Particular Level Of Analysis Research Articles

ظاهرة الحذف في ترجمة معاني القرآن: تحليل لغوي

This study focuses on the rhetorical analysis of translation of meaning in the Quranic text which is a rich area of investigation particularly of Quranic translation of meaning in English language. The specific level of analysis is ellipsis which is the emphasis of the current study. A handful verses of the Quranic text have been selected and analyzed based on their elliptical use. The data analysis process goes through three main areas of analysis: semantic, syntactic and context levels of analysis which shapes the whole process of investigation. Finally, the findings suggest how those three aspects of analysis collaborate in creating meaning with a special reference to ellipsis. Also, the findings provide answers to the three research questions of the current study.

A Meta-analysis of the Relationship between Motor Skills and Executive Functions in Typically-developing Children

ABSTRACT The relationship between motor skills and executive functions (EFs) is gaining prominence in the field of developmental psychology. However, evidence of the motor skills–EFs link in children with typical development is somewhat inconsistent and there has been no adequate attempt to evaluate it systematically across studies. In view of this, the present meta-analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between the global domains of motor skills and EFs; and to explore specific associations between different components of motor skills (balance, manual dexterity, locomotor skills, and object control skills) and EFs (response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) in typically developing children. The analysis involved data on 4,866 children between the ages of 3 and 12 years, taken from 32 studies. The results revealed a significant positive association between motor skills and EFs at the global level, as well as at the specific level of analysis. At the specific level of analysis, balance and manual dexterity were found to have the strongest independent associations with all EF components. Moderator analysis revealed an age effect between balance and response inhibition only. In summary, the present meta-analysis provides evidence for the theoretical assumption of a link between motor skills and EFs and emphasizes the importance of including cognitively engaging motor tasks in intervention programs designed to promote motor skills and higher-order cognitive skills in children.

Vygotskian (but only partly Vygotsky’s) understanding of special education

In this article general principles of special education are discussed from the Vygotskian perspective. First it is suggested that for understanding of special education in particular and the psyche and its development in general, structuralsystemic epistemology should be applied. To understand special education, psyche and its development should be understood at different levels of analysis. In this paper first life is defined in order to define psyche as a special form of life. Psyche, at the next more specific level of analysis is distinguished into complementary parts, that of individual and its environment. Environment is defined next and theoretically distinguished into four kinds. On this theoretical background, pedagogy and special education are defined. Special education should be based on thorough understanding of the learner at different levels of analysis: according to general stages of development, according to within-stage development, and at the level of the structure of cognition. Two principal targets of the special education and three basic strategies of neuropsychological rehabilitation and special education are distinguished. *** A compreensão Vygotskyana (mas só em parte de Vygotsky) da educação especial ***Neste artigo, os princípios gerais da educação especial são discutidos a partir da perspectiva Vygotskyana. Em primeiro lugar, sugere-se que, para a compreensão da educação especial em particular e da psique e seu desenvolvimento em geral, a epistemologia estrutural-sistêmica deve ser aplicada. Para entender a educação especial, a psique e seu desenvolvimento devem ser entendidos em diferentes níveis de análise. Neste artigo, a primeira vida é definida com o intuito de definir a psique como uma forma especial de vida. A psique, no nível seguinte e mais específico da análise, é diferenciada em partes complementares, do indivíduo e de seu ambiente. O ambiente é definido em seguida, e distinguido teoricamente em quatro tipos. Nesta base teórica, a pedagogia e a educação especial são definidas. A educação especial deve basear-se na compreensão completa do aprendiz em diferentes níveis de análise: de acordo com estágios gerais de desenvolvimento, de acordo com o desenvolvimento durante o estágio, e no nível da estrutura do conhecimento. Destacam-se dois alvos principais da educação especial e três estratégias básicas de reabilitação neuropsicológica e educação especial.Palavras-chave: Educação especial; Vygotsky; Luria; Estratégias; Epistemologia estrutural-sistêmica.

