Direct visual perception: A reply to Gyr.

Notes that in J. Gyr's (see PA. Vol. 48:4093) criticism of J. J. Gibson's theory of perception, Gyr did not take into account the basic issue of the availability of stimulus information nor consider the radically new conception of proprioception and self-awareness that is an essential part of the theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trends in the study of extrasensory perception.

"Very fundamental questions regarding the structure and the assumptions of psychology are involved when the reality of paranormal phenomena is the issue." This article presents "to psychologists a summary statement regarding the character of the inquiry, the methods, the evidence, and the research situation… . The focus of contemporary investigations in parapsychology is the attempt to define working conditions under which specific paranormal phenomena, such as extrasensory perception, tend to appear, with the aim of defining verifiable regularities in their nature." Personality attributes favorable to success in ESP are indicated. The question of repeatability of ESP research is considered. The need for a coherent theory in parapsychology is indicated and an association theory of W. Whately Carrington is outlined. About 30 to 40 trained psychologists are working on parapsychological investigations. "Our greatest need today is man power. It is not the conversion of doubters to believers, but the conversion of listeners to active investigators… that makes up the real heart of the problem of turning parapsychology into a science." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problems with picture perception: A reply to Rosinski.

Maintains that R. R. Rosinski's (see record 1977-20263-001) reply to the present author's (see record 1975-00215-001) review of picture perception assumes a degree of knowledge of stimulus information and variables, which influence picture perception, that far exceeds that current in the field. It is argued that Rosinski forecloses on further specification of optical information, confuses formal and perceptual equivalence, narrows the original definition of compensation, ignores the problem of information-preserving misprojections, mistakenly identifies knowledge with perception, and fails to consider the specified set of assumptions that underlies J. J. Gibson's (1950) theory of optical information. It is suggested that such problems arise from an overextension of early work, which fails to take note of the continuing development of the theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Picture perception and monocular vision: a reply to Hagen

It is argued that M. A. Hagen's (see record 1975-00215-001) review of picture perception contains a number of inaccuracies involving the nature of higher order variables in perception, the demonstration of visual compensation, the manipulation of relative size information, the postulation of an ability to discriminate the correctness of viewing point, and the existence of ambiguity in monocular perception. It is suggested that such errors are the result of a misunderstanding of the formal basis of J. J. Gibson's (1950, 1966) perceptual theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Scott.

"… Scott [see 31: 2349] reports a failure to confirm our findings on the basis of a study which was not a replication of ours. To the extent that his animals were closely analogous to one of our 5 groups (the interrupted relationship group), his findings tend to confirm one of our major findings, viz., that an interrupted relationship seriously disrupts the behavior of the previously handled animals." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to McNemar.

Corrections made by the present author (see record 1970-05886-001) for suggested spuriousness in Q. McNemar's (see record 1951-05872-001) formula for determining the validity of a short form of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale were rejected by McNemar (see record 1974-24264-001) as being based on fallacious reasoning. The present author replies that correlated errors responsible for the spurious correlation given by McNemar's formula affect only the covariance, not the variances, of the full scale and the short form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Melzack.

Presents a reply to the comments by Melzack (see record 1989-30022-001). Melzack comments that psychological theory is at a standstill and that the nature of self, mind and reality continue to elude us. I recall realizing during my educational training that we had not agreed upon conceptual understanding of self, let alone mind or reality. As an undergraduate student, I was introduced to, as Melzack states, a "profusion of little theories" and, as a graduate student, to a profusion of bigger clinical theories, without however, any conceptual clarity of these important terms. As I prepared for my dissertation, I found myself frustrated reviewing journal articles on self. Despite masses of studies laboriously investigating implications of self, self was being utilized as a vaguely defined dependent variable. As Melzack concluded, masses of facts are compiled with no agreed upon theoretical framework to hold them together. I would like to describe how I came upon a new avenue toward understanding self, mind and reality which has provided profound meaning to my clinical practice. I believe the ideas presented by Melzack have direct relevance for applied psychological theory. Substituting the term "phantom self for "phantom limb" can have many interesting parallels; when a person says "me," that implies "self" though the "self" described is a phantom as the phantom limb. As the search continues for the brain processes that generate qualities of experience for "self." I strongly recommend the consideration of Buddhist ideology for anyone concerned with defining self, mind and reality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Worker control: A reply to Ronan.

Argues that W. W. Ronan (1980) presents a one-sided picture of "work force control" by the "entrepreneur–capitalist–management group" and discredits the contributions of many psychologists to workers' well-being. Ronan's contentions that (1) psychological concepts are applied to programs that are motivated by management's desire to avoid unionization, (2) psychological experiments and interventions are unilaterally imposed on workers by management, and (3) economic benefits of psychological interventions should be shared equally with workers are discussed. It is concluded that psychologists have every reason to be proud of their colleagues' contributions to making companies more profitable while improving the work environment for employees. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring attendance: A reply to Ilgen.

