The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): an instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics

Part I discusses the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), designed to measure scales assessing psychological demands, decision latitude, social support, physical demands, and job insecurity. Part II describes the reliability of the JCQ scales in a cross-national context using 10,288 men and 6,313 women from 6 studies conducted in 4 countries. Substantial similarity in means, standard deviations, and correlations among the scales, and in correlations between scales and demographic variables, is found for both men and women in all studies. Reliability is good for most scales. Results suggest that psychological job characteristics are more similar across national boundaries than across occupations.     

Defining global leadership in business environments.

Reviews evolutionary models of corporate globalization, distinguishing between international and global firms. To define global leadership, a distinction is made between the content of the activities of leaders in corporations within industries, and the style in which they conduct their affairs. The role of perception in cross-cultural interaction and leadership style is demonstrated by reviewing cross-national research. Alternatives to corporate global leadership are also suggested. Two models of global leadership training designed by multinational corporations are presented. Recommendations for preparing corporate leadership for global business are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Doctor in the house: trends in GPs home visiting in Croatia 1990-1995 compared to current trends in USA and UK

During the period of intensive economic, political and epidemiological transition in Croatia (1990-1995), significant changes in patterns, intensity and organization of home visiting were registered and reported. Quantitative instruments were employed to determine changes in trends of financing, health manpower policy and use of services before and after 1993 health care reforms. The qualitative part of research (e.g., cross-sectional and cross-national comparison of trends) was used to compare the significance of a reduction in the number of home visits as well as how its pattern fitted into the international trends (outburst of home visits in the USA and stagnation or decrease in the UK).     

Institutional Theory as a Framework for Analyzing Conflicts on Global Projects

Global construction projects that involve collaboration between participants from multiple countries often result in unique challenges, and costs due to cross-national interactions. Case studies performed to investigate the cross-national interactions and tensions present on global projects suggest that institutional differences—differences in workplace norms, legal regulations, and cultural values—contribute to these costs. We demonstrate how institutional theory—a branch of organizational theory—can comprehensively describe the cross-national challenges on global projects. We show how this theory can help practitioners to more accurately classify the cross-national issues they encounter, determine the causes behind the conflicts, and judge the relative ease with which each type of conflict can be resolved. However, there are gaps in the extant application of institutional theory that prevent us from predicting institutional conflicts on global projects and devising solution strategies. These gaps are identified and a research trajectory to understand them is proposed. This paper is aimed at starting a much-needed dialogue on the mitigation of cross-national issues on global projects, and not as a demonstration of methods to eliminate all cross-national conflicts.     

Does culture influence what and how we think? Effects of priming individualism and collectivism.

Do differences in individualism and collectivism influence values, self-concept content, relational assumptions, and cognitive style? On the one hand, the cross-national literature provides an impressively consistent picture of the predicted systematic differences; on the other hand, the nature of the evidence is inconclusive. Cross-national evidence is insufficient to argue for a causal process, and comparative data cannot specify if effects are due to both individualism and collectivism, only individualism, only collectivism, or other factors (including other aspects of culture). To address these issues, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of the individualism and collectivism priming literature, with follow-up moderator analyses. Effect sizes were moderate for relationality and cognition, small for self-concept and values, robust across priming methods and dependent variables, and consistent in direction and size with cross-national effects. Results lend support to a situated model of culture in which cross-national differences are not static but dynamically consistent due to the chronic and moment-to-moment salience of individualism and collectivism. Examination of the unique effects of individualism and collectivism versus other cultural factors (e.g., honor, power) awaits the availability of research that primes these factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Globalization in the pharmaceutical industry, Part I

This report on the pharmaceutical industry will be published in two parts. Part I begins with a summary of the study and its conclusions. The authors then provide an overview of the characteristics of the industry and current trends in its growth and structure: production and consumption, employment, research and development, capital investment, firm and product concentration and product competition, and pricing. A discussion of international trade follows, covering intra- and inter-regional, intra-firm, and intra-industry trade. The report will continue in the next issue of the Journal (Part II) with a look at foreign direct investment, inter-firm networks, and governmental policies.     

