Search results

Due to increased external, societal pressure on schools via developments such as accountability and accreditation, there is a growing need of schools for instruments that provide them with information on the quality of the teaching and learning processes they organize. This paper presents an instrument that can be used to diagnose teachers’ interpersonal skills, one element of teaching quality that may be of interest to schools. The instrument is based on the theory of interpersonal communication of Timothy Leary. Apart from a discussion of the theoretical framework behind the instrument, the paper presents information on the instrument itself and procedures for using the instrument with teachers and students. Also, information is provided on possibilities of using the instrument for staff development and other purposes of schools. The instrument appears to be of high quality and is accompanied by a large database of information linking it to other factors in the classroom context.

International security addresses questions of force: how to spot it, stop it, resist it and occasionally threaten and even use it. It considers the conditions that encourage or discourage organised violence in international affairs and the conduct of all types of military activity. It therefore deals with the most fundamental questions of war and peace and so the highest responsibilities of government. For this reason it has long been an area of academic endeavour where it is considered both appropriate and possible for scholarship to feed into the policy process. Yet as the danger of total war has receded, and as the complexities of the workings of the international system have come to be appreciated, many now question whether there is a research agenda here that is either intellectually coherent or of more than passing policy interest. This article argues that the issues here are still of vital importance, but they need to be recast to take account of the changing patterns of world politics, and in particular those that allow for a more discretionary engagement by the stronger states in the problems of the weak.

Global cycles of leadership and hegemony have repeated since 1492, leaving to history Dutch, British, and now declining US hegemonies. Theoretical models (Chase‐Dunn and Rubinson 1977; Hopkins and Wallerstein 1979; Arrighi 1994), historical narratives (Wallerstein 1974, 1980, 1989; Kennedy 1989), and statistical analyses (Modelski and Thompson 1988; Boswell and Sweat 1991) portray the cycle of hegemony as a fixed dynamic inherent to the world‐system. Can we expect the future to be any different?

While Philip Green was celebrating his £5m birthday bash in the sun last year, rival shareholders and CEOs were bashing their heads against brick walls. Though every company the British entrepreneur touches (most recently Arcadia that he bought for £850m) seems to turn to gold dust, the majority of takeover deals do not pay off. Mergers are still business, with almost $4 trillion changing hands between 1998 and 2002, but results often are disappointing. So what does Philip Green know that perhaps the rest of us do not?

For most people, especially those with fixed incomes, household budgets have to be balanced and sometimes the balance is precarious. With price rises of foods, there is a switch to a cheaper substitute within the group, or if it is a food for which there is no real substitute, reduced purchases follow. The annual and quarterly reviews of the National Food Survey over the years have shown this to be so; with carcase meat, where one meat is highly priced, housewives switch to a cheaper joint, and this is mainly the reason for the great increase in consumption of poultry; when recently the price of butter rose sharply, there was a switch to margarine. NFS statistics did not show any lessening of consumer preference for butter, but in most households, with budgets on a tight string, margarine had to be used for many purposes for which butter had previously been used. With those foods which have no substitute, and bread (also milk) is a classic example, to keep the sum spent on the food each week about the same, the amount purchased is correspondingly reduced. Again, NFS statistics show this to be the case, a practice which has been responsible for the small annual reductions in the amount of bread consumed per person per week over the last fifteen years or so; very small, a matter of an ounce or two, but adequate to maintain the balance of price/quantity since price rises have been relatively small, if fairly frequent. This artifice to absorb small price rises will not work, however, when price rises follow on one another rapidly and together are large. Bread is a case in point.

The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent the economic interdependence can affect the likelihood of conflict between States. Specially, over the past few decades, there has been a huge interest in the relationship between economic interdependence and political conflict. Liberals argue that economic interdependence lowers the possibility of war by increasing the weight of trading over the alternative of aggression; interdependent states would rather trade than invade; realists dismiss the liberal argument, arguing that high interdependence increases rather than decreases the probability of war. In anarchy, states must constantly worry about their security.

This paper highlights the content and level of economic interdependence between China and the USA since the beginning of China’s economic reform in 1979 and examines the impact of economic interdependence between them on their relationship toward Taiwan since 1995 and the probability of conflict.

Economic interdependence is proved to significantly decrease the onset of conflict between the two parties. This can be shown by comparing the number of armed conflicts during the pre-interdependence period to the number of armed conflicts after the economic interdependence there was an overage of 0.79 militarized interstate disputes (MIDs)/year, compared to 0.26 MIDs/year following China’s economic reforms; also, the length of the hostilities was longer during the pre-interdependence period (with an average of 11.13 months versus 5.33 months).

This means that economic interdependence does not completely prevent the outbreak of international conflicts, but it also plays a major role in influencing the conflict in terms of the conflict’s intensity, the use of armed force and the number of conflicts that occur between the economic interdependence states.

Perceptions of ageing towards the self and towards others can positively and negatively impact an older adult’s mental wellbeing. This paper aims to consolidate literature examining the relationship between perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults to inform both practice and policy for older adult mental health services.

Quantitative research articles examining perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults were identified through searches on three electronical databases, alongside forward and backwards citation searches. A total of 14 articles involving 31,211 participants were identified.

Greater negative attitudes towards ageing were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and greater positive attitudes towards ageing were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms or higher levels of happiness. However, the causal direction of this relationship could not be determined. Studies demonstrated that perceptions of ageing also act as a moderator in the relationship between depression and health status, hopelessness and personality traits. Future research should attempt to examine the relationship between perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults to attempt to identify the causal direction of this relationship.

This is the only systematic review the authors are aware of consolidating literature which explores the relationship between older adults’ perceptions of ageing and depression. It is hoped that these findings will be able to inform both policy and practice to improve older adults’ care and support for depression.

British policy‐making has been characterised by a British political scientist. Jack Hayward, as ‘humdrum’. By humdrum he means a policy which is in essence ‘muddling through’. Though seen as a characteristic of liberal democracies, this style of policy‐making has taken on an acute form in Britain. Thus, in contrasting the achievements of economic planning in Britain and France, he sees the British approach as ‘toothless tripartism’. This pluralistic paralysis was the result of a belief that administrative and pressure group consensus was a prerequisite to effective planning. Business organisations and trade unions were elevated into ‘corporatist veto groups capable of frustrating public policy’.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

Gives historical background to the new interest in “showcasing” inner cities of the USA. Focuses on Philadelphia as an example of government‐business alliance. Notes the former negative attitudes of public and private police toward each other and contrasts this with the growing understanding of their complementary roles.