bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The relevance of certification, registration and assessment for people with a visual impairment
Authors: Thomas David
Published: March 2007

What difference has the revised BD8 form made to the process of registration and assessment of people with a visual impairment? This article looks at the present certification, registration and assessment procedures and discusses the implications for the future when viewed against the back ground of the Disabled Persons (Service, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986. The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author.
No room for complacency: issues in training teachers to meet the needs of visually impaired children
Authors: Fetton Eamonn , Fetton Eamonn
Published: March 2007

Over the past ten years far reaching changes have taken place in the organisation and delivery of educational provision for visually impaired children. There has also been a substantial increase in the availability of teacher training opportunities; but can the present training system meet the demands that are being made? This article looks at current teacher training arrangements, at the changes which have taken place in educational provision, and at the ability of the present system to respond to new demands.
Reading and Writing Media and Methods Used and Preferred by a Sample of Visually Impaired Adults
Authors: Hesketh Robert
Published: March 2007

This Paper investigates the reading and writing media and methods used and preferred by visually impaired adult students at the RNIB's Manor House Employment Rehabilitation Centre, Torquay. Prior to their courses, a high proportion of participants had relied on standard print and handwriting ill suited to their real needs. In most cases, the reading and writing strategies of participants were revolutionised at the Centre which introduced them to a wide range of specialised skills and equipment. Many participants reverted to standard ways of reading and writing after their courses, sometimes through force of circumstances. However, the Centre had a lasting effect on most students.
Cheaper Can Be Better: Cutting Costs and Improving Low Vision Aid Service
Authors: Landers Aideen , Tapley Jane , Billington Brenda , Almgill Veronica , Mitchell-Baker Alastair
Published: March 2007

The traditional Low Vision Aid service using Hospital Eye Service Prescription forms is expensive and often associated with poor patient satisfaction as found in the studies by Mcllwaine, Bell and Dutton (1991) and by Humphrey and Thompson (1986). We audited this service in a district general hospital. Subsequently a more integrated "In House" Low Vision Aid clinic was established. The new service was re-audited to compare costs and also to look at patient satisfaction.

The first audit composed a retrospective analysis of over two years of Hospital Eye Service Prescription forms (495 forms) which were traced through the optometrists/opticians and the Health Authority's finance department. In the second audit a retrospective analysis, of the records of 102 patients and a telephone survey were undertaken. In the first audit the average cost per patient receiving Low Vision Aids was £107.43; in the second this figure was £47.83 suggesting the integrated Low Vision Aid clinic is more cost-effective. We also obtained a patient satisfaction rate of 76%.
Conceptions of Conflict in Close Friendships and Ways of Knowing among Young College Women: A Developmental Framework
Authors: Weinstock Jacqueline S. , Bond Lynne A.
Published: March 2007

Researchers have focused only limited attention on conflicts in adults' close friendships, and rarely from a developmental perspective. This study examined the relationships between young college women's epistemological perspectives and their conceptions of conflicts with close friends. Twenty-five female college students, most white and middle-class, participated in individual interviews regarding their thinking about knowledge and truth, and conflicts with close friends. Analyses revealed three distinct patterns of conceptions of conflicts with close friends that appeared to vary in developmental complexity. Conceptions of conflicts with friends related strongly and positively to epistemological understandings. The implications of these findings for future research on conflicts in close friendships are discussed.
The Influence of Relational Context on Support Processes: Points of Difference and Similarity between Young Adult Sons and Daughters in Problem Talk with Mothers
Authors: Trees April R.
Published: March 2007

The interpersonal context constitutes an important influence in the support process and likely shapes the occurrence of gender-related behavior. This study investigated similarities and differences between mother-son and mother-daughter discussions of problems in terms of both perceptions and behaviors. Results indicate that daughters reported a greater desire for emotion- and problem-focused support and evaluated mothers' provision of informational and tangible aid/network support more favorably than did sons. Sons and daughters did not differ in verbal and nonverbal disclosure behaviors when talking about the problem, and mothers provided similar amounts of both emotion-focused and problem-focused support to sons and daughters and did not differ in nonverbal involvement. These findings highlight ways in which relationally based gendered identities may influence support processes in the context of the mother-young adult child relationship.
Friendship Motivation in Fourth and Sixth Graders: A Thematic Analysis
Authors: McAdams Dan P. , Losoff Michael
Published: March 2007

