A “second look” at interviews with adolescents

Interviews are widely used in adolescent study as data collection methods. This article argues that such interviews contain an additional order of data, located in the conversing, which can complement the content analysis and interpretation of answers to questions. This argument is based on treating interviews with adolescents as actual instances of adolescent adult interaction and is illustrated by transcribed passages from a series of interviews with young adolescents. The purpose of the study is to outline how researchers using an interview method can examine records of the talk for valuable supplementary data. The conversational analysis sketched here is, of course, only one possible way of taking this second look. In this area, it would also be a valuable resource for investigators to study how adolescents manage their research participation under a variety of data collection methods. Adequately recorded interviews contain such data, and can be inspected for the presence or clues to the very phenomena researchers may be interested in. All of this requires the understanding that 1) the primary order of empirical data is the talking and, 2) the interviews are instances of adolescent behavior.     

Are Shelter Workers Burned Out?: An Examination of Stress,Social Support,and Coping

Job stress, perceived social support, coping self-efficacy, and coping strategies were studied as predictors of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment among a sample of 123 female shelter workers. Overall, these workers did not meet the collective criteria for burnout as defined by Maslach and Jackson (1986) and perceived social support and coping strategies did not account for unique variance in the prediction of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. Rather, high levels of time pressure and low levels of self-efficacy for being productive at work were identified as predictors of emotional exhaustion. Personal accomplishment was predicted by time pressure and robust levels of self-efficacy for dealing with stressors at work. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 109th annual convention of the American Psychological Association. This paper is based on the Masters thesis of Lisa M. Baker and the undergraduate honors thesis of Nazish Salahuddin, both completed under the direction of Karen M. O’Brien. Gratitude is extended to Christel Nichols and to the crisis workers who participated in this study.     

The adolescent as theorist: An interpretive view

This article advances a way of conceptualizing the adolescent as theorist derived from interpretive sociology. This formulation of the adolescent as theorist is contrasted to that available within Piagetian theory. It emphasizes the practical and the occasioned nature of theoretical activity and shows it in everyday settings. Interview conversation between an adolescent and an adult is used as empirical illustration. This formulation of the adolescent as theorist is offered as a means of entry to the scientific constitution of the adolescent as a practitioner of world building who uses the same available resources and does the same sense-making work as any competent member in a culture.Received Ph.D. from University of Toronto. Current interests are the social and scientific constitution of the adolescent, and interpretive methodologies in the study of adolescence.     

The rapid determination of cocaine and other local anesthetics using field tests and chromatography

The application of field tests and chromatography to the detection of cocaine and some other local anesthetics that have been used to adulterate cocaine is described. Initial screening of samples by field tests, followed by concurrent TLC and GC, enables rapid identification of these compounds to be achieved. In particular, the use of flow-programmed GC shortens the time for analysis compared with conventional GC and requires negligible equilibration time between consecutive runs [12]. The method gives reliable quantitative data.     

Illicitly imported heroin products: some physical and chemical features indicative of their origin

Samples taken from over 200 seizures of imported illicit heroin preparations of known geographical origin have been examined by gas liquid chromatography (GLC). The chromatographic characteristics were considered in conjunction with the physical appearance of the materials and it was found possible in many instances to discriminate between samples of different origin. Thus by carrying out GLC and HPLC and a visual inspection on a sample of unknown provenance, it may be possible to give an opinion as to its geographical origin.     

Seeing is believing: observer perceptions of trait trustworthiness predict perceptions of honesty in high-stakes emotional appeals

Instantaneous first impressions of facial trustworthiness influence the manner in which observers evaluate ensuing information about stranger targets [e.g. Porter, S., &; ten Brinke, L. (2009). Dangerous decisions: A theoretical framework for understanding how judges assess credibility in the courtroom. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 14, 119–134. doi:10.1348/135532508X281520]. In two studies, we examined the association between perceptions of general trustworthiness and honesty assessments in an extremely high-stakes sample – individuals publicly pleading for the return of a missing relative, half of whom had killed the missing individual. In Study 1, observers (N?=?131) provided trustworthiness ratings – either before or after viewing and evaluating the honesty of videotaped or audio-only pleas – for a still image that depicted a neutral expression on the face of each pleader. In Study 2, observers (N?=?220) evaluated the sincerity of audio pleas paired either with an untrustworthy-looking target, a trustworthy-looking target, or no target face. Collectively, our findings indicated that first impressions of trait trustworthiness form the basis of state judgments of honesty, potentially contributing to misguided credibility assessments and miscarriages of justice in the legal system.     

Superficial Survey Choice: An Experimental Test of a Potential Method for Increasing Response Rates and Response Quality in Correctional Surveys

Objectives

Drawing on prior theoretical and empirical work on survey participation, this study develops one potential method for increasing response rates and response quality in correctional surveys. Specifically, we hypothesize that providing inmates with a superficial survey choice (SSC)—that is, a choice between completing either of two voluntary surveys that are actually differently ordered versions of the same questionnaire—will increase their motivation both to participate in a given survey and to respond thoughtfully to the questions asked therein.

Methods

We test the effectiveness of this method by evaluating its impact on unit nonresponse, item nonresponse, and answer reliability. To do this, we analyze experimental data from a recent survey of male inmates incarcerated in a medium security, private prison.

Results

Findings indicate that the overall response rate is higher among inmates who are provided a survey choice. In addition, the evidence shows that the SSC method increases the percentage of individual items completed, the number of demanding questions completed, and the reliability of reported responses.

Conclusion

The results from the analyses are consistent with the hypotheses that motivated this study and suggest that the SSC method holds promise as a tool for correctional researchers.     

The gradual transformation? The incremental dynamics of macroprudential regulation

This article focuses on the transformatory potential of macroprudential ideas following the financial crash of 2008, examining how they are being mediated by existing institutional contexts and how and why the task of building a new body of technical macroprudential knowledge is proceeding slowly. It is argued that the movement toward a form of macroprudential regulation has a distinctly incremental dynamic that means any macroprudential transformation will be a gradual process that is likely to span a decade or more. Using Peter Hall's framework of three orders of policy change across substantive and temporal dimensions, the article argues that the macroprudential ideational shift can be compared to third order change. In this sense, it was intellectually radical and took place rapidly in a period of around six months. However, intellectual radicalism does not automatically translate into a radical change in regulatory practice, because of a variety of countervailing political, institutional, and informational variables. In this respect, the task of developing first and second order macroprudential policy is proving to be a much more politically contested process. Furthermore, macroprudential policy is being developed by cautious technocrats who rely on the gradual accumulation of data and evidence to justify policy. The result is a distinctly incremental dynamic to macroprudential policy development that displays many of the features of a process that historical institutionalists refer to as “layering.”     

Who should be called to account for good governance in Africa?

Accountability has been identified as one of the most serious issues in the new democracies. Typically, assessments of the strength of democratic accountability in Africa rarely go beyond the elected and their election. This article argues that an examination of accountability needs to be widened to include all who make decisions that affect the community leaving them with no effective choice, whether they are elected to do so as representatives, or do so in a private capacity as power holders. The reasons are theoretical, empirical and pragmatic. Though the argument is primarily concerned with considering where the limits of the democratic ideal should be fixed, some examples are given of the gap between democratic ideals and actually existing democracy in sub‐Saharan Africa. They reveal a wide variation and contradictions in the actual practice of accountability, so reinforcing the point that attempts to assess the measure of accountability must be multi‐dimensional.