bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Immigrant Children and the Transition to Adulthood
Authors: Gonzales Roberto G. , Roth Benjamin J.
Published: May 2015

The children of immigrants represent a large and growing segment of the US population. The children of immigrants are not progressing steadily as a group at the same rate or following a standard pathway to adulthood. Rather, there is wide variation across ethnic groups and immigrant generations, and immigrant children are not necessarily following the patterned sequence of the nonimmigrant majority.

Immigrant youth reach developmental milestones such as educational attainment, job attainment, and achieving independence from parents, but they do so at varying rates and with different levels of success. These young people are diverse in terms of their backgrounds and the places where they come of age, and these factors interact in ways that help explain why they are following divergent pathways to adulthood. In particular, legal status—whether of immigrant parents or of immigrant youth themselves—has become a “master status” that conditions their path to adulthood. Future research must continue to identify the ways in which geography, local organizations, immigration reform, and other factors interact to shape opportunities that immigrant youth as they approach adulthood.

The implications of the diverging developmental pathways of immigrant youth are significant, not only for immigrants and their families but also for the larger society. Given that they represent a large percentage of children today, these young people will heavily influence tomorrow's workforce—and therefore the economic strength and security of this country.
Immigration and the Changing Status of Asian Americans
Authors: Lee Jennifer
Published: May 2015

Mass immigration over the past four decades has changed the racial and ethnic composition of United States by ushering in millions of Asians and Latinos whose arrival has not only challenged the traditional black‐white color line, but has also changed perceptions about race. Focusing on Asian Americans, I show how contemporary immigration has changed the racial status of this group; once considered “unassimilable” and “undesirable immigrants,” Asian Americans now exhibit the highest rates of intermarriage, the lowest rates of residential segregation, and the highest median household incomes of all US racial groups. By highlighting the changing selectivity of Asian immigration after the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, I illustrate how their hyper‐selectivity has not only affected their patterns of incorporation, but also produced positive stereotypes of contemporary Asian Americans. This, in turn, has resulted in a social psychological process that I refer to asstereotype promise—the promise of being viewed through the lens of a positive stereotype that leads one to perform in such a way that confirms the positive stereotype, thereby enhancing performance and outcomes. By introducing research in social psychology to the fields of immigration and race, I provide a better understanding of the ways in which immigration is changing the meaning of race for Asian Americans in twenty‐first century America.
Impact of Limited Education on Employment Prospects in Advanced Economies
Authors: Solga Heike
Published: May 2015

Employment and wage inequalities between educational groups in advanced economies have received much attention in economic and sociological research. Over the past 50 years, the labor market vulnerability of less‐educated workers has increased and will most probably continue to do so unless crucial interventions take place. Foundational research has identified multiple factors that contribute to rising educational disparities in employment prospects. It has focused in particular on demand‐side factors, such as skill supply–demand mismatches, changes in overall job structures, foreign trade, or institutional changes; however, most studies were based on supply‐side data. Cutting edge research has challenged some of these findings by studying recruitment processes, technological changes, and skill distributions, and by using a multidimensional concept of education. Nevertheless, the relative importance of the various factors has yet to be determined. Other key issues for future research involve including women in the analysis, explaining not only differences between educational groups but also differences within the group of less‐educated workers, and studying the impact of variation in competence‐qualification relationships on the employment prospects of less‐educated workers. Research of this nature will require more interdisciplinary cooperation between economists and sociologists and an increase in international comparative studies. Such research will enrich our understanding of how the barriers confronting less‐educated workers in the labor market can be overcome or removed.
Implicit Memory
Authors: McBride Dawn M.
Published: May 2015

Implicit memory involves the influence of memory without intention and often without awareness. For example, many of the tasks we perform without conscious control are considered implicit tasks. These include tasks with which we have experience such as riding a bicycle, driving a car, or typing. In this essay, the study of implicit memory is briefly reviewed beginning with discussion of foundational studies in this area that followed either a processing or memory systems perspective on this topic. Some current, cutting edge research is reviewed with primary emphasis on questions that hold promise for new knowledge about implicit forms of memory: (i) In what ways is conceptual implicit memory (memory without intention) similar to explicit memory (memory with intention)? (ii) What roles do item‐specific (focus on details of an item) and relational (focus on connections between items) processing play in implicit memory retrieval? (iii) What is the role of attention in implicit memory retrieval? Examination of these questions provides avenues for future research in this area.
Inefficiencies in Health Care Provision
Authors: Burgess James F. , Hockenberry Jason M. , Allen Lindsay
Published: May 2015

