Planned change in the disability community

Planned change with people, who are physically or mentally disabled, as with other special populations, requires a range of skills and knowledge; several specific aspects of the change process are identified and discussed in this article: the characteristics of the change agent, the timing of the change event, and creating a vision for change. These aspects are illustrated through the writer's own experiences as a change agent working a long-range change event to improve access1 to mental health services in the US with and for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.     

Confession Magazines

Abstract

The results of this survey underscore the controversy surrounding the elimination of OCLC's Serials Control Subsystem. The survey evoked responses more numerous and fervent than I anticipated when the project began. As might be expected, those libraries that used the system more extensively and checked in the higher number of formats on SCS were most likely to describe the impact of SCS's elimination as serious. Most of the respondents expected that their immediate choice for a new serials control system would be permanent. As one respondent commented, “…librarians cannot afford to be switching serials control systems every few years.” Among libraries using the Serials Control Subsystem, approximately one-third chose to switch to OCLC's SC350, but no alternative serials system emerged as the second choice.     

Tabloids

Abstract

Comic books and libraries do not seem to get along, at least not in North American libraries. Aside from a few dozen specialized, noncirculating research collections, retrospective comic book holdings remain virtually unknown as a library resource.1 Browsing collections of current comic books are equally rare in public, school, and college libraries. In a 1984 article, comic book bibliographer Randall Scott observed, “In most communities, if you want to read or refer to a comic book, you have to buy it.” Librarian Doug Highsmith concurred, writing in 1992 that public libraries carrying the latest issues of popular comics titles are “still the exception rather than the rule.” Both statements remain fundamentally true today.     

Demographic Consequences of Gender Discrimination in China: Simulation Analysis of Policy Options

The large number of missing females in China, a consequence of gender discrimination, is having and will continue to have a profound effect on the country’s population development. In this paper, we analyze the causes of this gender discrimination in terms of institutions, culture and, economy, and suggest public policies that might help eliminate gender discrimination. Using a population simulation model, we study the effect of public policies on the sex ratio at birth and excess female child mortality, and the effect of gender discrimination on China’s population development. We find that gender discrimination will decrease China’s population size, number of births, and working age population, accelerate population aging and exacerbate the male marriage squeeze. These results provide theoretical support for suggesting that the government enact and implement public policies aimed at eliminating gender discrimination.     

Waning vigilance and the disposition effect: Evidence from Thailand on individual investor decision making

We argue that existing explanations for the stock-market investor's disposition to “ride losers too long” are unsatisfactory because they abstract from any role for information processing. We propose instead that the disposition effect is a special case of “waning vigilance:” investors pay less attention to new information and analysis when making decisions about loss makers and are therefore slower to sell them when arguments in favor of holding cease to be valid. Results from a Thai individual investor survey are presented as empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis that vigilance is reduced following losses.     

Lost jobs, broken marriages

This paper examines the impact of both husbands’ and wives’ job displacement on the risk that the marriage ends in divorce. Using Swedish-linked employee–employer data, all married couples in which one of the spouses lost his or her job because of an establishment closure in 1987 or 1988 and a comparison sample were identified. Over a 12-year period, the excess risk of divorce among couples’ in which the husband was displaced was 13% and statistically significant. The estimated impact of wives’ job displacements was of almost the same size, but not statistically significant.     

性别失衡背景下农民工心理失范的性别差异研究

本文从角色视角,利用调查数据,分析性别失衡背景下农民工心理失范的性别差异及其机制。研究发现,性别、婚姻状况和与“养家糊口”相关的社会角色及特征对农民工的心理失范具有显著影响,其中,男性的心理失范程度要比女性严重,婚姻状态对农民工的心理失范影响没有性别差异,与“养家糊口”相关的社会角色及特征对农民工心理失范的影响存在性别差异。研究进一步发展了暴露差异理论与脆弱性差异理论,认为社会角色与性别角色变迁的不一致导致了角色紧张的出现,从而导致心理失范及其影响因素的性别差异。     

Exploring the Role of Being Out on a Queer Person's Self-Compassion

Recent changes in societal attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities have resulted in more people openly identifying with sexual minority status. Due to research on the effects of denying one's sexual orientation and the negative effects of this, many have advocated for more openness in queer sexual orientation. Compassion means connecting to the suffering of others not by avoiding their pain but instead by identifying it so that the feeling of kindness may emerge. Self-compassion, therefore, involves being touched by and open to one's own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one's suffering and to heal oneself with kindness. The purpose of the research is to understand the impact that being out has on a queer person's self-compassion. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is a 26-item, 5-point Likert measure, where a higher score equated to higher self-compassion and looked at how a person showed loving kindness to one's self through the six dimensions of self-compassion. The six dimensions of self-compassion are mindfulness, over-identification, self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, and isolation. Results showed that those who are totally out have a higher sense of self-compassion. Implications for practitioners working with the queer population are also discussed.