Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Assessing Response Style and Malingering

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may form the basis for disability or worker’s compensation claims or a personal injury lawsuit. While now achieving widespread acceptance among treating professionals and the public, PTSD is the subject of several controversies and the possibility of faking in a compensation context. There appears to be a dramatic split among mental health professionals who write primarily from a treatment or plaintiff perspective and those who take a more skeptical approach. This article reviews recent developments in the assessment of malingering, including symptom validity measures, and applies them to the assessment of PTSD. Recommendations for current practice are provided.     

Substantiated Childhood Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization in Young Adulthood: A Birth Cohort Study

Little is known about the associations between various types of childhood maltreatment and multiple forms of intimate partner violence victimization in early adulthood. This study examines the extent to which childhood experiences of maltreatment increase the risk for intimate partner violence victimization in early adulthood. Data for the present study are from 3322 young adults (55?% female) of the Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy with the mean age of 20.6 years. The Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy is a prospective Australian pre-birth cohort study of mothers consecutively recruited during their first antenatal clinic visit at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital from 1981 through to 1983. Participants completed the Composite Abuse Scale at 21-year follow-up and linked this dataset to agency recorded substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment. In adjusted models, the odds of reporting emotional intimate partner violence victimization were 1.84, 2.64 and 3.19 times higher in physically abused, neglected and emotionally abused children, respectively. Similarly, the odds of physical intimate partner violence victimization were 1.76, 2.31, 2.74 and 2.76 times higher in those children who had experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse, respectively. Harassment was 1.63 times higher in emotionally abused children. The odds of severe combined abuse were 3.97 and 4.62 times greater for emotionally abused and neglected children, respectively. The strongest associations involved reports of child emotional abuse and neglect and multiple forms of intimate partner violence victimization in young adulthood. Childhood maltreatment is a chronic adversity that is associated with specific and multiple forms of intimate partner violence victimization in adulthood.     

Managing the Budgetary Process in a Hung Council

This paper examines the impact of a change in 1994 from majority control to no overall control on the operation of a strategic medium-term budget and policy plan-ning process in Kirklees MBC. Six hypotheses are set out regarding the changes that might have been anticipated in the budget process, in the light of recent trends in the approach to budgeting in British local government, and the particular political context and recent political history of the authority. Use is made of a diary kept by a participant observer (who is also one of the authors) to document and analyse key events in the budget process. The six hypotheses are examined against the evi-dence, and with some exceptions are confirmed. It is concluded that Kirklees's well-structured budget process did survive the transition to no overall control, but not without considerable difficulty. Careful management from the Executive Board, especially in brokering discussion, was a critical factor and highly advantageous to the success of the process.     

Chinese Political Attitudes and Values in Comparative Context: Cautionary Remarks on Cultural Attributions

Cultural explanations have a long and distinguished tradition in the study of Chinese politics. This paper examines the extent to which standard cultural attributions about the Chinese are supported by survey evidence from the World Values Survey. Moreover, it compares the values and beliefs articulated by the Chinese respondents with those of their Taiwanese, American, Canadian counterparts. Although in some instances the survey data support conventional wisdom, in many other respects they contradict the stylized characterizations often found in the literature. One is therefore led to conclude that cultural attributions should be grounded in empirical evidence, evaluated comparatively, and made with sensitivity to the potential for change and hidden biases. Steve Chan is a professor of political science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His recent research has addressed topics of democratic peace, power transition, and political culture. His most recent book is China, the U.S., and the Power-Transition Theory: A Critique (London: Routledge, 2008).     

Spending and Spirit

The making and remaking of Simone de Beauvoir

Kate Fullbrook and Edward Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean‐Paul Sartre. The Remaking of a Twentieth‐century Legend, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993.

Toril Moi, Simone de Beauvoir. The Making of an Intellectual Woman, Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.

Ms. en Abyme

Diane Elam, Feminism and Deconstruction: Ms. en Abyme, London and New York: Routledge, 1994.     

Joined up policy in practice? The coherence and impacts of the local government modernisation agenda

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a raft of new policies designed to transform the politics and performance of local authorities in the UK. Over the next three years, a specially commissioned themed section of Local Government Studies will explore the impact of these policies drawing on recent empirical studies by leading researchers in the field. This paper, the first in the series, sets the scene by tracing the evolution of key policies, analysing their objectives and assessing the extent to which they can, as central government has claimed, be seen as a coherent package of complementary policies. It concludes that whilst at first sight the links between policies within the Local Government Modernisation Agenda are not obvious, policies have become increasingly holistic. Local authority officers perceive them to be interacting in ways that contribute to the achievement of service improvement, more effective community leadership, increased stakeholder engagement, greater accountability and increased public confidence. However, the lack of ‘joined up’ working across Whitehall presents significant problems for councils and other agencies that are responsible for local service delivery and a continuing challenge for central government.     

Beyond Offers and Counteroffers: The Impact of Interaction Time and Negotiator Job Satisfaction on Subjective Outcomes in Negotiation

In this study, we examined real‐world sales negotiations by collecting data in collaboration with a large Taiwanese eyeglasses company. We found, as has been established previously, that higher first offers predict higher company profits and that the impact of high opening offers can be muted by greater customer awareness of prices at other stores. When we investigated a more qualitative outcome, customers’ perceptions of service quality, a different set of predictors emerged. Our results indicate that salespeople who spent more time introducing the products and services were perceived by the customers as providing higher service quality, but this effect only occurred for those salespeople who reported high levels of job satisfaction. Also, price reduction by salespeople did not improve customer satisfaction. Our results indicate that customer satisfaction does not require negotiated price concessions, but rather depends on extensive interaction with salespeople who are happy in their work. This is the first study to show that negotiator job satisfaction can affect important negotiation outcomes.     

Victim selection in ethnic conflict: Motives and attitudes in Irish republicanism

Through examination of statements made by Irish republicans involved in the Northern Ireland conflict and of the social identities of victims of republican violence, White has argued that the Irish Republican Army is not sectarian but that the loyalist paramilitaries are. This response challenges both the interpretation of republican rhetoric and the conclusions drawn from the study of victim selection. It draws attention to a wide range of indices of communal hatred to make the case that sectarianism is endemic in the Northern Ireland conflict and that much of the variation in victim selection is a product of opportunity rather than motive. Furthermore, it questions the wisdom of analysing victim selection by imputing to victims just one social identity.