Psychotherapy with the Father-Absent Military Family

Defense department regulation changes concerning military dependents have had a marked impact on a large number of service families. One outcome is a specific fractured family—father-absent military family—which has unique characteristics and distinctive problems. In addition to explicit features of military families in general, dynamics of the father-absent fragment are discussed. A psychotherapy strategy is also presented which has been shown to be of value in promoting continued growth in the father-absent military family     

Understanding human ambivalence about sex: the effects of stripping sex of meaning

We offer a theoretical perspective to provide insight into why people are ambivalent about sex and why cultures regulate sex and attach symbolic meaning to it. Building on terror management theory, we propose that sex is problematic for humankind in part because it reminds us of our creaturely mortal nature. Two experiments investigated the effects of reminding people of the similarity between humans and other animals on their reactions to the physical aspects of sex. In Study 1, priming human-animal similarities led to increased accessibility of death-related thoughts after thinking about the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In Study 2, when participants were reminded of similarities between humans and other animals, mortality salience resulted in decreased attraction to the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In each study, priming thoughts about how humans are distinct from animals eliminated the association between sex and death.     

Review Essays: Preface

Sociological Forum -     

Cardiac conditions

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the US. The growth of the older population in coming decades will inevitably increase the incidence of age-related cardiac disease. Increasing evidence has shown the prevalence of co-morbid mental health conditions in CVD patients. Specifically, depression and anxiety have been linked with CVD mortality. Due to the risk of psychosocial conditions with cardiac patients, mental health practitioners in health and gerontology need to be well-informed about CVD-related mental health comorbidity and current research developments. Accordingly, this article provides a systematic review of the clinical evidence about the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and any potential risk of psychosocial intervention with cardiac patients.     

Forecasting, growth management and public policy decision making

This paper's objective is to describe the interplay between forecasting and decision making. It shows how a forecast helped shape public policy and, in turn, how public policy influenced a forecast, within the context of the growth management effort underway in the San Diego region. The forecast identified economic challenges and land use issues facing the region and public policy actions were developed to address them. Normative forecasting best describes the relationship between the forecast and these public policy decisions. This active approach to forecasting involves first deciding what future outcome is desirable and, then, designing policies and actions to achieve these outcomes.     

Strategic Consumer Cooperation in a Name‐Your‐Own‐Price Channel

Supplier reluctance to openly advertise highly discounted products on the Internet has stimulated development of “opaque” name‐Your‐Own‐Price sales channels. Unfortunately (for suppliers), there is significant potential for online consumers to exploit these channels through collaboration in social networks. In this paper, we study three possible forms of consumer collaboration: exchange of bid result information, coordinated bidding, and coordinated bidding with risk pooling. We propose an egalitarian total utility maximizing mechanism for coordination and risk pooling in a bidding club and describe characteristics of consumers for whom participation in the club makes sense. We show that, in the absence of risk pooling, a plausible bidding club strategy using just information exchange gives almost the same benefits to consumers as coordinated bidding. In contrast, coordinated bidding with risk pooling can lead to significantly increased benefits for consumers. The benefits of risk pooling are highest for consumers with a low tolerance to risk. We also demonstrate that suppliers that actively adjust for such strategic consumer behavior can reduce the impact on their businesses and, under some circumstances, even increase revenues.     

DO CHANGING VALUES EXPLAIN THE NEW POLITICS? A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE POSTMATERIALIST THESIS

Many social scientists have argued that major political changes have occurred in the postindustrial societies of Western Europe, North America, and Australasia since the 1960s. These changes include partisan dealignment accompanied by a breakdown in traditional political orientations, the appearance of "new social movements," and increasing use of non-traditional forms of political action. One of the most influential account of the origins of the "New Politics" is Ronald Inglehart's "postmaterialist" thesis. Analyzing data from the Political Action surveys, we test two central propositions of the postmaterialist thesis: that postmaterialism constitutes an emerging and categorically distinct type of value commitment in these societies; and that a commitment to postmaterialism leads to a rejection of the state as a means of accomplishing policy objectives. Neither of these propositions is supported. The analyses instead provide evidence for an alternative account that we characterize as "value pluralism," and they show further that even citizens with postmaterialist values endorse the intervention of state institutions to achieve desired political outcomes.