Social networks of knowledge production in Brazilian psychology: comparing sub-areas

The social processes underlying the production of scientific knowledge make it an inherently social endeavor. The interaction between systems of thought and affiliation has been subject of the sociology of science, with remarkable developments in studies on the structure of scientific fields based on social networks analysis. Although psychology is one of the pioneer fields investigated in this literature, there is scarcity of research on psychology. The objective of this paper is to describe the social networks’ dynamics of knowledge production in psychology in Brazil, comparing association patterns among its sub-areas. For this purpose, 395 researchers responded an electronic questionnaire about their relationships. Networks of nine psychology sub-areas were analyzed for structural properties (i.e. density, centrality) and relational exchanges (the connecting roles of boundary spanners and central connectors). Findings showed different structures and connectivity patterns between networks, but most of these areas configure as small worlds. Discussion explores implications of these findings for the production of knowledge within areas, and for the national production of psychological knowledge as a whole, with effects on the international projection of knowledge produced in Brazil.     

Observed Interactions Indicate Protective Effects of Relationships With Parents for Referred Adolescents

This study examined whether the quality of parent–adolescent interactions moderate the association between stressful life events and internalizing and externalizing problems in referred adolescents (N=101, M age 13.41 years, SD=1.81). Adolescents and their parents reported on psychological problems at the time of referral and 4 years later. At follow‐up parents reported on stressful life events and an interaction task was conducted to observe autonomy and relatedness promoting behaviors. For adolescents exposed to stressful events, levels of internalizing and externalizing problems went up except if observed parent–adolescent interactions were characterized by high autonomy and relatedness. The results implied that autonomy and relatedness protect adolescents against the deleterious effects of stressful life events. These findings build on previous research showing for psychologically vulnerable adolescents that parenting that promotes autonomy while maintaining relatedness is associated with resilience in times of stress.     

Equi-information robust designs: Which designs are possible?

The effects of missing observations in a designed experiment are reviewed. Conditions are determined for a design to retain equal information, i.e. the same generalized variance of unknown parameters, when either any single or any pair of observations is lost. Some examples of designs with this property are given. Although there are many designs which retain equal information for the loss of exactly t observations, where t = 1,2,3,…, it is shown that it is not possible to obtain any design which retains equal information when any one and any two and also any three observations are missing.     

Violence Against Separated,Divorced, and Married Women in Canada, 2004

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine violence against separated, divorced, and married women using Statistics Canada's 2004 Statistics Canada. 2004. Divorces. The Daily, May 4: 1–5.  [Google Scholar] General Social Survey. Based on a subsample of 6,716 heterosexual women (429 separated; 614 divorced; 5,673 married), available risk markers were examined in the context of a nested ecological framework. Consistent with past research, the results indicated that there may be differences in the dynamics of violence across the 3 groups. Separated women reported 7 times the prevalence of violence and divorced women reported twice the prevalence of violence than married women in the year prior to the study. Young age was an important predictor of violence for separated and divorced women. Unemployment and the presence of children of the ex-partner were important predictors for divorced women. Patriarchal domineering and sexually proprietary behaviors were strong predictors of violence for married women. The results suggested the possibility that motives for postseparation violence tend to differ depending on whether one is separated or divorced. Future research is warranted to uncover these potentially differing dynamics of risk.     

What's in a Frame? How Professionals Assess Clients in Dutch Work Reintegration Practice

With the increased attention on labour market participation, the field of work reintegration support has grown dramatically. In order to improve professionals' performance, standards and performance measures are introduced in this field. We question whether this will improve the quality of their work. Closer scrutiny needs to be paid to the inherently normative and structuring role of professional judging. We applied the concept of ‘frames of reference’ to the process of professional judgement in work reintegration. This concept helped us to understand how a work reintegration professional structures a client's story through implicit rules that escape formalization and control mechanisms. On the basis of 24 in‐depth interviews with diverse work reintegration professionals in the Netherlands, we distinguish five of these frames: a procedural, a work‐focused, a caring, a learning and a facilitating frame of reference. Furthermore, we show that professionals differ widely in the images they have of clients, leading to a large variety in judgement of, and interaction with, clients. Though differences between professionals are inherent to a complex and dynamic field as work reintegration, the current variety in professional‐client contact in work reintegration seems to depend too much on arbitrary professional preferences. Therefore, reflection on these differences, both among professionals and by policymakers, is needed in order to improve the professional practice of work reintegration service.     

A-Optimal Block Designs with Additional Singly Replicated Treatments

Block designs to which have been added a number of singly-replicated treatments, known as secondary treatments, are particularly useful for experiments where only small amounts of material are available for some treatments, for example new plant varieties. The designs are of particular use in the microarray situation. Such designs are known as 'augmented designs'. This paper obtains the properties of these designs and shows that, with an equal number of secondary treatments in each block, the A-optimal design is obtained by using the A-optimal design for the original block design. It develops formulae for the variance of treatment comparisons, for both the primary and the secondary treatments. A number of examples are used to illustrate the results.