This essay seeks to elucidate salient issues on the topic of inefficiency in the provision of health care. We begin with a discussion on the definition of efficiency, and the particular forms it can take in health care. From there, we define a useful framework for thinking about ways in which efficiency in the health care system can be improved. We describe cutting edge research being conducted in the field, and the major challenges to furthering the research agenda in this area, not the least of which is the unique nature of health care itself. We conclude with a discussion about key issues for future research, including the importance of incorporating multidisciplinary perspectives into this research.
Information Politics in Dictatorships
Authors: Wallace Jeremy L.
Published: May 2015

Political science has made great progress in the study of nondemocratic regime survival in the past 15 years. Democratization is only one threat that such regimes face—indeed, most nondemocratic regimes are replaced by other dictators. How do regimes learn about the threats facing them? Cutting‐edge research has pointed to elite institutions, such as legislatures and politburos, easing information problems among regime insiders. However, the ways that nondemocratic regimes gather information about local agent performance and society remain underexplored.
Insomnia and Sleep Disorders
Authors: Mason Elizabeth C. , Harvey Allison G.
Published: May 2015

Sleep is common to all animals and yet there are so many mysteries surrounding its function. Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, is prevalent and debilitating and has been shown to play a role in the onset and maintenance of other mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. This chapter outlines a basic overview of sleep, followed by a summary of cutting‐edge research investigating insomnia as well as its relationship to other psychiatric disorders. It is suggested that a bidirectional relationship exists between sleep and emotion and research supporting this framework is addressed briefly. We describe the treatment of choice for insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as outline other exciting developments in the treatment of insomnia, including bright light therapy, intensive sleep retraining therapy, and Internet‐based treatments. Finally, we end on a discussion of areas that are ripe for future investigation, including biological mechanisms, sleep medications, and other sleep disorders such as hypersomnia.
Institutional Contexts for Socioeconomic Effects on Schooling Outcomes
Authors: van de Werfhorst Herman G.
Published: May 2015

In the field of stratification sociology, one of the most important developments of the past two decades has been an improved understanding of cross‐national variations with regard to the role of education in society. The structure of educational systems differs in important respects between countries, affecting patterns of inequality. The central issue that will be addressed in this essay is to what extent educational institutional characteristics are related to the level of inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) in a country.
IEO
refers to the association between background variables, most notably social class origin and race/ethnicity, and schooling outcomes of children. These outcomes include the highest attained educational level, school continuation decisions during the educational career, and student test scores. Institutional characteristics that are discussed include early tracking, forms of standardization, the vocational orientation, and private schooling.
Interdependence, Development, and Interstate Conflict
Authors: Gartzke Erik
Published: May 2015

A nation's economy is the engine that powers, produces, and procures the weapons of war. Economic interests may benefit from war through increased production or they may oppose contests that promise to interfere with profits from trade and investment. Punitive raids, a major invasion, or an attack from the air may also hamper the productive potential of a nation, encouraging its leaders to think twice before using force.

What relationships link economics and interstate conflict? How can a better understanding of these relationships help limit bloodshed in war and potentially bring peace? The many ways in which economic processes are tied to the development and use of military force would seem to support almost any speculation about the causes and implications of each for the other. Indeed, the literature on war would appear to have detailed just about every such possibility. Economics may be good or bad for peace depending on which sets of connections one prefers to emphasize. Part of this confusion stems from the inherent complexity of interacting two complex social phenomena in multiple possible ways. Confusion may also arise if the causes of either or both processes are not well understood. Indeed, the origins and nature of warfare have only recently begun to reveal themselves, despite centuries of interest and inquiry.

