Conceptual Flaws Research Articles

From peacekeepers to praetorians – how participating in peacekeeping operations may subvert democracy

This article provides a heuristic study of three cases where participation in peacekeeping operations prompted military rule in the peacekeeper-contributing state. These three atypical cases contradict the theory of diversionary peace, which claims that contributing to peacekeeping operations abroad should stimulate democracy at home. The experience of these three countries also calls into question the conventional wisdom that strongly associates peacekeeping with liberal democratic institutions, outcomes and practices. Via triangulation across literature, reports, elite interviews and WikiLeaks cables, these cases are examined in order to identify more generalisable observations regarding how participation in peacekeeping may enhance the role of the military at the expense of democratic order and civilian rule in the contributing state. The theory of diversionary peace is shown to suffer from serious conceptual flaws. Some preliminary efforts are made to generalise the findings, with Ghana and Uruguay identified as warranting further investigation. A number of variables are identified as offering scope for generalisation, namely, revenue, leadership and military size. Several promising areas for further research are also identified: how military dependence on peacekeeping may make political systems more permeable to outside influence, how far the United Nations (UN) can politically influence its contributor states and how peacebuilding may affect peacekeepers’ understanding of their role in their own countries. By examining the feedback effects of peacekeeping on peacekeeper-contributing states, the article reverses the conventional focus of peacekeeping scholarship and contributes to the growing literature examining the wider ramifications and unintended consequences of liberal conflict management.

Improving the operationalization of interest congruence using polynomial regression

The concept of congruence, or the match between an individual and his or her environment, plays a major role in Holland's (1959, 1997) theory of vocational interests. Despite this emphasis, empirical research on the validity of congruence indices for predicting some outcomes has been somewhat disappointing (e.g. Assouline & Meir, 1987; Tinsley, 2000). Although recent research has found that congruence indices can provide meaningful improvements in validity (Nye, Su, Rounds, & Drasgow, 2017), it is widely recognized that these indices have a number of conceptual and methodological flaws (Camp & Chartrand, 1992; Edwards, 1993). To help address this issue, the present work demonstrates the potential benefits of operationalizing interest congruence using polynomial regression (Edwards, 1994) and discusses how such a method can yield more nuanced details about the importance of vocational interests for predicting work and academic outcomes.

Explaining immigration preferences: Disentangling skill and prevalence

One of the most important and consistent findings to emerge from the study of immigration politics over the past decade is the seemingly uniform preference among mass citizenries for high-skilled immigrants. One potential conceptual flaw in this mounting body of literature is that skill is confounded with prevalence: people may prefer high-skilled immigrants not because they are skilled but because there are not very many of them. To address this possibility, we conducted an original experiment within a nationally representative survey of over 12,000 respondents. We conducted three main empirical tests and found that the skill premium is not confounded by prevalence. However, low-skilled Mexican immigrants specifically are disadvantaged when people are told that they are prevalent, a finding that comports with extant research on the construction of Latino immigration as a unique threat to American society.

Toward Understanding Trust: A Response to Adams and Miskell

Purpose: Trust is a key component of successful schools. Although scholars widely agree that trust is multifaceted, there is less agreement about the number and nature of these factors. In the October 2016 issue of Educational Administration Quarterly, C. M. Adams and Miskell argued that their Teacher Trust of District Administration Scale provided evidence that trust is a single factor that cannot be unpacked, and that our three-factor theory of trust, which asserts that trust involves the discernment of benevolence, competence, and integrity, is invalid. We find multiple conceptual and methodological flaws in their reasoning. Method/Approach: We analyze data provided by C. M. Adams and Miskell that were used in their original 2016 article. The data set includes responses from 606 teachers in 72 schools to the 10 survey questions that comprise the Teacher Trust of District Administration Scale. We reproduce and critique the results of four models presented, and corrected, by C. M. Adams and Miskell, and present an alternative second-order model of trust with three first-order factors representing benevolence, competence, and integrity. Findings and Implications: Consistent with theory, we find that trust is more appropriately modeled as a multifactor construct. A multifactor model of trust is not merely an advance in measurement, it has important, actionable implications for research and practice. Measuring trust as a second-order factor, with first-order factors benevolence, competence, and integrity, positions us to make more nuanced judgements about trust, more easily diagnose problems, and prescribe interventions needed to develop, maintain, or repair trust in schools.

