The "Positivity Bias" inEvaluations of Public Figures:Evidence Against Instrument Artifacts

The "positivity bias" is a term used to describe the consistentfavorable evaluation of public figures found in surveys overthe past 40 years. This paper explored several possible artifactualexplanations for this bias,focusing on the survey instrumentitself. Two experiments varied the labeling and ordering ofscale endpoints, the affective value of the initial contextevaluated, and the presence or absence of a prestigious jobtitle associated with the nameof the public figure. None ofthe variations produced significantly different levels of positivitythan the standard control condition used in each experiment.RichardR. Lau is a graduate student in social psychology at the Universityof California, Los Angeles. David O. Sears is Professor of Psychologyand Political Science at UCLA. Richard Centers is Professorof Psychology at UCLA. This research was supported in part byGrant #SOC73-09153 A03 from the National Science Foundationto David O. Sears. The authors wish to expess their thanks toMark Williams, who did most of the coding and checking involvedin the survey.     

Local Union Leaders'' Satisfaction with Grievance Procedures

We develop a model of local union leaders' satisfaction with their grievance procedures drawing from the job characteristics model and agency theory. The model is tested with OLS regression and LISREL estimates based on a survey of local union leaders in British Columbia. Results show that local union leaders are more satisfied with their grievance procedures when local officials have more autonomy in decision making; their local size is smaller; the grievance filing rate is low; grievance issues are perceived as important; the grievance resolution rate is high; a greater proportion of grievances are settled in the early steps; and the union success rate is high. In addition, grievance procedure satisfaction is multi-faceted and each facet has its own unique variance and a different combination of significant predictors.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ACCURACY OF "TRIAL HEAT" POLLS DURING THE 1992 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

There is little systematic research on the multitude of factorsthat influence the accuracy of poll results. This article examinessix methodological factors directly under the survey researcher'scontrol and two exogenous factors concerning the nature of publicopinion as sources of survey error. Data for this study comefrom 56 "trial heat" polls conducted during the last month ofthe 1992 presidential election. The most important variablesinfluencing survey accuracy were the number of days a poll isin the field, which increased total accuracy one-half of a percentagepoint per day; conducting interviews only on weekdays (and thusonly during evening hours), which reduced overall accuracy ratesby more than 1 percentage point; and conducting a "tracking"poll, which increased accuracy by about 1.5 points. Sample sizewas not related to accuracy rates. Results also indicated thatsampling frames of "likely voters" (relative to "registeredvoters") tended to overestimate support for George Bush andunderestimate support for Ross Perot, that interviewing onlyon weekdays led to overestimates of support for Bush, and thatstrict methods of defining a respondent as "supporting" a candidatehurt the two newcomers, Perot and Bill Clinton, more than Bush.In light of these data it is recommended that the common practiceof reporting "margins of error" based solely on sample sizesbe abandoned as misleading and replaced by a more empiricallyjustifiable measure based more on response rates.     

A cost model for deferred state life test plans with replacement

This paper presents a cost model for the deferred state life test plan, which is one of the lot-by-lot acceptance sampling plans by attributes. In most sampling plans, the decision to accept or reject a submitted lot depends only on the sampling test results of the lot concerned; other information will not be considered. Deferred state life test plan is a sampling plan which uses information about subsequent lots for making decisions to accept or reject the current lot. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the total test cost of using the deferred state life test plan to see whether the use of this life test plan can reduce the total cost of the sampling test. In order to calculate the expected total test cost of the deferred state life test plan, a cost model is developed for the deferred state life test plan with replacement. Also, a cost comparison is made between a deferred state life test plan and a comparable military standard sampling plan which offers the same level of producer's and consumer's protection. The results show that the deferred state life test plan consistently reduces the overall cost of sampling tests over a variety of test conditions.     

Estimating the Basic Reproductive Number in the General Epidemic Model with an Unknown Initial Number of Susceptible Individuals

Abstract. In any epidemic, there may exist an unidentified subpopulation which might be naturally immune or isolated and who will not be involved in the transmission of the disease. Estimation of key parameters, for example, the basic reproductive number, without accounting for this possibility would underestimate the severity of the epidemics. Here, we propose a procedure to estimate the basic reproductive number ( R ₀ ) in an epidemic model with an unknown initial number of susceptibles. The infection process is usually not completely observed, but is reconstructed by a kernel‐smoothing method under a counting process framework. Simulation is used to evaluate the performance of the estimators for major epidemics. We illustrate the procedure using the Abakaliki smallpox data.     

Self-Interest and Civilians' Attitudes Toward the Vietnam War

The possible consequences of self-interest on American publicopinion were examined in the context of the United States militaryinvolvement in Vietnam Civilians' personal connections to thewar, in terms of their friends' and relatives' military service,did make them pay more attention to the war, but such connectionsseemed to have only weak effects on the salience of the waras a political issue. Similarly, there was no evidence thatthe self-interested had distinctively self-serving policy attitudestoward the war. Rather, the more important determinants of attitudestoward the war were attitudes toward various political symbolsassociated with the war. Finally, self-interest made very littledifference in enhancing the consistency of partisan attitudesinvolved in the 1968 presidential decision.     

超越论的自我论之批判与意识的非自我论理解——年青萨特的贡献

本文以萨特的早期文献为依据,探讨了萨特思想得以形成的基础和过程.年青萨特通过研读胡塞尔的现象学,澄清了胡塞尔现象学与康德哲学在主体课题上的重要分野;进而又通过对胡塞尔的超越论的自我思想的批判,推进了早期胡塞尔的非观念论现象学的进路;并在此基础上,提出了他的非自我论的意识概念,从而为他后来的存在主义思想奠定了基础.     

张家山汉简《奏谳书》与岳麓书院秦简《为狱等状四种》的初步比较

经过岳麓秦简《为狱等状四种》与张家山汉简《奏谳书》的比较,发现《奏谳书》与《状四种》这两个案例集有很多相同的法律术语,而且刑罚等级及据此确定的加刑、减刑原则及诉讼程序基本一致。《奏谳书》中的三类案例也见于岳麓秦简《状四种》中：“疑罪”类;“乞鞫”类以及“上得微难狱者”类。可以说,虽然经过了朝代更迭,由秦朝所建立的司法机构大体上被汉朝予以采纳,在根本上没有大的改变。     

佛教唯识宗“对象”概念初探: 以《成唯识论》为据

《成唯识论》对所缘的特殊诠释不单在于提出亲、疏之分，且进一步把疏所缘依其来源再分为同聚、异聚，即自己与他人两类。《成唯识论》借助此一诠释解决表像论的单边认知所遇上的符应难题，即以个体众生之间依名言而起的相向互动，为建立共识提供可能性，从而把问题的性质由个体的、单向的静态认知如何符应物质性对象世界转换为个体之间相向地、动态地以名言主动地塑造或建构彼此的共识。     

王闿运《尔雅集解》探析

王闿运《尔雅集解》为重要的雅学典籍,采录汉至清代相关注释,要言不烦,并多己见,可与邵晋涵《尔雅正义》、郝懿行《尔雅义疏》相参照。《尔雅集解》之体例为：卷首撰写引言,说明各篇要旨;正文下标示异文;立论之前,罗列旧注。其注解方法主要有四：追寻字义、分析词义、校勘异文、辨析假借。其显著优点有二：厘清异文,校订典籍;见识卓著,善用文献。然因王氏未见新出之甲金文献,训释字词,难免有所偏误。