Inequalities among lower bounds to reliability: With applications to test construction and factor analysis

A chain of lower-bound inequalities leading to the greatest lower bound to reliability is established for the internal consistency of a composite of unit-weighted components. The chain includes the maximum split-half coefficient, the lowest coefficient consistent with nonimaginary common factors, and the lowest coefficient consistent with nonimaginary common and unique factors. Optimization theory is utilized to determine the conditions that are requisite for the inequalities. Convergence proofs demonstrate that the coefficients can be attained. Rapid algorithms obtain estimates of the coefficients with sample data. The theory yields methods for splitting items into maximally similar sets and for exploratory factor analysis based on a theoretical solution to the communality problem.     

Beyond Defiance: An Augmented Investment Perspective on Creativity

An investment perspective on creativity, proposed 30 years ago, no longer seems adequate, nor do various revisions of the model made since then. The world, or at least the way many people experience it, has changed and so have the challenges for creativity. In particular, creativity is being used to increasingly greater effect in negative ways and in ways that lack integrity with respect both to internal coherence and external correspondence to the world. To understand creativity and adequately teach it, people need to take into account its positivity and its integrity with respect to internal coherence and external correspondence.     

Formal aspects of Legal reasoning

This paper discusses the functions of deductive justification in ideal reconstructions of judicial reasoning. It departs from the point of judicial reasoning: explaining and justifying the judicial decision. It argues that deductive validity is not enough for good judicial argument. On the other hand, deductive justification is necessary, not only for easy cases but for hard cases as well. It draws some consequences for the concept of jumps in legal reasoning and for the traditional distinction between internal and external justification.     

医德形成:外在强制与内在自觉

作为一种职业道德，医德的形成需要有一个过程。首先要以普通人或一般人的本质特性，即人是一个自由的有意识的存在者为前提条件。根据现代人的道德状况，将医德的形成分为两种路径，即医德形成的一般途径：靠制度约束的外在强制；医德形成的根本途径：对医生美德的内在自觉。     

跨文化适应影响因素研究述评

跨文化接触会影响人的适应,影响跨文化适应的因素有内部因素和外部因素,外部因素包括生活变化、社会支持、旅居时间、文化距离、歧视与偏见等,内部因素包括认知评价方式、应对方式、人格、与文化相关的知识与技能、人口统计学因素     

国外关于工作倦怠研究的现状述评

文章回顾了国外关于工作倦怠的相关研究,全文分四部分进行介绍。第一部分介绍其概念以及相关量表;第二部分对工作倦怠方面研究的发展过程做一简介,主要涉及研究范围、研究方法和所关注的问题;第三部分介绍对工作倦怠产生影响的因素,分为工作特征和个体特征两方面的因素;第四部分补充介绍一些解释工作倦怠成因的理论模型。最后,文章在第五部分加以总结评述并对今后研究提出展望     

依恋内部工作模式的研究概述及探讨

依恋内部工作模式（internal working model）是一种认知/情感性的构造,是在婴儿/孩子与父母行为交互作用的过程中发展起来的对他人和自我的一种心理表征。Bowlby的内部工作模式的概念为理解依恋行为的发展提供了方法,是依恋研究工作的进步。该文从内部工作模式的性质、内部工作模式的结构和其稳定性的研究对内部工作模式进行了较为详细的介绍,详细论述了在发展心理学和社会心理学不同理论背景下的几种可能的结构,进一步分析了内部工作模式的稳定性和变化的机制及其影响因素,并对今后内部工作模式概念的发展和可能的不同类型的内部工作模型结构的存在进行了思考和探索。特别的提出,随着儿童青少年的成长,人际关系的不断复杂化,个体可能在自身的依恋模式基础上分别分化出不同类型的工作模式结构,对这一理论构想进行深入研究将有可能揭示内部工作模式的个体差异性。     

Psychological Reactance: Factor Structure and Internal Consistency of the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance

Abstract

Psychological reactance, the theory that people resist attempts to constrain either their thoughts or their behaviors (J. W. Brehm, 1966), has been an influential concept in social psychology. In an attempt to measure reactance, J. Merz (1983) developed the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance (QMPR). Subsequent researchers (S.-M. Hong & R. Ostini, 1989; R. K. Tucker & P. Y. Byers, 1987) have debated both the exact factor structure and the psychometric stability of the QMPR. In the present study, 898 undergraduates completed the QMPR. Factor analysis suggested that psychological reactance is multidimensional. The authors found 3 factors underlying the QMPR, but the QMPR provided unreliable estimates for each of those factors. According to the results, the QMPR as currently written is psychometrically unsatisfactory.     

Orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortex functioning in Parkinson's disease: neuropsychological evidence

A recent paper (Zald & Andreotti, 2010) reviewed neuropsychological tasks that assess the function of the orbital and ventromedial portions of the prefrontal cortex (OMPFC). Neuropathological studies have shown that the function of the OMPFC should be preserved in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) but becomes affected in the advanced stages of PD. This pattern has also been suggested by studies that have shown that dopaminergic drugs impair the performance of early PD patients in OMPFC tasks that involve reinforcement learning but enhance the performance of advanced PD patients. Based on these empirical findings, we reviewed the neuropsychological evidence of OMPFC functions in PD patients to test two hypotheses regarding the following: (1) OMPFC functions at different stages of PD; (2) different effects of dopaminergic drugs on OMPFC functions based on PD stage and task demand. We focused our review only on the neuropsychological tasks that were specific and sensitive to the functions of the OMPFC and that were adopted at different stages of PD, such as reversal learning tasks, the Iowa Gambling Task and the affective Theory of Mind task. We found robust empirical evidence that in early PD, OMPFC functions are preserved and dopaminergic drugs result in a detrimental effect when the task involves reinforcement learning. Further studies are needed to verify the status of OMPFC functions in non-demented, advanced PD and to describe the longitudinal course of OMPFC functions in this clinical population.