Justice, Efficiency, and the New Public Management

AbstractIn this article I aim to explore the link between two normative values, namely justice and efficiency, and the New Public Management approach. In pursuing this task I offer several critical arguments against some of the recent justice‐based objections levied against New Public Management by David Arellano‐Gault. I claim that Arellano‐Gault's account of the relation between justice and the New Public Management is seriously undermined by two conceptual flaws: (1) a conflation of right‐libertarianism, utilitarianism, and desert theories of justice and (2) a conflation of the technical/productive sense of efficiency with the social/distributive sense. Furthermore, I maintain that even when the different theories of justice and the different senses of efficiency are properly delineated, the case for necessarily linking NPM to a particular theory of justice is markedly unconvincing.

Technical note: An experimental set-up to measure latent and sensible heat fluxes from (artificial) plant leaves

Abstract. Leaf transpiration and energy exchange are coupled processes that operate at small scales yet exert a significant influence on the terrestrial hydrological cycle and climate. Surprisingly, experimental capabilities required to quantify the energy–transpiration coupling at the leaf scale are lacking, challenging our ability to test basic questions of importance for resolving large-scale processes. The present study describes an experimental set-up for the simultaneous observation of transpiration rates and all leaf energy balance components under controlled conditions, using an insulated closed loop miniature wind tunnel and artificial leaves with pre-defined and constant diffusive conductance for water vapour. A range of tests documents the above capabilities of the experimental set-up and points to potential improvements. The tests reveal a conceptual flaw in the assumption that leaf temperature can be characterized by a single value, suggesting that even for thin, planar leaves, a temperature gradient between the irradiated and shaded or transpiring and non-transpiring leaf side can lead to bias when using observed leaf temperatures and fluxes to deduce effective conductances to sensible heat or water vapour transfer. However, comparison of experimental results with an explicit leaf energy balance model revealed only minor effects on simulated leaf energy exchange rates by the neglect of cross-sectional leaf temperature gradients, lending experimental support to our current understanding of leaf gas and energy exchange processes.

Property Value as a Proxy of Socioeconomic Status in Education

The effects of poverty on important outcome measures are devastating and well documented, but the conceptualization and operationalization of socioeconomic status (SES) are underdeveloped. Various indicators of SES are useful for different purposes. Free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) status is commonly used because of its convenience and predictive strength, but it has many limitations. This study explored property value as a convenient alternative or complement to FRL status. The conceptual alignment of property value with SES was compared with that of traditional indicators like parent income, education, and occupation. Empirically, hierarchical linear modeling and regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the effects of property value on math achievement in comparison with and in conjunction with FRL status. Property value is strongly related to Math achievement, and it complements conceptual and methodological flaws of FRL status by providing nuance at the local level and encompassing aspects of human and social capital.

On the Historical and Conceptual Foundations of a Community Psychology of Social Transformation.

We examine historical and conceptual literature in community psychology in order to understand the field's potential to be the socially transformative subdiscipline of psychology to which it aspires. By reviewing papers from two prominent journals and other literature, we conclude that the claim that community psychology is well-suited to social transformation, because it is a product of Sixties' radicalism and is theoretically equipped, is untenable. Systematic accounts of the subdiscipline's origins suggest that the transformative aspirations of current community psychologists do not correspond to the subdiscipline's reformist past. Furthermore, in analyzing three related concepts currently employed in the field-social justice, power, and praxis-we show that each suffers from conceptual ambiguity and a restricted political scope. These conceptual flaws, coupled with community psychology's historical inclination toward social reform, inhibit the possibility of contributing to radical social transformation. We conclude that neither questionable historical claims nor ambiguous and politically dubious concepts support a community psychology of social transformation. We offer solutions for the historical and conceptual problems we identify and, as a broader solution to the problem of engaging in socially transformative work, propose that community psychologists should seek direct political engagement in solidarity with other citizens as fellow citizens not as psychologists.

