bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Monetary Policy Delegation, Contract Costs and Contract Targets
Authors: Chortareas Georgios E. , Miller Stephen M.
Published: March 2003

We reconsider the optimal central banker contract derived in Walsh (1995). We show that if the government's objective function places weight (value) on the cost of the contract, then the optimal inflation contract does not completely neutralize the inflation bias. Furthermore, the more concerned the government is about the cost of the contract or the less selfish is the central banker, the smaller is the share of the inflation bias eliminated by the contract. Finally, a central banker contract written in terms of output can completely eradicate the inflationary bias, regardless of concerns about contract costs.
Ethical Relationships In Retailing: Some Cautionary Tales
Authors: Whysall Paul
Published: March 2003

Horror stories attached to some recent retailing events concerning Hoover, Ratners and others raise questions about a company’s ethical concern, whether it be part of its marketing strategy or ‘thrust upon it’. If ethics is to have a place in retail strategy that place is better focused around performance at an operational level rather than at the level of promotion or publicity. The author is Professor of Retailing at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4BU, U.K. e‐mail: smm3whysapt@ntu.ac.uk
The use of corporate social disclosures in the management of reputation and legitimacy: a cross sectoral analysis of UK Top 100 Companies
Authors: Clarke Julia , Gibson‐Sweet Monica
Published: March 2003

Recent years have witnessed an escalation in corporate social reporting (CSR) by UK companies (Gray, Kouhy and Lavers 1995). Whilst some elements of CSR reporting are required by law, much of it represents voluntary reporting. By investigating the non‐mandatory reporting of two aspects of social responsibility, corporate community involvement (CCI) and environmental impact, this paper seeks to explore why companies choose to make such disclosures. It specifically asks whether companies are primarily motivated by the strategic need to manage their reputation and legitimacy rather than by the recognition of their ethical accountability, which is the stated purpose of reports produced by cutting edge companies (Clarke 1998).
The role of the human resources manager: strategist or conscience of the organisation?
Authors: Foote Dorothy , Robinson Izabela
Published: March 2003

The human resource manager treads a fine line in seeking to reconcile the values of the organisation with professional values about the ethical management of people. This paper seeks to explore this ambiguity. The research findings suggest that the extent to which HR professionals can influence organisational ethics is dependent on the culture and structure of the organisation, as well as on the status and credibility of the HR specialists themselves. In the main there is little evidence that their influence is significant.
Illegal but ethical: an inquiry into the roots of illegal corporate behaviour in Russia
Authors: Meirovich Gavriel , Reichel Arie
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the perceptions of Russian executives toward the relationship between legal and ethical conduct. The focus is on questions of tax evasion attitudes and corporate illegal behavior. Forty Russian managers and entrepreneurs from a variety of organizations were interviewed. Their actions are aimed at gaining corporate income and profit from operations through hiding corporate activity from state and local authorities in a context where these authorities levy excessive taxes and other types of payment from businesses. Tax evasion methods are presented and analyzed along with other varieties of illegal corporate behavior. The research results show that executives believe business could not perform in a completely legal way under Russia’s existing conditions. Illegal performance is thus viewed as legitimate and ethical.
Business ethics as academic field in Africa: its current status
Authors: Barkhuysen Belinda , Rossouw Gedeon
Published: March 2003

Reflection on the state of business ethics as academic field in Africa has been largely neglected, partly because there existed no overall picture of what is happening in this field of study. This paper reports the findings of the first comprehensive survey on the state of business ethics as academic field on the African continent. It has both a descriptive and reflective component. In the descriptive part of the paper the research strategy and methodology used to conduct this survey is outlined as well as the difficulties encountered in the research project. Then the findings with regard to how academics perceived the purpose of this field of study, what academic activity there is within this field, where it is being done, and how it is institutionalised are reported. In the reflective part of the paper, the implications of these findings are considered and some directives for the further development of business ethics as academic field are proposed.
The politicisation of whistleblowers: a case study
Authors: Uys Tina
Published: March 2003

The focus of this article is on the political nature of whistleblowing. It argues that reprisals by management, rather than silencing the whistleblower, result in the transformation and politicisation of the individual. The process that leads to the transformation of a loyal employee into a political activist is considered through analysing the experiences of a whistleblower in the sphere of financial regulation in South Africa. The article investigates the effect of retaliation by the employer on the employee‐organisational relationship. It looks in particular at the nature of the power struggle between the whistleblower and management and suggests explanations why organisations tend to respond in such a harsh fashion to whistleblowing. It concludes that the act of whistleblowing not only displays an expressive dimension, but also a political instrumental dimension that is often neglected in literature on whistleblowing.
Fraud: who polices Europe?
Authors: Quirke Brendan
Published: March 2003

