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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Fordist Applied Research In The Era Of The Five-Dollar Day, Georgios P. Loizides, Subhash R. Sonnad Oct 2004

Fordist Applied Research In The Era Of The Five-Dollar Day, Georgios P. Loizides, Subhash R. Sonnad

Peer Reviewed Articles

This article provides a description of the early attempts at applied social research and research driven policies and procedures used in the assessment of the employees and the consequent rewards and punishments meted out by the Ford Motor Company during the late Progressive Era. An additional aim of this paper is to show the relevance and signijkance of these attempts and to examine the extent to which early Ford research can inform our applied research today. In particular, this study examines the early data collection efforts by investigators of the Ford Motor Company Sociological Department. These took place in the …


Legibility, Mystery, And Visual Access As Predictors Of Preference And Perceived Danger In Forest Settings Without Pathways, Thomas R. Herzog, Laura S. Kropscott Sep 2004

Legibility, Mystery, And Visual Access As Predictors Of Preference And Perceived Danger In Forest Settings Without Pathways, Thomas R. Herzog, Laura S. Kropscott

Peer Reviewed Articles

The authors attempt to address some unresolved issues within the Kaplans’ preference-matrix model of environmental preference. These issues involve the relation between legibility and preference and the relations among preference, danger, and mystery. Participants rated 70 within-forest settings containing no visible pathways for preference, danger, or one of seven predictor variables. Legibility and coherence were found to be independent, positive predictors of preference. Likewise, landmarks and visual access were independent positive predictors of legibility. Legibility fully mediated the positive relation between landmarks and preference. Visual access interacted with legibility in predicting preference: The relation between preference and either predictor was …


Recognition Of Self Among Persons With Dementia: Pictures Versus Names As Environmental Supports, Jennifer Gross, Mary E. Harmon, Rebecca A. Myers, Rachel L. Evans, Natalie R. Kay, Senez Rodriguez-Charbonier, Thomas R. Herzog May 2004

Recognition Of Self Among Persons With Dementia: Pictures Versus Names As Environmental Supports, Jennifer Gross, Mary E. Harmon, Rebecca A. Myers, Rachel L. Evans, Natalie R. Kay, Senez Rodriguez-Charbonier, Thomas R. Herzog

Peer Reviewed Articles

The physical environment can promote the functional ability of persons with dementia. Many care facilities use environmental signage (e.g., names on doors) to facilitate adaptive behavior (e.g., room finding). However, the effects of such signage on residents’functioning are not well understood. In three experiments, we investigated if persons with moderate to severe dementia had the required skills necessary to benefit from signage. Compared to a control condition (recognition of fellow residents’ photographs), a high percentage of participants could identify written names and photographs of themselves (Experiment 1). Moreover, name and photographic labels helped participants identify belongings (Experiment 2). Training improved …


Caroline Bartlett Crane And Municipalsanitation: Applied Sociology In The Progressive Era, Linda Rynbrandt Apr 2004

Caroline Bartlett Crane And Municipalsanitation: Applied Sociology In The Progressive Era, Linda Rynbrandt

Peer Reviewed Articles

Applied Sociology occupies contested territory between academic sociology and social activism. An examination of applied sociology at the turn of the 20th century, as practiced by Caroline Bartlett Crane, Unitarian minister and Progressive Era social reformer, provides an excellent case study of these disciplinary debates. This article examines Crane’s efforts to utilize the new discipline of sociology to improve society through municipal sanitation. Sociology and community social reform were often closely linked in the Progressive Era. Early reformers and applied sociologists involved in sociology at the turn of the 20th century would likely be puzzled by the academic focus of …


Christian Conservatives Go To Court: Religion And Legal Mobilization In The United States And Canada, Dennis R. Hoover, Kevin R. Den Dulk Jan 2004

Christian Conservatives Go To Court: Religion And Legal Mobilization In The United States And Canada, Dennis R. Hoover, Kevin R. Den Dulk

Peer Reviewed Articles

The American exceptionalism thesis holds that American political culture produces an unusually litigious society. The US Christian right has participated in litigation, especially in constitutional rights cases dealing with issues such as religious schools and abortion. However, since 1982 Canada has had a constitutional Charter of Rights and an increasingly active Christian right of its own. We compare data on Christian right involvement in education, abortion, and “right to die” (euthanasia, assisted suicide or mercy killing) cases at the Supreme Court level in both countries. Among North America’s Christian conservatives, exceptionalism has eroded, but not disappeared. We employ interviews and …


Climate Change In Arid Environments: Revisiting The Past To Understand The Future, Elena Lioubimtseva Jan 2004

Climate Change In Arid Environments: Revisiting The Past To Understand The Future, Elena Lioubimtseva

Peer Reviewed Articles

Arid regions are expected to undergo significant changes under a scenario of climate warming, but there is considerable variability and uncertainty in these estimates between different scenarios. The complexities of precipitation changes, vegetation–climate feedbacks and direct physiological effects of CO2 on vegetation present particular challenges for climate change modelling of arid regions. Great uncertainties exist in the prediction of arid ecosystem responses to elevated CO2 and global warming. Palaeodata provide important information about the past frequency, intensity and subregional patterns of change in the world’s deserts that cannot always be captured by the climatic models. However, it is important to …


Gender, Class And Generational Contexts For Consumption In Contemporary Chile, Joel Stillerman Jan 2004

Gender, Class And Generational Contexts For Consumption In Contemporary Chile, Joel Stillerman

Peer Reviewed Articles

In contrast to common perceptions that individuals’ consumption choices are primarily motivated by their search for status or personal gratification, this article contends that gender, family and class significantly shape these decisions. The study integrates discussions of class and consumption with analyses of family monetary allocation and adaptive strategies to analyze interviews with working-class couples in Santiago, Chile. I found that men exercised overt and subtle forms of control over family monetary allocation, spending choices and earning strategies; adults’ perceived obligations towards children and elderly parents shaped their consumption decisions; and couples’ class-based perceptions of their limited financial resources led …