Fourth and sixth graders' friendship motivation was assessed via thematic coding of stories told in response to pictures. Children scoring high in friendship motivation at both grades reported more factual information about their best friends, revealed `deeper', more reciprocal understandings of the meaning of their own friendships with their best friends, and showed greater stability over time in their best-friend relationships than did children scoring low on the motive. Friendship motivation was also associated with teacher ratings of `friendly', `affectionate', `co-operative', `sincere', `happy', `mature', `imaginative', and `popular'. Girls scored higher in friendship motivation than boys. The new construct friendship motivation and its attendant methodology, adapted from personality research on intimacy motivation in adults, are compared to more conventional contemporary constructs and methods employed in the study of the development of children's friendships.
Relationship Strategies in a Coercive Institution: A Study of Dependence among Prison Guards
Authors: Hepburn John R. , Crepin Ann E.
Published: March 2007

Prison guards augment the limitations of their formal authority over prisoners by the informal control derived from an arrangement of reciprocity with prisoners. This well-documented dependence relationship generates a pattern of mutual accommodation between guards and prisoners to maintain order and stability within the prison. Contemporary analysts suggest, however, that guards are reacting to recent changes in US prisons by increased resistance to a dependence relationship and an attempt to assert their limited authority over prisoners by becoming less accommodative and more repressive. Survey data are examined to assess the relationship between level of institutional authority, dependence and the outcomes of accommodation or repression. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for dependence relationships in a coercive institution.
How Friendships End: Patterns among Young Adults
Authors: Rose Suzanna M.
Published: March 2007

College women's and men's retrospective accounts of recently terminated or deteriorated close same-sex friendships and changes in their friendship networks over the past five years were examined. Four patterns of friendship dissolution were identified: physical separation, new friends replace old, growing to dislike the friend, and interference from dating or marriage. The transition to college resulted in a higher rate of deteriorated friendships than was evident during the high school years, particularly for women. Significant gender differences in patterns of termination were also found: physical separation was more likely to precipitate dissolution in men's friendships, and dating or marriage was more likely to interfere with women's. The results are discussed in terms of how the experiences of the young adult life stage might result in the termination patterns observed.
Attribution and Adjustment to Relationship Termination
Authors: Stephen Timothy
Published: March 2007

Although relationship dissolution is a fruitful context for field studies of attribution processes, only a handful of studies have been conducted and these have often produced contradictory results. This study analysed the written accounts of ex-partners from recently terminated premarital relationships. Type of attribution (self, other, interpersonal, external) was related to items representing the severity of the impact of the dissolution. Among other findings, evidence indicated that females whose relationships had been terminated longer were more likely to use interpersonal attributions and less likely to use other attributions when accounting for the break-up. It is argued that attribution following relationship termination should be viewed as an on-going process rather than as a singular event.
Experiences of Falling in Love
Authors: Aron Arthur , Dutton Donald G. , Aron Elaine N. , Iverson Adrienne
Published: March 2007

Accounts of falling in love were obtained from three samples: (a) lengthy accounts from fifty undergraduates who had fallen in love in the last 8 months; (b) brief accounts from 100 adult nonstudents, which were compared to 100 brief falling-in-friendship accounts from the same population; and (c) questionnaire responses about falling-in-love experiences from 277 undergraduates, which were compared to falling-in-friendship-experience questionnaires from eighty-three similar undergraduates. Content analyses of Study 1 and 2 accounts and Study 3 questionnaire results suggested that falling in love was preceded by frequent reported incidences of discovering other's liked the self and noticing other's desirable characteristics (appearance and personality); moderate incidences of perceived similarity, propinquity and `special falling-in-love processes' (readiness, specific cues, arousal/unusualness, mystery, isolation); and relatively low reported incidences of filling needs and social influence. These patterns contrast with those suggested by the general-attraction and mate-selection literatures. Falling-in-friendship accounts, on the other hand, gave relatively more emphasis to similarity and propinquity, but somewhat less to reciprocal liking, other's desirable characteristics, needs, and the special falling-in-love processes.
Interactions of Couples with and without a Depressed Spouse: Self-Report and Observations of Problem-Solving Situations
Authors: McCabe Scott B. , Gotlib Ian H.
Published: March 2007

Couples in which the wife was either clinically depressed (depressed couples) or non-depressed (non-depressed couples) participated in a videotaped problem-solving interaction and completed a number of self-report measures of mood, family life and perceptions of the marital interaction. Depressed couples, and particularly depressed wives, perceived their family life to be more negative than did non-depressed couples. Depressed wives also became increasingly negative in their verbal behaviour over the course of the interaction. Depressed couples perceived the marital interactions to be more hostile, less friendly and more dominated by their partners than did non-depressed couples. Interestingly, further analyses indicated that only the depressed couples appeared to be immediately reactive to their spouses' behaviours in the interactions. These results are discussed with respect to interpersonal models of depression, and directions for further research are advanced.
Work and Courtship: How College Workload and Perceptions of Work Environment Relate to Romantic Relationships among Men and Women
Authors: Zvonkovic Anisa M. , Pennington Darren C. , Schmiege Cynthia J.
Published: March 2007

