Hypothetical Issues Research Articles

Mimicking Public Debate? How Do Multiple Frame Environments Affect Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Unions?

Prior research on multiple frame environments has employed hypothetical issues to examine the effects of individual level characteristics on public opinion. This work adds to the literature by examining attitudes toward current and divisive issues, same-sex marriage and civil unions. These issues are particularly good tests of the effects of multiple frame environments in that same-sex marriage is best understood as an ‘easy’ issue, whereas civil unions, require subjects to have greater knowledge of the policy, and are better understood as a ‘hard’ issue.To examine these related, but distinct, questions I rely on a variety of framing environments which vary the strength and direction (support or opposition for the issue) of the frames provided to respondents. Results indicate that framing environments produce substantial variation in subject response across both the same-sex marriage and civil unions treatments. In particular, framing environments which employ frames of equivalent strength appear to moderate subject opinion across both issues. Framing environments which employ stronger and weaker frames do bias responses in the direction of the stronger frame. Providing multiple frames advocating the same position on an issue also bias subject response in the direction of the frames presented. These effects persist when controlling for subject core values and political sophistication, and across other gay rights issues.

Energy for Change: Introduction to the Special Issue on Energy & Climate

Without economy and environment, there is no material well-being, no civil society, no personal or national security. The overriding problem associated with these realities, of course, is that the world has long been getting most of the energy its economies need from fossil fuels whose emissions are imperiling the climate that its environment needs. Compounding that predicament are emissions from land-use change—above all, deforestation in the developing countries of the tropics. Like society’s choices about energy supply and use, this process has been driven by powerful economic and political forces insufficiently moderated by understanding or consideration of the environmental component of societal well-being. This is no longer a hypothetical or distant issue. It is real and it is upon us. The climate is changing markedly nearly everywhere. The air and the oceans are warming, mountain glaciers are disappearing, permafrost is thawing, sea ice is shrinking, the great land ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are slipping, and sea level is rising. And the consequences for human well-being are already being felt: more heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires; tropical diseases reaching into the temperate zones; vast areas of forest being destroyed by pest outbreaks linked to warming; hurricanes and typhoons of greater power; and coastal property increasingly at risk from the surging seas. All this is happening faster than was expected. Sea level is rising at twice the average rate for the 20 century. The volume of sea ice in the Arctic (its area times its average thickness), which reaches a seasonal minimum every September, appears to have been smaller in September 2008 than in any year of the last 30—

Dietary phyto-oestrogens: molecular mechanisms, bioavailability and importance to menopausal health

Following the high-profile studies on hormone replacement therapy which provided little evidence in support of the drug therapy improving future health, there remains a growing demand for dietary solutions for maintaining health and preventing disease as women age. Although interest in the relative importance of phyto-oestrogens to human health has increased dramatically over the last decade, the effective dose for health benefits and hypothetical issues on safety remain to be resolved. Plausible mechanisms and epidemiological data are available to support the concept that phyto-oestrogen-rich diets exert physiological effects, but optimal doses and sources of these compounds have still not been elucidated for specific health benefits. In addition, much of the current mechanistic data are difficult to interpret as the experiments have incorporated levels of phyto-oestrogens that may not be achievable in vivo and have to date only used aglycones and glycosides of the pure compounds rather than examining the biological effects of gut and liver metabolites. The present review will concentrate on the isoflavone subclass of phyto-oestrogens, as, to date, these compounds have received most attention from both a commercial and research perspective.

Convertible Bonds: How Much Equity, How Much Debt?

Financial analysts need accurate estimates of debt, equity, leverage, and EPS. The method proposed here, based on the probability of conversion, yields new estimates of the debt and equity in a convertible bond issue. When this method is used, the value of the equity component in a hypothetical issue is found to be substantial—larger than the value of the options and clearly larger than zero, which is assigned under current accounting rules. The estimate of the debt component is smaller than recorded under current accounting rules. Thus, the leverage of convertible bond issuers is substantially lower when this method is used.

