On some theoretic issues about planned control of population]

There are basic differences between Marxian and Malthusian population thought: 1) For Marx, population is a social phenomenon--human reproduction belongs to social production and population laws are social laws influenced by the means of production. Marx recognized that human reproduction had both a natural and a social relationship, but Malthus population theory only acknowledges the natural relationship of human reproduction. Malthus believed that if population grows without interference, it will double every 25 years, or geometrically. It is evident Malthus substituted biological possibilities for the objective inevitability of population evolution, and natural population laws for social population laws. 2) Marx believed that social production is the unification of material production and human reproduction. Material production is controlled and necessitates control of human reproduction. For Malthus, the growth of the means of subsistence never catches up with the growth of the population, but Marx said that even though land is limited, the development of production forces is limitless. Marxist theory postulates that man is basically a producer, but that population must be planned because not everyone is a producer (e.g., children and the unskilled). 3) Malthus believed that in capitalistic countries unemployment, famine, and poverty stem from too many births by the laboring class, i.e., population determines the economy. The only solution to population problems is to have fewer children. For Marx, economics determines population problems.     

Social Responsibility,Substance Use,and Sexual Risk Behavior in Men Who Have Sex With Men

Considerable public health literature focuses on relationships between problematic human characteristics (e.g., psychopathology) and unhealthy behaviors. A recent movement termed positive psychology emphasizes the advantages of assessing relationships between human strengths (e.g., altruism) and beneficial health behaviors. The present study assessed social responsibility, an orientation to help or protect others even when there is nothing to be gained as an individual, and its relationship to HIV-relevant behaviors. In our sample of 350 men who have sex with men (MSM), social responsibility was negatively correlated with substance use and HIV risk behaviors. Men who had been tested for HIV and knew their HIV status—a behavior that helps men protect their partners but does not protect themselves from the virus—also scored higher in social responsibility. Interventions designed to reduce HIV risk behavior in MSM may benefit from efforts to promote human strengths.     

Disparities in Physical Health Conditions Among Lesbian and Bisexual Women: A Systematic Review of Population-Based Studies

We conducted a systematic review to assess evidence for disparities for lesbian and bisexual women (i.e., sexual minority women [SMW]) in comparison with heterosexual women across a range of nine physical health conditions. Among the k = 11 studies meeting eligibility criteria, almost every comparison (i.e., heterosexual vs. (a) lesbian, (b) bisexual, or (c) both lesbian and bisexual women) was in a direction indicating SMW disparities. Despite limited power due to small samples of SMW, we found evidence of disparities as indicated by a statistically significant adjusted odds ratios for asthma (5 of 7 comparisons), obesity (8 of 12), arthritis (2 of 3), global ratings of physical health (4 of 7), and cardiovascular disease (1 of 1). Evidence was lacking for cancer (1 of 4), diabetes and hypertension (both 1 of 5), and high cholesterol (0 of 3). Future work should confirm findings in more diverse, larger samples and should examine potential explanatory factors.     

Footprints in the Sand: Personal,Psychological, and Relational Profiles of Religious,Spiritual, and Atheist LGB Individuals

The present study offers a comparison of the demographic features and lived experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals with religious, spiritual, or atheist (R/S/A) belief systems. In this sample of 212 participants, the relationship of participants’ R/S/A beliefs to personal variables (e.g., age, gender, race), mental health variables (e.g., life satisfaction, psychological distress, internalized heterosexism, self-esteem), and relational variables (e.g., outness, connection to LGBTQ communities) were assessed. Correlational analyses indicated that level of R/S/A belief was unrelated to self-esteem, life satisfaction, or psychological distress; however, greater religious belief was correlated positively and significantly with internalized heterosexism and outness as LGB. To test the interactions of R/S/A beliefs and categorical variables of interest (e.g., race), log-linear analyses with follow-up chi-square tests were conducted. Findings suggested more similarities than differences for LGB people across R/S/A systems of belief. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

The wealth of nations revisited: Income and quality of life

Does economic prosperity enhance the quality of human life? Across 101 nations, 32 indices were analyzed that reflect a representative sample of universal human values (e.g., happiness, social order, and social justice). Wealth correlated significantly with 26 of the 32 indices, indicating a higher QOL in wealthier nations. Only suicide and CO₂ emissions were worse in wealthier societies. Basic physical needs were met early in economic development, whereas advanced scientific work occurred only when basic physical needs were fulfilled for almost all people in the society. Limitations of the conclusions are discussed.     

