Rise in landing-related skydiving fatalities

The purpose was to assess whether adoption of potentially dangerous skydiving gear and skydiving practices has led to an increase in fatalities. Beginning in the early 1990s, civilian skydivers began to utilize high performance parachutes that fly much faster and are much more responsive than older style parachutes. Also, skydivers began to fly these parachutes in a more aggressive manner. An analysis of data from the 507 skydiving fatalities in the USA between 1986 and 2001 indicated that this shift toward high performance parachutes and aggressive flying techniques was temporally associated with an increase in parachute-landing deaths. During the same time period, the total number of fatalities remained fairly stable.     

The disclosure dilemma for gay men and lesbians: "coming out" at work

This study examined disclosing sexual orientation at work for 220 gay men and 159 lesbians. Self-acceptance, the centrality of one's identity, how "out" one is to friends and family, employer policies, and perceived employer gay-supportiveness were associated with disclosure behaviors at work for gay/lesbian employees. Disclosing at work and working for an organization perceived to be more gay supportive was related to higher job satisfaction and lower job anxiety. Reactions of coworkers to gay or lesbian workers mediated the relationship between disclosure and gay/lesbian workers' job attitudes. Implications and solutions for management are discussed.     

Social Construction and Grounding

The aim of this paper is to bring recent work on metaphysical grounding to bear on the phenomenon of social construction. It is argued that grounding can be used to analyze social construction and that the grounding framework is helpful for articulating various claims and commitments of social constructionists, especially about social identities, e.g., gender and race. The paper also responds to a number of objections that have been (or could be) leveled against the application of grounding to social construction from Elizabeth Barnes (2014), Mari Mikkola (2015), and Jessica Wilson (2014).     

Social construction: big-G grounding,small-g realization

The goal of this paper is to make headway on a metaphysics of social construction. In recent work (forthcoming), I’ve argued that social construction should be understood in terms of metaphysical grounding. However, I agree with grounding skeptics like Wilson (Inquiry 1–45, 2014) that bare claims about what grounds what are insufficient for capturing, with fine enough grain, metaphysical dependence structures. To that end, I develop a view on which the social construction of human social kinds (e.g., race) is a kind of realization relation. Social kinds, I argue, are multiply realizable kinds. I depart from the Wilson by further arguing that an appeal to grounding is not otiose when it comes to social construction. Social construction, I claim, belongs to the “big-G” Grounding genus, but it is the specific “small-g” relation of realization at work in cases of human kind social construction.     

Age and Work-Related Outcomes: The Moderating Effects of Status Characteristics

This study examines the extent to which 2 status characteristics—pay level and part-time vs. full-time employment—influence the effectiveness of age as a predictor of work-related attitudes and behaviors. Using a sample of 157 registered nurses, hierarchical regression was used to determine whether pay level or employment classification (part-time vs. full-time) moderated the relationship between chronological age and the following outcomes associated with the process of voluntary turnover: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, withdrawal cognitions, perceived alternatives, search behavior, and actual turnover behavior. Findings indicate that the effects of age on work attitudes and behaviors are moderated to some extent by both status characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed.