Showing papers by "University of Mannheim published in 1987"

Soccer, rooms, and the quality of your life: Mood effects on judgments of satisfaction with life in general and with specific domains

Abstract: Two studies on the impact of temporary moods on judgments of satisfaction with life in general and with specific life-domains are reported. It was hypothesized that individuals simplify the complex task of evaluating their life in general by referring to their mood at the time of judgment, but evaluate specific life-domains on the basis of domain-specific information. In accordance with this hypothesis, both studies demonstrated strong mood effects on judgments of general life-satisfaction but only weak and non-significant effects on judgments of specific domain-satisfactions. The findings are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that affective states serve informative functions.

Thinking, Judging, and Communicating: A Process Account of Context Effects in Attitude Surveys

Abstract: The central goal of asking questions in a survey is to obtain reliable information about characteristics of the respondent. Asking, and consequently answering questions, however, never occurs in a vacuum. Rather, it occurs in a specific social and cognitive context that may influence responses in undesired ways (e.g., Schuman & Presser, 1981). Thus, a change in the answer to a particular question may not necessarily reflect an attitude change on the part of the respondent but simply may be the influence of a different context. Schuman, Presser, and Ludwig (1981), for example, found that divergent responses toward abortion, as measured in two consecutive surveys, were caused not by a change of opinion over time but by the presence or absence of a particular question before the target question.

From Asceticism to Administration of Wealth. Medieval Monasteries and the Pitfalls of Rationalization

Abstract: Medieval monasteries are analysed on the basis of Weber's concept of the process of rationalization, since they represent an important episode in this process. They were the first deliberately designed organization in the Occident. These rationally designed work organizations and the puritan work ethic created by the monks led to the accumulation of immense wealth which was incompatible with the ideal of an ascetic life conducted in poverty. Thus, medieval monasteries, leaving no room for self-determination, provide the first example of the 'iron cage' of bureaucracies.

A quick and easy approximation to the distribution of a sum of weighted chi-square variables

Abstract: Various statistical inferences related to chi-square tests lead to the problem of evaluating the probability of a weighted sum of chi-square variables. Tables are available only for some special cases and the computation of the exact probabilities is very complicated due to the well-known problems of numerical integration. This paper presents the theoretical approach of an approximation and an easily implementable algorithm.

Wearing uniforms and aggression–A field experiment

Abstract: Zimbardo's de-individuation concept was tested in a field experiment using games of fieldball. The results support the assumption that higher degrees of anonymity lead to more aggressive acts.

Environmental Evaluations and Participation Activities: A Social Psychological Field Study1

Abstract: A social-psychological field study analyzed how residents respond to environmental problems. The presupposed theoretical framework combines perspectives of environmental research and of political science, and attempts to explain the process intermediate to the presence of environmental stressors and participatory or protest activities. Empirical data were collected in an urban area where plans for a railway had led to some involvement by the citizens. In Phase I of a quasi-experimental longitudinal approach, 229 personal interviews were conducted based on a standardized questionnaire. The data analyses are oriented toward a description and prediction of environmental evaluations and participatory behavior. The results demonstrate that participation is mainly influenced by evaluations of present environmental quality, the expected state of the environment in the future, the knowledge and assessment of participation, and general interest in politics. The exposure level, environment-related attitudes (e.g., environmental awareness or desired environmental quality), and personal characteristics (e.g., education), operate as initial determinants in the causal structure of participation. The evidence obtained supports the main claims of the proposed causal model, but also indicates necessary revisions.

