Attachment as an Organizational Construct for Affect,Appraisals, and Coping of Late Adolescent Females

The purpose of this study was to 1) compare general affective dispositions (depression and anxiety) and negative affect during interpersonal conflict as a function of attachment security, 2) examine appraisals as a function of attachment style and as predictors of coping, 3) compare strategies of coping with interpersonal conflict as a function of attachment style, and 4) investigate the roles of attachment style, affect, and appraisals in predicting coping in the context of interpersonal conflict. Seventy-three late adolescent females participated. Insecure participants reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and negative affect during interpersonal conflicts. Insecure participants were more likely to cope with interpersonal conflicts through support seeking or avoidance. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that general and specific attachment style, affect, and appraisals significantly predict coping strategies. Implications for general and specific models of attachment as organizational constructs and attachment as a predictor of coping with interpersonal and non-interpersonal stressors are discussed.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Direct democracy in Switzerland: Do elites matter?

Abstract. Direct democratic institutions, while centrepieces of the Swiss political system, find themselves under attack. In this article, we challenge the widespread criticism that popular rights increasingly limit the political elite's control of the decisionmaking process. Our analysis is based on aggregate data of all acts voted on by the Swiss Parliament since 1947 – those brought about by popular initiatives or those subject to optional and mandatory referendum – and on individual survey data on most federal votes held since 1981. We underline the high support of government and the impact of elite consensus on the destiny of legislative acts in the plebiscitary phase (submitted to a vote or not, subsequently accepted or not). While congruent with the aggregate analysis, results obtained at the individual level are less clearcut. The influence of voting recommendations and information channels on the voter's decision appears rather weak.     

Barack Obama Meets Celebrity Metaphor

Common knowledge suggests that elections are won or lost based on demographics, finances, and other structural elements. Whether candidates win or lose, however, is a matter of action. Symbolic identification, metaphor, and an unfolding narrative—and how they are managed and interpreted in the flow of events—determine who will emerge victorious from the democratic struggle for power. The McCain campaign’s effort to cast Obama as a celebrity, with the hollow trivialities and self-aggrandizement of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, proves to be one of the most dangerous episodes for the Obama campaign. In response, the Democrats must adjust the staging of Obama’s Thursday night acceptance speech in Denver as a performance of purpose and gravitas, rather than glitz and adoration.     

Making civic engagement go viral: Applying social epidemiology principles to civic education

This paper explores the connections between education for youth civic engagement and theories and strategies from public health (specifically, epidemiology). We illustrate this with four applications of epidemiologic theory to youth civic engagement: social determinants and fundamental causes, vulnerable populations and cumulative disadvantage, positive spillover, and herd immunity and critical mass. Formalizing concepts of current civics, in schools and the public, as a civic epidemic, we present a case for individual‐ and group‐level interventions based around targeted, school‐based, effective civic education initiatives. Grounded in epidemiological theory, such approaches call attention to the simultaneous need to improve broad civics education and ensure that particular populations receive necessary attentions.     

Governing Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction: The Case of Pennsylvania

Over the past decade, directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing enabled an unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) boom in many regions of the United States, including parts of Pennsylvania. This revolution has created serious concerns about the capability of existing institutions to govern important societal outcomes associated with UOGE. We present a conceptual framework for assessing key societal outcomes influenced by UOGE governance. In applying this framework to Pennsylvania, we discern certain institutional strengths that have allowed the Commonwealth to reap appreciable short‐term economic growth from rich resource endowments. We also find, however, that several institutional weaknesses have allowed costs externalized to the environment, public health, and community integrity to offset some proportion of those economic benefits. Likewise, we find that governance of UOGE in Pennsylvania has contributed to a bifurcated sociopolitical landscape wherein adversarial coalitions dispute the legitimacy of the industry and its governance.