Birth of the subject: the ethics of monitoring development programmes

NGO-based and rigorously monitored development programmes are bringing about important and positive socio-economic changes in the developing world. However, there are numerous instances of the employment of aggressive and grueling monitoring techniques which objectify the subject of development, the primary stakeholder, claiming development results as the successful achievement of goals of the donor or implementing organization. It is in this context that one can speak of an ethic of monitoring development programmes. The paper argues that such an ethic can be positively based on principles like empowering people through development work without hurting their sense of self-worth, the principle of trust and partnership and, negatively, never striving to objectify any person or people for the achievement of some objective, even if this objective is in itself honourable and desirable. The paper contends that if development is freeing the subject, the central player, to exercise their capability to live their life to the fullest, then development monitoring and development work in general has to enhance freedom, autonomy and openness.     

寻求儒家思想形而上的价值依据--《易传》儒道结合的政治思想

本文对<易传>之成书及学派归属问题得出自己的结论后,从人类社会演进图式与"三材之道"、<易传>与理想人格塑造、<易传>与主体价值的实现三个层面对<易传>儒道结合的政治思想特征做了深入剖析,指出<易传>思想是以儒家思想为基本价值观,在吸收和借鉴道家思想及阴阳家思想的基础上,把它们与儒家思想结合起来,为儒家思想注入了新的思想内容,在更高层次上建构了儒家的天道观和人道观,从而达到为儒家思想寻求形而上价值依据的目的.     

当代社会心理学发展的双重走向论评

本文以社会心理研究的不同学科取向、文化取向和方法论取向做为三条主要线索,对当代社会心理学发展的多元化道路和整合社会心理学的努力进行了分析评价。认为社会心理学发展的多元化道路主要是由于社会心理的多质性和社会心理学的边缘学科性质所决定的,社今心理学发展过程中的整合努力则主要是由于社会心理的整体性和社会心理学的学科统一性所决定的。分化与整合作为当代社会心理学研究和发展的一对予盾统一体,伴随了社会心理学发展的百年进程,推动着当代社会心理学新的发展。     

Book Reviews

John T. Haworth Work, Leisure and Well-being Owen Hargie The Handbook of Communication Skills Richard Lepsinger and Anntoinette D. Lucia The Art and Science of 360° Feedback Kevin Murphy Individual differences and behavior in organizations     

Local homogeneity in latent trait models. A characterization of the homogeneous monotone irt model

The stochastic subject formulation of latent trait models contends that, within a given subject, the event of obtaining a certain response pattern may be probabilistic. Ordinary latent trait models do not imply that these within-subject probabilities are identical to the conditional probabilities specified by the model. The latter condition is called local homogeneity. It is shown that local homgeneity is equivalent to subpopulation invariance of the model. In case of the monotone IRT model, local homogeneity implies absence of item bias, absence of item specific traits, and the possibility to join overlapping subtests. The following characterization theorem is proved: the homogeneous monotone IRT model holds for a finite or countable item pool if and only if the pool is experimentally independent and pairwise nonnegative association holds in every positive subpopulation.This research was supported by the Dutch Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics. The authors wish to thank two reviewers for their thorough comments.     

Issues in common law pleading and ancient rhetoric

The concepts of issue and status are more different than is currently assumed. Apart from differences between the classifications of statements they are related to, there are differences between their definitions. The respective functions of pleadings and of inventio account for most of these differences.     

Empathy and viewing the other as a subject

Empathy and viewing another person as a subject rather than an object are often associated in theoretical contexts, but empirical research of the relation is scarce. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the relationship between subject/object view and empathy. In Study 1, participants watched film clips and indicated their empathy for specific characters in the clips, as well as the extent to which they saw these persons as subjects and objects. The subject/object view explained some, but not all, of the differences in empathy, which raised the question of what else accounts for differences in empathy. A second study was conducted to investigate whether the difficulty of the other's situation also contributes. In Study 2, another group watched the film clips and rated the difficulty of the film character's situations in addition to empathy and subject/object view. The results of Study 2 revealed that subject view/object and perceived difficulty together explain a substantial part of differences in empathy. It was concluded that empathy is evoked primarily when a person in difficulty is viewed as a subject.     

Managers' variance investigation decisions: an experimental examination of probabilistic and outcome ambiguity

Information ambiguity is prevalent in organizations and may influence management decisions. This study examines, given imprecise probabilities or outcomes, how managers decide which department's performance to investigate further when they are provided with performance benchmarks expressed in numerical intervals. Seventy‐nine MBA students participated in two experiments involving investigation decisions. We presented participants with interval benchmarks of a firm's expenses. Being below or above the benchmark should have been seen as equally negative. We found that, when facing outcome ambiguity, our participants consistently preferred to investigate further those departments whose performance was described as having an ambiguous outcome (when the outcome's range was centered either below or above the interval benchmark). However, when facing probabilistic ambiguity, there were two predominant choice patterns: consistently choosing to investigate the department whose performance is described with an ambiguous probability, or consistently choosing to investigate the department with unambiguous performance. To gain further insight, we conducted a follow‐up study collecting written protocols of participants' reasons for making choices involving ambiguous performance information. The results show that our participants displayed similar decision‐making processes when facing outcome ambiguity and probabilistic ambiguity. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

医疗保障制度改革过程中的价值取向问题及其影响

随着社会主义市场经济体制的建立,我国传统的劳保医疗制度和公费医疗制度已越来越不适应社会发展的要求,呈现出诸多弊端,亟待改革。作为一项公共政策,医疗保障制度在改革与完善的过程中应根据科学行政的要求对政策的价值取向进行深入分析,以便顺利实施改革的各项方案。分析医疗保障制度改革中所涉及的各方面的价值观及其对改革的影响,希望唤起政策制定者对不同群体利益的关注,从而保证政策体系的稳定。     

英国新马克思主义的哲学探索

英国新马克思主义者站在时代的前沿,对马克思主义的传统理论命题,经济基础与上层建筑、社会主体、意识形态等问题进行了全新的解读,在此基础上,形成了一种独具特色的马克思主义文化理论阐释模式,并在当今世界上日益彰显出优越的价值。