On the Meaning of Electoral Change in Democratic Polities

Abstract: It was only with the broad emergence of survey research after the end of the Second World War that a systematic study of individual beliefs, attitudes and behaviours at the level of the individual became possible. In addition, the application of the survey method to probability samples of specified populations, including the total body of eligible voters, signalled the rise of a research methodology that seemed favourable to the notion of ‘one person, one vote’ democratic mass publics. The spread of the research infrastructure required for the high-quality conduct of such research, plus the institutionalization of empirical social science research at universities and other academic research institutions, did not develop equally well across time and nations; much of the success in this process is owed to the efforts to internationalize social research in the 1950s by scholars like the late Stein Rokkan and Angus Campbell, as well as Mattei Dogan, Jean Blondel, Warren E. Miller, Erwin K. Scheuch, Sidney Verba and Rudolf Wildenmann, to name but a few. For somebody like this reviewer, who joined the ranks of the empirical comparativists one or two decades later, the two books to be reviewed in this essay give a great deal of satisfaction.’ This is particularly so because both books document the maturation of electoral research far beyond its heyday, when studies centred around the analysis of individual elections. By contrast, both books are decidedly comparative, longitudinal and dynamic in perspective. This has become possible because, triggered by networks of research organizations like data archives and individual scholars, empirical electoral studies are now widely institutionalized; for example, the American National Election Study of the Michigan Center for Political Studies and similar European enterprises. Both books seem, at least according to their titles, very similar in intent and content. Whilst the first is more or less true, the second is not. Both publications owe their existence to scholarly conferences, but the Crewe and Denver volume is clearly more coherent conceptually as well as empirically; at the same time it is more limited in scope. This is why this review will first address the

On the unification of psychology, methodology, and pedagogy: Selz, popper, and agassi

Abstract: There can be little dispute that psychology, the study of how humans learn, and methodology, the analysis of the processes of learning, should form the basis of a theory of teaching. A good pedagogical theory should take account of the natural processes which people employ in order to learn. If done correctly, learning is made easier. If not done, there is the risk of forcing students into molds which may hinder learning. Whatever such natural processes may be, however, they alone are not sufficient for the foundation of a theory of teaching. The acquisition of knowledge needs to be distinguished from the acquisition of mere opinion. Learning requires that the natural processes be refined and improved. A theory of how that should be done requires a methodological view which explains how knowledge is acquired. A theory of teaching should, then, unify results in psychology and methodology with specific proposals for teaching methods. The way in which such a unification is to be achieved depends, of course, on which of the various theories in psychology and methodology one adopts. Given the great number of these, there is scope for a variety of combinations. I will confine myself in this paper to one experiment in the unification of psychological, methodological, and pedagogical theories. The psychology is that of the Wiirzburg school, primarily of Otto Selz. The methodology is that of Karl Popper. The pedagogical theory comes from Joseph Agassi. The unity is both historical and logical. Popper started his career as a psychologist and defender of the Wiirzburg school (Berkson & Wettersten, 1982; Popper, 1928; Wettersten, 1985): One reason, he says, for his abandonment of psychology was that what he had hoped to achieve had already been accomplished by Selz 0~oppe r, 1970). 1 Popper used his psychological background in the development of his methodology. Joseph Agassi then used the new Popperian methodology in the development of his theory of teaching. Since the basic ideas in the fields of psychology, methodology, and pedagogy have been well explicated elsewhere and the notion of unifying them has already been proposed by others, 2 a few words are in order as to what I hope to accomplish in this essay. Agassi's theory of teaching is well-known among those who have crossed his path since both he and various students of his have employed it for a number of years. As far as I know, however, there is no explicit statement of it and its relation to the psychology and methodology which preceded it. This seems unfortunate to me; Agassi's work has both theoretical and practical interest, but it can only be appraised if we have some description of it and its rationale. This I hope to provide here. I have,

Is Socialism Inevitable? Historical Prophecy and the Possibilities of Reason

Abstract: Before the end of World War II two important books were published that considered the current tendency toward socialism: Joseph A. Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942) and Friedrich A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944). The first tries to demonstrate the inevitability of socialism and the other denies inevitability but tries to show that socialism can be avoided only if the possibility of a development in this direction is recognized and if one is prepared to adopt political measures against it.

