bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Information Sources for Travel Decisions: Toward a Source Process Model
Authors: Bieger Thomas , Laesser Christian
Published: June 2004

This article contributes to the study of information sourcing behavior in the travel decision process. It focuses on the differences between information sourcing before and after a definite trip decision (characterized either by an irreversible choice with regard to destination or by a legal contract such as a reservation or purchase of one or multiple elements of a trip). The study identifies typical patterns of information search behavior for different travel types, grouped by means of clusters along two stages of the information sourcing process, thus forming paths of information sourcing. The data are representative for the case of Switzerland, serving as a model for a well-developed travel market. Descriptors such as type of trip, degree of packaging, choice of destination, and choice of accommodation showed significant explanatory power, while sociodemographic variables proved to be of less value. The results give the industry the possibility of improving information distribution systems throughout the travel decision process.
A Structural Model for Souvenir Consumption, Travel Activities, and Tourist Demographics
Authors: Swanson Kristen K. , Horridge Patricia E.
Published: June 2004

Structural equation modeling (LISREL 8) was used to test the causal relationships between tourist travel motivations (travel activities and tourist demographics) and souvenir consumption (souvenir products, product attributes, and store attributes). A survey containing Likert-type scales was used in collecting data from 398 tourists who had traveled to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Using factor analysis, dimensions were identified for scales used in the study: souvenir products, product attributes, store attributes, and travel activities. Results indicated that the travel activities of tourists had positive correlations with souvenir consumption, while tourist demographics had no correlation. Thus, retailers who can identify the travel activities of their tourist customer should do so to provide a better souvenir product mix with appealing attributes sold in an appealing environment. By using identified travel activities, retailers can partner with lodging facilities, restaurants, and tourism boards to encourage positive shopping experiences for the tourist.
Mindfulness as a Tool for Managing Visitors to Tourism Destinations
Authors: Frauman Eric , Norman William C.
Published: June 2004

The primary objective of this study was to develop a further understanding of the construct of mindfulness and its application in managing visitors to natural, cultural, or historically based tourism destinations. Mindfulness represents a state of mind expressed by actively processing available information (e.g., brochures) within the surrounding environment, while mindlessness is considered a type of disengagement from information in one’s surroundings. A 7-item Likert-type-scaled mindfulness measure was modified and administered to visitors at four southeastern coastal parks in April/May 1998. Three groups, “not very mindful, ” “mindful,” and “very mindful,” were identified. Significant differences (p < .05) were found among the three groups concerning benefits sought, preference for services, and participation in nature-oriented activities, with the very mindful group standing apart from the other two. Application of mindfulness principles may provide a framework for tourism destinations in meeting visitor needs while also aiding resource management efforts.
Using Visitor-Employed Photography to Investigate Destination Image
Authors: MacKay Kelly J. , Couldwell Christine M.
Published: June 2004

Given the dominant use of visuals in destination image promotion and the call for more pluralistic approaches in tourism analysis, the purpose of this research note is to illustrate the utility of visitor-employed photography (VEP) to elicit tourist destination image. An image study conducted at a heritage site provides an example of VEP applied in this context. Challenges associated with using VEP mainly were logistical (for visitors) and resource based (for researchers). Benefits to using this method for image assessment were high response rate (95%), unprompted visitor-generated themes and visuals, and enjoyment expressed by respondents. The VEP method provided highly visual records of what best captured the visitors’ images of the site, which then can be compared to pictures used in current promotional efforts. Results provide initial support of the usefulness of VEP to generate images of a tourist attraction and to facilitate meaningful practical and theoretical integration of visitor-determined images with destination-determined images.
The Roles of Quality, Value, and Satisfaction in Predicting Cruise Passengers’ Behavioral Intentions
Authors: Petrick James F.
Published: June 2004

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships between satisfaction, perceived value, and quality in their prediction of intentions to repurchase and positive word of mouth publicity. These constructs have been examined from three distinctly different perspectives, resulting in three competing models. Thus, the satisfaction model, perceived value model, and quality model were utilized to assess which one best explains cruise passengers’behavioral intentions. Results revealed that the quality model most accurately fit the data and that quality was the best predictor of intentions to repurchase. Quality was found to have both a moderated and direct effect on behavioral intentions. Specific theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Tourism Transport and Visitor Spending: A Study in the North York Moors National Park, UK
Authors: Downward Paul , Lumsdon Les
Published: June 2004

