Public Debate – An Act of Hostility?

This paper focuses on eristic in political debate of the forensic, or confrontational, type. First, some findings on the enactment and persuasiveness of hostility in a series of Danish TV-debates 1975–85 are presented, including a list of the clearly hostile debater's characteristics and a subdivision of conspiracy arguments. This presentation serves to illustrate that hostility is less persuasive than argumentation practitioners and theorists tend to assume. Next, the widespread notion of debate as a genre half-way between the quarrel and the critical discussion is challenged in a discussion of Douglas N. Walton's distinction between types of dialogue. It is maintained that the normative model of confrontational debate excludes the quarrel and that debate should not be perceived as second-rate critical discussion.     

Assessing therapeutic problem solving skills: Empirical analysis of a measuring operation

Employment of caregivers as trainers is an imperative in the training and treatment of mentally retarded persons. Besides being taught specific behavior modification skills, these paraprofessional trainers have to obtain a set of general skills in order to adjust their specific skills to new clients, situations, and behaviors across time. Empirical research on the characteristics of therapeutic problem-solving skills are scarce. This may be due to a reluctance of behavior researchers against including cognitive factors in the analysis of behavior influence. However, the development of basic knowledge on the existence of therapeutic problem-solving skills should be one of the primary research goals. This article describes the development and application of four scales assumed to be representative of an important set of general skills—therapeutic problem-solving skills. By means of these four scales 21 caregivers were evaluated before and after extensive training. A multifaceted measuring operation is employed with the main objective of empirically testing the dimensionality of problem-solving skills. Rater consistency and individual differences in change from pre- to post-training level are also uncovered. It is concluded that the four scales of therapeutic skills, largely reflect the same underlying concept of a rather general therapeutic problem-solving skill. Discussion of the findings also pointed to future research.     

Moderate Aerobic Exercise, T'ai Chi, and Social Problem-Solving Ability in Relation to Psychological Stress

This study evaluated the importance of exercise mode, social problem-solving ability, gender, and age in relation to anxiety and perceived daily hassles. Adult participants were classified as moderate aerobic exercisers, T'ai Chi exercisers, or sedentary via completion of a questionnaire. Social problem-solving ability, state and trait anxiety, and frequency and severity of daily hassles were measured. As predicted, scores indicating effective social problem-solving ability were associated with fewer reported severe daily hassles and with lower scores on state and trait anxiety. For state and trait anxiety, a main effect of exercise mode emerged after age and gender were controlled. A 3-way interaction involving age, gender, and exercise mode suggested that age and gender moderate the effects of exercise on anxiety, that is, the stress-reducing efficacy of different exercise modes may be dependent on a person's age and/or gender. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

关于证候定义的三点商榷

对证候定义研究中存在的问题进行剖析,提出三点商榷意见.首先,"证"是病理学概念,不是诊断学概念.其次,"证"发生在病人身上,并非由诊断"概括"出来.第三,应当把内在的病理改变与外在疾病征象区别开来.     

日常生活事件对中学生社会适应的影响：社会问题解决能力的中介作用

采用问卷法,对2157名中学生日常生活事件的特点,及其与社会适应、社会问题解决能力的关系进行研究。结果发现：（1）学业压力与人际冲突是中学生所遇到的最主要的日常生活事件,低年级经历的事件显著少于高年级,女生经历的事件显著少于男生;（2）中学生日常生活事件显著负向预测积极适应,显著正向预测消极适应;（3）社会问题解决能力在日常生活事件和社会适应之间起到部分中介作用,其中问题趋近、问题回避的作用尤其突出。     

子图问题学习对几何解题迁移的影响

将一个图形（称为母图）的若干条线段删除后得到的图形叫做母图的子图。运用实验方法探讨了子图结构学习和子图变式学习对解决问题的迁移效果。结果表明：子图结构学习仅对解决“图形结构相同、逻辑结构相同”问题有明显迁移作用;子图变式学习对解决“图形结构相同、逻辑结构相同”没有明显迁移作用,对“图形结构相似、逻辑结构相同”、“图形结构相同、逻辑结构相似”以及“图形结构相似、逻辑结构相似”四类问题均有明显迁移作用。     

On Mill,Infallibility, and Freedom of Expression

Philosophers have tended to dismiss John Stuart Mill’s claim that ‘all silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility’. I argue that Mill’s ‘infallibility claim’ is indeed open to many objections, but that, contrary to the consensus, those objections fail to defeat the anti-authoritarian thesis which lies at its core. I then argue that Mill’s consequentialist case for the liberty of thought and discussion is likewise capable of withstanding some familiar objections. My purpose is to suggest that Mill’s anti-authoritarianism and his faith in thought and discussion, when taken seriously, supply the basis for a ‘public interest’ account of ‘freedom of expression as the liberty of thought and discussion’ which is faithful to Mill in spirit, if not to the precise letter. I outline such an account, which – as I say in conclusion – can serve as a valuable safeguard against ad hoc, reactive legislation, and the demands of a spurious communitarianism.     

Cooperative group learning in a team game: role of verbal exchanges among peers

Few studies concern cooperative learning in Physical Education (PE). The purpose of this experimental design was to analyze the role of verbal exchanges (discussions about the game) among peers within teams in a cooperative perspective. The participants were 17 boys and 13 girls from a French primary school (average age: 9.4 years). They were randomly assigned to two control and experimental groups. The study examined the effect of verbal exchanges on inter-personal relationships and on shooting and skill level in a team game of basketball (with adapted rules). Participants were videotaped during the games in the two groups and during discussions in the case of the experimental group. The experimental design took place during 10 physical education lessons. The results showed positive effects of discussions within each team on the skill level in the game at the deferred post-test. On the other hand, no effect was found on inter-personal relationships. These data strengthen previous findings in the theoretical cooperation framework and in the team sports domain.     

自由讨论条件下群体决策质量的影响因素

通过实验室实验考察了自由讨论条件下群体决策质量的影响因素,并对Stasser所提出的信息取样模型进行了验证,结果发现：(1)部分证实Stasser的信息取样模型。在信息不分享的条件下,如果讨论前群体成员的偏好比较一致时,群体的确倾向于讨论分享信息和群体所偏好的候选人的信息;但如果讨论前的偏好不一致或任务难度较低时,这一结论难以成立。(2)自由讨论条件下,群体规模的增加会增加分享信息的讨论量,而对非分享信息的讨论程度则无显著影响。而在任务难度方面,只有任务难度较大的情况下才有分享信息的讨论优势。     

Problem-Solving in the Nursing Home Environment: Age and Experience Differences in Emotional Reactions and Responses

This study examined age differences in the perception of problems occurring in a nursing home. A predominantly female sample (N = 120) varying in age and in exposure to nursing homes watched videotaped vignettes depicting a woman experiencing problems in a nursing home. For each vignette, research participants reported how they thought the protagonist felt, how she should respond, and how confident they would feel to respond similarly if faced with the same situation. Age, more than experience, was related to differences in perceptions, with older adults reporting that the protagonist felt sad more often than did younger adults, who perceived the protagonist as feeling angry. Younger age was associated with more action-oriented coping strategies. No age differences emerged for how well the participants felt they could handle the situation. Results suggest that nursing home employees differ from the residents in both their perceptions of the problems and recommended strategies used to deal with the problem.