Misattributions to crowding: Blaming crowding for nondensity-caused events

Three field studies and a laboratory experiment investigated the effects of disconfirmed expectations and unattained goals, varying independently of density, on attributions to crowding. Studies 1 and 2 found that positively and negatively disconfirmed time expectations elicited greater attributions to crowding than confirmed time expectations. The second field study also showed that students not attaining their course registration goals made stronger crowding attributions than students who obtained their desired courses. The expectancy disconfirmation results were replicated in a laboratory experiment. Disconfirmed performance expectations, whether positive or negative, produced stronger attributions to crowding than confirmed expectations. The final study in this series demonstrated that crowding attributions can occur despite the presence of other plausible environmental and nonenvironmental causal factors. Taken together, these results show that factors operating independently of density can influence crowding attributions in high-density environments.     

Fairness and Contract Design

We show experimentally that fairness concerns may have a decisive impact on the actual and optimal choice of contracts in a moral hazard context. Bonus contracts that offer a voluntary and unenforceable bonus for satisfactory performance provide powerful incentives and are superior to explicit incentive contracts when there are some fair‐minded players, but trust contracts that pay a generous wage up front are less efficient than incentive contracts. The principals understand this and predominantly choose the bonus contracts. These results are consistent with recently developed theories of fairness, which offer important new insights into the interaction of contract choices, fairness, and incentives.     

Three Centuries of Global Population Growth: A Spatial Referenced Population (Density) Database for 1700–2000

The Earths surface has changed considerably over the past centuries. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the early 1700s, humans from the Old World started to colonize the New World. The colonization processes lead to major changes in global land use and land cover. Large parts of the original land cover have been altered (e.g., deforestation), leading to extra emissions of GHGs to the atmosphere and enhancing global climate change. The spatial and temporal aspects are still not very well known. More and more global integrated environmental assessments concerning global sustainability require long time series of global change indicators, of which population is an important one. This study presents an update of the geo-referenced historical population maps for the period 1700–2000, part of the History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE), which can be used in integrated models of global change and/or global sustainability.     

Are Adolescent Substance Users Less Satisfied with Life as Young Adults and if so,Why?

The present study investigated whether adolescent cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and hard drug use predicts life satisfaction in young adulthood. Survey data were used from a longitudinal cohort of 2376 adolescents at ages 18 and 29, originally recruited from California and Oregon middle schools at age 13. Results of multivariate models indicated that use of cigarettes and hard drugs at age 18 was associated with lower life satisfaction at age 29, controlling for adolescent environmental, social, and behavioral factors related to lower life satisfaction, including poor mental health, loneliness, poor social skills, and Black race. Adolescent alcohol and marijuana use were not significantly related to adult life satisfaction. Low income, poor health, and cigarette use during adulthood each independently mediated the relationship between adolescent cigarette use and adult life satisfaction, together explaining 84.58% of the effect. Adult hard drug use mediated the effect of adolescent hard drug use, explaining 54.79% of the effect. Results suggest that some forms of adolescent substance use limit socio-economic opportunities, and have a lasting effect on health, consequently decreasing life-satisfaction. Continued use of substances may also lead to lower subjective well-being over time. Findings indicate a need for programs that increase social skills and effectively prevent adolescents from using substances, perhaps by incorporating information about consequences of use for socio-economic status, health, and well-being over the long term. This research was funded by grant #R01 DA 13515 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.     

?Durch Dick und D��nn.�� Zum Einfluss von Partnerschaft und Partnermarkt auf das K?rpergewicht

This article analyzes how body weight is associated with the existence of an intimate partner and with the sex ratio in the marriage market. The data rely on a representative sample of the 16?C55 years old population in Germany, carried out in 2009 (Partner Market Survey 2009). In this data set, individuals?? mating opportunities for the first time are measured by their integration in a network of friends as well as in foci of activity as conceptualized by Scott Feld. Results confirm a weight increase after an intimate relationship has started (negative protection) and they also confirm a mating disadvantage corresponding to high weight (selection). Further results lead to the discovery that the weight difference between individuals with and without a partner varies according to the sex ratio in the marriage market: higher competition in the marriage market obviously corresponds to relatively lower weight of individuals without partner. Moreover, similar BMI of partners is not a result of adaption between partners over time but solely is a result of assortative mating. Consequently, mating patterns with respect to obesity have no effect on the individuals?? weight.     

Profitieren Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund von pädagogischen Fachkräften mit Migrationshintergrund?Do migrant children benefit from migrant teachers?

This paper tests the assumption that a stronger presence of migrant teachers in preschool can help to reduce ethnic disadvantages and contribute to more equality of opportunity. To this end, migrant children who are taught by teachers with a migration background are compared to those who are confronted with only autochthonous teachers in their day-care centre. The outcome variables include competencies in German language, mathematics, science, as well as social competencies of the children. In addition, the study investigates the contact frequency of migrant parents with the day care centre to test whether contact is enhanced in centres which employ migrant teachers. Contrary to expectations, propensity score matching analyses based on the Kindergarten cohort of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) show that migrant children do not achieve higher competencies when being taught by migrant teachers. Similarly, contact to migrant parents is not improved. More teachers with a migration background will hardly reduce ethnic disadvantages in educational outcomes.     

Outpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents Engaged in Deliberate Self-Harm: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

The current review examines conceptual and methodological issues related to the use of dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) in treating youth who engage in deliberate self-harm. A comprehensive review of the literature identified six studies appropriate for the review. Results indicated several inconsistencies and limitations across studies including the mixing of various forms of self-harm; variations in diagnostic inclusion/exclusion criteria, insufficient use of standardized self-harm outcome measures, variable lengths and intensity of provided treatment, and inadequate attention paid to DBT adherence. Each of these areas is reviewed along with a discussion of ways to improve the quality of future research.     

Age cohort differences in the developmental milestones of gay men

As the social context in which gay men live changes due to greater visibility, greater acceptance, and easier access to gay subculture, gay males may self-identify and take part in gay social activities at earlier ages than in the past. This study examined whether developmental milestones associated with sexual orientation for gay men have changed over the past several decades. A large and diverse sample of 2,402 gay men who responded to a 1994 survey published in a national magazine provided retrospective information on the age at which they reached individual psychological, social, and sexual behavior developmental milestones. We found evidence that individual psychological and sexual behavior milestones (e.g., awareness of attraction to males, having an orgasm with other male) are slowly moving toward earlier chronological ages (by 1 year of age every 8-25 years, p < 0.05), whereas social milestones (e.g., coming out) are moving more rapidly in a similar direction (by 1 year of age every 2-5 years, p < 0.001). The authors perform an innovative sensitivity test to demonstrate the persistence of the finding after correcting for the bias attributable to underrepresentation of those who have not yet self-identified as gay in such samples.