Deviance and marginal occupations: the case of taxi drivers

The taxi industry provides a strategic site to explore workplace deviance in low supervision, low status, occupational settings. Despite this theoretical opportunity and the objective importance of the taxi industry worldwide, very little is known about deviance among taxi drivers. Making use of interview data, this exploratory study maps out forms of workplace deviance and the explanations given for them by a sample of male taxi drivers. Major illegal activities reported included speeding, driving unsafe vehicles, taking drugs, and fraud. Theories pertaining to worker alienation, stress management, victim precipitation, and social control were relevant to the rationalizations some of the drivers provided to account for their illegal behaviors. We conclude that the occupational culture of taxi drivers and the structure of the taxi industry facilitate the forms of deviance reported here.

Desesperança e agressividade na adolescência e qualidade de vinculação aos pais

RESUMO: As relações que constituímos com aqueles que de mais perto nos rodeiam são uma das partes, senão a parte mais relevante da nossa vida (Canavarro, 1999). Assim, a teoria da vinculação coloca grande ênfase na natureza da relação de vinculação (Bowlby, 1979). No primeiro capítulo é elucidado o modelo de desenvolvimento da vinculação de Bowlby (1969/1982; 1988) e de Ainsworth e colaboradores (1978). No segundo capítulo são explicadas as mudanças que ocorrem na fase da adolescência. No terceiro capítulo, é destacado o padrão comportamental agressivo do adolescente, o qual se pode traduzir numa vinculação insegura (Almeida, 2000). Estas situações podem levar o sujeito a apresentar comportamentos de desesperança, conceito este que irá ser desenvolvido no quarto capítulo. Sendo o principal objectivo da investigação estudar em que medida a qualidade de vinculação aos pais e a estrutura familiar estão relacionadas com a desesperança e a agressividade nos adolescentes, conclui-se que o adolescente com uma história de vinculação insegura apresenta menos confiança, maior alienação e, consequentemente, maior desamparo e desesperança (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1973; Bretherton & Waters, 1985). Relativamente à estrutura familiar, o estudo reporta que a coesão e a adaptabilidade estão correlacionadas positivamente com a confiança e negativamente com a alienação. ABSTRACT: The relationships that we form of those who surround us are closer to one party, if not the most important part of our lives (Canavarro, 1999). Thus, attachment theory places great emphasis on the nature of the attachment relationship (Bowlby, 1979). In the first chapter, is elucidated development model of the binding of Bowlby (1969/1982, 1988) and Ainsworth and colleagues (1978). The second chapter explains the changes that occur during adolescence. The third chapter is highlighted the behavioral patterns of aggressive adolescents, which may result in insecure attachment (Almeida, 2000). These situations can cause the subject to present behavior of hopelessness, that this concept will be developed in the fourth chapter. Since the main aim of the research study to what extent the quality of attachment to parents and family structure are related to hopelessness and aggression in teenagers, it is concluded that the adolescent with a history of insecure attachment have less trust, increased alienation and, consequently, greater helplessness and hopelessness (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1973, Bretherton & Waters, 1985). With regard to family structure, the study reports that the cohesion and adaptability are positively correlated with the confidence and negatively with alienation.

Assessment of a consultation-liaison psychiatry and psychology health care program

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relevance of subjective criteria adopted by a psychiatry and psychology consultation-liaison service, and their suitability in the evaluation of case registries and objective results. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted and all supervisors of the university hospital service were interviewed. Routinely collected case registries were also reviewed. Standardized assessment with content analysis for each category was carried out. RESULTS: The results showed distortions in the adopted service focus (doctor-patient relationship) and consultant requests. This focus is more on consulting physician-oriented interventions than on patients. DISCUSSION: Evaluation of the relevance of service criteria could help promoting quality assessment of the services provided, mainly when objective criteria have not yet been established to assure their suitability.

The making of saudade. National identity and ethnic psychology in Portugal

Roots and rituals.The construction of ethnic identities, Ton Dekker, John Helsloot Carla Wijers editors, p. 267-268; Selected papers of the 6TH SIEF conference on 'Roots & rituals', Amsterdam 20-25 April 1998.

Eating behavior and body image among psychology students

OBJECTIVE: To characterize eating habits and possible risk factors associated with eating disorders among psychology students, a segment at risk for eating disorders. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study. The questionnaires Bulimic Investigatory Test Edinburgh (BITE), Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) and a variety that considers related issues were applied. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 11.0 was utilized in analysis. The study population was composed of 175 female students, with a mean age of 21.2 (DP ± 3.6 years). RESULTS: A positive result was detected on the EAT-26 for 6.9% of the cases (CI95%: 3.6-11.7%). The prevalence of increased symptoms and intense gravity, according to the BITE questionnaire was 5% (CI95%: 2.4-9.5%) and 2.5% (CI95%: 0.7-6.3%), respectively. According to the findings, 26.29% of the students presented abnormal eating behavior. The population with moderate/severe BSQ scores presented dissatisfaction with corporal weight. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that attention must be given to eating behavior risks within this group. A differentiated gaze is justified with respect to these future professionals, whose practice is jeopardized in cases in which they are themselves the bearers of installed symptoms or precursory behavior.

All different or all the same? Exploring the diversity of professional practices in Portuguese school psychology

"Published online: 29 March 2016"

Three essays on the psychology of investment and financial markets

Préface My thesis consists of three essays where I consider equilibrium asset prices and investment strategies when the market is likely to experience crashes and possibly sharp windfalls. Although each part is written as an independent and self contained article, the papers share a common behavioral approach in representing investors preferences regarding to extremal returns. Investors utility is defined over their relative performance rather than over their final wealth position, a method first proposed by Markowitz (1952b) and by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), that I extend to incorporate preferences over extremal outcomes. With the failure of the traditional expected utility models in reproducing the observed stylized features of financial markets, the Prospect theory of Kahneman and Tversky (1979) offered the first significant alternative to the expected utility paradigm by considering that people focus on gains and losses rather than on final positions. Under this setting, Barberis, Huang, and Santos (2000) and McQueen and Vorkink (2004) were able to build a representative agent optimization model which solution reproduced some of the observed risk premium and excess volatility. The research in behavioral finance is relatively new and its potential still to explore. The three essays composing my thesis propose to use and extend this setting to study investors behavior and investment strategies in a market where crashes and sharp windfalls are likely to occur. In the first paper, the preferences of a representative agent, relative to time varying positive and negative extremal thresholds are modelled and estimated. A new utility function that conciliates between expected utility maximization and tail-related performance measures is proposed. The model estimation shows that the representative agent preferences reveals a significant level of crash aversion and lottery-pursuit. Assuming a single risky asset economy the proposed specification is able to reproduce some of the distributional features exhibited by financial return series. The second part proposes and illustrates a preference-based asset allocation model taking into account investors crash aversion. Using the skewed t distribution, optimal allocations are characterized as a resulting tradeoff between the distribution four moments. The specification highlights the preference for odd moments and the aversion for even moments. Qualitatively, optimal portfolios are analyzed in terms of firm characteristics and in a setting that reflects real-time asset allocation, a systematic over-performance is obtained compared to the aggregate stock market. Finally, in my third article, dynamic option-based investment strategies are derived and illustrated for investors presenting downside loss aversion. The problem is solved in closed form when the stock market exhibits stochastic volatility and jumps. The specification of downside loss averse utility functions allows corresponding terminal wealth profiles to be expressed as options on the stochastic discount factor contingent on the loss aversion level. Therefore dynamic strategies reduce to the replicating portfolio using exchange traded and well selected options, and the risky stock.