Sixth Graders’ Conflict Resolution in Role Plays with a Peer,Parent, and Teacher

This study used conflict resolution role play vignettes and self-report surveys of 450 New York City 6th graders to examine associations between adolescents’ conflict resolution efficacy and social skills. Vignettes covered 3 social contexts, conflict with a peer (disagreement over activities), with a parent (raise in allowance), and with a teacher (low grade on report). Effective and ineffective strategies for resolving these conflicts were coded from the videotaped interactions. Adolescents were more often effective in resolving conflict with peers than with parents (χ²(1) = 7.10, p < .01). Strong communication skills cut across interpersonal context as associated with effective resolution. Assertiveness and absence of aggression were associated with effective conflict resolution in vignettes with peers. Assertiveness was also associated with effective conflict resolution in vignettes with parents, however nervousness was unexpectedly found to facilitate conflict resolution in vignettes with parents. Only skills observed within a particular context were associated with effective resolution in that context; self-report skills and cross-context observed skills were not associated with efficacy. Implications for implementation and evaluation of social skills curricula and conflict resolution process are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, LA, April 2002Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2004. Research interests include adolescent social competence and youth development programs.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 1991. Research interests include the psychosocial correlates of puberty, stress reactivity, and health compromising behaviors and adjustment.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2002. Research interests include social competence, prevention research, and women’s health.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2002. Research interests include social competence, prevention research, and women’s health.Received Ph.D. in 1975 from University of Pennsylvania in Human Learning and Development. Research focus centers around designing and evaluating interventions aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of children living in poverty and associated conditions. Conducts research on transitional periods during childhood and adolescence, focusing on school, family and biological transitions in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Specific interests are in the factors that contribute to positive and negative outcomes, and changes inwell-being over these years.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University in 1977. Research interests include tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention, violence prevention, AIDS risk reduction among adolescents, health promotion and disease prevention, smoking cessation.     

Life satisfaction,self-concept,and relationship with parents in adolescence

The influence of self-concept and relationships with parents and school on life satisfaction of adolescents was explored in 1156 Chinese junior high school children in Hong Kong. Adopting the multidimensional approach, self-concept was measured globally as well as in four specific aspects, namely, academic ability, social ability, physical ability, and physical appearance. Results show that all self-concept measures are correlated with life satisfaction, but the strongest correlation was found between general self-concept and life satisfaction. This pattern is consistent with American findings in that a higher self-concept was related to more life satisfaction, but the correlation obtained was much weaker in the present study. In a series of regression analyses, it was found that relationship with parents dominated the prediction of life satisfaction, and only the social ability component of self-concept was able to account for a small amount of extra variance. Relationship with school was not related to life satisfaction in any significant way. Implications of these results are discussed.This study was supported by the Centre for Hong Kong Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong through a Social Policy Research Programme on Policy for Prevocational Education in Hong Kong.Received Ph.D. from Massey University, New Zealand. Research interests include educational psychology, operant conditioning, behavior modification, and rehabilitation.Received Ph.D. from University of Illinois in social, industrial, and organizational psychology. Research interests included cross-cultural psychology, social justice, and the psychology of adolescence.     

China's changing images of Japan, 1989-2001: the struggle to balance partnership and rivalry

Chinese views of Japan, both official and popular, grew morenegative after the end of the cold war. From 1989 to 1993 theJapanese side bears much of the blame for failing to overcomethe distrust of the Chinese people. When the major deteriorationin Japan's image occurred from 1994 to 1998, however, it wasChina's leadership that was chiefly responsible, arousing nationalistemotions. When China's leaders sought to reverse this processfrom 1999 to 2001 they were unsuccessful both because of theintensity of public emotions and the lack of reassurance fromthe Japanese leadership and public. Divisions inside China revealthe hesitation of leaders to foster a realistic image of Japan.By tracing the content of changing Chinese perceptions, we canobserve the effects of overconfidence and insensitivity in eachstate and recognize the difficulty at times of uncertain nationalidentity of finding a coordinated strategy for expanding mutualtrust.     

Lethal Laryngopyocele

A 44‐year‐old man collapsed after complaining of difficulty breathing. Layer dissection of the neck at autopsy revealed a large mixed internal and external laryngopyocele occluding the upper airway. It contained 30 mls of yellow‐gray pus. Mechanisms of death in laryngoceles involve obstruction of the opening into the larynx resulting in accumulation of mucus or air within the sac causing airway occlusion. Once infection supervenes, deaths in laryngopyocoeles result either from accumulated pus causing airway occlusion from a mass effect (as in the current case) or the discharge of pus into the airway causing death from aspiration. Sudden death in laryngopyoceles is a very rare event that requires careful dissection at autopsy to demonstrate the characteristics of the underlying lesion and the possible mechanism of death. Laryngopyocele should be considered in the differential diagnosis of natural conditions causing acute, potentially lethal, upper airway obstruction.     

POLICY MODELING TO SUPPORT ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONMAKING ON THE NEW YORK STATE HIV TESTING LAW

A recent New York law requires medical providers to offer HIV tests as part of routine care. We developed a system dynamics simulation model of the HIV testing and care system to help administrators understand the law's potential epidemic impact, resource needs, strategies to improve implementation, and appropriate outcome indicators for future policy evaluations once postlaw data become available. Policy modeling allowed us to synthesize information from numerous sources including quantitative administrative data sets and practitioners’ content expertise, structure the information to be viewed both numerically and visually, and organize consensus for decisionmaking purposes. This case illustrates how policy modeling can provide an integrated framework for administrators to examine policy problems in complex systems, particularly when data time lags limit pre–post comparisons and key outcomes cannot be measured directly.     

Two moments in African thought: ideas in Africa's international relations

How ideas influence Africa's international relations is an interesting subject of scholarly inquiry. This article illuminates the authors and events that shaped the germination and dissemination of ideas during two critical moments in Africa's international relations. The argument is that while ideas are important in Africa's international relations, there is a dearth of universal African ideas that could permeate the heterogenous and fragmented African political landscape.     

Journalism education and practice in South Africa and the discourse of the African Renaissance

Abstract

At the turn of the century there was sheer optimism that ‘Africa's time’ to address all its problems had come, and as a result the 21st century was widely hailed as the ‘African century’ (Ban 2008; Makgoba 1999; Mbeki 1999; O'Reilly 1998; Zoellick 2009). This pronouncement was accompanied by the parallel call for the African Renaissance, which challenged many institutions to align themselves with this ‘crucial phase’ in the history of Africa. In the process, expressions such as ‘de-Westernisation’, ‘Africanisation’, ‘indigenisation’ and ‘domestication’ became buzz-words. Yet, after almost a decade of such claims, there appears to be very little, if anything, gained from these confident pronouncements. This article is situated within embryonic debates on the Africanisation of the curricula. The article explores the current thinking on journalism education (the teaching of journalism) and practice (the practice of journalism) in the country, with a view to furthering our understanding of journalism agility deemed important for the ‘African century’. It further explores the opportunities and limitations of situating journalism education and journalism practice within the discourse of the African Renaissance. The key data that form the basis of this article were collected through interviews and an open-ended questionnaire from a sample consisting of journalists, journalism educators and senior journalism students. The findings point to the need to rethink journalism education and journalism practice, given the trends of globilisation and the equally compelling need to Africanise.