Simply understanding why nations fight will go a long way to whittling down the number of ways that economic forces are likely to impact decisions of war and peace. It will also prove useful to distinguish the effects of different features of national economies, once a framework is in place (a model) to adequately represent war, the basic process whose functioning is said to be affected in various ways. This essay focuses on two economic processes, development and interdependence, explains why these two are especially worthy of attention, and attempts to lay out possible avenues for the extension of research into linkages between and among economic interdependence, development, and interstate conflict.
Judicial Independence
Authors: Clark Tom S.
Published: May 2015

For analytic clarity, judicial independence is best thought of as a concept that captures a variety of features of a judicial system. One common, and useful, approach is to associate judicial independence with the ability of judges to, in practice, make decisions the outcomes of which are not dictated by extrajudicial pressures. In this spirit, research on judicial independence has examined a number of topics, two of which are (i) the origins and determinants of political support for the judiciary and (ii) the consequences of maintaining judicial independence for economic performance. Original research on political support for the judiciary focused on how a system of separation of powers can constrain judicial independence. Current research is turning the question around, examining the role courts play as a component of a system in which policy is made collectively by political institutions. Research on the relationship between judicial independence and economic performance originally examined whether greater judicial independence is associated with higher levels of economic growth. Current research is expanding the focus to evaluate the conditions under which independent courts reinforce the stability of democratic government. As research on judicial independence moves forward, it should focus on further conceptual clarification, the study of independent courts as complements to other parts of a system of governance (rather than competitors to policy makers), and leveraging current advances for theoretically driven measurement of these concepts.
Kin‐Directed Behavior in Primates
Authors: Berman Carol M.
Published: May 2015

Kinship was one of the first foundational principles of primate social organization to be recognized and to be viewed within an explicit evolutionary framework, specifically kin selection theory. Over time we have come to appreciate how much kinship structures and kin preferences vary between and within species, and how they are constrained by demography, life history characteristics, ecology, and mechanisms for recognizing kin. We have only recently discovered that many species are able to recognize paternal kin and to express preferences for them, but we have much to learn about how individuals do this, and how they make choices among different classes of kin and nonkin. Many potential benefits of close kin relationships have been uncovered, and some have been firmly linked to fitness benefits. Questions about kin selection versus mutualism or reciprocity as an explanation for kin preferences continue to pose challenges. Recent empirical studies support the operation of kin selection, but suggest that it may extend only within fairly narrow limits of relatedness. Much current theoretical research focuses on modeling the ways in which kinship interacts with dispersal patterns, reproductive skew, habitat saturation, and other ecological and life history patterns to produce various selective regimes related to cooperation. Some recent promising theoretical models of the origins of human social systems also rely in part on principles of kin selection and on a greatly expanded understanding of kin‐related behavior in nonhuman primates.
Knowledge Transfer
Authors: Nokes‐Malach Timothy J. , Richey J. Elizabeth
Published: May 2015

Controversy regarding the nature and frequency of knowledge transfer has received significant attention for more than a century, and this debate has sparked advances in our theoretical understanding of transfer as well as educational practices designed to promote it. We review the classical cognitive approach to studying transfer and highlight several important critiques of that approach regarding issues of context, assessment, and individual differences. These critiques have pushed research to improve understanding of the learning processes that facilitate transfer, the application processes that enact it, and the measurement of it. Research investigating the relationship between achievement goals and transfer serves as an example of the ways issues of context and individual differences are being integrated into the study of transfer. Future work on transfer should continue to refine and clarify how we define, assess, and promote it.
Lawmaking
Authors: Carson Jamie L. , Owens Mark E.
Published: May 2015

The goal of this essay is to present foundational and cutting‐edge research that has influenced how researchers study the lawmaking process within American politics. By assessing the most influential research on legislative politics to date, we are able to highlight the research that is moving the discipline forward. Specifically, we focus not only on the outcomes produced by the lawmaking process but also the institutional influences that shape what ultimately becomes law. Our discussion outlines how institutional rules and procedural context are important considerations in determining how legislative chambers and the executive interact to govern and create new laws. This is especially important as the polarization among the public and political elites continues to grow and reflects fluctuations in party divisions during the past century. These changes in the political context of each institution have created challenges in the lawmaking process, necessitating new and unorthodox procedures to deal with these difficulties as they arise. We also provide guidance in discussing new questions, which have not yet been fully addressed by scholars to date, as well as where to look for new sources of data that will help researchers begin to find answers to those questions. We believe that expanding upon existing research agendas will provide greater opportunities to learn more about the important role of both chambers and the executive in designing and implementing legislation.
Learning Across the Life Course
Authors: Allmendinger Jutta , Helbig Marcel
Published: May 2015

Owing to intense changes in educational demands in a globalized world and demographic shifts in almost all developed countries, structures and content of educational and vocational training have to adapt.
Specificity
refers to the need for a broad‐based education, allowing people to train for more than one occupation. In terms of
content
, social skills must be taught to embrace diversity. Educational
institutions
need to be open for all stages in the life course. Moreover, possibilities of disconnecting time and space owing to progress in educational
media
need to be explored.

