Preserving or escaping? On the welfare effects of environmental self-protective choices

In modern societies individuals often try to alleviate their personal damages from environmental degradation by increasing their consumption of private goods. Although this “self-protective” behavior is very frequent in industrial economies, insufficient attention has been paid to its economic and environmental consequences. In this paper we show that such a behavior can make everyone worse-off. For this purpose, using as paradigmatic case a two-islands evolutionary model, we prove analytically that environmental “self-protection” may trap the system into an undesirable (Pareto-dominated) situation and discuss a few real-life examples in which this mechanism may have actually occurred. Although the proposed model is deliberately extremely simple, it may provide some interesting insights on an aspect that has been mainly ignored in the literature so far.     

Learning Through Teaching: A Study of Social Work PhD Students in Their Roles as Educators and Learners of Research

PhD social work education programs train students to become effective researchers. Less recognized are the potential opportunities for PhD students to develop in their role as educators and the possible benefits of honing doctoral students’ knowledge of research through their role as educators. This study explored these opportunities for social work PhD students who taught an introductory research methods course to MSW students. Findings suggest that potential strong, mutual benefits for PhD and MSW students exist, and institutional supports improved PhD students’ confidence as educators and researchers. Finally, integration of Kolb’s experiential learning theory and Feynman’s mental model in the doctoral social work curriculum may enhance the profession’s development of future leaders.     

Coming Out,But Into What? Problematizing Discursive Variations of Revealing the Gay Self in the Workplace

There is a substantial mainstream literature on coming out in organizations, which investigates the positive effects for gay people of being out at work, but very few contributions that challenge the discourse of coming out. Taking as its starting point Butler's famous question ‘So we are out of the closet but into what?’, this paper problematizes coming out discourses in the workplace. We report on a study in which ten men were invited to talk about their coming out in the workplace. There were three main ways through which our participants constituted themselves as gay men when they talked about coming out: by defining themselves as, and admitting to, being gay; by introducing themselves as being in a gay relationship; and by adopting legitimate subject positions such as the Other, the different one, or the normal gay. Through our analysis, discussions and conclusions, we show how participants position themselves within different discursive variations, thus revealing the multiplicity of ‘the gay self’ and highlighting how coming out repeats and supports normative systems.     

Bootstrap diagnostics and remedies

Bootstrap diagnostics are used to assess the reliability of bootstrap calculations and may suggest useful modified calculations when these are possible. Concern focuses on susceptibility to peculiarities in data, incorrectness of a resampling model, incorrect use of resampling simulation output, and inherent inaccuracy of the bootstrap approach. The last involves issues such as inconsistency of a bootstrap method, the order of correctness of a consistent bootstrap method, and approximate pivotality. The authors review here some of these problems, provide workable diagnostic methods where possible, and discuss fast and simple ways to effect the necessary computations.     

The complex nature of juvenile court judges’ transfer decisions: A study of judicial attitudes

A fundamental premise behind the judicial transfer (used in 46 of 50 states) decision is that serious and repeat juvenile offenders have little or no chance of rehabilitation in the Juvenile Justice System. Those juveniles who are considered “untreatable” are believed to be best dealt with by criminal justice sentencing practices that emphasize retribution and deterrence. A survey was administered to juvenile court judges (1,040) across the United States to explore the possible role of attitudes on judicial transfer decisions. The findings indicate that judges’ attitudes as well as other factors such as type and severity of abuse, the type of weapon used in an offense, the number of participants involved, and the use of a drug affect their transfer decisions. Importantly, the results also suggest that in addition to legal factors judicial transfer decisions may be affected by a complex array of socio-cultural and psychological factors.     

Implementation of saddlepoint approximations in resampling problems

In many situations saddlepoint approximations can replace the Monte Carlo simulation typically used to find the bootstrap distribution of a statistic. We explain how bootstrap and permutation distributions can be expressed as conditional distributions and how methods for linear programming and for fitting generalized linear models can be used to find saddlepoint approximations to these distributions. The ideas are illustrated using an example from insurance.     

Evaluation of a Physical Activity Program for Pathological Gamblers in Treatment

It has been demonstrated that craving for gambling is associated with anxiety and depression in pathological gamblers. Exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression, as well as positively influence abstinence rates in individuals with substance use disorders. In this study, we examined the impact of a physical activity program in 33 pathological gamblers. We also analyzed the association between craving and plasmatic levels of stress hormones (adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol, and prolactin). The program involved eight 50-min sessions. Craving was assessed 24 h before, immediately before, and immediately after each session, as well as on a weekly basis. Before and after the program, we evaluated gambling behavior, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and plasma levels of stress hormones. We identified a significant reduction in craving following each session and at the end of the program. There was improvement in anxiety, depressive symptoms, and gambling behavior. The post-session reduction in craving was accompanied by post-program reductions in craving and anxiety but not by a post-program reduction in depressive symptoms. The craving reduction was associated with a variation in prolactin levels but not with variations in levels of cortisol or adrenocorticotropic hormone.     

TOWARD CONSTRUCTING THE THERAPEUTIC SYSTEM*

The authors revise some of the concepts presented in their previous publications (Andolfi & Angelo, 1981; Andolfi, Nicolò-Corigliano & Menghi, 1983) and develop them further in light of their recent clinical experience. They emphasize that the therapist is not an outside neutral observer, but an active participant in the construction of the therapeutic system. The therapist can, at different times, be caring, detached, supportive, or provocative. In the fantasy of his clients he is a person who knows how to enter into a relationship and how to move out. By entering as the third pole in various triangles and activating new dimensions of rapport, he constructs complex relationships within the evolving therapeutic process. The authors also reevaluate the importance of the individual in the family as an agent of change and as a mediator of triangular relational messages.