This longitudinal study of 96 students in exclusive dating relationships focused on how workload relates to romantic relationships. Respondents completed questionnaires at three points in time during an academic term. Workload, perceptions of the college environment and relationship dimensions of love, conflict, maintenance and ambivalence were measured at each wave. Workload and the subjective perception of the college environment of respondents were correlated with the relationship dimensions, in different ways for men and women. Correlations between college environment and relationship dimensions varied according to the time of the term and hence the intensity of the workload. A subsample of respondents ended their dating relationships during the term. These respondents differed in their attitudes about their schoolwork from respondents who maintained their relationships. This study demonstrated the interdependence of workload, students' orientation to their college environment and their dating relationships.
Impact of Interpersonal Traits and Gender-Role Compliance on Interpersonal Resource Exchange among Dating and Engaged/Married Couples
Authors: Gaines Stanley O.
Published: March 2007

The following hypotheses regarding interpersonal resource exchange among (a) dating couples ( n = 206 couples) and (b) engaged/married couples ( n = 103 couples) were tested: (1) levels of affectionate behavior are reciprocated (i.e. paths are bidirectional) among couples; (2) levels of respectful behavior are reciprocated among couples; (3) individuals' reported affectionate and respectful behaviors are correlated positively; (4) individuals' affection-giving traits are better as positive predictors of individuals' affectionate behavior among engaged/married couples than among dating couples; (5) individuals' respect-giving traits are better as positive predictors of individuals' respectful behavior among engaged/married couples than among dating couples; (6) individuals' gender-role compliance is better as a negative predictor of individuals' affectionate behavior among dating couples than among engaged/married couples; and (7) individuals' gender-role compliance is better as a negative predictor of individuals' respectful behavior among dating couples than among engaged/married couples. Individuals' interpersonal traits and gender-role compliance were self-reported, whereas individuals' interpersonal behaviors were reported by their partners. Results supported Hypotheses 1-3 (derived from resource exchange theory proposed by Foa & Foa, 1974) but not Hypotheses 4-7 (derived from the model of levels of relational involvement proposed by Levinger & Snoek, 1972). Unexpectedly, affection-giving traits generally were positive predictors of affectionate and respectful behavior, whereas respect-giving traits generally did not predict affectionate or respectful behavior. Implications for the study of interpersonal traits, gender roles and behavioral reciprocity in heterosexual relationships are discussed.
Models of Non-Independence in Dyadic Research
Authors: Kenny David A.
Published: March 2007

In dyadic research, the responses of the two members of the dyad are likely to be non-independent. Statistical estimation for three different processes that bring about non-independence are presented. In each, a variable X influences Y. First, the X variable of one person may influence the Y variable of his or her partner. Second, the Y variables of the two people may directly influence each other. Third, the two X and Y scores may be indicators of couple-level factors.
Family Ties and Marital Happiness: The Different Marital Experiences of Black and White Newlywed Couples
Authors: Timmer Susan G. , Veroff Joseph , Hatchett Shirley
Published: March 2007

This paper explores the relationship of family ties to black and white couples' marital happiness over the first 3 years of their marriages. Respondents were 115 black and 136 white couples interviewed as part of the Early Years of Marriage study. Although there were many similarities in the way blacks and whites felt about and interacted with their families, black couples were less likely to argue over matters pertaining to family, visited their families more often but perceived fewer family members able to help if needed. Hierarchical panel regressions showed that close family ties had no effect on the marital happiness of whites but significantly predicted black couples' marital happiness, particularly the ties to the husband's family. Predictions of marital happiness further varied by low and high structural stress (low income combined with early family formation), such that low-stress blacks' increased closeness to their in-laws from year 1 to year 3 predicted marital happiness. For high-stress blacks, the couple's closeness to the husband's family in year 1 and increases in that closeness by year 3 predicted increased marital happiness. Findings point to the importance of accounting for both ethnicity and structural context for understanding the paths couples take in establishing happy marriages.
Separateness and Togetherness: Interdependence Over the Life Course in Japanese and American Marriages
Authors: Ingersoll-Dayton Berit , Campbell Ruth , Kurokawa Yukiko , Saito Masahiko
Published: March 2007