These global challenges for the educational system also place demands on education
research
. We need to overcome the
segmentation
in disciplines and narrowly defined life stages. We need to reconsider the trend toward a
standardized system
of educational and vocational training. One size does not fit all. Finally, emerging
group differences
in educational outcomes have to be more thoroughly explored.
Lifecourse and Aging
Authors: Hazan Haim
Published: May 2015

This essay addresses the need of peoples everywhere to think about the human life span as a series of discretely identifiable stages here characterized and analyzed as a series of fundamental dimensions around which dominant cultural beliefs are commonly organized. They include: Universality versus diversity; determinacy versus indeterminacy; social time versus experienced time; and course versus cycle. Each dimension is described and exemplified, resulting in a framework to guide future studies of aging and the life course.
Limits to Human Longevity
Authors: Preston Samuel H. , Beltrán‐Sánchez Hiram
Published: May 2015

Longevity has increased sharply in the past century and it is likely to continue increasing. Historical trends in maximum life expectancy at birth show major improvements since 1760. Life expectancy at age 80 has also improved with an accelerating pace in recent years suggesting we are not approaching a biological limit to the length of life. Anticipating the near future of longevity typically relies on extrapolating either longevity itself or age‐specific death rates. The principal alternative to extrapolative methods attempts to model factors affecting mortality and to project those factors into the future. In the more distant future, rather than targeting specific diseases, much research would attempt to arrest the aging process itself either through gene therapy or through medicines that replicate the genes' activities. Stem cell technologies may make it possible to create new body organs to replace defective ones. Although discoveries in laboratories will play an important role in determining the future of longevity, many puzzles remain to be worked out in translating individual behaviors into population‐level indexes. Quasi‐experimental designs may provide a useful approach to investigate systemic determinants of mortality, with implications for the future of longevity. In addition to projections of longevity for national populations, there would also be projections for major groups within populations. Future projections of longevity are likely also to involve much more consideration of the epidemiology of diseases and their interactions. Finally, an attractive approach to longevity is to base projections on birth cohorts instead of, or in addition to, period‐specific data.
Maternal and Paternal Employment across the Life Course
Authors: Kreyenfeld Michaela
Published: May 2015

This essay provides a condensed summary of major findings in trends in maternal and paternal employment patterns. Key theoretical concepts (such as cultural approaches, welfare state approaches, preference theory, economic approaches, and life course theory) are briefly summarized. The increase in maternal employment rates in most European countries, and the extent to which this increase has been related to growth in part‐time and marginal employment, are also discussed. In studying the dynamics of the employment behavior of mothers, empirical researchers have mainly looked at the amount of time it takes for women to return to work after childbirth. While these studies often capture only a snapshot of the life course—namely, the period between childbirth and labor market reentry—new approaches (so‐called sequence analyses) that map the lifetime employment patterns of women have been developed. The analysis of the employment patterns of fathers is an emerging field of research as well. However, little is known so far about how fatherhood affects men's lifetime employment patterns, and how paternal employment varies in different cultural and social policy contexts.
Media Neuroscience
Authors: Mangus J. Michael , Adams Aubrie , Weber Rene
Published: May 2015

Media neuroscience offers a unique window into how the complexities of human behavior emerge from the dynamic interaction of adaptive brain structures in response to environmental inputs. Rather than treating these dynamics as a black box or measuring them only indirectly through self‐report or behavioral observation, neuroimaging studies are uniquely able to provide theoretical insight into underlying brain processes and their evolutionary basis. This essay provides an overview of foundational research in the area of media neuroscience, evaluates key critiques of that research, and provides an outlook for how emerging trends may develop in the near future.
Mental Imagery in Psychological Disorders
Authors: Holmes Emily A. , Iyadurai Lalitha , Jacob Gitta A. , Hales Susie
Published: May 2015