Understanding the determinants of day visitor spending is key to marketing planning at many visitor attractions and destinations. In a recent study of a small-scale rural destination in the United Kingdom, the findings suggested that group visitation coupled with duration of stay were key determinants of spending. This article explores the robustness of these findings in a different context, the relationship between mode of travel and spending. This study suggests that there is a difference in the pattern of visitor spending between carborne and public transport visitors, with car-based visitors spending higher amounts. The level of expenditure varies according to group size and duration of day visit, an important consideration for planners seeking to encourage a modal switch of visitors in national parks.
Immigration Policies, Discourses, and the Politics of Local Belonging in Hong Kong (1950-1980)
Authors: Ku Agnes S.
Published: June 2004

This article shows the trajectory of the discourse of identity in tandem with the history of immigration in Hong Kong between 1950 and 1980. On one hand, international politics, which figured prominently in the refugee question in the 1950s and the 1960s, later gave way to local interests. On the other hand, the colonial government at first adopted a primarily reactive and accommodating position in its policy toward the continual influxes of Chinese immigration, but there was a gradual shift from reactive measures to more deliberate control, planning, and hegemonic discourses over time. The process of identity articulation was being mediated through at least four intersecting discursive developments: the rise of a changing and contested notion of “settled residence,” the introduction of the notion of “Hong Kong belonging,” an evolving discourse of the “problem of people,” and the unfolding of a new hegemonic narrative of economic success.
Disrupting Narratives
Authors: Smith Norman
Published: June 2004

This article assesses the lives, careers, and literary legacies of the most prominent Chinese women writers during the latter stage of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. The article reveals how they articulated dissatisfaction with the Japanese cultural agenda while working within Japanese colonial institutions. Empowered by ineffectual state policies and misogynous official neglect, the women embarked on a decade-long quest to “describe” and “expose” the reality of Chinese women’s lives under Japanese occupation. May Fourth ideals of women’s emancipation inspired them to forge careers as critics of Japan’s cultural agenda, and they undermined Japanese efforts to sever ties between Manchuria and the rest of China. This study adds to a growing body of recent critical scholarship incorporating Chinese-language sources into received interpretations of Japan’s colonial state of Manchukuo.
Refashioning Womanhood in 1990s Taiwan
Authors: Chang Jui-Shan
Published: June 2004

This article investigates how the Taiwanese edition of Cosmopolitan (1992-1997) may serve to resolve a tension felt by modern women in Taiwan by weaving global values and local values together into a tapestry of “modern womanhood” that can dwell within, and yet extend, the local culture. The article treats the magazine as a window into a Taiwanese image of the “modern woman” and as an arena in which there are Chinese and Western systems and values that could clash but, in fact, intermesh by virtue of the practice of exploiting Western means for Chinese ends. Taiwanese Cosmo shows how modernization need not mean Westernization, even if it relies on veneers of Western images, and it further aims to transform local Chinese values in a way that gives them global significance.
Distinguishing Truth, Knowledge, and Belief
Authors: Morgan Jamie
Published: June 2004

Philosophical analysis of the knowledge we hold of China, rather than philosophically informed disciplinary research on China, is a rare commodity. Area studies are, by definition, interdisciplinary. There is therefore no reason why philosophy cannot be a productive part of that interdiscipline. It would bean additional resource rather than a privileged perspective—an applied philosophy of area studies functioning rather like the philosophy of economics or politics. To exemplify what this might look like, the author considers some issues relating to images and beliefs about China in the West that generate particular philosophical problems relating to knowledge, truth, belief, and Otherness. These questions are important because there is a tendency today to conflate them. The author argues that the first three concepts are distinct, though not independent, and that it is worthwhile maintaining the distinction because it supports scholarship as a self-reflective critical process.
Culture and Self: Are There Within-Culture Differences in Self Between Metropolitan Areas and Regional Cities?
Authors: Kashima Yoshihisa , Kokubo Teruyoshi , Kashima Emiko S. , Boxall Dianne , Yamaguchi Susumu , Macrae Kristina
Published: June 2004

Although differences in self-conception across cultures have been well researched, regional differences within a culture have escaped attention. The present study examined individual, relational, and collective selves, which capture people’s conceptions of themselves in relation to their goals, significant others, and in groups, comparing Australians and Japanese participants living in regional cities and metropolitan areas. Culture, gender, and urbanism were found to be related to individual, relational, and collective selves, respectively. Australians emphasized individual self more than Japanese, women stressed relational self more than men, and residents in regional cities regarded collective self as more important than their counterparts in metropolitan areas. These findings provide support for the tripartite division of the self and suggest a need to construct a culture theory that links self and societal processes.
Social Identity and Worldview Validation: The Effects of Ingroup Identity Primes and Mortality Salience on Value Endorsement
Authors: Halloran Michael J. , Kashima Emiko S.
Published: June 2004