National differences in reported subjective well-being: Why do they occur?

There are marked variations between nations in reported subjective well-being (SWB), but the explanations for this diversity have not been fully explored. It is possible that the differences are entirely due to true variability in SWB, but it is also reasonable that the differences may be due to factors related to self-report measurement such as variation across nations in whether it is desirable to say one is happy. At a substantive level, there might be differences in the norms governing the experience of emotion such that cultural differences in SWB are due to affective regulation. Pacific Rim countries (e.g., Japan, the People's Republic of China, and S. Korea) appear to have lower SWB than their material circumstances warrant, and the U.S.A. has higher SWB than is predicted based on its income per person. The genesis of these differences was explored by comparing students in S. Korea, Japan, and the People's Republic of China to students in the U.S.A., and it was concluded that: (1) The Pacific Rim subjects score lower on both happiness and life satisfaction in both absolute terms and when income is controlled, (2) There probably is not a general negative response set in the Pacific Rim which causes lower SWB, as evidenced by the fact that the Asians express dissatisfaction in some areas (e.g., education and self) but not in other areas (e.g., social relationships), (3) Artifacts are not causing the lower reported SWB, (4) The general suppression of mood in the Pacific Rim is unlikely to be the cause of SWB differences, but Chinese students do appear to avoid negative affect, (5) SWB is no less important and salient in Japan and S. Korea, but does appear to be a less central concern in China, and (6) There are different patterns of well-being depending on whether life satisfaction or hedonic balance are considered.     

Sex-Partner Roles in Homoerotic Relations: An Attempt of Classification

ABSTRACT

The attempt is made to initially arrange in the terms of methodology the area of the research on partner roles in homoerotic relations. These issues have been noticed very early in human history (e.g., different roles performed or bimodal polarization), but only recently has science become interested in this subject. It is suggested to cover all such roles by the term sex-partner roles (SPR) instead of various other terms used and to classify them according to the ethological evolutionary approach into the appetitive and consummatory SPR. Further details of the division are discussed, and the utility of such classification is marked.     

Multiple-Indicator Multilevel Growth Model: A Solution to Multiple Methodological Challenges in Longitudinal Studies

This paper described the versatility of the multiple-indicator multilevel (MIML) model in helping to resolve four common challenges in studying growth using longitudinal data. These challenges are (1) how to deal with changes in measurement over time and investigate temporal measurement invariance, (2) how to model residual dependence due to the nested nature of longitudinal data, (3) how to model observed trajectories that do not follow well-known functions commonly discussed in the methodology literature (e.g., a linear or quadratic curve), and (4) how to decide which predictors are relatively more important in explaining individuals’ change over time. With an example of psychological well-being from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we illustrated how the four methodological challenges can be resolved using the 3-phase MIML procedures and the Pratt’s importance measures.     

What Does Non-standard Employment Look Like in the United States? An Empirical Typology of Employment Quality

