Introducing systems change in the schools: the case of school luncheons and vending machines

A major public health crisis facing America’s society is the increase in child and youth obesity, which has seen a fourfold increase in the last four decades. Major concerns include what children eat for school lunch and what other foods are available in schools. This paper illustrates efforts towards systems change in the luncheon program and food vending machines in the Chicago Public Schools. We discuss the different factors that lead to such changes using the framework of the social ecological model and the soft systems methodology, and we analyze how the resulting innovation was implemented and evaluated. First, we present a theoretical perspective to explain factors that influence children’s eating patterns from a systems approach. Second, we discuss the antecedent factors that lead to systems change. Finally, we examine challenges to systems change, such as resistance to change, different stakeholder priorities, lack of resources, institutional bureaucracy, and unrealistic funder expectations.     

The relationship between justice and attitudes: An examination of justice effects on event and system-related attitudes

Research in organizational justice has always been interested in the relationship between justice and attitudes. This research often examines how different types of justice affect different attitudes, with distributive justice predicted to affect attitudes about specific events (e.g., performance evaluation) and procedural justice predicted to affect attitudes about organizations (e.g., organizational commitment). However, there is mixed support for these predictions. Moreover, this approach generally ignores the relationship between attitudes about the specific event and attitudes toward the organization. In this study we identify three alternative models of justice and attitudes. We use customer responses to complaint handling to test these alternative conceptualizations. Results generally support a mediated model, wherein event attitudes mediate the effect of justice perceptions on system-related attitudes. The implication of these findings for organizations and justice researchers are discussed.     

Social outcomes in childhood brain disorder: a heuristic integration of social neuroscience and developmental psychology

The authors propose a heuristic model of the social outcomes of childhood brain disorder that draws on models and methods from both the emerging field of social cognitive neuroscience and the study of social competence in developmental psychology/psychopathology. The heuristic model characterizes the relationships between social adjustment, peer interactions and relationships, social problem solving and communication, social-affective and cognitive-executive processes, and their neural substrates. The model is illustrated by research on a specific form of childhood brain disorder, traumatic brain injury. The heuristic model may promote research regarding the neural and cognitive-affective substrates of children's social development. It also may engender more precise methods of measuring impairments and disabilities in children with brain disorder and suggest ways to promote their social adaptation.     

Understanding Voter Vengeance

This article proposes that, in electoral contexts, decision makers may experience a desire for vengeance or a desire to “get even” with an entity, such as a political candidate, in response to a perceived wrongdoing. This article draws on research from the domains of psychology and sociology to develop a theoretical framework for examining factors that may influence the extent to which voters exact revenge on political candidates with their voting behavior. The results of 3 experiments are reported in which voters are shown to exact revenge on a candidate who has won an earlier round of elections by defeating a favored candidate. This process is mediated by damage to self‐identity and is strengthened by perceived share of blame attributed to the perpetrator candidate. This research shows how vengeful voters are delighted when a perpetrator candidate later performs poorly while in office. This research also shows how making salient a shared affiliation with the perpetrator candidate (such as race or university major) can attenuate vengeful voting behavior. The research builds on a growing body of work that explores negative and potentially counterproductive emotions in choice contexts.     

The effect of task and maternal verbosity on compliance in toddlers

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between compliance in toddlers and maternal verbosity as well as the type of task. Mothers and their toddlers completed a warm‐up task, a proactive toy clean‐up task, and a prohibitive forbidden objects task. Mothers were assigned to one of two verbosity conditions (high versus low) and to one of two nurturance conditions (high versus low) where the rates of verbosity and nurturance were experimentally manipulated. It was hypothesized that toddlers would demonstrate higher noncompliance when given high levels of verbosity than toddlers given low levels of verbosity. It was expected that toddlers would demonstrate higher noncompliance when given low levels of nurturance than toddlers given high levels of nurturance. It was also expected that toddlers would demonstrate more noncompliance in the prohibitive task than they would in the proactive task. Results indicated that the rates of child compliance were related to the level of maternal verbosity with greater noncompliance being exhibited by children who received high levels of verbosity than those who received low levels of verbosity. Child compliance rates were also related to the type of task, with greater noncompliance exhibited in the proactive task versus the prohibitive task. Excessive detail about what children should or should not do appears to be related to child behavior and supports Patterson's premise of ‘nattering’. Child behavior also was related to the type of task in which the child was engaged. These findings have direct implications for individuals working with or raising very young children. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

No Child Left Behind: Values and Research Issues in High‐Stakes Assessments

High‐stakes testing and mandated assessments, which are major outcomes of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; 2002) contain multiple embedded values that affect the lives of students, their families, teachers, and counselors. A primary embedded value within the NCLB is the privileging of quantitative science over other methods of inquiry and assessment. Thus, accountability, a cornerstone of NCLB legislation, has come to be understood in a narrow way and is valued primarily as a feature of quantitative assessment. This restricted view of accountability has had significant effects on how teachers and counselors organize their work with students.     

A Case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This article presents the case of a 51-year old woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder. “Caroline” reported obsessions of harming people secondary to spreading her “bad energy,” which is experienced as dust on her hands and in her mouth. To prevent harm coming to others she mentally “vacuums” the dust, creates mental protective barriers around nearby people and avoids touching others for fear of transmitting her bad energy. Although she reported a childhood onset of obsessions and compulsions, it exacerbated in the context of multiple stressors 4 years prior to seeking treatment. Her Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale total score was in the moderate range at intake. Predisposing, precipitating, and maintaining factors are described in addition to the specific symptom presentation.     

From Glossy to Greasy: The Impact of Learned Associations on Perceptions of Food Healthfulness

We demonstrate that consumers have learned that unhealthy snacks such as potato chips tend to be sold in glossy packages, whereas healthier snacks such as crackers tend to be sold in matte packages (in studies 1–3). As a result, consumers who see a snack food package with a glossy [matte] surface will infer lesser [greater] healthfulness of its contents (study 4), consume less [more] of it (study 5), and be more likely to choose a glossy [matte] package from an assortment of snack packages if motivated to engage in tasty [healthful] eating (study 6). Theoretical and managerial implications as well as future research opportunities are discussed.     

Making reference: The cohesive use of pronouns in the narrative discourse of hemidecorticate adolescents

The cohesive use of referential language in narrative production reveals communicative goals as well as specific aspects of language use. A formalism for analyzing pronominal cohesion was developed and applied to the narrative discourse of three hemidecorticate adolescents. The results revealed hemisphere-dependent differences in overall narrative skill as well as distinct individual discourse strategies. Neither left hemidecorticate planned narration in extended discourse units: One demonstrated a linear and highly explicit discourse style with redundant over-statement of referent nouns and the other produced narratives cluttered with pronouns of both correct and ambiguous reference, relying on nonpersonal pronouns at considerable cost to narrative specificity. The right hemidecorticate produced narratives that were more economical in form and richer in content: He was the only subject able to maintain simultaneous story lines with multiple pronouns and referential relationships cohesively embedded. All subjects expressed at least some story content, but only the right hemidecorticate narratives conveyed suggestion and implication as well as explicit statement.