More Participation,Happier Society? A Comparative Study of Civil Society and the Quality of Life

A ‘good society’ has recently been portrayed as one in which citizens engage in voluntary associations to foster democratic processes. Arguably, such a good society is considered as one where people are content with their own lives as well as public life. We consider whether participation in civil society leads to more satisfied individuals on the one hand and a better evaluation of society at a country level on the other. With data from the first round of the European Social Survey, we illustrate that participation in voluntary associations not only depends on individual characteristics, but that there is a clear country-level effect on civil society. This can be explained with measures of quality of society after socio-demographic determinants have been controlled for. Nonetheless, it remains difficult to say what comes first: a ‘good society’ or a thriving civil society.

Subjective Well-Being as an Indicator for Clinical Depression

The Theory of Homeostasis posits that Subjective Well-being (SWB) is regulated by a dynamic biological mechanism, assisting to maintain a positive view of life. Further, the theory suggests that clinical depression is the loss of SWB due to the defeat of this homeostatic defence system. To test this hypothesis it was predicted that people who were diagnosed as clinically depressed with the Semi-structured Clinical Interview (SCID-1/NP) based on the DSM-IV-TR Axis 1 would have a Personal Well-being Index-Adult (PWI-A) score below the normative range (70–80% of scale maximum). Following ethical approval a sample of 146 men was obtained and each was assessed on the SCID-1/NP and on the PWI-A. Subjects diagnosed as having one of several pathologies such as post traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, social phobia and specific phobia were found to score significantly lower on the PWI-A compared to participants who received no diagnosis. However, as the data did not discriminate between currently depressed and persons with other non-depressive psychopathologies, a Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was used to explore this data further. Results indicated that the PWI-A was significantly better than guessing in discriminating clinically depressed cases, but only just so. Therefore, while this research found support for the proposition that the loss of SWB indicated clinical depression, the PWI-A is not sufficiently specific for diagnosis, nor can it be concluded that all instances of depression is the failure of SWB.     

The inter-temporal aspect of well-being and societal progress

The perceptions on well-being and societal progress are influenced also by the quantitative indicators and measures used in the measurement, presentation and semantics of discussing these issues. The article presents a novel generic statistical measure S-time-distance, with clear interpretability that delivers a broader concept to look at data, to understand and compare situations. This methodology can provide a new insight to many problems, an additional statistical measure, and a presentation tool for policy analysis and debate expressed in time units, readily understood by policy makers, media and general public. The benefits of this new view in comparisons, competitiveness issues, benchmarking, target setting and monitoring for economic, employment, social, R&D and environment indicators at the world, OECD, EU, country, regional, city, sector, socio-economic groups, company, project, household and individual levels could be immediately applied to a wide variety of substantive fields at macro and micro levels using existing data and indicator systems from international, national, state, city and local sources. These suggestions are illustrated by comparisons between EU15 and USA.

Disentangling the housing satisfaction puzzle: Does homeownership really matter?

There is a general consensus that homeownership has beneficial effects for both individuals and society in many outcomes. However, research regarding the effect of homeownership on individuals’ subjective well-being remains inconclusive. In this paper, for the first time, we provide empirical evidence for the link between homeownership and housing satisfaction using panel data. We use the eight waves of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) covering the period 1994–2001. We observe that renters who become homeowners not only experience a significant increase in housing satisfaction, but also after changing their tenure status, they obtain a different utility from the same housing context. This evidence might provide support to the hypothesis that a share of the differences in the perceived utility derived from housing can be attributed to (un)fulfilled expectations or aspirations regarding homeownership.     

马克思主义中国化视角下的儒家社会主义

儒家思想中的大同社会和小康社会是儒家社会主义的精神主旨,也是中国人几千年来不断追求的理想社会。从马克思主义中国化视角看,儒家社会主义同马克思主义既存在本质区别,也有密切联系。面对当前不断出现的用"儒家社会主义"曲解中国特色社会主义的舆论,我们必须坚持马克思主义的观点和立场,在马克思主义指导下批判继承儒家社会主义。     

Why is the sex gap in feelings of depression wider in high gender equity countries? The effect of children on the psychological well-being of men and women

This study uses data from 23 countries in the World Values Survey and the National Survey of Families and Households and finds that the sex gap in feelings of depression is wider in high gender equity societies even though overall levels of feelings of depression are lower. Using hierarchical logistic modeling, we find that the sex difference in feelings of depression is wider in high gender equity societies because children increase depression for women in high gender equity societies, while they reduce depression for women without paid employment in low gender equity societies. There is little difference in the effect of children on feelings of depression for men across societies.     

Effects of a novel positive psychological intervention on prenatal stress and well-being: A pilot randomised controlled trial

Problem

Low prenatal well-being has adverse outcomes for mother and infant but few interventions currently exist to promote and maintain prenatal well-being.

Impact of intervention on breastfeeding outcomes and determinants based on theory of planned behavior

Background

Breastfeeding knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived control are significant determinants of breastfeeding, according to the theory of planned behavior (TPB). However, evidence concerning the effectiveness of the TPB-based intervention in breastfeeding promotion is sparse. Meanwhile, the changes of these determinants with time have not been examined in previous studies.

“以人为本”的主体教育观在体育教学中的渗透策略

以人为本的现代体育教育观已成为当前体育教学改革的重要理念。针对当前我国体育教学中人文性缺失的现象，我们应该从课程目标、课程内容、课程实施、课程评价、体育教师的人文素质等各个方面出发，渗透“以人为本”的主体教育观，重构体育教学的人文精神。     

Non-conjugate prior distribution assessment for multivariate normal sampling

Elicitation methods are proposed for quantifying expert opinion about a multivariate normal sampling model. The natural conjugate prior family imposes a relationship between the mean vector and the covariance matrix that can portray an expert's opinion poorly. Instead we assume that opinions about the mean and the covariance are independent and suggest innovative forms of question which enable the expert to quantify separately his or her opinion about each of these parameters. Prior opinion about the mean vector is modelled by a multivariate normal distribution and about the covariance matrix by both an inverse Wishart distribution and a generalized inverse-Wishart (GIW) distribution. To construct the latter, results are developed that give insight into the GIW parameters and their interrelationships. Certain of the elicitation methods exploit unconditional assessments as fully as possible, since these can reflect an expert's beliefs more accurately than conditional assessments. Methods are illustrated through an example.