Mental imagery involves having an experience like perception but in the absence of a percept. We frequently have mental images such as when we remember an event or imagine the future. In psychological disorders, emotional mental images can flash to mind and be highly distressing, including traumatic memories or simulations of feared future events. However, emotional images have been neglected in research and therapy. This entry combines perspectives from cognitive science (mental imagery) and clinical psychology (psychological disorders). Cognitive science suggests that compared to verbal thoughts, mental imagery has a more powerful impact on emotion. Therefore, it is useful to ask about imagery in clinical assessment of emotional disorders. However, this approach has been largely restricted to PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder). First, we illustrate that emotional mental imagery occurs across a wide variety of disorders. Second, by mapping the nature of imagery in disorders where it has been neglected (e.g., bipolar disorder), we may be able to import existing imagery therapy techniques (e.g., from PTSD) to improve treatment. Third, by drawing on cognitive science, we can capitalize on the properties inherent to mental imagery to suggest novel techniques. For example, maladaptive imagery may be reduced by cognitive tasks, which interfere with holding an image in mind. Also, adaptive imagery may be boosted by computerized training in generating positive imagery. Intriguingly, this opens the possibility of cognitively informed and computerized psychological treatments that may look rather different from traditional talking therapies.
Meta‐Analysis
Authors: Hedges Larry V. , Citkowicz Martyna
Published: May 2015

Meta‐analysis is the use of statistical methods to combine the results of independent research studies. The results of each study are summarized by one or more indices of effect size and a sampling uncertainty (variance) for each effect. Representing study results by effect sizes permits the use of statistical methods to synthesize these results across studies. This essay describes the most frequently used effect sizes and their properties. It describes how the two principal types of analytic methodology in meta‐analysis (fixed and random effects models) are used to estimate an average effect across studies. It also discusses how heterogeneity of effects across studies can be detected via a heterogeneity test and modeled as a function of study characteristics. In addition, this essay describes areas of current research in meta‐analysis. One area is the development of methods to handle dependencies that can arise when the results of studies are described by several effect sizes computed from data on the same individuals. Another area involves methods for detecting and correcting publication bias. A third is the development of methods to incorporate more complex study designs into metaanalyses, including multilevel experiments and single case designs used in behavioral psychology, special education, and some medicine.
Modeling Coal and Natural Gas Markets
Authors: Holz Franziska
Published: May 2015

Coal and natural gas market modeling has seen an impressive upsurge in the last decade. After a long period with a focus on optimization models, complementarity models have been developed since the 1980s and seen a renaissance after 2000. Such models are also called equilibrium models as they allow representing a market game and its equilibrium solution. First versions of complementarity models of the coal and natural gas markets were used to analyze the market structure of the international commodity trade. While they confirmed an oligopolistic market structure in the European natural gas market, the global coal market has been found to be competitive. Moreover, infrastructure analyses are carried out with such models that allow detecting bottlenecks and, in multiperiod models, computing cost‐efficient capacity expansions. Other recent advances besides multiperiod modeling are the modeling of multilevel games and stochastic models. Emerging topics are related to computational methods and a better understanding of both energy sectors. Among the challenges to the modeling community are the ongoing shortcomings of publicly available data and an improved understanding of the mathematical modeling and solution approaches by economists. Finally, both sectors are subject to a climate policy constraint which may well lead to a considerable shift in the importance as well as in regional consumption patterns of coal and natural gas and, hence, require improved modeling analysis.
Modeling Life Course Structure: The Triple Helix
Authors: Schuller Tom
Published: May 2015

Researching the life course—the way our lives are structured into particular stages and sequences—opens up a huge range of issues and perspectives. I begin with selected synoptic approaches that give a sense of this multidimensionality, such as the levels at which it applies and the linkages between individual life courses and their social contexts. I discuss particular concepts that figure prominently in the analytical toolbox of life course research, notably stages, transitions, and trajectories.

The following part concentrates on the way models and metaphors can be applied to life course research. Metaphorical thinking can be a fruitful way of illuminating complex issues; we need, however, to be clear about what kinds of claim are being made for such metaphors and models.

I introduce the image of a triple helix, analogous to the famous DNA double helix but with three strands—biological, psychological, and social. This simple image allows us to model the changing interrelationships between these, mapped against chronological age. The central focus is not on the changes within each strand but on the changes which these entail in the relationships between the different strands. Entry into adulthood and becoming old are two examples where these relationships are obviously altering significantly. The triple helix acts as a device for exploring life course change, and as a means of defining significant issues.
Models of Duality
Authors: Krishna Anand , Deutsch Roland , Strack Fritz
Published: May 2015

