Beyond the Career Mystique: “Time In,” “Time Out,” and “Second Acts”

The career mystique is the belief that working hard and putting in long hours continuously throughout adulthood is the path to occupational success, personal fulfillment, and a secure retirement. This is a false myth, increasingly irrelevant for most contemporary Americans, given that (1) few employees today have the back up of full-time homemakers, and (2) a competitive, information economy has fostered a global labor market, destroying the implicit contract linking seniority with security. America’s 21st century workforce requires a reconfiguration of “time in” paid work, including opportunities for “time outs,” as well as for “second acts.”President’s Address, Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, February 2004; also presented at the parallel research and policy forum “Sustainable Careers for a Changing Workforce.”     

Market overreach: The student as customer

This paper explores the market model's influence in redefining the relationship between teachers and students within the college and university. Viewing the student as a customer rather than as a “worker” or “apprentice” is argued to have created several problems. The case is made that with market forces leading to the substitution of purchased commodities for “production for self,” the role of the student in actively participating in the learning process is threatened. Several trends, including grade inflation, shortened contact hours, and the redefinition of study time are offered as evidence that the non-salable components of higher education are declining in importance.     

Assessing outcomes for sufferers of severe mental disorder: A conceptual framework and review

A conceptual framework is presented for classifying the outcomes of services for sufferers of severe mental disorders. The proposed classification framework contains three dimensions: (a) the respondent type; (b) the social context; and (c) the domain of treatment outcomes. Respondent types include the client, the family, the extended social network, the clinician and the scientist. Social contexts include the individual, the family, work/school and the broader community. Domains of treatment outcome include “clinical status,” “functional status,” “life satisfaction and fulfillment,” and “safety and welfare.” This multidimensional framework is used to organize an illustrative review of existing outcome measures. It is concluded that: (a) measures of safety and welfare raise important social and policy questions and these measures require considerable development in order for utility to be realized; (b) although a good beginning has been made, more attention needs to be focused on defining and measuring “life satisfaction and fulfillment” and combining this domain with others to produce “well being” or “quality of life” scales; (c) the functional status area requires additional research and development especially when measurement is conducted in contexts other than work/school; and (d) although measures of clinical status are relatively well developed, the family perspective and context must be integrated into these measures.     

Systems thinking

Evaluation is one of many fields where “systems thinking” is popular and is said to hold great promise. However, there is disagreement about what constitutes systems thinking. Its meaning is ambiguous, and systems scholars have made diverse and divergent attempts to describe it. Alternative origins include: von Bertalanffy, Aristotle, Lao Tsu or multiple aperiodic “waves.” Some scholars describe it as synonymous with systems sciences (i.e., nonlinear dynamics, complexity, chaos). Others view it as taxonomy—a laundry list of systems approaches. Within so much noise, it is often difficult for evaluators to find the systems thinking signal. Recent work in systems thinking describes it as an emergent property of four simple conceptual patterns (rules). For an evaluator to become a “systems thinker”, he or she need not spend years learning many methods or nonlinear sciences. Instead, with some practice, one can learn to apply these four simple rules to existing evaluation knowledge with transformative results.     

Experimental evaluation of a humanities program

This research sought to determine the effects of a one-hour humanities lecture concerning midwest architectural preservation on a group of college undergraduates. Effects were assessed by a semantic differential procedure which revealed two factors in a pre-treatment trial. A four-group design required administration of the instrument to two groups one week prior to the lecture, and to all groups one week following the lecture. ANOVA and post hoc analyses revealed significant changes in the experimental group's “semantic space” on three of eight architectural concepts which were assessed. The results provide an empirical basis for the success of the program which the humanities people had “known” all along.     

“We're Not Old!”: Older Women's Negotiation of Aging and Oldness

This article is based on participant observation research at a seniors' center in central Canada in which the writer sought to acquire an understanding of how older adults define, interpret, and negotiate their realities and identities. Through activity and group membership, the center members — the majority of whom are single, older women between the ages of 50 and 90 — seek to distance themselves from the category of “old” and the accompanying ageist stereotypes. Striving to establish and preserve their precarious membership in the “not old”, center members struggle to reconcile their belief and experience of older adulthood as a time of activity, health, and happiness with their ever-present fear of declining health and the realities of widowhood and the loss of youthful attractiveness.     