Studying ethnicity, problem substance use and treatment: From epidemiology to social change

In this paper, we elaborate on the premises of studying problem substance use and treatment disparities among migrants and ethnic minorities. Due to the growing medicalisation of research on problem substance use and disparities in this group, policy makers, health researchers and practitioners often feel compelled to rely on epidemiological studies when grounding and understanding the link between ethnicity, problem substance use and treatment disparities. We argue that the bulk of epidemiological research suffers from crucial methodological and conceptual flaws that necessitate a reconsideration of their usefulness in policy and treatment practice. First, epidemiological research is based on static concepts of ethnicity and race as primordial analytical categories. Second, and as a consequence of the first argument, such research rarely distinguishes sufficiently between ethnic and non-ethnic determinants and mechanisms influencing problem substance use and treatment disparities. And third, these studies often depart from methodological individualism and subordinate contextual and structural determinants and mechanisms. This paper aims to re-evaluate (the factors and mechanisms mediating) the relationship between ethnicity, the nature of problem substance use, and treatment disparities, and to overcome some of the gaps in existing research methods mentioned above. More specifically, this implies (1) a critical revision of the ethnicity concept in epidemiology, (2) the inclusion of non-ethnic determinants and mechanisms by means of applying intersectional analysis and ethnic boundary making perspectives, (3) the broadening of methodological individualism in order to include all levels (from micro to macro) and loci (individual, community, society) of research in holistic research designs. Such “doubled research” allows researchers to analyse and have an impact on treatment disparities among migrants and ethnic minorities.

Is the Coase Theorem Tenable If All Its Assumptions Hold?

This paper studies two cases designed by Coase, analyses the effects of legal rules of external damage liability on the costs and resource allocation of the parties at issue, and demonstrates that the Coase Theorem is not tenable even if all its assumptions or conditions hold. The role of transactions in altering resource allocation and modifying legal rules is examined and it concludes that the outcomes of external right transactions cannot be independent of the legal basis of transaction even if transaction cost is zero. The analysis of the external cost shows that external damage does not impose the same amount of cost on the damager under different rules, reveals the conceptual flaw in Coase’s opportunity costs approach, and concludes that taking opportunity costs into consideration cannot equalize private cost of the damager with social cost.

Optimism and Well-Being in Hungarian Employees: First Application and Test of a Situational Judgment Approach to Explanatory Style

IntroductionThe theory of learned optimism (Seligman, 1991) is among the most intensively studied phenomenon in the science of positive psychological functioning (Peterson & Steen, 2009). Unlike other theorists, Seligman conceptualized optimism/pessimism as a personal explanatory style (also referred to as attributional style), i.e., a relatively stable mindset to explain the causes of positive and negative events and situations in terms of three interrelated forms (three different dimensions) of possible explanations with regard to their causes. The Stability (S) dimension refers to the time frame of the causes; whether the actual cause is timely extended, stable vs. unstable. The Globality (G) dimension captures whether the individual sees the actual event as the result of general vs. specific situational factors, i.e. the causes having an effect on other events as well or not. The Internality (I) dimension refers to the role of the individual himself. The internal and external causality attributions place the agency in or outside the person considering the causes of the event.Based on these distinctions between the three dimensions (S, G and I), the explanations as well as the nature of the situation (negative vs. positive), an optimistic mindset can be defined in the following way. For the explanation of negative situations an individual with optimistic explanatory style tends to use external causes along with seeing the situation as particular and temporarily sporadic (e.g., it was caused by somebody else, and it occurred just here and now). On the other hand, in case of positive events an optimistic explanatory style would involve internal causality, along with a generalized and temporarily extended view of the situation (it was me, and it can happen elsewhere and at other times as well). Both patterns of optimism were found to be positively related to better mental health, higher self-esteem, lower depression and lower risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (Peterson & Seligman, 1984; Peterson & Steen, 2009).Measurement of Explanatory StylesWhen it comes to measurement of explanatory styles, there are series of methods described in the literature (Proudfoot, Corr, Guest, & Gray, 2001). First, patterns of different explanation types for previous events may be coded from running texts (Schulman, Castellon, & Seligman, 1989). Second, short story-like explanations may be asked for predefined situations, and the answers may be analyzed for patterns of explanations. Third, individuals may be asked to rate the possible causes of hypothetical, predefined situations along the basic dimensions (e.g., to what extent would the situation be stable in time). The most commonly used measure, the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson, Semmel, von Baeyer, Abramson, Metalsky, & Seligman, 1982) applies the latter strategy providing six negative and six positive events and instructs the respondents to evaluate each situation on three seven point scales, asking whether the actual situation is due to something, to the person, or to others/the circumstances (internality), and whether the cause will be present in the future or not (stability) and does the cause influence other events as well or just the actual one (globality).Despite its popularity, ASQ has also been criticized both for its psychometric and conceptual flaws. Conceptually, the rating of hypothesized situations on a set of highly abstract rating scales (in this case, internality, globality and stability of the causes of the actual events) can be questioned because the underlying cognitive process is far from the everyday explanatory process itself. Usually, explanatory processes are largely automatic (Satpute & Lieberman, 2006), follow the event immediately and involve everyday thoughts and words (Peterson, 1991). Consequently, more extended and focused explanatory style measures were suggested, considering both the quantity of the provided situations (Travers, Creed, & Morrissey, 2015) and their thematic focus; for example in academic situations (Peterson & Barrett, 1987) and in work settings (Proudfoot et al. …

