Discourses about children's mental health and developmental disorders in North American women's magazines 1990–2012

This paper describes and analyses the portrayal of children's mental health and developmental issues (CMHI) in articles located in a random sample of a selection of available high‐circulating English language North American ‘women's magazines’ indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature from 1990 to 2012. It is based upon a qualitative discourse analysis. CMHI are portrayed as materially, biologically real, prevalent and growing in incidence, and severity. They are also portrayed as located in the ‘non‐normal’, ‘non‐nice’, ‘disliked’ and ‘non‐successful’ individual child. Neither the facticity nor the biomedicalization of CMHI is questioned. The psy‐scientists and practitioners cited as experts for the ‘disorders’ offer contradictory and confusing information and advice. The possible theoretical and pragmatic explanations and consequences of this portrayal are discussed.     

Advice to mothers about managing children's behaviours in Canada's premier woman's magazine: a comparison of 1945–1956 with 1990–2010

Recent research and theorizing has characterized contemporary mothering as medicalized, intensive and risky. The rate of diagnosis of children's mental health issues has grown rapidly, particularly since the 90s. This paper examines the construction of mothering in regard to children's behaviours and mental health through an exploratory and qualitative content analysis of the portrayal of advice to mothers in Chatelaine Magazine, the premier women's magazine published in Canada. The time periods chosen for comparison were 1945–1956 and 1990–2010. The first period was selected because it was a time of dramatic changes that occurred in family, occupational and domestic life for women immediately after World War II. The second represents the modern period. The findings of the paper suggest that mothering was intensive, medicalized and risky in both periods although the conceptualizations of problems differed.     

Child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood: An integrative review

Social workers' constructions of children and childhood are central to how professionals interact with children and support their needs. The aim of this integrative review was to provide a comprehensive portrayal of child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood. We analysed and synthesized 35 empirical studies with samples of social workers in the child protection domain where issues regarding the child or the child's situation were the study focus. The findings show that children and youth are constructed as a generalized group viewed in light of their parents. We see a fragmented and context‐free child produced by causal shortcuts strongly informed by specific and, at times, simplified and biased psychological knowledge. Moreover, we identify constructions of the child in need of protection and thereby position children as objects for intervention, separating that from children as subjects in their own rights. Although the participatory child is visible in the data material, the actual practice of involving children seems arbitrary.     

Harsanyi’s critical rule utilitarianism

In his recent book,Rational Behaviour and Bargaining Equilibrium In Games and Social Situations, John C. Harsanyi devotes a chapter to his new theory of morality, which he calls ‘Critical Rule Utilitarianism’, and which contains his solution to the problem of the interpersonal comparison of utility. After a detailed exposition of his theory, arguments will be presented to show that:

1. there are certain formal difficulties in the solution that he offers which leads to a rejection of the axiom that there is to be agreement between an individualj’s personal preferences and individuali’s (i ≠j) extended utility function out of which the social welfare function is to be constructed; and
2. Harsanyi’s theory of critical rule utilitarianism cannot be accepted as a theory of morality because it presupposes a more fundamental theory in its actual construction.

     

Rhetoric,reality and dissent: The Vietnam policy of the British labour government, 1964–1970

This article analyzes the interactions between Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary Labour party in the formulation of Britain's policy towards the Vietnam conflict.Two well-known theses about the structure and functioning of Britain's major political parties serve as the point of departure for this analysis. R.T. McKenzie (British Political Parties) contends that the distribution of power within the Labour and Conservative parties is fundamentally similar. In contrast, Samuel Beer (British Politics in the Collectivist Age) argues that there is greater intraparty democracy in the Labour party than in the Conservative party.The article concludes that by and large the Labour Government was a reluctant supporter of U.S. Vietnam policy. The Parliamentary Labour left consistently challenged the Government on this issue but stopped short of any attempt to oust the Government. Wilson took the opinions of the extra-parliamentary party into account but refused to be bound by them. Thus, while Labour's dissidents had a degree of influence over Britain's Vietnam policy from 1964–1970, they did not exercise veto power.     

Relationships between attitudes toward women's roles in society,and work and life values

This exploratory study examined the relationships between attitudes toward women's roles in society, as measured by the six sub-scales on ward Women Scale (AWS: Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. L. (1972). The Attitudes Towards Women Scale: An objective instrument to measure attitudes towards the rights and roles of women in contemporary society. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 2(66)) and 20 work and life values, as measured by the Life Roles Inventory-Values Scale (LRI-VS: Macnab, D., Fitzsimmons, G., & Casserly, C. (1985). Administrator's manual for the Life Roles Inventory Values and Salience. Edmonton, AB: PsiCan Consulting). It was hypothesized that more liberal attitudes toward women's roles in society would be associated with higher scores on the social, personal and individual values. Results from a sample of 89 management and health sciences undergraduates generally supported the hypothesis.     