Fraud in Europe is complex and well organised: it crosses organisational and geographic boundaries. The policing of fraud, on the other hand, is characterised both at national and transnational levels by fragmentation and divided accountability. This paper considers the issues involved in combating fraud in European institutions and spending programmes. It discusses the roles of those bodies with transnational responsibilities such as UCLAF (now OLAF), the European Fraud Prevention Office and the European Court of Auditors. The paper considers the difficulties associated with the Corpus Juris proposals for a single European legal area to facilitate the fight against fraud related to the European Budget. It concludes that the task of policing Europe is hampered not only by the diversity of national political and jurisprudential systems, but also by the weakness and lack of independence of the transnational institutions.
Environmental problems and ethical jurisdiction: the case concerning Texaco in Ecuador
Authors: Olsen Janeen
Published: March 2003

Determining the ethical standards to apply to environmental issues presents a difficult dilemma for many managers. The many stakeholders to whom managers must answer tend to view environmental issues quite differently. Multinational corporations often encounter attitudes toward environmental protection in other countries that are quite different from those found in their domestic market. Corporate policy makers must address the national differences in values when determining ethically acceptable behavior. Using the case of Texaco and its alleged contamination of Ecuador’s Amazon jungle as an example, this paper applies the framework of Integrative Social Contract Theory to address issues of ethical jurisdiction and environmental protection.
Ethical investment: whose ethics, which investment?
Authors: Sparkes Russell
Published: March 2003

Ethical or socially responsible investment (SRI) is one of the most rapidly growing areas of finance. New government regulations mean that all pension funds are obliged to take such considerations into account. However, this phenomenon has received little critical attention from business ethicists, and a clear conceptual framework is lacking. This paper, by a practitioner in the field, attempts to fill this analytical gap. It considers what difference, if any, lies between the terms ‘ethical’, ‘green’, or ‘socially responsible’. It also tackles the difficult question of how any public form of investment can be called ‘ethical’ in an overtly pluralistic society. The paper provides an account of the historical development of ethical investment, and traces the evolution of the varying terms used to describe it. This is followed by a conceptual analysis of these terms, and a description of ethical decision‐making in this context. The paper ends by considering the role of shareholder action within ethical investment, and assesses the utility of the stakeholder model as a theoretical justification.
Public companies as social institutions
Authors: Dean Janice
Published: March 2003

Many UK public companies invest considerable resources in charitable donations and community involvement. Using semi‐structured interviews with public company officers, the author sought to investigate the motivations behind this activity. Was it undertaken because of an expectation of commercial benefit, out of a sense of obligation, or for other reasons? It appeared that public companies were increasingly anxious to make connections between corporate activity in the community and business activities. Public companies linked with local communities clearly felt a sense of connection with them. Corporate officers were constantly dealing with the management of reputation, which was seen as a valuable business asset, and community links made this task easier.
Business ethics: a sustainable approach
Authors: Rushton Ken
Published: March 2003

The author proposes sustainability as the criterion for business ethics. The argument here is that in today’s world, business success depends on sustainability. This in turn depends on respect for the environment, employees, customers and stakeholders at large. Thinking about ethics in terms of sustainability involves thinking about ethics in strategic terms. Indeed sustainability could and should be raised to the status of a global ethic. There is evidence to show that corporate social responsibility pays; e.g. the Dow Jones sustainability group index outperformed the Dow Jones index by 36% over the past three‐year period. This suggests that taking ethics seriously goes hand in hand with successful business.
Engaging the commodified face: the use of marketing in the child adoption process
Authors: Higgins Matthew , Smith Warren
Published: March 2003

This paper evaluates the ethical consequences of the use of marketing techniques in the child adoption process within England and Wales. Since 1995 the political climate in the UK has seen a reassessment of the manner in which the state organises care for children who are within its legal guardianship. Successive UK governments have acknowledged the under‐utilisation of child adoption as a moral and efficient means of child‐care. However, the presentation of child adoption in a more active fashion involves concerns about the manner in which child adoption has been organised. Increasingly child adoption organisations and social work professionals are being made accountable through the language of customer service and performance measurements. The use of commercial techniques such as marketing is justified on utilitarian grounds. However, any utilisation of marketing within the child adoption process is forced to ensure that the child is not de‐centred. Legislation requires that the needs and welfare of the child are the first consideration for the adoption agency. Here we begin to see tensions between the humanitarian project that is child adoption, and the unease produced by viewing the child as human ‘product’. This invites analysis via critical theory. The use of marketing in child adoption raises issues related to the objectification and commodification of the child and prospective adopters. Within child adoption it is assumed that we must engage with the child as ‘face’ (Bauman, 1995). But will these assumptions stand the encroachment of marketing techniques into this very sensitive area?
Social welfare, positivism and business ethics
Authors: Campbell David , Craven Barrie , Lawler Kevin
Published: March 2003