Autonomy, Respect, and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Crisis

AbstractArticle 12(2) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees persons with disabilities ‘the right to legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.’ In its General Comment on Article 12, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities claims that this guarantee necessitates the abolition of the world's dominant approach to mental capacity law. According to this approach, when a person lacks the mental capacity to make a particular legal decision at the material time, the state authorises a third‐party to make it on her behalf. The Committee declares such substituted decision‐making a violation of the Convention's guarantee of legal capacity on an equal basis, and therefore demands it be replaced by an allegedly non‐discriminatory alternative called supported decision‐making. This article argues that we should reject the Committee's demand in its current form, because the most influential version of the new approach to supported decision‐making suffers from serious conceptual flaws that make it inferior to the mental capacity approach. However, I then argue that the Committee's demand stems from a legitimate ethical concern with respect and equality that ought to inform the CRPD's implementation process.

Counterfactuals in “agreeing to disagree” type results

Moses and Nachum (1990) identified conceptual flaws (later echoed by Samet, 2010) in Bacharach’s (1985) generalization of Aumann’s (1976) seminal “agreeing to disagree” result by demonstrating that the crucial assumptions of like-mindedness and the Sure-Thing Principle are not meaningfully expressible in standard partitional information structures. This paper presents a new agreement theorem couched in “counterfactual information structures” that resolves these conceptual flaws. The new version of the Sure-Thing Principle introduced here, which accounts for beliefs at counterfactual states, is also shown to sit well with the intuition of the original version proposed by Savage (1972).

The limits of the use of locus of control in industrial psychology: A critical evaluation

Locus of control is a personality variable that is employed by researchers from diverse disciplines. This article examines the limits of the construct’s usage in industrial and organizational psychology. Although locus of control is documented to predict a wide array of workplace behavior such as job satisfaction, job performance and turnover intention, some important conceptual, methodological and empirical flaws raise suspicions on the explanations proposed by researchers. Considering the shortage of experimental and longitudinal evidence, it is argued that the causal direction of the well-established correlations between locus of control and other organizational behavioral variables might be the opposite of the theory’s expectation. It is also claimed that some related constructs such as self-efficacy and belief in a just world might provide further explanations for observed correlations.

