Social Networks and Social Settings: Developing a Coevolutionary View

One way to think about social context is as a sample of alters. To understand individual action, therefore, it matters greatly where these alters may be coming from, and how they are connected. According to one vision, connections among alters induce local dependencies—emergent rules of social interaction that generate endogenously the observed network structure of social settings. Social selection is the decision of interest in this perspective. According to a second vision, social settings are collections of social foci—physical or symbolic locales where actors meet. Because alters are more likely to be drawn from focused sets, shared social foci are frequently considered as the main generators of network ties, and hence of setting structure. Affiliation to social foci is the decision of central interest in this second view. In this paper we show how stochastic actor–oriented models (SAOMs) originally derived for studying the dynamics of multiple networks may be adopted to represent and examine these interconnected systems of decisions (selection and affiliation) within a unified analytical framework. We illustrate the empirical value of the model in the context of a longitudinal sample of adolescent participating in the Glasgow Teenage Friends and Lifestyle Study. Social selection decisions are examined in the context of networks of friendship relations. The analysis treats musical genres as the main social foci of interest.     

Child sexual abuse and psychological impairment in victims: results of an online study initiated by victims

Sexual abuse of children has been a topic of scientific investigation for the past few decades. Research in this area, however, is rarely initiated, conceptualized, and conducted by victims themselves. Apart from possibly having painted a one-sided picture of sexual abuse, this presumed dominance of nonvictims might also have marginalized victims in a research area central to their lives. This study was conducted by a victims interest group as an effort to meet the need to add victims' perspectives to our current understanding of this topic. The online survey focused on investigating victims' psychosocial impairment, which was found to be extensive. Results indicated that an intact social support system facilitates better health, especially when offered early on.     

Demography,Education, and Democracy: Global Trends and the Case of Iran

Reconstructions and projections of populations by age, sex, and educational attainment for 120 countries since 1970 are used to assess the global relationship between improvements in human capital and democracy. Democracy is measured by the Freedom House indicator of political rights. Similar to an earlier study on the effects of improving educational attainment on economic growth, the greater age detail of this new dataset resolves earlier ambiguities about the effect of improving education as assessed using a global set of national time series. The results show consistently strong effects of improving overall levels of educational attainment, of a narrowing gender gap in education, and of fertility declines and the subsequent changes in age structure on improvements in the democracy indicator. This global relationship is then applied to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the past two decades Iran has experienced the world's most rapid fertility decline associated with massive increases in female education. The results show that based on the experience of 120 countries since 1970, Iran has a high chance of significant movement toward more democracy over the following two decades.     

Whom Do Centenarians Rely on for Support? Findings From the Second Heidelberg Centenarian Study

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a detailed picture of the sources and types of informal support available to centenarians, depending on their housing and care arrangements. Participants were 112 centenarians and 96 primary contacts of centenarians enrolled in the population-based Second Heidelberg Centenarian Study. Findings indicate that children of centenarians were their primary source of support in daily life. Those without living children had overall less help. Most frequently reported was help with administrative tasks, regardless of centenarians’ residence or living arrangement. All other types of help (e.g., with activities of daily living and housework) were reported by about one-third and were mostly provided by children; centenarians without children were more likely to have friends/neighbors involved in some of these tasks. The one category reported by a third of the centenarians regardless of residence, living arrangements, or presence of a child was help with socializing/companionship. Findings constitute an important step toward identifying and meeting the support needs of centenarians and their families. Policy implications are discussed.     

Charisma,Macht und Narzissmus

Charisma, power and narcissism. On the diagnostics of an ambivalent leading qualityManagers are often obviously narcissistic personalities with “charismatic qualities”. The author discusses the background of these qualities and their ambivalence, because behind the brilliance of a successful manager may be a hidden narcissistic problem as the actual motive power. Nevertheless a constructive narcissism is to be distinguished from a destructive one. Charismatic constellations as well as narcissistic dynamics are to be understood not only as an individual problem but as an interactional phenomenon, involving both sides of a relationship. In order to explain these dynamics, the author presents the concepts of “narcissistic collusion” and “expanded self”. It is of great importance to the coach, to be able to analyse and to deal with these relational patterns — and also to preserve oneself from being involved in such narcissistic dynamics.     

Alles ist gut

All is good — wisdom’s use in managementIn crisis periods the demand for orientation knowledge grows. Everybody is looking for the answers to the fundamental questions of life. For over 2000 years philosophy has such a knowledge: wisdom. But what is wisdom and what is its use for the management? On this question the essay with Kant gives the answer: Wisdom is the way of self-knowledge. And self-knowledge is the very source of each vision, without which there is no successful entrepreneurship.     

Was tun Lektoren?

What is the work of editors? Counselling of a ?service in background“The work of editors as employees in publishing houses or as free lancers is a ?service in background“ and hence it is less well-known in comparison with other media professionals. Nevertheless, editors have an important role as intermediary between authors and the reading public. The author delineates the profession of editors and the technical aspects of their work and explains some typical conflicts which may be relevant to a coaching of editors.     

Coaching und Psychotherapie — Differenz und Konvergenz

Coaching and psychotherapy — difference and convergence. A discussion on counseling between professional and personal issuesThe author discusses the relation between coaching and psychotherapy. He emphasises several crucial differences, but here he is concerned with the interfaces between these formats. He demonstrates, that in many cases psychotherapeutic views — basing on corresponding qualifications — may offer an important improvement of coaching. This is illustrated by some case studies.     

Charisma and organizational change: A multilevel study of perceived charisma,commitment to change,and team performance

What makes people perceive a leader as charismatic, and how do team leaders obtain performance outcomes from their followers? We examine leaders in times of organizational change and investigate the mechanisms through which leaders' change-promoting behaviors are associated with team performance. In a multilevel mediation model, we propose that the indirect relationship between change-promoting behaviors and team performance is sequentially transmitted through followers' perceptions of charisma and followers' commitment to change. A study of 33 leaders and 142 followers provides empirical support for the model, using multilevel structural equation modeling to analyze top-down relationships between leaders and followers and bottom-up relationships between followers and team outcomes. Results suggest that team leaders are perceived as more charismatic when they engage in change-promoting behaviors. These behaviors facilitate team performance through individual followers' perceived charisma and commitment to change.