Interpersonal Comparisons of the Good: Epistemic not Impossible

To evaluate the overall good/welfare of any action, policy or institutional choice we need some way of comparing the benefits and losses to those affected: we need to make interpersonal comparisons of the good/welfare. Yet sceptics have worried either: (1) that such comparisons are impossible as they involve an impossible introspection across individuals, getting ‘into their minds’; (2) that they are indeterminate as individual-level information is compatible with a range of welfare numbers; or (3) that they are metaphysically mysterious as they assume the existence either of a social mind or of absolute levels of welfare when no such things exist. This article argues that such scepticism can potentially be addressed if we view the problem of interpersonal comparisons as fundamentally an epistemic problem – that is, as a problem of forming justified beliefs about the overall good based on evidence of the individual good.

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Information Processing, Motivation, and Group Creativity

The Oxford Handbook of Group Creativity and Innovation ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190648077.013.6 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 85-102

Author(s):

Bernard A. Nijstad ◽

Myriam Bechtoldt ◽

Hoon-Seok Choi

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Cognitive Stimulation ◽

Collaborative Problem Solving ◽

Group Level ◽

Group Creativity ◽

Individual Level ◽

Level Information ◽

Motivated Information Processing ◽

Processing Motivation ◽

The Individual

According to an information processing perspective, group creativity results from the combination of individual resources into a (creative) group product. This involves information processing at the individual as well as the group level (by means of communication). This chapter first discusses how individual-level information processing is affected by group interaction in terms of both cognitive interference and cognitive stimulation. It then discusses (1) the evidence linking group-level information processing (i.e., communication, information sharing, collaborative problem solving) to group creativity and (2) the factors that stimulate or reduce group-level information processing. It is argued that many research findings can be explained by assuming that group creativity involves motivated information processing of members.

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Membership in and Presence of Voluntary Organisations during the Swedish Fertility Transition, 1880-1949

Historical Life Course Studies ◽

10.51964/hlcs9335 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. 3-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Johan Junkka

Keyword(s):

Structural Changes ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Fertility Transition ◽

Control Group ◽

Mixed Effect ◽

Individual Level ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Level Information ◽

The Individual ◽

Voluntary Organisations

This article investigates the association between, participation in, and exposure to voluntary organisations and marital fertility during the European fertility transition from 1880 to 1949. This is achieved using individual-level longitudinal demographic data from northern Sweden linked with individual-level information on voluntary organisation membership and contextual level information on organisation activity. How living near an organisation influenced fertility is measured using mixed effect Cox regressions. The association to participation for both men and women is tested by matching members to a control group through propensity score matching before estimating differences in risks of another birth using Cox regressions. The results show that being exposed to an organisation was related to lower fertility. Joining a union or a temperance organisation showed even stronger negative associations, but only for male members, while female members showed no significant difference in fertility. The results suggest that reproductive decisions were not simple responses by the individual couple to structural changes but were also shaped within the social networks of which they were a part.

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Prospective Time Periodic Geographical Covid-19 Surveillance in Ethiopia Using a Space-time Scan Statistics: Detecting and Evaluating Emerging Clusters

10.21203/rs.3.rs-76052/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nuredin Nassir Azmach ◽

Tesfay Gebremariam Tesfahannes ◽

Samiya Abrar Abdulsemed ◽

Temam Abrar Hamza

Keyword(s):

Addis Ababa ◽

Space Time ◽

City Government ◽

Capital City ◽

Scan Statistics ◽

Individual Level ◽

Level Information ◽

Public Health Officials ◽

The Individual ◽

Time Scan

Abstract Background: On December 31, 2019, multiple pneumonia cases, subsequently identified as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was reported for the first time in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province in China. At that time, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission had report 27 cases, of which seven are severely ill, and the remaining cases are stable and controllable. Since, then, the spread of COVID-19 has already taken on pandemic proportions, affecting over 100 countries in a matter of weeks. As of September 07, 2020, there had been more than 27 million confirmed cases and 889,000 total deaths, with an average mortality of about 3.3%, globally. In Ethiopia, 58,672 confirmed cases and 918 deaths and this number are likely to increase exponentially. It is critical to detect clusters of COVID-19 to better allocate resources and improve decision-making as the pandemics continue to grow.Methods: We have collected the individual-level information on patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 on daily bases from the official reports of the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), regional, and city government of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa health bureaus. Using the daily case data, we conducted a prospective space-time analysis with SaTScan version 9.6. We detect statistically significant space-time clusters of COVID-19 at the woreda and sub-city level in Ethiopia between March 13th-June 6th, 2020, and March 13th-June 24th, 2020.Results: The prospective space-time scan statistic detected “alive” and emerging clusters that are present at the end of our study periods; notably, nine more clusters were detected when adding the updated case data.Conclusions: These results can notify public health officials and decision-makers about where to improve the allocation of resources, testing areas; also, where to implement necessary isolation measures and travel bans. As more confirmed cases become available, the statistic can be rerun to support timely surveillance of COVID-19, demonstrated here. In Ethiopia, our research is the first geographic study that utilizes space-time statistics to monitor COVID-19.