Despite significant interest in the changing nature of employment as a critical social and economic challenge facing society—especially the decline in the so-called Standard Employment Relationship (SER) and rise in more insecure, precarious forms of employment—scholars have struggled to operationalize the multifaceted and heterogeneous nature of contemporary worker-employer relationships within empirical analyses. Here we investigate the character and distribution of employment relationships in the U.S., drawing on a representative sample of wage-earners and self-employed from the General Social Survey (2002–2018). We use the multidimensional construct of employment quality, which includes both contractual (e.g., wages, contract type) and relational (e.g., employee representation and participation) aspects of employment. We further employ a typological measurement approach, using latent class analysis, to explicitly examine how the multiple aspects of employment cluster together in modern labor markets. We present eight distinct employment types in the U.S., including one resembling the historical conception of the SER model (24% of the total workforce), and others representing various constellations of favorable and adverse employment features. These employment types are unevenly distributed across society, in terms of who works these jobs and where they are found in the labor market. Importantly, women, those with lower education, and younger workers are more likely to be in precarious forms of employment. More generally, our typology reveals limitations associated with binary conceptions of standard vs. non-standard employment, or insider–outsider dichotomies envisioned within dual labor market theories.

     

Parent–Child Proximity: Automatic Cognitions Matter

Individuals’ moving behavior (e.g., residential mobility) is an emerging topic in many scientific disciplines. One specific aspect is the distance between parents and their children (i.e., parent–child proximity). Although determinants and moderators of parent–child proximity can be manifold, we concentrated on the psychological concepts self-esteem and affect by assessing explicit (i.e., conscious) and implicit (i.e., automatic) aspects. Besides well-known correlates of moving behavior (e.g., education), we found that participants (N = 1,765; cross-sectional design) with high positive explicit affect and low negative implicit affect moved further away from their parents’ homes. Therefore, parent–child proximity may not be only based on fundamental sociocultural and socioeconomic needs (e.g., income, family bonds), but also on automatic psychological aspects, such as implicit affect.     

Development of the Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS): Using Daily Life Experiences to Verify Levels of Self-Reported Life Satisfaction

On average, Anglo-Americans report that they are satisfied with their lives, but their global evaluations tend to deviate from their daily experiences (e.g., Oishi [2002, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(10), 1398–1406]). We explored the hypothesis that the average life satisfaction of Anglo-Americans is better characterized as neutral than satisfied. In Study 1 we developed the five-item Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS), which focuses on contentment, fulfillment and self-discrepancies. Normative data based on three general population samples demonstrated that the CLAS produces a close to normal distribution of scores, has excellent reliability, and is sensitive to differences in life conditions (e.g., income, marital status). In two daily diary studies we tested whether global life satisfaction measures corresponded to people’s daily subjective well-being. The CLAS was the best predictor among three self-report life satisfaction measures of daily escapist behaviors including television watching and alcohol consumption, and daily stress-related physical symptoms (Study 2). In Study 3, participants recorded their level of life satisfaction daily for two weeks. Average daily life satisfaction scores clustered close to the neutral rather than satisfied point of the measurement scale.     

Risk factors of severity of abuse against older women in the home setting: A multinational European study

ABSTRACT

This article examines the ecological risk factors of abuse against older women. Data from 2,880 older women were randomly collected in five European countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania, and Portugal) using a standardized questionnaire. Results indicate that overall 30.1 % older women had at least one experience of abuse in the past year. The findings demonstrate that a single emphasis on personal risk factors (e.g., health, coping) is important but too simple: Abuse is multifaceted and is embedded in environmental (e.g., loneliness, household income) as well as macrocultural contexts (e.g., old age dependency ratio).     

‘Valid’ empirical measurement of quality of life?

Results of empirical quality of life studies, undertaken hitherto, are subjectively influenced to a considerable extent by the researchers who try to measure the ‘quality of life’. In substantiation of this allegation it is shown on the basis of empirical data that the results are highly influenced, among others, (1) by the selection of indicators, (2) by the aggregation of indicators to one element, (3) by the weighting or non-weighting of the indicators, (4) by the indicator weigths given by different groups, (5) by employing different measurement techniques. Remarkable progress in empirical measurement could be made by the employment of objective indicators which are weighted by different groups (e.g., citizens, experts, decision makers, etc.). This approach can be called a ‘weighted objective indicator’ approach. In the second half of the article the proposal is made to measure infrastructure disparities both in physical and monetary terms. This permits a comprehensive assessment of the infrastructure's deficits and surplus on the level of indicators, subconcerns, and concerns.     

