B. James Starr

Nonspecific Factors in Drug Effects: Placebo Personality

The importance of the concept of placebo in medicine and psychology historically and in practice was noted, including attitudes and ethical concerns. This paper reviewed evidence relating to personality correlates of responsivity to placebos. It was concluded that a trait model of responsivity to placebos was largely unsubstantiated and suggested that other nonspecific factors of drug effects may be more influential in reactions to placebos. Evaluation of measures of response to placebos and methodological issues is needed. Potential neurochemical substrates for action of placebos were suggested as promising.

Variable length consonant stimuli in a “Peterson & Peterson” short-term memory paradigm

The effects of stimulus length, interpolated task interval, and rehearsal upon recall in a “Peterson & Peterson” short-term memory paradigm were tested. All three main effects, but none of the interactions attained significance. The superiority of self-initiated as opposed to E-paced rehearsal was suggested as was the increased necessity for any type of rehearsal as stimulus length increased.

Yin and Yang: Musings While Meandering the "Bits-of-Data Bikepath"

This article examines some of the scientific, cultural, and social ramifications of our cultural courtship with the concepts of relativism and pluralism. Western social science, with U.S. hegemony, has come full circle from early absolutist tendencies to a more widely accepting posture. The orientation is of whole cloth with current U.S. culture in many realms where a sometimes virulent form of relativism pervades many of our social and moral judgments and actions. Although the orientation may be transitory, many of its features can inform us in valuable ways on a variety of our endeavors.

Just Deserts: African American Judgments of Justice in Stories of Varying Cultural Relevance

Several standard stories used to examine beliefs in justice in other (cross-national) settings were also used in this study. Additional stories were created to examine potential hypothesized differences in this population due to the nature of the original stimulus stories. The researchers also examined ways in which the participants made their decisions. Results suggest that determinations of justice do, indeed, have some fairly standard features, but that population- specific issues also may affect judgments. These contexting factors suggest further studies to help to account for the variability in justice judgments. Important underlying dynamics may be uncov ered by future studies focusing on the ways that participants arrive at their judgments.

Understanding Our Judgments of Justice

A brief overview of the articles in this special issue of Cross-Cultural Research on understanding the processes of judging justice is presented. Important features and contributions of the separate papers are summarized. In several cases, a critique and/or suggestions for further research are offered.

Aptitude measurement in U.S. subcultures

Abstract An item development effort aimed at measuring aptitudes in (minority and female) subpopulations is described. The project, completed under contract with the U.S. Coast Guard, developed items in the areas of mechanical knowledge and comprehension and arithmetic reasoning. A cross-cultural orientation guided the endeavor. Item development is described and preliminary reliability and validity information is reported. Results are discussed in terms of future considerations to help guide work on item development.

Operationalisation of Various Conceptions of the Emic-Etic Distinction

In a recently presented paper (Starr, 1984) the author examined various conceptions of the emic-etic distinction. The analysis laid bare various problems with some of these distinctions and discussed the inter-relationships among them. The examination also seemed to imply several major difficulties with attempts at measuring these various conceptions. The distinctions, in many cases, embody important epistemological concerns. Some of these concerns await clear concretisation in method. The measurement difficulties anticipated suggest that some of the attempts at making the issues concrete may be expected to fall short of the mark.