Industrial Policies for Technological Change: the Case of West Germany

Abstract: As a branch of the “New Interventionism” (1), industrial policy in the Federal Republic of Germany has — as elsewhere — a long record which can be traced back to the so-called structural policy. It is only new insofar as the explicit promotion of technological change and innovation has begun to receive more attention since the early 1960s. The following presentation of the policy is restricted to public assistance provided directly to the business sector and hence excludes the financing of basic research in universities and non-profit organisations. It concentrates on an analysis of the policy structure as it developed during the last two and a half decades; an assessment of its general importance and likely impact, and public-choice arguments which may help to explain the conduct of policy.

The Challenge of Basic Strategies

Abstract: International companies should be prepared with appropriate basic strategies to handle today's challenges, and these are seen to consist of allocation strategy, international market segmentation, innovation strategy, co‐operation strategy and strategies concerning the political environment. The characteristics and attendant problems of each strategy are discussed with special reference to German firms, and also the strengths and weaknesses of co‐operation strategies and the influence of social and political/legal demands on international companies.

Phase I/II trial of high-dose cytosine arabinoside and mitoxantrone in adult refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Abstract: In spite of a high initial response rate of 60% –80% the vast majority of adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) still cannot be cured of the disease and ultimately die from recurrent and refractory leukemia. The development of new therapeutic approaches and of more effective drugs therefore seems warranted.

The Andersen-Jessen theorem revisited

Abstract: On etudie la structure des processus stochastiques induits afin de localiser le theoreme d'Andersen-Jessen et son extension dans la famille des theoremes de convergence pour des martingales et leurs generalisations

Das strukturalistische Problem der theoretischen Begriffe und seine Lösung

Abstract: In especially the Sneed-Stegmuller structuralist theory a so-called problem of theoretical terms emerges. But this problem bases on a questionable presupposition (Introductory remark). And the structuralist solution of this problem, the so-called Ramsey-Sneed-solution, is also problematic ((i), (ii), (iii)). Beyond this the structuralist assertion is problematic, that the problem of theoretical terms and his Ramsey-Sneed-solution is empirically relevant (iv). On the basis of the discussed systematic and empirical defects of the problem of theoretical terms and its solution, the so-called non-statement view2, i. e. this solution, will be refused (Concluding remark).

Gesamtwirtschaftliche Expansions- und Kontraktionsprozesse

Abstract: Wahrend es bisher darum ging, Gleichgewichtswerte fur die betrachteten makrookonomischen Variablen wahrend eines Zeitraums zu finden, steht in diesem Kapitel im Rahmen dynamischer und komparativ-statischer Analysen die Frage im Vordergrund, welche Werte die Variablen angesichts der Reaktionen der Wirtschaftssubjekte auf Ungleichgewichts-Zustande im Zeitablauf nacheinander annehmen. In Teil I wird zunachst ein typischer Konjunktury klus beschrieben und die Abfolge solcher Zyklen am Beispiel der Bundesrepublik Deutschland fur die Zeit von 1950 bis 1985 statistisch nachgewiesen. In Teil II folgen Verlaufsanalysen von Expansionsprozessen, die mit Zahlenbeispielen illustriert sind und bei denen auch die Frage geklart wird, weshalb die realisierte Investition und Ersparnis in jedem Zeitraum auch dann ubereinstimmen, wenn die entsprechenden Plangrosen voneinander abweichen. In Teil III werden mit dem Zusammenhang zwischen Steueraufkommen und Sozialprodukt und den Einflussen offentlicher Verbrauchs-, Investitions- und Transferausgaben einerseits und der Steuererhebung anderseits auf die Entwicklung des Sozialprodukts einige Aspekte der wirtschaftlichen Tatigkeit der offentlichen Haushalte in die Betrachtung einbezogen. Teil IV erweitert die Analyse um den Ausenhandel und fuhrt die Importfunktion ein. In der folgenden Einfuhrung in die Konjunkturtheorie wird angenommen, das die Investitionstatigkeit von der Entwicklung des Sozialprodukts abhangt und gezeigt, bei welchen Verhaltensweisen der Konsumenten und Investoren es zu Schwankungen des Sozialprodukts kommt, die nicht zu einem neuen Gleichgewichtszustand fuhren. Teil VI schlieslich beschaftigt sich mit dem Expansionsprozes schlechthin, dem wirtschaftlichen Wachstum. Methodische Grundlage des zweiten Kapitels ist das im ersten Kapitel eingefuhrte Einkommen-Ausgaben-Modell; und es werden nur reale Prozesse untersucht, Preise also noch nicht beachtet.