This study examines cross-cultural conceptions of interdependence within marriage over the life cycle. Older Japanese and American couples participated in a narrative interview in which both spouses jointly discussed the story of their marriage. The resulting data were analyzed qualitatively and several salient themes emerged. Interdependence among couples varied across cultures and between racial groups. Further, the couples' feelings of intimacy and distance were renegotiated over the life course. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to family development theory.
The Roommate Relationship for the Elderly Nursing Home Resident
Authors: Kovach Samantha S. , Robinson James D.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the roommate relationship for the institutionalized elderly adult. More specifically, two research questions were examined: Does roommate rapport predict life-satisfaction for elderly nursing home residents? What variables contribute to roommate rapport for the elderly nursing home resident? For this study, 50 elderly persons from six different long-term care facilities were interviewed. The nursing home residents ranged in age from 58 to 98 years, with 43 persons 75 years of age or older. The participants completed the Life Satisfaction Index A, the Short Form of the Roommate Rapport Scale and the Adult Communication Questionnaire through personal interviews. The results of this study indicated that roommate rapport predicted life satisfaction only for those who talked to their roommates. Perceived talk, engaging in activities with one's roommate and talking about the topic of family predicted roommate rapport for the elderly. Nearly half of the elderly residents never talked to their roommates. Most of the reasons for this centered around physical barriers to communication such as hearing problems and speech impediments.
For Better or for Worse: Real-Ideal Discrepancies and the Marital Well-Being of Newlyweds
Authors: Ruvolo Ann P. , Veroff Joseph
Published: March 2007

This study examined the relationship between an individual's real-ideal discrepancy about the spouse and the marital well-being of both spouses. In the first year of the study, individuals from 153 African-American couples and 160 White couples rated their partners and their ideals for their partners on 12 characteristics. Discrepancies between ratings of the partner and ideals for the partner were negatively correlated with the Year 1 marital well-being of each spouse. Also, while controlling for the Year 1 marital well-being of both partners, wives' real-ideal discrepancies about their husbands were negatively related to the Year 2 marital well-being of both partners, but husbands' discrepancies did not predict the Year 2 marital well-being of either partner. When the separate effects of discrepancies, ratings of the partner, and ideals were examined, women's discrepancies predicted the Year 2 marital well-being of both partners, and men's ratings of their wives predicted their own Year 2 marital well-being.
Hierarchies of Attachment Relationships in Young Adulthood
Authors: Trinke Shanna J. , Bartholomew Kim
Published: March 2007

This study examined the characteristics of attachment hierarchies in young adulthood. Multiple components were used to assess attachment bonds: using the attachment figure as a safe haven in times of distress, using him or her as a secure base from which to venture out independently, having a strong emotional tie with the person regardless of whether the tie is positive, negative, or mixed, seeking to be in close proximity to the person, and mourning the loss of the person. The Attachment Network Questionnaire (ANQ) was developed to measure multiple adult attachment relationships and to examine the characteristics of attachment hierarchies. 223 university students completed the ANQ by listing their significant relationships and then ranking these persons in terms of the various components of attachment. A subset of the participants was followed up to examine the one month test-retest reliability of the ANQ. Young adult participants were found, on average, to have 5.38 attachment figures, including family members, romantic partners, and friends. The figures identified included both secure and insecure attachments. In addition, the ANQ demonstrated adequate test-retest reliability over one month.
Do Older Adults' Network Members Continue to Provide Instrumental Support in Unbalanced Relationships?
Authors: Ikkink Karen Klein , van Tilburg Theo
Published: March 2007

Exchange theory assumes that people strive towards a balance in their personal relationships. The question is why the balance is not restored in unbalanced relationships where older adults receive more instrumental support than they give. The data are from a longitudinal study of 408 older adults and 2044 of their network members. At T1, the older adults received more instrumental support than they gave in 335 (17%) of their relationships. The instrumental support balance in these relationships at T2 was also assessed. The results of a multilevel regression analysis show that network members continue giving support to older adults who are in poor health. If the network member is in poor health, the balance is likely to be restored. Four other reasons for continuing the imbalance were also examined. No evidence was found to back the idea that a lack of instrumental reciprocity could be compensated by the older adults giving more emotional support. The second hypothesis (that close relationships often involve social norms that make it difficult to withdraw from unreciprocated support giving) was confirmed: in kin relationships and friendships, the imbalance persisted over time, while neighbor and other non-kin relationships returned to balance. Thirdly, it was hypothesized that if there were a small number of alternative supporters, it would be hard to withdraw from unreciprocated support giving. However, it was found that if the network was small, the imbalance was not likely to endure. Finally, as predicted, if there was generalized network reciprocity, the balance in particular relationships was not restored.
`Top-of-the-Head' Descriptions of Baby and Self: Links to Reported Health Behaviors and Social Context in Early Pregnancy
Authors: Fares Suzanne Laycock , Adler Nancy E.
Published: March 2007

