Young Adult Moral Exemplars: The Making of Self Through Stories

The purpose of our research was to explore the differences between young adult moral exemplars and comparison individuals by studying their life stories. Moral exemplars were nominated for their extraordinary moral commitment to the social organizations where they volunteered or worked. Forty moral exemplars, along with 40 matched comparison individuals (total N=80), participated in a life narrative interview. These interviews were coded for specific narrative features such as narrative tone, awareness of others' suffering, helpers and enemies, agency and communion themes, redemptive experiences, contamination scenes, personal ideology, and future goals. Moral exemplars differed from comparison individuals on agency themes, redemptive experiences, contamination scenes, awareness of others' suffering, enemies, ideological depth, and future goals. These findings are discussed within a narrative identity development framework.     

Male involvement in the abortion decision and college students’ attitudes on the subject

College students’ attitudes concerning male involvement in the abortion decision-making process were investigated with the aid of 94 participants. A t test supported the first hypothesis that no significant difference exists between males and females regarding levels of male involvement. A t test also supported the second hypothesis that pro-life participants will endorse higher levels of male involvement. A Pearson correlation revealing no significant relationship between level of male involvement and number of religious worship services attended during the last month did not support the third hypothesis that more religious participants would endorse higher levels of male involvement. A multiple linear regression was used to investigate the research question, “Do gender, race, and religiosity significantly predict levels of male involvement in abortion decisions?” Regression results indicate that the linear combination of these variables significantly predicted level of male involvement.     

Nature of the Interactions among Organizational Commitments: Complementary,Competitive or Synergistic?*

Although organizational commitment is a multidimensional construct, researchers have tended to examine the independent effects of its different forms. However, doing so creates potential problems of model misspecification and under‐prediction if interactions exist among different commitments. In this paper we discuss theoretically plausible interactions among different commitments, the patterns of which are expected to vary depending on the nature of the criterion and the foci of commitment. We then test these predictions via empirical data. Results revealed a ‘synergistic’ pattern of effects for discretionary outcomes, such that levels of organizational citizenship behaviour and strain were most favourable when employees reported high levels on multiple commitments. Importantly, no evidence was found for competitive effects between commitments, such that high levels on multiple commitments are detrimental. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice.     

Invertebrate diversity in newly established mulch habitats in a Midwestern urban landscape

The invertebrate fauna in artificial urban habitats has yet to be systematically investigated. The current field study in central Ohio was undertaken to assess the numbers and types of macroinvertebrates in mulched and unmulched plots during a one-year period. Invertebrates quickly infiltrated the plots with bare soil (control) and any of four types of mulch (shredded hardwood, shredded recycled wood, pine bark mini-nuggets, and pea gravel). One month after establishing the plots, invertebrates were present in numbers comparable to subsequent months. Invertebrates found in the plots were primarily saprophytic taxa: millipedes (32.6%), segmented worms (19.8%), isopods (6.7%), and various beetle families (1.5%). Predatory taxa included centipedes (9.8%), ants (9.7%), carabid beetles and staphylinid beetles (7.3%), and spiders (0.9%). Types of invertebrates were similar in all ground cover types, but numbers of invertebrates differed significantly. Invertebrates were present year-round in mulched plots, and plots with organic mulch harbored significantly more invertebrates than plots mulched with pea gravel. Bare soil always contained the fewest number of invertebrates. There was no significant difference in numbers of invertebrates based on the cardinal side of the building.     

Land grabbing: a preliminary quantification of economic impacts on rural livelihoods

Global demands on agricultural land are increasing due to population growth, dietary changes and the use of biofuels. Their effect on food security is to reduce humans’ ability to cope with the uncertainties of global climate change. In light of the 2008 food crisis, to secure reliable future access to sufficient agricultural land, many nations and corporations have begun purchasing large tracts of land in the global South, a phenomenon deemed “land grabbing” by popular media. Because land investors frequently export crops without providing adequate employment, this represents an effective income loss for local communities. We study 28 countries targeted by large-scale land acquisitions [comprising 87 % of reported cases and 27 million hectares (ha)] and estimate the effects of such investments on local communities’ incomes. We find that this phenomenon can potentially affect the incomes of ~12 million people globally with implications for food security, poverty levels and urbanization. While it is important to note that our study incorporates a number of assumptions and limitations, it provides a much needed initial quantification of the economic impacts of large-scale land acquisitions on rural livelihoods.     

Collusion With Persistent Cost Shocks

We consider a dynamic Bertrand game in which prices are publicly observed and each firm receives a privately observed cost shock in each period. Although cost shocks are independent across firms, within a firm costs follow a first‐order Markov process. We analyze the set of collusive equilibria available to firms, emphasizing the best collusive scheme for the firms at the start of the game. In general, there is a trade‐off between productive efficiency, whereby the low‐cost firm serves the market in a given period, and high prices. We show that when costs are perfectly correlated over time within a firm, if the distribution of costs is log‐concave and firms are sufficiently patient, then the optimal collusive scheme entails price rigidity: firms set the same price and share the market equally, regardless of their respective costs. When serial correlation of costs is imperfect, partial productive efficiency is optimal. For the case of two cost types, first‐best collusion is possible if the firms are patient relative to the persistence of cost shocks, but not otherwise. We present numerical examples of first‐best collusive schemes.     

The Pensacola Outpouring: Reviving the press

The Brownsville Revival, also known as the Pensacola Outpouring, is one of the longest-running locally based but internationally impacting movements in modern history purportedly inspired by the Holy Spirit. News coverage of it already has spanned more than fifteen years. This study looks to media literature on framing as well as research on journalistic portrayal of religion in formulating a coding scheme examining North American newspapers’ stories on the Pensacola Outpouring. The work finds mostly positive coverage, with the balance of sources and tones of leads and overall story being favorable toward this movement. Examination identifies one major frame and several secondary ones.     

Research with Deaf People: Issues and Conflicts

The field of sign language research is fraught with problems-prejudice, mistrust, misunderstanding, unmet expectations, identity crises and pervasive mythologies, to name but a few. Some of these problems arise from cultural differences between the (usually hearing) researchers and the people they study. Others stem from a lack of appropriate training and sensitivity on the part of the researcher. Those who investigate aspects of deafness itself (medical, educational or psychological) also face these problems since they, too, need to be in contact with members of the deaf community. Researchers in fields other than deafness may find that they share many of the same problems. As a result of extended study of sign language and the deaf community and the experience of working with deaf associates for 15-20 years, both in the United Kingdom and in the USA, we have begun to understand the tensions felt by both deaf and hearing people when they come together in the research enterprise. This paper is an attempt to open a debate on the issues which have been ignored in the search for results and publications. Failure to deal with these points will undermine the validity of supposedly objective results. The issues concern the power relations between the communities and the roles of the research staff in relation to each other and to their respective communities.