New Environmental Theories: Empathizing With Nature: The Effects ofPerspective Taking on Concern for Environmental Issues

In this article, I propose that concern for environmental problems is fundamentally linked to the degree to which people view themselves as part of the natural environment. Two studies are reported that test aspects of this theory. The first study describes the structure of people's concern for environmental problems. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis showed a clear three-factor structure, which I labeled egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric. A second study examined the effects of a perspective-takingmanipulation on egoistic, social-altruistic, and biospheric environmental concerns. Results showed that participants instructed to take the perspective of an animal being harmed by pollution scored significantly higher in biospheric environmental concerns than participants instructed to remain objective.     

Three‐phase capital campaigns

The structure of most capital campaigns traditionally contains a private (or quiet) phase and a public phase. Leadership gifts are raised in the first phase, while the general prospect pool is asked to participate in the effort during the public phase. An announcement is made at some point to make the campaign public. A survey of 195 donors reveals that as the campaign nears its end (95 percent completed), donors tend to be much more likely to contribute. This suggests organizing campaigns (in addition to planning and evaluation phases) into three core phases (leadership, growth, and goal line) rather than two phases (quiet and public). The implication for fundraisers is to wait as long as possible (at least to 40 percent of the goal) before moving into the second growth phase. They might also take advantage of the propensity of donors to want to complete the task and reach the goal by implementing a special effort in the final “goal line” phase. Once the goal is reached, donors are dramatically less likely to continue giving to the campaign.     

Psychology of Promoting Environmentalism: Promoting Environmentalism

This issue of the Journal of Social Issues focuses on the psychology, sociology, and public policy of global environmental issues. The goals of the issue are (1) to describe the current state of the environment and environmentalism, (2) to present new theories and research on environmentalattitudes and behaviors, and (3) to explore obstacles and ethical considerations in promoting proenvironmental action. The following brief introduction places this issue within a context of preceding JSI issues, provides a framework for the articles, and highlights several recurring themes that occur throughout the issue.     

A Fragile Guideline to Development Assistance

The concept of fragility has gained an increasing relevance in development discourse. Nevertheless, it remains a fuzzy and elusive concept. This article presents a review of the literature, and identifies two main sets of definitions of fragility, which substantially differ in their focus and breadth, and that reflect the evolution of the discourse around this developmental concept. The limited consensus that is found in the literature suggests that the analytical salience and the direct operational value‐added of the concept remain unclear. Nevertheless, the debate around state fragility has played an important advocacy role, and has offered key methodological insights with respect to the challenges that donors face, and what can be realistically achieved through external engagement.     

Research note: imputing large group averages for missing data,using rural-urban continuum codes for density driven industry sectors

Understanding the effects and consequences of missing data imputation is vital to the ability to obtain meaningful and reliable statistics and coefficients in the examination of any quantitatively-based phenomena. Over time a series of sophisticated methods have been developed to handle the issue of missing data imputation however, these sophisticated methods may not always be appropriate or attainable. In these specific cases more traditional approaches to missing data imputation must be employed and driven by the research project, theoretical framework, and the data. In this research note we offer a brief account of one such instance, implementing a large-group mean imputation approach to handling missing data. The analysis is drawn from a much larger project and shows the effect of proper group selection in terms of mean imputation using a cross-validation approach based on the imputed data’s relation to known values. Ultimately, the results show that the use of Rural-Urban Continuum codes are superior to currently used group-means in the U.S., thus introducing a new, and more efficient, approach to the handling of missing data using group-mean imputation.     

The major gift donor relationship: An analysis of donors and contributions

Securing major gifts for nonprofit organizations can involve considerable cost. This study examines the relationship developed between 233 major gift donors and the development office at Northwestern University over a five-year period. The results show that the cultivation and solicitation process is usually long, measured in years rather than months, and the extent of the effort varies by type of donor and category of gift. Vignettes describing one of the relationships from each of the five most important categories are presented.     

Analytical Characterization of the Information Matrix for Split-Plot Designs

This article provides the analytical characterization of the inverse of the information matrix for second-order SPD. A particular feature of these explicit expressions is that they are functions of the design parameters enabling the development of analytical functions to efficiently compute exact design optimality criteria. The application of these analytical expressions is demonstrated using the generalized variance of the parameter estimates for second-order SPD. An example illustrating the use of these expressions is also presented.     

Offending Trajectories Among Native‐Born and Foreign‐Born Hispanics to Late Middle Age

Research on crime over the life‐course has made considerable progress in the last several decades. Despite this growth, significantly less attention has been devoted to longitudinal examinations of Hispanic populations beyond one phase of the life‐course, and/or examining differences between native‐born and foreign‐born Hispanics. Recognizing these limitations, this study offers an investigation of Hispanics in the United States focusing on offending and its relationship to immigration status. Using arrest data from a cohort of 375 Hispanic males from ages 18 to 50, trajectory analysis revealed four unique offending trajectories: very low‐rate offenders, high‐rate late‐onset escalators, initially high‐rate desisters, and high‐rate chronic offenders. Multivariate regression models demonstrated that Hispanic immigrants were significantly less likely to be initially high‐rate desisters or high‐rate chronic offenders compared with their native‐born counterparts, yet unmarried Hispanics were significantly more likely to be high‐rate late‐onset escalators. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.     

Inequality,Health Infrastructure,and Spatial Context: Understanding Pathways to Variations in the Causal Determinants of Race-Specific Mortality Rates

Previous research examines the ecological relationship between income inequality and mortality, and results are inconclusive. This analysis builds upon these findings by implementing a spatially weighted path analysis to better understand the mediating relationships of economic and social inequality, health infrastructure, and mortality. In the analysis, overall and race-specific mortality rates are combined with local health infrastructure data, income inequality and racial segregation data, and a series of ecological controls to undertake this examination. Ultimately, findings show that income inequality is a stronger determinant of mortality than is segregation, for whites and blacks, regardless of the existing health infrastructure. We also find racial disparities in the direct effect of local health infrastructure on mortality. In contrast to previous literature suggesting no association between income inequality and mortality after accounting for race and model sophistication, we argue that the significance of the relationship persists using race-specific, spatially weighted path models.