Behavioral epidemiology and social area analysis: The study of blackout looting

This article describes the use of social area analytic techniques in the study of the looting which occurred during the Con Edison power failure of July 13 and 14, 1977. Detailed procedures are outlined of the systematic collection and analysis of data which were developed from available data. Analyses contrasting competing explanatory theoretical models for blackout looting are presented. The central dependent variable is ratio of looted to retail stores. Both the numerator and denominator are aggregated to the census tract level.     

The effect of compliance-improving interventions on the cognitive-behavioural treatment of pathological gambling

This exploratory study investigated the effect of interventions designed to improve compliance and reduce dropout rates during the outpatient treatment of pathological gambling at a University-based gambling treatment clinic. Forty subjects (29 males, 11 females, mean age = 37.6) meeting DSM-IV criteria (APA, 1994) for pathological gambling were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioural treatment or a cognitive-behavioural treatment combined with interventions designed to improve treatment compliance. Compliance was indicated by the completion of all treatment sessions. Outcome measures were DSM-IV criteria assessed by structured clinical interview, South Oaks Gambling Screen scores, and percentage of income gambled. Logistic regression analyses identified pretreatment characteristics predicting compliance and outcome. Compliance-improving interventions significantly reduced dropout rates, resulting in superior outcomes at posttreatment compared to the cognitive behavioural treatment alone. At 9-month follow-up, there was no difference in outcome between treatments, although both produced clinically significant change. Comorbid problem drinking, drug use, and problem gambling duration predicted poor compliance. Poor outcome was predicted by comorbid problem drinking. The clinical implications of these results are discussed in light of the exploratory nature of the study and the need for future research to address compliance, outcome, and comorbidity issues.     

My Favourite Chinese City- Shenzhen

For some reason,Shenzhen seems to have a bad reputation.Most people envision a maze of factories,constantly churning out the cheap goods we all know and love.As the mother ship of"Made in China",Shenzhen is hard for people to imagine as a livable city.Recently,I’ve found myself defending the largely misunderstood city with unexpected vigor.     

Abusive supervision and the entitled employee

We present two studies that examine the effects of psychological entitlement on employees' ratings of abusive supervision and their behavioral reactions to these perceptions. Study 1 indicated that entitlement was positively associated with ratings of abusive supervision. Perceived abuse was, in turn, associated with upward undermining behaviors and organizational deviance. In Study 2, we re-examined the hypothesized relationships using paired data from employees and their coworkers. The results replicated those from the first study and showed that entitled employees rated supervisors as more abusive than coworkers who shared the same supervisors. Although this variance is likely driven by a combination of perceptual distortion and actual abusive behaviors, the ultimate implication is that psychologically entitled employees are prone to feel that they are victims of abuse and to react in undesirable ways.     

Marital Quality and Income: An Examination of the Influence of Government Assistance

Using data from a random telephone statewide survey in Utah, the associations between income, government assistance and six dimensions of marital quality were explored with a sample of 295 married individuals with incomes below $40,000. Results indicate that income has a main effect on negative interaction and feeling trapped. An interaction of government assistance and income on two dimensions of marital quality was found. Individuals that experienced the combination of earning less than $20,000 per year while receiving government assistance had significantly lower levels of overall marital satisfaction and commitment than individuals receiving government assistance with higher incomes and individuals who have never received government assistance. Implications and possible explanations are discussed.     

The minimum L2 distance estimator for Poisson mixture models

A robust estimator is developed for Poisson mixture models with a known number of components. The proposed estimator minimizes the L₂ distance between a sample of data and the model. When the component distributions are completely known, the estimators for the mixing proportions are in closed form. When the parameters for the component Poisson distributions are unknown, numerical methods are needed to calculate the estimators. Compared to the minimum Hellinger distance estimator, the minimum L₂ estimator can be less robust to extreme outliers, and often more robust to moderate outliers.