Consumption and Subjective Wellbeing: Exploring Basic Needs,Social Comparison,Social Integration and Hedonism in Peru

Within material poverty contexts, consumption and subjective wellbeing are positively and strongly related. This is usually explained in terms of the increased possibilities to satisfy basic needs that additional spending provides. Other important aspects of consumption, such as its relative, symbolic and hedonic dimensions are not generally considered. The current study explores these aspects in seven poor Peruvian communities through expenditure and motives using regression analysis. Motives for consumption are included in the model drawing on psychologists’ research into the importance of accounting for motives when assessing the impact of material goals on subjective wellbeing. Results reveal that in the Peruvian corridor, consumption has a meaning beyond mere basic needs satisfaction. Status concerns, the reference group, the pleasure of consuming, providing for the household basics and the expectation of escaping social marginalisation are aspects of consumption significantly predicting people’s happiness.

The work to make an experiment work

ABSTRACT

Contrary to its typical presentation in scientific publications as a certain and linear process, in reality, the experimental method, not least the design aspect of it, requires a great deal of trial-and-error and ad hoc decision-making on the part of the researchers. This uncertain and contingent aspect of research, although little known outside of the circle of experts, has important implications for our understanding of the nature of science and scientific findings.

This paper offers a backstage perspective to experiment design, where the uncertain and contingent nature of experimental research is at its starkest. It draws on insights from the sociological perspective of ethnomethodology through the auto-ethnographic first-hand experience of the first author's own social psychology experiments. Based on detailed lab notes and planning documents on how and why design changes were made, the analysis focuses on the evolution of the experiment design, particularly the researcher’s in situ practical reasoning for how to make the experiment work. From this, we show how ethno-methods shape experiment results and highlight the inseparability of social science experimentation from in situ practical reasoning.     

A (not so) simple dialogue activity

ABSTRACT

This article explores the research on peer-to-peer dialogue in higher education, including the innovative practice of intergroup dialogue and other practices such as nonviolent communication and contemplative listening. I then describe an activity I do with my community college students, in a context where lack of time and other resources do not allow a more resource-intensive dialogue practice. I ask them to experience dialogue with several free, easily available resources, including nonviolent communication, contemplative practice, and public radio podcasts from On Being, then have a conversation outside of class in which they mostly practice deeply listening to someone with different political beliefs than they have. They may make a brief attempt at dialogue or nonviolent communication. I discuss how my activity may accomplish some of the goals of intergroup dialogue and be useful where students are learning about diversity and inequality across social divides, including in social work education and sustainability education. I nest this activity in a course that involves some contemplative practice, to explore how both sustainability education and the social justice component of social work may benefit from contemplative practice. Finally, I detail some other resources about hope and despair that support this activity.     

Using a Lag Schedule of Reinforcement to Increase Response Variability in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Lag reinforcement schedules have been shown in previous research to be an effective intervention for teaching verbal and nonverbal response variability to individuals with developmental disabilities. In more recent research, variability itself has been considered a reinforceable behavior in its own right (Susa & Schlinger, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 18, 125–130, 2012). Lag x schedules of reinforcement can be used to teach variability by using contingencies that require responses to differ from previous responses. The present study extended Susa and Schlinger’s, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 18, 125–130, (2012) research by using 3 social questions instead of 1 in a random rotation and included probes to test for generality. A changing-criterion design was used to evaluate the results with one 11-year-old female participant diagnosed with autism. During baseline, the participant provided little variability, with rote responses. During the Lag 1 and Lag 2 phases, appropriate variable verbal responding increased with the use of echoic prompts, visual aids, and an error correction procedure. Further, the results also showed that the participant learned to vary her responses by demonstrating the ability to emit 11 novel prompted responses and 13 spontaneous responses.In addition, the participant was able to retain the skills learned in a maintenance probe conducted 4 weeks postintervention.     

