Showing papers on "Perspective (graphical) published in 2007"

The second expert report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective

Abstract: This Report has a number of inter-related general purposes. One is to explore the extent to which food, nutrition, physical activity, and body composition modify the risk of cancer, and to specify which factors are most important. To the extent that environmental factors such as food, nutrition, and physical activity influence the risk of cancer, it is a preventable disease. The Report specifies recommendations based on solid evidence which, when followed, will be expected to reduce the incidence of cancer.

Evidence-based Policy: A Realist Perspective

Abstract: Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and worked examples from across the policy waterfront.

The Experimental Induction of Out-of-Body Experiences

Abstract: I report an illusion in which individuals experience that they are located outside their physical bodies and looking at their bodies from this perspective. This demonstrates that the experience of being localized within the physical body can be determined by the visual perspective in conjunction with correlated multisensory information from the body.

Distinct Regions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Are Associated with Self-referential Processing and Perspective Taking

Abstract: The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) appears to play a prominent role in two fundamental aspects of social cognition, that is, self-referential processing and perspective taking. However, it is currently unclear whether the same or different regions of the MPFC mediate these two interdependent processes. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study sought to clarify the issue by manipulating both dimensions in a factorial design. Participants judged the extent to which trait adjectives described their own personality (e.g., “Are you sociable?”) or the personality of a close friend (e.g., “Is Caroline sociable?”) and were also asked to put themselves in the place of their friend (i.e., to take a third-person perspective) and estimate how this person would judge the adjectives, with the target of the judgments again being either the self (e.g., “According to Caroline, are you sociable?”) or the other person (e.g., “According to Caroline, is she sociable?”). We found that self-referential processing (i.e., judgments targeting the self vs. the other person) yielded activation in the ventral and dorsal anterior MPFC, whereas perspective taking (i.e., adopting the other person's perspective, rather than one's own, when making judgments) resulted in activation in the posterior dorsal MPFC; the interaction between the two dimensions yielded activation in the left dorsal MPFC. These findings show that self-referential processing and perspective taking recruit distinct regions of the MPFC and suggest that the left dorsal MPFC may be involved in decoupling one's own from other people's perspectives on the self.

The Effect of Culture on Perspective Taking

Abstract: People consider the mental states of other people to understand their actions. We evaluated whether such perspective taking is culture dependent. People in collectivistic cultures (e.g., China) are said to have interdependent selves, whereas people in individualistic cultures (e.g., the United States) are said to have independent selves. To evaluate the effect of culture, we asked Chinese and American pairs to play a communication game that required perspective taking. Eye-gaze measures demonstrated that the Chinese participants were more tuned into their partner's perspective than were the American participants. Moreover, Americans often completely failed to take the perspective of their partner, whereas Chinese almost never did. We conclude that cultural patterns of interdependence focus attention on the other, causing Chinese to be better perspective takers than Americans. Although members of both cultures are able to distinguish between their perspective and another person's perspective, cultural patt...

Conceptualizing Simultaneity : A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society

Abstract: This article explores the social theory and consequent methodology that underpins studies of transnational migration. First, we propose a social field approach to the study of migration and distinguish between ways of being and ways of belonging in that field. Second, we argue that assimilation and enduring transnational ties are neither incompatible nor binary opposites. Third, we highlight social processes and institutions that are routinely obscured by traditional migration scholarship but that become clear when we use a transnational lens. Finally, we locate our approach to migration research within a larger intellectual project, taken up by scholars of transnational processes in many fields, to rethink and reformulate the concept of society such that it is no longer automatically equated with the boundaries of a single nation-state.

Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective

Abstract: (2007). Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 883-885.

Interlevel Influences on the Reconstruction of Professional Role Identity

Abstract: Research on roles and identities generally represents a micro perspective that does not account for the reconstruction of professional role identity, owing to insufficient attention to institutiona...

Higher-Order Comprehension Processes in Struggling Readers: A Perspective for Research and Intervention

Abstract: Many children struggle to learn to read, and these difficulties can persist well into adulthood. To address this problem, researchers have investigated the processes that underlie reading. An informative body of work has thus identified basic skills (e.g., decoding, vocabulary knowledge) as necessary for successful reading. Researchers also have begun to examine comprehension skills and their contributions to the reading process. In this article we describe research from the cognitive sciences on the processes that underlie higher-order, coherence-oriented comprehension to provide an empirically and theoretically driven perspective for investigating struggling readers' difficulties. We show that this perspective is particularly beneficial in the development and assessment of instructional approaches by relating it to existing, effective interventions. Finally, we demonstrate how our own research activities have derived from this perspective and how preliminary findings extend our understanding of readers'...

Emotions and Crime over the Life Course: A Neo- Meadian Perspective on Criminal Continuity and Change

Abstract: A symbolic interactionist perspective on the emotions is presented that highlights their social character, forges links to cognitive processes, and suggests ways in which emotions influence long‐term patterns of criminal involvement. This neo‐Meadian perspective contrasts with theories of desistance that focus on the role of informal social controls and develops the view of an emotional self that flourishes somewhat independent of the major role transitions typically emphasized in sociological studies of the life course. The authors also explore ways in which attention to the emotional realms of experience adds to traditional treatments of the impact of adult transition events (e.g., the “good marriage effect”). Interviews with male and female adolescent offenders and two waves of adult follow‐up data document general patterns of association and support the argument that a social view of emotional processes is critical to a comprehensive understanding of life course patterns of criminal continuity and change.