This research investigated pregnant women's spontaneous descriptions of their babies and themselves as mothers early in pregnancy as related to prenatal health behaviors, family background characteristics and women's work status. In semi-structured interviews, 59 married women in their 4th month of pregnancy described the fetus, the baby after birth, and themselves as mothers to the expected child. Consistent with construct accessibility theory and recent representation based models of parenting, the amount and kinds of content that women used to describe their babies and themselves as mothers varied systematically as a function of women's prenatal health behaviors, parity and marital adjustment. Suggestive evidence also was found for a relationship between the content of women's descriptions of themselves as mothers and women's work status. The authors discuss clinical and methodological implications of the findings.
Coping as a Communal Process
Authors: Lyons Renee F. , Mickelson Kristin D. , Sullivan Michael J.L. , Coyne James C.
Published: March 2007

This paper argues for a substantial re-conceptualization of coping. The strong focus on emotional distress as the marker of coping efforts has masked the importance of social functions, processes and outcomes in coping with life stress, particularly the role of communal coping. Communal coping is a cooperative problem-solving process salient in coping with both individual and collective stressors. It involves the appraisal of a stressor as `our' issue and cooperative action to address it. Beyond its important role in coping, communal coping is endemic to notions of social integration, interdependence and close relationships, and may underlie the resilience of families and other social units dealing with stressful life events. The authors present a framework that distinguishes communal coping from other individual and social coping processes. We also provide an analysis of benefits and costs of communal coping, a discussion of key factors in its utilization, and suggestions for further research on the functioning of communal coping in contemporary society.
Advice from Youth: Some Lessons from the Study of Adolescent Relationships
Authors: Furman Wyndol , Simon Valerie A.
Published: March 2007

Our research program has focused on middle school and high school adolescents' social networks and more recently on adolescents' romantic relationships. The adolescents in our studies have taught us a number of lessons about studying personal relationships. We use examples from our research to illustrate these lessons and discuss their implications for studying adult, as well as adolescent, relationships. In particular, adolescents have taught us to recognize the multi-leveled nature of networks and to distinguish among the interactional, dyadic relationship, group and overall levels of networks. The diversity of adolescent relationships presents researchers with the methodological and conceptual challenge of identifying and taking into account the similarities and differences among relationships. Research with adolescents also makes one appreciate the developmental trans-formations that relationships undergo. We describe changes in the absolute level and relative level of characteristics, the stability and centrality of characteristics, and their structure. We discuss implications of the idea that development occurs at the individual level, and distinguish between developmental trajectories and the timing of such trajectories.
Breaking Up is (Relatively) Easy to Do: A Script for the Dissolution of Close Relationships
Authors: Battaglia Dina M. , Richard Francis D. , Datteri Darcee L. , Lord Charles G.
Published: March 2007

Several models of relationship dissolution imply a sequence of steps or stages, for which there might exist a cultural script. Previous research has identified a script for first dates. The present research attempted to identify a relationship dissolution script by asking men and women to list the steps that typically occur when a couple breaks up. Analysis of their 1480 responses indicated a 16-step ordered script for relation-ship dissolution. The relationship dissolution script is discussed in terms of approach-avoidance theories of conflict and relevant relationship dissolution theories.
Coping in Intimate Relationships: Development of the Multidimensional Intimate Coping Questionnaire
Authors: Pollina Leslee K. , Snell William E.
Published: March 2007

Psychological correlates of the use of coping strategies in intimate relationships were investigated through the development of an objective self-report instrument, the Multidimensional Intimate Coping Questionnaire (MICQ). Preliminary results indicated that the 25 MICQ subscales had high internal consistency, that the subscales were uncontaminated by social desirability tendencies, that several demographic variables predicted the use of MICQ intimate coping strategies, and that the MICQ subscales were associated in predictable ways with other general measures of coping. Other findings revealed that several personality tendencies were related to specific coping tendencies: relational esteem was associated with positive, active coping strategies; relational depression was associated with avoidant strategies and self-criticism; relational obsession was associated with emotion-focused strategies and suppression of competing activities in order to focus on the relationship issue; relational consciousness was associated with problem-focused strategies and emotional expression; relational monitoring was associated with denial, wishful thinking and mental disengagement from the relation-ship issue; and relational anxiety was correlated with emotional expression coupled with self-criticism and attempts to disengage from the problem. Adult attachment style and gender also influenced coping tendencies. The MICQ represents a comprehensive approach to the study of coping in intimate relationships.
Perceptions of Dialectical Contradictions in Turning Points of Development in Heterosexual Romantic Relationships
Authors: Baxter Leslie A. , Erbert Larry A.
Published: March 2007

