditional covariances are highly informative about the multidimensionality structure of a test. The theory developed here is very useful in establishing properties of dimensionality assessment procedures, current and yet to be developed, that are based upon estimating such conditional covariances.In particular, the new theory is used to justify the DIMTEST procedure. Because of the importance of conditional covariance estimation, a new bias reducing approach is presented. A byproduct of likely independent importance beyond the study of conditional covariances is a rigorous score information based definition of an item's and a score's direction of best measurement in the multidimensional test space.This paper is based on a chapter of the first author's doctoral dissertation, written at the University of Illinois and supervised by the second author. Part of this research has been presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, San Francisco, April 1995.The authors would like to thank Jeff Douglas, Xuming He and Ming-mei Wang for their comments and suggestions. The research of the first author was partially supported by an ETS/GREB Psychometric Fellowship, and by Educational Testing Service Research Allocation Project 884-01. The research of the second author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS 97-04474.     

Eros as the Educational Principle of Democracy

This paper explores the value of the eros motif for critical pedagogy and citizenship education. The conceptual affinities between eros and democracy are identified and integrated into a theory of democratic political education. Long recognized as vital to the process of self knowledge, the ancient Greek concept of eros has nevertheless been largely erased from contemporary educational debate. By retrieving eros from the fringe of academic discourse and integrating it with critical pedagogy, the aims of radical democracy can be more fully achieved. The essay emphasizes the civil society or cultural dimensions of democracy as against its legal or procedural aspects. Renewed emphasis on the associational qualities of democracy underscore the importance of eros as an educational principle. The ancient pedagogical motif of educating the desires is posited as an alternative to the liberal/modernist paradigm of education which de-values affective domains of knowledge.     

The Revelation Argument. A 'Communicational Fallacy'

In this paper it is argued that much can be gained for the analysis and evaluation of arguing when fallacies are not, or not only, conceived of as flawed premise–conclusion complexes but rather as argumentative moves which distort harmfully an interaction aiming at resolving communication problems argumentatively. Starting from Normative Pragmatics and the pragma-dialectical concept of fallacy, a case study is presented to illustrate a fallacy which is termed the 'revelation argument' because it is characterized by an interactor's revealing her thoughts and/or emotions to the addressees and claiming that these would have justificatory or refutatory potential with respect to the problem discussed. Although the revelation argument may not be a paradigm case of resolution- hindering moves, it is an extreme case of flawed reasoning that illustrates plainly the advantages of a communicational perspective on arguing and fallacies.     

论医学思路对医学创新的作用

思路,有广义和狭义之分。党的思想路线作为广义的思路,在中国革命和建设的两次历史性飞跃中起决定性作用。说明思路对创新起决定作用。医学思路作为狭义的思路,在医学创新及对创新成果实践检验中同样起决定作用。徐荣祥教授以医学思路变革为先导创立ＭＥＢＴ／ＭＥＢＯ及各派按不同思路对它实践检验而结果相反,典型地表现着这种关系。具有普遍指导意义。     

小学三～五年级儿童创造性思维训练的实验研究

研究表明学龄儿童已具有一定的创造力 ,因此要重视并激发儿童的创造活动。本研究在前人研究的基础上 ,自编了一套创造性思维训练题 ,并设计了传统讲授教学法和促进、诱导学生自我发现的发现法二种训练方法 ,同时与未经训练的对照组比较 ,考察了小学三～五年级儿童创造性思维的几个维度和总体水平上在训练前后的变化。结果表明 :经过一个学期的短期训练 ,无论在创造性思维的不同维度上还是在总体水平上 ,都对小学儿童产生了显著的影响 ,而所设计的二种训练方法在短期效果上没有明显差异。     

Luck,envy and gratitude: It could have been different

Previous studies have shown that people feel lucky in situations that could easily have turned into something worse. The present investigation was designed to focus more closely on the comparative aspect of luck, using a linguistic approach (Study 1 and 2) as well as self-reports of perceived luck accompanying selected emotional episodes (Study 3). The participants in Study 1 were asked to comment upon the difference between describing a state of affairs as “lucky” vs. “good”. The term “lucky“ was frequently seen to imply a comparison process, sometimes expressing gratitude (“It is lucky I have a family”) and at other times envy (“it is lucky you have a job”). This was confirmed in Study 2 where statements about self and other being lucky or unlucky were rated for implying comparison, gratitude, envy, concern, and impression of speaker. In Study 3, 60 students described situations in which they had felt grateful towards other people as well as towards “life in general”. Questionnaire answers revealed that they also had felt very lucky and had been thinking “it could have been different”. They also produced recollections of envy, which were rated to imply others' good luck and own bad luck, which could easily have been interchanged (“it could have been merdquo;). It is concluded that counterfactual thoughts are decisive for the experiences of luck, gratitude, and envy.     

A developmental perspective on psychotherapy process, psychotherapists' expertise, and “Meaning-Making Conflict” within therapeutic relationships: Part II

Part I—A Dialectical-Constructivist View of Human Development, Psychotherapy, and the Dynamics of Meaning-Making Conflict Within Therapeutic Relationships-reviewed a dialectical-constructivist model of human development and articulated, in the language of that model, how psychotherapy, in general, works. It described and illustrated three generic processes which contribute to the frequent successes of an extremely diverse range of psychotherapy theories and practices. This view of psychotherapy focused on both the client's meaning-making processes and the therapist's meaning-making processes, and how they contribute together to effective psychotherapy. Part I also offered a way of understanding what is going on when therapeutic progress is blocked by conflict between the client's and the therapist's meaning-making processes. Part II—Dialectical, Thinking and Psychotherapeutic Expertise: Implications for Training Psychotherapists and Protecting Clients from ‘Theoretical Abuse’—explores those experiences in which the therapist's exercise of this or her own meaning-making structures, and maintenance of the integrity of his or her theories, has a limiting or destructive impact on the value of therapy to the client. It considers the concept of “theoretical abuse” by psychotherapists as a way of characterizing the most destructive of these experiences. This serves as a rhetorical device for introducing comparisons between these phenomena and the phenomena of sexual abuse by psychotherapists, in terms of dynamics, prevalence, and appropriate strategies for prevention. Part II uses work on the development of dialectical thinking in adulthood to conceptualize how different understandings of the nature of psychotherapists' theories and expertise increase or decrease the likelihood and severity of ‘theoretical abuse’. Finally, it derives implications for training psychologists and other psychotherapy professionals.     

小学低年级儿童对友谊关系的认知发展

本研究用日常生活承诺问题的两难故事对小学低年级儿童作个别随访,探查了儿童对友谊关系的认知发展。结果表明,儿童有关社会-道德思维的发展遵循着一定的模式,各发展水平既是连续的,也各有质的特点,从而形成层次等级结构系统。与国外同类研究的发现不同,我国儿童在较低发展水平上已显示出对他人利益的关心和责任感。本研究还对发展中的个别差异作了探讨。