Evolutionary perspectives on strategy

Abstract: We advocate studying strategic management from an evolutionary perspective: using dynamic, path-dependent models that allow for possibly random variation and selection within and among organizations. We argue that this perspective directs our attention to some of the most interesting problems in strategic management. The papers in this special issue are summarized, along with some of their implications for the advancement of an evolutionary perspective on strategy. Collectively, the papers draw on various theoretical rationales, illustrating how an evolutionary perspective can help to integrate the diverse and otherwise separate theoretical traditions that meet within the field of strategic management.

What the Camera Sees and from Whose Perspective Fun methodologies for engaging children in enlightening adults

Abstract: This article draws on the experience of three research projects where photography was used with children as a data collection method and presentation tool. It was used as a way of trying to enhance opportunities for adults to hear about topics from the perspective of children. The projects were not designed to investigate the use of cameras as a research methodology; the article is a synthesis of incidentally observed outcomes and issues raised by the use of cameras within these projects. Watching young children has told us a lot about how they engage with their environment and how to help them fit into the adult agendas we call ‘education’, ‘growing up’ and ‘life’, but how much does it tell us about how children really experience their worlds?

The Decline of the Middle Class: An International Perspective

Abstract: (2007). The Decline of the Middle Class: An International Perspective. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 181-200.

Picture Yourself at the Polls Visual Perspective in Mental Imagery Affects Self-Perception and Behavior

Abstract: The present research demonstrates that the visual perspective—own first-person versus observer's third-person—people use to picture themselves engaging in a potential future action affects their self-perceptions and subsequent behavior. On the eve of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, registered voters in Ohio were in- structed to use either the first-person or the third-person perspective to picture themselves voting in the election. Picturing voting from the third-person perspective caused subjects to adopt a stronger pro-voting mind-set corres- pondent with the imagined behavior. Further, this effect on self-perception carried over to behavior, causing subjects who were instructed to picture voting from the third-per- son perspective to be significantly more likely to vote in the election. These findings extend previous research in auto- biographical memory and social judgment linking the ob- server's perspective with dispositional attributions, and demonstrate the causal role of imagery in determining future behavior.

Seeing Future Success: Does Imagery Perspective Influence Achievement Motivation?:

Abstract: Imagining future success can sometimes enhance people's motivation to achieve it. This article examines a phenomenological aspect of positive mental imagery--the visual perspective adopted--that may moderate its motivational impact. The authors hypothesize that people feel more motivated to succeed on a future task when they visualize its successful completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective. Actions viewed from the third-person perspective are generally construed at a relatively high level of abstraction--in a manner that highlights their larger meaning and significance--which should heighten their motivational impact. Three studies in the domain of academic motivation support this reasoning. Students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-rather than a first-person perspective. Moreover, mediational analyses reveal that third-person imagery boosts motivation by prompting students to construe their success abstractly and to perceive it as important.

A Racecialized) Perspective on Education Leadership: Critical Race Theory in Educational Administration

Abstract: On June 28, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, et al. (2007). The central issue in this case focused on the constitutionality of using race as a voluntary means to educational ends in elementary and secondary school desegregation plans in Seattle (and Louisville, Kentucky), and the majority opinion ruled that the U.S. Constitution is “color-blind” and that for schools that were never guilty of segregation by race, “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race” (pp. 40-41). This color-blind interpretation of the law and legal policy has had a major ideological and substantive impact on the administrative organization of schools and postsecondary education. In this special issue of Educational Administration Quarterly, we argue that critical race theory (CRT) is a valuable lens with which to analyze and interpret administrative polices and procedures in educational institutions and provides avenues for action in the area of racial justice. CRT has emerged from the legal arena to uncover the deep patterns of exclusion and what is taken for granted with respect to race and privilege (Ladson-Billings, 1998). It relies on various strands of social

The Story Of Earth And Life: A Southern African Perspective on a 4.6-Billion-Year Journey (review)

Abstract: Earth and Life is an unusual textbook in several respects. The coverage includes not only geology but also prehistory, the text includes contributions from no fewer than eighteen scholars, and the volume is subsidized by Kumba Resources, a South African mining company. This felicitous partnership brings the price of a full-color book down to an affordable level for students, which will help guarantee its widespread use in the classroom. After a brief summary of the history of research and of basic methods, the book follows a logical progress through time, beginning with the formation of the earth from a global perspective. From broad processes, we move on to the formation of the continents and the oldest geological formations in southern Africa, which date to over 3600 million years ago. Here, as throughout the book, the graphics, maps, tables, and photographs are carefully designed, graphically stunning, and beautifully reproduced. "Route Maps" at the beginning of each chapter provide signposts to the topics that follow as well as chronological information. Chapter 4 describes the rich mineral deposits of the Kaapvaal Craton, part of the world's oldest continent, and the formation of the most extensive gold and platinum deposits anywhere from the collision of small continents and massive sediment accumulation. Then came Panagea and the ancestors of the present continents—the life and death of the supercontinents. Chapter 7 provides a description of the geology of Gondwana, as revealed in southern African strata, the remains of the supercontinent that supplies over 60 percent of the world's minerals, including evidence for a mass extinction of 251 million years ago that exterminated 96 percent of then-living species. The next chapter turns to paleontology and describes the life of Gondwana, known from major fossil discoveries in southern Africa, with occasional excursions further afield.

Making social worlds : a communication perspective

Abstract: Preface. 1. Critical moments that shape our social worlds. 2. Taking a communication perspective on social worlds. 3. Paradigms and the "physics" of social worlds. 4. Communication: Coordinating Actions and Making/Managing Meanings. 5. Doing things in communication: Speech acts. 6. Episodes and patterns of communication. 7. Selves and forms of consciousness. 8. Relationships and relational minds. 9. Afterword: Something of a guide for using CMM. .