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Showing 1 – 4 of 4 results.
Curated

Affect, Reason, and Decision Making (ICPSR 24610)

Released/updated on: 2009-09-22
Geographic coverage: Oregon, United States, Australia
This study examines the commonly observed inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit. The researchers proposed that this relationship occurs because people rely on affect when judging the risk and benefit of specific hazards. The study tested and confirmed the hypothesis that providing information designed to alter the favorability of one's overall affective evaluation of an item (say nuclear power, natural gas, and food preservatives) would systematically change the risk and benefit judgments for that item. The study suggests that people seem prone to using an "affect heuristic" which improves judgmental efficiency by deriving both risk and benefit evaluations from a common source -- affective reactions to the stimulus item.
Curated

Dissociating Affect and Deliberation in Choice Processes, 2001 (ICPSR 26281)

Released/updated on: 2010-01-25
Geographic coverage: Oregon, United States
This study was conducted to examine hypotheses derived from an emotion-based model of stigma responses to radiation sources. A model of stigma susceptibility was proposed in which affective reactions and cognitive worldviews activate predispositions to appraise and experience events in systematic ways that result in the generation of negative emotion, risk perceptions, and stigma responses. For this study, a total of 198 respondents were asked about a series of 15 objects and activities: sun-tanning, radiation therapy for cancer control, microwave ovens, nuclear power plants, radiation from air travel, death of a favorite pet, medical x-rays, the upcoming spring break, natural background radiation, final exams for the term, radiation from nuclear weapons testing, radiation to prevent bacteria in food, a series of thefts or crimes in their neighborhoods, cosmic radiation, and radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. Providing ratings on 17 scales, respondents gave their feelings about each object or activity, offered their opinions on situations wherein the object or activity would or would not be of concern, the impact of the object or activity in their lives, and their adjustment to situations involving the object or activity. Queries also included how angry and afraid the object or activity made respondents, and how risky, disgraceful, moral, acceptable, and stigmatized they felt it was. Finally, participants provided self-report ratings of affective reactivity and worldviews.
Curated
Restricted

Evaluation of SAFEChildren, a Family-Focused Prevention Program in Chicago, Illinois, 2006-2010 (ICPSR 33101)

Released/updated on: 2015-05-12
Geographic coverage: United States, Chicago, Illinois
Time period: 2007-03-08--2008-06-04, 2006-09-01--2010-06-01
Schools and Families Educating Children (SAFEChildren) is a family-focused program designed to aid families residing in high risk communities with child development during the child's transition to school. The program has the goal of building protection and impeding risk trajectories for aggression, violence, and school failure. The program utilizes multiple family groups (four to six families) combined with reading tutoring for the child. The SAFE Effectiveness Trial (SAFE-E) involved community providers delivering the family group intervention and upper grade students delivering the tutoring program. The trial took place between 2006 and 2010, and involved two age cohorts of children. Collaborating with two community mental health agencies and six elementary schools serving high-poverty, high-crime neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois, families were randomly assigned to intervention groups of four to six families during their child's first grade year. Children also received tutoring from tutors selected from the upper grades of the child's school. Assessments were collected prior to, during and after the intervention to assess developmental influences, fidelity, process, and implementation characteristics that might affect impact. The purpose of these assessments was to examine the relation of implementation qualities to variation in intervention effects. Quality of implementation was expected to affect short and long-term impact of the intervention, focusing on three primary areas: (1) fidelity of implementation of the program, (2) provider characteristics, such as tutors' reading levels, and attitudes and orientation of the family intervention providers, and (3) quality of support for implementation. The data are from fidelity and process measures developed for this study and measures completed by parents, teachers, and children over four waves of measurement spanning two years, beginning in the fall of each child's first grade year.
Curated
Restricted
Simple Crosstabs

Homeland Security in Small Law Enforcement Jurisdictions: Preparedness, Efficacy, and Proximity to Big-City Peers, 2011 (ICPSR 33941)

Released/updated on: 2015-12-22
Geographic coverage: United States

The Homeland Security in Small Law Enforcement Jurisdictions study drew upon data collected from 350 small (1-25 full time sworn officers) law enforcement agencies nationwide to address four gaps in the homeland security research literature and clarify/expand upon an empirically-derived model of homeland security preparedness and organizational efficacy.

  • Whether physical and relational proximity to large agency peers facilitates the development of homeland security preparedness and improves perceptions of organizational efficacy (the capacity of an organization to respond) in small agencies and, conversely, whether the geographic isolation of small, rural agencies inhibits homeland security efforts.
  • Whether efficacy of efforts to enhance homeland security is not just a function of perceived/actual risk or funding, but also other "institutional pressures", such as books and journal publications, as well as conferences, training, and other professional networks and channels.
  • Assessments of preparedness outcomes through "organizational efficacy", the perception about the organization's ability to accomplish its goals.
  • The lack of theoretical context, such as contingency and institutional theory frameworks, used to examine data on preparedness and organizational efficacy.