Asymptotic Distributions of Quasi‐Maximum Likelihood Estimators for Spatial Autoregressive Models

This paper investigates asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator and the quasi‐maximum likelihood estimator for the spatial autoregressive model. The rates of convergence of those estimators may depend on some general features of the spatial weights matrix of the model. It is important to make the distinction with different spatial scenarios. Under the scenario that each unit will be influenced by only a few neighboring units, the estimators may have ‐rate of convergence and be asymptotically normal. When each unit can be influenced by many neighbors, irregularity of the information matrix may occur and various components of the estimators may have different rates of convergence.     

Implicit prejudicial biases in student learning: the effects of sexual orientation

In an investigation of students' potential biases toward gay and lesbian instructors, 93 female and 59 male undergraduates viewed a lecture, rated the instructor and perceived learning, and completed a lecture-retention test. Lectures were given by a man or woman, identified as straight or gay or lesbian. Sexual orientation did not affect the instructor evaluation or perceived learning ratings for any of the groups. Although sexual orientation did not affect the lecture-retention scores for the female students, learning by the male students was significantly lower with the gay male instructor than with the straight male instructor (p = .03), suggesting an implicit bias.     

Issues in the development of a computer-based safety programme for children with severe learning difficulties

In the last decade, professional interest in and awareness of the sexual abuse of children has increased dramatically and has led to the development of safety programmes which aim to teach children a range of personal safety skills (Tutty, 1992). These efforts have previously concentrated on children in mainstream schools, but there is growing recognition of the need for parallel concern for children in vulnerable groups such as those with learning difficulties. The present paper outlines the development of a personal safety prevention programme for children with severe learning difficulties. The programme has incorporated work by Tutty (1992, 1994) and others who argue for a more developmental view in designing such programmes. Concepts such as the child's understanding about authority figures and moral development have been integrated into the programme, which utilizes multi-media technology. As this is a computer-based programme, the reason for such a medium rather than previously implemented presentation (e.g. books, film) are discussed. Views of the participants evaluating the implementation of the teaching package are also described. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Separate Spheres or Increasing Equality? Changing Gender Beliefs in Postwar Japan

This research investigates change in gender beliefs in Japan during a period of economic hard times in the late 1990s. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme on the Japanese population from 1994 (n = 1,054) and 2002 (n = 872), we examined how cohort replacement and intracohort change contributed to changes in gender beliefs. We found important differences from the patterns of change reported for many Western countries, namely, a decoupling between societal trends in the female labor force participation rate and beliefs about gender. Such differences may be attributable to factors such as the high societal valuation of the housewife role compared to that in other postindustrial countries and sanctions against full‐time employment for women in Japan.     

“Where the Danger Lies”: Race,Gender, and Chinese and Japanese Exclusion in the United States, 1870–19241

Race too often is used as the explanatory variable for understanding immigration exclusion, marginalizing the significance of race making, ethnic differentiation, and gender construction in particular. This article explores these processes by examining exclusionary policies implemented against Chinese and Japanese immigrants from the mid‐1870s to 1924, the year the National Origins Act was passed. Politicians, intellectuals, and moral reformers used a gendered logic—the construction of idealized gender norms, roles, and sexual propriety and the attachment of these meanings to male and female bodies—to distinguish Japanese immigrants from the Chinese immigrants they followed, allowing for ethnic differentiation and dissimilar policies. The convergence toward exclusion rested on a racialized logic—the construction and attachment of inferior status and meanings to immigrant groups through discourse, formal and informal categorization, or social closure—which claimed that the Japanese were unassimilable and racially undesirable like the Chinese. Exclusionists focused on the immigrant women, decrying their sexual and gender impropriety as evidence of the groups’ threats to the sanctity of white families, which imperiled the nation. Gender and race both mattered in these logics and their meanings were constructed as their salience interconnected.     

The Oregon Paradox

Expected-utility theory can explain why people who are terminally ill often feel a surge in wellbeing and hope to live longer when they have the option of legally ending their lives. Behavioral theories, however, may better answer larger questions such as why so few terminally-ill people bother to get that option.     

The role of the YMCA in the origins of U.S. nonprofit management education

The given narrative of the origins of nonprofit management education tends to begin in the 1970s or 1980s, recognizing earlier efforts that were limited to individual professional disciplines, such as social work administration. This historical inquiry examines whether the origins of generic nonprofit management education can be traced further back. It identifies the 1911 bachelor of association science degree from the Chicago YMCA College as at least a proto‐nonprofit management degree and a 1935 text by Ordway Tead, issued by the YMCA's publishing house, as a contender for the first text in generic nonprofit management.