In this article, the authors report an investigation of the relationship between terror management and social identity processes by testing for the effects of social identity salience on worldview validation. Two studies, with distinct populations, were conducted to test the hypothesis that mortality salience would lead to worldview validation of values related to a salient social identity. In Study 1, reasonable support for this hypothesis was found with bicultural Aboriginal Australian participants (N = 97). It was found that thoughts of death led participants to validate ingroup and reject outgroup values depending on the social identity that had been made salient. In Study 2, when their student and Australian identities were primed, respectively, Anglo-Australian students (N = 119) validated values related to those identities, exclusively. The implications of the findings for identity-based worldview validation are discussed.
Bias at the Racetrack: Effects of Individual Expertise and Task Importance on Predecision Reevaluation of Alternatives
Authors: Brownstein Aaron L. , Read Stephen J. , Simon Dan
Published: June 2004

These studies were designed to test cognitive dissonance theory’s assertion that alternatives are not reevaluated before a choice. Participants viewed information about horses in a simulated race and rated each one’s chance of winning three times before placing their bet and once after placing it. It was found that ratings of the chosen horse increased within the predecision period as well as after betting. Predecision bolstering occurred even when participants did not expect to bet, and predecision preference increased with task importance and participant expertise. The findings are attributed to maintenance of consistency throughout a cognitive system.
Discreditable: Stigma Effects of Revealing a Mental Illness History on Test Performance
Authors: Quinn Diane M. , Kahng Sang Kyoung , Crocker Jennifer
Published: June 2004

In three studies, the authors examined the effect of revealing a concealable social stigma—mental illness—on intellectual performance. It was hypothesized that revealing this deeply discrediting stigma would result in performance decrements. College students either with or without a history of mental illness (MI) treatment participated. In Study 1, the type of mental illness was left unselected. In Study 2, only participants who reported a history of depression participated. In Study 3, a comparison group of participants with a history of eating disorder were included. Results showed that the MI participants who revealed their history did worse on the reasoning test than did those in the no reveal condition. There was a trend in the opposite direction for participants with no MI. As predicted, revealing a narrower stigma, eating disorder, did not affect performance. The results are discussed in terms of identity threat and concealable stigmas.
Defeating the Potentially Deleterious Effects of Externally Imposed Deadlines: Practitioners’ Rules-of-Thumb
Authors: Burgess Mark , Enzle Michael E. , Schmaltz Rodney
Published: June 2004

The authors interviewed people to determine whether they devise strategies to offset the damaging effect that externally imposed deadlines have on intrinsic motivation. Interviewees’ “practitioners’ rules-of-thumb” strategies were consistent with the tenets of self-determination theory and were tested empirically in three experiments. In each of the experiments, complete or partial self-determination of initially externally imposed time limits negated the otherwise deleterious effects of deadlines on intrinsic motivation. Participants who actively co-opted a deadline as their own (Experiment 1), who self-imposed sub deadlines within an overall externally imposed deadline (Experiment 2), and who self-imposed more stringent deadlines than those imposed externally (Experiment 3) spent significantly more free-choice time engaged in target tasks than did their counterparts in externally imposed deadline conditions where no self-determination was permitted. Given the ubiquity of deadlines, the results can directly be implemented by both deadline setters and deadline recipients to protect people’s interest in their work.
Self-Presentations of Happiness: Sincere, Polite, or Cautious?
Authors: Pataki Sherri P. , Clark Margaret S.
Published: June 2004

Two studies addressed the meaning of expressed happiness in social relationships. In the first study, men expected to interact with a socially desirable or a socially undesirable woman. It was predicted that (a) when about to meet a socially undesirable woman, men would display more happiness publicly than is felt privately and (b) when about to meet a socially desirable woman, men would display less happiness publicly than felt privately. Results supported the former and tended to support the latter prediction. In the second study, the authors predicted that women would mistrust men’s expressions of happiness upon meeting them such that (a) unattractive women would suspect men of inflating happiness and (b) attractive women would suspect men of suppressing happiness. Results supported the former but not the latter hypothesis. Taking relationship-specific goals into account appears to be important in determining whether emotion will be accurately conveyed and can be trusted.
A Prototype Analysis of Forgiveness
Authors: Kearns Jill N. , Fincham Frank D.
Published: June 2004

