Die Erforschung der Wirkung politischer Meinungsumfragen: Lehren vom ‚Sonderfall‘ Schweiz

This paper summarizes findings from a Swiss project about the impact of polling. Using data from experimental designs, cross-section and panel surveys as well as a meta-analysis, we present data which are of interest for comparative research as well. First, we address the question of the nature of effects and specifically distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Second, we show that the framework of bandwagon and underdog effects is lacking precision in the multi-party system. Third, it is shown that the theoretical basis of the various stages of information processing is helpful and quite powerful for analysis. Fourth, due to the empirical profile of people relying on polls, and our findings regarding the issue predisposition regulatory authorities might be eased. Nevertheless, for scientists some processes still need to be disentangled and indirect effects seem to be substantial enough to warrant further attention.     

The BDAE Complex Ideational Material—a Measure of Receptive Language or Performance Validity?

Scores on the Complex Ideational Material (CIM) were examined in reference to various performance validity tests (PVTs) in 106 adults clinically referred for neuropsychological assessment. The main diagnostic categories, reflecting a continuum between neurological and psychiatric disorders, were epilepsy, psychiatric disorders, postconcussive disorder, and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. Cross-validation analyses suggest that in the absence of bona fide aphasia, a raw score ≤9 or T score ≤29 on the CIM is more likely to reflect non-credible presentation than impaired receptive language skills. However, these cutoffs may be associated with unacceptably high false positive rates in patients with longstanding, documented neurological deficits. Therefore, more conservative cutoffs (≤8/23) are recommended in such populations. Contrary to the widely accepted assumption that psychiatric disorders are unrelated to performance validity, results were consistent with the psychogenic interference hypothesis, suggesting that emotional distress increases the likelihood of PVT failures even in the absence of apparent external incentives to underperform on cognitive testing.     

The Validity of Mental Patients' Accounts of Coercion-Related Behaviors in the Hospital Admission Process

Although the recent development of a measure for perceived coercion has led to great progress in research on coercion in psychiatric settings, there still exists no consensus on how to measure the existence of real coercive events or pressures. This article reports the development of a system for integrating chart review data and data from interviews with multiple participants in the decision for an individual to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The method generates a most plausible factual account (MPFA). We then compare this account with that of patients, admitting clinicians and other collateral informants in 171 cases. Patient accounts most closely approximate the MPFA on all but one of nine dimensions related to coercion. This may be due to wider knowledge of the events surrounding the admission.     

The Right to Privacy Is Political: Power, the Boundary Between Public and Private, and Sexual Harassment

This paper concerns the relationship between power and the ability to defend the night of privacy. The discourse of public and private spheres has shifted historically, engendering arbitrary and changing legal and cultural definitions of the boundary between public and private. Historic specifications of this boundary have become untenable as increasing numbers of women entered the paid labor force. Recent formulations define the boundary of privacy as an area within each individual's life. However, greater social power increases the ability to protect personal privacy because it offers the ability to define and protect the "private" from scrutiny.
After outlining the history of the shifting public/private boundary, this argument is applied to sexual harassment. Explicitly sexual types of harassment are related to the public/private boundary in two ways. First, they challenge the boundary itself, representing the occurrence of "private" conduct in the "public" sphere of work and education. Second, sexual harassment reveals the importance of social power in defining and defending one's privacy. Sexual harassment represents the extreme on a continuum of communication patterns between status unequals, and an invasion of the sexual privacy of the target.     

Teachers’ Conditional Regard and Students’ Need Satisfaction and Agentic Engagement: A Multilevel Motivation Mediation Model

Teachers’ conditional positive regard and conditional negative regard are common motivational techniques in the classroom. This study investigated their respective effects on adolescent students’ agentic engagement, while considering students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness as potential mediators. Data collected from 30 teachers and 651 7th to 10th graders (52% female) were used to test a multilevel mediation model. The results indicated that teachers’ conditional negative regard undermined students’ agentic engagement by frustrating both of their autonomy and relatedness needs. Teachers’ conditional positive regard thwarted students’ sense of autonomy, which consequently undermined their agentic engagement. The findings are discussed in terms of conditional positive and negative regard as undesirable classroom motivational practices and the mechanisms through which they operate. The discussion also notes the importance of investigating contextual factors at the classroom level.

     

The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban on Gun Markets: An Assessment of Short-Term Primary and Secondary Market Effects

The reactions of the gun market, including those of producers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers, play an important role in shaping the potential impact of gun control policies on gun crime. As a case in point, this paper examines the federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which bans a group of military-style semiautomatic firearms (i.e., assault weapons). Using a variety of national and local data sources, we assess the short-term (1994–1996) impact of the assault weapons ban on gun markets, examining trends in prices and production of the banned weapons in legal markets and assessing the availability of the banned weapons in illicit markets as measured by criminal use. Prices of assault weapons rose substantially around the time of the ban's enactment, reducing the availability of assault weapons to criminal users in the very short run. However, a surge in assault weapon production just before the ban caused prices to fall in the months following the ban. Implications of the findings for assessing this and other gun control policies are discussed.