Informing Debate or Fuelling Dispute? Media Communication of Reconfiguration in Scotland's Rural Maternity Care

Public reaction to the UK's ongoing health sector reform often results in dilution of policy‐makers’ goals. Public participation in health service decision‐making is advocated in policy, but precisely how to do it and what role public opinion should have in formulating reform strategy is ambiguously described. Public opinion is formed through many influences, including media reporting. This paper examines how reconfiguration at a rural maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, Scotland, was communicated in national and local media and considers potential implications of media communication on public participation in policy decision‐making. Content analysis of arguments for and against change revealed a high level of reporting of commentators against change in regional newspapers. Qualitative analysis identified emergent themes about how maternity service reconfiguration was portrayed. These included framing opposition between management and local people, and change drivers receiving superficial coverage. Findings suggest that media portrayal of the public role in change may promote an adversarial rather than a participative stance. More finely tuned understanding of the relationship between the reporting of change and public reaction should be attained as this could affect how planned social policy evolves into actual practice.     

Anything women can do men can do better: An experiment examining the effects of stereotype threat on political knowledge and efficacy

Negative stereotypes have been shown to create cognitive burdens that decrease intellectual performance in a number of tasks such as math and standardized tests. Applying a multidisciplinary approach and an experimental research design, this paper examines the effect of stereotype threat on political knowledge and political efficacy. A sample of 226 undergraduate students completed an online survey on political knowledge and efficacy. Participants were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat condition or a non-threat condition. Contrary to what was hypothesized, stereotype threat does not explain the political knowledge gap between men and women; men score significantly higher than women in both conditions. However, preliminary evidence suggests the presence of stereotype lift in men's sense of political efficacy. Men's political efficacy demonstrates a moderate increase in the stereotype threat condition while women's sense of efficacy does not change (d = .53).     

美国女性文学中的移民拓荒题材

早期移民的垦殖拓荒极大地推动了美国社会经济的繁荣,是美国社会历史发展进程中的重要环节,移民开发蛮荒之地因此也成为许多美国作家的创作题材。以薇拉·凯瑟为代表的为数不多的一些女性作家用带有浓郁自叙色彩的作品真实再现了这段可歌可泣的历史。同时,她们还以优美、细腻的笔触,通过对作品中女性形象的生动刻画,鲜明地表达了女性的独立意识,歌颂了美国劳动妇女战胜困难的惊人力量,充分肯定了妇女在美国开发建设中所作出的杰出贡献。她们的创作发展并丰富了年轻的美国女性文学。     

The protestant ethic and the religious tattoo

This research illustrates how basic ideas from Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism are reflected in religious individuals’ choices in obtaining tattoos. Qualitative responses to survey questions show that, among 60 university students who indicated they have one, religious tattoos reflect asceticism in their lives, point them to service (calling) in the name of God, or provide a level of assurance (or anxiety) regarding life after death. We offer this work as an illustration of how the essence of Weber's work persists in the popular culture of the 21st century.     

Poverty and family structure effects on children's mathematics achievement: Estimates from random and fixed effects models

As children grow up, they may encounter changing family structures and poverty status. Any attempt to measure the effects of these statuses on children's school achievement runs the risk of spurious effects due to child- and family-heterogeneity. An analytic strategy for avoiding these spurious effects is to use longitudinal data on families, children, and their academic achievement to estimate random coefficient growth-curve models in which a large number of causally prior control variables are allowed to impact both the intercept and slope of the child's achievement trajectory, while poverty and family structure at each point in time enter the model as time-varying covariates. An even more powerful strategy is to use Allison's [Allison, P. D. (2005). Fixed effects regression methods for longitudinal data using SAS. Cary, NC: SAS Institute, Inc.] “hybrid” version of this model, in which a fixed-effects specification differences away all unchanging child and family characteristics. We use CNLSY79 data to estimate both types of models for the effects of poverty status and family structure on children's mathematics achievement between ages 5 and 14. We find that poverty status exerts a modest, statistically significant negative effect on math achievement, but only among younger children. The correlation between family structure and children's mathematics achievement is largely spurious, due instead to child- and family-heterogeneity on causally prior variables.     

中西电影文化的一种表征——西部片《关山飞渡》和《双旗镇刀客》审美特征比较

《关山飞渡》生动地展现了美国西部的英雄神话世界 ,成为上世纪 30年代末西部英雄片艺术成就的集大成者 ;《双旗镇刀客》融合了西部片的外部特征和东方文化传统观念 ,是中国 90年代西部武侠片中的重要作品。两者在艺术创新方面都突破了传统西部片的叙事方法和人物塑造等基本模式 ,体现了独特的审美追求。这些成功的审美经验对当今中国电影艺术的发展具有积极的借鉴意义。     

Observing different orders of risk aversion

A decision maker's attitude towards risk is said to be of orderi, i=1, 2, if for every given riskē with expected value zero, the risk premium the decision maker is willing to pay to avoid the risktē goes witht to zero at the same order ast ⁱ. This article presents an experiment testing the order of decision makers' attitudes toward risk. Its major result is that both attitudes exist, each in significant proportions. Moreover, two classes of first-order behavior are defined. The rank-dependent model (Quiggin, 1982) belongs to one, the disappointment aversion model (Gul, 1991) to the other. We show that only the first of these two classes appears among our subjects.     