Many definitions of forgiveness currently exist in the literature. The current research adds to this discussion by utilizing a prototype approach to examine lay conceptions of forgiveness. A prototype approach involves categorizing objects or events in terms of their similarity to a good example, whereas a classical approach requires that there are essential elements that must be present. In Study 1, participants listed the features of forgiveness. Study 2 obtained centrality ratings for these features. In Studies 3 and 4, central features were found to be more salient in memory than peripheral features. Study 5 showed that feature centrality influenced participants’ ratings of victims involved in hypothetical transgressions. Thus, the two criteria for demonstrating prototype structure (that participants find it meaningful to judge features in terms of their centrality and that centrality affects cognition) were met.
Attachment and Loss: A Test of Three Competing Models on the Association between Attachment-Related Avoidance and Adaptation to Bereavement
Authors: Fraley R. Chris , Bonanno George A.
Published: June 2004

It is widely assumed that emotionally avoidant or defensive individuals will have a difficult time adjusting to the loss of a loved one. However, recent research suggests that defensive individuals tend to adapt quite well to loss. Such findings pose a number of challenges to attachment theory—a theory that has traditionally held that emotional avoidance is indicative of poor psychological adjustment. In this article, the authors argue that contemporary models of individual differences in adult attachment allow the derivation of at least three competing hypotheses regarding the relationship between avoidant attachment and adaptation to loss. These hypotheses are tested using two-wave data on 59 bereaved adults. Results indicate that whereas some avoidant individuals (i.e., those who are fearfully avoidant) have a difficult time adapting to the loss of a loved one, other avoidant adults (i.e., those who are dismissingly avoidant) show a pattern of resilience to loss.
The Impact of Need for Closure on Conservative Beliefs and Racism: Differential Mediation by Authoritarian Submission and Authoritarian Dominance
Authors: van Hiel Alain , Pandelaere Mario , Duriez Bart
Published: June 2004

The present study explores the influence of need for closure as well as authoritarian submission (Right-Wing Authoritarianism [RWA]) and authoritarian dominance (Social Dominance Orientation [SDO]) on the genesis of conservative beliefs and racism. For this purpose, two structural equation models were compared. In Model 1, RWA and SDO were entered as independent variables and the need for closure facets Decisiveness and Need for Simple Structure acted as mediator variables. In Model 2, the need for closure facets served as independent variables and RWA and SDO acted as mediators. In two student samples (Sample 1, N = 399, Sample 2, N = 330) and one adult sample (Sample 3, N = 379), Model 2 showed superior fit to the data. These results corroborate the hypothesis that authoritarianism should be interpreted in terms of generalized beliefs rather than in terms of personality characteristics. In addition, analyses show that the effects of Need for Simple Structure on conservative beliefs and racism are fully mediated by RWA but only partly by SDO. These results suggest a differential genesis of RWA and SDO.
Imagining How You’d Feel: The Role of Motivational Experiences from Regulatory Fit
Authors: Idson Lorraine Chen , Liberman Nira , Higgins E. Tory
Published: June 2004

The authors propose that how people imagine they would feel about making a choice is affected not only by the outcome’s anticipated pleasure or pain but also by regulatory fit. Regulatory fit occurs when people pursue a goal in a manner that sustains their regulatory state and it intensifies the motivation to pursue that goal. Considering positive outcomes fits a promotion focus more than a prevention focus, whereas the reverse is true for negative outcomes. Thus, it is proposed that anticipating a desirable choice is more intensely positive for promotion than prevention, and anticipating an undesirable choice is more intensely negative for prevention than promotion. The results of three studies support these predictions. Studies 2 and 3 also demonstrate that motivational intensity underlies the stronger responses. Thus, to understand fully what it means to feel good or bad about a prospective choice, motivational experiences from regulatory fit must be considered.
Does Quick to Blame Mean Quick to Anger? The Role of Agreeableness in Dissociating Blame and Anger
Authors: Meier Brian P. , Robinson Michael D.
Published: June 2004

Two studies investigated agreeableness, the accessibility of blame, and their potential interactive effects on anger. To measure the chronic accessibility of blame, a choice reaction time task was created that required participants to classify words as blame-worthy or not. It was found that for individuals low in agreeableness, blame accessibility was positively related to anger and arguments during the course of daily life, hostile feelings during the course of a semester, and anger in response to a short video involving a blameworthy action. This same straightforward relationship between the accessibility of blame and anger did not characterize those high in agreeableness. The results suggest that agreeableness plays an important role in facilitating (low agreeableness) or inhibiting (high agreeableness) the link between accessible blame and anger.
Measuring Environmental Health Risks: The Negotiation of a Public Right-to-Know Law
Authors: Dunsby Joshua
Published: June 2004