The current study sought to examine the perceived centrality or importance of six basic contradictions in the turning points of relationship development for heterosexual romantic pairs. A modified Retrospective Interview Technique was employed to elicit respondent accounts of the turning points of their relationship. For our sample of 100 males and females, drawn from 50 heterosexual romantic couples, the contradictions of Autonomy-Connection and Openness-Closedness were attributed greatest importance across a wide range of turning-point event types. The perceived importance of three other contradictions (Inclusion-Seclusion, Revelation-Concealment, and Predictability-Novelty) was localized in particular turning-point events. The contradiction of Conventionality-Uniqueness was lowest in perceived importance across turning point types.
Marriage in the New Millennium: Is there a Place for Social Cognition in Marital Research?
Authors: Fincham Frank D. , Beach Steven R.H.
Published: March 2007

Although the interchange between clinical and social psychological research has been fruitful in the study of cognition in marriage, it has recently waned. This article therefore illustrates the value of continued interplay between developments in the social cognition and marital literatures, focusing on the role of context in understanding marriage. Several studies show how construct accessibility, including the construct of marital quality, provides a context that influences judgments of partner behavior, the stability of marital quality, and observed marital behavior. The effects of context on reported marital quality are also examined. Finally, an expanded interplay between social cognition and marital research is illustrated using as examples self-evaluation maintenance processes and goals analysis. It is concluded that the social cognitive perspective has the potential to provide a different understanding of marital cognition in the new millenium.
Institutional Constraints and Entrepreneurial Responses in a Transforming Economy
Authors: Manolova Tatiana S. , Yan Aimin
Published: March 2007

Previous research on entrepreneurship has largely focused on start-up firms in the relatively stable environment of developed economies, whereas scholarship on transforming economies has paid primary attention to large and established firms. Entrepreneurial efforts in a turbulent institutional environment during the radical reforms in the formerly centrally planned economies are still relatively understudied. Using a comparative case study method, this study examined how the reforming institutional environment in Bulgaria influenced the strategic behavior of entrepreneurial firms. We identified the key institutional entities/agents, the major characteristics of the institutional environment, and analyzed the strategic responses of the entrepreneurial companies and their performance implications. We found that lawmakers, tax collection agencies, and regional authorities issuing various business permits and licenses are among the key institutional players, and that the current institutional environment is unpredictable, corrupt, hostile, and detrimental to the growth of private entrepreneurial firms. Entrepreneurial responses, as a result, included short-term orientation, informal networking, opportunism, and surplus extraction. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.
Achieving corporate goals via online information
Authors: Ryan Frank
Published: March 2007

Outlines the strategy by which information services can be made more central to the achievement of company objectives. Concentrates on integrating information services at six stages of the innovative process: ideas generation; screening; business analysis; R & D; testing and commercialisation
Business Information in Portugal - a developing network
Authors: Ramalho Correia Ana Maria , Barrulas Maria Joaquina , Edmonds Diana
Published: March 2007

Portugal has no tradition of information services for business, but has recently established an Information System for Industry. This paper describes the process of establishing the network, and training its employees.
Decentralization and Radio Broadcasting: On the `Possibility Space' of a Communication Technology
Authors: Hägerstrand Torsten
Published: March 2007

The domain within society in which a certain technology has the capacity of being applied is, in this article, called its `possibility space'. This space can be larger, or it can be smaller than originally assumed. The technology of radio broadcasting has been a significant centralizing force in Swedish society. Yet today, radio broadcasting is also contributing to the process of geographic decentralization of political decision-making, and of economic and cultural initiatives. This article discusses the extent to which the enhancement of social communication at the local and regional levels lies within the `possibility space' of the technology of radio broadcasting.
From Import to Modelling: Finland—An Example of Old Periphery Dependency
Authors: Kivikuru Ullamaija
Published: March 2007

This article discusses media dependency research in general and then attempts to develop a dependency framework for an `old' periphery like Finland, a country with a colonial past and described as small, Western and industrialized. This framework is based on the concept of peripheral autonomy. The dominant form of dependency in such a situation is, according to this article, modelling. The article also presents empirical data on the Finnish media, particularly television and news transmission.
Cultural Functionalism: The Function of the Press in Economic Power Relations
Authors: Lappalainen Tomas
Published: March 2007

