The Validity of Career Maturity Attitude Measures Among Black and White High School Students

To investigate the validity of five career maturity attitude measures among Black and White high school students, the Counseling Form of the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale and a measure of appropriateness of career choices were administered to 83 Black and 239 White high school students. White students scored significantly higher than Black students on Involvement, Independence, and Compromise in Career Decision Making, and on Appropriateness of Career Choices. Reliability coefficients are mostly in the .50s and .60s. None of the five Attitude Scale subscales are related to appropriateness of career choices of Black students, and only one subscale, Compromise, is significantly correlated with appropriateness of career choices of White students. The data do not support the theoretical expectation that career maturity attitudes are related to appropriateness of career choices, and raise questions regarding the validity of inferences made about the career maturity of both Black and White students. Some practical and theoretical implications of the study are identified.     

Undercover Social-distancing Techniques

This article explores the excuses undercover narcotics officers in high schools make to maintain social distance (i.e., affective detachment) from students. Social distance is necessary to prevent students from later claiming in court they were entrapped. Officers used four social-distancing techniques, each linked to particular conditions and circumstances: (1) claims of existing interpersonal attachment, (2) parental-recrimination excuses, (3) extracurricular-role-obligation excuses, and (4) feigned interest followed by unforeseen-circumstance excuses or appeals to defeasibility. Discussion focuses on the conceptual importance of social-distancing excuses for the sociology of accounts. The data's larger microstructural implications are considered through the notion of attenuated ties. I interviewed 30 undercover officers operating out of a large U.S. city.     

Can technology be managed strategically?

The purpose of this article is to investigate techniques for inserting strategic management of technology into the overall business planning process. The method developed here begins with defining the technological profile of a company and then proceeds to expand the method to incorporate analytical procedure for technology futuring, and finally combining these long-range forecasts with the company's policies and plans into an integrated planning model. An illustrative case study of the NCR Corporation is appended to demonstrate the application.     

Determinants of Charitable Donations to Large U.S. Higher Education,Hospital, and Scientific Research NPOs: New Evidence from Panel Data

We provide improved evidence on effects that fund-raising, government support, and program revenue of U.S. higher education, hospital, and scientific research nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have on donations to those NPOs and provide improved estimates of price elasticities of donations to, and donor demand for output of, those NPOs. Applying econometric tests, we find the best-specified model is two-way fixed effects, which controls for organization-specific and time-specific factors. Results suggest that U.S. higher education, hospital, and scientific research NPOs fund-raise to the point where the marginal fund-raising dollar brings in zero dollars of donations, donor demand for output of hospitals and scientific research NPOs is price inelastic and price elastic, respectively, and results are not sensitive to specification of price.     

Families and family study in international perspective

Many changes are occurring in the world's families. Some observers feel that the changes are destructive, whereas others see them as leading to new opportunities and understanding. Issues in international family studies include regional limitations and the various aspects of doing research cross‐culturally. Knowledge regarding certain categories of families, inheritance, and the social psychology of families is incomplete. There are, however, some universals and universal or worldwide changes, including movement toward individual partner choice, more divorces, lower fertility, and greater opportunities for women.     

Children of problem gamblers

An anonymous 37-item Health Survey was administered to 844 randomly selected ninth- to twelfth-grade students in four Southern California public high schools. Systematic information was gathered about their general health, quality of life, school and work adjustment, involvement with a range of potentially addictive substances and activities, and indications of psychosocial maladjustment, including difficulties with the law and suicide attempts. A series of self-ratings of students who characterized one or both of their parents as having a compulsive gambling problem (N=52) were contrasted with those of their classmates who reported no gambling problem among their parents (N=792). Findings have been grouped into three major areas: (a) comparative levels and reported effects of involvement with health-threatening behaviors (i.e., smoking, drinking, drug use, overeating, and gambling); (b) comparative incidence of psychosocial risk indicators (i.e., broken home, unhappy childhood and teenage years, legal action pending, overall quality of youth rated as poor); and (c) comparative incidence of dysphoria, school and work problems, and suicide attempts. Across each of these areas children of parents said to gamble excessively were found to be at consistently greater risk than their classmates who did not describe their parents as having a problem with compulsive gambling. These findings strongly suggest that without early and competent intervention, children of parents who gamble excessively: (a) will be seriously disadvantaged when attempting to solve their present adolescent and future adult problems of living; and (b) as a consequence are, themselves, high-risk candidates for developing one or another form of dysfunctional adjustment, including an addictive pattern of behavior.     

AHRD joins IFTDO: capturing new opportunities to advance human resource development

This article is being written from the perspectives of two organizations. As president of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), I am pleased to introduce the article and to comment on the promise that holds for the relationship between AHRD and the International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO). IFTDO is a unique organization since its membership is comprised of organizations pursuing common and/or related goals and objectives, not individual professionals. Later in this article, Carol Panza, immediate past chair of the Executive Board of IFTDO, will offer her comments representing the perspective of IFTDO regarding the emerging relationship with AHRD. Our goal is not only to inform the human resource development (HRD) community of AHRD’s decision to join IFTDO, but also to reinforce the shared awareness of the societal importance of developing a global community of scholars and practitioners in HRD.     

Shareholder Value Effects of Voluntary Emissions Reduction

The relationship between emissions reduction and firm financial performance has been studied with mixed results. We consider potential sources of this ambiguity by examining announcements of voluntary emissions reduction (VER) from 1990 to 2009. We measure the stock market reaction associated with VER announcements to estimate the effects of time, emissions type, and whether the reduction was announced ex ante or ex post. We find that the market reaction to VER significantly decreased over time. The changing nature of the market reaction to VER over time highlights the importance of evaluating the financial impact of any VER in the current context rather than relying on past findings. We also find that the market reaction is more positive if the reduction is for greenhouse gas (GHG) rather than other emissions types. In light of the increasing concern with GHGs, this finding should be welcome news for managers. Last, we find a more positive market reaction for VER announcements that are pledges or statements of intent rather than realized achievements of VER. Managers contemplating VER might find benefit (and at least no harm) in announcing their intent to reduce emissions rather than waiting until they have achieved the reduction.     

Overvaluing the therapist: The search for a good object

Summary In this paper, an attempt was made to relate clinical practice to theory as it provides direction in working with transference manifestations presented by a patient entering therapy with an immediate need to overvalue the therapist. The problem was related to the patient's inability to tolerate separation (object loss) because of failure to develop ego precipitates leading to her own positive self-image. The conditions for developing a positive self-image were outlined. Vignettes from the patient's history were offered to illustrate the problem in practice.