Operational research in social security

In this paper we describe the work of the Department of Health and Social Security Operational Research (OR) Unit in Social Security. This work started in 1972 and with one break of eighteen months still continues. One of the authors (AFH) led the OR team from the beginning until September 1979 and the other (MJP) was the customer for much of its work. We describe briefly the organisation of social security work, and go on to talk about some of the projects attempted by the OR team. We will not shrink from describing some of the successes but we will concentrate most attention on the things which did not achieve the expected results. Readers will make their own judgements about the extent to which the failures were due to circumstances or to inadequacies of the team, or its leader.     

"If I can't have you, no one can": development of a Relational Entitlement and Proprietariness Scale (REPS)

Relational proprietariness and entitlement have been theoretically related to partner violence following the threat of relationship dissolution. To date, however, no measure has been employed to verify such accounts. A multistage item pool development and refinement strategy was employed, resulting in a 32-item measure with strong construct validity. An online survey administered to 279 students resulted in an interpretable factor structure of sexual proprietariness and entitlement, consisting of social, behavioral, and information control, and a potential factor of face threat reactivity. These factors added unique variance to the prediction of instrumental and expressive aggression, were related to self-esteem and attachment, and were not contaminated by social desirability. Recommendations for bolstering the face threat reactivity factor and future studies are suggested. This measure provides a new tool that contributes to the prediction of intimate partner violence.