Emerging Policy Problems Related to Ubiquitous Computing: Negotiating Stakeholders’ Visions of the Future

This paper provides an overview of the human-centered vision of Ubiquitous Computing and draws on research examining slowly emerging problems over a long-term time frame in the emerging Ubiquitous Computing environment. A six-phase process employing scenario planning, electronic focus groups, and problem assessment surveys harnessed the insight of 165 individuals from diverse backgrounds and regions throughout the State of Hawaii. Distinct differences were found between the problem identification of specialists (policy makers and systems designers) and nonspecialists (everyday citizens), and there were significant differences found in the problem assessment between groups. The greatest differences in both phases emerged from social and psychological issues related to the emerging Ubiquitous Computing environment. It is argued that in addition to enormous technical changes, Ubiquitous Computing will serve to blur sociotechnical boundaries throughout the environment, challenging existing distinctions between humans and machine intelligences. As the potential for extending human capabilities via computing and communications technology is actualized in coming decades, what it means to be human will be a major source of public policy conflicts, and the early identification of problems related to these changes is essential in order to mitigate their impacts and socially negotiate a more desirable future.

Contour-based object identification and segmentation: stimuli, norms and data, and software tools.

We summarize five studies of our large-scale research program, in which we examined aspects of contour-based object identification and segmentation, and we report on the stimuli we used, the norms and data we collected, and the software tools we developed. The stimuli were outlines derived from the standard set of line drawings of everyday objects by Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980). We used contour curvature as a major variable in all the studies. The total number of 1,500 participants produced very solid, normative identification rates of silhouettes and contours, straight-line versions, and fragmented versions, and quite reliable benchmark data about saliency of points and object segmentation into parts. We also developed several software tools to generate stimuli and to analyze the data in nonstandard ways. Our stimuli, norms and data, and software tools have great potential for further exploration of factors influencing contour-based object identification, and are also useful for researchers in many different disciplines (including computer vision) on a wide variety of research topics (e.g., priming, agnosia, perceptual organization, and picture naming). The full set of norms, data, and stimuli may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Explorations of the effectiveness of a voluntary sector psychodynamic counselling service

This paper reports two studies of individual psychodynamic counselling provided by a voluntary sector service. The first study examines evidence of the effectiveness of counselling, as evaluated by the General Health Questionnaire and Personal Opinion Survey. Measures of the process of counselling indicated the improvements that clients attributed to counselling, the changes that occurred during it, and the factors that were most beneficial, as well as the approaches used by counsellors. The second study, using the CORE Outcome Measure and ratings of problem severity, found counselling to be equally effective with disadvantaged and non‐disadvantaged clients, as defined by British Department of Health criteria, but these clients differed somewhat in their perceptions of helpful aspects of counselling. Both studies also indicated predictors of positive outcome of counselling. The studies are used to illustrate some of the methodological issues around research in this area.     

Eldercare demands, strain, and work engagement: The moderating role of perceived organizational support

Demographic changes give rise to an increasing number of middle-aged employees providing home-based care to an elderly family member. However, the potentially important role of employees' perceptions of organizational support for eldercare has so far not been investigated. The goal of this study was to examine a stressor–strain–outcome model (Koeske & Koeske, 1993) of eldercare strain as a mediator of the relationship between eldercare demands and caregivers' work engagement. Perceived organizational eldercare support was expected to attenuate the positive relationship between eldercare demands and eldercare strain and to buffer the negative relationship between eldercare strain and work engagement. Results of mediation and moderated mediation analyses with data collected from 147 employees providing eldercare supported the hypotheses. The findings suggest that perceived organizational eldercare support is especially beneficial for employees' work engagement when eldercare demands and strain are high.     

