SAGE Podcast

In this issue we are joined by Craig Deville (Director of Psychometric Services at Measurement Inc.) and Micheline Chalhoub-Deville (Professor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro), to talk about Standards Based Testing in the United States. Widely associated with the No Child Left Behind legislation and the new accountability agenda, Standards Based Testing is a highly controversial field, in both its social and technical aspects.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) of the tonsil is the most common oropharyngeal cancer, with an incidence of 4,000 annual cases in the United States. The incidence has increased in recent years, especially in the younger population, which may be attributed to rising rates of human papilloma virus (HPV). Analysis of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 1998 to 2006 identified 8,378 patients with SCCA of the tonsil.  Overall disease-specific survival after 3 years increased from about 70% in 1998-2000 to 73% in 2001-2003 and 78% in 2004-2006.  Potential explanations include earlier diagnosis, higher prevalence of HPV positive disease, and more effective protocols for radiation and adjuvant chemotherapy.  Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed in the podcast.

This article looks at how previous practice of portraiture prepared the way for self-presentation on social networking sites. A portrait is not simply an exercise in the skillful or "realistic" depiction of a subject. Rather, it is a rhetorical exercise in visual description and persuasion and a site of intricate communicative processes. A long evolution of visual culture, intimately intertwined with evolving notions of identity and society, was necessary to create the conditions for the particular forms of self-representation we encounter on Facebook. Many of these premodern strategies prefigure ones we encounter on Facebook. By delineating the ways current practices reflect earlier ones, we can set a baseline from which we can isolate the precise novelty of current practice in social networking sites.

Life as a woman in psychology has changed a lot since the movement which gave birth to all of this started. I moved from blissful unawareness of the source of my low status to a realization about how much of what happened to me was due to the deeply rooted reflexive sexism of my discipline. The association has moved a long way-the mere presence of women in the hallways and at the table of the governance bodies has been the greatest consciousness-raiser of all. However, we cannot relax, there are still stone walls, there is regression, complacency, and discouragement . . .. So we must continue to work hard, especially with young women and men. It is a job for the long haul. (Mednick, 1983, p. 2, italics added)

Life as a woman in psychology has changed a lot since the movement which gave birth to all of this started. I moved from blissful unawareness of the source of my low status to a realization about how much of what happened to me was due to the deeply rooted reflexive sexism of my discipline. The association has moved a long way-the mere presence of women in the hallways and at the table of the governance bodies has been the greatest consciousness-raiser of all. However, we cannot relax, there are still stone walls, there is regression, complacency, and discouragement . . .. So we must continue to work hard, especially with young women and men. It is a job for the long haul. (Mednick, 1983, p. 2, italics added)

Life as a woman in psychology has changed a lot since the movement which gave birth to all of this started. I moved from blissful unawareness of the source of my low status to a realization about how much of what happened to me was due to the deeply rooted reflexive sexism of my discipline. The association has moved a long way-the mere presence of women in the hallways and at the table of the governance bodies has been the greatest consciousness-raiser of all. However, we cannot relax, there are still stone walls, there is regression, complacency, and discouragement . . .. So we must continue to work hard, especially with young women and men. It is a job for the long haul. (Mednick, 1983, p. 2, italics added)

In this podcast, Editor Julia Muennich Cowell discusses the contents of the August 2011 issue of The Journal of School Nursing.

This qualitative study examined the parentification of eight Black American college females and its impact on their college experiences. Two 90-minute focus groups were conducted in order to gain insight about how these women overcame personal and family challenges while being away from their families of origin. Results highlight the push-pull factors experienced by the participants from both school and their family of origin and how they dealt with barriers to successful college completion.

This article summarizes a number of issues emerging in a research in progress that is concerned with the analysis of university department headship from a gender perspective. The article interprets the narratives produced by 20 women as they talk about their experience as heads of departments at three different universities in the city of Barcelona (Spain). The three universities, which are all publicly funded, are going through a similar process of change in many different aspects concerning teaching, research, and management. Overall, what these and other changes mean to middle management is an intensification of administrative workload, an increased capacity required to manage and implement external changes, and a displacement of formerly held prerogatives in the hiring and promotion of the staff. All these issues have emerged in some or other way in the narratives of the 20 heads of department that took part in this study as involving multiple tensions and contradictions that have to be sorted out at the department level. They all carry with them, too, a gender subtext that is not always discernible at first sight.

These linked data reflect over 4.3 million children born in California between 1999 and 2006 and provide a longitudinal record of maltreatment allegations and death. Of interest was whether children reported for nonfatal maltreatment subsequently faced a heightened risk of unintentional and intentional injury mortality during the first 5 years of life. Findings indicate that after adjusting for risk factors at birth, children with a prior allegation of maltreatment died from intentional injuries at a rate that was 5.9 times greater than unreported children (95% CI [4.39, 7.81]) and died from unintentional injuries at twice the rate of unreported children (95% CI [1.71, 2.36]). A prior allegation to CPS proved to be the strongest independent risk factor for injury mortality before the age of five.

Beyond being black and male, what characteristics put people at greater risk of being lynched in the Jim Crow South? A national team of sociologists has used genealogical research techniques and turn-of-the-century census records to help answer that question. Popular notions suggest that economically successful blacks were "made an example of" by lynch mobs. The current study, however, indicates that higher social and economic status offered protection from mob violence. The team used data representing more than 900 black men who were lynched between 1882 and 1929 and compared their census records to those of other black men living in the counties where they were lynched. They found that men who were lynched were less likely than other men in their communities to have been married, heads of household, or workers with skilled occupations. The risk of lynching also increased steadily from adolescence through early adulthood and declined after the mid-30s. The profile of black male lynch victims appears to have remained consistent during the time period studied; it varied little across southern communities despite differences in social conditions known to affect the rate of lynching, such as percent of the population that is black or prevalence of sharecropping. This research suggests that vulnerable men were at greatest risk of being targeted, regardless of the kind of community they lived in.

Risk assessments such as the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) that predict delinquency outcomes based on proximal risk factors may benefit from an incorporation of distal risk factors in their prediction models. This study utilized a juvenile probationer sample and block group SES data in exploring the differential predictive validity of the YLS/CMI with youth of similar person-centered risk levels from different criminogenic neighborhood types. The study entailed an exploratory factor analysis of block group socioeconomic variables, which were used in a cluster analysis to create criminogenic neighborhood typology system. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship among recidivism (Level 1), risk score (Level 1), neighborhood SES factors (Level 2), and neighborhood types (Level 2). Significant interactions were found across levels among variables, suggesting the risk-recidivism relationship was moderated by neighborhood socioeconomic ecology. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.

About 19 million students attend U.S. higher education institutions. Institutions with a for-profit tax status educate 2 million of these students. Since the election of President Barak Obama in November 2008, media portrayals of for-profits have seen violent swings among neutral, positive, and even intensely negative views. Two sets of forces have been at work behind the scenes. First is the U.S. government, including the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Second are the for-profit institutions themselves. This case study explores how these forces drove dramatic media coverage shifts in the first two years of the Obama administration.

This podcast features Kevin Morrell discussing his article on 'Evidence-based Dialetics'

Cindi Fukami talks to Glenn McEvoy about his article, "Increasing Intrinsic Motivation to Learn in Organizational Behavior Classes.