Data collection mode effect on feeling thermometer questions: A comparison of face-to-face and Web surveys

Feeling thermometer questions are widely used in political science research to estimate people’s attitudes and feelings toward a political object, like a political figure or an organization. Given the popularity of the feeling thermometer question in population surveys, more work is needed to explore the measurement of this question type. This study examines the data collection mode effect on feeling thermometers. Using the 2012 American National Election Studies, we find that the measurement of feeling thermometers is not exactly comparable between face-to-face and Web surveys. Face-to-face respondents tend to provide warmer feelings, while Web respondents give relatively more reliable responses in comparison. In both survey modes, respondents are most likely to select the response options that are verbally labeled although the effect is more striking in face-to-face than Web survey. The item nonresponse between these two modes does not differ in a meaningful way. This study ends by discussing future research directions on feeling thermometer questions.     

Towards patient‐centered packaging design: An industry perspective on processes,functions, and constraints

Medication packaging is essential to provide patients with guidance and correct use of their medicines for effective treatment. This research aims to increase knowledge about the medication packaging innovation process and its uptake towards patient‐centered packaging design. The study applied a qualitative research approach based on data from 25 in‐depth interviews with stakeholders involved in medication packaging design. The empirical data analysis revealed four themes that can improve and advance user‐centered packaging design: medication packaging innovation process, medication packaging functions and features, medication packaging design constraints, and patient‐centered medication packaging design. The findings suggest that medication packaging design is strongly affected by an emphasis on protective and safety packaging functions rather than on patients' needs. Packaging innovation usually is constrained by rigid incremental development processes, where compliance with regulations, extensive documentation, avoidance of manufacturing complexity, and considerations on cost prevail. These findings are discussed in relation to the three most evident trade‐offs for patient‐centered design: protection versus openability, utility versus cost, and complexity of manufacturability versus complexity of use. This research contributes with valuable input and additional evidence about the necessary shift to a user‐centered approach in a field that has not been design driven. This input complements previous research and provides an opportunity for industry decision makers and policy makers to lead patient‐centered packaging design that can benefit patients and relieve overloaded health care systems.     

走出我的象牙塔：英语教师职初教学生活案例研究

以现象学式的深度访谈、课堂观察、教学日志等方式来收集数据,对一位高校英语教师职初教学生活进行了个案研究。结果发现,教师的主要困惑体现在教学方法、教学内容、师生关系以及教学安排这4个层面,并相应地采取了＂策略性顺应＂和＂内化性调整＂两大社会化对策。研究可为改善外语教师职前与在职一体化发展提供现实依据,为完善高校外语师资培养的多元化模式提供一定的思考空间。     

Naturalistic study of rider's behaviour in initial training in France: Evidence of limitations in the educational content

This paper analyses motorcycle educational content in a number of French motorcycle schools on the basis of a naturalistic study of riders’ and trainers’ behaviour. The aim is to specify the situations delivered in motorcycle schools and to study the rider's activity in these situations. The methodology includes ethnographic observation within the motorcycle schools and the longitudinal monitoring of 14 trainee motorcyclists during their initial training. The training situations were described by the combination of audio–visual recordings and interviews data (i.e. concomitant or interruptive verbalization, and self-confrontation data). The results permit to (1) compare the “real” and “official” durations of track and on-road training, (2) characterize the real training situations, (3) describe the preferred forms of instruction, and (4) conduct an in-depth analysis of the situations used during training in traffic. The discussion show, in first, the poverty of the training situations which are based on the repetition of the exercises in the test, and, in second, disparities between the riding situations encountered during training and the demands made by riding in natural traffic. The usefulness and the applications of this type of approach – based on the integration of the rider's point of view notably by self-confrontation interview – for understanding real riding behaviours and how such approaches could supplement vehicle-based data are discussed in a large conclusion.     

Walking Out of My Ivory Tower： A Case Study of A College English Teacher＇s First Year of Teaching

以现象学式的深度访谈、课堂观察、教学日志等方式来收集数据,对一位高校英语教师职初教学生活进行了个案研究。结果发现,教师的主要困惑体现在教学方法、教学内容、师生关系以及教学安排这4个层面,并相应地采取了＂策略性顺应＂和＂内化性调整＂两大社会化对策。研究可为改善外语教师职前与在职一体化发展提供现实依据,为完善高校外语师资培养的多元化模式提供一定的思考空间。     

Trip to IEC

正For long impressed by the time-cherished IEC,I have been inspired to learn more about this international organization since my first interview with Mr.James Matthews III,the Vice-President of IEC in March 2012,which was followed by several more important interviews with IEC senior officers including former IEC President Dr.Klaus Wucherer,IEC Vice-President Shu Yinbiao and IEC General SecretaryCEO Frans Vreeswijk.I was really looking forward to visiting and exploring the IEC someday by myself.     

Thermal comfort and use of thermostats in Finnish homes and offices

Thermal comfort and use of thermostats in homes and office rooms were examined by a quantitative interview survey with a nationally representative sample in Finland. The total number of respondents was 3094. The results show that thermal comfort levels are lower in offices than in homes. People feel cold and hot more often in offices than in homes during both the winter and summer seasons. The perceived control over room temperature is remarkably low in offices. Higher thermal comfort levels and perceived control in homes are supported by greater adaptive opportunities. In offices people have fewer opportunities to control the thermal environment, people deal worse with thermostats, and people have lower opportunities to adapt to different thermal environments.     

Interview with Lewis Aron.

Presents an interview that was conducted by Jeremy Safran with Lewis Aron on the topic of psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural norms shaping research group interviews with Chinese American immigrants.

Practical knowledge on how to tailor research methods for Asian Americans is relatively scarce despite the rapid population growth of this ethnic group and the ongoing calls for greater cultural competence among researchers. Based on a 4-year qualitative study of family and cultural issues in diabetes management among Chinese American immigrants, this article presents data-based analyses of culturally nuanced group interview processes, and recommendations for conducting culturally appropriate group interviews. Group interview processes were prominently shaped by four cultural norms: sensitivity to social hierarchy, monitoring public display of strong emotions, face concerns, and emphasis on group harmony. Strategies for facilitating open and dynamic group interviews in the presence of these norms were identified. Skillful facilitation of group processes, either by accommodating or diffusing norms, was required to promote participant rapport and encourage disclosure of everyday experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Different ways of moving ahead after analysis: Changes in experiential dimensions.

Within research on psychoanalysis, the common model of analytic change conceptualizes it as structural reorganization and development of self-analytic function. The present article takes as its point of departure analytic patients who, in follow-up interviews, do not present their experience of change according to this common model. Instead of categorizing analysands as being either successful or unsuccessful cases, the article aims to develop concepts of change that pertain to the experiential domain. Themes in the self experience of three former patients are explored. The data is gathered through follow-up interviews. The interviews were conducted with an analytic approach, which provides data on transference themes. Data from the interviews is not intended to provide empirical support for outcomes, but provides material from which concepts of change can be explored and discussed. The three cases illustrate three distinct psychic dimensions: safety, meaningfulness and sameness. All the cases have in common that they show, as described by Modell (1990), a containing transference in the follow-up interviews. Based on the postulated dimensions of self-experience, and with the view that containing transference is a common theme, it is further argued that, despite showing object-dependency, these informants have undergone an experiential change that is of existential significance. This is a kind of change that, it may be argued, is beyond a structural one; one that may be conceptualized as a precondition for the kind of change assumed by the main analytic model. To develop a self-analytic function, the patient may first need to develop a containing one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)