Changing Attitudes Toward Prison Reform: Effects of Similarity to Prisoners on Attraction and Rejection1

Human–rights organizations and prisoner advocacy groups try to create positive attitudes toward liberal prison reform by emphasizing similarities between the public and prisoners. Theories of similarity and attraction, however, suggest that this strategy can backfire. Although it commonly increases liking, similarity can increase rejection when the similar other is stigmatized. An experiment tested the efficacy of appeals to similarity in changing prison reform attitudes. Republicans and Democrats listed aspects of themselves that made them similar to or different from prisoners, and then they completed a measure of prison reform attitudes (Silvia, 2003). Emphasizing similarity between the participant and prisoners did not always cause positive attitudes. After focusing on similarity to prisoners, Democrats reported more liberal prison reform attitudes, and Republicans reported more punitive attitudes. Implications for changing attitudes toward prison reform are discussed.     

The motivational basis of concessions and compromise: archival and laboratory studies

A content analysis system for measuring positive concessions (offering concessions) and negative concessions (rejecting offered concessions) was introduced and validated through an archival study of government-to-government documents from 4 crises, 2 of which escalated to war and 2 of which were peacefully resolved. In the archival documents, concession making was positively associated with affiliation motivation and negatively associated with power motivation. A 2nd, laboratory experimental study confirmed these relationships and demonstrated priming effects of motive imagery and concession making, in a received diplomatic letter, on participants' responses. Finally, the motive imagery and concessions scores in participants' responses were related in predicted ways to their policy choices.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Justice for Hedgehogs</Emphasis>, Conceptual Authenticity for Foxes: Ronald Dworkin on Value Conflicts

In his 2011 book Justice for Hedgehogs, Ronald Dworkin makes a case for the view that genuine values cannot conflict and, moreover, that they are necessarily mutually supportive. I argue that by prioritizing coherence over the conceptual authenticity of values, Dworkin’s ‘interpretivist’ view risks neglecting what we care about in these values. I first determine Dworkin’s position on the monism/pluralism debate and identify the scope of his argument, arguing that despite his self-declared monism, he is in fact a pluralist, but unusual in denying conflict between plural values. I then set out the structure of his interpretive theory of value relations and present a case of value conflict which I think interpretivism cannot deal with. Following this I argue that there are structural reasons why cases like this are liable to occur and suggest that interpretivism will frequently fail to properly reflect people’s moral commitments because reinterpretation of values has the side effect of excluding important moral commitments from our conceptions of values. While, as Dworkin argues, there are no brute moral facts concerning values, moral psychology constrains the range of acceptable conceptions of values. Given the shortcomings of interpretivism I conclude that we should acknowledge that values may conflict.     

Sexual behavior in young adulthood: a population-based twin study.

OBJECTIVE: With behavior genetic analyses of data from young adult twins, we evaluated theoretical perspectives that differentially emphasize biological dispositions, social/cultural factors, or universal pathways to explain individual differences in sexual behaviors. DESIGN: We fit biometric sex limitation models to three aspects of sexual behavior reported by 4,925 Finnish twins ages 23-27. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: From a postal questionnaire, we obtained self-report information on initiation/abstinence of sexual intercourse, onset age, and number of sexual partners. RESULTS: Genetic and non-shared environmental influences were significant for all three measures. There were trends for common environmental influences on initiation and, in females, age at first intercourse. Some differential effects in males and females were found. Results comparing onset age and number of partners among experienced twins from pairs concordant and discordant for initiation found genetic and environmental influences on initiation/abstinence overlapped those found for the other aspects of sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS: These results document genetic variation in individual differences in sexual behavior of young adults. Incorporating genetic dispositions into integrated models of sexual behavior will facilitate more effective health promotion and risk taking intervention.     

A Motivational Analysis of Russian Presidents, 1994–2018

This article analyzes the motivations of the three presidents of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union: Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, and Dmitry Medvedev. Imagery for the achievement, affiliation, and power motives was scored from the texts of annual presidential addresses to the Federal Assembly from 1994 through 2018. Although there were fluctuations from president to president, and from year to year within each term, the Russian presidents overall tended to be higher in achievement than power. This contrasts with many political leaders from other countries and suggests modification in previous conclusions about the problems of high achievement motivation in politics. The scores of each president are related to the events and policies of that president's term of office. The third term of Vladimir Putin is particularly interesting, because his achievement scores were lower, and power and affiliation scores higher, than in his previous terms. These changes seem to fit with his changes in foreign and domestic policies from his earlier terms.