Using Narrative Career Counseling With the Underprepared College Student

An increasing number of students enter college underprepared. These students do not have the academic skills to take college‐level courses and are placed in remedial classes. Career counseling can help underprepared college students make educated career decisions based on their current situations. This article explores the characteristics of underprepared college students, examines career‐related issues these students face, and reviews the literature on narrative career counseling. The life design method is applied to a case example of an underprepared college student to demonstrate how to best serve the needs of these students.     

Neural Correlates of Conflicting Social Influence on Adolescent Risk Taking

Adolescence is often characterized by heightened risk‐taking behaviors, which are shaped by social influence from parents and peers. However, little is understood about how adolescents make risky decisions under conflicting influence. The valuation system in the brain may elucidate how adolescents differentially integrate conflicting social information. Twenty‐eight adolescents (M_age = 12.7 years) completed a social influence task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Behaviorally, adolescents took more risks only when their parent endorsed risky decisions but not when their peers endorsed risky decisions. At the neural level, adolescents showed enhanced vmPFC–striatum functional connectivity when they made risky decisions that followed their parents’ risky decisions. Results suggest that parents’ decisions may guide youths’ risk‐taking behavior under conflicting influence.     

Bayesian Interval Estimation for Predictive Values from Case-Control Studies

Positive predictive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) are often used to assess the accuracy of binary diagnostic tests. Unlike sensitivity and specificity, PPV and NPV are functions of the accuracy of the test and the overall prevalence of the disease in the population. In many studies of performance of estimators of PPV and NPV the population prevalence is assumed known. We allow for uncertainty in the estimate of the population prevalence and via simulation explore the impact of deviations from the assumed value.     

Unequal Exchange? Recent Transfers of Agricultural Resources and their Implications for Developing Countries

Plant genetic resources constitute the biological basis for plant breeding and future agricultural development. Their transfer from developing to developed countries over centuries has sometimes been viewed as an example of exploitation, if not ‘biopiracy’. Modern gene flows are different in character and magnitude from historic exchanges, however. This article examines current patterns and finds that developing countries are major net recipients of germplasm samples from CGIAR centres, particularly if ‘improved materials’ are considered. Potentially problematic, intellectual property rights do not currently present major barriers to the availability and use of genetic resources by developing countries. Proposals to restrict flows and redress perceived injustices may reduce the benefits accruing at present to developing countries from germplasm exchanges.     

Psychological vulnerability and problem gambling: an application of Durand Jacobs' general theory of addictions to electronic gaming machine playing in Australia

The aim of this study was to conduct an empirical investigation of the validity of Jacobs' (in J Gambl Behav 2:15-31, 1986) general theory of addictions in relation to gambling problems associated with electronic gaming machines (EGM). Regular EGM gamblers (n?=?190) completed a series of standardised measures relating to psychological and physiological vulnerability, substance use, dissociative experiences, early childhood trauma and abuse and problem gambling (the Problem Gambling Severity Index). Statistical analysis using structural equation modelling revealed clear relationships between childhood trauma and life stressors and psychological vulnerability, dissociative-like experiences and problem gambling. These findings confirm and extend a previous model validated by Gupta and Derevensky (in J Gambl Stud 14: 17-49, 1998) using an adolescent population. The significance of these findings are discussed for existing pathway models of problem gambling, for Jacobs' theory, and for clinicians engaged in assessment and intervention.     

Investments in Marriage and Cohabitation: The Role of Legal and Interpersonal Commitment

Cohabiters have been shown to invest less in their relationship than married couples. This study investigated the role of legal and interpersonal commitment by examining heterogeneity within marital and cohabiting unions. Going beyond the dichotomy of cohabitation versus marriage, different union types were distinguished by their level of legal and interpersonal commitment, followed by an assessment of their association with joint investments (specialization, having children together, purchasing a home). Using panel data from The Netherlands (N =2,362), the authors found considerable heterogeneity within marital and cohabiting unions. Joint investments increased as interpersonal commitment increased, with cohabiters without marriage plans investing the least and couples who directly married without prior cohabitation investing the most. The relationship between investments and legal union types was less straightforward and often challenged expectations, prompting the authors to elaborate on alternative explanations for their findings.     

Morality Politics vs. Identity Politics: Framing Processes and Competition Among Christian Right and Gay Social Movement Organizations

This paper applies a social movement organization framing analysis to conflicts between gay-rights and Christian Right groups over issues of lesbian, gay, and bisexual inclusions in public education. As groups representing each side entered this new arena of debate over gay rights, they applied strategies they had used in other arenas. Both sides have pursued inflexible, polarizing strategies that target their constituencies and have relinquished the opportunity to offer new and creative understanding of their positions and to reach a potential new audience. This shows how opposing frames can become mutually reinforcing constraints.