The Powers of Australian Teachers in the Political System of School Government

The views of a sample of Australian teachers were obtained regarding the powers exercised by teachers and administrators in decisions relevant to internal school government. The teachers perceived themselves as playing a delegated-leadership role within the classroom and a subordinate role in decision areas external to classroom management. On the other hand, they expressed a desire to extend their delegated-leadership role to important matters concerning the instructional organization and administration of the school. The evidence suggested that teachers wished to change the perceived balance of power in schools in the direction of a more ‘democratic’ style of school government.     

Medical Students' Attitudes and Opinions About Human Sexual Behaviour

In their professional capacities doctors are often confronted with clients who present with psycho-sexual problems. At the present time Australian medical students are provided with very little instruction in the areas of human sexual behaviour. This paper examines the attitudes and amount of information possessed by a cohort of second year medical students compared with groups of first and fifth year students; these attitudes and levels of information are then related to students' sex, religious affiliation, strength of religious conviction, where this is seen to be relevant. It is shown that some areas of ignorance exist. The paper concludes by outlining some aspects relevant to courses in human sexual behaviour.     

Poverty, inequality, and development: A distributional approach

Economists have concentrated on aggregate economic growth to measure countries' development progress and in recent years have also considered income distribution performance. This paper reverses the conventional emphasis by placing income distribution at the forefront. I examine what is known about the distributions of income and poverty in the developing countries of the world and probe the correlations between poverty, inequality, and development. I explore the main sources of inequality and the extent to which individual countries have managed to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality in the course of economic growth. Employing evidence from case studies of six developing nations. I suggest some explanations for differing patterns of development and call for development planning founded on a firm commitment to helping the poor.     

Interest rate policies and inflation in interdependent economies: Recent policy dilemmas

This paper examines Federal Reserve Board policies that are premised on a negative short-run association of interest rate movements and the rate of inflation. In particular, econometric evidence is provided, supporting the view that tighter monetary policy appears to raise inflation rates in the short run. Conversely, it is demonstrated that easier monetary policy does not necessarily raise inflation rates in the short run. In the case of uncoordinated monetary restrictiveness, interest rate competition among major countries can produce higher inflation and lower growth than was originally intended.     

Body time and social time: Mood patterns by menstrual cycle phase and day of the week

Multiple regression analysis traces the effects of two time dimensions (body time as indexed by the female menstrual cycle, and social time as indexed by the calendar week) upon moods, in a prospective study of daily moods over a 40-day period. Positive moods peaked in the ovulatory phase and on weekends, while negative moods peaked in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. An individual difference analysis showed that women whose moods are responsive to the menstrual cycle are physically active, socially assertive, sexually orgasmic women for whom the maternal role is important.     

Determining the importance of an independent variable: A path analytic solution

Various methods have been proposed for evaluating the importance of an independent variable in determining a given dependent variable. This paper suggests that the analysis of direct and indirect effects in a recursive causal model can provide a more satisfactory evaluation than the ordinary correlation and regression techniques commonly used. The interpretation of an independent variable's impact derived from a path model is generally more adequate because it is able to take into account the operation of indirect effects and spuriousness. To demonstrate this contention, data gathered by the author to explain organizational innovation are presented.     

Models of social mobility

Properties of measures and models of social mobility are analyzed in relation to the conceptualization of mobility. Two main objectives of mobility research are identified. One is the study of determinants of occupational achievement, the other is the study of mobility as a characteristic of social systems. It is shown that the realization of both objectives is hindered by a failure of commonly used models and measures of mobility to separate out the various individual and structural factors responsible for mobility.