Midlife Career Transitions of Men Who Are Scientists and Engineers: A Narrative Study

This article summarizes the results of a qualitative study of career transition experiences of middle‐aged male scientists and engineers in the current socioeconomic environment in the United States. The study addresses the effects of the transitions from psychosocial perspectives. The authors selected participants from research organizations, industry, and academic fields. The authors used a narrative approach to collect data and analyzed the data using a grounded theory approach. The results suggest that the major factors that describe the dynamics in the career transition experiences are personhood, relationships, lifestyle, and workplace environment. The findings and their implications in developing coping skills and counseling strategies are discussed.     

‘You Can't Have Well‐being If You're Dead…or Can You?’ Children's Realistic and Logical Approach to Discussing Life,Death and Wellbeing

Well‐being is a popularised and regularly considered aspect of an individual's life. Whilst frequently theorised across disciplines interested in childhood, children's perspectives on well‐being are often missing. This article presents children's views on well‐being, focussing on the extent they consider well‐being to exist after death or near‐death experiences. Through focus‐group discussion, children's conversations reflect their ability for deep philosophical, abstract thinking and contributing to clearer understandings of well‐being across different contexts. Children's pragmatic responses about death when considering well‐being provide a valuable contribution to understanding fear of death whilst arguing for collaborative approaches between adults and children when considering complex issues.     

Canada's Most Wanted: Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies*

Cet article analyse les expériences des femmes pendant la colonisation des Prairies au Canada en mettant l'accent sur leur travail, sur leurs aptitudes et sur les capacites d'adaptation a l'environnement naturel et aux obstacles économiques auxquels ces femmes et leurs families se sont mesurés. Bien que les attitudes patriarcales domi‐nantes, la législation et les principes économiques aient quelque peu occulté les contributions des femmes, les efforts qu'elles ont déployés en Saskatchewan illustrent la «souplesse» dont ont fait preuve les fermières dans l'accomplissement de tâches productives et non productives. L'article démontre que cette souplesse a constitué un facteur déterminant de la survie des fermes familiales et, par là, du succès de l'industrie du blé. This article analyzes women's experiences during the settlement of the western prairie region of Canada. Attention is placed on their labour, skills and ability to adapt to the natural environment and the economic obstacles that they and their families encountered. While prevailing patriarchal attitudes, legislation and economic principles obscured women's contributions, the efforts of women in Saskatchewan are used to highlight the “flexibility” exhibited by farm women in performing productive and non‐productive labour. It is argued that this flexibility was critical to the survival of family farms, and thus to the success of the wheat economy.     

MOVING OUT TO MOVE UP: DUAL‐CAREER MIGRATION AND WORK–FAMILY TRADEOFFS

Using data from a survey of new entrants to the junior PhD job market in economics, this paper shows that dual‐career location problems compromise the personal and professional lives of early‐career PhDs. Contrary to the common assumption that couples who do not live together break up, we find that living apart is a viable solution to location problems in the first year after graduate school. Surprisingly, PhDs facing moderate location problems are more likely than those facing severe location problems to make career sacrifices on behalf of their relationship; PhDs facing severe location problems are more likely to live apart. (JEL, J12, J44, A11)     

Maternal Mentalization and Behavior Under Stressful Contexts: The Moderating Roles of Prematurity and Household Chaos

This study examines the links between online maternal mentalization during mother–infant interaction, maternal sensitivity, and family triadic interaction while considering the cumulative role of two stressful contexts (cumulative stressful contexts): premature birth (a child‐driven stressful context) and household chaos (an environment‐driven stressful context). Two moderation models were tested on a sample of 134 families with 6‐month‐old infants (77 low‐risk preterm, 57 full‐term). Cumulative stressful contexts mitigated the relations between maternal mentalization and behavior, such that online maternal mentalization during mother–infant interaction was related to both maternal sensitivity and the quality of family triadic interaction under low cumulative stressful contexts, but not under high cumulative stressful contexts. Implications for understanding the influence of online maternal mentalization on maternal sensitivity and the family triad are discussed.     

Doing Psychology,Doing Inequality: Rethinking the Role of Psychology in Creating and Maintaining Social Inequality*

The relationship between psychological disciplines and inequality has been a subject of great scholarly interest in the last several decades. Most works on the subject analyze macro features of psychological disciplines (mainly their evaluative tools, theoretical assumptions, and disciplinary power) and criticize them as biased against minorities. This paper re‐examines the relationship between psychology and inequality from a micro, face‐to‐face standpoint. Drawing on close observations of 33 placement committees in which professionals from various psychological fields (psychology, social work, school counseling, etc.) discuss children’s eligibility for special education services, it portrays the actual doing of psychology as an inconsistent and malleable endeavor. In contrast to the macro‐oriented research on the relationship between psychology and inequality, it shows that in actual face‐to‐face interactions, professionals use different types of folk concerns that often exchange formal evaluative criteria, theoretical assumptions or professional authority in final placement decisions. By revealing the different folk considerations professionals use to sort and analyze working‐ versus middle‐class parents, this project adds an essential layer to scholarly understanding of the relationship between psychological practice and inequality.     

THE ROLE OF HOSPITAL COMPETITION ON TREATMENT EXPENDITURE AND OUTCOME: EVIDENCE FROM STROKE AND CARDIAC TREATMENT IN TAIWAN

This article examines whether market competition affects treatment expenditure and health outcomes of stroke and cardiac treatment in Taiwan. Our measure of treatment expenditure is the hospital expenditure paid at the index admission (short term) and the sum of inpatient and outpatient expenditures paid in the subsequent year (long term). Our measure of health outcome is the probability of death in 1 and 12 months after the hospital's discharge. Our measure of competition follows the method developed by Kessler and McClellan that calculates the Herfindal index based on the predicted patient flows using exogenous variables (e.g., traveling distance to hospitals). Using data of patients hospitalized for new stroke and cardiac treatment between 1997 and 2001 in Taiwan, we find that an increase of market competition results in an insignificant impact on a patient's mortality. In terms of treatment expenditure, our results indicate that hospitals facing more competition incur higher expenditures, either the short‐ or long‐term expenditure. Finally, we find evidence showing that an increase of treatment expenditure at admission is due to a raise of length of stay and treatment intensity per day as well as the usage of expensive equipment. (JEL I11, L13, L41)     

INFORMATION DISCLOSURE POLICIES: EVIDENCE FROM THE ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY

While theory suggests that information programs may correct market failures and improve welfare, the empirical impacts of these policies remain undetermined. We show that mandatory disclosure programs in the electricity industry achieve stated policy goals. We find that the proportion of fossil fuels decreases, and the proportion of clean fuels increases in response to disclosure programs. However, the programs may produce unintended consequences. For example, programs may make “clean” firms cleaner, while leaving “dirty” firms relatively unchanged. If the marginal benefits of pollution abatement are larger at dirty firms than at clean firms, disclosure programs may induce inefficient abatement allocations. (JEL D83, Q58, D21)