Integration of Daniel Stern's developmental theory into a model of couples therapy

Therapists commonly use a combination of techniques derived from psychodynamic, cognitive and systemic approaches in their attempts to treat the resistant patterns brought into therapy by couples. In this paper we utilize Dan Stern's concept of RIGS (Representations of Interactions that have been Generalized) to generate an integrative model of conjoint therapy. The model presented here presents a framework within which these modalities can be effectively integrated.     

Perception of alcoholism among Jewish, Moslem and Christian teachers in Israel.

This article describes a survey which investigated perception of alcoholism among Jewish, Moslem and Christian teachers in the north of Israel during the spring of 1991. Data were obtained from a sample of 553 teachers. The teachers were asked to agree or disagree with items associated with the disease concept or with the moral concept of alcoholism. The findings indicate differences in the perception of alcoholism among teachers of different religions, education levels, gender, and drinking practices. No differences were found among teachers of different ages or among those working in different types of schools.     

The risk implications of diversification: Integrating the effects of product and geographic diversification

The risk implications of product diversification have received considerable attention from scholars. However, our understanding of the effects of geographic diversification on risk is more limited. Relying on resource-based theory to frame our arguments, we argue that despite some similarities, the two types of diversification have differing effects on firm risk. We first establish the risk reducing effects for product diversification. We then integrate the unique aspects of geographic diversification that serve as a boundary condition to the RBV perspective, arguing for the risk increasing effects of geographic diversification. Finally, since many firms pursue both forms of diversification simultaneously, we explore the joint effects of both product and geographic diversification. We test our hypotheses in a longitudinal model on a sample of S&P 500 firms. Our findings suggest that total product diversification, as well as related diversification reduce risk, while total geographic diversification increases risk. Furthermore, our data provide evidence of a complex combination of joint effects of these two forms of diversification. These findings offer a more complete understanding of the risk effects of corporate diversification.     

Local rates of convergence for consistent estimators of location of translation families

We consider the estimation of a location parameter θ in a one-sample problem. A measure of the asymptotic performance of an estimator sequence {T_n} = T is given by the exponential rate of convergence to zero of the tail probability, which for consistent estimator sequences is bounded by a constant, B (θ, ?), called the Bahadur bound. We consider two consistent estimators: the maximum-likelihood estimator (mle) and a consistent estimator based on a likelihood-ratio statistic, which we call the probability-ratio estimator (pre). In order to compare the local behaviour of these estimators, we obtain Taylor series expansions in ? for B (θ, ?) and the exponential rates of the mle and pre. Finally, some numerical work is presented in which we consider a variety of underlying distributions.     

Non-profit,for-profit and government organisations in social service provision: comparison of behavioural patterns for Austria

This paper investigates behavioural differences between non-profit organisations (NPOs), government organisations (GOs), and private market organisations (PMOs) as suppliers of nursery schools and retirement homes. On the basis of Weisbrod's undersupply model, the differentiated demand approach, and the public finance argument on the redistributive role of government, three hypotheses are theoretically specified and empirically tested: client differentiation; product differentiation; and price differentiation. NPOs and PMOs are shown to provide qualitatively better services and charge significantly higher prices than GOs. A clustering of clients with similar socio-economic backgrounds can be observed: GOs provide services for clients with lower economic and social status than private suppliers. GOs, holding more than two-thirds of the respective markets, are responsible for a basic provision of services; they pursue distributional goals by producing services themselves; only rarely a contracting out to private suppliers can be noted.Christoph Badelt and Peter Weiss are both in the Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria.Financial support from the Research Foundation of the Austrian National Bank (Jubiläumsfondsprojekt no. 2814) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors wish to thank Helmut Anheier, Henry Hansmann and Burton Weisbrod for valuable comments on an earlier draft, which was presented to the International Conference on Voluntarism, Non-government Organisations and Public Policy, Jerusalem, May 1989. The usual caveat applies.     