It appears that there is a conflict of values running through business ethics between profits accruing to shareholders and the cost of entrepreneurial activities on wider stakeholders. In the ethics research literature, the multiplicity of normative ethical stances has resulted in much debate but little in the way of consistent policy proposals. There is, by comparison, an extensive literature in positive economics that attempts to resolve value conflicts similar to those faced by business ethicists. In this paper the adoption of positive welfare statements are advocated and the value judgements implicit in economics are used as the starting point. It is argued that there is merit in expressly stating a set of value judgements to demonstrate the intractable nature of finding a social consensus without a positive social welfare function that explicitly weights the values. This paper reviews the arguments surrounding corporate objectives, particularly with regard to ethical considerations and the profit maximisation orthodoxy. This is discussed within the stakeholder‐stockholder narrative. A range of ethical positions in the management strategy literature are analysed and discussed. It is argued that the values underpinning business ethics research can be conceived of via a function of social welfare (including an ethical ‘auctioneering’ model). The paper concludes by suggesting that all ethical positions can be captured by a Bergson‐type welfare function.
Challenges and Opportunities in European Utility Markets
Authors: Currie David
Published: March 2003

This article calls on companies – and governments – in Europe to welcome competition in their markets. Liberalisation of Europe’s utility sectors has lagged behind the Single Market generally, to the detriment of consumers and industrial users – except in telecommunications where new technology has forced the pace. The author argues that the potential advantages for incumbents of loss of domestic market dominance are outweighed by the advantages of embracing competition and access to overseas markets: they benefit from the discipline of benchmarking, lessened regulatory pressures and fewer barriers to access to markets abroad. He compares the strategies of Electricité de France and British Telecom to illustrate this.
Service Competitiveness – An Anglo‐US Study
Authors: Voss C.A. , Blackmon K. , Chase R. , Rose E.L. , Roth A.V.
Published: March 2003

This article reports on the latest in a series of international comparisons of management practices and performance outcomes of industries in various countries. Here, it is the service industries in the UK and the US which come under the microscope. Among the companies surveyed, there were more world‐class performers in the US than the UK, but also more low performers. The concluding part of the article is diagnostic – the authors also suggest measures which could improve performance.
Riding the Rapids
Authors: Sorrell Martin
Published: March 2003

In this second of the 1997 Stockton lectures, Martin Sorrell uses his experience as Chief Executive of the communication services group WPP to describe how to ride the rapids of the new technology without falling in. A key challenge is communication and integration within companies. The author assesses the opportunities offered by the new media for building brands and sales – and their limitations.
EMU: from Talk to Action
Authors: FitzGerald Niall
Published: March 2003

Welcoming the British government’s recent decision to join the EMU, the Chairman of one of Europe’s biggest and most international companies here discusses the opportunities and problems that European Monetary Union presents.
Intellectual Capital and the New Wealth of Nations II
Authors: Bradley Keith
Published: March 2003

In the second part of his analysis of intellectual capital and the issues it raises for managers, the author concentrates on the distinction between intellectual capital and human capital. In particular, he argues that intellectual capital is far more important than human capital in economic growth, the creation of wealth and competitive advantage. He concludes with a discussion of why business education has not made intellectual capital central to its curriculum despite its importance.
The Brainstorming Myth
Authors: Furnham Adrian
Published: March 2003

Research shows unequivocally that brainstorming groups produce fewer and poorer quality ideas than the same number of individuals working alone. Yet firms continue to use brainstorming as a technique for generating ideas. This continuing use of an ineffective technique is interesting psychologically. From a practical viewpoint, understanding why brainstorming is usually ineffective, and why people still do it, gives a basis for suggesting how managers can improve the way they use it.
Decision Debacles and How to Avoid Them
Authors: Nutt Paul C.
Published: March 2003

Decision debacles – decisions that go so wrong they are reported in the media – involve three mistakes: faulty decision practices, premature commitments, and misallocation of resources. These mistakes, together with the more detailed traps into which they draw decision‐makers, are found in many decisions that go wrong without attracting media coverage. To avoid decision debacles, governments and organizations should apply the lessons derived from research into decision‐making. These lessons include the need to spend time early in the process to uncover hidden or ethical concerns, care in managing the social and political forces that might block the decision, focussing on clear objectives, exploring a wide range of options and estimating risk. It is also important to root out perverse incentive structures to gain information needed for learning.
Telecom Regulation: Lessons from Independent Central Banks
Authors: Stern Jon , Trillas Francesc
Published: March 2003

