The protections of our privacy rights are under threat in Congress

As the executive director of the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance, the statewide recovery community organization of Pennsylvania, I am alarmed by ongoing efforts occurring in Congress to erode our substance use disorder patient record privacy rights. There are sweeping changes being considered in Congress that would fundamentally erode our rights.     

Voting power measurement: a story of misreinvention

In this account of the history of voting-power measurement, we confine ourselves to the concept of a priori voting power. We show how the concept was re-invented several times and how the circumstances in which it was reinvented led to conceptual confusion as to the true meaning of what is being measured. In particular, power-as-influence was conflated with value in the sense of transferable utility cooperative game theory (power as share in constant total payoff). Influence was treated, improperly, as though it were transferable utility, and hence an additive and distributive quantity. We provide examples of the resulting misunderstanding and mis-directed criticism.     

Leveling the playing field: Dishonesty in the face of threat

We examined the effects of framing and perceived vulnerability on dishonest behavior in competitive environments. Participants were randomly matched into pairs and took a short multiple-choice test, the relative score of which determined their merit-based payoffs. After learning about the test scores, participants were asked to report them, thus affecting the final payoffs. Framing was varied as participants could either report their own scores or the scores of their counterparts. The presence of threat, or vulnerability to other players’ dishonesty, was varied as either one or both players in a pair could misreport scores. Participants who reported their counterparts’ scores were more likely to report honestly than participants who entered their own score. Participants, whose payoffs were threatened by their opponents’ misreporting, were more likely to cheat to the fullest extent. Furthermore, we found that framing significantly reduced misreporting in the absence, but not in the presence of threat. Results suggest that when actors feel vulnerable to other people’s dishonesty they would often cheat as much as they can in order to “level the playing field”, even when they strongly disapprove of the behavior.     

Voting cycles and the structure of individual preferences

Empirical studies have shown that cyclical preferences are infrequent, but they have been less clear about why. Using thermometer ratings from nationally-representative samples of the U.S., we examine preferences for presidential candidates in order to determine what it is about them that leads to few cycles. Single-peaked preferences as usually construed (meaning that all of a set of preferences satisfy single-peakedness criteria) are, of course, rare. Yet we find a high degree of unidimensionality in the sense that for any given set of preferences, a relatively high proportion of the preference orders are consistent with single-peakedness. We also find that the highest amounts of unidimensionality often do not occur along partisan or left/right lines. Strong feelings for or against candidates, often not derived from an issue base, form the basis for the dimensionality discovered.We would like to thank Daniel Severance for programming the random model calculations and three anonymous referees, whose comments were very helpful in clarifying the presentation in this paper.     

Voting in professional associations: The case of the American sociological association revisited

Who votes in ASA elections? This article examines data on voter turnout from two recent presidential contests of the American Sociological Association in an analysis of the determinants of election participation. Extending the 1981 Ridgeway and Moore study of voting dynamics in the ASA, we hypothesize that intraorganizational networks and particular demongraphic characteristics link ASA members to the discipline in a manner analogous to the way such factors operate in the national electorate. On the basis of data compiled from 1985 and 1986 ASA election returns, we find that network factors are the most salient determinants of voting behavior. We conclude that those organizational ties that effectively link members, however directly or indirectly, to the larger Association are the most predictive of propensity to vote.     

Habitual failure: A childhood adaptation to the threat of abandonment

This paper attributes habitual failure to an early childhood adaptation: The immature, dependent child, making repeated unsuccessful attempts to satisfy unrealistic or pathological parental demands, fears that its inadequacies will result in abandonment by the parents. Repeated cycles of attempted compliance and failure are internalized and become a life pattern. A case history illustrates these dynamics and their treatment.     

Independent Living: gender, violence and the threat of violence

In what ways is independent living for young adults with disabilities compromised by violence and its threat? A qualitative study of 42 young adults with severe physical disabilities explored their perceptions and concerns about independent living, access to services and the meeting of needs. Young women especially experienced difficulties about leaving home, because of their own and their parents' fears about vulnerability; some who did leave home experienced highly restricted social lives because of anxiety about neighbourhood violence. Few had established partnerships, but violence and sexual abuse from partners emerged as an issue for which there is little policy. Control and abuse within caring relationships are serious issues for those who need personal care. Violence and lack of protection may undermine independent living, especially for women.     

Voting rules and election outcomes: When does the true majority win?

Majority-in-unit (MIU) and method of majority decision (MMD) voting rules are investigated to determine their impact on the outcome of union elections. A theoretical foundation is established to explain why voters may rationally choose not to vote in these settings. Numerical simulations are employed to compute the probability that the population majority wins the election. The results for these two methods are compared to see which one is most likely to award the election to the true population majority.     

Successful prevention may not be enough: A case study of how managing a threat triggers a threat

This case study examines student perceptions of a university's management of an alleged threat against their campus that was posted on Facebook. The timeline of events describes how the university's threat prevention response triggered a rumor crisis due to incomplete and poorly timed official information dissemination. A convenience sample of students completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of informal and formal communication about the alleged threat, satisfaction with threat prevention, and perceptions of the emergency text message system. Satisfaction with the university's response varied by students’ feelings of information adequacy. Some students resisted registering for the emergency notification system.     

