A randomized-control trial for the teachers’ diploma programme on psychosocial care,support and protection in Zambian government primary schools

Orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) experience poverty, stigma, and abuse resulting in poor physical, emotional, and psychological outcomes. The Teachers’ Diploma Programme on Psychosocial Care, Support, and Protection is a child-centered 15-month long-distance learning program focused on providing teachers with the knowledge and skills to enhance their school environments, foster psychosocial support, and facilitate school-community relationships. A randomized controlled trial was implemented in 2013–2014. Both teachers (n=325) and students (n=1378) were assessed at baseline and 15-months post-intervention from randomly assigned primary schools in Lusaka and Eastern Provinces, Zambia. Multilevel linear mixed models (MLM) indicate positive significant changes for intervention teachers on outcomes related to self-care, teaching resources, safety, social support, and gender equity. Positive outcomes for intervention students related to future orientation, respect, support, safety, sexual abuse, and bullying. Outcomes support the hypothesis that teachers and students benefit from a program designed to enhance teachers’ psychosocial skills and knowledge.     

Inter-organizational collaboration,knowledge intensity,and the sources of innovation in the bioscience-technology industries

What makes some firms more innovative than others and what determines the source of these innovations are questions that are still not adequately answered due to the complex, often esoteric, nature of the innovation process. This paper considers the effect of one externally oriented strategy (extent of formal inter-organizational linkages) and one internally oriented strategy (degree of knowledge intensity) on overall levels of innovativeness and the source of these innovations. Using data collected from firms operating in the bioscience-technology industries in both New York and Utah, our results suggest that both of these strategies have a significant effect upon innovation levels and the source of innovation (internally versus externally stimulated). Interestingly, there were few firms that undertook both of these strategies simultaneously and thus the proposed interaction effect where increased absorptive capacity (on the basis of knowledge intensity) would make external linkages even more valuable could not be discerned. His interests lay in strategic technology management, intellectual property management, technology-based entrepreneurship, technology-based industry development, and regional economic development planning. Much of his work has focused on life-science related industries. He holds doctoral degrees in both technology studies and strategic management. He also works in the area of technology commercialization education for the U.S. Government’s Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. He received his PhD from the University of Western Australia in 1998. His present research interests focus upon the nexus of strategy and innovation, and have included studies in the bicycle, financial services, airline and biotechnology industries.     

Does media multitasking always hurt? A positive correlation between multitasking and multisensory integration

Heavy media multitaskers have been found to perform poorly in certain cognitive tasks involving task switching, selective attention, and working memory. An account for this is that with a breadth-biased style of cognitive control, multitaskers tend to pay attention to various information available in the environment, without sufficient focus on the information most relevant to the task at hand. This cognitive style, however, may not cause a general deficit in all kinds of tasks. We tested the hypothesis that heavy media multitaskers would perform better in a multisensory integration task than would others, due to their extensive experience in integrating information from different modalities. Sixty-three participants filled out a questionnaire about their media usage and completed a visual search task with and without synchronous tones (pip-and-pop paradigm). It was found that a higher degree of media multitasking was correlated with better multisensory integration. The fact that heavy media multitaskers are not deficient in all kinds of cognitive tasks suggests that media multitasking does not always hurt.     

Circle of Security parenting program efficacy for improving parental self-efficacy in a South African setting: Preliminary evidence

This pilot study examined the cross-cultural transportability of a western Circle of Security (COS) parenting program to improve on levels of parental self-efficacy in a South African setting. Participants (n = 9) were sampled from a fishing community on the West Coast of South Africa. The participants completed the COS with pre-test and post-test measures of their parenting self-efficacy. Furthermore, they completed an open-ended measure of their satisfaction with the parenting program. The data were analysed using the Wilcoxon sign-rank test and the Sign test to determine the significance in differences between pre-to-post-test change scores. In addition, a thematic analysis was conducted on participant’s satisfaction with the parenting program. Results indicated significant and possible change scores for the efficacy scores: ability to handle parenting pressures, control, and learning. The participants considered the COS program appropriate to their context and situation. These preliminary findings support the need for further study of the COS parenting program within the broader context of South Africa.     

Evaluation of Digital Drawing Tests and Paper-and-Pencil Drawing Tests for the Screening of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Diagnostic Studies

Neuropsychology Review - Digital drawing tests have been proposed for cognitive screening over the past decade. However, the diagnostic performance is still to clarify. The objective of this study...     

Technological semantics and technological practice: Lessons from an enigmatic episode in twentieth-century technology studies

This paper is a review of words and their meanings in the field of technology studies, and an analysis the semantics of an idealistic international technology-related social movement that flourished briefly during the second half of the twentieth century. Sloppy nomenclature employed by proponents and observers of the movement led to people with opposite views appearing to agree (and vice versa), with the consequence that the movement’s valuable policy insights exerted only marginal influence on mainstream technology policy. I conclude that poor technological semantics may undermine effective technological practice. Suggestions for a constructive technological nomenclature are presented. His research, teaching, and consulting concentrate on strategic technology management, intellectual property management, technology-based entrepreneurship, technology-based industry development, and regional economic development planning. He holds doctoral degrees in both technology studies and strategic management. Kelvin has conducted research or directed programs in technology management at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Utah, and the University of California at Berkeley. He is also an active participant in the Entrepreneurial Technology Apprenticeship Program of the U.S. Minority Business Development Administration and the National Technology Transfer Center.     

Other- versus self-focus and risky health behavior: the case of HIV/AIDS

We examined the relationships of other-focus and self-focus with risky health behaviors among HIV+ individuals. Participants who were recruited by an AIDS advocacy organization completed anonymous questionnaires that included measures of other-focus (i.e. empathic concern and perspective-taking) and self-focus (i.e. personal distress and exaggerated internal control); direct measures of concern about the consequences of HIV/AIDS for the self, close others, and society; and a measure of willingness to engage in HIV/AIDS risk behaviors. As predicted, other-focus measures were generally associated with less, and self-focus measures with greater, willingness to engage in risky behavior. However, concern about the consequences of HIV/AIDS for close others was similar to self-focus and was associated with greater willingness to engage in risky behavior. These results are consistent with the notion that prevention efforts focusing on the consequences of HIV/AIDS – and perhaps other communicable diseases – might be more effective if they highlighted the consequences of the disease for society.     

Work as a source of identity: The implications of unemployment

The significance of work in the life of the individual is examined, and the implications of unemployment are explored, especially in the light of the possibility that it may become endemic through technological developments. Although beneath the significance of work there is also much ambivalence towards it, it is argued that work is central to an individual's self-concept, as a source of values and of structure to life. The potential of leisure as a psychologically adequate alternative to work is questioned     

Success and satisfaction as a function of environmental constraint and origin-pawn feelings1

This research investigated causal relationships among situational and dispositional determinants of origin-pawn (O-P) feelings and perceptions of task satisfaction and success. Seventy-seven college students performed a task under one of three conditions—freedom, moderate freedom, or high constraint. Analysis of data through multiple regression and path-analytic techniques indicated that O-P feelings are a function of both situation and disposition. While condition and O-P feelings have direct effects on both success and satisfaction, satisfaction is affected more by the situational element of freedom versus constraint than is success. The path analysis tended to support a previously conceptualized causal model of relationships among the variables.