Mobilizing Institutional Knowledge for International Projects

Multinational engineering consultants, contractors, and real estate developers work on projects in various countries, encountering many challenges that arise from cross-national differences. These projects frequently bring together diverse participants in an unfamiliar environment. In these situations, firms are exposed to different “institutions”—regulations, norms, and cognitive-cultural beliefs—that can increase misunderstandings, delays, and costs. Knowledge of these institutional elements is critical to create a project that is both locally sustainable and profitable for the firm. Departing from institutional theory and the knowledge-based view of the firm, we conduct exploratory research based on interviews from informants in 15 firms to identify the methods that multinational real estate developers, contractors, and engineers use to transfer and mobilize institutional knowledge for their global projects. We contribute to theory by adding to the developing literature that uses institutional theory to examine differences on global projects and by analyzing the specific methods firms use to transfer institutional knowledge internally, across projects and divisions. Ultimately, this research, combined with the work of others, can develop new processes for firms engaged in international projects to enhance their mobilization of institutional knowledge, and thereby improve the outcomes of international projects.     

Assignment of absolute stereochemistry to an insect pheromone by chiral amplification

We assessed the replicability of reliability and validity of a brief self-report disability scale, adapted from the Medical Outcomes Survey (short form), in a 15-center, cross-national, multilingual study of psychological illness among primary care patients (n = 5438). Across all 15 centers in the World Health Organization Collaborative Study of Psychological Problems in General Health Care, the reliability of the disability scale was high and individual items were responsive at similar levels of disability. Self-report disability was consistently correlated with disability in work role (including housework) as rated by interviewers according to the Groningen Social Disability Schedule, a semistructured method taking local norms into account. Disability as measured by the self-report questionnaire was also consistently correlated with depressive symptoms as measured by the General Health Questionnaire. At each center, the disability items formed a moderately to strongly hierarchical (Guttman-like) scale. These findings support the feasibility of using self-report disability scales in cross-national primary care research.     

Urinary incontinence in patients in long-term institutional care. Results of an international study in 8 countries

BACKGROUND: Urinary incontinence (UI) represents a prevalent nursing problem in geriatric facilities. Yet, comparison of the Czech Republic with countries using different chronic care system has not been conducted. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data from INTERRAI international database from 8 countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Sweden and USA have been evaluated in the sample of 280,271 nursing home residents. Prevalence of bladder and bowel incontinence and correlates with selected clinical factors have been determined and national samples compared with the results of 1080 patients in the Czech Republic. Prevalence of UI reached from 42.9% in Japan to 65.2% in France. France and CR belong to countries with the highest prevalence of both bladder and bowel incontinence. Cognitive impairment and dependency in ambulation are factors significantly associated with UI in all countries (p < 0.001). Immobility, age, gender and urinary tract infection reached the statistical significance only in some countries. CONCLUSIONS: High prevalence of bladder and bowel incontinence has been demonstrated in an extended sample of nursing home residents. Common protocol Resident Assessment Instrument-Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS) and creation of a large cross-national database are opening up possibilities for a new level of clinical research in geriatrics.     

Pierre Auger--a life in the service of science

A short biography of Pierre Auger, the discoverer of the atomic auger electron effect, is given. Professor Auger's outstanding professional career covered physics, nuclear power and space research, organization and administration of research, diplomatic services and pedagogics but also extended into modern biology, humanistic sciences, poetry and arts. Part of a speech in Paris of professor Auger held in 1989 on the theme 'Research and Creativity' at an international symposium on the auger effect is included in this biography as well as one of his poems.     

Review of Head injury rehabilitation: Children and adolescents.

Reviews the book, Head injury rehabilitation: Children and adolescents edited by M. Ylvisaker (1985). This is an edited text written by an interdisciplinary team of clinicians that provides a consolidated source of medical, psychological, and educational information pertaining to traumatic head injury (THI) in youth of use to a wide range of professionals. Part I deals with the pathophysiology and outcome of THI in children and adolescents. Part II addresses the family response to THI. Part III deals with the medical management of THI during the acute phase of hospitalization. Part IV addresses the physical rehabilitation of THI youngsters. Part V focuses upon cognitive rehabilitation and "cognitive retraining." Part VI covers behavioral and psychosocial issues and interventions. Finally, Part VII deals specifically with the educational and vocational rehabilitation of THI children and adolescents. This text comes close to painting a comprehensive picture of THI. The inclusion of practical data and specific recommendations makes this text relevant. The text also does a fine job of distinguishing THI youngsters from other classes of exceptional children while clearly pointing out that appropriate educational programs often do not exist for this unique group of learners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A therapeutic jurisprudence approach to the legal processing of domestic violence cases.