Rocking the Vote: Using Personalized Messages to Motivate Voting among Young Adults

We examined a nationwide effort to encourage young adults to vote in the 1996 U.S. presidential election. During the year before the election, individuals were given the chance to sign and self-address one of two kinds of postcards pledging to vote; these cards were mailed back to the individuals within 2 weeks prior to the election. It is important to note that some individuals completed pledge cards that prompted them to provide their own reason for voting by completing the sentence, "I will vote because ______," whereas other individuals completed pledge cards that did not contain this sentence prompt. We conducted a large-scale survey of individuals who filled out pledge cards and determined that receiving a pledge card with the sentence prompt had a positive influence on voting. Moreover, this effect was found above and beyond demographic and psychological predictors of voting. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Design of an ergonomic ultrasound system: accommodation of user anthropometrics

Long-term use of medical imaging devices requires significant improvements to the user experience. One factor that impact upon such experience is whether the device is ergonomically built, ecologically designed, and leverages the current medical practice. In this research, we took a holistic and systematic approach to design an effective and biomechanically-fit ultrasound system. Research methods from behavior science (e.g., contextual inquiry, pseudo experiments) had been adopted to involve the users (sonographers) early in the design process. The end results - product design guideline for a cart type ultrasound system and control panel layout - were reviewed by the users and adjusted so that the design is within the range of an acceptable learning curve while maintaining innovativeness, a differentiated value over competitor's ultrasound devices.     

Religion and Voting: A Study of the 1968 Canadian Federal Election in Ontario

On a cherchC A ddceler le genre de liaisons qui existaient entre certaines dimensions de la ferveur religieuse et les prdfdrences dans le vote a l'aide de donndes recueillies sur questionnaire dam la Province de l'Ontario au moment de 1'Clection fCdCrale canadienne de 1968. Les dimensions de la ferveur religieuse sont les suivantes: engagement social dans la communautd religieuse, orthodoxie doctrinale, I'intensitC de la pratique religieuse, les attitudes vis-his les autres groupes religieux et la question des Ccoles dpardes, et l'affiliation religieuse des candidats. Les mesures de l'engagement social sont trks dtroitement reliees A celles des preferences dans le vote tandis que la religion des interrogks ne produit aucun resultat tangible. La liaison entre la religion et le vote est de meme nature et intensite tant au niveau provincial que federal.
Propositions on the association of a number of dimensions of religiosity with voting preferences were tested by survey data collected in Ontario at the time of the 1968 Canadian federal election. The religiosity variables include: social involvement in the religious community, doctrinal orthodoxy, devotionalism, attitudes to other religious groups and to the separate schools issue, and the religion of the candidates. Measures of social involvement had the strongest association with voting preferences while the religion of the candidate had no significant effect. The association between religion and voting was of the same kind and strength at the provincial level as at the federal.     

The Implementation of Voting from Abroad: Evidence from the 2014 Turkish Presidential Election

Voting from abroad (VFA) is a complex norm and practice due to the multilevel processes, structures and actors involved. This article explores the reasons behind the eventual adoption of this practice within the context of a long and well‐known history of emigration in Turkey. During the 2014 Turkish presidential election, emigrants from Turkey were finally allowed to participate from abroad even though legislation giving them this right has been in place since 1995. Based on archival research and fieldwork in Germany and the United States, this article discusses the varying relevance of three central explanatory factors to the implementation of VFA: emigrant lobbying, the electoral expectations of potential benefit by the governing party, and the presence of broader, state‐led diaspora engagement policies. The first of these is important but insufficient, whereas the second factor is necessary. Moreover, the presence of broader, state‐led diaspora engagement policies is a mediating factor. This article finds that specific actors like political parties may play the crucial role, highlighting the need for critical examination of their role in the implementation process.     

Gender Differences in Voting for Female Candidates: Evidence from the 1982 Election

This paper analyzes voting in five 1982 elections in which womenran as major party candidates for high-level offices: Governorin Vermont and Iowa; and U.S. Senator in Missouri, New York,and New Jersey. Results indicate that the sex of the candidategenerally has little impact on voting and that solid women candidatescan attract cross-over votes, while weaker ones can lose them.The implications of these results are discussed in the concludingsection.     

Abused women and the threat of parental alienation: Shelter workers' perspectives

Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in 30 domestic violence shelters in the Province of Québec (Canada), the research findings reveal a noticeable increase in the perceived number of women being accused or threatened to be accused of parental alienation; the accusations or threats of accusations reported in the last year by respondents represented 45% of all the accusations reported in the last 5 years (Last year: 4.27, SD = 3.80. Last 5 years: 9.47, SD = 10.04). A large majority of respondents (86.7%) stated that this phenomenon had had an impact on their practices in shelters, and more than half (53.3%) expressed that this issue had been either a priority for their shelters or one of their main concerns. Based on the research findings, the authors argue that domestic violence perpetrators use “parental alienation” as a tactic to discredit reports of abuse by women and children. By embracing this discourse, child protection services and the family court system reproduce the perpetrators' accounts and discredit reports of abuse by women and children, and therefore undermine their core mandate.     

Abusing victims: detention of child sexual abuse victims in secure accommodation

Sexually abused children and adolescents, in limbo between revelation of abuse and trial of an alleged offender, or in emotional turmoil after such abuse, need special care and support. Evidence indicates that a number of such children are held in local authority secure centres, on various grounds: to protect them from further sexual assaults by an adult offender; because of their persistent absconding from non-secure residential centres; and because of their disturbed behaviour (including suicidal behaviours), which may have been caused by the assault. Victims of sexual abuse are held with juveniles on remand for serious crimes (including rape and murder), or (because they are too young for youth detention centres) with young adolescents who are held in detention following conviction for such crimes. Evidence is produced from case histories, and from a survey of 15 of the 27 secure detention centres for children and young people in England, that the mix of abused, disturbed and very aggressive children is highly problematic. In worst case scenarios, victims of child sexual abuse are sexually assaulted by juvenile rapists with whom they are housed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.