Reduced Risk-Taking After Prior Losses in Pathological Gamblers Under Treatment and Healthy Control Group but not in Problem Gamblers

A group of pathological gamblers and a group of problem gamblers (i.e., gamblers at risk of becoming pathological) were compared to healthy controls on their risk-taking propensity after prior losses. Each participant played both the Balloon Analogue Risk Taking task (BART) and a modified version of the same task, where individuals face five repeated predetermined early losses at the onset of the game. No significant difference in risk-taking was found between groups on the standard BART task, while significant differences emerged when comparing behaviors in the two tasks: both pathological gamblers and controls reduced their risk-taking tendency after prior losses in the modified BART compared to the standard BART, whereas problem gamblers showed no reduction in risk-taking after prior losses. We interpret these results as a sign of a reduced sensitivity to negative feedback in problem gamblers which might contribute to explain their loss-chasing tendency.     

When Passion Leads to Problematic Outcomes: A Look at Gambling

Vallerand et al. (2003) have proposed that individuals can have two distinct types of passion toward an activity. Harmonious passion, an internal force leading one to choose to engage in the activity, is proposed to be associated with positive consequences. Obsessive passion, an internal pressure forcing one to engage in an activity, is posited to be associated with negative consequences. The present study sought to determine the role of the two types of passion in various cognitive and affective states associated with dependence and problems with gambling. Participants (n = 412) were recruited at the Montréal Casino and given a questionnaire measuring passion toward gambling, as well as consequences associated with dependence and problem gambling. Results showed that obsessive passion for gambling predicted poorer vitality and concentration in daily tasks, as well as increased rumination, anxiety, negative mood, guilt, and problem gambling. These relations were not found for harmonious passion for gambling. Results are discussed in light of the motivational approach to passion (Vallerand et al., 2003).     

The goal-oriented approach to evaluation: Critique and case study from drug abuse treatment

The specification and measurement of program goals remains central to most evaluation research strategies, yet procedures for implementing this approach are not well-articulated. It is the purpose of this discussion to describe a stepwise procedure for programmatic goal setting and monitoring used in a demonstration drug treatment program for women. Three implementation steps are described: (a) goal setting, (b) checking for consistency, (c) monitoring and feedback. The advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed and useful complementary measurement strategies are suggested.     

Projective (2n,n,λ,1)-designs

A projective (2n,n,λ,1)-design is a set $\text{D}$ of n element subsets (called blocks) of a 2n-element set V having the properties that each element of V is a member of λ blocks and every two blocks have a non-empty intersection. This paper establishes existence and non-existence results for various projective (2n,n,λ,1)-designs and their subdesigns.     

Age,religious beliefs,and sexual attitudes

Age effects on sexual attitudes were examined using the Hendrick and Hendrick (1987a) Sexual Attitude Scale. The study was cross-sectional, including people from various age groups, from young adults to older adults. The religious beliefs variable, which covaries substantially both with age and sexual attitudes, was controlled. Three main questions guided the study: (a) Is the four-factor structure (Permissiveness, Instrumentality, Communion, and Sexual Practices) previously identified in a sample of young students able to accurately account for data gathered over a full range of adult ages, (b) are older adults much less permissive and less instrumentalist than young people, and (c) to what extent are believers less permissive and instrumentalist than young people when age is taken into account? Factor analyses showed that at least five correlated factors were needed to account for the data; the fourth factor, Sexual Practices, divided itself into two distinct factors: Pleasure and Responsibility. Older adults and believers were shown to be less permissive than young people and nonbelievers, and this result held regardless of the participants educational level. As regards to instrumentality, however, the pattern of differences was extremely complex.     

