bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Mental Imagery in Psychological Disorders
Authors: Holmes Emily A. , Iyadurai Lalitha , Jacob Gitta A. , Hales Susie 
Published: May 2015

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

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

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

AbstractResearching the life course—the way our lives are structured into particular stages and sequences—opens up a huge range of issues and perspectives. I begin with selected synoptic approaches that give a sense of this multidimensionality, such as the levels at which it applies and the linkages between individual life courses and their social contexts. I discuss particular concepts that figure prominently in the analytical toolbox of life course research, notably stages, transitions, and trajectories.The following part concentrates on the way models and metaphors can be applied to life course research. Metaphorical thinking can be a fruitful way of illuminating complex issues; we need, however, to be clear about what kinds of claim are being made for such metaphors and models.I introduce the image of a triple helix, analogous to the famous DNA double helix but with three strands—biological, psychological, and social. This simple image allows us to model the changing interrelationships between these, mapped against chronological age. The central focus is not on the changes within each strand but on the changes which these entail in the relationships between the different strands. Entry into adulthood and becoming old are two examples where these relationships are obviously altering significantly. The triple helix acts as a device for exploring life course change, and as a means of defining significant issues.
Models of Duality
Authors: Krishna Anand , Deutsch Roland , Strack Fritz 
Published: May 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AbstractSince roughly 1980, the rationalization of higher education has been escalating. That is,means‐end schema and bureaucratic organizationhave become ever more dominant as the authority over academic matters has been shifting from the professoriate to managers who in the mid‐twentieth century had been mainly responsible for economic affairs and “making things run.” At many research universities today, the administrative sector has grown so large that the budget devoted to administrative salaries and benefits exceeds the monies reserved for faculty.The transference of authority from educators to bureaucratic offices and roles has been driven by a larger market morality where the legitimacy of organizational functions resides in their reproduction of profit exchanges. We conceive of the institutional field of higher education—the universe of diverse institutions existing within a prestige hierarchy—as existing along a spectrum of rationalization with the for‐profit college organization at the extreme right. While there is much debate about the rightness of a college sector that reverses over 200 years of not‐for‐profit organization professing that education is for the public good, traditional colleges have adopted organizational arrangements that resemble those that characterize for‐profit colleges. Indeed, some like Bousquet (2008) argue that rather than the fully rationalized for‐profit model exerting pressure on traditional higher education to adopt rationalized regimes, traditional not‐for‐profit colleges have been steadily refining those regimes for at least 40 years. As we will discuss later, this presents a fundamental puzzle for classic neoinstitutional theories that do much of the intellectual work of interrogating organizations and rationalization. Thismutualmimetic isomorphism, in which two competing organizational forms adapt to resemble each other rather than the dominant form, is most evident in rationalized arrangements in academic labor, curricular focus on “objective” outcomes, and neoliberal reframing of what constitutes education. We discuss the theoretical and empirical conditions that have increased the rationalization of higher education. We then explicate on the ideal form of rationalization in higher education and put forth an agenda that builds on emerging research in organizations, education, and rationalization.