Duality models generally assume that human psychology is based on two separate systems of information processing. These systems have specific characteristics that differentiate them from one another. Such models are increasingly common in social psychology today. A selection of duality models is discussed and categorized according to three factors: the type of mental representation used in the specified processes (experiential vs. nonexperiential), the methods of processing (associative vs. propositional), and the differing degree of automaticity (based on the aspects of efficiency, awareness, intentionality, and controllability) of the processes. In addition, models' statements about the superiority of one process over the other are enumerated. Foundational models of attribution, stereotyping, persuasion, and more general models are explained in an overview. Central aspects of these foundational models are extracted and applied in a discussion of current duality models in general social psychology, as well as newer dual‐process models of attitudes, moral judgments, and self‐regulation. Models positing a process superior in information processing are contrasted with models positing two processes with different specializations in information processing, and the implications of improved integration and specialization are discussed.
Multitasking
Authors: Irwin Matthew , Wang Zheng
Published: May 2015

Multitasking has become increasingly prevalent, especially as we continue to incorporate more and more new media technologies into our daily activities. This essay first identifies trends in the availability and use of media devices in daily life and multitasking behaviors related to such trends. Second, given the general consensus that multitasking impairs performance outcomes, recent multitasking trends call for greater research attention to the subject. We outline the historical perspectives on cognitive structures and processes related to a human's general ability to multitask, culminating with the more recent threaded cognition theory. Third, we present two new research directions on multitasking. One is the exploration of long‐term consequences of multitasking behaviors, such as their impacts on cognitive functions, and dynamic changes in individuals' needs and multitasking behavioral changes over time; the other is a cognitive dimensional framework for defining multitasking, which may offer a means to reconcile findings across various multitasking research paradigms, and also to guide designs of multitasking technologies and environments. Finally, looking to the future, we propose several ways to advance the research on multitasking.
Neoliberalism
Authors: Centeno Miguel Angel , Cohen Joseph N.
Published: May 2015

What is neoliberalism and how do we account for its policy dominance over three decades? We analyze the rise and power of neoliberalism from three different perspectives: economic, political, and cultural. We argue that cultural analysis of policy preferences and success is critical to understanding the appeal and staying power of neoliberalism.
Neural and Cognitive Plasticity
Authors: Mercado Eduardo
Published: May 2015

Modern humans spend much of their early lives participating in formal educational programs designed to increase their cognitive competencies. Despite this concerted effort to maximize individuals intellectual capacities, scientists and educators know relatively little about the neural factors that determine when and how learning experiences lead to improvements in cognitive abilities. Current theories of how brains are changed by learning focus on incremental adjustments to connections between neurons that are driven by increases in neural activity. This article summarizes past theoretical and experimental research on the relationship between neural plasticity and experience‐dependent changes in cognition, briefly describes recent technological advances in measuring and inducing brain plasticity mechanisms, and outlines key questions that researchers must address to provide a more complete understanding of the factors that enable people to learn new cognitive skills. Answering such questions will require the combined efforts of neuroscientists, psychologists, and educational researchers, as well as the development of new technologies for monitoring neural changes in humans and other animals as they learn to perform a variety of cognitive tasks.
The Neurobiology and Physiology of Emotions: A Developmental Perspective
Authors: Kahle Sarah S. , Hastings Paul D.
Published: May 2015

This essay discusses the physiological and neural activity associated with emotion processes, with a focus on the development of this activity in children. We review some conceptual issues about the distinctions between the components of emotion, including the physiology associated with emotions themselves, attempts to regulate emotions, and trait or state patterns of responding. Foundational work examining autonomic nervous system activity is summarized, and we highlight recent work that attempts to investigate emotion processes in multiple systems. We then suggest that two fruitful avenues of future research include the examination of the neurobiology and physiology of social emotions, and further investigation into the temporal dynamics of emotion processes.
Participant Observation
Authors: Jorgensen Danny L.
Published: May 2015

Investigating the meanings of human existence as they are constructed and enacted by people in everyday life situations and settings presents serious challenges for all forms of human studies. Participant observation, whereby the researcher interacts with people in everyday life while collecting information, is a unique method for investigating the enormously rich, complex, conflictual, problematic, and diverse experiences, thoughts, feelings, and activities of human beings and the meanings of their existence. Use of this distinctive method emerged with the professionalization of anthropology and sociology where it gradually was formalized and later spread to a full range of human studies fields. Its practice nevertheless remains artful, requiring creative decision making about problems and questions to be studied, appropriate settings and situations for gathering information, the performance of membership roles, establishing and sustaining trusting relationships, ethics, values, and politics, as well as record making, data analysis and interpretation, and reporting results. This essay provides a brief sketch of the method of participant observation and an overview of a few of the more central issues of its practice, including its location historically within the framework of different views of social scientific methodology.
Party Organizations' Electioneering Arms Race
Authors: Aldrich John H. , Grynaviski Jeffrey D.
Published: May 2015