Risk Perception in a Developing Country: The Case of Chile

In this work we characterize risk perception in Chile, based on the psychometric paradigm, exploring the difference between perceived social and personal risk. For this purpose, we conducted a survey including 54 hazards, 16 risk attributes, and 3 risk constructs. The survey, divided into four parts, was administered to 508 residents of Santiago, Chile. Using factor analysis, three main factors, which accounted for 80% of the sample's variance, were identified: factor 1, commonly called "Dread Risk" in the literature, explained 37% of variance; factor 2, "Unknown Risk," explained 28%; and factor 3, which we called "Personal Effect," explained 15% of the variance. On average, individuals perceived themselves as less exposed to risk and with more control and knowledge about them than the general population. OLS regression models were used to test the association of perceived risk with the three main factors. For social risk, factor 1 had the greatest explanatory power, while factor 2 had a negative sign. For personal risk, only factors 2 and 3 were significant, with factor 3 having the greatest explanatory power. Risk denial (defined as the difference between perceived personal and social risk) was associated with factors 1 and 2 only, with factor 2 having a negative sign. The difference between desired and actual regulation levels proved positive for all hazards, thus indicating that Chileans are dissatisfied with the current regulation level for all the hazards analyzed. The comparison of data at the aggregate and at the individual subject's level suggests that while the aggregate analysis overestimates the magnitude of the correlations it still reflects the tendency of the individual responses.     

Estimation of a Change Point in a Hazard Function Based on Censored Data

The hazard function plays an important role in reliability or survival studies since it describes the instantaneous risk of failure of items at a time point, given that they have not failed before. In some real life applications, abrupt changes in the hazard function are observed due to overhauls, major operations or specific maintenance activities. In such situations it is of interest to detect the location where such a change occurs and estimate the size of the change. In this paper we consider the problem of estimating a single change point in a piecewise constant hazard function when the observed variables are subject to random censoring. We suggest an estimation procedure that is based on certain structural properties and on least squares ideas. A simulation study is carried out to compare the performance of this estimator with two estimators available in the literature: an estimator based on a functional of the Nelson-Aalen estimator and a maximum likelihood estimator. The proposed least squares estimator tums out to be less biased than the other two estimators, but has a larger variance. We illustrate the estimation method on some real data sets.     

Robustness evaluation of multisite distributed schedule with perturbed virtual jobshops

A method for evaluating the robustness of medium term multisite distributed schedule is presented. The method of robustness evaluation is based on steps and tools associated with the conceptual model of a MultiSite Reactive Production Activity Control (MSR-PAC). The MSR-PAC makes it possible to study the sensitivity of the scheduled plans in presence of perturbations. These must be evaluated before being dispatched to the shop-floors. At present, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no means to make this evaluation in the distributed systems such as extended enterprise. The monitoring of errors is based on the discrepancy between the two flow-shape functions that model respectively the dynamics of the scheduled manufacturing orders and the state of the perturbed production. The MSR-PAC is based on a multisite agent system and on the monitoring of the perturbed virtual jobshops. The method can also be used for controlling short term distributed production activities.     

Parental altruism and nest leaving in Europe: evidence from a retrospective survey

We use retrospective life-history data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to assess parental altruism through the effect of parental resources and home characteristics on the age at which individuals now aged 50 or more left the nest in 13 countries. We show that the nest leaving age has declined from one cohort to the next and that the tendency has been of a relative decline in leaving one’s parents to start a family and an increase in leaving home to pursue higher education, even if the first pattern was still the most common for the baby-boomers. We test an altruistic model where constrained parents push the child out, where less constrained “proximity altruistic” parents can help the child by providing a home or even, for the richest “active altruists”, help the child leave the nest. Taking into account the endogenous child’s choices of education, we find that most parents helped by being proximity altruists, while some helped their children move out and that the quality of the home had an important influence on the nest leaving age.     

The effect of job satisfaction on labor turnover by gender: An analysis for Switzerland

This paper analyzes the effect of job satisfaction on labor turnover by gender using data from the first two waves of the Swiss Household Panel (1999 and 2000). The results confirm that job satisfaction is a very good predictor of future quits and, more important, reveal that job satisfaction does not influence the inclination to become non-employed; that is, neither men nor women self-select out of the labor force due to dissatisfaction. This result clearly refutes the claim that the gender/job satisfaction paradox (i.e., the fact that women tend to be more satisfied at work than men) is being driven by self-selection. This paper also shows that, based on job satisfaction information and quitting behavior, there is no apparent difference in firm attachment between men and women.