Individualisation, choice and structure: a discussion of current trends in sociological analysis

In this paper we seek to explore a tendency in current sociological thought to highlight notions of choice and autonomy in writings about contemporary Western societies. We wish to draw attention to some of the consequences of leaving out discussions of the structural aspects of societies and people's lives, for individuals as well as for the development and application of sociological theory and its ability to understand the connection between history and individual biography. Our discussion is based on qualitative research that we have conducted in recent years, and draws on focus groups with young people in Norway and Britain. From this critique we seek to demonstrate how concepts that take account of context and structure as well individual subjectivities can create a better ‘fit’ with complex and diverse realties.     

QMRA for Drinking Water: 2. The Effect of Pathogen Clustering in Single‐Hit Dose‐Response Models

Spatial and/or temporal clustering of pathogens will invalidate the commonly used assumption of Poisson‐distributed pathogen counts (doses) in quantitative microbial risk assessment. In this work, the theoretically predicted effect of spatial clustering in conventional “single‐hit” dose‐response models is investigated by employing the stuttering Poisson distribution, a very general family of count distributions that naturally models pathogen clustering and contains the Poisson and negative binomial distributions as special cases. The analysis is facilitated by formulating the dose‐response models in terms of probability generating functions. It is shown formally that the theoretical single‐hit risk obtained with a stuttering Poisson distribution is lower than that obtained with a Poisson distribution, assuming identical mean doses. A similar result holds for mixed Poisson distributions. Numerical examples indicate that the theoretical single‐hit risk is fairly insensitive to moderate clustering, though the effect tends to be more pronounced for low mean doses. Furthermore, using Jensen's inequality, an upper bound on risk is derived that tends to better approximate the exact theoretical single‐hit risk for highly overdispersed dose distributions. The bound holds with any dose distribution (characterized by its mean and zero inflation index) and any conditional dose‐response model that is concave in the dose variable. Its application is exemplified with published data from Norovirus feeding trials, for which some of the administered doses were prepared from an inoculum of aggregated viruses. The potential implications of clustering for dose‐response assessment as well as practical risk characterization are discussed.     

Dissemination to research subjects: operationalizing investigator accountability

Recent articles have argued from principles of bioethics for the right of research subjects to receive the results of the studies in which they have participated. We argue that accountability is a powerful tool of meso-level analysis appropriate to reasoning about answerability in research ethics, and that it captures the responsibility of researchers to disseminate study results to research subjects. We offer the following features of the research situation as relevant to the manner of dissemination to study subject, in addition to factors already proposed in the literature (risk and impact on health outcome): (a) features of the research subject in relation to identity, personal investment, disease, and community; (b) characteristics of the research study and field of inquiry in relation to certainty and significance; and (c) relationships among the research subjects and the healthcare workers involved in their care and in the research.     

Help, Not Harm: Psychological Foundation for a Nondieting Approach Toward Health

This article reviews the literature on the psychological consequences of dieting. In particular, the authors examine the impact of dieting on mood, self-esteem, cognition, and eating behavior. The famous Keys study of starvation is discussed in relations to impaired concentration, food preoccupation, negative affect, and binge eating behavior. Overall, the literature indicates that dieting has a negative impact on psychological well-being. As a result, alternative nondieting approaches toward eating are presented and recommended to promote psychological health.     

The Conceptual and Relational Structure of Subjective Well-Being, Neuroticism, and Extraversion: Once Again, Neuroticism Is the Important Predictor of Happiness

The purpose of this study wastwofold: (1) to analyze and explore theconceptual structure of subjective well-being(SWB), neuroticism (N) and extraversion (E);and (2) to compare the effect sizes of N and Eas predictors of SWB. The sample comprised 461participants representative of the adultpopulation in northern Norway. Analyses wereconducted by means of Structural EquationModeling (SEM), and the results on (1)supported the notion of an overall subjectivewell-being construct sustained by the threenested dimensions of life satisfaction,positive affect, and negative affect. A simplefactor structure for N and E was notsupported, and considerable modification wasneeded to provide even a mediocregoodness-of-fit for the trait model. On (2),N explained eight times as much of the SWBvariance as did E. Moreover, throughcomparison of several models it was revealedthat if E is the sole predictor of SWB, theinfluence of E on SWB is overestimated by afactor of seven. Since N and E are stronglyand negatively correlated (r = –0.50), themodel comparison demonstrates the importanceof including both E and N as independentvariables in regression models of SWB.     