Towards International and Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration for the Measurements of Quality of Life

This paper focuses on three main subjects: (1) monitoring quality of life (QoL) in old age; (2) international and interdisciplinary collaboration for QoL research; and (3) computer-based technology and infrastructure assisting (1) and (2). This type of computer-supported cooperative work in the social sciences has been termed eHumanities or eSocial Science. Although QoL issues matter for all ages, given the size of population aging and the demographic outlook of developed countries, QoL in old age is one of the most pressing issues to study (Walker and Mollenkopf in Quality of life in old age: international and multi-disciplinary perspectives, Springer, The Netherlands, 2007). Despite the recognized need for good measurement methods in QoL (e.g., Stiglitz et al. in The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited. progress revisited. OFCE working documents, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE), Paris, 2009), effective mechanisms allowing cross-country comparisons are still rare. In the context of QoL or human well-being research and measurement, one of the most influential concepts is the capability approach (CA). Yet, the operationalization of the CA has long been one of the serious challenges faced by capabilities and quality of life researchers. As regards to this issue, we argue that modern technology has the potential to provide ample tools for enhancing the measurement of human well-being, and facilitating large-scale collaborative research on the QoL. This paper demonstrates a methodology, procedures, and tools that we have developed, based on the new technologies designed and developed for both governmental and intergovernmental (OECD) sponsored assessments and that are ready to be used for QoL analysis. We propose a viable alternative for facilitating international and interdisciplinary research collaboration to develop a methodology and a dashboard of indicators to monitor the progress of human well-being over the years and to formalize its multidimensional measure for international comparisons.     

Care arrangement choices for older widows: decision participants' perspectives

This research examines how a wide range of care arrangement decisions for frail older women are made. Interviews were conducted with 11 older women (ten of whom are widows), nine of their family members, and six professional service providers. Maintaining the older woman's independence was identified as a major theme. While all decision participants identified it as an explicit or implicit decision-making goal, their meanings of independence were different. The older women's meanings were flexible, changing in response to changes in their physical condition and need for assistance. Adult children tended to identify their mothers as independent when they did not actually need assistance, or when they received help from other sources (e.g., home health care). Professional service providers were inclined to define independence narrowly, as avoiding nursing home placement. Minor themes associated with independence include responsibility, reciprocity, and the family's importance in maintaining independence. These themes help to clarify the complex dynamics that take place during care arrangement decisions and explain how care arrangement choices are made.     

Well-Being <Emphasis Type="Italic">in</Emphasis> Nations and Well-Being <Emphasis Type="Italic">of</Emphasis> Nations

Human societies cannot exist without human beings and human beings cannot exist without a society. Still there can be a conflict of interest between the individual and society and there are historical examples of societies prospering at the cost of its members, and examples of people thriving at the cost of society. The degree of conflict or synergy will vary over time. This begs the question: How it is today? To what extend does the well-being of contemporary nations go together with the well-being of their inhabitants? In a system theoretical perspective one can distinguish four kinds of being ‘well’: (1) good external conditions, (2) appropriate internal functioning, (3) positive external effects and (4) system maintenance. At the level of nations these aspects of well-being cannot be meaningfully combined in one measure, hence each aspect is measured separately. At the level of individuals a fairly comprehensive measure is how long and happy people live. Data was available for 92 nations in the early 2000s. Analysis of these data shows much correspondence between the well-being of contemporary nations and average well-being of citizens in these nations. This appears in strong correlations between Happy Life Years and (a) the position of the nation in the world system, (b) the functioning of public institutions in the nation, (c) the productivity of the nation, and (d) the stability of the system. There are plausible explanations for this connection, one is that modern society fits human nature fairly well and another that happy citizens make a better society. So, there is no great conflict between the individual and society, at least not at this moment.     