Quantitative health risk assessment is a procedure for estimating the likelihood that exposure to environmental contaminants will produce certain adverse health effects, most commonly cancer. One instance of its use has been a California air toxics public “right-to-know” law. This article examines the ways in which credible health risk measurements were produced and challenged during the implementation of the California public policy. Fieldwork and documentary analysis finds that stakeholders negotiated within the formal constraints of the risk assessment procedures but still expressed their competing visions for the implementation of the risk communication policy. The abstract results of the method were contextualized according to different time frames and allocations of uncertainty. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that the political process privileged consistency of measurement over accuracy, revealing political negotiations at a fundamentally technical level. The struggle and variation in interpretations can be explained best by the demand to organize the program around the discordant values of democratic accountability and technical efficiency.
Transformation Discourse: Nuclear Risk as a Strategic Tool in Late Soviet Politics of Expertise
Authors: Schmid Sonja D.
Published: June 2004

In this article, the author examines an exemplary part of the Soviet media discussion following the Chernobyl disaster. She traces transformations in this discourse affecting the concepts of risk and uncertainty and indicates their relevance for the reconfiguration of the relationships between the state, scientific experts, and the public. Chernobyl occurred during a period of unprecedented potential for change: in the wake of Gorbachev’s perestroika, newly emerging environmental groups gradually managed to gain access to a previously closed forum, the national print media. During the ensuing public debates between environmentalists and energy officials, nuclear risks or uncertainties were used as powerful, yet flexible, rhetorical tools for articulating political positions, for assigning or denying authority and legitimacy, and for reconceptualizing “the public.” The shorthand “Chernobyl” came to be deployed strategically to solicit change, to challenge old practices, and to legitimize the continuation and extension of these practices.
Risk, Morality, and Child Protection: Risk Calculation as Guides to Practice
Authors: Cradock Gerald
Published: June 2004

Initially found in population studies designed to discover a link between child abuse and population categories, risk has been institutionalized in British Columbia through the use of a risk assessment tool presumed to measure danger to particular children. Recruitment of the risk speech genre reflects a need for government child protection workers to clearly articulate which children are in need of protection from “risks as they really are” while avoiding the accusation of “intervening too much.” Moreover, risk assessment tools are both audit systems and auditable systems connected through an audit chain. Auditors who represent potential blaming procedures track errors in risk valuation to specific decisions. This entrenches a separation between what we want to know about risk from what we want to do about risk. The apparently objective use of numeric values within risk assessments obscures the continuing role of subjective moral values in the practice of child protection.
Regulating Risk: Defining Genetic Privacy in the United States and Britain
Authors: Parthasarathy Shobita
Published: June 2004

The availability of new genetic testing technologies to identify individuals as at risk for a particular disease has inspired tremendous concern that individuals with gene mutations will soon be universally identified, for both insurance and employment purposes, as a genetic underclass. Scholarship in science and technology studies, however, suggests that understandings of genetic knowledge might be locally contingent, while research in comparative politics helps us understand how national context might play an important role in framing approaches to the regulation of genetic information. What role does national context play in defining genetic risk and shaping approaches to the privacy of genetic information? Using data from interviews, document analysis, and ethnographic observation, the author follows debates among advocacy groups, insurers, and governments in the United States and Britain about the appropriate use of genetic information in insurance underwriting to understand how national context frames the definition of genetic risk as well as its regulation.
Redefining Risks and Redistributing Responsibilities: Building Networks to Increase Automobile Safety
Authors: Wetmore Jameson M.
Published: June 2004

This article draws on the history of automobile safety in the United States to illustrate how technical design has been used to promote or maintain duties, values, and ethics. It examines two specific episodes: the debates over the “crash avoidance” and “crash-worthiness” approaches in the 1960s and the responses to the accusation that air bags were killing dozens of people in the mid-1990s. In each of these debates, certain auto safety advocates promoted the development of technologies designed to circumvent, replace, or compensate for “irresponsible” human actions because they believed that devices and techniques would be considerably more obedient and reliable than the American public. Other organizations, however, contested such reallocations because they also involved a shift in responsibilities throughout the rest of the sociotechnical network of auto safety. This article argues that those who controlled the precise definition of risk in auto safety had the upper hand in constructing both the solution to the problem and the distribution of responsibilities the solution entailed.
Uncertainty and Regulation: The Rhetoric of Risk in the California Low-Level Radioactive Waste Debate
Authors: Bedsworth Louise Wells , Lowenthal Micah D. , Kastenberg William E.
Published: June 2004