Consumers do not choose their preferred central bank base rate in the way that they buy, say, telephone services from one of a number of competing companies: independent central banks (ICBs) and utility regulators have different tasks. However, those concerned with the emerging field of utility regulation can still learn much from research on ICBs, not least because, for historical reasons, there is much more of it. The authors of this article argue that the key to the success of both ICBs and utility regulators is proper governance arrangements. They reject the arguments for procedures that are totally rule‐based with little or no discretion. Within clear rules, they say, both ICBs and regulators should be given discretion combined with high accountability.
Judo Strategy: 10 Techniques For Beating A Stronger Opponent
Authors: Yoffie David B , Kwak Mary
Published: March 2003

The idea of judo economics, building on analogies with the sport of judo, has been around for at least 20 years. But taking these ideas further to judo strategy means that a framework of strategic principles can be developed to help companies put stronger opponents on the mat.
Making M‘A Work
Authors: Hinterhuber Andreas
Published: March 2003

Andreas Hinterhuber, an Aventis manager who has steered the integration process in the Asia–Pacific region, offers a practical guide to successful mergers and acquisitions.
The New Knowledge Economics
Authors: Edvinsson Leif
Published: March 2003

The growth in importance of intangible assets is changing our perceptions of economics and challenging ingrained managerial and organisational wisdom.
Effect of Maternal Soothing on Infant Stress Response
Authors: Lewis Michael , Ramsay Douglas S.
Published: March 2003

The effect of maternal soothing to infant inoculation as well as everyday distress on infant cortisol and behavioral responses to stress was examined in two longitudinal samples of 55 and 74 infants, respectively, between 2 and 6 months of age. There was no evidence that maternal soothing was effective in reducing infants' cortisol or behavioral responses to stress. The absence of this relation occurred despite evidence for cross‐time stability and cross‐situation consistency in maternal soothing. That maternal soothing plays little role in lowering infant responses to stress leaves open the possibilities that other maternal behaviors may mediate children's distress or that infant temperament may be related to infant stress.
Parents' Report of Vocabulary and Grammatical Development of African American Preschoolers: Child and Environmental Associations
Authors: Roberts Joanne E. , Burchinal Margaret , Durham Meghan
Published: March 2003

This study examined how child and family factors affect individual differences in the language development of African American children between 18 and 30 months of age. Participants were 87 African American children, primarily from low‐income families. Children's vocabulary and grammatical skills were assessed at 18, 24, and 30 months of age using the short form of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), a standardized parent report tool. Standardized language tests were administered repeatedly between 1 and 3 years of age. Results showed that children's vocabulary and utterance length grew linearly over time between 18 and 30 months of age. Children from more stimulating and responsive homes were reported to have larger vocabularies, to use more irregular nouns and verbs, and to use longer utterances, in addition to having more rapid rates of acquisition of irregular forms and longer utterances over time. Girls used longer utterances than boys and more irregular forms. Girls also had larger vocabularies in a secondary analysis that eliminated children whose parent report of their vocabulary was substantially lower than children's scores on a standardized language test. There are indications that some parents may be under‐reporting their children's early vocabulary and grammatical development, with a high proportion of the parents reporting their child's 30 month vocabulary and grammatical development as being at or below the 10th percentile according to the CDI norms.
Executive Functions in Young Children with Autism
Authors: Griffith Elizabeth M. , Pennington Bruce F. , Wehner Elizabeth A. , Rogers Sally J.
Published: March 2003

The executive dysfunction hypothesis of autism has received support from most studies of older people with autism; however, studies of young children have produced mixed results. Two studies are presented that compare the performance of preschoolers with autism (mean = 51 months/4.3 years of age) to a control group matched on age, and verbal and nonverbal ability. The first study (n = 18 autism and 17 control) found no group differences in performance on 8 executive function tasks (A not B, Object Retrieval, A not B with Invisible Displacement, 3‐Boxes Stationary and Scrambled, 6‐Boxes Stationary and Scrambled, and Spatial Reversal), but did find that children with autism initiated fewer joint attention and social interaction behaviors. The second (longitudinal) study of a subset of the children (n = 13 autism and 11 control) from the first study found that neither groups' performance on Spatial Reversal changed significantly over the course of a year. The results of these studies pose a serious challenge to the executive dysfunction hypothesis of autism.
A Developmental Perspective on Peer Rejection: Mechanisms of Stability and Change
Authors: Sandstrom Marlene Jacobs , Coie John D.
Published: March 2003