Implications of genetic variation within and between human populations

Human variation is extensive both within and between populations. This variation affects all traits, including the susceptibility to disease and responses to the environment. For social and political reasons, we tend to think of our species or our own national population as being divided into meaningful groups variously called by such terms as races, or ethnic groups, and there is often an implicit assumption that these groups are relatively homogeneous within and very different between. Examples are given to show that there are major differences in the frequency of genetic susceptibility to various diseases between some such groups, but that the amount of variation among individuals is extensive even within such groups. Population subdivision can be useful for studying disease, but human variation is a general phenomenon tied to groups via their population and geographic history, not value-based categorical differences.     

Detection and prevalence of abuse of older males: perspectives from family practice

Family doctors' frequent contact with seniors put them in reasonable positions to detect elder abuse and initiate referral to adult protective services. Since doctor reporting is low, however, this paper explores whether the gender of patient and/or doctor impacts on identification of elder mistreatment, or creates differential detection of one gender over the other. Use of the validated Elder Abuse Suspicion Index (EASI), and a structured social work evaluation, is described to provide some gender-based data from Canadian family practice. Specifically, while the prevalence of elder abuse is estimated to range from 12.0% to 13.3%, the specific prevalence was found for females to be 13.6% to 15.2% and for males 9.1% to 9.7%.     

The lesbian community and FTMs: détente in the butch/FTM borderlands

In 1998, Dr. Jacob Hale wrote about a 'borderland' between butch lesbian identity and FTM masculinity, suggesting a 'demilitarized zone.' While the intervening years have brought no 'demilitarized zone,' the border may not have a long future. Converging trends in identity among the younger generation in their teens and twenties suggest this, such as changing meanings of 'lesbian' and 'FTM,' the blending of sexuality and gender, and understanding these as personal, rather than identity, differences. The socio-historical circumstances that gave power to anti-trans feminist attitudes and trans rejection of lesbian identity are disappearing. This is not to say that we are 'post-lesbian' or 'post-transsexual,' but the tension between identities, the need to distinguish clearly between them, and the arguments about who is 'really' lesbian or 'really' FTM may be of supreme unimportance to the next generation. Time will tell.     

Attitudes of Israeli Jewish and Arab high school students toward alcohol control measures.

This article describes a study carried out in the winter of 1997 in order to determine the attitudes of 2,186 adolescents of four religions in the north of Israel toward eight alcohol control measures: Taxation on alcohol, age limit for buying alcohol, restrictions on types of outlets which are allowed to sell alcohol to minors, restrictions on opening hours of pubs, restrictions on advertising of alcohol, limit of blood level of alcohol when driving, the authority of policemen concerning the testing of drunk drivers, and restrictions on roadside alcohol outlets. Findings indicate that the majority of the respondents tend to enhance alcohol control measures pertaining to alcohol and driving issues, but only about a third of the participants tend to enhance alcohol control measures in the other domains. In addition, Arabs tend to favor restrictive attitudes toward alcohol control measures in comparison with Jews, and Arab females tend to favor such attitudes more than Arab males. Implications for prevention and effective alcohol policy are discussed.     

Use of Partial Stimulus Information by Cochlear Implant Users and Listeners with Normal Hearing in Identifying Spoken Words: Some Preliminary Analyses

An error analysis of the word recognition responses of cochlear implant users and listeners with normal hearing was conducted to determine the types of partial information used by these two populations when they identified spoken words under auditory-alone and audiovisual conditions. The results revealed that the two groups used different types of partial information in identifying spoken words under auditory-alone or audiovisual presentation. Different types of partial information were also used in identifying words with different lexical properties. In our study, however, there were no significant interactions with hearing status, indicating that cochlear implant users and listeners with normal hearing identify spoken words in a similar manner. The information available to users with cochlear implants preserves much of the partial information necessary for accurate spoken word recognition.