International Encyclopedia Of The Social Behavioral Sciences

Preface Large and ambitious works such as the present Encyclopedia depend on countless instances of input, cooperation, and contextual support. Therefore, the editors-in-chief would like to express their gratitude to several institutions and individuals. Our most general thanks go to our respective home institutions, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. We are certain that without the effective infrastructures of these institutions and the rich collegial networks and intellectual climate they provide, implementing this Encyclopedia in such a short amount of time would not have been possible. In this context, we also need to mention that due to the administrative budgets provided to the editors-in-chief by the publisher, the financial strains on our home institutions were minimal. Such a situation may be a rarity in the modern world of scientific publishing where publishers often press scholars and institutions into taking on larger and larger shares of the publication enterprise. Aside from the more than 4,000 authors, our deepest thanks goes to the editors of the 39 sections, to whom we delegated many decisions at various stages, who were primarily responsible for developing the lists of articles and authors, and who stood as the main gatekeepers of scientific quality for the entries in their sections. As a group, the section editors displayed remarkable energy, intelligence, and tolerance for the inevitable frustrations of tending large numbers of authors over a long period of time. Because of the brevity of the acknowledgment of the main editorial co-producers here, we alert the reader to the list published as part of the front matter and the description of their extensive work we offer in the Introduction. We would also like to mention that one of our highly esteemed section editors, Franz Weinert, died unexpectedly during the last phases of his editorial work. For people who had the pleasure of knowing Franz Weinert, it comes as no surprise that he completed his editorial duties without ever complaining about the difficult health conditions he was facing. He was a gentleman and a distinguished scholar. The International Advisors also gave wise counsel on several designated occasions, and a number of these scholars represented on the International Advisory Board took more initiative— always helpful—than we had originally asked. The International Advisory Board was particularly helpful in the process of choosing section editors. Some of its members assisted us ably as we attempted to make the Encyclopedia as international as possible and also in dealing with special problems that are part of a large project with close timelines. Thus, we remember a few occasions where members of the International Advisory Board helped us with their substantive and social competence to deal with matters of editorial disagreements. Because of the overall quality, collaborative spirit, and professional responsibility of our section editors, these events were rare indeed, but dealing with them required masterful and accelerated input. We appreciate the collegiality that members of the Board displayed when called upon in these special circumstances. In addi