On the historical explanation of unique events

Among the intriguing issues over which philosophers and historians tend to disagree is the general character of historical explanations of events that are unique. Philosophers argue that every event is actually unique, but that any event may be explained, nevertheless, insofar as it happens to be one of a certain kind. Historians protest that this conception ignores the particularity of individual events and especially the fact that such an event may very well be the only one of its kind. As a result, historians tend to dismiss the philosopher's arguments as ‘purely theoretical’, while philosophers tend to dismiss the historian's retort as ‘merely methodological’, phrases that, within this context, at least, are clearly intended to have pejorative connotations. The purpose of this paper is to undertake an arbitration of this dispute by indicating what appear to be the strengths and weaknesses of both positions, while suggesting the view that more is involved here than either side at various times has been prepared to admit.     

传奇·情奇·惊奇——论兰一斐《关中枪声》的编剧艺术

影视剧编写是以丰富的表现力、想象力提高作品的审美内涵而产生艺术效果的。《关中枪声》以多重悬念、高潮迭起的妙趣横生,展示剧情的矛盾冲突,突出剧情出奇制胜的变化,而令人情不自禁的惊奇。剧情更关注审美主体——人物形象及其性格的刻画,创造了一系列个性鲜活具有审美内涵的艺术形象。剧情又以广阔的叙事空间,鲜明的地域性,历史的真实性,生活的宏丽性,融历史、人情、侠义于一炉,形成雄浑、宏伟、壮丽的画卷。     

Prudence and extensionality in theories of preference and value

Luce's axiom governing probabilities of choice is formulated as a principle governing metalinguistic probabilities. IfX, Y, W are sets of options, and δ(X), δ(Y), δ(W) are sentences asserting that choice is made from these sets, then the axiom is $$\begin{gathered} If \pi [\delta (X)] \ne 0 and \pi [\delta (X \cap Y)] \ne 0, then \hfill \\ \pi _{\delta (X)} [\delta (Y \cap W)] = \pi _{\delta (X \cap Y)} [\delta (W)]\pi _{\delta (X)} [\delta (Y)] \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ where π is a probability on sentences. The axiom is then entailed by extensionality of the probability π in company with a simple condition on probabilities of truth-functions. Conditions are also given under which the probability π is uniquely represented by a probability on the sets of options. What look to be logical constraints on the metalanguage entail a normative or prudential constraint. Debreu's well-known counterinstance to the axiom as a principle governing probability of choice is examined and a novel and consistent interpretation of the axiom is proposed.     

Aversion to one risk in the presence of others

The more risk-averse of two individuals need not have the smaller certainty equivalent for a risk \~x if another risk or combination of risks w is present. It is shown that he must, however, if either individual's conditional certainty equivalent for x is increasing in w. For independent risks, this condition follows immediately if either individual is decreasingly risk-averse, giving a natural proof of a known result. Another short proof of this result and necessary and sufficient conditions in the independent case are give. For multivariate utilities, the corresponding results do not hold, but it is proved simply that any mixture of decreasingly risk-averse utilities is decreasingly risk-averse. Also touched upon are risk aversion's relation to generalized means, concave composition, risk sharing, and interest rates, the application of the results to discounting under uncertainty and selection of investment level, and their connection to singly crossing distributions, noise, and dominance.     

El Toro de Osborne: advertising,community, and myth

Black bull cutouts, silhouettes of El Toro, dotted hilltops from the plains of La Mancha to the seacoast of Spain's Costa del Sol. Then the European Union decreed that alcohol could no longer be advertised on billboards. The Osborne brandy company removed its bull-boards, but public outcry brought them back, sans the company name—the Osborne bull had become a national icon. This is a semiotic case study of the mythic system appropriated by the Osborne advertisement and the second-order semiological system that the iconic billboards created.     

Ordinal independence in nonlinear utility theory

Individual behavior under uncertainty is characterized using a new axiom, ordinal independence, which is a weakened form of the von Neumann-Morgenstern independence axiom It states that if two distributions share a tail in common, then this tail can be modified without altering the individual's preference between these distributions. Preference is determined by the tail on which the distributions differ. This axiom implies an appealing and simple functional form for a numerical representation of preferences. It generalizes the form of anticipated utility, and it explains some well-known forms of behavior, such as the Friedman-Savage paradox, that anticipated utility cannot.