Framing Foreign Policy Alternatives in the Inner Circle: President Carter, His Advisors, and the Struggle for the Arms Control Agenda

This article examines strategic framing efforts within the president's inner circle of foreign policy advisors. The comparative case study method is used to describe and explain the framing process involved in President Jimmy Carter's arms control decisions with respect to the Soviet Union. Carter's two central foreign policy advisors, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, portrayed the Soviets in very different terms. The premise underlying this study is that advisors attempt to frame their policy preferences favorably in order to influence the group process and the president's policy choice. Advisors do so by playing up the positive aspects of an option and downplaying any negative aspects. Three components of the framing process are explored: historical/cultural symbolism, personal beliefs and values, and political cost assessments.     

A Debate on the Ethics of Aging: Does the Concept of Autonomy Provide a Sufficient Framework for Aging Policy?

This article presents a debate on the issue of autonomy in aging policy held at the 1994 annual meeting of the American Society on Aging held in San Francisco, California. Harry R. Moody, director of the Institute for Human Values in Aging at Hunter College, supports a reconceptualized notion of personal autonomy which focuses on issues of power, theory, and practice, and finds conflicts between autonomy and justice in the lived world of the elderly and disabled. In aging policy, he promotes an emphasis on social movements such as Hospice rather than on autonomy of individuals. He suggests alternatives to extreme paternalism or complete autonomy, such as a communicative ethics approach. Larry Polivka, director of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging at the University of South Florida, affirms that policy for the aging and disabled should be based ona commitment to autonomy. He describes an integrated model for long-term care that places autonomy first and includes features of communicative ethics and the negotiated consent and virtues models of ethics.     

大学生外语焦虑、自我效能感与外语成绩关系的研究

以315名大学生为研究对象,采用t检验、相关分析、方差分析和回归分析技术探讨了不同成绩水平、不同性别、不同专业学生的外语焦虑、自我效能感和外语成绩的差异及三者之间的关系。结果表明:(1)外语成绩及格组学生的外语焦虑水平显著低于不及格组学生,自我效能感显著高于不及格组学生;女大学生的外语成绩、自我效能感及能力因子和挫折因子上的自我效能感显著高于男大学生,男女大学生的外语焦虑水平无显著性差异;文科大学生的外语焦虑水平和外语成绩显著高于理科大学生,文、理科学生的自我效能感无显著性差异;(2)外语焦虑与外语成绩呈显著负相关,与自我效能感呈显著负相关,自我效能感与外语成绩呈显著正相关,性别、专业、外语焦虑、自我效能感、效能感的能力和挫折两个因子是外语成绩的显著预测变量。     

政策环境对实现残疾人康复服务的影响

根据《上海市残疾人"人人享有康复服务"评价指标体系》,采用综合评价法,对上海市6个区残疾人康复工作进行评价。研究发现,残疾人康复政策环境实现率为96.3%,5个二级指标实现率均超过80%,三级指标达标率63.3%。应明确残疾人康复工作的重要性,将残疾人康复纳入政策工作计划,各区残疾人康复政策环境建设应协调平衡发展。     

Speaking truth to power: Empowerment ideology as social intervention and policy

The popularity, and subsequent ambiguity, in the use of the term “empowerment” has created an even greater need for reassessment in the applied context than in the theory and research literatures. This paper outlines some of the areas of community, organizational, and societal level social intervention and policy ostensibly based on the concept of empowerment. These include neighborhood voluntary associations (for environmental protection, community crime prevention, etc.), self-help groups, competence-building primary prevention, organizational management, health care and educational reforms, and national and international community service and community development policies. Issues in applying social research to community organizations and to legislative and administrative policy making are reviewed. Ten recommendations are offered, including the value of a dialectical analysis, for helping researchers and policy makers/administrators make more effective use of empowerment theory and research. Humpty Dumpty: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less.” King of Hearts: “If there's no meaning in it, that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any.”—Lewis Carroll Portions of this paper were first presented in the program “Empowerment Theory, Research and policy” at the Biennial Conference on Community Research and Action, Williamsburg, Virginia, June 18, 1993. The author thanks Barbara B. Brown, Jo Ann Lippe, Ken Maton and his students, David V. Perkins, Marc A. Zimmerman, and the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts.     