This study examines factors associated with the relative stability of peer rejection among elementary school‐aged children. Forty‐four initially rejected children (some of whom improved their social status while others remained rejected over a 2‐year period) were recruited from a larger sociometric sample. Prospective analyses were conducted to determine whether peer nominated aggression and children's perceptions of their own status in fourth grade were predictive of status improvement by the end of fifth grade. In addition to prospective analyses, initially rejected children and their mothers were invited to participate in a retrospective interview about their social experiences over the past 2 school years. Results of prospective and retrospective analyses suggested that perceived social status, participation in extracurricular activities, locus of control, and parental monitoring were all positively related to status improvement among initially rejected children. Surprisingly, aggressive behavior also was positively related to status improvement among initially rejected boys.
A Secure Base from Which to Explore Close Relationships
Authors: Waters Everett , Cummings E. Mark
Published: March 2003

The theory of attachment as a secure‐base relationship integrates insights about affect, cognition, and behavior in close relationships across age and culture. Empirical successes based on this theory include important discoveries about the nature of infant–caregiver and adult–adult close relationships, the importance of early experience, and about stability and change in individual differences. The task now is to preserve these insights and successes and build on them. To accomplish this, we need to continually examine the logic and coherence of attachment theory and redress errors of emphasis and analysis. Views on attachment development, attachment representation, and attachment in family and cross‐cultural perspective need to be updated in light of empirical research and advances in developmental theory, behavioral biology, and cognitive psychology. We also need to challenge the theory by formulating and testing hypotheses which, if not confirmed, would require significant changes to the theory. If we can accomplish these tasks, prospects for important developments in attachment theory and research are greater than ever, as are the prospects for integration with other disciplines.
Family Poverty, Welfare Reform, and Child Development
Authors: Duncan Greg J. , Brooks‐Gunn Jeanne
Published: March 2003

Our review of research suggests that family poverty has selective effects on child development. Most important for policy are indications that deep or persistent poverty early in childhood affects adversely the ability and achievement of children. Although the 1996 welfare reforms have spurred many welfare‐to‐work transitions, their time limits and, especially, sanctions are likely to deepen poverty among some families. We suggest ways policies might be aimed at preventing either economic deprivation itself or its effects.
Physiological Self‐Regulation and Information Processing in Infancy: Cardiac Vagal Tone and Habituation
Authors: Bornstein Marc H. , Suess Patricia E.
Published: March 2003

This study investigates the role of physiological self‐regulation (cardiac vagal tone) in information processing (habituation) in 81 infants. Nucleus ambiguus vagal tone (Vna, a measure of respiratory sinus arrhythmia) was used to index cardiac vagal tone. Physiological self‐regulation was operationalized as the change in Vna from a baseline period of measurement to habituation. Decreases in Vna consistently related to habituation efficiency, operationalized as accumulated looking time (ALT), in all infants twice at 2 months and twice at 5 months; however, this relation was accounted for by infants who met an habituation criterion on each task. Among habituators, shorter lookers also had greater Vna suppression during habituation. Within‐age and between‐age suppression of vagal tone predicted ALT, but ALT did not predict suppression of vagal tone. Physiological self‐regulation provided by the vagal system appears to play a role in information processing in infancy as indexed by habituation.

Les grandes pensées viennent du coeur. —  Vauvenargués (1746), Maxime 127
Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disordered and Control Boys' Responses to Social Success and Failure
Authors: Hoza Betsy , Waschbusch Daniel A. , Pelham William E. , Molina Brooke S. G. , Milich Richard
Published: March 2003

The behavioral, self‐evaluative, and attributional responses of 120 boys with Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and 65 control boys to social success and failure were examined using a dyadic, laboratory get‐acquainted task employing child confederates. Objective coders rated boys with ADHD as less socially effective than controls in their interactions, but also as less frustrated and helpless. In terms of self‐evaluations, ADHD boys overwhelmingly rated their own performance more favorably than did controls and in some instances, these differences were more apparent following failure. The attributional pattern of ADHD and control boys differed in that ADHD boys were more likely than controls to attribute success to external, uncontrollable factors such as task ease and being lucky; controls, on the other hand, were more likely than ADHD boys to attribute initial failure to not having tried hard enough. Results are discussed in the context of existing literature documenting a positive illusory bias in ADHD boys' self‐perceptions.
Toddlers' Use of Force against Familiar Peers: A Precursor of Serious Aggression?
Authors: Hay Dale F. , Castle Jenny , Davies Lisa
Published: March 2003

