Hope for Haiti: An analysis of Facebook and Twitter usage during the earthquake relief efforts

The Haitian earthquake devastated the small island of Hispaniola, leaving thousands dead and billions of dollars in property damage. The earthquake also ignited a firestorm of social media use by organizations. By applying framing theory to the analysis of Facebook posts and tweets sent by nonprofits and media organizations, this study discovered differences between nonprofits and media in terms of social media use. Nonprofits and media organizations used information dissemination and disclosure effectively, but failed to capitalize on the innate two-way communication nature of social media.     

The construction of a model of the process of couples' forgiveness in emotion-focused therapy for couples

This study explored how forgiveness unfolds in the context of emotion-focused couples therapy (EFT-C) in eight cases of women betrayed by their partners. Forgiveness was defined as a process involving the reduction in negative feelings and the giving out of undeserved compassion. This was measured by changes in the pre- and posttreatment scores on the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, the Unfinished Business Resolution Scale, and a single item directly asking respondents to indicate their degree of forgiveness. A task analysis was performed to rigorously track the steps leading to forgiveness using videotapes of therapy sessions for eight couples. The performance of the four couples who forgave were compared with each other and then contrasted with the performance of another four couples who did not reach forgiveness at the end of therapy. Based on these observations, a model of the process of forgiveness in EFT-C and a process rating system were developed.     

Classroom Goal Structures and HIV and Pregnancy Prevention Education in Rural High School Health Classrooms

Over 5,000 adolescents enrolled in required rural high school health courses reported their perceptions of mastery and extrinsic goal structures in their health classrooms. Data were collected from all students at three time points (prior to HIV and pregnancy instruction, 3 months after instruction, and 1 year after instruction). Results indicated that classroom goal structures were related to both proximal and distal knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and efficacy beliefs. Results in particular indicate that the perception of a mastery goal structure in health education classrooms fosters knowledge, improved attitudes, enhanced efficacy beliefs, and lower intentions to have sexual intercourse.     

Race,SES, and Obesity Among Men

Over the last decade, obesity has increased significantly among men but few national studies have empirically examined racial and socioeconomic differences in obesity among men. In this paper, we utilized logistic regression to evaluate the potential associations that race and socioeconomic status may have with obesity among men in the National Survey of American Life: an in-person household survey of non-institutionalized U.S. blacks and whites who lived in communities where at least 10% of the community residents were black Americans. A greater proportion of black men were likely to be obese than white men, but no interaction among race, SES, and obesity was detected when potential confounding variables were included. There was not a relationship between SES and obesity for white men, but there was an apparent positive relationship between SES and obesity for black men that did not remain significant in adjusted models. No relationship was found between age and obesity among black men, though white men who were 55 and older were more likely than those 18–34 to be obese in confounder adjusted models. Among white men, no relationships were found between obesity and education, household income, or marital status. Black men in the lowest income category were less likely to be obese than those in the highest income category, in bivariate but not adjusted models. These findings suggest that the way racial, economic, stress and behavioral factors combine to affect obesity in black and white men may be different.     

Mind the gap: The role of leadership in multiteam system collective cognition

The increasing prevalence of team-based organizations places a premium on leadership that will “mind the gap” and enable smooth synchronization of activities across multiple distinct teams. Prior work shows that leaders can be trained to directly facilitate between-team coordination processes. Yet, relatively little is known about the intervening psychological mechanisms that enable between-team coordination. Here, we advance multiteam-interaction mental models—cognitive structures containing knowledge of appropriate between-team activities—as one mechanism that facilitates coordination among multiple teams. We use leader and team cognition data gathered in DeChurch and Marks' (2006) MTS study to test these ideas. Results reveal leaders' multiteam-interaction mental model accuracy “transfers” to teams through strategic communication, and leader strategic communication enables between-team coordination by promoting accuracy in followers' mental models. This study highlights the importance of leadership for developing collective cognition that allows teams to “scale up” from small stand-alone teams to larger and more complex systems.     

German Reunification: Welfare Gains and Losses East and West

A framework of welfare accounts (Juster and Stafford, 1985; Headey, 1993; see also Goodin et al., 1999) is used to assess gains and losses to East and West Germans in the post-reunification period, 1990–1997. The welfare accounts have three segments: a capital/stocks account, an income/flows account and a subjective welfare/psychic income account. This framework differs from conventional welfare economic accounts in explicitly defining and measuring welfare in psychological terms ... as perceived utility/satisfaction. It has recently been argued that this approach is required, if one accepts that individual utilities are not exogenous but are affected by changing comparisons with others (Duesenberry, 1949; Easterlin, 1974, 1995; Hollaender, 2001). Our hypotheses are that in the post-reunification period West German welfare was sacrificed – in all three segments of the accounts – in order to permit resources to flow to East Germans and to boost their stocks, flows and utilities. The hypotheses are supported in the case of West Germans, but results are mixed for East Germans. Our data source is the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) which began in 1984 in West Germany and has involved reinterviewing a very large representative national sample every year since. The panel was extended to East Germany in June 1990, before formal reunification occurred, and so provides a picture of stocks, flows and utilities before the effects of integration into the Federal Republic were felt.     

Subjective evaluation of well-being: Problems and prospects

This paper discusses some of the substantive and methodological pitfalls that arise in the subjective evaluation of well-being. The discussion includes illustrative references to the empirical findings of the 1977 Edmonton Area Study. Issues discussed include (1) specific, domain, and global measures; (2) objective states and subjective perceptions; (3) micro and macro units of analysis; and (4) the problem of cultural relativism. It is concluded that it is not yet possible to delineate a simple set of social indicators for use by policy-makers and social planners. Accurate assessment of social well-being currently requires the study of demographic and objective states together with cognitive and evaluational responses and also requires assessment not only at the global ‘general satisfaction’ level but also at more specific levels of analysis.     

Postethnic Experience in Contemporary Jewish American Fiction

Multiculturalism has meant something of a crisis for many Jews in the United States in that it has placed them in the paradoxical position of being part of the dominant white majority while they continue to maintain their particularity as an ethnic minority. Some scholars who subscribe to the ideal of a postethnic society as a means of resolving the divisiveness and fragmentation in multicultural America have, however, argued that this very dualism experienced by American Jews today may well point toward what they hope will come about in American society as a whole when it moves beyond multiculturalism. This essay explores some of the ways in which the contradictions experienced by Jewish Americans as members of an ethnic minority with majority status figure in recent Jewish American fiction. It concludes with a brief discussion of the possible implications of the anomalous position of American Jews for the place of contemporary Jewish writing within the rapidly changing canon of American literature.