PROCEDURAL AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN THE EDITORIAL REVIEW PROCESS

Based on organizational justice theories, a model of procedural and distributive justice is proposed to explain authors' reactions to editorial decisions and the editorial review process. Authors ( n = 106) provided justice perceptions and future journal submission intentions upon receiving an editorial decision letter. The editor provided information on editorial decisions and review processes. Explanation and interpersonal sensitivity were important procedural justice dimensions in predicting distributive justice reactions and intentions to submit future work to the journal. Explanations appear particularly important when the decision is negative. Journal submission intentions were positively related to distributive justice reactions for inexperienced, but not experienced, authors. In addition, journal submission intentions were positively related to the perceived explanation received for experienced, but not inexperienced, authors. Discussion focuses on implications for organizational justice theories and for journal publishing and HR practices.     

Communication Patterns in an International Student Dormitory: A Modification of the “Small World” Method1

Milgram's “small world” method was modified to trace communication patterns in an international student dormitory containing 500 residents from 38 different countries. Eighteen residents served as “starters” for chain-booklets that circulated through the dormitory from friend to friend. Social networks were inferred from the circulation pattern of booklets. Sixteen chains progressed beyond their respective starters, and a total of 86 transactions were recorded. Four determinants of social relations were investigated: culture similarity, sex, organizational affiliation, and residential propinquity. The circulation pattern of the booklets showed that culture similarity was a major determinant of social interaction among the residents. The other main determinant was sex similarity. Organizational affiliation was less important, and proximity played only a minor role in determining communication patterns in the dormitory.     

Sisterhood-Brotherhood is Powerful: Sibling Sub-Systems and Family Therapy

Sibling interaction is an often overlooked aspect of family functioning. Individual development and many family behavior patterns may be attributed to autonomous activities within the sibling sub-system.
A number of phenomena in which siblings have profound influence upon one another are explored. Siblings collude and align with each other, at times help each other resist the powerful vertical influences of parents. Other sibling systems serve to enmesh the youngsters even more with parents. Important sib-behavior patterns include: the death or departure of siblings; the interplay between the sibling sub-system and the parenting system; and the roles that "well" siblings play vis-à-vis their "sick" siblings during family crises. The sibling relationship is seen as a life-long process, highly influential throughout the life cycle.
Understanding of sibling sub-system structure and dynamics can lead to more flexible therapeutic interventions. Direct work with siblings provides the therapist with more options and greater leverage in producing change for all siblings, as well as for other family members.     

Behavioral Assessment of Job-Related Skills

An important aspect of finding and retaining employment is a person's level of occupational skills. Little information, however, is currently available on the comparative levels of job-related skills among both unemployed and successfully-employed adults. This study, using direct-observation techniques, analyzes the occupational skills of these two groups. The results show that employed adults performed significantly better than unemployed adults on each of 13 job-related skills assessed. These differences were found for both job-finding and job-retention skills. These assessment methods may be useful to employment counselors interested in helping their clients find and retain satisfactory employment.     

Autism and receptive dysphasia: Evaluation of comparative studies

Ten different studies comparing children with autism and receptive dysphasia are reviewed. Most of the studies aimed to characterize autism as a language disorder. The representativity of the samples are discussed according to heterogeneity of the autistic and dysphatic populations, and sex and social class distributions. Group differences and similarities are listed and discussed according to sample selection and matching procedures, age and sex distribution, social class membership, and the defining criteria of the two illnesses. It is concluded that the studies do not fullfill their aim, and that the project of comparing dysphatic and autistic children seems unfruitful. Group differences which seem unconnected with methodological difficulties, selection procedure, or group defining criteria, were found in parental background, use of gestures, articulation, and reading.     

Professional Outreach Counseling Can Help the Juvenile Probationer: A Two Year Follow-up Study

Sixty-one subjects in a previously reported experimental evaluation of Project CREST were followed during a 2-year period after treatment and compared on official acts of misconduct. Over the 2 years, the 30 youths who had received the counseling services in addition to probation were charged with significantly fewer acts of misconduct at a lower monthly rate than the 31 youths in the control group who had received probation but no counseling. The upturn in offense rate among the control group was attributed to the removal of probationary control. The study's results, in conjunction with previous evaluation findings, indicated that short-term professional counseling coupled with probation can have more immediate and longer lasting effects than probation alone in reducing juvenile misconduct.