Party organizations are the electioneering arms of political parties. In the United States, the Democratic and Republican organizations are constantly changing as they try to one‐up each other in a political arms race set against an ever‐evolving institutional and technological context. In this essay, we discuss the history of political parties over the past century to illustrate how changes to party organizations set the groundwork for new, cutting‐edge contributions to political science with an eye toward teaching young researchers where we think the next big thing might come from. We go on to discuss more recent changes to the environment in which today's party organizations operate and speculate about the kinds of questions that young researchers may want to consider asking.
Person‐Centered Analysis
Authors: Von Eye Alexander , Wiedermann Wolfgang
Published: May 2015

The majority of data analyses in the empirical sciences that are concerned with humans proceeds at the level of variables. Typical results relate variables to each other, for example, in correlational or regression‐type statements. In these analyses, individuals are considered random data carriers, replaceable without damage by other individuals, also random data carriers. This type of research is known asvariable‐oriented. It has been shown that statements at the aggregate level, that is, variable‐oriented statements, are rarely applicable to the individual case. In contrast,person‐orientedresearch, also known asperson‐centeredresearch, proposes focusing on the individual. Analyses in person‐oriented research differ from procedures that are customary in variable‐oriented research. In person‐oriented research, parameters are estimated first at the level of the individual. If generalization is the goal of analysis, aggregation takes place at the level of parameters instead of raw data. Implications of this strategy are major. Data need to be collected in a way different than in variable‐oriented research, data analysis is different, and the resulting statements are different as well. This article introduces readers to person‐oriented research and gives two examples of person‐oriented data analysis, that is, configural frequency analysis and item response modeling.
Political Science: Political Ideologies
Authors: Carmines Edward G. , D'Amico Nicholas J.
Published: May 2015

The past 50 years of research into political ideology has left scholars with a contested paradigm. One side, founded on the research of Philip Converse, argues that the mass public is distinctly nonideological in their thinking. The other side argues that ideological thinking is not, in fact, beyond the public and can be found in forms similar to that of political elites. The way forward for research in political ideology does not lie in rehashing this debate but in moving forward in two new areas of work. The first considers the role that values and principles play in determining the political and ideological thinking of individuals. The second questions the current measurement standards of political ideology. Rather than considering ideology as occurring along a single spectrum, ideology among the mass public is formed by positions along two separate spectrums. In this essay, we summarize the major arguments of Converse, his supporters, and his critics. Then, we discuss recent research on principles and values and the measurement of ideology.
Postsocialism
Authors: Cullen Dunn Elizabeth , Verdery Katherine
Published: May 2015

Postsocialism is not just the study of the period after the end of Communism. Like postcolonialism, it is an analytic, a way of looking at societies in both East and West that were shaped by state socialism and the Cold War. Focusing on capitalism's alter ego, postsocialism looks at how production, consumption, identity and sovereignty were shaped by the experience of one party rule and central planning, and it reflects critically on the enduring effects of socialist ideas about the role of state and market in social life. While the countries that were once grouped by their affiliation with Communism are now diverging, future research focuses on the reorganization of the “Second World” into donors and receivers within a new international order based on humanitarianism and development, on the role of bureaucratic governance in integrating former socialist countries into the EU, and on the crucial standpoint that socialist ideologies continue to provide outside neoliberal capitalism.
Presidential Power
Authors: Howell William G.
Published: May 2015

For the better part of 40 years, the study of presidential power was understood within a strictly bargaining framework—one that emphasized presidential dependence on other political actors to do things that the president cannot accomplish on his own, and that recognized personal reputation and prestige as the keystones of presidential success. But in the past 15–20 years, the presidency field as a whole has undergone significant change. Scholars have begun to investigate a broader array of actions that presidents can take, many independently, to affect public policy; and the foundations for these actions do not depend, at least exclusively, on the particular endowments of the individual presidents who stand in office. In this short essay, I recognize a sampling of the most significant advancement in three areas of the study of presidential power: unilateral powers, the political control of the bureaucracy, and public appeals. I then underscore the importance of continued investments in theory building for the study of presidential power.
Public Opinion, the 1%, and Income Redistribution
Authors: Weakliem David L.
Published: May 2015