Functional specificity in discussion networks: The influence of general and problem-specific networks on health outcomes

Though commonly used in social science research to measure the influence of social networks, the link between discussing “important matters” within networks and the achievement of instrumental ends is frequently unspecified or untested. To address this gap, we explore the consequences of using the general “important matters” approach versus one in which the substance of discussions is directly linked to the outcomes of interest. The egocentric social networks of people experiencing an acute health crisis are examined. We identify the characteristics of and the degree of membership overlap between “important matters” and “health matters” discussants, and explore their relative power in explaining a wide range of health and health services-related outcomes. We find no evidence for the influence of “important matters” networks, while characteristics of “health matters” networks demonstrate a significant effect across all models.     

Jakarta: Environmental problems and sustainability

Jakarta is on the way to become a “world city”, but to classify in this regard, it needs to be more than the size of the metropolis but it should be enlightened management, the kind of services the city offers to ensure a balanced economic, social, political and environmental development; thus, criteria which would indicate its social, economic and environmental “sustainability” and quality of life. The recent years have shown Jakarta's current management to evolve as promoter of centennial projects like the modernization of the center, the establishment of an integrated public transport system, the redevelopment of the waterfront and a new harbor, the conservation of the Old City, and creation of a few gentrified public parks. While these grand projects are still in the making, many infrastructure and environmental problems still continue to prevail, and there is substantial concern about the pro-rich and anti-poor policies which are being pursued, while Jakarta pretends to make the quantum jump to a modern city.     

Cognitive differentiation in consumer product judgments

The investigations reported in this article examined some of the individual and situational determinants of the level of cognitive product differentiation in consumer products judgements, Subjects consisted of four large samples of male and female consumers in two large metropolitan areas in the USA. These four independent studies found empirical support for the following hypothesis: consumers tend to have more differentiated judgments of negatively valenced products than positively valenced products. These findings were discussed in the context of the “vigilance”. “justification” and “Pollyanna” hypotheses. Finally, as a promising direction for future research. the need for an interactionist approach to cognitive functioning was emphasized.     

Lottomania and other anomalies in the market for lotto

This research is concerned with the determination of the demand for “lotto” in Israel. While an important focus of our research is upon the effects on the demand for lotto of ticket pricing and jackpot announcements, we also investigate several empirical phenomena that are apparently inconsistent with expected utility theory. These include an effect we call “lottomania” which is induced by rollover, and “prize fatigue” when the jackpot does not increase. Another aberration from expected utility theory is that the underlying odds of winning have no measurable effect on sales.     

Is there a generalized energy conservation ethic? A comparison of the determinants of gasoline and home heating energy conservation

The body of research that has attempted to identify and characterize the “ecologically concerned” or “socially responsible” consumer is challenged for its assumption that this is a single group sharing a general disposition to conserve. Based on a comparison of gasoline and home heating energy conservers from a single sample, evidence is provided that these are two unique groups and that those who are conservers in both areas form a third unique group that is closer to the original notion of a generalized conservation ethic. Implications are discussed for future research focusing on energy conservation and social responsibility.     

Multiple reference points in investor regret

Regret is the result of a comparison between “what is” and “what might have been”. Although regret is a relevant emotion in the life of investors, research studying the regrets of real investors and how these are influenced by multiple reference points is lacking. We present a field survey that investigated the regrets of real stock investors in relation to multiple “what might have been’s.” We found that their regrets are most influenced by what their outcomes might have been had they not invested, by their expected outcomes and by the best-performing unchosen stocks. In addition, we also found that the feeling of regret was influenced by losses or gains relative to each reference point rather than by the size of the loss or gain.     

The GOAT effects impact upon educational R and D

The GOAT (Goodbye To All That) Effect is introduced as a special research and evaluation “outcome” effect characterizing decision-making unduly influenced by abandoning “write-off” tendencies, especially in the face of mounting problems. GOAT behavior can enter into educational decision-making all too easily because it finds a congenial atmosphere in education's habit of fluctuating with the latest trends and vogues and because it can use the prevailing systems analysis approach in much of educational management and evaluation as a blind. The “gradual refinement” approach offers an antidote to the GOAT Effect primarily because it is a fundamentally different approach from systems analysis and directly opposes the faddish orientation of current education.     

