精神分析与公共行政:从弗洛伊德到戴蒙德

在传统公共行政学的组织理论中,一个基本的理论前提就是假设人类的行为是理性的,因而对组织的研究总是局限于研究基于人类理性所产生的规范和制度.而自从弗洛伊德创立精神分析方法以来,很多的学者开始运用这一方法来解释组织的行为,创立了精神分析的组织理论.其中,戴蒙德就是著名的代表.精神分析方法在组织理论研究中的运用,拓宽了公共行政研究的视野和思路.但同时也把组织理论从传统发展到了另一个极端,那就是过于强调人类行为的非理性,使得对组织的研究易于陷入不可知的状态。可见,精神分析方法对于公共行政学是有意义的。     

University technology transfer: The 64 Kilobit Transceiver case study

This case study identifies the transfer models, unique dynamics, and lessons learned in the evolutionary development of Jim Cavers' and Shawn Stapleton's 64 Kilobit Transceiver technology developed at the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. By outlining the history, sources of funding, people, and organizations involved in the transfer of the communications technology, specific conclusions have been drawn. This case study was conducted for the University/Industry Liaison Office at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. Ernest von Rosen completed a Master's Degree in Physics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario where he worked with the Applied Magnetics Group, which has an active history with technology transfer in the field of nondestructive testing of pipelines. Presently he manages new product development for CONFAX Publishing, a fax publication focusing on high-technology events within British Columbia.     

Addressing the shortage of kidneys for transplantation: purchase and allocation through chain auctions

Transplantation is generally the treatment of choice for those suffering from kidney failure. Not only does transplantation offer improved quality of life and increased longevity relative to dialysis, it also reduces end-stage renal disease program expenditures, providing savings to Medicare. Unfortunately, the waiting list for kidney transplants is long, growing, and unlikely to be substantially reduced by increases in the recovery of cadaveric kidneys. Another approach is to obtain more kidneys through payment to living "donors," or vendors. Such direct commodification, in which a price is placed on kidneys, has generally been opposed by medical ethicists. Much of the ethical debate, however, has been in terms of commodification through market exchange. Recognizing that there are different ethical concerns associated with the purchase of kidneys and their allocation, it is possible to design a variety of institutional arrangements for the commodification of kidneys that pose different sets of ethical concerns. We specify three such alternatives in detail sufficient to allow an assessment of their likely consequences and we compare these alternatives to current policy in terms of the desirable goals of promoting human dignity, equity, efficiency, and fiscal advantage. This policy analysis leads us to recommend that kidneys be purchased at administered prices by a nonprofit organization and allocated to the transplant centers that can organize the longest chains of transplants involving willing-but-incompatible donor-patient dyads.     

A Sequence Analysis of Nonverbal Behaviour and Deception

The ability to correctly interpret nonverbal communication (NVC) is an important ability in everyday interactions, which may use NVC techniques to identify the concealment of information. In the present study, a novel approach was used to understand NVC. Behaviour sequence analysis identified specific sequences of behaviours that indicate psychological distress caused by deception. The study involved the analysis of 55 videos of real criminals and high-power individuals that were filmed fabricating statements, which were later exposed as being untruthful at the time of being filmed. In addition, 53 clips of criminals making truthful statements were also analysed as a contrast group. Results indicated clear differences between honest and deceptive responses, such as furrowing of eyebrows in the deceptive sequences occurring more often than honest statements. In addition, sequences of behaviours were shown in the present data set, which could indicate a new method for analysing NVC and detecting psychological distress caused by deception. The possible implications and applications for police and forensic investigation are also outlined.     

Diffusion of responsibility in crime,punishment, and other adversity

Three studies tested the hypothesis that an individual acting alone, compared with an individual group member, would be held more responsible for behavior leading to a negative consequence. In one study, 240 subjects read scenarios of an event with a negative outcome involving one, two, three, or four individuals. As predicted, there was a significant inverse relationship between the number of participants and the degree of attributed responsibility. The second study investigated subjects' attributions of responsibility for criminals committing a crime alone or with a partner. Single perpetrators were considered more responsible than those acting with a partner, although there was no difference in sentence length assigned. In the third, archival-type study, prison sentences for criminals who had actually committed a robbery alone or with others were examined. Again, there was diffusion of responsibility: criminals acting alone received significantly longer sentences than perpetrators who had committed a similar crime, but who had acted with others.     

Do we need warm leaders? Exploratory study of the role of voter evaluations of leaders’ traits on turnout in seven European countries

Previous research on leader effects has focused exclusively on the impact of voters’ evaluations of leaders on vote choice, disregarding possible effects on the prior step of deciding whether or not to turn out to vote. In line with the personalisation of politics thesis, leaders have a higher impact among dealigned voters. Previous studies have demonstrated that leader effects are stronger among voters who voice their dealignment – namely party switchers. However, the potential impact of leaders among those who exited (i.e., who have abstained) is still unstudied. Could leaders have a mobilisation effect and therefore trigger turnout decisions? What characteristics of party leaders are more relevant in this regard? This article is the first comparative study to examine how the evaluation of party leaders’ traits influences voter turnout in general elections. The work incorporates data from election studies across seven countries with different social contexts (Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Hungary). Characteristics of leaders were grouped into two dimensions – competence and warmth – in accordance with the stereotype content model and relevant studies on leaders’ traits evaluation. Multiple binary logistic regression models were performed to analyse the predictive power of competence and warmth on turnout, controlling for sociodemographic, political ideology variables and voters’ past political behaviour. Results reinforce the personalisation of politics theory, showing the utmost relevance of warmth personality traits of leaders in voter turnout decisions. Competence personality traits were found to be relevant only in some situations. Interaction effects were also demonstrated between warmth evaluations and identifying with a right-wing party as well as past political behaviour with both warmth and competence.     

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Methods? Methodological Games and Role Play

In terms of gamification within political science, some fields—particularly international relations and American politics—have received more attention than others. One of the most underserved parts of the discipline is research methods; a course that, coincidentally, is frequently cited as one that instructors hate to teach and students hate to take. Given the well-documented merits of games in promoting student engagement and the key role of methods as a building block to student understanding of political science, this article attempts to rectify this oversight by introducing three games—Zendo, Murder Mystery, and the Archeologist’s Quandary— geared at teaching key concepts and approaches in research methods.     

Shoe wear patterns and pressure distribution under feet and shoes, determined by image analysis.

A method is outlined for extracting contours of the pressure exerted by feet on the ground, either directly or through the soles of shoes, and of the wear patterns on shoe soles. The method is applied to two types of image: shoeprint images made in the laboratory, and pedobarography images recording the distribution of pressure under the foot during a footstep. The first procedure in extracting the information from images involves low pass filtering in the Fourier domain, performed by a microcomputer and frame-grabbing system. The boundaries of the regions in the resultant images are then extracted from the filtered images to display the shape of constant pressure areas and of the general shoe-wear.