The Promotive: A Verbal Operant Related to Production

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The promotive, as a component of the contingency of production, is offered as a conceptual tool for analyzing verbal behavior involved in the production of useful...     

An adaptive estimatcr frequently used in material fatigue testing

Small sample sizes in material fatigue tests give rise to an adaptive estimator of the 100(1-P)% normal percentile, which is the 100P% survival load. The mean squared relative efficiency of the best invariant estimator of normal percentiles to the adaptive estimator is dependent upon the unknown parameters only through the coefficient of variation. The adaptive estimator is shown to be more locally efficient than tl-:ebest invariant estimator over a subset of the parameter space. However, in the extreme values of P the coverage probabilities of the adaptive estimator provide little more protection than a traditional point estimator over the range of preference based on mean squared relative efficiency.     

Religious tattoos at one Christian university

More than one quarter of Americans now have tattoos. The proportion is even higher among younger adults. Tattoos express affiliation and identity. For some, tattoos also express religiosity. Very little research exists on religious tattoos. The purpose of this study is to profile religious tattoos among students at one Christian university in the southwestern United States. We analysed 752 photos of tattoos on campus. One in five photos depicted an overt religious image or text. Men were more likely than women to have a religious tattoo. In addition, the size, placement, and direction of religious tattoos differed by gender. Men’s religious tattoos were larger in size and in more prominent places on their bodies. Women’s religious tattoos were smaller and in more easily concealed locations. We conclude with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of our findings.     

Nonparametric Methods in Continuous Time Model Specification

Some popular parametric diffusion processes have been assumed as such underlying diffusion processes. This paper considers an important case where both the drift and volatility functions of the underlying diffusion process are unknown functions of the underlying process, and then proposes using two novel testing procedures for the parametric specification of both the drift and diffusion functions. The finite-sample properties of the proposed tests are assessed through using data generated from four popular parametric models. In our implementation, we suggest using a simulated critical value for each case in addition to the use of an asymptotic critical value. Our detailed studies show that there is little size distortion when using a simulated critical value while the proposed tests have some size distortions when using an asymptotic critical value in each case.     

Managing the impacts of large public programs

This paper is the result of a research project which investigated the impact of the U.S. space program on the American economy. Based on their field studies of past space program impacts, the authors develop several conclusions regarding the overall management and strategic planning of large public programs. In this article, the author outlines a structured approach to strategic planning and evaluation which will aid public program managers to respond to the challenge of impact management.     

The different voices of helping: Gender differences in recounting dilemmas

Carol Gilligan (1977, 1982) has proposed fundamental gender differences. Women typically conceptualize interpersonal dilemmas in terms of people and their relationships, whereas men often orient to dilemmas as practical problems. Although considerable research has explored these gender differences, they have usually been treated as psychological traits or abstract moral orientations. In this article we show how Gilligan’s theory accounts for gender differences when interviewees described their efforts to prevent others from driving under the influence (DUI intervention). This result extends Gilligan's theory by showing how it can account for real life differences between men and women. By demonstrating the relevance of Gilligan's gender differences to everyday life, we lay a foundation for further sociological exploration of her ideas. His interests include divorce, social demography, and research methods. His book on the intergenerational transmission of divorce will be published by Stanford University Press. Jerome Rabow has been a professor of sociology at the University of California-Los Angeles since 1965. He has published more than 100 articles in the areas of drunk driving intervention, gender and money, education, and race relations. He recently completed Tutoring Matters: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About How to Tutor (Temple University Press, 1999), a book based on the tutoring experiences of his UCLA students. Professor Rabow is also a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles. He is also Research Psychologist and co-director of the Substance Abuse Research Center in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Newcomb has published over 200 papers and chapters and has written three books. His research interests include: etiology and the consequences of adolescent drug abuse; structural equation modeling, methodology, and multivariate analysis; human sexuality; health psychology; attitudes and affect related to nuclear war; and cohabitation, marriage, and divorce.