Possible precursors of serious aggression were identified in toddlers' use of force against peers. Instances of grabbing objects and hitting peers were recorded in a sample of 66 British 18‐ to 30‐month‐olds, observed at home with familiar peers and seen again 6 months later. Mothers rated aggressiveness in the context of other personality traits. Girls and boys did not differ in average levels of aggression, nor were they rated differently by the mothers. However, the observed rate of hitting peers and mothers' ratings of aggressiveness were stable over 6 months for girls, but not for boys. Toddlers who were especially sensitive to peers' possible intentions hit their peers more often. They were also more likely to use force proactively, 6 months later.
Extended Visual Fixation in the Early Preschool Years: Look Duration, Heart Rate Changes, and Attentional Inertia
Authors: Richards John E. , Cronise Kim
Published: March 2003

Visual fixation in infants from 6 months to 2 years of age was examined for its fit to the theory of ‘attentional inertia.’ A children's movie (‘Sesame Street’ movie, ‘Follow that Bird’) or an extended audiovisual stimulus (computer‐generated patterns) was presented to 40 children for a minimum of 20 min while fixation was videotaped and heart rate (HR) was recorded. Consistent with attentional inertia theory, fixations toward the stimuli had a lognormal distribution, HR decreased over the course of a look, and HR returned to prestimulus levels immediately before look offset. Older children (18 months, 24 months) showed a distinction in the parameters describing the lognormal distribution for the ‘Sesame Street’ movie and the audiovisual patterns, whereas younger children (6 months, 12 months) responded similarly to the two stimulus types. Fixation patterns of children in this age range suggest attention increases over the course of a look, and parameters consistent with attentional inertia theory differentially develop in this age range.
Sibling Comparison of Differential Parental Treatment in Adolescence: Gender, Self‐Esteem, and Emotionality as Mediators of the Parenting‐Adjustment Association
Authors: Feinberg Mark E. , Neiderhiser Jenae M. , Simmens Sam , Reiss David , Hetherington E. Mavis
Published: March 2003

This study employs findings from social comparison research to investigate adolescents' comparisons with siblings with regard to parental treatment. The sibling comparison hypothesis was tested on a sample of 516 two‐child families by examining whether gender, self‐esteem, and emotionality — which have been found in previous research to moderate social comparison — also moderate sibling comparison as reflected by siblings' own evaluations of differential parental treatment. Results supported a moderating effect for self‐esteem and emotionality but not gender. The sibling comparison process was further examined by using a structural equation model in which parenting toward each child was associated with the adjustment of that child and of the child's sibling. Evidence of the “sibling barricade” effect — that is, parenting toward one child being linked with opposite results on the child's sibling as on the target child — was found in a limited number of cases and interpreted as reflecting a sibling comparison process. For older siblings, emotionality and self‐esteem moderated the sibling barricade effect but in the opposite direction as predicted. Results are discussed in terms of older siblings' increased sensitivity to parenting as well as the report of differential parenting reflecting the child's level of comfort and benign understanding of differential parenting, which buffers the child against environmental vicissitudes evoking sibling comparison processes.
Children's Probability Intuitions: Understanding the Expected Value of Complex Gambles
Authors: Schlottmann Anne
Published: March 2003

Two experiments used Information Integration Theory to study how children judge expected value of complex gambles in which alternative outcomes have different prizes. Six‐year‐olds, 9‐year‐olds and adults (N = 73 in Study 1, N = 28 in Study 2) saw chance games that involved shaking a marble in a bicolored tube. One prize was won if the marble stopped on blue, another if it stopped on yellow. Children judged how happy a puppet playing the game would be, with the prizes and probability of the blue and yellow outcomes varied factorially. Three main results appeared in both studies: First, participants in all age groups used the normatively prescribed multiplication rule for integrating probability and value of each individual outcome — a striking finding because multiplicative reasoning does not usually appear before 8 years of age in other domains. Second, all age groups based judgment of overall expected value meaningfully on both alternative outcomes, but there were individual differences — many participants deviated from the normative addition rule, showing risk seeking and risk averse patterns of judgment similar to the risk attitudes often found with adults. Third, even the youngest children took probability to be an abstract rather than physical property of the game. Overall, in contrast to the traditional view, the present results demonstrate functional understanding of probability and expected value in children as young as 5 or 6. These results contribute to the growing evidence on children's intuitive reasoning competence. This intuition can, on the one hand, support surprisingly precocious performance in young children, but it may also contribute to the biases evident in adults' judgment and decision.
A “Natural Experiment” in Childrearing Ecologies and Adolescents' Attachment and Separation Representations
Authors: Scharf Miri
Published: March 2003