Becoming Equivalent

This paper examines the introduction of “discourse” into China by looking into the different usages and interpretations of the word: what discourse currently is (话语 – a new coinage); what it used to be (语篇 – a largely superseded rendition, an assimilation); what it could be (other forms of transliteration, assimilation and Japanese-based renditions); and what it arguably should be (说力 – a new coinage). The paper discusses accordingly how Western critical concepts travel into China, how different modes of translation alter their meanings, and what translation strategy should best be employed to facilitate conceptual exchanges between the West and China. Additionally, the paper traces back a well-hidden Japanese “gene” in a majority of Chinese cultural concepts, discloses the conceptual flaws in Chinese renditions, and recommends an informed strategy for translating Western critical cultural concepts into Chinese.

The impact of fraudulent and irreproducible data to the translational research crisis - solutions and implementation.

One of the aims of basic neuroscience research is ultimately the development of therapeutics to cure diseases. Funders granting money to research institutions increasingly express interest into how their financial resources are used and look for successful translation in clinical practice. Disappointingly, many findings that started out promising in basic research projects and phase I trials did not live up to the promise of therapeutic efficacy in later phase II or III trials. An inordinately high amount of time and money is thus spent on research that does not always have the required human impact. Potential reasons for these problems are numerous. Although research misconduct occurs and contributes to this shortcoming, it is not the only important factor. Frequently, basic science results turn out to be irreproducible. Irreproducibility, outside of malfeasance, is multifactorial and can include poor experimental design, conduct, statistical analysis, reporting standards, and conceptual flaws. Further confounding problems include an insufficient transferability of animal to human physiology, as well as intersubject group variability, for example, sexual dimorphisms. While the causes of poor data reproducibility are therefore numerous, equally there are many groups that can contribute to improvements in how basic science is reported. Here, we will review how the Journal of Neurochemistry can contribute to increasing the value of preclinical and translational research. Despite a vast amount of very promising basic research findings, these failed to successfully translate into the clinical practice so far. The reasons for this 'data reproducibility crisis' are numerous, for example, rooting in insufficient experimental design, conceptual flaws, incorrect statistical planning and evaluation, incomplete model system that do not adequately reproduce the human physiology, and further reasons discussed in this Review with the aim to present practical solutions that can be implemented by researchers, journals editors, and reviewers. We will also explain measures the Journal of Neurochemistry have implemented to overcome these issues and weaknesses in preclinical research. These includes adherence to the ARRIVE ( www.nc3rs.org) guidelines, NINDS standards (doi: 10.1038/nature11556), and The Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines (TOP) Committee guidelines (https://cos.io/top/#TOP). This article is part of the 60th Anniversary special issue.

Motion-insensitive rapid configuration relaxometry.

Triple echo steady state (TESS) uses the lowest steady state configuration modes for rapid relaxometry. Due to its unbalanced gradient scheme, however, TESS is inherently motion-sensitive. The purpose of this work is to merge TESS with a balanced acquisition scheme for motion-insensitive rapid configuration relaxometry, termed MIRACLE. The lowest order steady state free precession (SSFP) configurations are retrieved by Fourier transformation of the frequency response of N frequency-shifted balanced SSFP (bSSFP) scans and subsequently processed for relaxometry, as proposed with TESS. Accuracy of MIRACLE is evaluated from simulations, phantom studies as well as in vivo brain and cartilage imaging at 3T. Simulations and phantom results revealed no conceptual flaw, and artifact-free configuration imaging was achieved in vivo. Overall, relaxometry results were accurate in phantoms and in good agreement for cartilage and for T2 in the brain, but apparent low T1 values were observed for brain white matter; reflecting asymmetries in the bSSFP profile. Rapid T1 and T2 mapping with MIRACLE offers analogous properties as TESS while successfully mitigating its motion-sensitivity. As a result of the Fourier transformation, relaxometry becomes sensitive to the voxel frequency distribution, which may contain useful physiologic information, such as structural brain integrity. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Magn Reson Med 78:518-526, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Análise de livros didáticos sobre o tema "morcegos"