Implementing human resource development best practices: Replication or re-creation?

Abstract

Firms increasingly introduce HRD ‘best practices’ developed somewhere else, but results often fall short of expectations. Much of existing theory fails to guide the implementation of HRD best practices because it does not recognize how introduced practices interact with existing practices in the firm. In this paper, we contrast the dominant perspective ‘Implementation as Replication’ with a perspective of ‘Implementation as Re-creation’. Through four stages of the implementation process, we identify and discuss how these contrasting perspectives yield different implications for how firms go about introducing HRD best practices. First, when firms take up a practice, is this a process of adoption or translation? Second, is it assumed that new knowledge can be implanted directly and lead to new behaviour, or is active experimentation a necessary precondition to gain new knowledge? Third, are deviations from the intended plan considered errors to be corrected or sources for learning? Fourth, are introduced best practices treated in isolation or as integral parts of the firm's management system? We argue that implementation efforts guided by the re-creation perspective increase the prospects of HRD best practices succeeding as a useful tool in the receiving firm.     

A method for approximate fully bayesian analysis of parameters

Stochastic modeling of the geology in petroleum reservoirs has become an important tool in order to investigate flow properties in the reservoir. The stochastic models used contain parameters which must be estimated based on observations and geological knowledge. The amount of data available is however quite limited due to high drilling costs etc., and the lack of data prevents the use of many of the standard data driven approaches to the parameter estimation problem. Modern simulation based methods using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation, can however be used to do fully Bayesian analysis with respect to parameters in the reservoir model, with the drawback of relatively high computational costs. In this paper, we propose a simple, relatively fast approximate method for fully Bayesian analysis of the parameters. We illustrate the method on both simulated and real data using a two-dimensional marked point model for reservoir characterization.     

Consumer Socialisation and Value Orientations among Estonian and Chinese Young People

This paper asks if Estonian and Chinese tweens’ access to pocket money influences their brand valuation, as well as value orientations in the context of perceived peer popularity and personal well‐being. Surveys conducted in autumns 2006 (China n = 188) and 2007 (Estonia n = 111) show an inherent cultural resistance among tweens in both countries towards using material standards to evaluate people and social relations. Access to own money correlates strongly with more consumerist values and strengthen the initial indications that individualist and expressive values are more highly esteemed by Estonian tweens, while social inclusion and approval are more vital for the Chinese.     

Where are the children? Exploring the boundaries between text and context in the study of place and space in four different countries

In this article, we demonstrate how the cultural conceptions of a team of five researchers from different cultural and national backgrounds can be used as a source of knowledge during a collective, self‐reflexive analytical process. While collectively analysing texts describing daily life produced by first‐grade children and their parents in China, Norway, South Africa and the United States, the research team engaged in a collectively negotiated analytical process, which we refer to as an ‘analytic negotiating method’. The strength of this process rests on the ability to examine critically the boundaries between the researcher's contextual conceptions and conceptions derived from the texts. Engaging in this kind of negotiated analytical process contributes to scholarship by working towards a level of self‐reflexivity that makes the link between empirical data and researcher interpretation more transparent and produces a sensitivity to context that allows insights into the conceptions of childhood that operate cross‐culturally.     

Searching for analytical concepts in the research process: Learning from children1

This paper addresses some methodological and theoretical issues of the role that concepts and conceptualization play in the process of analysing qualitative data. Studying children as research subjects, and reflecting upon their movement and relational dynamics in day‐care institutions in Norway, led to a critical consideration of the process of conceptualization and the concepts themselves. It is argued that reflexivity and a dialectical relationship between empirical data, theory and relevant literature are vital components in this process. This is illustrated and discussed in relation to two main approaches of analysing empirical data: a top–down approach, where established theoretical concepts are applied; and a bottom–up approach, where theoretical concepts grounded in empirical data are generated. Two concepts from ethnographic research in day‐care centres are introduced to illustrate both approaches and to illustrate the effort of avoiding adult‐centricism.