The ‘subaltern’ foreign policies of North African countries: old and new responses to economic dependence, regional insecurity and domestic political change

ABSTRACTThis article introduces the special issue by explaining why researching change and continuity in the foreign policies of North African states is relevant in spite of these countries’ peripheral and ‘subaltern’ position within the global system. It situates the special issue’s content in the context of the extant academic literature on the foreign policies of dependent/Third World/Global South countries, the foreign policies of MENA states and the consequences of the 2011 Arab uprisings in terms of international relations. It then moves on to discuss the case study selection by outlining key commonalities and differences between Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt in terms of historical, political and economic foreign policy determinants. The country case studies each focus on a particular level of analysis, from the global – Tunisia’s financial predicaments and foreign debt negotiations – through the (sub)regional – Egypt’s relationship of necessity with Saudi Arabia, Algeria’s half-hearted policies towards the conflicts in Libya and Mali – to the domestic sphere – Morocco’s power balance between the monarchy and the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) heading the government, Libya’s extreme state weakness and internal power competition among proliferating private actors –, reaching also the deeper non-state societal level – Mauritania’s new forms of social activism questioning the official religious identity and the socio-political makeup of the state. The last part of the introduction critically relates the empirical findings of the special issue to theoretical debates on subalternity in International Relations and Mohammed Ayoob’s subaltern realism in particular.

Evading the Burden of Proof in European Union Soft Law Instruments: The Case of Commission Recommendations

The European Union is making increased efforts to find simpler and more effective ways to function adequately in the eyes of its citizens by using ‘soft law’ instruments such as recommendations. Although they have no legally binding force, recommendations have practical and legal effects occurring partly due to their normative content in which a course of action is prescribed and further supported by arguments intended to persuade the addressees of a political position. Although recommendations function as persuasive instruments due to their argumentation, the characteristics of argumentation and how it is employed to convince the addressee to comply with certain measures have not been investigated at all. The main goal of the paper is to explain how arguments are used by the European Commission when recommending Member States to follow a new course of action. First, we will unravel the justificatory reasons employed by the Commission in order to make Member States comply with new measures and we will show how these reasons are combined into an argumentative pattern (van Eemeren in Argumentation 30(1): 1–23, 2016; J Argum Context 6(1): 3–26, 2017). This pattern basically prescribes a course of action to Member States, which is further supported by arguments in which the necessity and advantages of following the proposed course of action are justified. Second, we will explain how and why the way in which the arguments are combined in this complex pattern could be potentially persuasive for the Member States despite the legally non-binding character of recommendations. We will show that the European Commission tries to persuade the Member States to take new measures by evading the burden of proof imposed by the legislative framework. At a more specific level of analysis, we will delve into the implicit premises in the argumentation, which enable us to identify cases of evasion of the burden of proof due to the Commission’s use of implicit starting points which might not be accepted by the Member States.

Coping With Racism: Moderators of the Discrimination-Adjustment Link Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents.

What strategies help ethnic minority adolescents to cope with racism? The present study addressed this question by testing the role of ethnic identity, social support, and anger expression and suppression as moderators of the discrimination-adjustment link among 269 Mexican-origin adolescents (Mage =14.1years), 12-17years old from the Midwestern U.S. Results from multilevel moderation analyses indicated that ethnic identity, social support, and anger suppression, respectively, significantly attenuated the relations between discrimination and adjustment problems, whereas outward anger expression exacerbated these relations. Moderation effects differed according to the level of analysis. By identifying effective coping strategies in the discrimination-adjustment link at specific levels of analysis, the present findings can guide future intervention efforts for Latino youth.

