Constitution and narrative: peculiarities of rhetoric and genre in the foundational laws of the USSR and the Russian federation

Constitutions are not just legal texts but form a narrative with an engaging plot, a hierarchy of actors and a distinct ideology. They can be read and interpreted as literary texts. The four constitutions in 20th century Russia (1924, 1936, 1977, 1993) can be attributed to specific genres (drama, fairy tale, gospel, performance). Moreover, they interact closely with the official culture of their time (painting, collage, film, literature). The constitutions serve an important task in the cultural self-definition of Russian society which as a rule occurred in moments of ideological crisis. The case of Russia is especially intriguing since the utopian project of a just society needed in every stage of its evolution (revolution, consolidation, “developed socialism”, postcommunism) a new convincing design which was able to guarantee the citizens’ loyalty to the state.     

A Psychometric Investigation of the Suicide Status Form II with a Psychiatric Inpatient Sample

We investigated the psychometric validity and reliability of the Suicide Status Form‐II (SSF‐II) developed by Jobes, Jacoby, Cimbolic, and Hustead (1997) . Participants were 149 psychiatric inpatients (108 suicidal; 41 nonsuicidal) at the Mayo Clinic. Each participant completed assessment measures within 24 hours of admission and 48–72 hours later. Factor analyses of the SSF core assessment produced a robust two‐factor solution reflecting chronic and acute response styles. The SSF core assessment had good to excellent convergent and criterion validity; pre‐post SSF ratings also demonstrated moderate test‐retest reliability. The results replicated previous research and show that the SSF‐II is psychometrically sound with a high‐risk suicidal inpatient sample.     

Configurations of Young Peoples’ Important Life Goals and Their Associations with Thriving

The aims of this study were to determine whether, and how, young people’s beyond-the-self life goals coexisted with other life goals, and whether having at least one beyond-the-self goal was associated with higher thriving (the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development [PYD]) and volunteering, compared to having either no goals, or goals that were only self-focused. The authors conducted latent class analyses among five school cohort groups using data from five studies (combined using integrative data analysis techniques). Across grade groups, the authors identified classes, which can generally be characterized by (1) low endorsement of goals, (2) prominence of helping others and contributing to community goals, (3) prominence of goals related to a good life (e.g., make money, friends, live an adventurous life), and (4) endorsement of most life goals. In the older two grade groups we identified additional classes: a group with a high endorsement of goals oriented at helping others and serving God/higher power in the undergraduate group, and a group with high endorsement of goals to create something new and make the world a better place in the graduate group. There were differences in the Five Cs of PYD and volunteering between the classes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for future research and practice regarding young people’s life goals.     

Structural Injustice and Socially Undocumented Oppression: Changing Tides in Refugee and Immigration Ethics

In this review essay, I discuss two recent works in refugee and migration ethics, Serena Parekh’s No Refuge: Ethics and the Global Refugee Crisis and Amy Reed-Sandoval’s Socially Undocumented: Identity and Immigration Justice. I find that their methodological ambitions overlap significantly and that their arguments represent welcome and largely successful examinations of generally neglected issues. I also explain how both approaches could fruitfully learn from each other, and argue that they lay pioneering groundwork for future work to continue the analysis of only nascent modes and areas of inquiry.

     

Dominance as Expressed and Inferred Through Speaking Time

Differences in speaking time during a group interaction are hypothesized to reflect differences in individual dominance. In order to test this assumption and to identify potential moderator variables influencing the strength of the predicted association, a meta‐analysis was conducted. Whether speaking time is used to convey dominance to the same extent that it is used in inferring dominance was tested by contrasting studies concerned with dominance expressed in speaking time with studies of inferred dominance based on speaking time. Overall, and for the investigated subcategories of studies, the relationship between dominance and speaking time was significant. The strength of the associations, however, differed considerably due to the influence of moderator variables. The results showed that inferred dominance studies showed stronger associations between speaking time and dominance as opposed to the expressed dominance studies. Additionally, if dominance was expressed due to dominance‐role assignments, the association between speaking time and dominance was stronger than if individuals with different levels of trait dominance interacted. For men, the association between speaking time and dominance was stronger than for women, and same‐gender groups showed stronger associations than opposite‐gender groups. Also, increasing group size intensified the strength of the association linearly.     

Atlanto-axial dislocation in Down syndrome and os odontoieum. Case report and review of the literature

A case is reported of the rare coincidence of mongolism and os odontoideum in an eleven-year-old child, leading to compression myelopathy in consequence of atlantoaxial dislocation, and an overview of literature to the present time is given. Recommendations on diagnostic and prophylactic measures are offered designed to counteract as early as possible the spinal complications of atlantoaxial instability.     

Fast acquisition of cooperation and trust: A two-stage view of trusting behavior

Trustful behavior was defined in terms of the consecutive numbers of matching-to-sample problems worth money that each subject worked during sessions that ended in an equitable distribution. Two stages of acquisition are inherent in this definition; the first stage requires acquisition of an equitable method of distributing reinforcers (cooperation) to show that the within-session deviations (trust) from equity that develop during the second stage are temporary and are not part of an inequitable method of distributing reinforcers. Previous research has indicated that a contingency to trust is necessary to override the aversiveness of the inequity inherent in trusting and to produce consistent and maximal trust (half of the problems worked consecutively by each subject). The present experiment examined such a contingency. The trust contingency was an increased requirement for changing the direction of problem allocation. Only the subject who had been allocated a problem could change that allocation, by pulling a lever 45 or more times. On the other hand, no separate responses were required to allow the person who worked the last problem to also work the next one (passive trust). Hence, giving a problem was the only way to increase the distribution of problems to the other person and hence prevent oneself from receiving all of the reinforcers. All eight pairs of subjects cooperated from the outset. Trusting behavior developed for all four pairs exposed to the contingency to trust and expanded to maximal levels by the second session for three of the four pairs.     

Patterns of self-initiated smoking cessation among young adults

Prochaska and DiClemente's (1984) cyclic-stage model of self-initiated smoking cessation divides the cessation process into five stages. This model was applied to a young adult population to determine the cross-sectional distribution of stages and the frequency and pattern of changes among stages over time. Compared to older adults, the distribution of the stages differed substantially: There were twice as many relapsers and only half as many maintainers among young adults. One-year changes in stages were examined using a static model, which did not take into account the cyclic nature of the change process, and a more realistic dynamic model, which did. Both models, especially the dynamic model, suggested substantially more movement among stages in younger than in older adults.     

Automatic identification of storytelling responses to past-behavior interview questions via machine learning

Structured interviews often feature past-behavior questions, where applicants are asked to tell a story about past work experience. Applicants often experience difficulties producing such stories. Automatic analyses of applicant behavior in responding to past-behavior questions may constitute a basis for delivering feedback and thus helping them improve their performance. We used machine learning algorithms to predict storytelling in transcribed speech of participants responding to past-behavior questions in a simulated selection interview. Responses were coded as to whether they featured a story or not. For each story, utterances were also manually coded as to whether they described the situation, the task/action performed, or results obtained. The algorithms predicted whether a response features a story or not (best accuracy: 78%), as well as the count of situation, task/action, and response utterances. These findings contribute to better automatic identification of verbal responses to past-behavior questions and may support automatic provision of feedback to applicants about their interview performance.