Motivos de los ciudadanos para realizar ejercicio físico: un estudio desde la teoría de la autodeterminación

Based on self-determination theory, the objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the reasons for exercise and its reported weekly frequency in a representative sample of an adult urban population. A total of 918 inhabitants, aged between 16 and 89, participated in this study answering the Spanish version of the Exercise Motivations Inventory-2 (EMI-2) and reporting on their exercise frequency. Controlling for the influence of age and gender, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that participants who reported the highest exercise frequency had the highest score on both self-determined and controlling exercise motives, except the ill-health avoidance motive. The results support propositions of self-determination theory, and suggest that citizens may internalize exercise behaviour as they become more physically active. However, the results also suggest that some controlling motives are pertinent to exercise. Decision makers of the local sport policy should look into suitable ways of combining both controlling motives and more internalized motives in order to produce long lasting exercise adherence in citizens.     

Effects of income on drug choice in humans.

The effects of income (money available to spend during the experimental session) on human choice were examined in a concurrent-schedule arrangement. Subjects were 7 nicotine-dependent smokers, and reinforcers were puffs on the subject's usual brand of cigarette ("own") and puffs on a less preferred brand of cigarette with equal nicotine content ("other"). Across sessions, income varied and the price of the two reinforcers was held constant, with the other puffs one fifth the price of the own puffs. As income increased, consumption of own puffs increased while consumption of the less expensive other puffs decreased. These effects of income on choice were highly consistent across subjects. For some subjects, however, income had little effect on total puff consumption. Finally, an additional condition examined whether price and income manipulations would have functionally equivalent effects on choice by repeating an income condition in which the price of the other brand was increased. Although the increased price of the other puffs decreased their consumption in 4 subjects, 2 subjects showed increased consumption of the other puffs at the higher price. The results, when defined in economic terms, indicate that the own puffs were a normal good (consumption and income are directly related), the other puffs were an inferior good (consumption and income are inversely related), and the direct relationship between consumption of the other puffs and their price is defined as a Giffengood effect. The latter result also suggests that for these 2 subjects, price and income manipulations had equivalent effects on choice. These results extend findings from previous studies that have examined the effects of income on choice responding to human subjects and drug reinforcers, and provide a framework for further experimental tests of the effects of income on human choice behavior. Methodological and theoretical implications for the study of choice and for behavioral pharmacology are discussed.     

政策执行偏差严重程度对公众地方政府 责任判断的影响:多重中介模型的检验

为探讨地方政府政策执行偏差严重程度对公众地方政府责任判断的影响机制。采用问卷法对678名社会公众进行调查,结果显示:(1)地方政府政策执行偏差情境下,公众地方政府愿望判断和公众地方政府信念判断在政策执行偏差严重程度和公众地方政府责任判断之间起多重中介作用。(2)公众地方政府信念判断在政策执行偏差严重程度和公众地方政府责任判断之间的中介效应量大于公众地方政府愿望判断的中介效应量。     

Foreign Talent,Local Glory: Can National Excellence Be Outsourced?

The spectacular success of the Singapore table tennis team has rankled many, including Singaporeans. They take issue with the entire team having been recruited from China and specially naturalised to contribute towards Singapore’s sporting achievements. Is there good reason to oppose Singapore’s approach, which is increasingly common internationally? Would that opposition imply an indefensible form of self-reliance, whereby a country should reject all external assistance? This paper presents a reason to object to Singapore’s approach without promoting repugnant self-reliance. It builds on existing critiques, which are largely based on how foreigners are naturalised, to argue against the underlying motivation for doing so. Three possible rebuttals are considered and rejected because they trade on conceptual confusions. Although the essay focuses on the national pursuit of sporting excellence, the fundamental issue extends beyond: similar concerns apply to other meaningful fields of endeavour that members of a community can engage in.