Does educational inequality predict exercise of users' choice? Survey evidence from domiciliary care services among elderly in Oslo,Norway

The traditional goal of equality in services remains at the heart of the Scandinavian welfare model; however, in recent decades, policymakers have also placed increased emphasis on user influence over services. Voice and choice are two channels to achieve this goal. The possibility to give feedback and voicing dissatisfaction to service providers (voice) is a well-established channel of service users' influence, however it is increasingly supplemented by user choice schemes (choice), where one can choose between different public and private service providers. We use the case of domiciliary care for the elderly to examine how the traditional goal of user equality is associated with the growing emphasis on user influence through voice and choice. The analyses are based on user surveys carried out by the municipality in the city of Oslo, which is arguably the only municipality in Norway where user choice plays a significant role in elderly care. Since the municipality subsidizes the private providers, individual economic resources should have less relevance. However, voicing dissatisfaction and choosing between different providers may anticipate cognitive resources that are not equally distributed among the users. The survey data indicate that there is an association between level of education and propensity to exploit all channels of user influence. Expanding user influence by introducing user choice thus confirms the differences between highly educated and less educated.     

Inferring the Predictability Induced by a Persistent Regressor in a Predictive Threshold Model

We develop tests for detecting possibly episodic predictability induced by a persistent predictor. Our framework is that of a predictive regression model with threshold effects and our goal is to develop operational and easily implementable inferences when one does not wish to impose à priori restrictions on the parameters of the model other than the slopes corresponding to the persistent predictor. Differently put our tests for the null hypothesis of no predictability against threshold predictability remain valid without the need to know whether the remaining parameters of the model are characterized by threshold effects or not (e.g., shifting versus nonshifting intercepts). One interesting feature of our setting is that our test statistics remain unaffected by whether some nuisance parameters are identified or not. We subsequently apply our methodology to the predictability of aggregate stock returns with valuation ratios and document a robust countercyclicality in the ability of some valuation ratios to predict returns in addition to highlighting a strong sensitivity of predictability based results to the time period under consideration.     

Regular updating

This article presents a new model aimed at predicting behavior in games involving a randomized allocation procedure. It is designed to capture the relative importance and interaction between procedural justice (defined crudely in terms of the difference between one’s expected payoff and average expected payoff in the group) and distributive justice (difference between own and average actual payoffs). The model is applied to experimental games, including “randomized” variations of simple sequential bargaining games, and delivers qualitatively correct predictions. In view of the model redistribution of income can be seen as a substitute for vertical social mobility. This contributes to the explanation of greater demand for redistribution in European countries vis-a-vis the United States. I conclude with suggestions for further verification of the model and possible extensions.     

Attitudes and use of pornography in the Norwegian population 2002

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze use of pornographic material in a representative sample of adult Norwegians. The data collection was carried out by means of a standardized questionnaire administered via personal telephone interviews. Among the 90% of participants who reported ever having examined pornography, 76% reported examining a pornographic magazine, 67% had watched a pornographic film, and 24% had examined pornography on the Internet. Significant gender differences emerged in the reporting. The percentage of men and women who reported frequent use of pornography was small. We identified three dimensions of attitudes toward pornography: pornography as a means of sexual enhancement, pornography as a moral issue, and social climate. These attitude dimensions were included in path models as intermediating variables between demographic variables (age, gender, and level of education) and frequency of reading or watching pornographic materials. These models explained 36% of the variance in frequency of watching pornographic films, 35% of the variance in frequency of reading pornographic magazines, and 21% of the variance in frequency of watching pornography on the Internet.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Suicidal Ideation Among Sexually Abused Adolescent Girls: The Mediating Role of Shame

ABSTRACT

Sexual abuse is associated with a host of negative repercussions in adolescence. Yet the possible mechanisms linking sexual abuse and negative outcomes are understudied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among self-blame, shame, coping strategies, posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. The sample included 147 sexually abused adolescent girls between 14 and 18 years of age. A total of 66% of girls reached clinical score for posttraumatic stress disorder, and 53% reached clinical score for depressive symptoms. Close to half (46%) reported suicidal thoughts in the past 3 months. Shame was found to partially mediate the relationship between self-blame and posttraumatic stress disorder. Shame and depressive symptoms were also found to partially mediate the relationship between self-blame and suicidal ideation. Results suggest that shame is a crucial target in interventions designed for sexually abused adolescent girls.     

Elicitation of Subjective Probabilities when the Initial Endowment is Unobservable

In the framework of subjective expected utility theory we develop two distinct procedures for the elicitation of a person's subjective probabilities when the initial endowment is random and unobservable. Procedures of the first kind rely on the boundedness of the utility function to elicit the person's subjective probabilities directly. Procedures of the second kind infer the person's initial endowment from his choice behavior prior to the application of probability elicitation.     

In-depth analysis of road crashes involving powered two-wheelers vehicles: typical human functional failures and conditions of their production

Traffic safety related to motorcycle riding constitutes a growing issue all over the world. This is notably the case in France, where the important progress recently obtained toward a safer driving by car didn't prove to be so much effective for motorcycling. The present study has the purpose to give some cues on the reasons why, by characterizing the specificities of accident scenarios involving a powered two-wheeler (PTW). It is based on an in-depth accident analysis conducted by research teams composed of a psychologist and a technician intervening on the scene of the accident and later on. A sample of 384 accident cases involving a PTW is compared to a sample of 1174 car drivers involved in an accident without PTW. The results show the important differences regarding the human errors committed by PTW riders and by car drivers. They also show the interactional aspects of these different errors in the production of accidents, in the sense the physical and behavioral characteristics of PTW lead to certain errors by car drivers (perceptive failures) and these errors lead in turn to certain errors by PTW riders (prognostic failures).     

Perceptions of physical activity among elderly residents and professionals in assisted living facilities

Background

Physical activity is often described as being important for people of all ages, but what different people mean when they talk about physical activity is unclear.

Method

A phenomenographic method was used to analyze how 13 older people and 17 professionals answer the question, “If I say physical activity, what does the concept mean to you?” as part of semi-structured interviews conducted in four assisted living facilities in two different municipalities.

Results

We identified a number of different perceptions of physical activity, with the older people and professionals having different responses. Elderly and professionals alike, define physical activity as a requirement for life and as an opportunity to maintain the body although they define the concepts in different ways. Elderly define the concept as a way to create meaning and the professionals have the attitude that the concept means everyday activities.

Conclusion

The concept of physical activity may be defined in many different ways. This study has shown that elderly and professionals do not define physical activity in the same way. Therefore, professionals need to be aware of these differences when talking with elderly about individual needs in everyday life.

     

Servicing the body: placing glasses on the client’s head at the opticians

Various forms of service work rely upon personnel undertaking activities that necessitate close, and in some cases potentially intimate, contact with a client’s body. In this paper, we consider the ways in which opticians place and position glasses on the head of their clients and how they avoid, or at least ameliorate, the problems and sensitivities that might arise in this close encounter with the co-participant. The paper is based on the analysis of a substantial corpus of video-recordings, augmented by field work, undertaken both in UK and Denmark. The analysis draws on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and contributes to our understanding of the interactional accomplishment of body work and embodied conduct and to the growing corpus of research concerned with ‘multimodality’ and the social organisation of service encounters.