Eagle soaring: the power of the resilient self

Adversity can be an opportunity to focus on strengths and nurture resiliency. Cultural understanding and awareness can be easily incorporated into therapy through empathic listening, a therapeutic alliance, and supportive understanding. Patients should not subscribe to "victim" labels. Resilience should be celebrated.     

Attitudes Toward Divorce and Their Relationship With Psychosocial Factors Among Social Work Students

This study aimed to explore attitudes toward divorce and their relationship with general satisfaction with life, spiritual beliefs, parental bonding, and depressive symptomatology among a sample of 210 social work students from two different universities in Florida. Results indicated that the majority of students had favorable attitudes toward divorce overall, perceiving divorce as a solution to unhappy marriage. Participants also reported strong feelings regarding marital obligation and the effect of divorce on children and society. Attitudes toward divorce were associated with spiritual beliefs and parental bonding.     

Book reviews

Review Symposium: Cross‐Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development. P.M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1994. 431 pp. $89.95, $39.95 (paper).

Understanding Practice. S. Chaiklin and J. Lave (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 414 pp. $59.95.     

A test for randomness based on a complexity measure

A test for randomness based on a statistic related to the complexity of finite sequences is presented. Simulation of binary sequences under different stochastic models provides estimates of the power of the test. The results show that the test is sensitive to a variety of alternatives to randomness and suggest that the proposed test statistic is a reasonable measure of the stochastic complexity of a finite sequence of discrete random variables.     

Effect of missing plots in some response surface designs

The effect of one or more missing observations for response surface designs arranged in blocks are examined in this paper. The results as applied to a central composite design with orthogonal blocking, and an equirdial design with orthogonal blocking, are reported.     

Exploring Risk Judgments in a Trade Dispute Using Bayesian Networks

Bayesian networks (BNs) are graphical modeling tools that are generally recommended for exploring what‐if scenarios, visualizing systems and problems, and for communication between stakeholders during decision making. In this article, we investigate their potential for exploring different perspectives in trade disputes. To do so, we draw on a specific case study that was arbitrated by the World Trade Organization (WTO): the Australia‐New Zealand apples dispute. The dispute centered on disagreement about judgments contained within Australia's 2006 import risk analysis (IRA). We built a range of BNs of increasing complexity that modeled various approaches to undertaking IRAs, from the basic qualitative and semi‐quantitative risk analyses routinely performed in government agencies, to the more complex quantitative simulation undertaken by Australia in the apples dispute. We found the BNs useful for exploring disagreements under uncertainty because they are probabilistic and transparently represent steps in the analysis. Different scenarios and evidence can easily be entered. Specifically, we explore the sensitivity of the risk output to different judgments (particularly volume of trade). Thus, we explore how BNs could usefully aid WTO dispute settlement. We conclude that BNs are preferable to basic qualitative and semi‐quantitative risk analyses because they offer an accessible interface and are mathematically sound. However, most current BN modeling tools are limited compared with complex simulations, as was used in the 2006 apples IRA. Although complex simulations may be more accurate, they are a black box for stakeholders. BNs have the potential to be a transparent aid to complex decision making, but they are currently computationally limited. Recent technological software developments are promising.     

The Formative Years: How Parenthood Creates Gender*

Cet article présente les conclusions d'une étude qui traite d'une série d'entrevues en profondeur de couples hétérosexuals en voie de devenir parents. Le but de l'étude était de mieux comprendre comment le fait de devenir parents produit des différences dans les rôles attribués aux sexes et des inégalités entre eux. En se concentrant sur les relations sociales changeantes de la maternité, la discussion tourne autour de quatre ajustements dans la vie de la femme: l'ap‐propriation des responsabilités maternelles, les négotiations qui déterminent comment la femme et l'homme entreprennent leur rôle de mère et de père; le développement d'une division des travaux ménagers moins équilibrée; révolution d'une vie sociale centrée d'avantage sur la famille; et le renouvellement des relations entre la femme et sa mère. This paper presents findings from a study involving a series of in‐depth interviews of heterosexual couples as they made the transition to parenthood. The study was aimed at understanding how parenthood produces gender differences and inequalities. Focussing on the changing social relations of motherhood, the discussion revolves around four changes in women's lives: the assumption of the responsibilities of motherhood and the negotiations that shape how women mother (and how men father); the development of a more unbalanced division of household work; the evolution of a more family‐focussed social life; and the renewal of women's relationships with their mothers.