Socialism: Do The Ends Justify the Means?

Abstract: Many socialists are people of goodwill who cannot resign themselves to the misery and imperfections of this world. They are appalled by the poverty of the unfortunate and by the “squandermania” of many who are rich. They are alarmed by humiliating working conditions, and they are sad about the greed and the lack of cooperative spirit among many of their peers. Socialists want to eliminate these evils. But the same is true of most classical liberals, be they humanists or Christians. These aims of socialism are perfectly consistent, with classical liberalism, so the conflict between socialists and classical liberals is over the means of achieving their common goals.

On education and education for autonomy

Abstract: Agassi's elaboration of some aspects of his views on teaching gives reason to review further the historical development of the ideas of Selz, Popper, and Agassi. We may thereby take stock of some of the differences between the three theorists and make some provisional appraisals as to how we might carry this discussion further. Although Selz developed his views on the relations between psychology, methodology, and pedagogy in only a few essays, he went quite far in explaining how the three fit together. He believed that thought processes are given direction by problems and thus that knowledge grows by the discovery of problems and of solutions to them. He proposed (1925) that this idea be used as the foundation of a new theory of education, especially the kind of education practised in the workschool movement which had its heyday between the wars in Germany and Austria. The unique characteristic of this movement was the development and use of exercises rather than mere drill or memorization. Selz thought his own idea could explain how and why exercises are effective, namely, that they improve thought processes. Although he never explained how problems arise (Koffka, 1927), Selz did unify the theory of individual learning with the theory of the growth of knowledge in general---growth in either area occurs when problems are identified and solved. Nevertheless, there is a difference between the growth of knowledge individually (which is always problem solving) and generally (research). A researcher is a problem solver with special skills, background knowledge, and a pect~ar love of problem solving. However, Selz's idea that thought processes consist of problem posing and solving is not sufficient for the foundation of an educational theory. We also need a theory of intelligence in order to explain improvement. Selz (1935) 1 anticipated this objection and answered it brilliantly; intelligence, too, is problem posing and solving. If this is true, then according to the definition of a researcher as a special sort of problem solver, intelligence will obviously grow with the growth of skills, background knowledge, and taste. The task for educational theorists, then, is to develop procedures for aiding students in the development of these three mental capacities. In this way, we should be able to raise their intelligence; we help them learn to learn. Selz was aware that students are not taught the operations which, when used appropriately, constitute intelligence. To correct this major defect in educational practice, he proposed that students do exercises in groups in which they would correct each other and in which the appropriate operations would be made clear. The students would learn better while also learning to learn. He tested these views empirically in schools in the working-class city of Ludwigshafen and had them

Language contact research in Northern Scandinavia

Abstract: The situation of the northernmost minorities in Scandinavia, the Samis and the Finns, is the topic of this article. Contact‐linguistic research on these ethnic groups north of the 64th latitude is summarised, whereby the monolingual view of northern Scandinavian languages in the past is complemented with a multilingual perspective of the interaction between minority and larger languages. The monolingual ethnocentric view was a result of colonial ideology and intolerance during the nationalistic period. Liberation from this linguistic intolerance has been too recent to result in an overall open linguistic attitude in all domains. However, thanks to pertinent criticism the state powers have been forced to yield in their overly nationalistic language policy; the need of foreign labour in the southern industries cleared the way also for linguistic tolerance in the north. Different contact patterns are discussed: North Germanic—Sami and Finnish—Sami. Also the rise of Europe's only pidgin (Russe Norsk)...