Effect of perceived cost on judgments regarding the efficacy of investment

Three experiments examined the effect of costs associated with investments on the judgments of the causal effectiveness of those investments, and on the type of information utilised when making those judgements. Using operant conditioning technology, in an experimental analogue of making economic investments, it was found that greater costs associated with an investment reduced the judgement about the effectiveness of the response (Experiment 1). Greater investment costs tended to bias the subject toward using information integrated over a longer period of time; whereas low costs tended to produce judgements made on the basis of the conditions prevailing immediately prior to the return being acquired (Experiments 1–3). The effect of cost was modulated by the subjects' own financial background. The same absolute cost being treated as “greater” by those from less wealthy backgrounds compared to those from more affluent backgrounds (Experiments 2 and 3). These results suggest that as well as the nature of the schedule relating investment to return, the perceived cost of the investment determines the manner in which it is judged with respect to its efficacy.     

Preventing youthful disconnectedness

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article examines the characteristics (and later life histories) of 16- to 23-year-olds who, during the 1980s, were “disconnected” from mainstream society, that is, they were not enrolled in school, not gainfully employed, not in the military, and not married to someone who was “connected” in one of these ways. One in three youths were disconnected for at least half of a calendar year. As adults, youths who were disconnected for a short time (in only one or two years) did not differ substantially from those who were never disconnected in terms of educational attainment, work history, family income, reliance on government programs, and marital status. However, those who were disconnected in three or more years experienced significantly greater hardships. This article suggests that school-related interventions (such as career-oriented education, after-school “safe havens,” and targeting individual deficits) might help prevent youthful disconnectedness.     

Control fraud, gambling for resurrection, and moral hazard: Accounting for white-collar crime in the savings and loan crisis

This paper reviews the relevant literature regarding the role of control fraud, or major frauds committed by controlling organizational insiders, in the savings and loan crisis. Using both economics and criminological concepts, it contrasts the claims made by “fraud minimalists” with those who saw fraud playing a significant role in the crisis. The paper concludes that the economics-based official history of the debacle that sees moral hazard and gambling for resurrection as responsible for major financial losses is not supported by the empirical data generated by criminological research.     

Is a good deal always fair? Examining the concepts of transaction value and price fairness

Previous research has shown that if consumers are aware that they are paying more than another customer for a similar transaction, then they may perceive the price to be unfair. A concept closely related to fairness is transaction value, defined as consumers’ perceptions of the psychological satisfaction or pleasure from taking advantage of a price deal. In this research, we conceptualize that although consumers’ perceptions of price fairness and transaction value share many similarities, nevertheless there are also important differences. Using three studies, we empirically examine these differences. We show that although a “bad deal” is typically perceived to be an unfair price, a “good deal” is not necessarily perceived to be the fairest price.     

Political and organizational preconditions for application of the standards for educational evaluation : The standards for educational evaluation seen in a wider perspective in relation to policy making and organization

Some of the standards for educational evaluation refer to the political and organizational context in which evaluation projects take place: “conflicting interests,” “political viability,” and various standards which have to do with the identification of the evaluation object and of the most important groups and persons involved. Whereas the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation seems to focus on the level of the individual research project, the present authors feel that in addition, contextual influences on evaluations should be analyzed at a higher level of aggregation. Political and organizational factors at the macro level can even be seen as preconditions for the application of the standards at project level. This point of view is illustrated by referring to a study of the functioning of evaluation research within some innovative programs in Dutch education.     

From the lab to the front line: How individual biogerontologists navigate their contested field

This paper infuses a new perspective into scholarship on anti-aging science: the experiences of individual scientists as they have entered and navigated this controversial field. We draw on in-depth interviews with 43 prominent biogerontologists to accomplish three objectives. First, we highlight key factors that draw scientists into biogerontology – especially the unique and complex puzzles posed by aging. Second, we examine how biogerontologists define themselves and their research in relation to “anti-aging” science – particularly how scientists distance themselves from the tarnished history of the field and employ powerful language to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate scholarship, and science from industry. Finally, we explore how individual scientists manage any social, religious, and ethical objections to conducting “anti-aging” research — and the repertoire of responses they use to simultaneously dismantle objections and reinforce the legitimacy of their science. The analyses reveal how much is ultimately at stake for these individual scientists on the front line.