Mirrors, Reflections and Refractions: The contribution of microteaching to reflective practice

SUMMARY This paper considers a range of strategies that can be used to promote reflection. We focus on microteaching as a vehicle for enabling students to become aware of their values, attitudes and assumptions about learning as these are enacted within microteaching. The subsequent feedback becomes a dialogue between student, peer, teacher fellow and tutor that provides different refractions of this practice and contributes to the development of reflection which we characterise in terms of pre-critical, internalised and hypothetical thresholds. At the pre-critical threshold a practitioner concentrates on their technical competence, using trial and error or survival strategies to manage time, resources and pupils. Practitioners apply more mentally rehearsed operations to address new situations within the internalised threshold. A practitioner operating on hypothetical issues works within the hypothetical threshold and may not have experiences of events to inform hypothetical situations, but is in a position to manage uncertainty. R´ESUMÉ Cet article prend en conside´ration une gamme de strate´gies qu'on puisse utiliser afin d'e´ncourager la re´flexion chez les e´tudiants. On fixe notre regard sur Microteaching (la pratique où un e´tudiant donne une lec¸on à une petite groupe d'e´lèves dans l'Unive´rsite´) comme moyen de leur permettre de prendre conscience de leurs valeurs, dispositions et suppositions concernant le savoir. Le feedback re´sultant devient un dialogue entre l'e´tudiant, ses semblables, professeurs et directeurs(trices) d'e´tudes qui fournisse de diffe´rentes re´fractions de cette pratique, et contribue au de´veloppement de la re´flexion. Un developpement qu'on caracte´rise en trois seuils: pre´-critique, interne et hypothe´thique. Au seuil pre-critique, le pratitien se concentre sur la compe´tence technique par tatonnements ou en utilisant des strate´gies de survie afin de se de´brouiller à propos de son temps, ses ressources et ses e´le ¤ ves. À travers le seuil interne, le pratitien mets en pratique des ope´rations plus mentalement re´pe´te´es en s'attaquant à desnouvelles situations. Le pratitien qui fonctionne à travers le seuil hypothe´tique n'aura pas ne´cessairement les expe´riences d'e´ve´nements pour informer les situations hypothe´tiques, mais il est en mesure de faire face a ¤ l'incertitude.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy in sheep?

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in sheep has not been identified under natural conditions at the time of writing and remains a hypothetical issue. However, rumours about the possible finding of a BSE-like isolate in sheep have led to great unrest within the sheep industry, among the general public and within governmental and regulatory bodies. The difficulties of implementing a proper risk assessment and pre-emptive measures, in the absence of a confirmed case, are described. The authors attempt to list what is known about experimental BSE in sheep, the distribution of infectivity in the host, some aspects of risk assessment and management and the most promising methods for differentiating BSE from scrapie in the same host. As for the latter, new and promising methods are being developed and appear suitable for initial screening of isolates of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, but in the absence of proper validation, use of the 'classical' strain-typing in a mouse panel is still indicated.

What a difference 5 years makes.…

more hypothetical sleep-related issues, were Sometimes it is useful to reflect on how things have focused on: agrypnia excitata, a final clinical manichanged and improved over time. If as a subscriber festation of three completely different conditions; and reader you are interested in having access to and, beta EEG activity in insomnia. state-of-the-art reviews on areas relevant to sleep Each issue of Volume 5 contained a Guest Eddisorders medicine, we trust you will appreciate itorial, written by a recognized authority in the the growth of Sleep Medicine Reviews (SMR) in our area, which provided the general context for the efforts to provide comprehensive coverage of our lead article or articles in each issue and often diverse and complex field. provided the additional insight of an expert point In 1997, SMR published Volume 1, which consisted of view that was not always in total agreement with of two issues, contained two regular editorials, one authors. Our editorial desire to provide a forum guest editorial and nine clinical review articles, for the controversial aspects to sleep medicine was totalling 122 pages published in A5 format. Five further illustrated in Volume 5 by two commentaries years later, in 2001, SMR Volume 5 consisted of written in response to reviews on idiopathic hysix issues containing one regular editorial, six persomnia and on beta EEG activity in insomnia, guest editorials, twenty-nine review articles, and which questioned some of the conclusions offered two letters to the editors, totalling nearly 500 by the authors of the initial reviews. The authors’ pages published in an enlarged A4 format. We replies to these commentaries nicely exemplify that thank our readership for their continued interest, sleep medicine is a developing field, that like any which has facilitated the growth of SMR, and trust that they are pleased with how the journal scientifically-based clinical effort, moves forward in an iterative, emperically based fashion. has matured. The majority of the reviews contained in Volume This theme, the battle of ideas, which ultimately advances the field, is carried forward into the cur5, a total of 20, are “state-of-the-art” clinical reviews. However, we also published seven phyirent, sixth, volume of Sleep Medicine Reviews. We introduce this year’s volume with a pair of reviews siological reviews and two theoretical reviews. The clinical review topics speak to the varied aspects of that take opposite positions on the question, “Should all sleep apnea patients be treated?” Dr. sleep medicine and include: outcome measures in sleep medicine practice and research; cognitive funcLevy and colleagues take the affirmative position to this question, while Dr. Montserrat and his coltion in sleep disorders; sleep apnoea-related issues, such as appropriate CPAP treatment and use of leagues argue the negative position. Each group also offers a reply to the position taken by the other. oral appliances; sleepiness and the law; secondary insomnia; yawning; sleeping sickness; restless leg Finally, Dr. Kryger offers his perspective in a Guest Editorial that provides commentary on these two syndrome; pain and sleep; circadian rhythms in the blind; sleep after surgery; and, idiopathic hyreviews and their respective replies. We hope our readers find this point and counterpoint both enpersomnia. The physiological reviews examined: the physiological bases of REM and NREM sleep; the joyable and thought provoking. Letters to the editor can also demonstrate the moment of falling asleep; how much sleep do we need; cognition–sleep relationships in animals and value of point and counter-point. We are pleased that the current issue contains such a contribution in humans; and, the molecular correlates of sleep and waking. The two theoretical reviews, examining from one of our readers, with a reply from the

