The Hong Kong civil service in transition

As a result of its autonomy from society and institutional integrity, both legacies of British colonialism, the transition of the Hong Kong civil service to Chinese rule has been smooth. To accommodate continuing changes to state‐society relations, however, the civil service must begin sharing power with society to ensure stability. This paper examines changes in the state‐society and inter‐state sectors since the 1 July 1997 handover.     

Alcohol use among college students: Some competing hypotheses

This paper presents a longitudinal study of alcohol use among college students. Three hypothesized predictors of alcohol use are found to have an independent effect when the other predictors and prior drinking are held constant: the drinking context of the dormitory living group, informal social involvement in college, and lack of commitment to religious and academic values. These predictors are also related to the onset of drinking during the freshman year for those who entered college as abstainers. The pattern varies somewhat for males and females, with the dormitory contextual effect larger for females. Formal involvement in college activities and psychological stress have no independent effect on drinking. The results are discussed in relation to previous work on alcohol use.This research was supported in part by NIAAA Grant AA02863 and NIMH Grant MH28177 and Veterans Administration Research funds.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford University in 1976. Current research interests include adolescent development, statistics, and environmental studies.Received Ph.D. in psychology from University of California, Berkeley, in 1960. Current research interests are personal and environmental influences on behavior.     

Sex role and dating orientation

The assumption that males approach dating from a pronounced psychobiological orientation while females approach it from a psychoaffectional orientation was questioned. The sex role adopted by the individual was considered to be as important a variable as biological sex. Male and female subjects from three age groups, 16–17 years, 19–20 years, and 24–25 years, completed questionnaires designed to measure their sex roles and dating orientations. All groups of males were found to approach the dating relationship from both a psychoaffectional and psychobiological orientation, while all groups of females approached it from a psychoaffectional orientation and showed an increase in psychobiological orientation with increasing age and increasing depth of relationship. Significant differences were also found in dating attitudes between male and female subjects adopting different sex roles. It was concluded that neither masculinity and femininity, nor psychobiological and psychoaffectional attitudes to dating, lie on single continua. Masculine and feminine sex roles as independent dimensions influence psychobiological and psychoaffectional orientations to dating which are in themselves independent dimensions and not ends of a single continuum.Received her B.A. (Hons. 1) at Macquarie University and Dip. Teaching from Syndney Teachers' College. Current research interest is adolescent sexuality.Received M.A. (Hons. I) and Ph.D. at University of Sydney. Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Chairman (Sydney Branch) of the Australian Psychological Society. Current research interest is the psychology of adolescence.