Sources of disconnection in neurocognitive aging: cerebral white-matter integrity, resting-state functional connectivity, and white-matter hyperintensity volume

Age-related decline in fluid cognition can be characterized as a disconnection among specific brain structures, leading to a decline in functional efficiency. The potential sources of disconnection, however, are unclear. We investigated imaging measures of cerebral white-matter integrity, resting-state functional connectivity, and white-matter hyperintensity volume as mediators of the relation between age and fluid cognition, in 145 healthy, community-dwelling adults 19–79 years of age. At a general level of analysis, with a single composite measure of fluid cognition and single measures of each of the 3 imaging modalities, age exhibited an independent influence on the cognitive and imaging measures, and the imaging variables did not mediate the age-cognition relation. At a more specific level of analysis, resting-state functional connectivity of sensorimotor networks was a significant mediator of the age-related decline in executive function. These findings suggest that different levels of analysis lead to different models of neurocognitive disconnection, and that resting-state functional connectivity, in particular, may contribute to age-related decline in executive function.

The Fading Affect Bias shows healthy coping at the general level, but not the specific level for religious variables across religious and non-religious events.

The research on fading emotions has shown that unpleasant emotions fade more over time than pleasant emotions, which is a phenomenon referred to as the Fading Affect Bias (FAB). Based on the negative relation between the FAB and dysphoria (Walker, Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Thompson, 2003), some researchers have argued that the FAB is a healthy coping mechanism (Walker, Skowronski, & Thompson, 2003). As religious variables are related to positive emotions and emotional coping (e.g., Cohen, 2002; Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998), we examined the FAB as a healthy coping mechanism at the general and specific levels of analysis in the context of religion. General healthy coping was supported by (1) FAB effects across both religious events (REs) and non-religious events (NREs) and (2) a positive relation for spirituality and the FAB. However, specific healthy coping was not supported by a small FAB for (1) REs at high levels of positive religious coping (PRC) for NREs, (2) NREs at low levels of PRC for NREs, and (3) purely REs relative to REs involving spirituality. Other implications are discussed.

Theoretical considerations over trust: relevant aspects for organizational behaviour

The concept of trust has been studied by a large number of scholars from various scientific backgrounds. Trust has showed to play a major role in social relations, organizations, political systems, economic transactions and even in human-computer interaction. Many scholars appear united with respect to the importance of trust as a “public good”, necessary for the success of many economic transactions. Lewis and Weigert (1985, p.968) suggest that “trust is indispensable in social relationships”. Zucker (1986, p.56) followed with the statement that trust is “vital for the maintenance of cooperation in society and necessary as grounds for even the most routine, everyday interaction.” Luhmann (1980, p.4) goes further by arguing that trust is necessary to reduce complexity in the social systems, “absence of trust would prevent him (individual) from getting up in the morning”. Although the importance of trust has been acknowledged, its study remains problematic for several reasons. Since trust is a basic factor for the understanding of human conduct, its study is not restricted to a particular level of analysis. In the literature we find trust related to individuals, interpersonal relations, organizational structures, economic transactions and societies as a whole. In these contexts, several definitions have been proposed causing considerable confusion among researchers. However the earlier work has not been wasted. Each definition proposed, even with the limitations of its own approach, provides new information, adds insight and understanding to the meaning of trust. The fact that trust can be studied at different levels (individuals, groups and societies) and in different contexts, points out the relevancy of a multilevel analysis as well a simultaneous consideration of the context, in order to develop a meaningful framework for the study of trust (Rousseau, Stikin, Burt and Carmer, 1998).DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v13i1/2.561

The Influence of Social Aversion and Institution-Based Trust on Computer Self-Efficacy, Computer Anxiety and Antecedents to IT Use

Prior research has shown that proximal states are important mechanisms through which distal states relate to IT usage. In particular, the influence of distal traits tied to social activity has not been incorporated into the nomological network surrounding information technology (IT) use. Addressing this literature gap, the authors develop their research model using Social Cognitive Theory and examine how two distal traits, social aversion (SA) and institution-based trust (TRIT), influence computer self-efficacy (CSE) and other proximal state-like differences related to IT use. The authors' results show that SA and TRIT demonstrated influence on CSE and CA at the general and specific levels of analysis, and that CSE mediates the influence of SA and TRIT on PU and PEOU, yet does not fully mediate the influence of CA on PU and PEOU. The implications of their findings for research and practice are discussed, as well as avenues for future research.

