A simultaneous-equations model of the relationship between public sector bargaining legislation and unionization

This paper estimates a simultaneous-equations model with public sector bargaining laws and union membership treated as jointly-determined variables. The extent of public sector unionization has a significant positive influence on the passage of prolabor bargaining legislation and bargaining legislation has strong, independent effects on the extent of public sector unionization. We gratefully acknowledge the research support provided by Minbo Kim and Parisun Chantonahom.     

Feminism,militarism, and attitudes toward the role of women in the military

Attitudes toward the role of women in the military require the reconciliation of two often conflicting beliefs: those toward the roles and rights of women and those toward the military. This article explores the relationships between positive attitudes toward women’s roles throughout society, or feminism, and positive attitudes toward defense spending, or militarism, both with each other and with attitudes toward gender integration in the military. Results of this analysis show there to be a negative relationship between feminism and militarism, a positive relationship between feminism and gender integration, and a negative relationship between militarism and gender integration. The results of multiple regression analysis show that feminism is the strongest predictor of attitudes toward gender integration, while militarism is weak in its predictive ability. The author argues that the issue of women in the military is more one of women’s equality than of national defense and that policy discussions should be structured accordingly. She is currently conducting research which examines how women in the United States military employ strategies to manage gender and sexuality. This research provides evidence for the claim that gender is not simply a role or an attribute, but that gender is created and recreated through our interactions with others.     

The Transformation of Psychology in a Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Overview

Certain issues that are being debated in psychology in a post-apartheid South Africa are discussed, namely the development of professional organizations, indigenous healing and psychology, the psychometric movement, and forms of methodological inquiry. It is argued that South African psychology is striving to become more appropriate to the majority of its peoples, whether it be on the professional or research fronts. There is a desire to develop indigenous epistemologies and not to become excessively reliant on Euro-American epistemological traditions. Psychology is struggling to make mental health resources available to all South Africans.     

Emotional Regulation and Display in Classroom Victims of Bullying: Characteristic Expressions of Affect, Coping Styles and Relevant Contextual Factors

Research suggests that victims of bullying may lack skills in emotional regulation, a process which facilitates coping with provocative situations to lessen the stress of negative emotions (Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995). The present study examined the emotional regulation and display patterns of victims during classroom bullying episodes. Children in grades one through six were observed during free play in the winter and spring of three consecutive school years. Results of the study indicated that the coping styles observed in victims of bullying can be grouped into two distinct clusters: 1) problem-solving strategies that are associated with the de-escalation and resolution of bullying episodes; and 2) aggressive strategies that tend to perpetuate and escalate the bullying interaction. Parallels were found between victims' and bullies' emotional displays. Results are discussed in the context of how maladaptive emotional regulation processes may act as risk factors for chronic victimization.     

Scaling the Semantics of Satisfaction

Social Indicators Research - Self-assessed satisfaction is typically measured on an ordinal scale ofverbal categories (``very satisfied,'' ``somewhat satisfied,'' etc.).Are the...     

Estimation of relaxation time distributions in magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging techniques can be used to measure some biophysical properties of tissue. In this context, the T₂ relaxation time is an important parameter for soft‐tissue contrast. The authors develop a new technique to estimate the integral of the distribution of T₂ relaxation time without imposing any constraint other than the monotonicity of the underlying cumulative relaxation time distribution. They explore the properties of the estimation and its applications for the analysis of breast tissue data. As they show, an extension of linear discriminant analysis is found to distinguish well between two classes of breast tissue.     

Dynamic Graphics for Exploring Spatial Data with Application to Locating Global and Local Anomalies

We explore the application of dynamic graphics to the exploratory analysis of spatial data. We introduce a number of new tools and illustrate their use with prototype software, developed at Trinity College, Dublin. These tools are used to examine local variability—anomalies—through plots of the data that display its marginal and multivariate distributions, through interactive smoothers, and through plots motivated by the spatial auto-covariance ideas implicit in the variogram. We regard these as alternative and linked views of the data. We conclude that the most important single view of the data is the Map View: All other views must be cross-referred to this, and the software must encourage this. The view can be enriched by overlaying on other pertinent spatial information. We draw attention to the possibilities of one-many linking, and to the use of line-objects to link pairs of data points. We draw attention to the parallels with work on Geographical Information Systems.     

Using regression mixture models with non-normal data: examining an ordered polytomous approach

Mild to moderate skew in errors can substantially impact regression mixture model results; one approach for overcoming this includes transforming the outcome into an ordered categorical variable and using a polytomous regression mixture model. This is effective for retaining differential effects in the population; however, bias in parameter estimates and model fit warrant further examination of this approach at higher levels of skew. The current study used Monte Carlo simulations; 3000 observations were drawn from each of two subpopulations differing in the effect of X on Y. Five hundred simulations were performed in each of the 10 scenarios varying in levels of skew in one or both classes. Model comparison criteria supported the accurate two-class model, preserving the differential effects, while parameter estimates were notably biased. The appropriate number of effects can be captured with this approach but we suggest caution when interpreting the magnitude of the effects.     

Some efficient random imputation methods

Imputation methods that assign a selection of respondents’ values for missing i tern nonresponses give rise to an addd,tional source of sampling variation, which we term imputation varLance , We examine the effect of imputation variance on the precision of the mean, and propose four procedures for sampling the rEespondents that reduce this additional variance. Two of the procedures employ improved sample designs through selection of respc,ndents by sampling without replacement and by stratified sampl;lng. The other two increase the sample base by the use of multiple imputations.