Source dependence in the valuation of objects

We ran two experiments to test whether people value objects more highly when they obtain those objects due to exemplary performance at a task. In the first, subjects who believed they had obtained a prize due to their performance on a classroom exercise valued it more highly than those who believed they had obtained it by chance. In the second, subjects who obtained a prize due to exemplary performance on a task valued it more highly than those who obtained it due to their poor performance. In both experiments, this ‘source dependence’ effect is approximately equal in strength to the endowment effect, which compares the valuation of subjects with and without the prize. We suggest a possible explanation for this source-dependence effect based on associationism, and rule out two alternative explanations.     

How rejection of essences expresses despair

The Self and the ego in Jung's psychology are an instance of what Edmund Husserl called a 'double intentionality': one tending toward meaning is distinct from another tending toward meaning, yet they are reciprocally inseparable from each other. As perception in a present moment and memory of a past are impossible without each other, so an intending of ego and that of Self are impossible without each other. Accompanying the ego (mostly in the background) during each moment of time is a tending towards a particular Idea or essence. This reciprocity is expressed in a unique way over a lifetime and is like the relation of mother and child, and so it is important for all of us born of women to retain a sense of essences and the fullness of Self. 'Constructivism', however, is a current belief held by some feminists, and it influences both theorizing and practice in analytical psychology. It involves a rejection of essences, a revision of Jung's Idea of Self, and an attempt to conduct analysis without reference to an intentional subjective Self. Such constructivist revision expresses a despair both about essences as Ideas and about Self as intentional and subjective. It is despair over Self in a Kierkegaardian sense.     

Pharmacological and Behavioral Strategies for Smoking Cessation

After over two decades of intensive research, a variety of smoking cessation strategies, both behavioral and pharmacotherapeutic, have been developed and clinically validated. In this review, pharmacological products available for smoking cessation are profiled and examined for efficacy. Results of a recent comprehensive review and meta-analysis by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research on the effects of behavior therapy on smoking cessation are also discussed. Further, meta-analyses and studies exploring the important interaction between pharmacological and behavioral therapies are considered. Applications of the growing wealth of smoking cessation strategies are discussed with respect to the needs of some special subpopulations of smokers including highly nicotine-dependent smokers and smokers with comorbid psychiatric diagnoses.     

Multivariate normal integrals and contingency tables with ordered categories

Ak-dimensional multivariate normal distribution is made discrete by partitioning thek-dimensional Euclidean space with rectangular grids. The collection of probability integrals over the partitioned cubes is ak-dimensional contingency table with ordered categories. It is shown that loglinear model with main effects plus two-way interactions provides an accurate approximation for thek-dimensional table. The complete multivariate normal integral table is computed via the iterative proportional fitting algorithm from bivariate normal integral tables. This approach imposes no restriction on the correlation matrix. Comparisons with other numerical integration algorithms are reported. The approximation suggests association models for discretized multivariate normal distributions and contingency tables with ordered categories.The contingency-table approach occurred to me while I was collaborating with Paul Holland of the Educational Testing Service in 1985 on bivariate dependence functions. Holland maintains a belief that the continuous can learn from the discrete. This work is a reassertion of his claim.This research was sponsored by the National Science Council, Republic of China.     