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Using Census Data to Investigate the Causes of the Ecological Fallacy

Environment and Planning A Economy and Space ◽

10.1068/a300817 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 30 (5) ◽

pp. 817-831 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

M Tranmer ◽

D G Steel

Keyword(s):

Census Data ◽

Ecological Fallacy ◽

Individual Level ◽

Data Analyses ◽

Level Statistics ◽

Australian Census ◽

Level Information ◽

Small Area Statistics ◽

The Individual ◽

Level Analysis

The authors show how data from the 2% Sample of Anonymised Records (SAR) can be combined with data from the Small Area Statistics (SAS) database to investigate the causes of the ecological fallacy in an Enumeration District (ED) level analysis. A range of census variables are examined in three ‘SAR districts’ (local authority districts with populations of 120 000 or more, or combinations of contiguous districts with smaller populations) in England. Results of comparable analyses from the 1986 Australian census are also given. The ecological fallacy arises when results from an analysis based on area-level aggregate statistics are incorrectly assumed to apply at the individual level. In general the results are different because individuals in the same area tend to have similar characteristics: a phenomenon known as within-area homogeneity. A statistical model is presented which allows for within-area homogeneity. This model may be used to explain the effects of aggregation on variances, covariances, and correlations. A methodology is introduced which allows aggregate-level statistics to be adjusted by using individual-level information on those variables that explain much of the within-area homogeneity. This methodology appears to be effective in adjusting census data analyses, and the results suggest that the SAR is a valuable source of adjustment information for aggregate data analyses from census and other sources.

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Ecological studies

Practical Psychiatric Epidemiology ◽

10.1093/med/9780198735564.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 113-126

Author(s):

Jayati Das-Munshi

Keyword(s):

Ecological Study ◽

Multilevel Modelling ◽

Ecological Studies ◽

Aggregated Data ◽

Individual Level ◽

Country Level ◽

Level Information ◽

The Individual ◽

Study Designs ◽

Over Time

Ecological studies use aggregated data to infer correlation of exposures with outcomes over time, or by place. One of the first examples of an ecological study was Emile Durkheim’s exploration of country-level factors underlying suicide, first published in 1897. Ecological studies have continued to hold an important place in psychiatry, particularly for developing hypotheses. They can also be used to assess the impact of policies on health outcomes over time. There are important limitations associated with ecological study designs, in particular the ability to make causal inferences at the individual level. Multilevel modelling approaches are an important analytic development in the field, which allow the possibility of using group-level information alongside individual-level attributes in analyses. In the first part of this chapter, some examples of ecological studies and their advantages and disadvantages will be introduced. In the second part of this chapter, multilevel modelling techniques will be briefly introduced and discussed with respect to their use in overcoming some of the limitations of geographical ecological studies.

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Utilizing the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework to Examine the Adoption Decision in a Healthcare Context

Advances in IT Standards and Standardization Research - Handbook of Research on the Evolution of IT and the Rise of E-Society ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7214-5.ch018 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 401-423 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Colleen Carraher Wolverton ◽

Patricia A. Lanier

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Healthcare Industry ◽

It Adoption ◽

Environmental Pressures ◽

Adoption Decision ◽

Individual Level ◽

Level Information ◽

Micro Level ◽

The Individual ◽

Level Of Analysis

For several decades the information systems field has studied the individual-level information technology (IT) adoption decision. With the mounting pressure to invest in updated technologies and governmental pressure to implement electronic medical records (EMR), the healthcare industry has searched for factors which influence the adoption decision. However, the adoption rate of ERM has been low due to resistance. In this study, the authors examine why traditional models of adoption which focus on the perceptions of the individual towards the innovation (or a micro-level of analysis) have been inadequate to explain ERM adoption issues. Thus, they examine the broader context within which the adoption/non-adoption decision takes place (or a macro-level of analysis), which incorporates the environmental pressures playing a role in the adoption decision. In this study, the authors adopt the technology-organization-environment framework to examine the context of a physician's decision about whether or not to adopt electronic medical record (or EMR) technology.

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Differential Effects of Competence and Morality on Self-Esteem at the Individual and the Collective Level

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000410 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 183-198

Author(s):

Wiktor Soral ◽

Mirosław Kofta

Keyword(s):

Self Esteem ◽

Differential Effects ◽

Individual Level ◽

The Subject ◽

The Individual

Abstract. The importance of various trait dimensions explaining positive global self-esteem has been the subject of numerous studies. While some have provided support for the importance of agency, others have highlighted the importance of communion. This discrepancy can be explained, if one takes into account that people define and value their self both in individual and in collective terms. Two studies ( N = 367 and N = 263) examined the extent to which competence (an aspect of agency), morality, and sociability (the aspects of communion) promote high self-esteem at the individual and the collective level. In both studies, competence was the strongest predictor of self-esteem at the individual level, whereas morality was the strongest predictor of self-esteem at the collective level.

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Empirical analysis of trait models at the individual level

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e633912013-137 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

James W. Grice

Keyword(s):

Empirical Analysis ◽

Individual Level ◽

The Individual

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Metonymy in Dance: Ballet Bunheads Take a Cognitive Turn

Dance Research ◽

10.3366/drs.2019.0251 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 18-34

Author(s):

Edward C. Warburton

Keyword(s):

Identity Formation ◽

Cognitive Science ◽

Artistic Development ◽

Individual Level ◽

Figures Of Speech ◽

Self Image ◽

Level I ◽

Dance Educators ◽

The Individual ◽

Metaphor And Metonymy

This essay considers metonymy in dance from the perspective of cognitive science. My goal is to unpack the roles of metaphor and metonymy in dance thought and action: how do they arise, how are they understood, how are they to be explained, and in what ways do they determine a person's doing of dance? The premise of this essay is that language matters at the cultural level and can be determinative at the individual level. I contend that some figures of speech, especially metonymic labels like ‘bunhead’, can not only discourage but dehumanize young dancers, treating them not as subjects who dance but as objects to be danced. The use of metonymy to sort young dancers may undermine the development of healthy self-image, impede strong identity formation, and retard creative-artistic development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the influence of metonymy in dance and implications for dance educators.

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