Corporate responsibility management in fast fashion companies: the Gap Inc. case

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the strategic role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in global fast fashion companies.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the management literature on CSR, corporate social performance and the benefits of a socially responsible behaviour, a conceptual framework of corporate responsibility management is presented. The Gap Inc. case is analyzed to prove how CSR commitment creates stakeholder partnerships and improves corporate brand image.FindingsThe main output of corporate responsibility management is solid stakeholder relationships resulting in: employee attraction and motivation, powerful brand, enhanced consumer perceptions, profitability. Through the corporate responsibility management process, fast fashion companies can obtain a sustainable development.Originality/valueExisting CSR research is primarily focused on a specific level of analysis. Instead the corporate responsibility management framework aims to contribute to a comprehensive analysis of CSR. Moreover it addresses the role of CSR practices in the fast fashion sector which has been rarely investigated to date.

Incumbent performance in the face of a radical innovation: Towards a framework for incumbent challenger dynamics

When radical innovations impact an industry, established incumbents are sometimes displaced by new challengers, yet at other times, survive and prosper. What are the factors that influence these possible outcomes? Extensive as the studies are in providing insights into incumbent-challenger dynamics (ICD), the fragmented nature of the literature and the isolated treatment of various constructs at a particular level of analysis, merit a review and analysis. We (1) identify, collate and analyse several constructs from three categories; the industry, the firm and the challenge, (2) discuss the interactions among these constructs and (3) show that incumbent failure or success can be better understood when these constructs are concurrently analysed. We derive several propositions for stimulating research and develop a holistic multi-level framework for understanding incumbent-challenger dynamics. We pull together strategic management theories at the industry level with those at the organizational and inter-organizational levels in the context of disruptive innovations. We contribute by bringing in the challenge dimension across these levels to inform whether an innovation is disruptive in its effects, not just ex post but also ex ante. For illustrative purposes and to concretize our arguments, we draw on both primary data from the Dutch television industry and archival data from four episodes of disruptive innovations.

Incumbent Performance in the Face of a Radical Innovation: Towards a Framework for Incumbent Challenger Dynamics

When radical innovations impact an industry, established incumbents are sometimes displaced by new challengers, yet at other times, survive and prosper. What are the factors that influence these possible outcomes? Extensive as the studies are in providing insights into incumbent-challenger dynamics (ICD), the fragmented nature of the literature and the isolated treatment of various constructs at a particular level of analysis, merit a review and analysis. We (1) identify, collate and analyze several constructs from three categories; the industry, the firm and the challenge, (2) discuss the interactions among these constructs and (3) show that incumbent failure or success can be better understood when these constructs are concurrently analyzed. We derive several propositions for stimulating research and develop a holistic multi-level framework for understanding incumbent-challenger dynamics. We pull together strategic management theories at the industry level with those at the organizational and inter-organizational levels in the context of disruptive innovations. We contribute by bringing in the challenge dimension across these levels to inform whether an innovation is disruptive in its effects, not just ex post but also ex ante. For illustrative purposes and to concretize our arguments, we draw on both primary data from the Dutch television industry and archival data from four episodes of disruptive innovations.

Promoting children's healthy eating in obesogenic environments: Lessons learned from the rat

Current statistics on children's eating patterns and obesity rates are consistent with the idea that genetic taste predispositions, traditional feeding practices, and the obesogenic environment combine to increase the likelihood of unhealthy outcomes in many individuals. In this paper, we focus on one particular level of analysis through which this unhealthy combination of factors may begin to be disassembled: children's learning about food and flavors. Much of the research on children's learning about food and flavors has been inspired by the animal literature, which has a long history of carefully controlled studies elucidating the mechanisms through which rats and other animals learn to prefer and avoid foods and flavors. This literature provides many clues as to the processes by which learning paradigms may be used to encourage the intake of healthy foods, altering the implicit learning of obesogenic eating patterns that is likely to occur without intervention in the current environment. Overall, the implications of the literature are that children should be repeatedly exposed to a variety of flavors early in life, and that new flavors should be paired with already-liked flavors and positive contexts. This message is consistent with recent research results from our laboratory, showing that familiarization and associative learning paradigms may be used to increase young children's acceptance of, preference for, and intake of previously-unfamiliar, healthy foods.