This article deals with two related issues. The first is theoretical and concerns the widespread (but often unacknowledged) tendency to functional analysis in cultural science. Functional explanations are discussed and defended along the lines drawn by the analytic philosopher, Cohen. The second issue concerns prospects for constructing a research project aimed at testing the hypothesis that the content of political ideas in the daily press can be explained by their function of stabilizing economic power relations in society. Within this functionally explanatory frame-work a theory is presented which shows how press dependence on advertising finance can give rise to the `causal mechanisms' at work.
Research into International Television Flows: A Methodological Contribution
Authors: Sepstrup Preben
Published: March 2007

This article presents a framework that is intended to improve the understanding, conceptualization and measurement of international television flows and their effects. The framework has been developed to systematize existing research, to act as a guide for future research into the increasingly complex situation of international television flows and to improve the interpretation of existing and new data on international television flows.
Cross-Border Mass Communication from West to East Germany
Authors: Hesse Kurt R.
Published: March 2007

In divided Germany in recent years an `electronic reunification' took place in front of the TV sets day-by-day. People in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) received information and entertainment from the western media. For the GDR rulers, this created difficult problems. The collapse of the Honecker regime had many sources of course; but an important factor in the process of political change was the influence of West German TV, which has an excellent image in East Germany, for the quality and credibility of its news and current affairs programmes. East Germans shaped their picture of the world under the continuous influence of western TV.
The European Press and Saladin the Fierce
Authors: Savarese Rossella
Published: March 2007

The article examines the orientation of the European press during the recent crisis in the Persian Gulf by analysing coverage of the event, attitudes towards the contending parties and the presentation of Saddam Hussein. The study focuses specifically on the months preceding the intervention of the coalition led by the United States. The evidence indicates that, in all the dailies examined, the coverage of the crisis went through different and basically predictable stages, `surprise', `interest', `routine', `waiting' and the `flood', i.e. like those of a media event. The differences observed among the dailies were significant with respect to three issues. The first is whether the attitude towards military intervention led by the United States was favourable or unfavourable. Secondly, some dailies were more militaristic while others were more pro-Arab. Finally, contrary to expectations, not all the dailies defined as `conservative' were the most interventionist and militaristic, whereas several considered `progressive' were.
Opportune Witnesses: An Analysis of Balance in the Selection of Sources and Arguments in the Leading German Newspapers' Coverage of the Census Issue
Authors: Hagen Lutz M.
Published: March 2007

In 1987 the German census became an important and controversial issue. A content analysis of the news coverage of the census controversy by leading German newspapers reveals the stronger the journalists favoured the census, the more their newspapers contained arguments in favour of the census. Sources which supported the newspapers' views (opportune witnesses) were selected for publication regardless of the individual direction of their arguments. Thus the readers of various newspapers were exposed to viewpoints from different sources to differing degrees. However, the argumentation of each source varied little in direction among the newspapers.
Telling Stories: Sociology, Journalism and the Informed Citizen
Authors: Golding Peter
Published: March 2007

This paper argues that the media have failed to provide for informed citizenship. Despite claims in media occupational ideologies to service the information needs of the public, the accumulated verdict of research is that the media provide an inadequate basis for citizens to fulfil their role. The popular press has become integrated into the entertainment industry, and public service broadcasting is being dismantled in form and purpose. New technologies, far from creating an `information society', are fostering a media society, in which the gaps between rich and poor are enlarging. These failings place a larger obligation on critical social research to act as witness to history, but this mission can only be fulfilled if we escape from the threats to independent inquiry both within and without academia. Research into the media must reconnect with wider questions of social inequality, power and process.
Resonance Effects in Television News
Authors: Schulz Winfried
Published: March 2007

This paper tests several factors hypothesized to influence the visibility of the two candidates running for Bundeskanzler at the 1990 German national elections: the incumbent Helmut Kohl and the contender, Oskar Lafontaine. In a survey of the main news bulletins aired during the final seven weeks of the campaign by the major public service channels ARD and ZDF and the leading private channels SAT1 and RTL, type of event emerged as the most powerful determinant of TV attention. In terms of making it into the news both candidates were most successful with typical pseudo-events. Campaign issues had no significant effect on the candidates' appearances on television but the TV channels with their different news styles and policies were sources both of main effects and of interaction effects. The candidates had much more coverage in the bulletins of the public service channels than on private TV. This was superimposed by a resonance effect originating from the different political preferences of the channels which reacted differently to the specific event types which favoured each candidate. The results are interpreted with reference to the idea of a `discretionary power' wielded by either one or the other.
The Rise and Fall of Risk Reporting
Authors: Kitzinger Jenny , Reilly Jacquie
Published: March 2007