Resumo: Morcegos provocam medo, são considerados pouco carismáticos para a população em geral e são raras as divulgações de seus benefícios ecológicos. Os livros didáticos podem acrescentar ou reforçar alguns equívocos, estereótipos e mitificações, além de falhas conceituais, informações incorretas ou de cunho discriminatório. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar o conteúdo sobre quirópteros dos livros didáticos, disponíveis na biblioteca municipal e em escolas públicas de Assis, São Paulo, além de avaliar como são veiculadas as informações pelas editoras com influência educacional. Dos 33 livros avaliados, apenas 26 continham informações sobre morcegos. Havia poucos erros conceituais ou informações distorcidas, mas, a qualidade informativa foi considerada insatisfatória e os discursos, superficiais. Constatou-se a necessidade de enfatizar as informações sobre os diversos papéis ecológicos dos morcegos e da inclusão de informações médico-sanitárias e profiláticas como forma de contribuição à saúde pública brasileira.

Empirical decryption of point source and nonpoint source loading in the context of a total phosphorus TMDL

ABSTRACTLehman JT. 2016. Empirical decryption of point source and nonpoint source loading in the context of a total phosphorus TMDL. Lake Reserv Manage. 32:259–269.A graphical and linear regression method was used to distinguish among point sources, nonpoint sources, and in-channel sinks of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients, relying on the observation that point-source loads and nonpoint-source loads are not correlated. Point-source loads from wastewater outfalls did not change proportionally with streamflow, whereas landscape erosion did. Point sources and sinks could be deduced from changes in the intercept of linear regressions of in-stream loads of nutrients at different points along the stream channel, whereas deviations of the slope from 1.0 revealed nonpoint source loading or diversions. The method demonstrates (1) how total phosphorus and total nitrogen released from a wastewater treatment facility is sequestered within macrophyte beds downstream from the outfall, and (2) how reductions in nonpoint source loading of total phosphorus coincident with a lawn fertilizer ordinance can be quantified. A related application of the method was used to quantify reduced internal loading and increased retention of dissolved phosphorus, total phosphorus, and silica in a polymictic impoundment after it was subjected to artificial mixing to prevent anoxia. The results revealed conceptual flaws in a total maximum daily load model for the watershed and provided information to improve the model. Regulatory restrictions on point-source discharges are ineffective when point-source nutrients are sequestered upstream of a lake that exhibits nuisance algal blooms and when most of the external nutrient loading to the lake of concern derives from runoff and other nonpoint sources across the landscape.

Setting priorities in health research using the model proposed by the World Health Organization: development of a quantitative methodology using tuberculosis in South Africa as a worked example.

BackgroundSetting priorities is important in health research given the limited resources available for research. Various guidelines exist to assist in the priority setting process; however, priority setting still faces significant challenges such as the clear ranking of identified priorities. The World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY)-based model to rank priorities by research area (basic, health systems and biomedical) by dividing the DALYs into ‘unavertable with existing interventions’, ‘avertable with improved efficiency’ and ‘avertable with existing but non-cost-effective interventions’, respectively. However, the model has conceptual flaws and no clear methodology for its construction. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to amend the model to address these flaws, and develop a clear methodology by using tuberculosis in South Africa as a worked example.MethodsAn amended model was constructed to represent total DALYs as the product of DALYs per person and absolute burden of disease. These figures were calculated for all countries from WHO datasets. The lowest figures achieved by any country were assumed to represent ‘unavertable with existing interventions’ if extrapolated to South Africa. The ratio of ‘cost per patient treated’ (adjusted for purchasing power and outcome weighted) between South Africa and the best country was used to calculate the ‘avertable with improved efficiency section’. Finally, ‘avertable with existing but non-cost-effective interventions’ was calculated using Disease Control Priorities Project efficacy data, and the ratio between the best intervention and South Africa’s current intervention, irrespective of cost.ResultsThe amended model shows that South Africa has a tuberculosis burden of 1,009,837.3 DALYs; 0.009% of DALYs are unavertable with existing interventions and 96.3% of DALYs could be averted with improvements in efficiency. Of the remaining DALYs, a further 56.9% could be averted with existing but non-cost-effective interventions.ConclusionsThe amended model was successfully constructed using limited data sources. The generalizability of the data used is the main limitation of the model. More complex formulas are required to deal with such potential confounding variables; however, the results act as starting point for development of a more robust model.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-016-0081-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.