Bridging Domains in Workplace Demography Research: A Review and Reconceptualization

Research on unraveling the complex effects of workplace demography has grown exponentially in the past two decades, reflecting enduring academic interest in the topic. This research spans multiple macro and micro theoretical domains and has examined demography effects at individual, group, or firm levels of analysis. However, past research in this area has revealed equivocal and inconclusive findings. Based on a review of more than two decades of research, the authors present the argument that future developments in this research will occur not in isolation at a specific level of analysis but rather at the interstices of multiple levels. The authors offer a framework for future research that bridges macro and micro domains as a way to resolve past discrepant findings in this area of research.

Is Anybody Not an (International Relations) Liberal?

While realism has recently been subjected to intense examination with regard to its theoretical coherence, liberalism—often thought to be the bookend to realism—has so far escaped such scrutiny. Liberalism is generally defined in one of two ways, each faulty. The first definition is in terms of the dependent variable as any argument that expects growing cooperation and progress in international affairs, understood as increased peace and prosperity, seizing for liberalism any independent variable found important for potentially promoting international cooperation. Second, liberalism is defined in terms of the units of analysis as any argument that disaggregates the state into smaller units. This equates liberalism with an entire level of analysis. This strategy of appropriation is inappropriate. Approaches to international relations need a core logic in order to justify the inclusion of particular independent variables or the use of a particular level of analysis. Since so many other paradigms also lay claim to those same entities, we are left wondering if anybody is not a liberal. Appropriation leads us to miss crucial distinctions between alternative explanations of the same outcomes, such as the “liberal” phenomena of the democratic peace and the transformative effects of international organizations.

A Theory of Asian Immigration to the United States

A Theory of Asian Immigration to the United States Philip Q. Yang (bio) Asian immigration has been an integral part of immigration to the United States since the mid-nineteenth century and one of the two dominant sources of post-1965 immigration to America. Before the 1965 immigration reform, more than one million Asians had immigrated to the United States. Since 1965, over nine million Asians have immigrated to this land of opportunity.1 Since the majority of Asian Americans are foreign-born, immigration is a very important part of their experience.2 However, the theoretical base for understanding Asian immigration remains weak. As reviewed below, currently there exist mostly some underdeveloped propositions, assumptions, assertions, or explanations concerning why Asians immigrate to America, often bounded by a specific level of analysis, a specific part of the migration process, a specific discipline, and/or a specific time period. There is no single, coherent, well-developed theory of Asian immigration to the United States that takes into account multilevel processes, multiple causes, initiating and sustaining forces, and historical and contemporary flows. A full understanding of Asian immigration to the United States calls for a synthetic theory that incorporates all important determinants at different levels for both historical and contemporary periods. The lack of a single comprehensive theory incorporating multilevel processes, multiple causes, initiating and sustaining forces, and historical and contemporary flows is not just a prime weakness of the literature on Asian immigration to the United States, but [End Page 1] remains a major limitation in the literature on international migration in general as well, despite some progress as reviewed below. Hence, the significance of developing a synthetic theory of Asian immigration to the United States may very well go beyond the field of Asian immigration to the general field of international migration, of course with some apropos modifications of the theory.3 The goal of this essay is to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework to account for Asian immigration to the United States. Toward this end, this essay critically reviews contesting theories of international migration to lay out the broader backdrop relevant to later discussions, examines existing explanations of Asian immigration to the United States, analyzes the need for a comprehensive theory of Asian immigration, and formulates a synthetic theory to explain Asian immigration. Theories of International Migration To better understand the causes of Asian immigration to the United States, it is necessary to gain a general understanding of why international migration takes place. Many theories have been proposed to answer this question. These theories may be grouped into four categories: classical push-pull theory, economic models, sociological models, and integrated theories. This section briefly assesses these theories. Classic Push-Pull Theory The earliest, classical approach to the explanation of migration is push-pull theory. This theory can be traced back to the pioneering work of Ernest Ravenstein, who analyzed internal migration in England from 1871 to 1881, and the refinement of American demographer Everett Lee, who formulated it as a general theory of migration for both internal migration and international migration.4 The basic idea is that migration takes place because push factors (for example, natural disasters, population pressures, economic hardships, political turmoil or disturbances, environmental disadvantages) in the place of origin push people to leave, and pull factors (for example, economic opportunities, political preferences, environmental advantages) in the place of destination attract people to that location. To Ravenstein, pull factors play a more important role than push factors in [End Page 2] causing migration.5 It is true that the most important factor motivating people to migrate is a desire to improve their lives rather than an escape from unpleasant conditions. However, push and pull factors are relative and may be considered two sides of the same coin since oftentimes a pull from the receiving country is also a push from the sending country along the same dimension (for example, a higher wage in the receiving country, a pull factor, means a lower wage in the sending country, a push factor). Lee also considered intervening obstacles between the place of origin and the place of destination such as distance between the two, other physical barriers, immigration laws, and so...

