Did Divorces Decline After the Oklahoma City Bombing?

The Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 was an act of terrorism that had many potential influences on the city and state, including influences on families. We analyzed divorce data from 1985 to 2000 for all 77 counties in Oklahoma to assess the divorce response to the Oklahoma City bombing. Our prediction was that divorce rates in Oklahoma would decrease in response to the bombing, a prediction derived from two different theoretical orientations, terror management theory and attachment theory. We test this prediction in the context of two relatively powerful quasi‐experimental designs, an interrupted time series design, and a nonequivalent control group design. We analyze the time series data with polynomial regression. Results suggested that there were lower observed divorce rates following the Oklahoma City bombing than the prevailing 10‐year cubic divorce trend would have predicted, with the effect dampening over time. We analyzed the nonequivalent control group design using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) linear model to compare counties in and around Oklahoma City to those farther away, and to compare metropolitan to nonmetropolitan counties in Oklahoma. In each case, divorces were lower in the predicted directions.     

Perceived Risks of Radioactive Waste Transport Through Oregon: Results of a Statewide Survey

Transportation of hazardous materials, and particularly radioactive wastes, on public highways has become an important risk management issue. The unfavorability of public attitudes regarding hazardous and nuclear wastes signals the potential for strong public opposition to programs for transporting these materials. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted to assess public reactions to a long-term nuclear waste transport program planned to follow a route through a portion of rural Oregon. The survey assessed a number of key risk perception issues, including perceived health and safety risks of nuclear waste transport, relative risks of transport vs. storage at an existing site, trust in state officials, and satisfaction with life in communities along the transport route. The survey identified a number of attitudes and concerns that need to be understood and considered by those in charge of designing and implementing the waste-transportation program.     

Professions and Powerlessness: Female marginality in the learned occupations

This paper argues that the existing sociological literature on the learned professions and on scientific occupations has developed in ways that are now theoretically unproductive. One sympton of this dead-end is the failure of sociologists of the professions to include research on scientists in their discussions and vice versa. A second symptom is the lack of attention to the implications of the work of Jamous, Peloille. and Bourdieu in both the sociology of scientists and of professions. The third symptom of the malaise is the failure to generate sociologically plausible explanations for the marginalisation of female entrants to science and the professions. The paper argues that a novel direction for sociological argument can be derived by remedying the three symptoms simultaneously.     

Factors influencing wagers in simulated Blackjack

To understand some of the deviations from recommended optimal play in Blackjack, gamblers were considered to be decision makers who used decision rules to predict outcomes. The size of their wagers were used as an index of the confidence of these predictions. If this were the case, players' decisions would be affected by time pressure, short-term probability of winning, and their perceived control of outcomes. Players' wagering on a simulated game of Blackjack was examined to assess the feasibility of this approach. The computer simulation of Blackjack used simplified rules (no splitting, doubling down, insurance, etc.), and the probability of winning was controlled by the computer. Subjects could either choose whether they were dealt extra cards, or could bet upon another player. The other player was a computer algorithm that sat upon a total of fifteen. To examine effects of time pressure upon confidence of judgments, the time allowed to place a bet, and to choose extra cards, was manipulated. Twelve subjects played 20 hands under each of the experimental conditions. The mean amounts wagered, and players' choice of cards were both examined. The results suggested that deviations from optimal play can in part be understood in terms of players' decision processes, that are influenced by the time available to make a decision, the short-term probability of winning, and perceived control of outcomes; each factor may potentiate the effects of the others.The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Carl Waterman III, for his help with the graphics and timing routines used in the Blackjack program.     

Public opposition to genetic engineering

Abstract The extent and sources of public opposition to the use of genetic engineering in agricultural production are examined through data from telephone interviews with 220 farmers and 332 nonfarmers living in eight North Carolina counties. A model suggesting that public opposition to genetic engineering is influenced by demographic characteristics mediated by three intervening variables (awareness of genetic engineering, faith in government and industry, and moral objection to genetic engineering) is analyzed. Moral objection is the strongest predictor of opposition. Opposition is also related to lower awareness and less faith in institutions. Women are more likely to oppose genetic engineering than men. Implications of findings are noted.     

Centres of Excellence? Assessment and Development Centres,Managerial Competence,and Human Resource Strategies

The use of assessment centres for the selection of staff and for the identification of long-term potential seems to be growing in popularity. The paper reviews research on their predictive validity and fairness and explores some reservations revealed by recent research in relation to such areas as construct and content validity, the processes of assessor decision-making, the roles of exercises and criteria and the value of the assessors' conference. Increasingly, assessment centres have been also used for the purpose of diagnosing development needs, and the paper reviews recent empirical research on the effects of such ‘development centres’. More recently assessment and development centres have come to play a significant role in managing strategic change and in supporting programmes of culture change. This paper examines two recent case studies which illustrate the key roles that assessment and development centres may play as part of an organization's overall human resource strategy.     

Developing alliances between U.S. and Portuguese executives: The impact of executive courage

This study represents an effort to gain insights into the differences between U.S. and Portuguese executives with regard to their attitudes toward the role of executive courage in the business organization. Eighty Portuguese and 40 American executives participated in the study. Four research questions were formulated and investigated. Results show that the two groups of executives tended to be more similar than different. However, some statistically significant differences between the two samples were detected. Portuguese organizations exhibited significantly more control over the actions of their executives and rewarded efficiency rather than effectiveness, when compared to American business organizations. Implications for strategic alliances between Portuguese and American executives are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.     

The fertility of the asian community of East Africa

Summary Fertility indices of one sort or another can be calculated for the Asian populations of Uganda and Kenya back to 1931. These indices suggest that fertility has fallen sharply during the 1950s and 1960s. Considerable problems are experienced in trying to determine the actual level of fertility, however, since all the techniques developed to deal with defective data are so affected by the falling fertility and migratory movements of the population, as to be virtually useless. An analysis of the causes of the fertility decline suggests that both changes in marriage patterns and changes in fertility within marriage have contributed to the fall, and that these changes have come about as a result of the better education and economic opportunities available to the Asian community.