Volume Contents

Volume Contents

Volume Contents     

Validation of a stages of exercise change questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to examine evidence for the validity of a stages of change measure of the Transtheoretical Model for exercise behavior. Participants were 152 university students (53.3% women, 71.6% Caucasian, M age = 19.18 years) who completed processes of change, self-efficacy, decisional balance, stages of change, and exercise behavior questionnaires as well as a maximal treadmill test. Participants in the action and maintenance stages had the highest strenuous (PC/C/P < A/M) and moderate (PC/C < A/M) self-reported exercise behavior. Those in the maintenance stage had the highest estimated aerobic fitness (PC/P < MA). The differences between the early stages (PC, C, and P) and the later stages (A and M) as described by the first function were primarily due to the behavioral process of change. The differences between the extreme stages (PC and M) and the middle stages (C, P, and A) were due to the experiential processes of change and the pros of decisional balance. The hypothesized patterns of stage differences were partially supported. Failure to obtain full support may have been due to methodological issues or inherent difficulties in detecting evidence for the validity of stages of change measures.     

The Development in Germany of Archival Processing – The Vertical and Horizontal Appraisal

Based on a discussion about appraisal which has been going on for over a 100 years, the so-called vertical and horizontal appraisal have been developed and tested since the middle of the 1990s. During this process the tasks, functions and competences of the agencies, which are to be appraised were analysed. The appraisal of the content itself is undertaken only when multiple archival processing has been eliminated by this method and the most significant records identified. Actual tasks and functions of single administrative branches of different institutions (federal government, states, counties, and municipalities) are appraised, apart from already closed records. In this way, agencies creating archives and records today receive written decisions on the appraisal of records, which will be offered to the archives in future. Archivists of different institutions are involved in this appraisal procedure. The experience gained here has continually developed the techniques of vertical and horizontal appraisal. This appraisal procedure is being further developed in a constant balance between theory and practice.     

Trends in the Creation and Appraisal of Government Records in Germany

While archivists in western and eastern Germany may have different traditions, they face the same challenges presented by the use of information technology in government offices in recent years. Documentation strategies and goals in advising agencies must be developed in consideration of current professional debate and limited resources. The following article presents tendencies in governmental records management, advising strategies of archives, and schemes for broad-scale appraisal based on observations at the level of the governments of the German Länder and includes case studies from Saxony.