The influence of mapped hazards on risk beliefs: a proximity-based modeling approach

Interview findings suggest perceived proximity to mapped hazards influences risk beliefs when people view environmental hazard maps. For dot maps, four attributes of mapped hazards influenced beliefs: hazard value, proximity, prevalence, and dot patterns. In order to quantify the collective influence of these attributes for viewers’ perceived or actual map locations, we present a model to estimate proximity‐based hazard or risk (PBH) and share study results that indicate how modeled PBH and map attributes influenced risk beliefs. The randomized survey study among 447 university students assessed risk beliefs for 24 dot maps that systematically varied by the four attributes. Maps depicted water test results for a fictitious hazardous substance in private residential wells and included a designated “you live here” location. Of the nine variables that assessed risk beliefs, the numerical susceptibility variable was most consistently and strongly related to map attributes and PBH. Hazard value, location in or out of a clustered dot pattern, and distance had the largest effects on susceptibility. Sometimes, hazard value interacted with other attributes, for example, distance had stronger effects on susceptibility for larger than smaller hazard values. For all combined maps, PBH explained about the same amount of variance in susceptibility as did attributes. Modeled PBH may have utility for studying the influence of proximity to mapped hazards on risk beliefs, protective behavior, and other dependent variables. Further work is needed to examine these influences for more realistic maps and representative study samples.     

Meaning of aging in women's lives

As limited resources led me to combine teaching and research responsibilities, my students have been participating in an assignment that involves listening to aging women in order to discover how women explain the aging process. We have conducted 329 comprehensive interviews of women who were living in the decade of their sixties, seventies, eighties, or nineties. In this sample of predominantly southern women in the United States, meaning of age is explained in a process involving both looking back (reminiscence) and looking ahead (preminiscence) at one's life course with specific references to changes in one's body, family, home, and keeping the faith.     

Social Entrepreneurship: An exploratory citation analysis

Research on Social Entrepreneurship became a growing field of interest during the past decades. However, as the heterogeneity of investigated topics is rather large the purpose of this contribution is to provide an overview of the current state of research on Social Entrepreneurship. In doing so previous research is structured to identify major contributions and thereby key discussion lines within this field. Based on a bibliometric citation analysis of 129 core papers and 5,228 cited references, five topic clusters are identified within the field of Social Entrepreneurship: 1) Definitions and conceptual approaches, 2) Impetus, 3) Personality, 4) Impact and performance, and 5) Future research agenda. By reflecting the literature of each discussion line, a framework for the advancement of Social Entrepreneurship research is provided.     

The Effect of Question Framing and Response Options on the Relationship between Racial Attitudes and Beliefs about Genes as Causes of Behavior

Prior research suggests that the attribution of individual and group differences to genetic causes is correlated with prejudiced attitudes toward minority groups. Our study suggests that these findings may be due to the wording of the questions and to the choice of response options. Using a series of vignettes in an online survey, we find a relationship between racial attitudes and genetic attributions when respondents are asked to make causal attributions of differences between racial groups. However, when they are asked to make causal attributions for characteristics shown by individuals, no such relationship is found. The response scale used appears to make less, if any, difference in the results. These findings indicate that the way questions about genetic causation of behavior are framed makes a significant contribution to the answers obtained because it significantly changes the meaning of the questions. We argue that such framing needs to be carefully attended to, not only in posing research questions but also in discourse about genetics more generally.     

Contexts of Cultural Diffusion: A Case Study of “Public Intellectual” Debates in English Canada

Controversy over the “decline” and “death” of the public intellectual came to Canada in response to Russell Jacoby's publication of The Last Intellectuals (1987). This research examines the diffusion of debates about public intellectuals in Canada through a detailed case study of every mention of the term “public intellectual” in 25 English language newspapers from 1987 to 2005. In a close analysis of the dynamics of public intellectual attribution, we show that debates in Canada were politically broader, less polarized, and less critical of the academy than in the United States, but they remained preoccupied by questions of national identity.     

Introducing the 3-A grief intervention model for dementia caregivers: acknowledge, assess and assist

With our aging population, it is estimated that in the near future there will be an overwhelming increase in the number of individuals dealing with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (ADRD). From the time that symptoms begin to insidiously emerge, it can take well over ten years for the disease to run its course. In addition to the crippling effect for those inflicted, this lengthy duration can have an ongoing debilitating effect on the family members who are grieving while providing care. Researchers have claimed that the manner in which family members experience and manage their grief reactions to the pre-death losses can influence both caregiving outcomes and adjustment to bereavement once those with the disease have died. Given the relevance of grief management, this article provides answers to such questions as: How do family caregivers of individuals with ADRD manifest their grief? How can healthcare professionals intervene in assisting with grief management? The answers are provided introducing the 3-A grief intervention model for family caregivers of individuals with ADRD. The 3-A model enfranchises the caregiver grief experience through Acknowledging, Assessing, and Assisting in grief management. In doing so, different grieving styles are identified and the role that denial and respite plays in adapting to the family caregiver's grief experience is recognized. Clinical strategies to assist in grief management are also provided.     

Lessons from the American federal-state unemployment insurance system for a European unemployment benefits system

This article reviews practices in the United States (US) federal-state unemployment insurance (UI) system regarding applicant eligibility, benefit generosity, benefit financing and emergency measures with the aim of revealing lessons for a possible European unemployment benefit system (EUBS) for European Union (EU) Member States. We overview the US system for UI and examine important areas of federal leadership. While the US system offers some good ideas for setting up an EUBS, there are also lessons in some shortcomings of the US experience. We overview existing national UI systems in the EU and review the debate on an EUBS in the EU. We identify areas of risk for individual and institutional moral hazard in a multi-tiered UI system and give examples of monitoring methods and incentives to ameliorate such risks. We suggest approaches for gradual system development, encouraging lower-tier behaviour, benefit financing, and responses to regional and system-wide labour market crises.     

Simultaneous prediction intervals for all patrwise differences among several future sample means

Hahn (1977) suggested a procedure for constructing prediction intervals for the difference between the means of two future samples from normal populations having equal variance, based on past samples selected from both populations. In this paper, we extend Hahn's work by constructing simultaneous prediction intervals for all pairwise differences among the means of k ≥ 2 future samples from normal populations with equal variances, using past samples taken from each of the k populations. For K = 2, this generalization reduces to Hahn's special case. These prediction intervals may be used when one has sampled the performance of several products and wishes to simultaneously as- sess the differences in future sample mean performance of these products with a predetermined overall coverage probability. The use of the new procedure is demonstrated with a numerical example.