Happy Adolescents: The Link Between Subjective Well-Being, Internal Resources, and Parental Factors

The research investigates the associations of personal and parental factors with subjective well-being (SWB) in adolescents on the basis of 2 studies. The first included 97 university students and 185 adolescents who completed questionnaires measuring perceived mastery, dispositional optimism, and affect used as a measure of SWB. Correlations and hierarchical regression analyses showed mastery and optimism to be negatively associated with negative affect (NA) and positively associated with positive affect (PA). Demographic variables did not relate to PA and NA except for gender, with female adolescents showing higher levels of NA than males. The second study included 121 adolescents and their parents who completed questionnaires measuring mastery, optimism, SWB indicators, and assessments by the adolescents of their relationships with their parents. The associations of the adolescents' mastery and optimism with SWB measures were positive and were similar to those found in the first study. Positive correlations were found between the adolescents' and their parents' SWB (especially with their father's), but no significant associations were observed between adolescents' and parents' mastery and optimism. However, adolescents' mastery and optimism were related to positive relationships with parents. The results highlight the importance of mastery, optimism, and positive adolescent–parent relationships in contributing to the well-being ofadolescents.     

Optimism as a Mediator Between the Experience of Child Abuse,Other Traumatic Events,and Distress

In this study, we examined the role of dispositional optimism in mediating distress among students who experienced traumatic events, including child physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. Participants included 199 undergraduate and graduate students (aged 18–63 years) from a private university in Oregon. In this study, dispositional optimism partially mediated distress among individuals who had experienced child physical abuse and child emotional abuse; participants with higher levels of optimism had lower levels of distress. In addition, dispositional optimism fully mediated distress among individuals who had experienced traumatic events such as rape, assault, and fire; participants with higher levels of optimism had lower levels of distress. Contrary to prediction, the experience of child sexual abuse was not associated with distress. Clinical implications of these results are addressed.     

Prisoners’ Positive Illusions of Their Post-Release Success

Prisoners' forecasts of post-release success may have implications for how they respond to imprisonment, release, and parole decisions. We examined sentenced US and UK prisoners' forecasts of recidivism, and how well UK prisoners believed they would fare compared to the average other prisoner. In both samples, forecasts of recidivism were unrealistically optimistic when compared to official statistics on recidivism. UK prisoners also demonstrated a self-enhancement bias by forecasting that they were less likely to re-offend than other prisoners. Prisoners' forecasts of recidivism were predicted by only a few of the pre-prison, in-prison, and post-prison factors that have been shown to be associated with actual recidivism. We discuss the implications of these findings and propose avenues for future research.     

历史视野中民法的“多彩人像”

对“民法上人”的特点或称“色彩”的假设是民法制度展开及其正当性的基础。罗马法上的人具有多神社会中“家”的祭司和二元社会中“家”的主权者双重色彩。近代民法上的人像包括人是“主体”的世界、抽象理性人、孤立的“经济人”三重色彩,其底色——对理性和人性的乐观主义,是近代个人主义的自由主义法律制度正当性的真正基础。人在工业社会的异化摧毁了乐观理性主义。社会学的发展揭示:人与人被无可避免地连结,非物质因素、非理性因素经常分别是社会发展和人类行为中的决定性因素。嬗变中的现代民法上人像色彩包括:被连结在社会网络中受约束的人、混合了自利和激情的有限理性人、平等性丧失的“具体”人、去神圣化的人、相互协作、相互关心的人。     

Cultural Policy and Subjective Well-Being in Mexico

This article compares the notions of subjective well-being—which has been underscored as an aim for public policy—and optimism, studied by Oliver Bennett as an implicit cultural policy. It will give an overview of the high level of subjective well-being in Mexico according to several recent surveys and consider the relation that culture and arts have with subjective well-being in different countries. This will help to frame the proposal that happiness and life satisfaction could be promoted in Mexico through arts management and cultural policy.     

Other people's memory

Abstract

How optimistic are people's evaluations of their own memory as compared to that of most others? To find out, we asked 563 Sa. to compere their own memory for events, faces and names to that of others. The results show that many, and especially young respondents, tend to be illusory optimistic about the power of their memory for events and faces, but not for names. The implications of this result for evaluating eyewitness reports by tries of fact in legal cases are discussed.     

Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses’ Growth Expectations and Financial Performance in Latvia: Does Ethnicity Matter?

Applying regulatory focus theory, this paper investigates the impact of both ‘initial confidence’ and ‘exactness of growth expectations’ on the financial performance of small and medium-sized firms in Latvia. Drawing on a data set based on repeated survey design, we explore the complexity of this relationship empirically. Our overall findings suggest that when controlling for other relevant factors, such as actual growth, entrepreneurs having higher growth expectations perform significantly better in terms of profitability. In addition, education has a strong modifying effect. The impact of high growth expectations on subsequent profit performance is stronger for entrepreneurs with a lower level of education. Moreover, these effects are amplified by ethnicity. They are much stronger for ethnic Russian entrepreneurs compared with ethnic Latvian entrepreneurs.     

‘I was completely oblivious to gender’: an exploration of how women in STEMM navigate leadership in a neoliberal,post-feminist context

Women are under-represented in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) fields worldwide, particularly in leadership positions. We explore this phenomenon by examining the leadership experiences of 25 women who were actively seeking to enhance their leadership capacities in STEMM fields from five countries in the Global North. We argue that women in this study seemed to be caught in an ‘ideological dilemma’ between recognizing sexism and gender bias in their organizational contexts and seeing their organizations as gender neutral. We argue that a post-feminist climate and a neoliberal ethic of meritocracy in science render inequality difficult to articulate and address. Considering this dilemma through the lens of ‘cruel optimism’, we suggest that women are problematically bound to a fantasy of success in STEMM in which leadership is attainable through arduous effort.

Abbreviation: STEMM; Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine     

A Comparative Analysis and Evaluation of Specialist PPP Units’ Methodologies for Conducting Value for Money Appraisals

Governments throughout the world are turning to public?private partnerships (PPPs) as a means of providing new infrastructure. The decision to adopt a PPP over conventional government procurement is usually based on a value for money (VfM) appraisal, but this analysis is conducted differently in different countries. This article describes the correct way to conduct VfM analysis if the goal is to minimize the present value of the costs to the Treasury and if the goal is to maximize social welfare. It then compares the documented methodologies of nine specialist PPP units. It identifies four ways in which these methodologies depart from either of the correct approaches, and shows how each departure favors the PPP option. Finally, it shows how the UK approach might be augmented to determine the best value to society.     

论对中国特色社会主义的忧乐观

对中国特色社会主义的规律性认识是当代中国共产党人忧乐观形成的基本依据.刻苦学习马克思主义中国化成果是培养乐观主义精神的根本途径.科学分析形势,勇于面对问题是增强忧患意识的基本要求.