The Determinants of Political Knowledge in Comparative Perspective

Political knowledge is a powerful predictor of political participation. Moreover, what citizens know about the political system and its actors is a central aspect of informed voting. This article investigates how and why political knowledge varies between citizens. The analysis is comparative and based on data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. At the micro level, the results confirm results from national surveys – specifically that education explains what citizens know about politics. It is found in a contextualized analysis, however, that the effect of education varies with the country's degree of economic redistribution. In more egalitarian countries, political knowledge is less contingent on education attained than in more inegalitarian countries. Similarly, education seems to have a stronger effect in countries with majoritarian electoral systems compared to countries with proportional systems.     

科研成果转化：大学创新能力发展的若干思考

大学推进科研成果转化对促进社会经济发展和提升大学创新能力具有重要作用。为推进科研成果转化,大学要营造良好的校园文化,为教师和学生开展科研活动及转化成果提供保证。奥克兰大学在此方面做了如下工作:在学生中提倡创业精神,鼓励学生成为企业家;把教师和研究人员作为提升大学创新能力的主体;构建有利于科研成果转化的政策环境;组建专门服务公司。     

The Same Old Song?—Stability and Change in Relationship Schemas from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Relationship schemas are core elements of personality that guide interpersonal functioning. The aim of this study is to examine stability and change in relationship schemas across two developmental epochs—adolescence and young adulthood—in the stories that people tell about their interactions with others. Using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method, relationship themes were coded from semistructured interviews conducted in adolescence and again at age 25. The sample consisted of 40 participants in a longitudinal study of adolescent and young adult psychological development. There was considerable stability in the frequency with which particular themes were expressed in the narratives of adolescents and young adults. Significant changes from adolescence to young adulthood included a decrease in the perception of others as rejecting and of the self as opposing others. Young adults saw themselves and others more positively, and used a broader repertoire of themes in their relationship narratives than they had as adolescents. The basic continuity and particular changes in relationship schemas found in this study are consistent with knowledge about the adolescent-to-young-adult transition derived from other empirical and clinical findings. Relationship schemas may be rich units of study for learning about the development of interpersonal functioning.     

A multinominal logit analysis of the influence of policy variables and board experience on FOMC voting behavior

Previous studies have used probit or logit models to analyze two states of monetary policy (tighter or looser). In this paper we employ multinominal logit to permit Federal Reserve monetary policy to assume one of three alternative states (tighter, looser, or no change) as a function of three independent economic variables (unemployment, real growth, and inflation) and the amount of experience of the Board of Governors. The results indicate that the Federal Reserve reacted differently under Burns, Miller and Volcker and between Volcker's two operating procedures in the formulation of monetary policy.     

Book Review: Facing the Decisions One Should Make and the Decisions One Wants to Make

Authors of two recent books, Smart Choices and The Win-Win-Solution, offer negotiation practitioners some new twists on how they can improve their decision-making processes. In the first book, Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa present a five-part PrOACT system, which features: an assessment of the problem; determination of objectives; exploration of alternatives; comprehension of the consequences; and dealing with tradeoffs. The second book, by Brams and Taylor, outlines four settlement options that are available to decision makers, but advocates an adjusted winner approach. The authors have devised a system in which individuals' subjective assessments of particular items in dispute receive point totals, which can then be divided in an equitable manner. In effect, the authors show readers how to deal with the decisions they should make, and those they want to make.     

A Classification Tree Approach to the Development of Actuarial Violence Risk Assessment Tools

Since the 1970s, a wide body of research has suggested that the accuracy of clinical risk assessments of violence might be increased if clinicians used actuarial tools. Despite considerable progress in recent years in the development of such tools for violence risk assessment, they remain primarily research instruments, largely ignored in daily clinical practice. We argue that because most existing actuarial tools are based on a main effects regression approach, they do not adequately reflect the contingent nature of the clinical assessment processes. To enhance the use of actuarial violence risk assessment tools, we propose a classification tree rather than a main effects regression approach. In addition, we suggest that by employing two decision thresholds for identifying high- and low-risk cases--instead of the standard single threshold--the use of actuarial tools to make dichotomous risk classification decisions may be further enhanced. These claims are supported with empirical data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study.     

Black and white identity development: Aspects and perspectives

Empirical definitions of identity formation, and five variants, were constructed using a technique for studying multiple self-images. The method was then applied to a sample of black and white lower socioeconomic class boys. These boys were tested with this technique and given in-depth interviews twice a year, from the start to the finish of high school. The results of these longitudinal studies disclose that the black and white adolescents have emphatically differentpatterns of identity formation. The blacks are characterized by unchanging configurations of self-images. Both the content of their self-definitions and the interrelations for these self-definitions remain strikingly stable over the years. The whites, on the other hand, display a progressive integration of different self-images and stabilization of the content of these images. The more qualitative interview data corroborate these quantitative findings. The patterns displayed by the blacks are consistent with the definition of identity foreclosure, a disruption in ego identity development. The whites' patterns, however, are consistent with progressive identity formation. In addition to discussing these results, the paper goes on to consider ways to understand the findings. Sociocultural as well as cognitive aspects of the racial differences in identity development are explored.This is a revised version of a presentation to the Fall Meeting of the American Psychoanalytical Association, December 16, 1970. The earlier version was also the recipient of the Harry C. Solomon Essay Prize at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, June 1970.Received M.A. (Social Anthropology) from Harvard University and M.D. from Yale University. Currently studying self-image and cognitive development in populations of normal and psychiatrically impaired adolescents.     

Studying schizophrenia outside the psychiatric setting

Two groups of college students were identified using the MMPI as a screening device: those with normal profiles and those with schizophrenic profiles. All those with previous psychiatric treatment were eliminated. A third group of hospitalized schizophrenics was matched to the first two along lines of age, sex and socioeconomic status. The three groups were then studied via a semistructured interview and compared for the clinical features of hospitalized schizophrenics and for objective enironmental stresses. As predicted, a group of well-functioning, untreated schizophrenics was delineated. The usefulness of the MMPI as a screening device is clarified, and the question of the true prevalence of schizophrenia is discussed. Contrary to prediction, the well-functioning schizophrenics were similar to the hospitalized schizophrenics, not to the normal controls, with regard to objective environmental stresses. The possible meaning of this is discussed considering the concept of subjective environmental stresses.This research is in part supported by USPHS grants MH-18991, MH-19477-01, and State of Illinois 131-13-RD, State of Illinois 218-12-RD.This reasearch is part of an extensive program investigating schizophrenia which is being conducted jointly by the Psychosomatic and Psychatric Institute of Michael Reese Hospital, the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, the University of Chicago, and the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute.Received M.D. from Northwestern University. Served psychiatric residency at the Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Institute of Michael Reese Hospital. Main interest is in psychotherapy and psychodynamics of youth.