Critical Theory and the Hermeneutical Circle*

This paper examines the debate between Gadamer and Habermas concerning the relationship between hermeneutics and critical theory. Formulating the hermeneutical circle in terms of relationship between understanding and interpretation, this paper examines three positions on the circle held by positivism, critical theory and hermeneutics, respectively. A commitment to method and procedure on the part of Habermas is offered as the basis for critical theory's limited acceptance of the hermeneutical circle. This is shown through an analysis of Knowledge and Human Interests as indicative of Habermas's implicit objectivism and his methodical, as opposed to hermeneutical, model of reasoning for social inquiry. The best definition for hermeneutics is: to let what is alienated by the character of the written word or by the character of being distantiated by cultural or historical distances speak again. This is hermeneutics: to let what seems to be far and alienated speak again (Gadamer, 1980a:83).     

A Cognitive Stress Reduction Program for Recently Unemployed Managers

This study examined the effectiveness of a structured cognitive stress reduction program for unemployed managers involved in an outplacement program. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. One group of managers received structured weekly counseling using a cognitively based stress reduction program. They were compared with a control group that received unstructured advice about managing stress as part of a typical outplacement program. The managers who received the cognitive intervention, as compared with managers in the control group, found reemployment significantly sooner and showed reductions in levels of state anxiety and anger that were statistically significant.     

Pearls and pitfalls in evaluating a Student Assistance Program: a five-year case study

This article presents data from a five-year evaluation-research case study of a large urban schools district's internal Student Assistance Program (SAP). The district employed specially trained and licensed school-based counselors to implement an internal SAP expanded to include tertiary prevention, and modeled after an employee assistance program established for adults. From the population of more than 10,000 students who received some type of program assistance for at-risk behaviors, a stratified random sample of 2,238 cases, over a five year period, were reviewed. Results indicate a statistically significant decline (p < .05) in students' drug use and a significant improvement in internal locus of control occurred each year. While not statistically significant, the average number of student discipline referrals was less than the year prior to program admission; however, there was no significant change in academic performance. A significant correlation between students' drug use and the amount of time in program, the type of assistance received, and the student's custody status was also found.     

Urge to Gamble in Problem Gamblers Exposed to a Casino Environment

Cue-reactivity has received increased attention in addiction research, though not for gambling in particular. We examined cue reactivity in 18 problem gamblers by accompanying them to a gaming casino and measuring their subjective urge to gamble over a 1-h period. Half of the sample was additionally exposed to a gambling-specific negative mood induction (NMI) manipulation via guided imagery. Overall, about two-thirds of the sample reported moderate to high-gambling urges during the casino exposure. Additionally, the NMI reduced cue-reactivity. Finally, gambling urges in both groups decreased over the course of the exposure sessions. These findings suggest that a majority of problem gamblers experience the urge to gamble when exposed to gambling cues and that the intensity of these urges decrease with time, especially in the presence of a gambling-relevant NMI. Cue exposure should be studied further as a potential tool in the treatment of problem gambling.     

Some further aspects of the löwner-ordering antitonicity of the moore-penrose inverse

A survey is given of known proofs of the antitonicity of the inverse matrix function for positive definite matrices w.r.t. the Lowner partial ordering, and of the corresponding result for the Moore-Penrose inverse of nonnegative definite matrices [the theorem of Milliken and Akdeniz (1977)]. A short new proof of the latter result is obtained by employing an extremal representation of a nonnegative definite quadratic form. Another proof of this result involving Schur complements is also given, and is seen to be extendable to the case of symmetric (not necessarily nonnegative definite) matrices. A geometrical interpretation of Milliken and Akdeniz's theorem is presented. As an application, the relationship between the concepts of greater (maximum) concentration and smaller (minimum) dispersion is considered for a pair (class) of vector-valued statistics with possibly degenerate distributions.     

GNR,MGR, and exact misspeclfication testing

The Gauss-Newton regression (GNR) is widely used to compute Lagrange multiplier statistics. A regression described by Milliken and Graybill yields an exact F test in a certain class of nonlinear models which are linear under the null. This paper shows that the Milliken-Graybill regression is a GNR. Hence one interpretation of Milliken-Graybill is that they identified a class of nonlinear models for which the GNR yields an exact test.     

Unobserved-Components Models for Seasonal Adjustment Filters

Time series models are presented, for which the seasonal-component estimates delivered by linear least squares signal extraction closely approximate those of the standard option of the widely-used Census X-11 program. Earlier work is extended by consideration of a broader class of models and by examination of asymmetric filters, in addition to the symmetric filter implicit in the adjustment of historical data. Various criteria that guide the specification of unobserved- components models are discussed, and a new preferred model is presented. Some nonstandard options in X-11 are considered in the Appendix.