Tail-measurability in monotone latent variable models

We consider latent variable models for an infinite sequence (or universe) of manifest (observable) variables that may be discrete, continuous or some combination of these. The main theorem is a general characterization by empirical conditions of when it is possible to construct latent variable models that satisfy unidimensionality, monotonicity, conditional independence, andtail-measurability. Tail-measurability means that the latent variable can be estimated consistently from the sequence of manifest variables even though an arbitrary finite subsequence has been removed. The characterizing,necessary and sufficient, conditions that the manifest variables must satisfy for these models are conditional association and vanishing conditional dependence (as one conditions upon successively more other manifest variables). Our main theorem considerably generalizes and sharpens earlier results of Ellis and van den Wollenberg (1993), Holland and Rosenbaum (1986), and Junker (1993). It is also related to the work of Stout (1990).The main theorem is preceded by many results for latent variable modelsin general—not necessarily unidimensional and monotone. They pertain to the uniqueness of latent variables and are connected with the conditional independence theorem of Suppes and Zanotti (1981). We discuss new definitions of the concepts of true-score and subpopulation, which generalize these notions from the stochastic subject, random sampling, and domain sampling formulations of latent variable models (e.g., Holland, 1990; Lord & Novick, 1968). These definitions do not require the a priori specification of a latent variable model.The authors made equivalent contributions to the results of this article. Ellis' research was supported by the Dutch Interuniversitary Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics. Junker's research was supported by ONR Grant N00014-87-K-0277, NIMH Grant MH15758, and a Carnegie Mellon University Faculty Development Grant. In addition Junker would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information during his visit to the University of Nijmegen in August 5–10, 1993.     

TECHNO‐SECULARISM AND “REVEALED RELIGION”: SOME PROBLEMS WITH CAIAZZA'S ANALYSIS

Abstract. Instead of focusing my remarks on John Caiazza's interesting and important thesis about the way in which modern technology is drastically secularizing our culture today, I examine the frame within which he sets out his thesis, a frame I regard as seriously flawed. Caiazza's argument is concerned with the broad range of religion/science/technology issues in today's world, but the only religion that he seems to take seriously is what he calls “revealed religion” (Christianity). His consideration of religion is thus narrow and cramped, and this makes it difficult to assess properly the significance of what he calls techno‐secularism. I suggest that employing a broader conception of religion would enable us to see more clearly what is really at stake in the rise of techno‐secularism. Instead of defining the issues in the polarizing terms of revealed religion versus secularity, I argue for a more integrative approach in which concepts are developed that can bring together and hold together major religious insights and themes with modern scientific thinking. If, for example, we give up the anthropomorphism of the traditional idea of God as creator and think of God as simply creativity, it becomes possible to integrate theological insights with current scientific thinking and to formulate the issues posed by the rise of techno‐secularism in a more illuminating way. This in turn should facilitate effective address of those issues.     

The Sexual Double Standard: Fact or Fiction?

In contemporary society it is widely believed that men are socially rewarded for sexual activity, whereas women are derogated for sexual activity. To determine whether a sexual double standard exists, both undergraduate (n = 144) and Internet (n = 8,080) participants evaluated experimental targets who were described as either male or female and as having a variable number of sexual partners. Targets were more likely to be derogated as the number of sexual partners increased, and this effect held for both male and female targets. These results suggest that, although people do evaluate others as a function of sexual activity, people do not necessarily hold men and women to different sexual standards.     

RETHINKING THE PAST AND ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE

Abstract. John Caiazza presents the current technoculture as the latest development in the ongoing conflict of science and religion that began with Tertullian in the third century. I argue that his presentation is historically inaccurate, because for most of Western history science and religion interacted with and cross‐fertilized each other. Contrary to Caiazza's misleading presentation, Western thought did not follow the dichotomous model polemically posed by Tertullian. I take issue with Caiazza's portrayal of postmodernism and his claim that technology is the foundation of an inherently secularist culture. I conclude by highlighting certain ethical challenges engendered by the prevalence of new technologies and present the dialogue of science and religion as uniquely qualified to address these challenges.     

Intending and Causing

In much of the contemporary discussion of end of life cases, active killing is forbidden doctors, whereas the passive bringing about of death is, e.g., a rather common occurrence in our hospitals. In the former sorts of cases, doctors are held to be causes of death; in the latter sorts of cases, they are held not to be. If they did not cause a death, even though they did passively bring it about, we cannot use casual responsibility for a death in order to raise possible questions about moral responsibility for that death. I here look at part of this insistence that doctors are not a part cause of death and call it into question.