Implications of temporal aggregation on the relation between two time series

Using a simple theoretical model and giving an empirical example it is investigated if it matters whether we use (monthly) averages or end-of-period (month) data in performing Granger-causality tests. It is shown that no major problems are to be expected if the two series are temporally aggregated in the same way, but non-trivial problems can occur if the two series have different kinds of temporal aggregation.     

A SCALE IN SEARCH OF A CONSTRUCT: COMMENTS ON GAVIN AND WAMBOLDT

The article examines some issues raised in Gavin and Wamboldt's (1992) recent study on the Family-of-Origin Scale (FOS) (Hovestadt, Anderson, Piercy, Cochran, & Fine, 1985). The discussion centers on unresolved concerns regarding the validity and utility of the FOS and on unsubstantiated and potentially misleading claims made in the Gavin and Wamboldt article. A case is made for conceptual and methodological precision in the study of family phenomena.     

Multicultural perspectives on counseling survivors of rape

The dominant Euro-American culture is a rape-prone culture, as defined by Sanday. Within that culture, rape is both a tool and a consequence of interlocking systems of oppression based on race, ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation. The impact of rape on an individual survivor can only be fully understood in the context of the survivor's own culture, religious beliefs, and experience as an immigrant or refugee. Issues of race, culture, class, and sexual orientation influence every step in the counseling of a rape survivor. Knowledge about the client's culture is essential if accurate assessment and culturally appropriate service are to be provided. Specific examples of the impact of these issues are presented. Ways in which the cultural values implicit in the crisis counseling model may conflict with the client's values and needs are examined.     

ON THE MACROFOUNDATIONS OF MICROSOCIOLOGY:

Just as Collins (1981) demonstrates that microsociological presuppositions elucidate macrosociology, the reverse holds as well. Fundamental axioms are the existence of (1) a set of constraints that channel individual action and expectations and (2) obdurate, exterior realities of supraindividual entities. Expanding on these presuppositions this article proposes a set of issues that collectively help provide a macrosociological basis for interpretive microsociology: the physical limits of the built environment, temporal and spatial effects, institutional linkages, the obdurate reality of tradition, and beliefs in organizational primacy. These underline the often unrecognized centrality and legitimacy of macrosociological analysis for the development of microsociology.     

The Decline of Barriers to Immigrant Economic and Political Rights in the American States: 1977–20011

State governments exercise significant powers to regulate the economic and social activities of resident aliens. We review the laws of the six leading states of immigrant settlement regulating access of noncitizens to 23 occupations, updating existing studies from 1946–77. Citizenship requirements for these occupations have plummeted, a change we attribute to federal court decisions, advisory opinions of state attorneys general, and state legislative and administrative action. There are numerous additional citizenship requirements in the statutes of the six states, although these appear to be poorly enforced. The authority of states to regulate their political communities is the most important remaining constitutionally valid basis of citizenship requirements. States define their political community broadly, leading to questionable exclusions of noncitizens from important activities.     

Goal Ambiguity and Organizational Performance in U.S. Federal Agencies

In spite of numerous observations that government organizationshave high levels of organizational goal ambiguity that exertmajor influences on their other characteristics, few researchershave measured goal ambiguity and tested these frequent assertions.In previous research, we developed measures of four dimensionsof goal ambiguity: mission comprehension ambiguity, directivegoal ambiguity, evaluative goal ambiguity, and priority goalambiguity. Confirming hypotheses developed from the literatureon public organizations, the latter three variables showed relationsto such organizational characteristics as organizational age,financial publicness (proportion of funding from governmentallocations), and regulatory status. This article reports asecond analytical step of examining the relations between thegoal ambiguity dimensions and indicators of organizational performancebased on responses to the 2000 National Partnership for ReinventingGovernment Survey of federal employees. The performance variablesincluded managerial effectiveness, customer service orientation,productivity, and work quality. Regression analyses with numerouscontrol variables found that directive, evaluative, and prioritygoal ambiguity related negatively to managerial effectiveness.All four performance indicators showed significant negativerelationships with evaluative goal ambiguity and directive goalambiguity. The results provide further evidence of the viabilityof the new measures of goal ambiguity, support theory-basedbut previously untested hypotheses, and further indicate thefeasibility and value of analyzing goal ambiguity of governmentorganizations.     

The Boston Area Diary Study and the Moral Citizenship of Care

This paper describes the theoretical foundations, empirical findings, and practical and philosophical implications of the Boston Area Diary Study (BADS), a study of the caring behavior of 44 participants over one calendar year. In particular, the paper presents an identification theory of care and discusses how it shaped the conceptualization, collection, and analysis of the data in a year-long diary study of daily voluntary assistance. The findings from the BADS (1) theoretically confirm the identification theory of care; (2) methodologically capture how individuals perceive and carry out caring behavior as a unity; and (3rpar; empirically document the existence of a moral citizenship in America that is substantially more vigorous than is implied by the usual indicators of civic and political citizenship.     

Log-linear modelling of data from matched case-control studies

A log-linear modelling approach is proposed for dealing with polytomous, unordered exposure variables in case-control epidemiological studies with matched pairs. Hypotheses concerning epidemiological parameters are shown to be expressable in terms of log-linear models for the expected frequencies of the case-by-control square concordance table representation of the matched data; relevant maximum likelihood estimates and goodness-of-fit statistics are presented. Possible extensions to account for ordered categorical risk factors and multiple controls are illustrated, and comparisons with previous work are discussed. Finally, the possibility of implementing the proposed method with GLIM is illustrated within the context of a data set already analyzed by other authors.