Examining Fourth Generation Evaluation

The utility of Guba and Lincoln's (1989) Fourth Generation Evaluation (FGE) method has been a source of debate in the field of evaluation (e.g. Adelman, 1996; Greene, 1996; Laughlin and Broadbent, 1996). The majority of these debates tend to focus on hypothetical implementation issues. Few, if any, have attempted to examine FGE through direct application of the method to an actual evaluand of interest. The purpose of the present article is to examine the utility of incorporating the FGE methodology as one of the first steps in a community–university collaboration regarding youth. The strengths and limitations of the FGE methodology will be highlighted through a discussion of its application. Revealed strengths of FGE include the involvement of multiple stakeholder groups, exposure to multiple perspectives, and fostering early support for later programmatic developments. Limitations include difficulties in defining stakeholders, and providing evidence of education and empowerment. The information gained from this application has practical implications for others seeking to employ the FGE methodology.

The new NATO and collective security

While the Allies remain committed to collective defence, they have increasingly endowed NATO with new roles as an instrument of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic region. Elements of Partnership for Peace (PFP), the May 1997 NATO-Russian Founding Act, the stabilisation commitment in post-war Bosnia and other activities have raised new challenges for NATO's cohesion and effectiveness: how to give practical content to its vision of a peaceful political order in Europe; how to handle the hypothetical issue of eventual Russian membership in the Alliance; what meaning to attribute to vague 'security is indivisible' declarations and the Article 4-like security-consultation commitments offered to PFP members; and how to maintain collective defence in good order while assuming collective-security duties.

The new NATO and collective security

While the Allies remain committed to collective defence, they have increasingly endowed NATO with new roles as an instrument of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic region. Elements of Partnership for Peace (PFP), the May 1997 NATO-Russian Founding Act, the stabilisation commitment in post-war Bosnia and other activities have raised new challenges for NATO's cohesion and effectiveness: how to give practical content to its vision of a peaceful political order in Europe; how to handle the hypothetical issue of eventual Russian membership in the Alliance; what meaning to attribute to vague 'security is indivisible' declarations and the Article 4-like security-consultation commitments offered to PFP members; and how to maintain collective defence in good order while assuming collective-security duties.

The impact of political violence on moral reasoning in children

Objective: The moral development of three groups of children, who had been subjected to varying degrees of political violence and economic advantage, was examined in an attempt to determine if group membership or gender influenced the level of moral reasoning or orientation. Method: Ninety-three 8- to 13-year-old Israeli Jewish and Bedouin school children, and Palestinian West Bank school children were asked various moral reasoning questions based on an animal fable involving a moral dilemma under three (hypothetical, role-taking, political) conditions. Results: Results indicate that mutuality solutions to moral dilemmas were given more frequently by Israeli Jewish children than Israeli Bedouin or Palestinian children as the questions shifted from abstract to real-life situations. No significant gender differences were found between Jewish children and Bedouin children in hypothetical issues; however, violence and limited resources were found to affect moral judgment in real-life situations for boys, but not for girls. Conclusions: These findings supported the hypothesis that moral reasoning in children is significantly linked to real-life situations and resources. The results were discussed in terms of their relevance to future researchers and the manner in which children interpret moral questions.

