Identity formation and social relations during late adolescence

Theoretical assumptions outlined by Erik Erikson on psychosocial crisis resolution hypothesizes that the positive resolution of the identity crisis is predictive of more mature intimacy formation. To test this hypothesis, college-aged late adolescents (48 subjects) completed interviews and selfreport instruments measuring identity formation and degree of intimacy along with daily records of social interactions for one week. Analyses indicated a complex association between identity and intimacy formation. Comparisons were made between the exploration and commitment process of identity and the measures of intimacy formation and social interaction measures. Numerous complex sex differences were observed with several interactions between gender, exploration, commitment, and intimacy context. Findings are discussed in terms of broadening future research direction beyond the simple study of the linkage of identity and intimacy.Partial funding for this study was provided through a grant to the second author. Support was given by Science and Education Administration/United States Department of Agriculture and the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station.Research interests include adolescent development, personality and social relations, and mental health issues.Research interests focus on personality and social development in adolescence.Research interests include psychotherapy, mental health, and psychopathology.     

Assessing Trauma-Related Dissociation in Forensic Contexts: Addressing Trauma-Related Dissociation as a Forensic Psychologist,Part II

Chronic dissociative reactions and dissociative disorders can occur following traumatic events and are associated with suffering and impaired functioning. Therefore, trauma-related dissociation could be part of the claims made in civil actions or contribute to mitigation or an insanity defense in criminal actions. Dissociative reactions to trauma, including dissociative disorders, are more common than most mental health professionals realize. Unfortunately, few professionals have training in the assessment of dissociation, and forensic experts may be unaware of research indicating that standard interpretations of well-regarded assessment instruments can result in inaccurate determinations of symptom exaggeration in cases with dissociation. This paper is the second paper of a two-part series that aims to expand assessors’ knowledge about trauma-related dissociation (TRD) and enhance their ability to assess and present information about dissociation. In this article, we focus on the forensic assessment of TRD and discuss: dissociative symptoms; complex trauma; trauma-related disorders; an approach to assessment of TRD; trauma-related reactions that can impede the detection of TRD; and differential diagnosis of genuine versus feigned dissociation. In addition, we review research related to the validity and appropriate interpretation of the following measures in use with persons with TRD: Dissociative Experiences Scale, Multiscale Dissociation Inventory, Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire, Trauma Symptom Inventory-2, Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation, Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders-Revised, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, Personality Assessment Inventory, Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms, Test of Memory Malingering, and the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale.     

A Test of Three Methods for Estimating Stature from Immature Skeletal Remains Using Long Bone Lengths*

Abstract: In this study, the accuracy of three methods for stature estimation of children from long bone lengths was investigated. The sample utilized consists of nine identified immature skeletons (seven males and two females) of known cadaver length, aged between 1 and 14 years old. Results show that stature (cadaver length) is consistently underestimated by all three methods (from a minimum of 2.9 cm to a maximum of 19.3 cm). The femur/stature ratio provided the least accurate estimates of stature, and predictions were not significantly improved by the other two methods. Differences between true and estimated stature were also greatest when using the length of lower limb bones. Given that the study sample children grew in less than optimal environmental conditions, compared with the children that contributed to the development of the methods, they are stunted and have proportionally shorter legs. This suggests that stature estimation methods are not universally applicable and that environmental differences within a population (e.g., socioeconomic status differences) or differing levels of modernization and social and economic development between nations are an important source of variation in stature and body proportions of children. The fallibility of stature estimation methods, when they do not consider such variation, can be somewhat minimized if stature is estimated from the length of upper limb bones.     

Creating an entrepreneurial society in Europe

The purpose of this work is to propose a framework, called Strategic Management of Places, which demonstrates how the underlying forces, namely labor and capital, lead to economic performance. Moreover, we discuss how policy decision-making is involved in aspects of the framework. There are four elements to the framework: factors and resources, spatial organization and structure, human dimension, and policy. We apply the framework to the European Union to analyze how the elements fared from 1990s to present day. We conclude with examples where strategic policy decision-making proved to be a success and illustrate how each region differs in what underlying forces work and how in order to achieve economic success.     

Total factor productivity and the role of entrepreneurship

The absence of evidence in the scholarly literature for a tested long-term relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth is at odds with the importance attributed to entrepreneurship in the policy arena. The present paper addresses this absence, introducing entrepreneurship using four different and accepted models explaining the total factor productivity of twenty OECD countries with data for the period 1969–2010. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is not addressed in these models. We show that in all models—as well as a joint one—entrepreneurship has a significant influence while the remaining effects largely stay the same. Entrepreneurship is measured as the business ownership rate (number of business owners per workforce) corrected for the level of economic development (GDP per capita).     

Moral Duties and the Institutions of the European Union

The European Union's features make it not only distinctive but to some extent qualitatively different from familiar "state'' or " "international association'' models of political organisation. For these reasons, an understanding of its moral role cannot draw with facility on the theories developed for them. The European Union is, nonetheless, a structure of political authority, and as such cannot escape normative imperatives. The problem is how best to conceptualise them. The paper indicates some of the difficulties in assigning duties to EU institutions. Drawing on ideas in the moral philosophy of Alan Gewirth, it sketches a theoretical framework within which moral questions pertaining to the European Union (and perhaps other non-standard political entities) may be addressed.