Students’ Vocational Choices and Voluntary Action: A 12-Nation Study

Previous research on student involvement suggested that business and engineering students manifest lowest rates of voluntary action. Similarly, it was thought that social science students are the most involved in voluntary action, with students of natural sciences and humanities in the middle. However, there were very few studies that empirically compared these assertions. Furthermore, these assertions were not investigated from cross-cultural perspectives. Based on a study of students in 12 countries (N = 6,570), we found that even when controlling for background variables, social science students are actually less engaged in voluntary action than other students. Engineering students are higher than expected on voluntary action while students of humanities are the most involved in voluntary action. When studying these differences in the 12 selected countries, local cultures and norms form different sets of findings that suggest that there is no universal trend in choice of academic field and voluntary action.     

What's Driving Brazil‐Japan Migration? The Making and Remaking of the Brazilian Niche in Japan

Abstract: Since the late 1980s the Brazilian population in Japan has steadily increased, despite the long‐term recession in the late 1990s. In this paper we will examine the mechanism of the constant increase of Brazilians in Japan, focusing on the institutional context of their incorporation into the Japanese labor market. On the demand side, Brazilians solved an acute labor shortage in the economic boom period, but long‐term recession and casualization of the labor market made them compete with other peripheral workers such as Japanese women and the aged. Thus Brazilians have been marginalized within the secondary labor market since the late 1990s. On the supply side, recruiting agencies and labor contractors established a “just‐in‐time” labor delivery system, which enabled “flexible staffing” in a highly fluctuating labor market. As a result, demand and supply for Brazilian workers is still on the increase. Working in Japan is getting less attractive for Japanese Brazilians but is more of a viable option for them, driving further migration from Brazil to Japan.     

Cyclicity and synchrony of historical outbreaks of the beech caterpillar,Quadricalcarifera punctatella (Motschulsky) in Japan

Historical records of the incidence of defoliation caused by the beech caterpillar,Quadricalcarifera punctatella (Motschulsky) in northern Japanese prefectures from 1910–1993 were used to characterize the cyclicity and synchrony of outbreaks. Cyclicity and synchrony were quantified using standard Box-Jenkins time series methods as well as spectral analysis and simple Markov models. Statistical analysis of these records indicated the presence of quasi-periodic behavior with 8–11 yr between outbreaks. Outbreaks tended to occur synchronously among different prefectures, though the onset of outbreaks was typically lagged. This study illustrates the use of specific statistical methods for characterizing cyclicity and synchrony from crude records of the presence/absence of outbreaks.     

Service user or service provider? How social work and human services students integrate dual identities

Students studying undergraduate social work and human services (SWHS) degrees may have used health and human service agencies, before and during their university education. Using services provides them with insights that are useful for professional practice. However, this article identifies that they experience a fear of shame and stigma revealing this during their studies. In examining interview data from 15 undergraduate SWHS students they recounted how they integrated their experience of being a service user into their professional development. It is argued that insider knowledge of services can provide them with valuable insights for practice. Students spoke about how positive experiences motivated them to study and provided models of effective practice, exemplifying its potential power to assist those in need. Negative experiences of service use can also be beneficial for learning what ‘not to do’. Although students found the experience of service use invaluable, they felt it was never acknowledged within the curriculum. Consequently, students interviewed in this study identified service users as ‘others’. They feared disclosing their own use of services due to perceived shame and stigma. Failing to provide opportunity for students to integrate their service user experience into their professional development creates a false dichotomy which does not acknowledge the intersection of these dual identities.     

Voluntas Symposium: Comments on Salamon and Sokolowski’s Re-conceptualization of the Third Sector

With their “Beyond Nonprofits: Re-conceptualizing the Third Sector”, Salamon and Sokolowski have made an important contribution to the ongoing debate on how to define the third sector. This Voluntas symposium brings together the comments of five leading scholars both supportive and critical of the new definition. The comments are based on a debate held at the conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, in Stockholm in 2016.     

Human resource development in a challenging financial environment: the case of a Greek bank

Changes in the external environment have reshaped the banking industry environment. Responding to that, Greek banks are adopting new strategies towards organizational development and realize that success requires adjustments to their HRD effort. The case example presented here refers to a leading Greek bank that was involved in a systematic HRD effort, based on the use of training interventions as a short-term solution to transit smoothly to the new era. The results of this effort are connected to the improvement of the bank's position in the market, despite its problematic past. However, the next challenge for the bank is to realize that the formation of a long-term development strategy and its integration with wider HR management policies are a priority.     

The Effects of Social Interaction and Personal Relationships on Facial Expressions

Previous studies have reported that the expression of smiles is facilitated by social interaction between partners. We examined the effects of social interaction and personal relationships on facial expressions in Japan. Pairs of friends and strangers seated next to each other (the no partition condition) or separated by a partition (the partition condition) were shown film clips aimed to elicit either positive or negative affect. Smiles were facilitated in the no partition condition in which participants interacted with each other. Further, the effect of social interaction on frowns differed depending on whether pairs were friends or strangers.     

Heterogeneity of Loss Aversion in Pathological Gambling

Pathological gambling (PG) is characterized by continual repeated gambling behavior despite negative consequences. PG is considered to be a disorder of altered decision-making under risk, and behavioral economics tools were utilized by studies on decision-making under risk. At the same time, PG was suggested to be a heterogeneous disorder in terms of personality traits as well as risk attitude. We aimed to examine the heterogeneity of PG in terms of loss aversion, which means that a loss is subjectively felt to be larger than the same amount of gain. Thirty-one male PG subjects and 26 male healthy control (HC) subjects underwent a behavioral economics task for estimation of loss aversion and personality traits assessment. Although loss aversion in PG subjects was not significantly different from that in HC subjects, distributions of loss aversion differed between PG and HC subjects. HC subjects were uniformly classified into three levels (low, middle, high) of loss aversion, whereas PG subjects were mostly classified into the two extremes, and few PG subjects were classified into the middle range. PG subjects with low and high loss aversion showed a significant difference in anxiety, excitement-seeking and craving intensity. Our study suggested that PG was a heterogeneous disorder in terms of loss aversion. This result might be useful for understanding cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms and the establishment of treatment strategies for PG.