The utilitarian and hedonic outcomes of music information-seeking in everyday life

This qualitative study focuses on what contributes to making a music information-seeking experience satisfying in the context of everyday life. Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted with 15 younger adults (18 to 29 years old). The analysis revealed that satisfaction could depend on both hedonic (i.e., experiencing pleasure) and utilitarian outcomes. It was found that two types of utilitarian outcomes contributed to satisfaction: (1) the acquisition of music, and (2) the acquisition of information about music. Information about music was gathered to (1) enrich the listening experience, (2) increase one's music knowledge, and/or (3) optimize future acquisition. This study contributes to a better understanding of music information-seeking behavior in recreational contexts. It also has implications for music information retrieval systems design: results suggest that these systems should be engaging, include a wealth of extra-musical information, allow users to navigate among music items, and encourage serendipitous encountering of music.     

Interplay between childhood maltreatment, parental bonding, and gender effects: impact on quality of life

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine associations between childhood adversity, parental bonding, gender, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in non-treatment-seeking adults from the community. METHOD: Effects of differential parental rearing were compared in adults who reported a high degree of childhood maltreatment (n=72) and those who reported no significant adverse events in childhood (n=69). Subjects completed retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment and perceived parenting style, as well as measures of current depressive symptoms and quality of life. RESULTS: The subjects without childhood maltreatment were younger and endorsed less current depressive symptomatology than did subjects with childhood maltreatment. While the subjects without a history of maltreatment reported more "optimal" bonding experiences with their parents, the maltreatment group members were more likely to characterize their early parental bonding experiences in terms of "affectionless control" (p<.001 for both maternal and paternal parenting), "affectionate constraint" (p=.025 for maternal parenting and p=.004 for paternal parenting), or "weak or absent" bonding (p<.001 for both maternal and paternal parenting). Results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that overall quality of paternal care (p=.015) and current level of depressive symptoms (p<.001) were significant independent predictors of adult quality of life. Gender effects between subjects providing parental bonding data were limited to the group with childhood maltreatment. CONCLUSION: These findings extend previous work documenting a relationship between early life maltreatment and suboptimal parental bonding, suggesting gender-specific effects of maternal and paternal care. Effects of childhood maltreatment on quality of life in adulthood appear to be linked with the quality of childhood paternal care and the occurrence of depressive symptomatology in adulthood, suggesting possible targets for primary or secondary prevention.     

Gentlemanly Orthodoxy: Critical Race Feminism, Whiteness Theory, and the APA Manual

Although often viewed as burdensome, academic writing guidelines are rarely treated as actively problematic. Even progressive scholars are unlikely to challenge the cultural assumptions or political investments of academic style guides. Yet standards regarding clarity, precision, appropriateness, sensitivity, and objectivity are not politically innocent. In codifying formal guidelines for the presentation of research, academic style manuals reflect and reinscribe the racialized and gendered (among other) power relations characteristic of the academy. Drawing on critical race feminism and whiteness theories, this paper considers how scholarly investments in whiteness and patriarchy organize the influential APA writing guidelines. The present analysis refers specifically to the APA Manual , but similar analyses might apply to aspects of the Chicago and MLA manuals and the Bluebook , among other style guides.     

公民教育的进展研究：发达国家的探索

21世纪初，无论是在国家层面还是在国际范围，人们都开始对公民教育产生新的兴趣。越来越多具有多元文化的民主国家对作为民主公民教育基础的人权教育的国际共识、全球化进程所带来的统一性与多样性之间关系的冲突特征、许多民主的民族一国家对公民（特别是年轻人）的政治参与水平以及对种族主义倾向的反民主运动的忧虑等，都被看作是引进和加强公民教育的原因。一个由国际学者组成的研究小组，通过考察、研究为我们确认了多元文化的民主体系中公民教育在教学方面的一些重要原则、概念以及公民教育对学校课程的促进。发达国家在实践方面的经验显示，成功的公民教育要求一个清晰的政策框架和专业的教师培训等。     

Implementation of the PATHS Curriculum in an Urban Elementary School

We examined the effectiveness of the PATHS curriculum in a magnet elementary school serving a distressed urban area. Aspects of social-emotional competence were examined for second graders who had, and had not, received the PATHS intervention. The intervention groups differed, with the control group having lower social-emotional competence than the intervention group. The measures that contributed most to this effect were objective ratings of observed social competence, and self-reports of child depression and social rejection. School personnel reported modest enthusiasm and approval of the PATHS curriculum. The importance of school acceptance, and contexts that may enhance such acceptance, are discussed.     

Inclusion,exclusion and children's rights

Abstract

This case study examines the experiences of a student who was excluded twice from a mainstream school while preparing for GCSE examinations. The authors are the student and his aunt. The exclusions were for an indefinite period and were triggered as a result of the school's inability to respond adequately to recurring epileptic seizures. The student, who has Asperger syndrome and a statement of special educational needs, had not broken any disciplinary code. Teachers' understanding of the label ‘special educational needs’ is questioned. The SEN and Disability Act 2001 has far-reaching implications for school ethos and culture. Schools' failure to anticipate the needs of students with disabilities or SEN may well lead to unlawful discrimination. Inclusive schools will need to recognize that in meeting students' individual needs the institution itself may need to change. Barriers to genuine parent partnership in education must be overcome, and children's participation rights, as confirmed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, must be respected.     

The 2008 Presidential Campaign: Political Cynicism in the Age of Facebook,MySpace, and YouTube

Considerable research over the years has been devoted to ascertaining the impact of media use on political cynicism. The impact of the Internet has been difficult to assess because it is not a single monolithic medium. For example, the 2008 presidential campaign was the first presidential campaign in which popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube were widely available to voters. Therefore, the campaign offered the first opportunity to explore the influence of these social media on political cynicism. In this study, we examined whether the use of such social media influenced political cynicism. We also considered the influence of user background characteristics (e.g., self-efficacy, locus of control, political orientation, demographics, and influence of family and friends), motives for using social media for political information, and users’ elaboration on political content. Several individual differences were stronger predictors of political cynicism than was social media use. In fact, social networking use was a negative predictor of political cynicism. Results supported uses and gratifications’ notions that the influence of social media on political cynicism is more attributable to user background and media-use differences than to sheer use of these popular sites.     

Put Theory Into Practice

Audrey J. Jaeger, Stephany Dunstan, Courtney Thornton, Alyssa B. Rockenbach, Joy G. Gayles, and Karen J. Haley argue that applying our theoretical frameworks in everyday decision making will help us to be more efficient and effective—and they provide a user‐friendly analogy to guide us in this endeavor.