Developing selves: photography,Cold War science and ‘backwards’ people in the Peruvian Andes, 1951–1966

This article explores how social science applications of photography employed in the early 1950s to both understand and change so-called ‘backwards’ people became entangled with, and drew momentum from, the geopolitical concerns of the early Cold War. Specifically, I address the employment of photography in the Cornell-Peru Project in the Andean community of Vicos, a decade-long research experiment combining development anthropology and fashionable modernisation theory emanating out of the behavioural sciences. In addition to development activities that were to serve as the catalysts of change (agricultural improvement, health and education), researchers at Vicos were at pains to uncover and validate the inner ‘predispositions’ towards change and modernity they hoped were lurking inside villagers. Reflecting Cold War priorities and concerns, researchers sought to locate a particular developing indigenous subject – one closer to liberal capitalism (and its values of self-reliance and individualism) and away from communal nature of indigenous society that too strongly resembled Soviet models of development and collectivisation. Along with an arsenal of other psychological projective tests, researchers hoped the camera’s lens would reveal this change through such subtle cues as the rearrangement of home interiors and modifications in dress, style and comportment, as well as the development of visual literacy. Following the photographic work of famed photographer and formative visual anthropologist, John Collier, Jr., during a year at Vicos, this article ultimately explores the limitations of the behavioural sciences’ hopeful uses of photography.     

Expert and Layperson Perceptions of Ecosystem Risk

This research examines and compares perceptions held by laypeople and ecologists about risks to ecosystems, particularly risk from global climate change (GCC). A survey elicited perceptions of 31 risk characteristics for 13 GCC and 12 non-GCC risks to ecosystems. Factor analysis was used to examine the structure of layperson and expert risk perceptions. Both experts and laypeople tend to perceive GCC risks to ecosystems as less avoidable and more acceptable than risks from other causes. Compared to laypeople's perceptions, though, experts perceived GCC risks to have slightly lower impacts, be less avoidable, more acceptable, and less understandable than non-GCC risks to ecosystems. These findings may help guide efforts to communicate with laypeople about ecological risks from climate change.     

Growing health disparities for persons who are aging with intellectual and developmental disabilities: the social work linchpin

Similar to the general population, adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are living into their 70s and beyond. Health care disparities have been well-documented for this vulnerable and underserved population. Social workers are often responsible for assessment, coordination of care, and negotiation of needed services for people with IDD. This article explores the challenges facing social workers in meeting the growing health and social needs of aging adults with IDD and their families. Trends in social work practice and gaps in education are discussed as they relate to addressing and reducing current health disparities.     

A Mass Redistribution Algorithm for Right Censored and Left Truncated Time to Event Data

Failure times are often right-censored and left-truncated. In this paper we give a mass redistribution algorithm for right-censored and/or left-truncated failure time data. We show that this algorithm yields the Kaplan-Meier estimator of the survival probability. One application of this algorithm in modeling the subdistribution hazard for competing risks data is studied. We give a product-limit estimator of the cumulative incidence function via modeling the subdistribution hazard. We show by induction that this product-limit estimator is identical to the left-truncated version of Aalen-Johansen (1978) estimator for the cumulative incidence function.     

Robust and nonparametric subset selection procedures

Subset selection procedures based on ranks have been investigated by a number of authors previously. Their methods are based on ranking the samples from all the populations jointly. However, as was pointed out by Rizvi and Woodworth (1970), the procedures they proposed cannot control the probability of a correct selection over the entire parameter space. In this paper, we propose a subset selection procedure based on pairwise rather than joint ranking of the samples. It is shown that this procedure controls the probability of a correct selection over the entire parameter space. It is also shown that the Pitman efficiency of this nonparametric procedure relative to the multivariate t procedure of Gupta (1956, 1965) is the same as the Pitman efficiency of the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test relative to the t-test.     

The psychological impact of intragenerational social class mobility

This study revisits and extends a classic question in sociology and tests three competing hypotheses about the effects of intragenerational social class mobility on distress and psychological well-being at midlife. Prior research on this topic investigated the effects of intergenerational mobility, but did not look at how mobility during adulthood (intragenerational mobility) affects psychological distress and well-being. Previous literature is also limited by methodological problems that make it difficult to estimate the separate effects of prior social class, current social class, and social mobility. This study overcomes this methodological problem using a novel approach that breaks the linear dependence between prior class, current class, and intragenerational mobility. After accounting for prior and current class, I find that social mobility is not associated with psychological distress and self-acceptance. Instead, mobile individuals come to resemble their nonmobile counterparts in their current class on the outcomes of study.     

Batch sequential designs for computer experiments

Computer models simulating a physical process are used in many areas of science. Due to the complex nature of these codes it is often necessary to approximate the code, which is typically done using a Gaussian process. In many situations the number of code runs available to build the Gaussian process approximation is limited. When the initial design is small or the underlying response surface is complicated this can lead to poor approximations of the code output. In order to improve the fit of the model, sequential design strategies must be employed. In this paper we introduce two simple distance based metrics that can be used to augment an initial design in a batch sequential manner. In addition we propose a sequential updating strategy to an orthogonal array based Latin hypercube sample. We show via various real and simulated examples that the distance metrics and the extension of the orthogonal array based Latin hypercubes work well in practice.     

Sample size calculation for an agreement study

It is often necessary to compare two measurement methods in medicine and other experimental sciences. This problem covers a broad range of data. Many authors have explored ways of assessing the agreement of two sets of measurements. However, there has been relatively little attention to the problem of determining sample size for designing an agreement study. In this paper, a method using the interval approach for concordance is proposed to calculate sample size in conducting an agreement study. The philosophy behind this is that the concordance is satisfied when no more than the pre‐specified k discordances are found for a reasonable large sample size n since it is much easier to define a discordance pair. The goal here is to find such a reasonable large sample size n. The sample size calculation is based on two rates: the discordance rate and tolerance probability, which in turn can be used to quantify an agreement study. The proposed approach is demonstrated through a real data set. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于关系互动的品牌资产概念、维度与量表开发

基于消费者－品牌关系视角的品牌资产研究代表了品牌资产研究的新阶段,但目前还缺乏具有良好理论基础的测量模型和量表。以社会心理学人际关系发展理论为基础,界定基于关系互动的品牌资产概念和维度,建立测量模型;在系统分析已有研究的基础上,结合焦点小组访谈,开展大规模问卷调研,开发基于关系互动的品牌资产测量量表,利用信度分析、探索性因子分析和验证性因子分析方法对量表信度和效度进行检验。研究结果表明,基于关系互动的品牌资产量表具有良好的信度、内容效度、收敛效度和判别效度,该量表包含品牌个性、品牌互惠、品牌礼遇、关系地位和关系能量5个维度。研究结果为后续的实证研究提供了测量基础,同时也为品牌管理者提供了品牌资产评估工具。