Self-reported distress, job dissatisfaction and the Type A behaviour pattern in a sample of full-time employed Australians

The Type A behaviour pattern (TABP), which relates to risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), has also been shown to relate to self-reported feelings of both psychological and physical distress, at least during those times when the TABP is activated by salient environmental circumstances. The importance of the occupational setting for those with the TABP has led to the speculation that such distress may arise, in part, from job dissatisfaction which comes about when the Type A individual is unable to exert sufficient control over the environment. Associations between the TABP and measures of job dissatisfaction have not, however, been widely reported. The present study examined associations between the TABP, job (dis)satisfaction and self-reported experiences of both psychological and physical distress in a sample of employed individuals, and found tentative evidence that the relationship between the TABP and distress was mediated in a modest way by self-perceived job (dis)satisfaction. The implications of this for the areas of work stress and occupational health are discussed.     

Young Men as Victims and Perpetrators of Violence in Northern Ireland: A Qualitative Analysis

This article explores issues of masculinity and violence in the lives of young men in disadvantaged areas in Northern Ireland. Qualitative data were collected in four focus groups, one group of young men from the Catholic community, one group of young men from the Protestant community, one group of community representatives, and one group of Young Offenders ( N = 28). Themes were extracted from the data using a grounded approach. Results indicate that social disadvantage is fundamental to experiences of violence and that young men understand the costs and benefits of a masculine identity that incorporates a capacity for violence. Discussion suggests that initiatives to reduce violent behavior should be compatible with socially and culturally acceptable constructions of masculinity.     

Using tax parcels to select a location-based sample: an illustration that examines residents' awareness of sex offenders in neighborhoods

Social science research is increasingly considering place when examining social programs and policies with a spatial component. A specific research challenge involving spatial policies is how to select a sample of individuals based on their geographic locations. This article illustrates the use of geographic information systems, tax parcels, and mail surveys to target residents in varied geographic areas. A provided example demonstrates how researchers obtained a sample of respondents living within one tenth of a mile of multiple registered sex offenders. The challenges of using tax parcels to obtain addresses for apartments and mobile home parks are also explored.     

Physician incentive plan boosts physician/patient satisfaction. 5-year-old plan at priority health shows success

Physician involvement is crucial to creating a healthy physician incentive program. Look at how one large, Michigan-based managed care organization established their program.     

Geodesic Monte Carlo on Embedded Manifolds

Markov chain Monte Carlo methods explicitly defined on the manifold of probability distributions have recently been established. These methods are constructed from diffusions across the manifold and the solution of the equations describing geodesic flows in the Hamilton–Jacobi representation. This paper takes the differential geometric basis of Markov chain Monte Carlo further by considering methods to simulate from probability distributions that themselves are defined on a manifold, with common examples being classes of distributions describing directional statistics. Proposal mechanisms are developed based on the geodesic flows over the manifolds of support for the distributions, and illustrative examples are provided for the hypersphere and Stiefel manifold of orthonormal matrices.     

Wildcat strikes in U.S. manufacturing, 1960–1977

Using data from theBureau of Labor Statistics: Historical File, a model of wildcat strike incidence is estimated. The model supports the hypothesis that the incidence of wildcat strikes is related to the underlying relationship between the parties. In addition, national economic and political trends, industry-specific factors, and firm-specific factors have an impact on strike activity.     

Pierre Bourdieu on social transformation,with particular reference to political and symbolic revolutions

This article challenges what is now the orthodoxy concerning the heritage of Bourdieu (1930–2002): namely, the judgement that his distinctive sociological innovation has been his theory of social reproduction, and that he has failed to provide a necessary theory of social change. Yet Bourdieu consistently claimed to offer a theory of social transformation as well as accounting for continuities of power. Indeed, he provides two substantive keys for an understanding of historical transformation—first, a theory of prophets (religious or secular) as the authors of heresies or “symbolic revolutions” that dispel current doxa; second, a theory of the “corporatism of the universal”: the role of intellectuals or other educated professionals in pursuit of social justice and other universalistic goals. Moreover, Bourdieu fuses his theories of “symbolic revolutions” with a materialist analysis of their social preconditions, including a fresh account of social crises. Crises—war, famine, recession, and especially the intensified precarity of the educated—have, for him, a profound impact, both within differentiated fields and across fields. Conflicts that become effectively synchronized across fields acquire great resonance within the wider field of power, particularly due to hysteresis or “maladjusted habitus.” Indeed, the appearance of crises, together with new prophetic heresies, leads the subordinate classes to question the taken-for-granted order of things and to orchestrate their resistance. Alongside his corpus of published writings, this article draws widely on Bourdieu’s posthumously published lectures. These cast a distinctive new light on how his well-known conceptual instruments can aid us in the study of historical change. They also expand on how social science itself might be used to facilitate progressive social movements.