Veiled EGM Jackpots: The Effects of Hidden and Mystery Jackpots on Gambling Intensity

Understanding the impact of EGM Jackpots on gambling intensity may allow targeted strategies to be implemented that facilitate harm minimisation by acting to reduce losses of gamblers who play frequently, while maintaining the enjoyment and excitement of potential jackpots. The current study investigated the influences of Hidden and Mystery Jackpots on EGM gambling intensity. In a Hidden Jackpot, the prize value is not shown to the player, although the existence of a jackpot prize is advertised. In a Mystery Jackpot, the jackpot triggering state of the machine is unknown to players. One hundred and seven volunteers (males = 49, females = 58) played a laptop-simulated EGM with a starting $20 real-money stake and a chance to win a Jackpot ($500). Participants played for either a Hidden or Known Jackpot Value, with either a Mystery or Known winning symbol combination in a crossed design. Lastly, a control condition with no jackpot was included. Gambling intensity (speed of bets, persistence) was greater when the Jackpot value was unknown, especially when a winning-symbol combination suggested that a win was possible. While there is no evidence in the present investigation to suggest that Hidden or Mystery jackpots contribute to greater player enjoyment, there is some evidence to suggest a marginal positive contribution of hidden jackpots to risky playing behaviour.     

Henry Abelove’s “Freud,Male Homosexuality,and the Americans”

This is the first in a set of papers to revisit Henry Abelove’s “Freud, Male Homosexuality, and the Americans” (1985–1986) 30 years after initial publication. By way of introduction I describe the social and academic context of the early 1980s and Dr. Abelove’s search to find a receptive audience. For those unfamiliar with the work I briefly outline some important arguments made by Dr. Abelove and reflect on the changing social environment—politically, socially, and within psychoanalytic thought—since initial publication. With my colleagues Dr. Cushman and Dr. Layton, we reflect on Dr. Abelove’s scholarship and prescience and pause to give it the belated recognition from psychoanalysis that it has long deserved.     

‘If I were given the chance’: understanding the use of leisure time by adults with learning disabilities

Despite UK government policy emphasising the rights and choices of people with learning disabilities, opportunities to choose fulfilling leisure activities remain severely constrained. Following a brief literature review we present a co-inquiry study developing a deeper understanding of the persistent space between actual and desired use of leisure time. We explore the potential of the capability approach to aid understanding of learning disabled people’s constrained choices of leisure activities, and constrained roles as researchers, as matters of human rights and social justice.     

An Institutional Contingency Perspective of Interlocking Directorates

Interlocking directorates, in which companies are linked by the directors that serve on their boards, exist globally. It is an expression of hegemonic power exercised by the elites of a society, and has been studied with great interest by organizational sociologists, management scholars and financial economists. The interest emanates from the effect that interlocks have on wealth creation and distribution, and from the perspective that interlocks can tell us how elites in a society are networked. Although diverse theoretical perspectives have informed the research on interlocking directorates, this review shows that the Anglo‐American perspective dominates. This dominance is notable not only in the volume of Anglo‐American studies, but also in theories employed by international studies. For example, most international studies use agency theory to investigate the welfare implications of interlocks, but many countries do not use the Anglo‐American legal regime, which is the basis for agency theory. This paper expands the theoretical basis of the review to include class hegemony and resource dependence, to articulate better the causes and consequences of interlocks in the international context. The paper also extends theory by showing that institutions have an important influence on interlocks, so that the latter can be welfare‐depleting in one institutional setting, while welfare‐enhancing in another. The review concludes by discussing the implication for future research.     

Caring Adults: A Brief Report Assessing Adults’ Needs in Feeling More Comfortable Having Sexual Health Conversations with Youth in South Texas

Abstract

Objectives: As part of a larger Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded project in South Texas, this study sought to understand adults’ needs with regard to engaging in sexual health conversations with youth and young adults.

Methods: A total of 223 participants were surveyed to assess comfort engaging in sexual health conversations. Data were analyzed using thematic coding. Stigma surrounding sexual health conversations underlined all themes.

Results: Differences by gender and sexual orientation in the data were noted. Stigma around sexual health topics reduced participants’ comfort.

Conclusions: To this end, interventions must go beyond psychosocial and educational programs and address societal factors that contribute to the stigma.     

Collaborative Music‐Making with Digital Audio Workstations: The “nth Member” as a Heuristic Device for Understanding the Role of Technologies in Audio Composition

This article examines amateur music‐making using a digital audio workstation, showing how audio and software are used as resources for creating compositions. The article has two aims. Firstly, to depict how digital music‐making is formed from routine interactional techniques. Secondly, to probe how researchers might account for such multi‐modal activity through a heuristic device: the “nth member.” Whereas sociology has typically been concerned with the cultural facets of how music is made and consumed, we explore the material practices of collaborative song creation utilizing conversation analytic techniques—“turn‐taking” and “next‐selection”—to capture two key interactional moments.     

A Note on Using State-Dependent Models With a Time-Dependent Variance

This research presents an extension of the state-dependent models (SDM) developed by Priestley. For some series, improvement in SDM performance may be achieved by permitting the residual variance to vary through time according to a moving-average scheme.     

TEACHING TOOLS: HOW IS INTRODUCTORY ECONOMICS TAUGHT IN AMERICA?

We describe the faculty, students, teaching methods, and assessment instruments used in 180 introductory economics classes taught by 122 different instructors at 53 different colleges and universities. Despite variation in class size and types of institution, both introductory macroeconomics and introductory microeconomics are taught predominantly as lecture courses, with the largest part of students' course grades determined by performance on multiple-choice question tests. There seems to be little experimentation with alternative pedagogies or assessment techniques despite an in-creasing amount of attention to these issues in recent years.