This work is essentially an extensive revision of my Ph.D. dissertation, 1J. It 1S primarily a research document on the application of probability theory to the parameter estimation problem. The people who will be interested in this material are physicists, economists, and engineers who have to deal with data on a daily basis; consequently, we have included a great deal of introductory and tutorial material. Any person with the equivalent of the mathematics background required for the graduate level study of physics should be able to follow the material contained in this book, though not...

Racism and sexism remain prevalent in societies today. Based on this proven premise, the authors of Affirmative Action in Perspective maintain that a policy of equal opportunity as practiced in America is not a feasible, realistic solution to the "legacy of racial and sexual discrimination." Drs. Blanchard and Crosby have edited a volume which clearly displays their conviction that affirmative action as a policy has the potential to establish a society more equitable than the society we know now. Distinguished contributors to this volume discuss the policy from a level of...

This volume constitutes the Proceedings of the joint meeting of GLIM89 and the 4th International Workshop on statistical Modelling, held in Trento, Italy, from 17 to 21 July 1989. The meeting aimed to bring together researchers interested in the development and application of generalized linear modelling in GLIM and those interested in statistical modelling in its widest sense. This joint meeting built upon the success of previous workshops held in Innsbruck, perugia and Vienna, and upon the two previous GLIM conferences, GLIM82 and GLIM85. The Proceedings of the latter two being available as...

The main research described in this book is concerned with assessing the interrelationship of psychological adjustment, compliance with medical advice and use of unorthodox treatments in a sample of rheumatoid arthritic out-patients. Basically this research is comprised of four components: two pilot studies; the development and postal administration of an illness knowledge assessment questionnaire; and a 'follow-up' correlational study. pilot study 1, which involved interviews with 18 patients, was a 'question seeking' study - the aim being to develop research questions of relevance to the...

The present set of notes grew out of our interest in the study of statistical transformation models, in particular exponential transfor- mation models. The latter class comprises as special cases all fully tractable models for mUltivariate normal observations. The theory of decomposition and invariance of measures provides essential tools for the study of transformation models. While the major aspects of that theory are treated in a number of mathematical monographs, mostly as part of much broader contexts, we have found no single account in the literature which is sufficiently comprehensive...

Assume one has to estimate the mean J x P( dx) (or the median of P, or any other functional t;;(P)) on the basis ofi.i.d. observations from P. Ifnothing is known about P, then the sample mean is certainly the best estimator one can think of. If P is known to be the member of a certain parametric family, say {Po: {) E e}, one can usually do better by estimating {) first, say by {)(n)(. .), and using J XPo(n)(;r.) (dx) as an estimate for J xPo(dx). There is an "intermediate" range, where we know something about the unknown probability measure P, but less than parametric theory takes for...

I suppose that most of the people reading this volume will have read or have access to Volume One of my Global Report on Student Well Being. Therefore, I will not review the background literature relevant to multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), the theory itself or the es sential features of the international university undergraduate data-set on which this whole report is based. Anyone familiar with my earlier papers (Michalos 1985, 1987, 1988) will have a good idea of MDT. However, one really has to have a look at the first volume of this study in order to appreciate the richness of a...

Abstraction is one facet of intellectual functioning. The study of abstraction allows extremely valuable insights into human intelligence. While this monograph indicates that the ability to think abstractly declines slightly with age, there are a number of variables determining abstract thinking and its relation to intelligence over the life-span. This monograph defines abstraction from all angles of thought, contrasting it with high-order thinking and stereotyped thinking; it discusses and evaluates tests of abstract thinking; and it presents new findings in sociological and psychological...

In the last 25 years, there is no issue in personality psychology which has been as hotly debated as that of consistency. This book introduces scalability as a reasonable and theoretically satisfying conceptualization of consistency. Three empirical studies of scalability are described; their focus is on the role of scalability as a moderator in prediction. This book makes significant inroads in the field of personality measurement, and, by reviewing previous approaches to personality assessment, it provides a sound theoretical basis for the description and mapping of personalities.

What makes people satisfied or happy with their lives or with particular features of their lives? In his attempt to answer these questions, the author has applied his Multiple Discrepancies Theory to study the satisfaction and happiness of university undergraduates in 39 countries. The project aims to explain global satisfaction and happiness as well as satisfaction in 12 domains: health, finances, family relations, paid employment, friendships, housing, living partner, recreation activity, religion, self-esteem, transportation and education. The forthcoming volumes of this survey will...