VAN FRAASSEN ON THE NATURE OF EMPIRICISM

Abstract: A traditional view is that to be an empiricist is to hold a particular epistemological belief: something to the effect that knowledge must derive from experience. In his recent book The Empirical Stance, and in a number of other publications, Bas van Fraassen has disagreed, arguing that if empiricism is to be defensible it must instead be thought of as a stance: an attitude of mind or methodological orientation rather than a factual belief. In this article I will examine his arguments for this claim in detail. I will argue that they do not succeed and that empiricism is, contrary to van Fraassen's claim, better thought of as a truth‐evaluable doctrine than as a stance.     

VISIONARY COMMUNICATION QUALITIES AS MEDIATORS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NARCISSISM AND ATTRIBUTIONS OF LEADER CHARISMA

This study seeks to answer questions that have been raised regarding the precise nature of the relationship between narcissism and charismatic leadership. Specifically, we test a model that portrays the roles of socialized vision and visionary boldness as mediators in the relationship between narcissism and attributions of leader charisma. Our findings suggest that narcissism is positively related to vision boldness but negatively related to socialized vision. In turn, both aspects of vision are positively associated with attributions of leader charisma. These results add clarity to the literature regarding the personal basis of charismatic leadership by providing insight into how aspects of visionary communication may mediate the indirect relationship between narcissism and attributions of charismatic leadership.     

Decision Workshops for the Improvement of Decision-Making Skills and Confidence

This article describes the development and evaluation of a workshop program to help people become more confident and effective as decision makers. The workshops, based on conflict theory, consisted of five 2-hour sessions, in which participants learned about the major decisional coping patterns and the critical steps of decision making. Participants also practiced decision-making skills and learned how to use decisional balance sheets, future diaries, and other aids to vigilant decision making. The 76 participants were classified as “problem clients” (N = 44, “learners” (N = 30), and “others” (N = 2). A follow-up questionnaire administered 3 months after the final session revealed that the workshops had promoted increased confidence in decision making and less reported use of maladaptive patterns of decision making.     

Measuring depression for Swedish nonclinical adolescents: Factorial validity and equivalence of the Beck Depression Inventory across gender

Building upon earlier confirmatory factor analytic research that validated a 2nd-order 4-factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory for Canadian and Swedish nonclinical adolescents, the purposes of the present study were twofold: (a) to test the factorial structure of the Swedish version of the instrument separately for males ( n = 559) and females ( n = 537), and (b) to test for its measurement and structural equivalence across gender. Except for three minor discrepancies involving correlated errors, the hypothesized model best described the data for both males and females. Nonetheless, the imposition of equality constraints across sex revealed differences bearing on the measurement of six items, and latent construct relations involving the Somatic Elements factor. Four gender differences in factorial structure replicated findings for Canadian adolescents. Results have important implications for researchers, clinicians, and others whose interests focus on nonclinical adolescent depression.     

Teaching Interpersonal Communication to Troubled Families

Assumptions family members make about each other exert considerable influence on communication in families. Rigidly held assumptions restrict the flow of information, reinforcing counterproductive behavioral patterns. Combining psychoanalytic and structural components, this paper offers a new approach to family intervention that addresses itself to the exchange of information within troubled families. Groups of families convene for a series of camping weekends. The shared life experience in a recreational setting plus the use of a teaching model help family members to break through rigid conceptualizations of themselves and others. In following the observational model, which slows down and fosters reciprocation in communication, family members pursue the following steps: (a) observe each other; (b) compare notes with a co-observer; (c) share observations with those observed; and (d) receive feedback from the observed.