Because of the skewed distribution of income and wealth, a majority of people could make significant financial gains by redistribution from the affluent minority. However, redistribution of this kind is not particularly popular. Moreover, the rapid increase in top salaries since the 1970s has not provoked a strong reaction from the public. This essay considers the paradox of public opinion on redistribution. There are many hypotheses, but until recently there has not been much empirical research. However, recent work on opinions about salaries suggests that most people have quite egalitarian standards of fairness, in which corporate executives would receive only a few times as much as average workers. At the same time, there is often a good deal of support for measures that make taxes less progressive, notably as the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. That is, people seem to think that high salaries are unfair, but do not necessarily support government efforts to move toward a “fair” distribution. The essay discusses some ways to reconcile this apparent contradiction. Two of the most promising are a lack of trust in government and moral objections to redistribution. However, we must also consider the possibility that the pattern of opinions is in some sense irrational: the challenge is to specify a theory of irrationality to make positive predictions. Finally, the essay discusses the availability of data on public opinion, and identifies two major needs: historical and comparative data.
Rationalization of Higher Education
Authors: Cottom Tressie McMillan , Tuchman Gaye
Published: May 2015

Since roughly 1980, the rationalization of higher education has been escalating. That is,means‐end schema and bureaucratic organizationhave become ever more dominant as the authority over academic matters has been shifting from the professoriate to managers who in the mid‐twentieth century had been mainly responsible for economic affairs and “making things run.” At many research universities today, the administrative sector has grown so large that the budget devoted to administrative salaries and benefits exceeds the monies reserved for faculty.

The transference of authority from educators to bureaucratic offices and roles has been driven by a larger market morality where the legitimacy of organizational functions resides in their reproduction of profit exchanges. We conceive of the institutional field of higher education—the universe of diverse institutions existing within a prestige hierarchy—as existing along a spectrum of rationalization with the for‐profit college organization at the extreme right. While there is much debate about the rightness of a college sector that reverses over 200 years of not‐for‐profit organization professing that education is for the public good, traditional colleges have adopted organizational arrangements that resemble those that characterize for‐profit colleges. Indeed, some like Bousquet (2008) argue that rather than the fully rationalized for‐profit model exerting pressure on traditional higher education to adopt rationalized regimes, traditional not‐for‐profit colleges have been steadily refining those regimes for at least 40 years. As we will discuss later, this presents a fundamental puzzle for classic neoinstitutional theories that do much of the intellectual work of interrogating organizations and rationalization. Thismutualmimetic isomorphism, in which two competing organizational forms adapt to resemble each other rather than the dominant form, is most evident in rationalized arrangements in academic labor, curricular focus on “objective” outcomes, and neoliberal reframing of what constitutes education. We discuss the theoretical and empirical conditions that have increased the rationalization of higher education. We then explicate on the ideal form of rationalization in higher education and put forth an agenda that builds on emerging research in organizations, education, and rationalization.
Rationing of Health Care
Authors: Mechanic David
Published: May 2015

Rationingrefers to the allocation of a scarce supply relative to need and demand. In market‐based economies, price typically establishes access to valued commodities except when ethical values, norms, and technical limitations make it impossible to allocate simply on the basis of price. Commonly recognized prototypes include allocation of scarce resources such as gasoline during war or currently in transplantation where the number of available organs is insufficient to respond to need and there are long waiting lists.

Medical care, even in countries that still depend on a marketplace model such as the United States, is an expensive service substantially funded by government. The availability and amount of services depend on government financing and its willingness to redistribute income through taxation. As the potentialities and costs of medical care continue to escalate beyond economic growth throughout the world, rationing is increasingly applied in distributing medical entitlement and resources. Such rationing is evident at every level of organization from defining the scope of health coverage to the allocation of care at the point of service.

Rationing can usefully be conceptualized as explicit (as in planned and defined allocations) to implicit when the norms are unclear and managers and clinicians use their discretion in allocation. This review examines the range of rationing approaches and dilemmas and how members of the public construe various rationing processes and their understanding. It examines the many levels of rationing decisions, many that are unrecognized, and how they are related to equity and social disparities of various kinds.