Ample research indicates that the laws, policies, and legal actors involved in domestic violence cases can achieve iatrogenic or therapeutic effects on both offenders and victims. This article explores the ways in which the legal system reinforces maladaptive behavior by offenders and victims and how it can influence changes in such behavior through legal mechanisms. The therapeutic jurisprudence perspective is used to examine the psychology of offenders who commit domestic violence crimes in Part I. Part II explores the psychology of domestic violence victims. Part III covers the impact of the arrest and prosecution stages of the criminal justice system. Trials, plea bargains, and sentencing issues are explored in Part IV, and the use of restraining orders is explored in Part V. These issues and the therapeutic jurisprudence perspective can inform law reform efforts, criminal justice policy, and mental health policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential item functioning in the Danish translation of the SF-36

Statistical analyses of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) can be used for rigorous translation evaluations. DIF techniques test whether each item functions in the same way, irrespective of the country, language, or culture of the respondents. For a given level of health, the score on any item should be independent of nationality. This requirement can be tested through contingency-table methods, which are efficient for analyzing all types of items. We investigated DIF in the Danish translation of the SF-36 Health Survey, using two general population samples (USA, n = 1,506; Denmark, n = 3,950). DIF was identified for 12 out of 35 items. These results agreed with independent ratings of translation quality, but the statistical techniques were more sensitive. When included in scales, the items exhibiting DIF had only a little impact on conclusions about cross-national differences in health in the general population. However, if used as single items, the DIF items could seriously bias results from cross-national comparisons. Also, the DIF items might have larger impact on cross-national comparison of groups with poorer health status. We conclude that analysis of DIF is useful for evaluating questionnaire translations.     

Scale Transition in Steel-Concrete Interaction. II:?Applications

The proposed mode of consideration of the steel-concrete interaction (Part I) is applied to real-life engineering structures. Two structures recently investigated numerically at Vienna University of Technology are considered: (1) the reinforced concrete (RC) cooling tower III Ptolema?s SES (Greece) and (2) a part of the shotcrete tunnel lining installed at the Lainzer tunnel (Austria). In both examples, the uniaxial fracture criterion used in Part I is replaced by the maximum stress (Rankine) criterion. Together with the Drucker-Prager criterion, which is used for the simulation of compressive failure of concrete/shotcrete, it defines the space of admissible stress states in the framework of multisurface plasticity. For the simulation of early-age fracture of shotcrete, consideration of the steel-concrete interaction presented in Part I of this paper is extended towards young shotcrete. Similar to the benchmark problem investigated in Part I of this paper, several analyses with different degrees of consideration of the steel-concrete interaction are performed. The obtained results give insight into the influence of the steel-concrete interaction on the load-carrying behavior of the investigated structures.     

Review of Psychotherapy and Personality Change.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy and Personality Change by Carl R. Rogers and Rosalind F. Dymond (eds.) (1954). This volume, with twelve authors, edited by Carl Rogers and Rosalind Dymond, constitutes essentially a progress report on the large-scale research program in psychotherapy which has been under way at the Counseling Center of the University of Chicago for more than four years. It presents findings to date on outcomes and process of the client-centered or nondirective approach to psychotherapy. The book is divided into four parts, Part I presenting the context and the basic design of the research, Part II describing a series of separate investigations bearing on the various hypotheses, and Part III giving what the authors call an "objective analysis" of the therapy of two single cases, one "successful" and the other "unsuccessful," and attempting to relate each of them to the findings of the major studies reported in Part II. Part IV is called an "Overview" and poses many stiff questions for the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The secret illness: Part one: Understanding obsessive compulsive disorder. Part two: Managing obsessive compulsive behavior in schools..