Employing a quasi‐experimental design, this study explored the long‐term effects of different childrearing ecological contexts. Participants were 131 adolescents (aged 16 – 18) from four groups: some who lived in a city, some from a kibbutz familial setting, some from a kibbutz communal setting, and a transitional group that included adolescents raised in a communal setting as young children who moved to a familial sleeping arrangement before the age of six. Adolescents' state of mind with regard to attachment and representations regarding separation were examined. Participants were administered the Adult Attachment Interview, the Separation Anxiety Test, and background questionnaires. The group raised in a communal setting in the kibbutz showed a higher incidence of nonautonomous attachment representations and less competent coping with imagined separations than did the other groups. By contrast, the transitional group was comparable to the city and the kibbutz familial groups. These results are discussed in light of the plasticity and adaptability of children to changed circumstances.
Infant Reactivity and Reliance on Mother during Emotion Challenges: Prediction of Cognition and Language Skills in a Low‐Income Sample
Authors: Robinson JoAnn L. , Acevedo Marcela C.
Published: March 2003

This investigation considers the association between patterns of emotional reactivity and reliance on mother in infancy and cognitive and language developments at age 2. Low‐income women (N= 518) and their firstborn infants participated in (1) a lab‐based assessment where emotion challenges were presented when the infants were 6 to 9 months old, and (2) an assessment of language and cognitive skills at age 2. After controlling for birthweight, early sensorimotor delay, and age at testing, infants who displayed a pattern of combined high reactivity and high reliance on mother in response to positive, anger, and fear emotion challenges had higher cognitive and language skills at age 2 compared with infants who displayed patterns of low reactivity and low reliance on mother. Children who showed high fearful distress and low reliance on mother and whose mothers had low psychological resources had especially poor developmental outcomes. The role of maternal availability in the socialization of emotion and early communication is discussed.
Brazilian Adolescents' Prosocial Moral Judgment and Behavior: Relations to Sympathy, Perspective Taking, Gender‐Role Orientation, and Demographic Characteristics
Authors: Eisenberg Nancy , Zhou Qing , Koller Silvia
Published: March 2003

The goal of this study was to examine demographic and individual difference variables that predict level of prosocial moral judgment and self‐reported prosocial behavior and to test mediating or moderating relations among predictors. The relations of prosocial moral reasoning and self‐reported prosocial behavior to perspective taking, sympathy, age, sociometric status, and gender‐role orientation were examined with a sample of 149 Brazilian adolescents who completed a series of questionnaire measures. Prosocial moral judgment was expected to be predicted by both sympathy and perspective taking, whereas sympathy or prosocial moral judgment was expected to mediate the relations of femininity and perspective taking to prosocial behavior. Self‐reported perspective taking and sympathy interacted when predicting prosocial moral judgment; adolescents who were high in either sympathy or perspective taking (or both) scored high in prosocial moral reasoning. A feminine orientation predicted sympathy and perspective taking, perspective taking predicted prosocial moral reasoning and sympathy, and sympathy had both direct and indirect paths (through moral judgment) to prosocial behavior. The findings generally were consistent with the contention that both the tendency to take others' perspectives and to sympathize are related to level of prosocial moral reasoning, which in turn motivates prosocial behavior. Moreover, patterns of correlations among variables were similar to those found in the United States.
Early Teacher–Child Relationships and the Trajectory of Children's School Outcomes through Eighth Grade
Authors: Hamre Bridget K. , Pianta Robert C.
Published: March 2003

This study followed a sample of 179 children from kindergarten through eighth grade to examine the extent to which kindergarten teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students predict a range of school outcomes. Kindergarten teachers rated children's behavior and the quality of the teacher–child relationship. Follow‐up data from first through eighth grade were organized by epoch and included academic grades, standardized test scores, work‐habit ratings, and discipline records. Relational Negativity in kindergarten, marked by conflict and dependency, was related to academic and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade, particularly for children with high levels of behavior problems in kindergarten and for boys generally. These associations remained significant after controlling for gender, ethnicity, cognitive ability, and behavior ratings. The results have implications for theories of the determinants of school success, the role of adult –child relationships in development, and a range of early intervention and prevention efforts.
Old Friends, New Friends: Predictors of Children’s Perspective on Their Friends at School
Authors: Dunn Judy , Cutting Alexandra L. , Fisher Naomi
Published: March 2003

Predictors of 5‐year‐old kindergartners’ insights into their friends, and their accounts of liking and conflict with their friends were investigated, with a focus on both the children’s and their friends’ social understanding during the preschool period, and the quality of their preschool friendships. Seventy children initially studied at 4 years utilizing social cognition tasks and observations of dyadic play with their friends were followed over the transition to school; at school they were interviewed about their friendships and their social understanding was assessed. One group had remained close to their preschool friends, whereas a second group had formed new friendships. Social understanding, language abilities, and prosocial characteristics of both the children and preschool friends, their successful communication and shared pretend play experiences during the preschool period, and their mothers’ educational level were related to their perspectives on their current school friends. Liking of current friends was linked to relationship history and maternal educational level for both those with old and with new friends, whereas insight was related to assessments of social cognition.
Families with Children Conceived by Donor Insemination: A Follow‐Up at Age Twelve
Authors: Golombok Susan , MacCallum Fiona , Goodman Emma , Rutter Michael
Published: March 2003

Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of DI children at age 12. Thirty‐seven DI families, 49 adoptive families, and 91 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. The differences between DI families and the other family types reflected greater expressive warmth of DI mothers toward their children and less involvement in the discipline of their children by DI fathers. The DI children were well adjusted in terms of their social and emotional development. The findings are discussed with respect to the secrecy surrounding DI and the imbalance in genetic relatedness between the parents and the child.
Are Young Children Susceptible to the False–Memory Illusion?
Authors: Brainerd C.J. , Reyna V.F. , Forrest T.J.
Published: March 2003

False memories have typically been found to be more common during early childhood than during later childhood or adulthood. However, fuzzy–trace theory makes the counterintuitive prediction that some powerful forms of adult false memory will be greatly attenuated in early childhood, an important example being the Deese/Roediger/McDermott (DRM) illusion. Three developmental studies of this illusion (N=282) found that (1) it was at near–floor levels in young children, (2) it was still below adult levels by early adolescence, and (3) the low levels of the illusion in young children may be due to failure to “get the gist” of DRM materials.
Young Children’s Beliefs about the Stability of Traits: Protective Optimism?
Authors: Lockhart Kristi L. , Chang Bernard , Story Tyler
Published: March 2003

Prior research has demonstrated individual differences in children’s beliefs about the stability of traits, but this focus on individuals may have masked important developmental differences. In a series of four studies, younger children (5–6 years old, Ns = 53, 32, 16, and 16, respectively) were more optimistic in their beliefs about traits than were older children (7–10 years old, Ns = 60, 32, 16, and 16, respectively) and adults (Ns = 130, 100, 48, and 48, respectively). Younger children were more likely to believe that negative traits would change in an extreme positive direction over time (Study 1) and that they could control the expression of a trait (Study 3). This was true not only for psychological traits, but also for biological traits such as missing a finger and having poor eyesight. Young children also optimistically believed that extreme positive traits would be retained over development (Study 2). Study 4 extended these findings to groups, and showed that young children believed that a majority of people can have above average future outcomes. All age groups made clear distinctions between the malleability of biological and psychological traits, believing negative biological traits to be less malleable than negative psychological traits and less subject to a person’s control. Hybrid traits (such as intelligence and body weight) fell midway between these two with respect to malleability. The sources of young children’s optimism and implications of this optimism for age differences in the incidence of depression are discussed.
Preschool Emotional Competence: Pathway to Social Competence?
Authors: Denham Susanne A. , Blair Kimberly A. , DeMulder Elizabeth , Levitas Jennifer , Sawyer Katherine , Auerbach–Major Sharon , Queenan Patrick
Published: March 2003

Preschoolers’ (N = 143) patterns of emotional expressiveness, emotion regulation, and emotion knowledge were assessed. Their contributions to social competence, as evidenced by sociometric likability and teacher ratings, were evaluated via latent variable modeling, both concurrently and across time. Moderation of key results by age and sex was also explored. Emotional competence assessed at 3 to 4 years of age contributed to both concurrent and kindergarten social competence. Even early in the preschool period, contributions of emotional competence to social competence have long–term implications.
Data Intermixing and Multi‐volume Rendering
Authors: Cai Wenli , Sakas Georgios
Published: March 2003

The main difference between multi‐volume rendering and mono‐volume rendering is data intermixing. In this paper, we present three levels of data intermixing and their rendering pipelines in direct multi‐volume rendering, which discriminate image level intensity intermixing, accumulation level opacity intermixing, and illumination model level parameter intermixing. In the context of radiotherapy treatment planning, different data intermixing methods are applied to three volumes, including CT volume, Dose volume, and Segmentation volume, to compare the features of different data intermixing methods.
Modeling the Motion of Dense Smoke in the Wind Field
Authors: Rudolf Marcin J. , Raczkowski Jacek
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a volumetric animation technique for modeling the turbulent motion of very dense and turbulent smoke such as one coming from a steam engine. A new method of the wind field generation is proposed. Gas motion is determined by the integration of two independent vector layers. The first one is a combination of flow primitives and the second is created by stochastically generated turbulence. Special attention is taken of the proper construction of the turbulent layer. For the visualization purposes a simple volume raytracer is applied. Many light sources are taken into account to achieve photorealistic effects. Finally some interesting animations are overviewed. Computation times for a PC Pentium 200 and an SGI O2 workstation are compared to demonstrate the high efficiency of the method.