AN ALGORITHM FOR CHOOSING THE SAMPLING TIMES FOR AN EXPERIMENT ON A CONTINUOUS PROCESS

Saunders & Eccleston (1992) and Saunders, Eccleston & Spessa (1992) developed an approach to the design of factorial experiments on continuous processes that allows for the correlation present in such processes. Their methods concentrated on identifying the order of application of treatments in such experiments, assuming that the spacing between experiments is constant. On a continuous process, there is no necessity to maintain equally spaced sampling times. This paper gives an algorithm for choosing the optimal sampling times for a factorial experiment aimed at estimating a particular parameter or set of parameters. It is shown that in practical situations the optimal sampling times give considerable improvements in the accuracy of the parameter estimates.     

MORNING AND NIGHT COUPLES: THE EFFECT OF WAKE AND SLEEP PATTERNS ON MARITAL ADJUSTMENT*

This study explored the effects of spouses' wake and sleep patterns on marital adjustment. A total of 150 couples from three states completed questions on wake/sleep patterns, marital interaction, marital adjustment, and problem solving. Couples whose wake and sleep patterns were mismatched (e.g., an evening person married to a morning person) reported significantly less marital adjustment, more marital conflict, less time spent in serious conversation, less time spent in shared activities and less frequent sexual intercourse than matched couples. Contrary to expectations for matched couples, night couples did not report more involvement in extra-familial social activities than morning couples. Morning couples engaged in sexual intercourse more frequently in the morning than night couples; night couples had sex more often in the evening than morning couples. There were no significant differences in the intercourse rates for morning couples and night couples. Compared to matched couples, mismatched couples with high marital adjustment reported more flexibility and adaptability in their marital problem solving. The implications of these findings for premarital counseling and marital therapy are discussed.     

Revisiting the Work Ethic in America

Starting with a reflection on the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center and the corporate fraud and bankruptcies of 2002, the authors provide an overview of the professional literature concerning the origins, evolution, practice, and future implications of the work ethic in the United States. Discussion focuses on the American work ethic from both a historical and a modern‐day perspective, highlighting the formation of what is now considered a major paradigm of work; views on the changing nature of the work ethic, especially for women and members of minority groups; and implications for career counselors.     

Productivity predictors of assembly workers using standards based on learning curves

This study examines the impact of long range planning in a manufacturing setting where standards are used to budget and evaluate employee performance and it further investigates whether demographic factors can be used to predict worker performance. Twenty-three factors were chosen for the study and five factors were significant in explaining employee performance. The results suggest that demographic factors may be used to identify potentially high performing workers.     

Turning points and intersubjectivity

A crucial ingredient of turning points in psychotherapy is the intersubjective transaction. Turning points are defined as shifts in the patient's behavior, attitudes, or feelings while intersubjectivity refers to that process of reciprocal influence in which each person in the therapeutic dyad influences and is influenced by the other. Four major aspects of the relationship of turning points to the intersubjective transaction are discussed: the empathic alliance, the linkage of interpretation and attachment, the role of the therapist's past experiences and the fear of existential loneliness. Two case illustrations demonstrate the way in which the awareness of the therapists and patient's subjectivities enhances the therapeutic progress.     

AN ESTIMATE OF THE RENT GENERATED BY A PREMIUM COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYER

The National Collegiate Athletic Association limits the payments athletes can receive for their services. Colleges are effectively monosony employers so players will not be paid their marginal revenue product. Therefore, colleges capture an economic rent from players. This paper measures these rents by estimating the marginal revenue product of a top college football player. The empirical results suggest that a premium college player generates over $500,000 in annual revenues for his team.     

HERBERT BLUMER: A PILGRIMAGE WITH PRAGMATISM

This article is an examination of Herbert Blumer's lifelong effort to perpetuate pragmatism raises serious questions about the future of the social sciences. He tried, through critical analyses, to tell social scientists how to make their fields scientific. Opposition to this effort was overwhelming and eventually weakened his own perspective and thus his influence in the discipline. The story of Blumer provides several lessons for future social scientists. It is intended that these lessons to be useful to those who still believe in a scientific social science.     

Truncated Egalitarian solutions

A family of solutions to the bargaining problem with a variable population, generalizing the Egalitarian solution, is introduced under the name of Truncated Egalitarian solutions. A Truncated Egalitarian solution solves small problems at thier Egalitarian outcome and larger problems at some fixed and therefore non-optimal point, violations of optimality being more severe for large than for small groups. Any solution satisfying Symmetry, Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives, Continuity and Monotonicity (when the claims of more agents have to be accomodated, all agents should sacrifice) coincides with a Truncated Egalitarian solution except perhaps when only two agents are involved, in which case utility substitutions are possible in some limited range.