A neo-classical education transitions approach: A corrected tale for three cohorts

Analysts have regarded education transitions research as revealing late stage educational egalitarianism in the United States (e.g., Stolzenberg, 1994) and as sufficiently robust to guide policymakers (e.g., Hout, 2007). However, critics suggest parameter estimates are contaminated by selection bias (e.g., De Graaf & Ganzeboom, 1993), key parameter differences are unidentified (e.g., Cameron & Heckman, 1998), cross-transition comparisons are faulty, and the data are inappropriate. Useful modifications have been offered, (e.g., [Breen and Jonsson, 2000], [Hauser and Andrew, 2006] and [Lucas, 2001]), but analysts have yet to comprehensively address the challenges critics pose. In response, we propose a neo-classical education transitions approach that uses fuller sets of data and models that explicitly address the primary threats to proper inference. Using this approach we re-assess the educational attainment process for a baby boomer cohort, a Generation X cohort, and a Generation Y cohort. All cohorts fail to replicate the waning coefficients pattern. Methodologically, the study responds to criticisms in a way that offers methods for continued cross-national comparative research. Substantively, the study undermines confidence that standard education transitions research can provide policy guidance and the claim of late stage egalitarianism in the United States educational attainment process.     

How to Classify Countries Based on Their Level of Development

The paper analyzes how the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization classify countries based on their level of development. These systems are found lacking in clarity with regard to their underlying rationale. The paper argues that a country classification system based on a transparent, data-driven methodology is preferable to one based on judgment or ad hoc rules. Such an alternative methodology is developed and used to construct classification systems using a variety of proxies for development attainment. The methodology provides a way to construct a linear approximation of a Lorenz curve such that the difference between the linear approximation and the actual Lorenz curve is minimized. The linear segments represent different categories of countries (e.g., low development and high development countries). The methodology has wider applicability; it can be used whenever there is a need to construct a classification system of relatively few categories from a large heterogeneous sample.     

Listening to children imagining gender: observing the inflation of an idea

Using three of the clinical articles in this special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality as examples, the author attempts to show how their views of gender may influence clinicians' conceptualizations and treatment choices in response to children diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID), or gender dysphoria. In particular the author argues that the belief that gender is a psychophysiological entity that is organismic and transhistorical, that is, the view known lately as essentialism, promotes more invasive interventions (e.g., endocrinological and surgical) and mistakenly deemphasizes psychological therapies as a clinical response to the suffering of trans children. He tries to show that the drawbacks of essentialism and its correlated treatment approaches are twofold, that a) they promote treatments with insufficient attention to our limited knowledge regarding their safety and efficacy, and b) they advance a reified differentiation of the genders that is politically problematic. The author suggests that a better response to trans children would be one that emphasizes the child's broadly subjective role in his or her construction of transgressive, gender-related psychological and interpersonal phenomena (both painful and not), thus, offering a deeper validation for trans children's challenges to our gender system.     

Applicability of the WHOQOL-BREF on early adolescence

The WHOQOL-BREF is one of the cross-cultural and widely used measures for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Previous studies of the HRQOL using the WHOQOL-BREF mainly focused on adult; however, there has been less work carried out on assessing the HRQOL on early adolescence. The goal of this study was to examine the applicability of the WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version in early adolescent sample. A total of 365 junior high school students participated in this study. Participants completed the WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version and five visual-analogue items on HRQOL evaluation. The results supported the originally designed four-factor model, and also indicated good item discrimination, internal reliability, factorial validity (by using confirmatory factor analysis) and construct validity (e.g., predictive validity, discriminant and convergent validity) after deleting two physical health items (i.e., “To what extent do you feel that your pain hinders you in doing what you need to do”; “Do you need medical treatment to cope with your daily life?”) and one social relationships item (i.e., “Are you satisfied with your sex life?”). Overall, this study provides the applicability of the WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version in early adolescence. In addition, the WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version may be of use to health professionals in the assessment and comparison of different age groups from early adolescence to adulthood.