In this article, we analyze the intractability of the low-level radioactive waste debate in California through the construction and examination of policy frames and their associated policy narratives. Relying primarily on reports, formal comments, and written correspondence, we reconstruct three policy frames and explore their interaction in the public debate through the policy stories told by the actors. We analyze how policy actors using these policy frames appropriate available information, value scientific input, and respond to uncertainty in technical and regulatory information to create policy stories. These policy frames and their associated policy narratives demonstrate how policy actors differ in their drivers for action, bases for trusting claims, and response to uncertainty. These differences lead to divergent characterizations of the risk of low-level radio-active waste disposal. This analysis provides insight into the dynamics of intractable policy controversies.
Constructing “High-Risk Women”: The Development and Standardization of a Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool
Authors: Fosket Jennifer
Published: June 2004

Recently, two prescription drugs (tamoxifen and raloxifene) have become salient to breast cancer prevention. With the advent of these drugs, referred to as “chemoprevention,” a mandate has emerged to classify certain women as high risk for breast cancer to determine a group of legitimate users of the drugs. This article examines the development and standardization of the model used to create such a group of high-risk women. The author argues that while the model remains uncertain and controversial, it has become the standard tool for the many jobs associated with legitimizing chemoprevention use in the United States. It has become the assumed standard—shaping practices, identities, and definitions—through its organizational embeddedness in the multiple practices and public images of chemoprevention despite its uncertainty and widespread critique.
Stories: Implications for Nursing Ethics and Respect for Another
Authors: Milton Constance L.
Published: June 2004

Stories are narratives cocreated in the human-universe process which reflect authors’ priority projects, ideas, and creative artistry. These articulations may be utilized as methods for understanding health and quality of life in the discipline of nursing. Stories are living entitiesof community that may be used for research, education, and practice. They are vital tools for professionals asking ethical questions about doing what is right in the human-universe-health process. This article shall examine the use of stories and provide notions for further ethical thinking and implications for human regard from a nursing theoretical perspective.
Socrates’ Questions: A Focus for Nursing
Authors: Bunkers Sandra Schmidt
Published: June 2004

This column focuses on the philosophical dialogue originated by Socrates. Six questions that Socrates would ask the ancient Greeks are explored in discussing a book written by Phillips entitled Six Questions of Socrates. These questions were: What is virtue? What is moderation? What is justice? What is good? What is courage? What is piety? A human becoming perspective is used as a lens to view the discussion on these questions and the question is posed, “What would it be like to frame discussions on health and quality of life around Socrates’ questions?” Parse’s teaching-learning processes are presented as a means of creating an environment where dialogue on these questions can occur.
The Theory of Human Becoming in Action
Authors: Fawcett Jacqueline
Published: June 2004

This column focuses on the use of Rosemarie Rizzo Parse’s theory of human becoming and the human becoming school of thought as a guide for nursing research and practice. Parse scholars Sandra Schmidt Bunkers, Debra Bournes, and Anthony Welch share their work and explain the challenges they have overcome in learning and using the theory of human becoming. Planned future columns will present the work of other Parse scholars.
Patterning of Pain and Power With Guided Imagery
Authors: Lewandowski Wendy A.
Published: June 2004

Using Martha Rogers’ science of unitary human beings, changes in pain and power among 42 patients were examined in relation to the use of a guided imagery modality. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups and repeated measures MANCOVA was used to detect differences in pain and power over a 4-day period of time. The treatment group’s pain decreased during the last 2 days of the study. No differences in power emerged. Guided imagery appeared to have potential as a useful nursing modality for chronic pain sufferers.
An Emerging Model of Behavior Change in Women Maintaining Weight Loss
Authors: Berry Diane
Published: June 2004

This study is based on and expands Newman's theory of health as expanding consciousness with women who maintained weight loss for at least 1 year. The researcher engaged in two in-depth interviews with twenty women. Individual patterns for participants who maintained weight loss revealed a personal journey of self-discovery and control with initial chaos, choice, and then emergence of behaviors reflecting expanded consciousness. Looking across participants, six patterns emerged from the data with evolution of a model of change that has implications for nursing practice at defined times within the change process of weight loss.
Empowerment: Reformulation of a Non-Rogerian Concept
Authors: Shearer Nelma B. Crawford , Reed Pamela G.
Published: June 2004

The authors present a reformulation of empowerment based upon historical and current perspectives of empowerment and a synthesis of existing literature and Rogerian thought. Reformulation of non-Rogerian concepts familiar to nurses is proposed as a strategy to accelerate the mainstreaming of Rogerian thought into nursing practice and research. The reformulation of empowerment as a participatory process of well-being inherent among human beings may provide nurses with new insights for practice. This paper may also serve as a model for reformulating other non-Rogerian concepts and theories for wider dissemination across the discipline.
A Theory of Health Promotion for Preterm Infants Based on Levine’s Conservation Model of Nursing
Authors: Mefford Linda C.
Published: June 2004

