Examining the Role of Concentration,Vocabulary and Self-concept in Listening and Reading Comprehension

Listening is regarded as a key requirement for successful communication and is fundamentally linked to other language skills. Unlike reading, it requires both hearing and processing information in real-time. We therefore propose that the ability to concentrate is a strong predictor of listening comprehension. Using structural equation modeling, concentration was found to be a strong predictor of listening comprehension in a sample of 345 sixth graders in Switzerland. In contrast, the ability to concentrate did not predict successful reading comprehension. The most important predictor of both listening and reading comprehension was vocabulary.     

Causes and outcomes in studies of fear of childbirth: A systematic review

Problem

Fear of childbirth negatively affects women during pregnancy and after birth.

Handicapped by old and new traps: Hungary's health care reform

Since the early 1980s, grave challenges have faced Hungarian health policy. The health status of the population stagnated between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, and has dramatically deteriorated since then. In the 1980s the multidimensional crisis of the health care system deepened. Its overhaul must embrace every component: policy-making, ownership, financing, management, service structure, patient rights, medical education, etc. The main purpose of this paper is to describe how health policy has (or has not) responded to these challenges. First it summarizes the inheritance of the state-socialist regime, then it outlines the recent changes in social insurance legislation, and finally it compares official goals with the way the reform is actually proceeding. The paper is intended to discuss the connection between health care reform and the historic transformation of the political regime and the economy.     

Assessing the educational achievements of adults who were formerly placed in family foster care

Case records and interviews concerning educational achievements of 1087 foster care alumni are presented. Youth were served by a voluntary agency in 23 communities across the USA between 1966 and 1998. Because the alumni were older than most foster care follow‐up studies, a more extensive picture of educational achievement was possible. High school graduation and college enrolment rates were comparable to or even greater than those of the general population, but the number of alumni completing high school with a Graduate Equivalency Diploma and the college dropout rates were a concern. Predictors of high school completion while in foster care, such as fewer placement changes, extracurricular activities and independent living training, are presented, along with recommendations for improving educational and vocational preparation.     

Beyond Community of Properly — A Plea for Equity

The recent changes in the nature of marriage, and the popularity of alternative relationships, diminish the ‘special’ status of marriage. Existing and proposed methods of allocating property upon divorce fail to take into account structural gender inequalities. The laws relating to property distribution should be recast and limited to an accounting procedure which assesses the effect of the incidence of dependency on future earning capacity and seeks to allocate compensation aimed at long-term equity. Courts should base awards on lifetime earning capacities and on the effect of the marriage or relationships on these.     

The Implications of Having High-achieving Versus Low-achieving Friends: A Longitudinal Analysis

The present research examines the achievement‐related implications of establishing friendships with high‐achieving versus low‐achieving classmates. Fifth‐ , sixth‐ , and seventh‐grade students (N=929) participated. During the fall and spring semesters, the report card grades of children and their friends were obtained and children completed questionnaire measures of their self‐evaluative beliefs and preference for challenge. Results suggest that for low‐achieving students there are tradeoffs associated with establishing and maintaining friendships with high‐achieving classmates. Specifically, low achievers who established and maintained friendships with high‐achieving friends evaluated themselves less positively, but also performed better academically, than low achievers with similarly low‐achieving friends. Fewer tradeoffs emerged for high achievers.     

When Memory is Better for Out-group Faces: On Negative Emotions and Gender Roles

Memory for in-group faces tends to be better than memory for out-group faces. Ackerman et al. (Psychological Science 17:836–840, 2006) found that this effect reverses when male faces display anger, supposedly due to their functional value in signaling intergroup threat. We explored the generalizability of this reverse effect. White participants viewed Black and White male or female faces displaying angry, fearful, or neutral expressions. Recognition accuracy for White male faces was better than for Black male faces when faces were neutral, but this reversed when the faces displayed anger or fear. For female targets, Black faces were generally better recognized than White faces, and female faces were better remembered when they displayed anger rather than fear, whereas male faces were better remembered when they displayed fear rather than anger. These findings are difficult to reconcile with a functional account and suggest (a) that the processing of male out-group faces is influenced by negative emotional expressions in general; and (b) that gender role expectations lead to differential remembering of male and female faces as a function of emotional expression.     

Changes in the Chinese overseas population, 1955 to 2007

Two approaches have been adopted to study Chinese overseas. The first one stresses homeland ties and sojourning mentality; the second one focuses on host society conditions and the social construction of Chinese. This paper analyzes the population of Chinese overseas after the Second World War, which has increased steadily over time but unevenly by region from 11 million in 1955 to 39 million in 2007. Certain historical factors and contemporary forces explain the uneven growth. The paper argues that undue emphasis on homeland influence is unwarranted in view of the importance of how receiving society and its policy of accommodation have shaped the growth and development of Chinese overseas communities after the Second World War.     

Enjoyment and absorption: An electronic diary study on daily flow patterns

Abstract

Flow experience is a state of mind in which one is totally absorbed in a task. This study explored the daily flow patterns related to working and non-working tasks among healthy and non-healthy (burned-out) individuals using the Experience Sampling Method. Previously the flow experience has been measured in terms of high challenges and high skills. The main aim of this study was to explore flow throughout the day using an operationalization that focused on the flow experience itself, as indicated by enjoyment and absorption. Forty healthy participants and 60 burned-out individuals kept an electronic diary on activities (work/non-work), and levels of flow (enjoyment and absorption) for 14 days. Entries were prompted by a signal on average five times a day, thus rendering 5455 entries. A curvilinear daily flow pattern was observed, with lower levels of flow during working hours. Differences were found between the components of flow: enjoyment was higher during non-working tasks, whereas absorption was higher when working. There were no differences in flow patterns between the healthy and burned-out group although the actual levels differed, with the former experiencing more flow than the latter. The results confirm the validity of this means of measuring flow, using enjoyment and absorption as indicators.