THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN COUPLES THERAPY: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION

Open-ended interviews with 24 couples therapy clients regarding their experience of the process of change revealed shifts in clusters of affect, communication, and cognition. Six additional contextual preconditions for change were also identified. The change process within couples was uniformly reported to be gradual.     

Subjective Health-Related Quality of Life in Homeless and Vulnerably Housed Individuals and Its Relationship with Self-Reported Physical and Mental Health Status

Although the association between homelessness and objective indicators of poor health is well-established, little research has focused on the subjective health-related quality of life of homeless and vulnerably housed (HVH) individuals. This study examined the subjective health-related quality of life of HVH individuals, using the Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT) Scale for Health of the Quality of Life for Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI) Inventory, and its association with self-reported functional health status, as measured by the SF-12, and self-reported physical and mental health conditions in a sample of 100 HVH individuals recruited in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Our findings indicate that physical and mental health conditions are highly prevalent among HVH individuals and that the SF-12 Physical and Mental Component Summary scores are substantially lower compared to US population norms. The MDT Health items were not statistically significantly associated with physical or mental health conditions and only showed correlations of small to moderate magnitude with the SF-12 Component Summary Scales. These findings suggest that the QoLHHI MDT Scale for Health can provide information about HVH individuals’ subjective health experiences that is different from, and can serve as a valuable complement to, health status information for use in research and evaluation studies, as well as for policy purposes to make informed decisions based on subjective health-related quality of life data from HVH individuals.     

How Does Relative Income and Variations in Short-Run Wellbeing Affect Wellbeing in the Long Run? Empirical Evidence From China’s Korean Minority

Cognitively appraised life satisfaction is relatively stable over time and can be considered as reflecting subjective wellbeing in the long run. Affect is transitory and can be considered as reflecting subjective wellbeing in the short run. Using the Personal Wellbeing Index to measure cognitively appraised life satisfaction and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to measure positive and negative affect we examine how income relative to one’s comparator group and variations in short run wellbeing impact upon wellbeing in the long run. We do so for China’s Korean ethnic minority. We find that affective state has an effect on wellbeing in the long run and that a negative shock to affectivity is more persistent than a positive shock. We also find that relative income, rather than absolute income, matters for wellbeing in the long run and that the results are consistent with a status effect.     

When Are Net Effects Gross Products? Communication

The rush to judgment about the social effects of the new communications media has branded them as positive and negative in equal measure. Alienation from "real world" relationships coupled with a lack of social regulation within the medium is balanced by liberation from the influences, inequalities, and identities to which people are subjected in face-to-face interaction. We argue that such general conclusions may in fact be turned upside down and propose that these media may actually strengthen social bonds but also reinforce power inequalities. Reviewing evidence of our research with university students, employing the social identity model of deindividuation effects, we show how these technologies can often be more "social," and socially regulated, than face-to-face interaction.     

What Determines the Extent to which Employers will Comply with their Social Security Obligations? Evidence from Chinese Firm‐level Data

This article aims to extend understanding of employer responses to social protection regulations enacted by government to ensure the well‐being and security of employees. By utilizing firm‐specific data collected from Shanghai we explore the relationship between firm characteristics, employer behaviour, and the effectiveness of compliance mechanisms that have been adopted to contain contribution evasion by employers. We offer empirical evidence about the impact of the size of the firm, ownership structure, and incidence of risk on employer evasion behaviour in social protection payments. These results should enable enforcement agencies to improve compliance levels and also contribute to building theory as regards the significance of social policies to employers and the impact of social protection on human resource policy.     

Managing Change in Museums

Museums and the Paradox of Change, by Robert R. Janes. (2nd ed.) Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 1997. 276 pp., $24.95 paper. Museum Strategy and Marketing: Designing Missions, Building Audiences, Generating Revenues and Resources, by Neil Kotler and Philip Kotler. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1998. 297 pp., $41.95 cloth.     

(M,S)-optimal row-column designs

Row-column designs may be considered to have two blocking schemes, namely the treatments by rows and treatments by columns component block designs. The (M,S)-optimality criterion is applied to row-column designs, and che connection between the (M,S)-optimal design and its component block designs is demonstrated.