The Divergent Meanings of Life Satisfaction: Item Response Modeling of the Satisfaction with Life Scale in Greenland and Norway

Cultural differences in response to the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) items is investigated. Data were fit to a mixed Rasch model in order to identify latent classes of participants in a combined sample of Norwegians (N = 461) and Greenlanders (N = 180). Initial analyses showed no mean difference in life satisfaction between the two subsamples. After transforming the ordinal raw scores into interval scales while simultaneously controlling for response bias, different results appeared. First, approximately 80% of the participants in the Greenlandic subsample fit a latent class with a large degree of random responding to the SWLS. Second, relative to the Norwegians, more Greenlanders were using extreme categories in responding to the SWLS. After statistically controlling for this tendency, Norwegians were in general more satisfied with their lives than Greenlanders. Third, Greenlanders who belonged to one specific latent class were more satisfied than their Norwegian counterparts. A salient feature of this class was the relative unwillingness of respondents to change the circumstances of their lives if they were given such an opportunity. The above results are a reminder of the care that must be used in analyzing survey data across cultures. The analytical strategy applied in the article offers an improved approach to handling such data.     

Sexually open versus sexually exclusive marriage: A comparison of dyadic adjustment

In a study conducted in 1978, using Spanier's (1976) Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), couples in a sexually open marriage and couples in a sexually exclusive marriage were compared on dyadic adjustment. One hundred and thirty sexually open respondents were matched with 130 sexually exclusive respondents. It was found that there was no difference in response patterns between people in a sexually open marriage and those in a sexually exclusive marriage who were still living together with their spouses. On the other hand, persons who were no longer living together with their spouses, regardless of whether they were open or exclusive sexually, scored significantly lower on dyadic adjustment.The author gratefully acknowledges James R. Adams, Ph.D., for his part in the conduct of this research.     

The vocational development of emotionally disturbed young adults in a community setting

Although the potential benefits are significant, few programs emphasize the vocational rehabilitation of the severely disturbed adolescent-young adult. The philosophical constructs as well as the major operational components of one such program are presented. The complex problems that impede this population's ability to work successfully in the community are explored. Emotionally disturbed adolescents-young adults are accustomed to failure and their behavior is frequently self-defeating. Community resistance and professional conservatism may limit their work options. The program's experience has demonstrated that if disturbed youths are provided the opportunity to work in a natural community setting, they will frequently surpass formal diagnostic evaluations of their capacities. The therapeutic gains realized by the disturbed individual who works successfully in his or her community are considered.     

Planned change in the disability community

Planned change with people, who are physically or mentally disabled, as with other special populations, requires a range of skills and knowledge; several specific aspects of the change process are identified and discussed in this article: the characteristics of the change agent, the timing of the change event, and creating a vision for change. These aspects are illustrated through the writer's own experiences as a change agent working a long-range change event to improve access1 to mental health services in the US with and for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.     

Confession Magazines

Abstract

The results of this survey underscore the controversy surrounding the elimination of OCLC's Serials Control Subsystem. The survey evoked responses more numerous and fervent than I anticipated when the project began. As might be expected, those libraries that used the system more extensively and checked in the higher number of formats on SCS were most likely to describe the impact of SCS's elimination as serious. Most of the respondents expected that their immediate choice for a new serials control system would be permanent. As one respondent commented, “…librarians cannot afford to be switching serials control systems every few years.” Among libraries using the Serials Control Subsystem, approximately one-third chose to switch to OCLC's SC350, but no alternative serials system emerged as the second choice.     

Culinary Magazines

Abstract

Marvel Comics, along with rival DC Comics, is one of the two powerhouses of the comic book industry and has been for many decades. The company was founded in 1939 by pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman. Goodman owned various publishing houses responsible for a variety of pulp titles, including Marvel Science Stories. In 1939, a colleague persuaded Goodman that comic books were the upcoming trend in periodical publishing, so Good-man launched a book called Marvel Comics. Issue no. 1 contained a story by Bill Everett about the Sub-Mariner, as well as the first appearance of the Human Torch. Both characters quickly became leading draws of the Golden Age of comics. Soon after, Goodman hired writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby, who were to become giants in the industry. Simon and Kirby created Captain America, a character who remains a comics icon even today. In those early days, Goodman also hired another future legend: writer Stan Lee, who happened to be Good-man's nephew.

Goodman's comic company was known officially as Timely Comics, Inc., then later as Atlas Publishing. The firm did not change its name to Marvel until the early 1960s. Timely benefitted from the comics boom of the early 1940s, but interest in super-hero stories waned later in the decade. Atlas briefly revived its super-hero line-up in 1954, but the company spent most of the next decade publishing romance, western, horror, and humor comics.1 1. Les Daniels, Marvel: Five Decades of the World's Greatest Comics (NY: Abrams, 1991), pp. 17–23, 26–36, 40–61.¹     

Tabloids

Abstract

Comic books and libraries do not seem to get along, at least not in North American libraries. Aside from a few dozen specialized, noncirculating research collections, retrospective comic book holdings remain virtually unknown as a library resource.1 Browsing collections of current comic books are equally rare in public, school, and college libraries. In a 1984 article, comic book bibliographer Randall Scott observed, “In most communities, if you want to read or refer to a comic book, you have to buy it.” Librarian Doug Highsmith concurred, writing in 1992 that public libraries carrying the latest issues of popular comics titles are “still the exception rather than the rule.” Both statements remain fundamentally true today.