Using action research to improve health and the work environment for 3500 municipal bus drivers

During the past five decades occupational researchers have documented that bus drivers’ health is worse than in almost any other profession. The authors suggest that the reason there has not been any successful attempt to change this situation is because the focus until now on removing statistically associated external risk factors has been too narrow. The article describes a project whose purpose was to improve the health and well‐being of 3500 Copenhagen bus drivers. At the end, more than 200 interventions were implemented. The authors adopted a new approach of combining epidemiological results and qualitative methodologies, creating a broader explanatory foundation for action, linked by repetitive processes of critical reflection, which was central to defining problems, explaining causes, developing sufficiently effective interventions and measuring effects. The project revealed the importance of several new and potentially preventable factors involving such issues as lifestyle, private stressors and inappropriate management. During the project period an evaluative framework was developed to explore and measure the complex effects of multiple interventions. Three years after the interventions were launched, follow‐ups revealed remarkable improvements such as reductions in stress and body pains, an increase in satisfaction, and improvements in management and the drivers’ cabin. This article is the story of a methodological journey, from classical epidemiology to an approach combining the strengths of survey (broad coverage), qualitative methods (in‐depth focus) followed by critical reflections and ending with action research.     

Let's understand Skodak and Skeels,finally 1

The well‐known study by Skodak and Skeels (1949), in which one hundred infants who were born to unwed mothers of below‐average IQ and were adopted into superior foster homes and grew up to obtain Stanford‐Binet IQs averaging 20 points higher than the IQs of their biological mothers, has frequently been interpreted as a contradiction of the evidence for the high heritability of intelligence. It is here shown that this is a misinterpretation of the Skodak and Skeels results, based on failure to consider the prediction made from a simple polygenic model of parent‐offspring resemblance. The Skodak and Skeels data, when analyzed properly in terms of a quantitative‐genetic model, are found to be not all improbable or contradictory of a broad heritability for IQ in the range of .70 to .80. Also, the common fallacy of generalizing the results of Skodak and Skeels as an environmental explanation of the cause of the approximately 1 σ mean white‐Negro IQ difference is explicated from the standpoint of genetic theory.     

Understandingg in terms of information processing

Psychometric g, the general factor in individual differences in all types of tests and performances involving any mental ability, has much wider importance and implications than are encompassed by the field of psychometrics. It is argued that the nature of g must be understood in terms of information processes rather than in terms of the specific knowledge and skills that are seen in the content of conventional mental tests. The wide range of individual differences in g and disparities in the distribution of g in different subpopulations have important implications for understanding some of the major problems confronting public education.     

Research and teaching in the universities of Denmark: Does such an interplay really exist?

The unity of research and teaching is an ingrained principle in university policy in Denmark, but this principle has also been subjected to increasing criticism. This article presents an investigation, consisting of about 50 interviews with teachers from higher educational institutions in Denmark, aiming at the illumination of this issue. According to the conclusions of this investigation it is the basic experience of the teachers that an important interplay exists between research and teaching of the individual teacher, and that almost none would prefer to work in a pure research institution. At the same time the teachers have some crucial reservations. Firstly it can be difficult to administer this twofold task. Secondly the interrelationships are dependent on several factors, the most important of which is the level of teaching and the disciplinary context. This latter factor is explained by differences pertaining to the very nature of varying disciplines - demonstrated and analyzed with reference to Thomas Kuhn and Basil Bernstein. Finally, the importance of the interrelationships between research and teaching for higher educational and research policies in broader perspective is discussed.     

The Viability of Using Rapid Judgments as a Method of Deception Detection

Rapid Judgments (RJs) are quick assessments based on indirect verbal and nonverbal cues that are known to be associated with deception. RJs are advantageous because they eliminate the need for expensive detection equipment and only require minimal training for coders with relatively accurate judgments. Results of testing on two different datasets showed that trained coders were reliably making RJs after watching both long and short interaction segments but their judgments were not more accurate than the expert interviewers. The RJs did not discriminate between truth and deception as hypothesized. This raises more questions about the conditions under which making RJs from verbal and nonverbal cues achieves accurate detection of veracity.     

Selected sources of current population, vital, and health statistics

This annotated list is a guide to government and nongovernment sources of population, vital, and health statistics. It is arranged first geographically, giving sources for local, regional, state, national, and international statistics, and secondly by issuing body. Below the national level sources for only the California area are included, but they are representative of publications of similar health jurisdictions. The list is selective and concentrates on recent or regularly updated publications. A brief list of guides to other sources is included at the end.