Equity,Equality, and Self-Interest in Marital Maintenance

This study investigated the extent to which generalized equity, a reciprocal exchange approach to maintenance (e.g., reward minus costs), and a self-interest approach (e.g., rewards only) were associated with marital satisfaction. An online survey was distributed to 547 heterosexual married individuals. Results supported equity predictions for six maintenance behaviors when using a categorical measure of equity, and for five of the maintenance behaviors when using a linear measure of equity. Counter to predictions, equity and sex did not interact on the use of maintenance. Finally, a combination of equity, reciprocal exchange, and self-interest predicted 57% of the variance in marital satisfaction.     

Choosing whether to resist or reinforce the new managerialism: the impact of performance‐based research funding on academic identity

This article uses four academics’ gendered and cultural responses to life in a university in Aotearoa New Zealand under the new managerialist regime. Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) requires academics to submit evidence‐based portfolios every six years to categorise and rank them, with government funding assigned accordingly. When the authors met as members of a writing group, the talk often turned to negative aspects of PBRF. Using co‐operative enquiry, the four co‐researchers began writing observations of their individual experiences, differences and identities to help them reflect and understand the impact of the changed environment. The four phases of writing as enquiry were: deciding on a focus, writing observations, engaging with the written accounts and interpreting the outcome through metaphor. The article process facilitated a positive outcome by helping the authors regain a sense of collegiality and mutual support, along with a sense of preserving their academic identity by writing and publishing as a group.     

Rethinking sexual agency: proposing a multicomponent model based on young people’s life stories

Sexual health policies explicitly aim to encourage young people to take responsibility for their sexuality to prevent adverse outcomes such as unintended pregnancies, STIs and sexual assault. In Europe and North America, ‘choice’ has become a central concept in sexual and reproductive health policy making. However, the concept of choice is not unproblematic, not least because the cultural emphasis on individual responsibility obscures structural limitations and inequalities, and mutual responsibility between partners. Moreover, studies on the life stories of young people show how agency is forged and expressed within a social context and is manifested through responsiveness to others. This raises the question of how we can conceptualise sexual agency in a way that includes this sociality. How can we rethink sexual agency beyond autonomy? This article explores these issues using data from four separate research projects that shared the aim of exploring young people’s sexual agency in different areas. Drawing on findings from these studies, it advances a multicomponent model of sexual agency that connects individual choice to the social, moral and narrative context which young people navigate.     

How doctors search: A study of query behaviour and the impact on search results

Professional, workplace searching is different from general searching, because it is typically limited to specific facets and targeted to a single answer. We have developed the semantic component (SC) model, which is a search feature that allows searchers to structure and specify the search to context-specific aspects of the main topic of the documents. We have tested the model in an interactive searching study with family doctors with the purpose to explore doctors’ querying behaviour, how they applied the means for specifying a search, and how these features contributed to the search outcome. In general, the doctors were capable of exploiting system features and search tactics during the searching. Most searchers produced well-structured queries that contained appropriate search facets. When searches failed it was not due to query structure or query length. Failures were mostly caused by the well-known vocabulary problem. The problem was exacerbated by using certain filters as Boolean filters. The best working queries were structured into 2–3 main facets out of 3–5 possible search facets, and expressed with terms reflecting the focal view of the search task. The findings at the same time support and extend previous results about query structure and exhaustivity showing the importance of selecting central search facets and express them from the perspective of search task. The SC model was applied in the highest performing queries except one. The findings suggest that the model might be a helpful feature to structure queries into central, appropriate facets, and in returning highly relevant documents.