The infant born prior to the completion of term gestation faces many challenges in order to merely survive in the extrauterine environment. A preterm birth is also a time of extreme crisis for the family. There is a great need for the refinement of nursing practice models for neonatal intensive care nursing, to assure that the holistic nursing care needs of the infant and family are met. This article describes a new middle range theory of health promotion for preterm infants based on Levine's conservation model of nursing that can be used to guide neonatal nursing practice.
An Exploration of the Concept of Sacrifice
Authors: Florczak Kristine L.
Published: June 2004

This column seeks to contribute to the understanding of the concept of sacrifice and its significance to nursing through an extensive account of relevant literature from the disciplines of theology, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. The review uncovered that in sacrificing something of value, individuals anticipate connecting with families, groups, society, and deities. Knowledge of the phenomenon of sacrifice has importance for nurses who use the human becoming theory as a guide for practice as they participate with individuals who are struggling with relinquishing something of value, while hoping to strengthen connections with others.
The Researcher’s Reflections on the Research Process
Authors: Welch Anthony J.
Published: June 2004

From this researcher’s perspective an essential component of rigorous inquiry is the ability of the researcher to provide a transparent accounting of his/her journey throughout the research process. In keeping with this belief this researcher’s personal reflections of, and insights gleaned from, his experience into the world of research in general, and the human becoming school of thought in particular, are presented. He offers personal insights into the lived experience of completing a Parsean study on the structure of taking life day-by-day as a universal lived experience of health. Throughout this research process a number of insights have been gleaned which include the importance of adequate preparation in conducting research, the role of the researcher, preparedness to work with uncertainty, and achieving authentic rigor.
Meaning of the Quality of Life for Persons Living With Serious Mental Illness: Human Becoming Practice with Groups
Authors: Hee Noh, Choon
Published: June 2004

Quality of life is a concern for people living with diagnoses of persistent mental illness. While some studies with this community of people have measured quality of life as an indicator of adjustment, little is known about the meaning of quality of life from the perspectives of these individuals themselves. The project described in this practice column explored the meaning of quality of life for a group of persons attending a community centre for persons with mental illness. Parse’s human becoming practice method was used to guide the group process with eight men who met weekly with a nurse for 75-90 minute sessions over 10 weeks. The nurse’s commitment to live true presence with the group enabled their expressions about life and the meanings of living with their particular struggles and joys, sufferings and hopes. Themes of quality of life for this group of persons are detailed in this column.
A Theoretical Approach to Documentation of Care
Authors: Kärkkäinen Oili , Eriksson Katie
Published: June 2004

The purpose of this column is to present a theoretical background for understanding nursing care documentation. The theory used was Eriksson’s theory of health and suffering. An adaptation of Gadamer’s hermenuetic method was used to apply the theory to a way of thinking about clinical practice. The hermeneutic dialogue took place between Eriksson’s caring science texts and clinical nursing practice. The dialogue shows that relating different dimensions of the patient’s health and suffering to the dimensions of care seems to provide the necessary prerequisites for the development of a theoretical background for the documentation of care. It also allows the patient’s views and experiences to be revealed in the documents related to nursing care.
The ABSEL Classicos Initiative
Authors: Cannon Hugh M. , Smith J. Alexander
Published: June 2004

Over the years, the Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning (ABSEL) has invested considerable effort in formulating its research mission while reflecting on its unique identity among professional organizations. This article reviews the literature on this topicwhile identifying key issues and proposals. It then discusses the role of the BernieKeys Library and the subsequent Classicos initiative in addressing ABSEL’s research strategy. It suggests these two initiatives represent harbingers of a new research paradigm in which ABSEL will use the convenience and efficiency of a comprehensive research library to stimulate greater research motivation, productivity, and ultimately, quality.
A Survey of Simulation Game Users, Former-Users, and Never-Users
Authors: Faria Anthony J. , Wellington William J.
Published: June 2004

An e-mail survey of 14,497 business faculty members across all disciplines at American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business member schools was undertaken to determine current business simulation game usage and thoughts about business simulation games. Issues such as how games are first adopted, objectives for game use, achievement of course objectives, where game users look for information on business games, courses taught by game users, how and why games in use are changed or dropped, and why some faculty members do not use simulation games were addressed. Across 1,085 respondents to this survey, 30.6% were current business game users, 17.1% were former game users, and 52.3% were never-users of business games.
A Review of Scholarship on Assessing Experiential Learning Effectiveness
Authors: Gosen Jerry , Washbush John
Published: June 2004