D. R. Ilgen's (1977) objections to the use of attendance as a performance criterion are discussed in terms of R. L. Thorndike's (1949) criteria for criteria, namely, relevance, reliability, freedom from contamination, and practicality. The argument is made that trying to interpret correlations involving an absenteeism measure that has little or no stability is relatively futile, regardless of whether other estimates of reliability (e.g., interobserver) are high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Casting stones: A reply to Humphreys.

Contends that the critique by L. G. Humphreys (see record 1982-24859-001) of the present author's (see record 1981-06882-001) article is vitiated by the facts that (a) the article he criticizes was an invited position paper and not an original presentation of data, so that detailed statistical testing would have been inappropriate to the purpose of the article; (b) Humphreys commits in his reply some of the "misdeeds" of which he accuses the present author; (c) contrary to Humphrey's assertion, the number of cases in the 3 nonentrenchment experiments (74) is more than adequate for drawing conclusions of the sort made; and (d) Humphreys misinterprets his own z tests. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Garfield.

Responds to S. L. Garfield's (see record 1978-02320-001) comment on the authors' (1975) article, with specific reference to the adequacy of the measure of social class used in previous studies and to the interpretation of the data offered by Garfield. Several specific questions that Garfield asks about the Stern et al article are answered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Weinstock.

Contends that although R. B. Weinstock's (see record 1973-02058-001) recent review of the role of deprivation schedules reveals several significant differences as well as similarities resulting from different maintenance techniques, his strong recommendation to use an adjusted vs fixed-percentage weight loss is based on weak or inappropriate data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

G. Stanley Hall: A reply to Rosenzweig.

Responds to S. G. Rosenzweig's (1970) comments on J. C. McCullers's (1969) assessment of G. Stanley Hall's influence and questions why Hall is not remembered as well as he logically deserves to be by most American psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reanalysis: A reply.

In replying to H. Abikoff and P. P. Ramsey's (see record 1980-03741-001) reanalysis of some of the present authors' (see record 1978-32185-001) data from a study of the cognitive-behavioral treatment of impulsive children, it is noted that covariance is likely to increase the differences between groups, but because of a negative relationship between the measures at pretreatment and follow-up, covariance reduced the group differences. A central clinical question—whether cognitive-behavioral interventions can result in treatment generalization—is considered; some recent evidence indicates supportive outcomes. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosis and psychoticism: A reply to Bishop.

This brief rejoinder to D. V. Bishop's (1977) critique of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and in particular the concept of psychoticism (P), emphasizes that when all the evidence available is taken into account and when the theory is seen in its proper development, the criticisms advanced by Bishop will be seen not to be tenable. It is concluded that there is much evidence for the viability of the concept of psychoticism and for the validity of the questionnaire measurement of P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High school yearbooks: A reply to Schwarz.

Examines the criticism of J. C. Schwarz (see record 1970-14955-001) of the study by C. N. Barthell and D. S. Holmes (see PA, Vol. 42:17448) on preschizophrenics using archival data. The traditional assumption that nuisance variables like social class should routinely be "controlled" by case-matching or statistical suppression is challenged. Whether and how much, shared variance should be removed in archival studies is shown to hinge upon a prior causal framework. It is argued that in most archival studies the assumption is highly problematic, and no safer than the substantive theory of interest itself. It is further argued that statistical control of nuisance variables is not "playing it safe," since under several plausible assumptions such control will generate misleading results (e.g., will pseudofalsify a good causal theory). (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The deterioration effect: A reply to Bergin.

Reevaluated the proposition that psychotherapy causes clients to become better or worse adjusted than controls in terms of the body of research from which Bergin originally drew the proposition. It was found that the research cited by Bergin does not support his conclusion, that is, the presence of a deterioration effect, because of problems of criterion validity, lack of experimental control, and inadequate experimental methodology and design. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive behavior: A reply to three commentaries.

Responds to criticisms of J. Wolpe's (see record 1979-12261-001) article on cognition and causation and its therapy by A. Beck and M. Mahoney (1979), A. Lazarus (1979), and A. Ellis (1979). Conceptual and empirical issues are discussed, and points of agreement and disagreement are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Homophobia and psychoanalysis: A reply to Roughton.

Replies to R. E. Roughton's (see record 1994-27310-001) response to D. K. Flaks's (see record 1993-23357-001) article on homophobia and the psychologists's role in psychoanalytic training institutes. Flaks commends attempts by the American Psychoanalytic Association to combat homophobia within the organization but notes potential problems that might limit its success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)