Market Rationality Inside Voluntary Sector: An Analysis of Five Organizations in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

What we now understand as rational and logical in today’s world provides a mental scheme to take action, based on a framework of premises and values. These rules aim to maximize the utility of consequences, despite of any subjective value. Weber (Economy and Society, 1978) classified this scheme as an “instrumental rationality”, characterized by being guided by the goals, means, and consequence of the action. On the other hand, he also defined “substantive rationality”, postulated on the values of the subject, and not guided by any consequences of action. This study acknowledges that NGOs (non-governmental organizations) must belong to a field other than that of economic businesses, because they are based on different rationalities, especially when they encompass the observation in organizations that work for social transformation. A field study was made with five nonprofit organizations whose stated goals were social transformation, seeking to identify influences that the adoption of instrumental rationality imposes on accomplishing the expected objectives for these organizations. Contingencies were found that benefit from using instrumentality in such organizations, such as the need for self-subsistence, the area where they work, size of the organization, influence of the leader and so on. The conclusion is that the lack of consciousness of the market’s influence on them very often causes them to uncritically and bluntly absorb the typical organizational dynamics of economic business, which has strong potential to corrupt their conceptual motivations, when guiding them strategically through the consequences of actions.     

College students' electronic victimization in friendships and dating relationships: anticipated distress and associations with risky behaviors

This study investigated college students' reports of electronic victimization in friendships and dating relationships. We examined 22 items representing four categories of electronic victimization: hostility, humiliation, exclusion, and intrusiveness. Nearly all participants (92%) reported some electronic victimization in the past year, with males reporting more victimization and females anticipating more distress. Both females and males anticipated more distress from electronic victimization in dating relationships than friendships. More actual experience with electronic victimization related to lower anticipated distress. Electronic victimization was associated with females' alcohol use, even after controlling for other victimization experiences. Discussion focuses on the contextualized nature of electronic victimization, and on the importance of understanding what makes electronic victimization highly distressing for some individuals.     

Topiramate Combined with Cognitive Restructuring for the Treatment of Gambling Disorder: A Two-Center,Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trial

Gambling disorder (GD) is a prevalent condition for which no pharmacological treatment has yet been approved, although there is evidence that topiramate can reduce impulsivity in GD and craving in various addictive behaviors. The goal of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of topiramate combined with cognitive restructuring for GD in a two-center, randomized, double-blind clinical trial. Participants were individuals seeking outpatient treatment for GD (n = 30), treated with either topiramate or placebo combined with a brief cognitive intervention, over a 12-week period, the dose of topiramate being tapered up during the first 8 weeks. The main outcome measures were gambling craving, behavior, and cognitive distortions; impulsivity; depression and social adjustment. Topiramate proved superior to placebo in reducing gambling craving (P = 0.017); time and money spent gambling (P = 0.007 and P = 0.047, respectively); cognitive distortions related to gambling (P = 0.003); and social adjustment (P = 0.040). We found no significant effects on impulsivity or depression. These findings are in contrast with data from a previous clinical trial with topiramate for GD. In the current study, we found that topiramate affects features specifically related to gambling addiction and had no significant effect on associated phenomena such as impulsiveness and depression. We believe that this response could be due to synergistic interaction between topiramate and the cognitive intervention.     

"MEN I MESS WITH DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH AIDS":

Pivotal in HIV/STD intervention and prevention is how individuals perceive risk. This article discusses how ethnotheory can be used to understand the underpinnings of risk perception from the subject's perspective. Ethnotheory's theoretical and methodological character extends present models used to explain sex-related HIV behaviors and provides insights into risk perception useful for the development of effective intervention strategies. Four detailed ethnographic excerpts from low-income African American and Mexican American men and women illustrate how people form perceptions of risk and how information gained through ethnotheory is useful in the design of culturally relevant interventions.