The Role of Psychological Instruments in the Assessment of Child Sexual Abuse

Psychological instruments such as behavioural rating scales or psychometric tests have a useful part to play in the evaluation of child sexual abuse, not as screening (i.e. ‘diagnostic’) devices but primarily as adjuncts to the assessment interview. However, the use of formal psychological instruments in their own right (i.e. on their own) for such purposes is, as yet, very limited and problematic. In their strictly adjunctive role they may provide additional evidence and/or indicate areas for further investigation, without directly questioning the child about the abuse and without being intrusive and leading. Finally, they may help us to assess and measure psychological processes that are influenced by, and thus secondary to, sexual abuse. This paper seeks to review the different types of psychological instruments and to comment on their clinical and their research usage.     

Beteiligung von Eltern an Schulentwicklungsprozessen

Parents’ participation in school development processes In the course of internal development schools are increasingly striving for the participation of parents. The example of an independent school, where the involvement of parents is part of the pedagogical concept, shows some possibilities. The beginning of the implementation of a school development process with the participation of parents is delineated and its transfer to public schools is discussed. Possible setting factors for the involvement of parents are derived from that.     

Marriage market imbalances and labor force participation of Canadian women

Several studies find a negative correlation between the ratio of males to females and measures of female labor supply in the US. This negative correlation has been interpreted as empirical support for the hypothesis that marriage market conditions influence intra-household allocation decisions. Given the similarity of cultures and of labor supply behavior of women in Canada and the United States, and the fact that they both experienced baby-booms at roughly the same time, any explanation for changes in female labor supply would be expected to hold for both countries. We test the prediction that marriage market conditions have explanatory power for Canadian female labor force participation (LFP) rates over the period 1971–2001. We find smaller marriage market effects for Canada than those found for the US but similar in magnitude to those found for the US Midwest.

EFFECTS OF PROBLEM REPRESENTATION AND FEEDBACK ON RATIONAL BEHAVIOR IN ALLAIS AND MORLAT-TYPE PROBLEMS

This paper reports the results of an experiment which investigated the effects of various ways of structuring decision problems under uncertainty (viz, matrix, tree, versus word representations) and various forms of feedback (discussion versus non-discussion of prepared answers conforming to and deviating from the irrelevance of identical outcomes postulate) on consistent choice behavior (i.e., in accordance with this postulate) in the context of Allais and Morlat-type (A & M) problems. The special structure of A & M problems is especially useful for studying such behavior in that it presumably leads to a set of choices that violates this fundamental norm of decision theory. The experiment involved 134 industrial management undergraduates who gambled to improve their grades in a statistics course. The results showed that: (1) structuring such problems as “decision trees” or “decision matrices” had either a detrimental or no beneficial effect respectively on the number of consistent responses; while (2) discussion led to some improvement in consistency over no discussion. The implications of the findings for training in rational decision making are discussed.     

Explaining costumer reactions to real stockouts

The occurrence of stockouts remains an unsolved problem for retailers that provoke severe revenue and image losses, as well as greater customer dissatisfaction for both retailers and manufacturers. A literature review suggests a model of influential antecedents of consumers’ reactions to product unavailability. A field study then provides insights into true stockout situations, unlike a hypothetical research setting. With these data, this study reveals that loyalty and the presence of product alternatives have the greatest impacts on customer reactions. This result has significant theoretical and managerial implications due to the fact that results based on hypothetical settings did not hold.     

Supply chain management resources,capabilities and execution

This paper identifies inter- and intra-organisational management resources that determine the level of execution of inter-firm alliance supply chain management (SCM). By drawing on network and resource-based view theories, a conceptual model proposes the effects of SCM resources and capabilities as influencing factors on SCM execution. The model was tested using survey data from studies conducted in two European supply chain environments. Variance-based structural equation modelling confirmed the hypothesised hierarchical order of three proposed antecedents: internal SCM resources affect joint SCM resources, which in turn influence collaborative SCM-related processes and finally SCM execution. An importance-performance analysis for both settings shows that providing and investing in internal SCM resources should be a priority when aiming to increase SCM execution. The theoretical contribution of this paper lies in confirming that the improvement of SCM execution follows a clear pathway featuring internal supply chain resources as one of the main drivers. The practical implications of this research include the development of a prioritisation list of measures that elevate SCM execution in the two country settings.     

Ethnic Consciousness and Identity: A Research Report on Uygur‐Han Relations in Xinjiang

This paper is a report on survey findings conducted in five research sites in Xinjiang during May?–?July 2001. The research team ran into serious problems in fieldwork due to sensitive Uygur?–?Han relations. However, cautious interpretations of the survey data have revealed some interesting findings: (1) the Uygurs manifest strong ethnic and local identity; (2) there is deeply rooted mutual distrust between the Uygurs and Han Chinese; (3) the two nationality groups express prejudices against each other; and (4) a significant proportion of Uygurs and Han Chinese are sceptical about the effectiveness of government policies in maintaining healthy ethnic relations.