Ein Heuristisches Verfahren zur Mehrstufigen Losgrössenbestimmung für Allgemeine Produktionsstrukturen

Abstract: Die in Kapitel 3 angesprochenen Verfahren konnen nicht oder nur bedingt zur Losgrosenbestimmung in der Praxis herangezogen werden, da sie zumindest einen oder auch mehrere der folgenden Nachteile aufweisen: zu hoher Rechenaufwand Beschrankung auf spezielle Produktionsstrukturen nicht oder nur mit grosem Aufwand implementierbar in bestehende Softwareprogramme zur Produktionsplanung und -steuerung

Rahmenbedingungen der Produktion

Abstract: Mit Abschlus des Kapitels 3 sind nun die Grundlagen gelegt, die uns in die Lage versetzen werden, das faszinierende Gebaude der Produktionsplanung genauer kennenzulernen. Dazu werden wir von Planungsebene zu Planungsebene von den strategischen Entscheidungen bis zu den ganz kurzfristigen operativen Entscheidungen am jeweiligen Arbeitsplatz fortschreiten. Unser besonderes Interesse gilt dabei dem mittel- und kurzfristigen operativen Bereich (Kapitel 5 bis 8). Das vorliegende Kapitel uber die (strategischen) Rahmenbedingungen der Produktion soll daher nur einige Aspekte hervorheben, die fur die operative Planung besonders wichtig sind.

Produktionssysteme und ihre Planung

Abstract: Kapitel 1 fuhrt in die Grundbegriffe der Produktion und deren Planung ein. Der erste Abschnitt (1.1) beschaftigt sich daher zunachst mit den Begriffen Produktion und Produktionswirtschaft, beschreibt einige typische Produktionssysteme und gibt anschliesend eine kurze Ubersicht uber die wichtigsten Industriebetriebstypen. Der zweite Teil (Abschn. 1.2) befast sich sodann mit Grundfragen der Planung derartiger Systeme sowie mit der Organisation und der betrieblichen Umsetzung dieser Planung.

Theorie und Politik der Beschäftigung

Abstract: In diesem Kapitel wird das Problem der Beschaftigung der Erwerbspersonen behandelt, das in den westlichen Industrielandern seit den siebziger Jahren wirtschaftspolitisch in einem Ausmas in den Vordergrund getreten ist, das davor kaum erwartet worden war. In Teil I werden zunachst die Zusammenhange zwischen Sozialprodukt und Beschaftigung entwik-kelt, sodann die Eigenarten des Arbeits markte s mitsamt seinen Akteuren beschrieben und die Arten der Arbeitslosigkeit untersucht. Fruhere Ideen uber die Funktionsweise der Marktwirtschaft in bezug auf die Beschaftigung spielen immer noch eine Rolle, und Teil II fuhrt daher die Modelle der nationalokonomischen Klassiker und von Marx vor. Die Reaktion auf diese erfolgte in Gestalt des Keynesschen Modells, das in Teil III in einer gegenuber dem ersten und zweiten Kapitel erweiterten Fassung mitsamt seinen wirtschaftspolitischen Konsequenzen diskutiert wird. Die darauf beruhende Makrookonomik wurde seitdem jedoch von der Realitat wiederum in Frage gestellt: Inflation bei Voll- und bei Unterbeschaftigung wurde zum Hauptproblem, und in Teil IV wird uber neuere Versuche berichtet, es theoretisch in den Griff zu bekommen, wobei auch wieder Hypothesen der Klassiker herangezogen werden. Teil V schlieslich ist dem Arbeitsmarkt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gewidmet, bei dem die Fulle der staatlichen Eingriffe beeindruckt. Ihre Auffuhrung und skizzenhafte Erlauterung soll hier zu verstehen helfen, warum eine nach den Masstaben der funfziger und sechziger Jahre unerhort hohe Arbeitslosigkeit nunmehr schon seit Jahren ohne Aussicht auf baldigen nennenswerten Ruckgang andauert.