Ensuring Parliamentary Gender Equality Through a New Zipper Method: An Application to Finland

Gender equality constitutes a crucial objective for a successful societal development. Although research has found that the differences are shrinking, parliamentary composition is not gender balanced in most areas of the world. Henceforth, recent literature has undertaken important efforts aimed at developing different initiatives to promote parity in democratic parliaments, especially through the use of quota systems. Prior initiatives, although leading to an improvement of gender parity, do not manage to ensure an optimal gender-egalitarian parliamentary composition. Thus, this paper presents a method to organize closed and blocked lists of candidates that guarantees the achievement of gender-balanced representation in parliamentary elections. Specifically, parity is sought globally, in each party and also in each electoral constituency. Furthermore, the method is applied to the elections held over the last two decades in Finland. Results reveal that parity in gender representation increases at global, party, and constituency levels throughout all the parliamentary elections in Finland, even approaching optimal numerical parity (i.e. 50 % for each gender) in most of the cases.     

Life Satisfaction as a Distinguishing Indicator of College Student Functioning: Further Validation of the Two-Continua Model of Mental Health

The two-continua model of mental health contends that both psychological distress and psychological well-being make related-yet-distinct contributions to our understanding of human health and its relations with other quality of life outcomes. Using self-reported somatization, depression, and anxiety symptoms as indicators of psychological distress and self-reported life satisfaction as an indicator of psychological well-being, the present study classified participants into one of four mental-health-status groups—mentally healthy, mentally unhealthy, symptomatic yet content, or asymptomatic yet discontent—and investigated between-group differences across three key indicators of college student functioning: academic achievement, interpersonal connectedness, and physical health. Findings provide further validation for the two-continua model of mental health among college students, showing that, when considered in conjunction with clinical symptoms, life satisfaction serves as a distinguishing indicator of college students functioning across academic, social, and physical health domains—as well as a strong predictor of the absence or presence of clinical symptoms and comorbidity. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.     

《文心雕龙》“傲岸泉石”词义考辨

“傲岸泉石”出自《文心雕龙·序志》篇“赞曰”,其词义涉及文学创作的主体与客体、人与物等一系列关系,可以说是全书文论思想的一个浓缩。以往学界对它的解释大致可以归为四种：纵情山水说、高傲隐居说、自然本然说、逍遥自得说,每种说法都有合理之处,亦有不足。结合具体语境考察,可知“傲岸泉石”强调的是审美主体的作用,指的是文学创作时一种逍遥自得的本然状态。它与强调审美客体作用的“江山之助”一起构成了刘勰文学理论的根基。     

Effects of Outcome and Probabilistic Ambiguity on Managerial Choices

Information ambiguity is prevalent in organizations and likely influences management decisions. This study examines, given imprecise probabilities and outcomes, how managers make choices when they are provided with single-figure benchmarks. Seventy-nine MBA students completed two experiments. We found that, in a decision framed as a decision under certainty involving an ambiguous outcome, the majority of the subjects were ambiguity prone in the loss condition and switched to ambiguity aversion in the gain condition. However, in the presence of probabilistic ambiguity in a decision under risk, this expected switching pattern was shown only when the difference in riskiness between the two choice options (in the loss condition) was perceived to be relatively small. In a companion study, we used a written protocol approach to identify factors that affect decision makers' investment choices when faced with ambiguous outcomes. Protocols frequently mentioned that the ambiguous outcome option was risky, even in the case which was framed as a decision under certainty in the problem statement. In a decision under risk with ambiguous outcomes, the combination of probabilistic risk and outcome ambiguity was seen as even more risky.     

The role of the gerontological social worker in assisted living

This qualitative study reports on thirteen assisted living (AL) administrators' perspectives of the role and the importance of the AL social worker in addressing the unmet needs of older adults as they move and transition into AL. Participant interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Administrators described 5 AL social work roles: (a) decision-making and adjustment coordinator; (b) resident advocate; (c) mental health assessor and counselor; (d) family social worker; and (e) care planner. Implications include directly examining AL social workers' views, analyzing costs and benefits of employing AL social workers, and developing social work practicum sites within AL.     

在中国做“海外中国研究”——中国研究的立场与进路

从海外中国研究到中国研究的转变过程, 实际上也即意味着作为研究客体的中国向作为研究主体的中国的转变过程. 如何面对作为“西学”的海外中国研究在“中国研究”中的地位, 并在此基础上形成中国研究的立场与进路, 应该成为国内中国研究的题中之意. 中国研究的立场是中国主位的, 实现这一立场, 其具体进路在于中国研究是问题取向、经验取向, 最终应该是以认识及理解中国为取向的, 因而, 在这种研究进路下, 中国研究的学术的主体性只能在认识和理解中国的过程中作为“副产品”出现。     

Discount rates and risky sexual behaviors among teenagers and young adults

This article examines the relationship between personal discount rates and sexual behaviors in a sample of teenagers and young adults. We find that higher discount rates (an indication of less willingness to forego current consumption for future consumption) are significantly associated with a range of sexual behaviors, including ever having sex, having sex before age 16 years, and past or current pregnancy. These associations are consistent with previous studies showing a link between discounting and other, non-sexual health behaviors. JEL Classification D80 · D90 · I10     

试论民族精神与综合国力的关系

民族精神和综合国力相辅相成,密不可分。民族精神是衡量一个国家综合国力强弱的一个重要尺度,是综合国力的重要组成部分。综合国力的提高有赖于民族精神的不断发展和提升。大力弘扬和培育民族精神是增强我国综合国力、全面建设小康社会、实现中华民族伟大复兴的需要。     

The Malleability of Environmentalism

In this article, we predict and find that self-perceptions of environmentalism are changed by subtle manipulations of context and, in turn, affect environmental behavior. In Study 1, we found that people exhibit greater positive assessments of their environmental behaviors (1) in the context of denying harm to the environment than in the context of claiming to help the environment, and (2) in situations where behaviors are evaluated subjectively than in situations where behaviors are evaluated more objectively. In Study 2, we explored the relationship between self-perceptions of environmentalism and environmental behaviors. Our data suggest that environmentally friendly behaviors may be promoted by leading people to perceive themselves as good environmentalists.     

Cognitive Pretesting and the Developmental Validity of Child Self-Report Instruments: Theory and Applications

OBJECTIVE: In the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity is presented and the concept of developmental validity introduced. Cognitive development theories are applied to the self-report process of children and cognitive pretesting is reviewed as a methodology to advance the validity of self-report instruments for children. An application of cognitive pretesting is presented in the development of the Elementary School Success Profile. METHOD: Two phases of cognitive pretesting were completed to gather data about how children read, interpret and answer self-report items. RESULTS: Cognitive pretesting procedures identified validity problems with numerous items leading to modifications. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive pretesting framed by an argument-based approach to validity holds significant potential to improve the developmental validity of child self-report instruments.