Interethnic Contact, Identity, and Psychological Adjustment: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Communication

Social psychological theories of second-language communication posit a relationship between second-language competence/usage and social identity. Identity and adaptation outcomes of intercultural contact have also been central issues for cross-cultural psychology. The studies described here are at the junction of these two research traditions. Based on a situated-identity approach, they show the mediating and moderating roles of second-language confidence for identity change and adjustment among minority- and majority-group members. Two studies involving Canadian francophone and anglophone university students illustrate the relationship between relative status and identity as well as the mediating role of communication in determining identity and adjustment. The third study, involving participants of East Indian descent, shows that incongruities among aspects of identity are related to the experience of collective discrimination and stress. Furthermore, these relations are moderated by second-language confidence. The conclusion discusses theoretical and practical implications for policy.     

Strategies for planning

In recent years there has been a good deal of discussion amongst planning specialists and academics about the gap which exists between the theory of planning as set out in journals and textbooks, and the practice of planning in private and public organizations. Planners are continually complaining about the resistance to planning by top management and operating managers in divisions and departments.In this article the author aims to produce a reconciliation between theory and practice and to discuss what alternative strategies are open to planners in devising planning systems for their organizations.He suggests that the problem has its origin in the fact that corporate planning theory was first developed by management scientists as a total systems approach. Corporate planners have failed to sell an integrated planning system either as programme budgeting or as corporate planning. Research suggests that a management team can only adopt and implement a comprehensive planning system in very special circumstances, e.g. when the organization's survival is threatened, a new management team has been appointed and the staff of the organization are ready to accept radical change.In normal circumstances the planner is wrong to advocate a ‘root and branch’ solution. He must diagnose the planning needs of the organization and his objective must be not merely to establish a particular planning procedure but rather to discover how he can best improve the quality of management decisions.Recent studies on strategy formation indicate that the introduction of a formal planning procedure is only a partial answer to the problem of improving the quality of management decisions.The paper reviews various approaches to planning and considers how they relate to organizations with different strategic problems, with differing organization structures and various management styles.     

Metapreferences and the reasons for stability in social choice: Thoughts on broadening and clarifying the debate

The standard model of collective choice looks at aggregation procedures which take individual preferences as existing for a specified set of alternatives. In this paper we propose that actors also have preferences for rules of choice or characteristics of choice processes (e.g., the perceived fairness of procedures or the popularity of outcomes) rather than simply for alternatives (outcomes) themselves. We argue that the positing of the existence of meta-preferences can illuminate a number of areas of choice theory. Here we focus on one such area: the problem of “too much” stability in majority rule decision making - a stability which belies the standard theoretical results on the generic instability of majority rule processes. We also show that discussion of the prevalence of stability in collective decision making needs to be clarified because there are at least six distinct types of stability which are sometimes confounded in the literature.     

The Social Sharing of Emotion as an Interface Between Individual and Collective Processes in the Construction of Emotional Climates

The study of private emotional experiences reveals that an emotion is typically followed by social sharing. Additionally, the target's responses stimulate the sharing person's emotional expression. The reciprocal stimulation of interactants favors empathy and emotional communion. Consequences are two-fold: (1) the sharing process reactivates emotional arousal in both agent and target, and (2) it strengthens social bonds. Sharing targets also share what they heard with others, who then experience a similar need. Social sharing also develops when an emotional event strikes collectively. In this case, however, the propagation consequences are geared up in a spectacular manner both because there are as many sharing sources as there are members in the community and because every sharing reactivates felt emotions among interactants, thus reloading the propagation flow. It is argued that such chain reactions contribute to construct an emotional climate in the concerned community. It is predicted that emotion sharing would impact (1) on emotional climate in general; (2) on group cohesion and solidarity, with positive consequences for emotional climate; and (3) on collective memory, with potential consequences for emotional climate in the long run. Each of these predictions is detailed and illustrated with available empirical evidence.     

How Dangerous Is Low Level Radiation?

Problems in the theoretical basis for the linear-no threshold theory of radiation carcinogenesis are reviewed, and it is shown that they very strongly suggest that the theory greatly overestimates the risk of low level radiation. A direct test of the theory, based on the radon—lung cancer relationship is described; it strongly reinforces that conclusion. However, it is shown that even if the linear-no threshold theory is valid, the public's fear of low level radiation, at least in some contexts, is grossly exaggerated.     

A simplified taxonomy of 2 × 2 games

All 2 × 2 games are classified into eight configurations, following three natural criteria, and prototypes given for each, especially as concerns the Newcomb and chain-store paradoxes. Two pseudo-dynamic properties, move priority and dynamic inconsistency, are examined in that framework, as well as more specifically, the problem of the origin of social institutions.     

Estimation bayesienne des effets dans le modele a effets aleatoires de classification double avec interaction

The problem of estimating the effects in a balanced two-way classification with interaction \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$i = 1, \ldots ,I;j = 1, \ldots ,J;k = 1, \ldots ,K$\end{document} using a random effect model is considered from a Bayesian view point. Posterior distributions of r_i, c_j and t_ij are obtained under the assumptions that r_i, c_j, t_ij and e_ijk are all independently drawn from normal distributions with zero meansand variances \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$\sigma _r^2 ,\sigma _c^2 ,\sigma _t^2 ,\sigma _e^2$\end{document} respectively. A non informative reference prior is adopted for \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$\mu ,\sigma _r^2 ,\sigma _c^2 ,\sigma _t^2 ,\sigma _e^2$\end{document}. Various features of thisposterior distribution are obtained. The same features of the psoterior distribution for a fixed effect model are also obtained. A numerical example is given.     

Strategic planning for resources

In the field or purchasing and supply, 1973 was a year to be remembered. A world-wide boom in industrialised countries produced record prices in markets for food, raw materials and manufactured goods. Rates of inflation in the U.S.A., Western Europe and Japan began to approach South American levels. The value of the dollar, the pound and other major currencies fluctuated dramatically, and the stock market experienced falls comparable to those which occurred during the slump in the thirties. Finally, 1973 was the year of the oil embargo, when oil prices were almost doubled and oil supplies to the West were cut by 15–20%, resulting in the rationing of oil and other commodities in Western Europe.By any standards, this was a momentous year. It is conceivable that supply markets will never be quite the same again. The traditional form of multi-national business, integrated from supply to consumer markets, is fast disappearing as the companies formed in developing countries to secure the supply of oil, food and raw materials are being taken over by the host governments. Indeed it may be that after the traumatic experiences of this year, negotiations for food and key raw materials will be increasingly carried out by governments rather than by private companies.To cope with shortages and higher prices in food, fuels and essential raw materials, government bodies and public and private enterprises will have to develop new capabilities. Western governments have responded quickly by setting up Ministers and Ministries for Energy and by establishing huge budgets for research into the exploration and exploitation of alternative fuels. The large oil companies have declared that they are in the “energy business” and have bought interests in nuclear power and coal.But what does the energy and resource crisis mean for the average firm? It seems that in the 1970s we are experiencing a level of competition for supplies similar to the competition for consumer markets which first produced “Marketing” in the late fifties and early sixties.