Brief Report: The Role of Ego Development in Psychosocial Adjustment Among Boys With Delayed Puberty

This study examined the role of ego development, as measured with the Washington University sentence completion test, in the relationship between pubertal maturation and psychosocial adjustment (self-image and depression) in adolescent boys. The data consisted of 73 boys between 14 and 16 years of age. The results indicated that late maturing boys were also psychologically more immature, and that they experienced negative feelings about sexuality. Additionally, higher ego development was associated with elevated levels of anxiety and depression among late maturing boys. In boys with average pubertal maturation, higher ego development was associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression.     

Decision Support by Interval SMART/SWING—Incorporating Imprecision in the SMART and SWING Methods

Interval judgments are a way of handling preferential and informational imprecision in multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). In this article, we study the use of intervals in the simple multiattribute rating technique (SMART) and SWING weighting methods. We generalize the methods by allowing the reference attribute to be any attribute, not just the most or the least important one, and by allowing the decision maker to reply with intervals to the weight ratio questions to account for his/her judgmental imprecision. We also study the practical and procedural implications of using imprecision intervals in these methods. These include, for example, how to select the reference attribute to identify as many dominated alternatives as possible. Based on the results of a simulation study, we suggest guidelines for how to carry out the weighting process in practice. Computer support can be used to make the process visual and interactive. We describe the WINPRE software for interval SMART/SWING, preference assessment by imprecise ratio statements (PAIRS), and preference programming. The use of interval SMART/SWING is illustrated by a job selection example.     

What are goals and joint goals?

The paper analyzes the notions of a goal and joint goal, with emphasis on intentionally held goals. Joint goals in the context of strategic interaction are classified and discussed.     

Multi-criteria decision support and evaluation of strategies for nuclear remediation management

Environmental emergency situations can differ in many ways, for instance according to their causes and the dimension of their impacts. Yet, they share the characteristic of sudden onset and the necessity for a coherent and effective emergency management. In this paper we consider decision support in the event of a nuclear or radiological accident in Europe. RODOS, an acronym for real-time on-line decision support system, is a decision support system designed to provide support from the early phases through to the medium and long-term phases. This work highlights the role of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) within RODOS in ensuring the transparency of decision processes within emergency and remediation management. Special emphasis is placed on the evaluation of alternative remediation or countermeasure strategies using the multi-criteria decision support tool Web-HIPRE in scenario focused decision making workshops involving different stakeholder and expert groups. Decision support is enhanced by a module that generates natural language explanations to facilitate the understanding of the evaluation process, therefore contributing to the direct involvement of the decision makers, with the aim of increasing their confidence in the results of the analyses carried out, forming an audit trail for the decision making process and improving the acceptability of the system as a whole.     

Multiattribute Risk Analysis in Nuclear Emergency Management

Radiation protection authorities have seen a potential for applying multiattribute risk analysis in nuclear emergency management and planning to deal with conflicting objectives, different parties involved, and uncertainties. This type of approach is expected to help in the following areas: to ensure that all relevant attributes are considered in decision making; to enhance communication between the concerned parties, including the public; and to provide a method for explicitly including risk analysis in the process. A multiattribute utility theory analysis was used to select a strategy for protecting the population after a simulated nuclear accident. The value-focused approach and the use of a neutral facilitator were identified as being useful.     

Practitioners’ Experiences of Social Media in Career Services

This article reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into career practitioners’ ways of experiencing social media in career services. Focus‐group interviews were conducted with 16 Danish and Finnish career practitioners with experience using social media in career services. Four qualitatively different ways of experiencing social media in career services were identified. Social media in career services was experienced as (a) a means for delivering information, (b) a medium for 1‐to‐1 communication, (c) an interactive working space, and (d) an impetus for paradigm change and reform. The results suggest that models of career intervention and ways of experiencing social media appear to be intertwined. The hierarchical structure of the findings may serve as a tool that enables career practitioners to deepen their ways of experiencing and understanding social media in career services by using the critical aspects that were identified.     

A customer view on the most preferred alliance structure between banks and insurance companies

Summary  In this paper, we have studied alternative alliance structures between banks and insurance companies from the point of view of Finnish customer representatives. Seven criteria were introduced for the evaluation of six alternative structure models for such alliances. The alliance models based on plain cross-selling agreements were considered most preferred. We also studied how familiar the customer representatives were with the alliance problem from the point of view of the bank and insurance executives and that of the supervisory authorities. We observed that the customer representatives did not recognize the problem as well from the point of view of the supervisors as that of the executives. The best compromise model from all three points of view could be the financial conglomerate on the condition that certain supervisory and customer criteria are satisfied to a sufficient degree.

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Zusammenfassung  In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir alternative Allianzstrukturen zwischen Banken und Versicherungsgesellschaften aus der Sicht finnischer Konsumentenvertreter. Zur Bewertung sechs alternativer Strukturmodelle werden sieben Kriterien herangezogen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass diejenigen Allianzmodelle am meisten pr?feriert wurden, die einfache Leistungsverbünde darstellen. Zugleich wurde untersucht, inwieweit die Konsumentenvertreter mit der Sichtweise vertraut waren, unter der die Bank-und Versicherungsvorst?nde sowie die Aufsichtsbeh?rden Allianzprobleme analysieren. Dabei zeigte sich, dass die Konsumentenvertreter das Allianzproblem nicht in derselben Weise verstanden, wie die Aufsichtsbeh?rden und Vorst?nde. Um allen drei Sichtweisen gleicherma?en gerecht zu werden, besteht das beste Kompromissmodell darin, ein Finanzkonglomerat zu bilden, welches die Kriterien der Aufsichtsbeh?rde und der Konsumentenvertreter in hinreichendem Ma?e zufrieden stellend erfüllt.

     

Developing a climate for planning

Technical advances of long range planning have been constrained by a human factor which has emerged as a planning bottleneck. The planning ‘climate’ can be a major facilitator or inhibitor of successful long range planning. Therefore the development of long range planning systems would benefit from including the planning climate as a planned systematic module in the total project. This article reports the background, contents and results of a programme for developing a proper planning climate.     

Target Levels—Tools for Prevention

Although occupational exposure limits are sought to establish health-based standards, they do not always give a sufficient basis for planning an indoor air climate that is good and comfortable for the occupants in industrial work rooms. This paper considers methodologies by which the desired level, i.e., target level, of air quality in industrial settings can be defined, taking into account feasibility issues. Risk assessment based on health criteria is compared with risk-assessment based on "Best Available Technology" (BAT). Because health-based risk estimates at low concentration regions are rather inaccurate, the technology-based approach is emphasized. The technological approach is based on information on the prevailing concentrations in industrial work environments and the benchmark air quality attained with the best achievable technology. The prevailing contaminant concentrations are obtained from a contaminant exposure databank, and the benchmark air quality by field measurements in industrial work rooms equipped with advanced ventilation and production technology. As an example, the target level assessment has been applied to formaldehyde, total inorganic dust and hexavalent chromium, which are common contaminants in work room air.