This article focuses on the research and scholarship dealing with the assessment of the experiential approach in both its computer-based and human-based forms. It covers two forms of assessment. First it covers explicit attempts to assess the validity of experiential learning, and second it focuses on measuring the effectiveness of the experiential approach. The authors classify the literature on both validity and measurement into critiques and prescriptions for ideal research on one hand and empirical research studies on the other. The empirical research reviewed supports the notion that experiential learning is effective. However, the studies showing these results reflect a long-standing trend of not meeting the highest of research design and measurement standards. Thus, the authors believe any conclusion about the effectiveness of these teaching approaches must be tentative.
The Architecture of Computerized Business Gaming Simulations
Authors: Thavikulwat Precha
Published: June 2004

Advances in the design of computerized business gaming simulations since the earliest works of the late 1950s are reviewed. A taxonomy of computerized gaming simulation is discussed, and the role of purpose in design is considered. Issues with respect to the representation, timing, hosting, and scoring of gaming simulations are covered.
Today’s Business Simulation Industry
Authors: Summers Gary J.
Published: June 2004

New technologies are transforming the business simulation industry. The technologies come from research in computational fields of science, and they endow simulations with new capabilities and qualities. These capabilities and qualities include computerized behavioral simulations, online feedback and coaching, advanced interfaces, learning on demand, and the ability to teach specific knowledge. While describing the new technologies, this article also describes the industry’s transformation by estimating its size, presenting trends affecting demand and supply, and analyzing its structure. It is believed the industry is going through Schumpeter’s process of creative destruction.
Establishing Integrity and Avoiding Methodological Misunderstanding
Authors: Watson Lorraine A. , Girard Francine M.
Published: June 2004

In this article, the authors discuss their understanding of how the consistent use of language, reflective of the research method used, can deem a study scientifically adequate. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological study, as the basis for the discussion, integrity is posed as a suitable term to describe scientific adequacy. In addition, the authors ask readers to reflect on their beliefs about the language used to discuss other qualitative approaches.
The Lived Experience of Oldest-Old Rural Adults
Authors: Hinck Susan
Published: June 2004

The author elicited the lived experience of 19 oldest-old adults (13 women, all White, mean age 90.7 years, range 85-98 years) who lived alone in the rural Midwest to describe their everyday activities, concerns and struggles, and adaptive strategies. In-depth interviews (59 total) were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed in an interpretive phenomenological tradition of thematic analysis, interpretation of paradigm cases, and interpretation of exemplars. Participants described how historical, cultural, and environmental contexts shaped their everyday thoughts, activities, and what was meaningful to them. Findings can guide health care professionals to evaluate and develop community services and help significant others (family, friends, neighbors) understand what oldest-old rural adults need to remain at home.
Moving in Between Mammography: Screening Decisions of American Indian Women in Vermont
Authors: Canales Mary K. , Geller Berta M.
Published: June 2004

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death among American Indian women, with mammography screening rates below the national average for this population. A grounded theory study, conducted with Vermont American Indian women, explicated factors that influence mammography decision making. The authors examined mammography decision making across the breast cancer screening continuum: women with a history of consistent annual mammograms, women who were under users or nonusers of mammography, and women who were breast cancer survivors. The generated theory, Moving in Between Mammography, describes the decision-making process and factors that influenced women’s participation in routine mammography screening. Specific influencing factors addressed include Connecting to Nativeness, Taking Care of Self, Financing Health Care, and (Mis)Trusting the Health Care System. Implications and directions for future research are addressed.
Continuity of the Self in Later Life: Perceptions of Informal Caregivers
Authors: Åberg Anna Cristina , Sidenvall Birgitta , Hepworth Mike , O’Reilly Karen , Lithell Hans
Published: June 2004

The authors explore perceptions of informal caregivers of extremely elderly (80+) relatives or friends regarding the purpose of caregiving, including factors they considered important for the life satisfaction of the care recipients. They collected data mainly through qualitative interviewed and employed symbolic interactionism. The results revealed a general purpose of the informal caregiving: protection of the care recipient’s self. This purpose was a significant aspect of the identified caregiving categories—social-emotional, proxy, and instrumental care—and the authors consider all four factors important for the care recipients’ life satisfaction: activity, independence, and environmental and adaptive factors. Some informal caregivers gave forceful encouragement to care recipients in an attempt to get them to accept formal care and move to sheltered accommodation. This study underscores the value of informal caregiving and that the caregiving interaction should be balanced by reciprocity.