Adolescent girls’ conversations with mothers and friends: A matter of style

The purpose of this study was to compare communication patterns of adolescent girls and their mothers versus friends to find evidence of stylistic differences. Fifty‐six girls in two age groups—preadolescent and midadolescent—participated in discussions about four hypothetical issues with either their mothers or close friends. Conversations were coded for various features of temporal communication style: interruptions, overlaps between turns, and simultaneous speech. Girls of both ages and their friends exhibited a fast‐paced conversation style which included frequent interruptions and simultaneous speech and the tendency to use overlaps between turns, and this tendency increased from pre‐ to midadolescence. In contrast, mothers exhibited a style characterized by slower pacing and pausing and infrequent interruptions and simultaneous speech. As a result of these stylistic differences, daughters ended up interrupting their mothers more than mothers interrupted daughters. These results are discussed in term...

Evaluation of Hinf I-Generated VNTR Profile Frequencies Determined Using Various Ethnic Databases

Concerns have been raised about hypothetical problems arising from the use of statistics for determining the likelihood of occurrence of DNA profiles for forensic purposes. A major contention is that reference databases based on subgroups of a major population category rather than on general (or major) population groups, might yield large differences in the estimated likelihood of occurrence of DNA profiles. This hypothetical issue is based on the assertion by some people that the differences among subgroups within a race would be greater than between races (at least for forensic purposes). To evaluate the effects of the above concern the likelihood of occurrence of 615 Hinf I-generated target DNA profiles was estimated using fixed bin frequencies from various ethnic databases and the multiplication rule. Based on the data in this study, differences in allele frequencies at a particular locus do not have substantial effects on VNTR profile frequency estimates when subgroup reference databases from within a major population group are compared. In contrast, the greatest variation in statistical estimates occurs across-major population groups. Therefore, the assertion, by some critics that the differences among subgroups within a race would be greater than between races (at least for forensic purposes), is unfounded. The data in the study support that comparisons across major population groups provide valid estimates of DNA profile frequencies without forensically significant consequences. The data do not support the need for alternate procedures, such as the ceiling principle approach, for deriving statistical estimates of DNA profile frequencies.

Lifespan Differences in Adult Thinking about Hypothetical and Personal Moral Issues: Reflection or Regression?

Recent work on aging and moral judgment has investigated the claim that older adults may show a regression in their average stage level of moral judgment, compared with younger groups. A second line of work has suggested that at least some elderly adults may be more reflective in their thinking regarding moral and ethical issues (e.g. Kohlberg, 1973). The present research was designed to investigate these issues with respect to hypothetical and real-life moral judgment. Subjects were 60 adults in three age groups: 18-24 years, 30-45 years, and 60-75 years. Each responded to the Kohlberg Moral Judgment Interview and to the personal moral dilemma task of Gilligan. Measures of stage level and of reported use of perspectivetaking processes, as well as analyses of the content of personal dilemmas, were obtained. Results showed no average stage level differences between the age or sex groups. Hypothetical stage scores were significantly higher than real-life scores overall. There were no age differences in reported role-taking processes on hypothetical dilemmas, though there were sex differences, with men more likely to report adopting a third-party, observer role. Finally, older subjects produced significantly more varied reflections on their personal dilemmas.

Direct Equity Financing; A Resolution of a Paradox: A Comment

The Journal of FinanceVolume 39, Issue 5 p. 1615-1618 Comment and Reply Direct Equity Financing; A Resolution of a Paradox: A Comment RICHARD L. SMITH, RICHARD L. SMITHSearch for more papers by this authorMANJEET DHATT, MANJEET DHATTSmith is Assistant Professor of Finance and Dhatt is a graduate student at Arizona State University.Search for more papers by this author RICHARD L. SMITH, RICHARD L. SMITHSearch for more papers by this authorMANJEET DHATT, MANJEET DHATTSmith is Assistant Professor of Finance and Dhatt is a graduate student at Arizona State University.Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1984 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1984.tb04928.xCitations: 7 Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume39, Issue5December 1984Pages 1615-1618 RelatedInformation

A Moot Court for Constitutional Issues

According to the syllabus of “Civil Rights and the Constitution“—an undergraduate public law course at the University of Maryland—we study Supreme Court cases, and we “do constitutional law.” The phrase—“doing law“—is intended to capture Sheldon Wolin's notion of “doing political theory.” That is, public law, like political theory, should be an active pursuit, not a passive process of ingestion. Law and theory are rich in pedagogical opportunities to involve students with issues of recurrent public importance, and to do so in a creative manner that develops critical, principled, analytical skills. In public law, this can be done by reliance on structured role-playing, involving judicial problem solving, and focusing on a normatively exciting hypothetical issue over which participants might reasonably differ.