Performing race in the Barranquilla Carnival: the case of the Negritas Puloy de Montecristo

ABSTRACT

In the city of Barranquilla, Colombia, carnival is a main source of identity. Since the 2003 UNESCO proclamation of this carnival as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, the celebration has gained national and international attention, while the city has developed a whole cultural market around it. This essay traces the evolution of a popular costume and street performance that carries racial stereotypes and as such, has become almost emblematic of carnival time itself. La Negrita Puloy de Montecristo is now the only female symbol of the Barranquilla Carnival. It is argued in this essay that as long as blackness is performed during the regulated time of carnival, lived by the city as an illusion of racial integration and black pride, the consciousness of inequality stays dormant and inequality continues being a quotidian practice in a supposedly tri-racial nation that was funded on the principles of mixture. This essay is the product of a research project that lasted a year and combined ethnographic and archival work. Las Negritas Puloy de Montecristo perform exclusion annually, as they intend to paradoxically perform inclusion. This very popular carnival manifestation seems to be a sign that only as stereotype can the sexualized black woman participate in the public sphere. As the mulata, she is a sexual object. As a slave, she is forgotten. Thus, she can dance.     

Universal and Local Reconciled: Exploring Satisfaction with Universal and Local Goals in Thailand and Bangladesh

This paper explores factors affecting individual goal satisfaction in Bangladesh and Thailand. Analysing the determinants of goal satisfaction in two countries at different levels of development enables the paper to address the broader question of whether the common practice of classifying goals as ‘universal’ (e.g. health) or ‘local’ (e.g. community relationships) has any empirical support. The study uses data from communities in Thailand and Bangladesh that were researched from 2002 to 2007 by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research Group at the University of Bath. Results from the study based on regression analysis show that universal and local goals have the same determinants, supporting the view that they are interdependent. The implications of this finding are that both types of goals should be given equal priority and need to be taken into account to better understand people’s wellbeing. This finding is, however, moderated by the second finding of the paper, which is that socio-economic variables and the extent of need satisfaction play different roles in explaining goal satisfaction in countries at different stages of development. For example, whilst in Bangladesh wealth only contributes to goal satisfaction if it increases needs satisfaction, in Thailand it has an independent effect. The implications of both findings for global frameworks such as the Millennium Development Goals are addressed in the conclusions.     

The investigation of competencies within professional domains

Nowadays much attention is paid to the concept of competence in labour organizations and in higher education. This paper investigates different approaches to investigate competencies for educational purposes. After a discussion of various approaches, the authors present a case study that was conducted to compose a competency profile for the Faculty of Economics, Business and Public Administration of the Open University of the Netherlands. In this case study, several approaches were combined. The design and the results of the case study are described. The paper concludes with a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the applied approach.     

Local and landscape drivers of arthropod abundance,richness, and trophic composition in urban habitats

Urban green spaces, such as forest fragments, vacant lots, and community gardens, are increasingly highlighted as biodiversity refuges and are of growing interest to conservation. At the same time, the burgeoning urban garden movement partially seeks to ameliorate problems of food security. Arthropods link these two issues (conservation and food security) given their abundance, diversity, and role as providers of ecosystem services like pollination and pest control. Many previous studies of urban arthropods focused on a single taxon (e.g. order or family), and examined either local habitat drivers or effects of landscape characteristics. In contrast, we examined both local and landscape drivers of community patterns, and examined differences in abundance, richness, and trophic structure of arthropod communities in urban forest fragments, vacant lots, and community gardens. We sampled ground-foraging arthropods, collected data on 24 local habitat features (e.g., vegetation, ground cover, concrete), and examined land-cover types within 2 km of 12 study sites in Toledo, Ohio. We found that abundance and richness of urban arthropods differed by habitat type and that richness of ants and spiders, in particular, varied among lots, gardens, and forests. Several local and landscape factors correlated with changes in abundance, richness, and trophic composition of arthropods, and different factors were important for specific arthropod groups. Overwhelmingly, local factors were the predominant (80 % of interactions) driver of arthropods in this urban environment. These results indicate that park managers and gardeners alike may be able to manage forests and gardens to promote biodiversity of desired organisms and potentially improve ecosystem services within the urban landscape.     

Toddlers' Social‐emotional Competence in the Contexts of Maternal Emotion Socialization and Contingent Responsiveness in a Low‐income Sample

Early social‐emotional development occurs in the context of parenting, particularly via processes such as maternal emotion socialization and parent–child interactions. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that maternal contingent responsiveness partially mediated the relationship between maternal emotion socialization of toddlers (N = 119, ages 12–36 months) and toddlers' social‐emotional competence. Effect size was strongest for the direct path between maternal emotion socialization and toddler social–emotional competence. Toddler age and maternal demographic risk status (covariates) predicted toddler competence. Study results extend the previous literature on early competencies by focusing on toddlers rather than preschool‐aged children and by employing a contextual model in which both low‐income mothers' emotion socialization and their contingent responsiveness predicted toddlers' competencies.