An ancient black art.

The doctrine of pseudoreplication (DP) offers specific advice on how to ensure statistical independence and compute F-ratios properly when testing a null hypothesis. Our target article showed that this advice can lead to problems in experimental design and analysis. Though a few commenters attempt to defend DP, none offered substantive evidence that our modeling results were incorrect. In our response, we further highlight the complications surrounding definitions of experimental units. In particular, we show that the definition of independence assumed in DP is inconsistent with independence as defined in probability theory. We show that interconnectedness across levels of analysis is pervasive, and that no simple set of rules or procedures can help experimenters avoid this problem. We argue that the relevance or interference of a particular level of analysis can be determined only after an experiment is done. In our view, analytical methods must be designed to match experiments, the opposite of the advice offered in DP. Finally, we emphasize the weakness of null testing and the inability of p values to predict whether a result will generalize or be replicated.

The Structure and Stability of Subjective Well-Being: a Structure Equation Modelling Analysis

The purpose of the study is to test the structure and the stability of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), measured through cognitive and affective self-report measures, in global and specific levels of analysis. A sample of 303 adult students was collected and replicated in a 2 month interval. The best model of SWB shows an intercorrelated four-factor structure—Satisfaction with Life, Negative Affect, Positive Affect and Global Subjective Well-being. Results suggest that Global Happiness and Global Satisfaction are measuring the same aspect of SWB. All measures of SWB, in study, show good construct validity and reliability in a 2 month replication. Positive and Negative Affect are significantly weakly correlated. Positive Affect is the most stable variable of SWB, in a short-term interval. Researchers must be aware of the issues related to the measurement of SWB as the order of the items in a questionnaire and the implications of using global or specific measures, cognitive or affective dimensions of the concept, that represent different aspects of the concept. Further study is needed to analyse the structure of SWB with different measures and the relationship between its components.

Institutional reform and technological practice: the case of electricity

This article proposes a framework for categorizing possible interrelations between technological and institutional change and applies this framework to the case of the restructuring of the electricity sector. It is argued that there is a need for coherence between institutions and technological practice, so as to safeguard the satisfactory functioning of electricity infrastructure. The identification of possible incoherences between institutions and technological practice allows for a better understanding of the potential drivers for change and the evolutionary processes of which they may be part. This article attempts to elaborate the nature of this co-evolution in somewhat more detail, using specific levels of analysis that are exemplified in a four-level model. In the case of the restructuring of the electricity sector, the institutional framework has changed from a public utility-oriented, towards a market-oriented system. However, the technological practice remained unchanged: a system-oriented approach that relies on centralized planning, control and operation. This discrepancy between institutions and technological practice leads to significant frictions in the functioning of the electricity sector, but it also offers opportunities for innovation. In order to make liberalization a success, it might be necessary to stimulate certain technical developments (i.e. distributed generation and intelligent networks).