Reviews the two-video set, The secret illness: Part one: Understanding obsessive compulsive disorder. Part two: Managing obsessive compulsive behavior in schools produced by Clare Mullen (2000). Producer Mullen undertook the production of this video set with a group of clinicians, educators, and parents of children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in an effort to help families and teachers understand and cope with the disorder. Part I, entitled "Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Children," deals with the impact of the disorder on children and their families, while Part II, "Managing Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour in Schools," offers education about the disorder and outlines behavioural management strategies for school personnel. The reviewer notes that certain segments are excellent, while others are somewhat pedestrian. Part I commences with an overview of OCD provided by a psychologist and a psychiatrist. The information presented is generally accurate, but certain key findings in the literature have been either minimized or omitted. Part II is the more focused of the videotapes even though many of the recommended interventions and strategies are appropriate for children with different kinds of behavioural problems. From the technical aspect, the videos are very well produced with excellent camera work and editing. The cost of the videos is in line with that of similar educational videos. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Multiculturalism in Canada: Social and educational perspectives.

Reviews the book, Multiculturalism in Canada: Social and educational perspectives edited by Ronald J. Samuda, John W. Berry, and Michel Laferriere (1984). The editors have managed to put together an impressive collection of contributors and contributions. Their stated aim is "to cover the entire spectrum of potential factors related to multiculturalism" and they "feel sure that this volume will meet the needs of teacher educators...inservice training...and teacher training in the foundations of multicultural education" (p. vii). The volume is divided into five parts. Part one contains chapters under the rubric of Policies of Multiculturalism. Part two contains five chapters under the rubric of Attitudes toward Multiculturalism. Part three contains six chapters under the rubric of Language in a Multicultural Society. Part four contains eight chapters under the rubric of Adaptation to a Multicultural Society. Part five contains six chapters under the rubric of Assessment and Counselling in Multicultural Society. In sum, this volume contains many fine individual chapters. Students and professors can pick through them and find the ones best suited for their unique purposes. When taken as a whole, however, the volume represents an ethos which is probably irreconcilable with a genuine multiculturalism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Science Game: An Introduction To Research In The Behavioral Sciences.

Reviews the book, The Science Game: An Introduction To Research In The Behavioral Sciences by Neil M. Agnew and Sandra W. Pyke (1982). This revised volume by Agnew and Pyke is a delightfully written, ambitious book that strives for a wide inclusion of topics on research methodology rather than concentrating on the small set of issues and methods that many consider fundamental. Moreover, it endeavors this task in the relatively brief span of 260 pages (not counting references and indexes). The strength of such an inclusive approach is that it introduces the student to the reality of the entire enterprise of psychological research. The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 is "Science and Nonscience"; Part 2 is entitled "Sieves of Science"; Part 3 is "From Laboratory to Life"; Part 4 is "The Magic of Numbers"; and Part 5 is entitled "Being Clear and Being Good". Altogether, reading The Science Game was fun, and that in itself is a heady comment about a methodology text. Further, despite some flaws, which are mostly of an order-of-presentation sort, I think that students will enjoy the book and come away from it with some answers and with better questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensitization to cocaine in pigeons: Interaction with an operant contingency.

A 2-part study with pigeons investigated the role of an explicit operant contingency in determining how cocaine interacts with locomotor activity. In Part 1, pigeons pecked on a fixed-ratio-20 schedule of food presentation. In Part 2, different pigeons were studied without opportunity to peck for food. After determination of cocaine's initial effects, pigeons were exposed to daily administrations of a locomotion-increasing dose of cocaine. Locomotor sensitization was evident in the pigeons of Part 2, and tolerance developed to cocaine's effects on key pecking in the pigeons of Part 1. Locomotor sensitization was generally not evident in the pigeons of Part 1. These results suggest that explicitly conditioned operant behavior may compete with behavior sensitized by prolonged exposure to cocaine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postnatal development of the cruciate ligament insertions in the rat knee. morphological evaluation and immunohistochemical study of collagens types I and II

In neuroscience critical care units, patients may have ventricular drains placed to aid management of acutely elevated intracranial pressure from a variety of causes. Correct placement of the ventricular drainage collection system, a nursing responsibility, is key to the process, and has the potential to influence patient outcome. A two-part study investigated the accuracy with which registered nurses levelled a ventricular drainage collection system. Part 1 found that nurses (N = 33) were unable to accurately level using visual means only. Part 2 found that nurses' (N = 31) use of a tool (a carpenter's level or a newly developed laser levelling device) dramatically improved accuracy. However, demographic differences between nurses in Part 1 and Part 2 may have contributed to this outcome. While both tools were accurate, the laser levelling device was superior to the carpenter's level for speed of use, nurses' rating of ease of use and patient safety.