The Internship: What’s Being Done Sith It

The authors present the results of a survey of American psychiatric internships (categorical). It was found that over half of the programs offered experiences in specialties other than psychiatry for six months or less. A large majority of the programs offered a purely inpatient experience for the psychiatric portion of the year. The authors emphasize the role of the non-psychiatric rotations and discuss the value of rotations which are integrative of psychiatry and other medical care during the internship year. They suggest that this approach most creatively addresses the hypothetical issues which led to the reinstatement of the internship.

Quo vadis, rampart one?

When viewed in terms of the European model, it is clear that the paramedic movement in this country arose as the logical consequence of physicians' abdication of responsibility — their failure to do the job they were mandated to do: to render care to the sick and injured wherever those patients might be. For whatever reasons, American physicians — unlike their European colleagues — will not work on ambulances. So by default, the task went to paramedics. Unfortunately, there has been a subsequent tendency to forget that the paramedic has no a priori authority to function, let alone practice medicine. Unlike the nurse, he is not even independently licensed. On the contrary, his function is wholly derivative. He derives his sanction entirely from the license of a physician for whom he is supposed to act as proxy in certain clearly defined and strictly controlled activities. We have by default, assigned to the paramedic certain aspects of care of the critically ill and injured. Whether it is appropriate to have delegated the care of this vulnerable patient group is another question. The fact is, we have chosen to do so. But this should not mean that we also delegate the moral responsibility for the welfare of those patients. Somewhere in our retreat from the patient, we must stop and retrench. We, as physicians, bear responsibility for what happens to patients out on the streets, they are our patients. And each of us should make certain that those patients are receiving the same quality of care we ourselves would deliver were we physically present. This means that every physician in the community must be involved in the emergency medical services system, must be informed regarding the policies, standards and practices operating on the streets of his city. And it means that Rampart One must be willing to make a total commitment to quality control of his system. He must be willing to go out on the ambulances and monitor firsthand the activities of the paramedics; to review every case report; to obtain follow-up information on patient outcome; to insist that paramedic skills be periodically reviewed and recertified. He must not trade off medical standards for political expediency or make compromises in the quality of medical care in order to placate special interest groups or to spare himself the work of constant surveillance. These are not hypothetical issues Regrettably, we are already accumulating ample evidence from many MICU systems throughout the country of what happens when medical control falls to physicians who are too indolent or not concerned enough to monitor closely what is happening in the prehospital setting. Rampart One is not a game. It has been said that the individual lying in the street is, until he comes under a physician's care, a victim, a patient. If this is true, it is because we have made him so. He is the victim of American medicine and its He is the victim of the carnival atmosphere that currently pervades so much of prehospital emergency care. He is the victim of every physician who would abdicate responsibility for the lives of others. He deserves much better.

Moral reasoning in the “real world”

College of Education University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon O ne of the more important questions for those who are pragmatically inclined concerns the relationship between theoretical constructs and the daily course of our lives. The pragmatist would argue that unless he or she can find some evidence to support the existence of a construct the theory upon which it is based is not worth pursuing. While not arguing for such an extreme position I have felt some sympathy for its cause over time. In developing an understanding of theories of moral development my reaction was to check each theory against experience. How adequate was the theory in describing life as I experienced it phenomenologically? On reflection this describes how Kohlberg's theory of moral development was first drawn to my attention. Kohlberg admits, however, that his theory deals with only a part of that which we call morality (albeit the most important part). This paper represents an attempt to articulate some developing thoughts about how other areas of morality ought to be considered in conjunction with reasoning. Specifically it refers to moral behavior and affect, and how they may influence the reasoning process when an individual is no longer dealing with hypothetical issues.

The Functional Significance of Conjugal Communication in a Transitional Society

Revealed Difference data on 45 Filipino couples is utilized to demonstrate that the amount, type of resolution, and quality of, conjugal communication processes varies with the type of issue being discussed. Three issue-areas were investigated: family obligations, husband-wife problems, and parent-child problems. Middle-class couples consistently disagreed more often on the hypothetical issues, regardless of the issue-area, than lower-class couples. Parent-child issues were the most problematic for the middle-class spouses, while family obligations were the most problematic for the lower-class couples. It is suggested that the communicative response to different types of issues reflects different levels of departure from traditional normative family expectations, with a corresponding accommodation to more contempo-