Which risks attract mass media attention? When and why do particular threats become headline news? Using three diverse case studies, this article charts the rise and fall of risk crises and draws on interviews with journalists and their sources to identify the key factors affecting these processes. We demonstrate how source competition, journalists' training, `newsworthiness', news momentum and the organization of news beats and media outlets encourage certain risks to be highlighted at particular times, but encourage other risk debates to be entirely overlooked. We argue that standard accounts of news production processes fail adequately to account for the media profile of `risk' unless they are integrated with an understanding of `cultural givens', changes over time, occasional suspensions of `normal' journalistic practice and consideration of the particular conditions which come into play on `risk reporting'. Similarly, our research suggests that theoretical accounts of `risk society' often oversimplify the media's role. Far from being eager reporters of risk, the press and TV news are ill adapted for sustaining high level coverage of long-term threats. Media interest is rarely maintained in the face of ongoing uncertainty and official silence or inaction. In spite of this, the media can serve as one avenue for public information and political/policy leverage for those who believe that risk assessment is `too important to leave to the experts'. However, the media cannot be assumed to be automatic allies in the `democratization of risk', and the success of some unofficial sources in attracting media attention should not be celebrated uncritically.
The Applicability of Western Media Models on the Russian Media System
Authors: de Smaele Hedwig
Published: March 2007

For decades the (western) media world could be divided along the simple dichotomy of western vs communist media systems. When the communist world collapsed, the corresponding media model was declared history as well. At first sight, it was fully replaced by the western model in the same way as the society was reorganized according to western principles. On a closer look, however, western influence seems to be restricted primarily to the market area. The reshaping of the media system into a pluralist and independent Fourth Estate, the transformation of the journalistic community into an autonomous professional group dedicated to a public service ideal and the redefinition of the audience into a group of citizens all failed to occur. Media systems are given shape not only by economic but also by political and cultural factors. Russia's culture can be considered a combination of western/European and eastern/Asian characteristics. For this reason it is likely that we will witness the emerging of an indigenous Russian (Eurasian?) media system instead of the simple `westification' or `Europeanization' of the Russian media system.
For the Last Time: Civilizations
Authors: Dabashi Hamid
Published: March 2007

This article is a critique of the development of civilizational thinking contemporaneous with the growth in power of the globalizing empire of capital. The central proposition is that the arguments developed by Samuel Huntington, Francis Fukuyama, Alan Bloom and others are a defense mechanism in reaction to the speed of demographic change in the USA, itself a barometer for universal changes caused by migration of labor around the world. Such migration radically altered the presumed stability of national cultures and their putative civilizational borders. A reaffirmation of civilizational thinking today is not only conservative but retrograde, the result of the clash between ideological power and seismic changes in the material basis of cultural formations.
DOMESTIC LABOUR AND THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN ITALY SINCE THE 1970s
Authors: Costa Mariarosa Dalla
Published: March 2007

After a brief mention of the themes prevalent in the feminist movement in various countries, the article focuses on some questions which, starting with the centrality of housework in the feminist debate of the 1970s, formed a leitmotif of that period and the early 1980s: above all, the relationship between, on the one hand, the rejection of work as a political practice theorised, particularly in Italy in the 1970s, as a fundamental instrument of struggle and, on the other, women's availability/unavailability for work. Remaining within an approach which places the stress on women's behaviour, this issue is also analysed in the socio-political context of the early 1980s. Some fundamental moments are identified along the itinerary undertaken by women towards building an identity increasingly independent of a way-of-being functional to the unpaid reproduction of others: not only the rejection of marriage and procreation, but also, under some aspects, the great struggles centering on abortion, lesbianism and prostitution. But if, in this way, women have distanced themselves from a sacrificial role and if, as is happening increasingly with the so-called `technological revolution', the possibilities of reproduction at the mass level are becoming further restricted, what will become of human reproduction? What, the author wonders as a provocation, will become of love?
TOWARD AN EMANCIPATORY SOCIOLOGY: ABANDONING UNIVERSALISM FOR TRUE INDIGENISATION
Authors: Park Peter
Published: March 2007

Sociology conceived of and practised as a universalistic science in the positivistic tradition turns people into passive objects suitable for manipulation by centralised bureaucratic apparatuses. Fully indigenised sociology, by contrast, seeks to restore people as creators of knowledge and agents of social change. This conception of sociology returns science to the people and assists them in bringing about a new world that is as different from post-Renaissance Europe as the latter was from the Middle Ages.