ASKING THREATENING QUESTIONS AND SITUATIONAL FRAMING:

Although surveys are extensively used in sociology, there has been a relative neglect of the effect of task definition upon results obtained. The present article examines the effects of one such task variable, length and specificity of the cue, on response sets concerning the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumed. In one survey format, respondents were asked to report the average number of days drinking per month, and the average number of drinks consumed on each of these occasions. In the second format, questions concerning the monthly frequency of alcohol consumption and quantity consumed were decomposed by twelve drinking locations. The results indicate dramatic increases both in terms of frequency and quantity between the two questionnaire formats. Implications of these results are discussed within the framework of the methodological phenomena of telescoping and the social psychological tendency to under-report threatening behaviors.     

Organizational Compatibility and Workplace Drug Testing: Modeling the Adoption of Innovative Social Control Practices

Few researchers have examined organizational variation in the adoption of workplace drug testing, but innovation theory suggests that adoption is more likely when it is compatible with an organization's values, previously introduced ideas, and needs. Using data from the 1997 National Employee Survey, this research models the effects of organizational compatibility, industry, and establishment size on the adoption of drug testing. The data reveal that compatibility, as measured by an organization's rules orientation, presence of an employee assistance program, and mechanization, is associated with the adoption of drug testing. As predicted, the adoption of drug testing varies across industries and by establishment size.     

Children’s narrative story stem responses: Contributions of executive functioning and language proficiency to relationship representations

Story stem narrative tasks provide insight into young children's inner experiences. Little research has investigated how developmental capacities impact narrative content and process. This study evaluates the influence of executive functioning (EF) and language ability on children's narratives. Data were gathered from 210 low‐income children. EF and language ability were assessed at age 4 and EF was assessed at age 6 via direct examination, cognitive‐motor tasks, and examiner ratings. Children's responses to eight story stems were gathered at age 6; three latent narrative variables were constructed (Prosocial, Aggressive/Conflict, and Avoidance/Danger), and Narrative Coherence was rated. Results of longitudinal path analyses in structural equation modeling demonstrated age 4 EF significantly predicted all narrative outcomes. Language ability independently predicted Prosocial and Narrative Coherence, and had an influence on Aggression/Conflict when modeled with EF. Age 6 EF mediated the relationship between age 4 EF and narrative outcomes. Findings provide insight into developmental abilities that influence on children's narrative responses to challenging interpersonal scenarios. Future research should study parent–child relations, EF, and language abilities simultaneously.     

Constructing ‘disability’ in Myanmar: teachers,community stakeholders,and the complexity of disability models

This article explores Myanmar teachers’ and community stakeholders’ constructions of disability. We examine how various religious perspectives – particularly Buddhism – inform and shape understandings of impairment and how these beliefs intersect with a strongly medicalised construction of disability. However, in our discussion and exploration of the responses, we also found that the notion of two primary disability ‘models’ – namely the medical model and the social model – lack nuance, complexity, and socio-cultural consideration. Through examining teachers’ and community members’ perspectives of disability in Myanmar, we highlight the importance of socio-cultural variance in understanding local constructions of disability.     

The social as signal in the body of chromatin

Human social interactions and material cultures are increasingly understood as biologically consequent environmental signals. Within the explanatory framework of epigenetics, such signals become biologically inscribed when transduced into bodies as persistent patterns of molecular conformation. In the life sciences, persistence of the social as the biological is understood as establishment of gene expression potentials, physiological changes, or epigenetic memories. How did the social become interchangeable with the environmental? When did both become scientifically graspable as signals? This article recounts the history of how hormone biologists came to think in terms of signal transduction in the late 1960s. This cybernetic legacy is important for understanding the ‘environmental turn’ of epigenetics. To understand the social as signal in the present moment – a post-cybernetic rather than post-genomic moment – the theory of the signal must itself be excavated and analysed.     

Devolution in a ‘Stateless Nation’: Nation‐building and Social Policy in Scotland

The implications of the 2011 Scottish election and the proposed referendum on Scottish independence for the future of social policy across the devolved UK are profound but far from certain. It is crucial to understand not only the historical nature of this conjuncture but to develop an adequate conceptual understanding of the place of social policy in the dialectic between state and nation in Scotland. To this end, we critically examine theories that depict Scotland as an essentially ‘stateless nation’ in the light of recent developments. In so doing, we examine the implications for social policy of the changing character of statehood in Scotland, the nature of civil nationalism, and the problem of legitimacy in Scotland for the UK as a multinational state. As the architecture of statehood is re‐negotiated, strong centrifugal pressures are being created for a more distinct divergence of social policy in Scotland from the rest of the UK regardless of the outcome of the independence referendum. Policy‐making is ensnared in a series of tensions, not just between Westminster and Holyrood but also, more broadly, tensions between competing principles of social justice and territorial justice, and competing demands between welfare nationalism and competitive nationalism.     

Improving Africa's Roads: Modelling Infrastructure Investment and Its Effect on Sectoral Production Behaviour

Given the scarce resources for public investment in developing countries, policy analysis should include a detailed perspective on the effects of infrastructure. This article develops a modelling framework for analysing the effects of improved road infrastructure on the economy of African countries. The theoretical framework is tested empirically and used for simulations in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, and the effects on production and welfare are analysed. The model also serves to investigate the effect of roads on the economic participation of rural households.     

Bats in urban areas of Brazil: roosts,food resources and parasites in disturbed environments

Urbanization is a widespread intense land use that generally results in biodiversity decline. Among the taxa capable to adapt to urban landscapes, bats are particularly ubiquitous. Brazil has one of the world’s largest diversity of bat species and one of the highest urbanization rates of the world. Yet, few studies have synthesized the biology of bats in urban environments, especially in Brazil. To fill this gap, we systematically reviewed the published scientific literature on the bat fauna found in urban areas of Brazil. The knowledge of urban bats is still incipient and heterogeneously spatially distributed, mostly concentrated in the southeastern region of the country. The assembled list of 84 urban species, of which nineteen are new species records for urban areas (including one new family), represents 47% of the bat richness registered in the country. Thirty-one bat species (37%) were captured exclusively inside forest fragments. Moreover, we provide information on the resources used within the urban matrix by summarizing the roosting sites for 38 bat species, as well as 31 plants consumed by at least twelve bat species. Regarding parasitological aspects, we listed eleven zoonotic parasites hosted by 27 bat species and discussed their potential to become a public health threat. Likewise, we considered the different features linked to urbanization, including impacts on immunity, body condition and susceptibility to acquiring parasites, as possible bat conservation issues. Finally, we defined an agenda for bat studies in urban areas of Brazil.     

Physick and the Family: Health,Medicine and Care in Wales, 1600–1750

Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform 1250–1550. An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe (1980), xii+458 (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, £15.75).

Ian Maclean, The Renaissance Notion of Woman. A Study in the Fortunes of Scholasticism and Medical Science in European Intellectual Life (1980), viii+119 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £7.50).

Edward Royle, Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: Popular Freethought in Britain, 1866–1915 (1980), xii+380 (Manchester University Press, Manchester, £19.50).

Gail Braybon, Women Workers in the First World War (1981), 244 (Croom Helm, £11.95).

Eric Cahm and Vladimir Claude Fisera (eds), Socialism and Nationalism, 3 vols (1978–1980), 116+132+132 (Spokesman, Nottingham, £2.50 each).

Harold Perkin, The Structured Crowd, Essays in English Social History (1981), xii+230 (Harvester, Brighton, £20.00).