Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Supportive-Expressive Psychotherapy For Cannabis Dependence, Brin F. Grenyer, Nadia Solowij

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Supportive–expressive (SE) dynamic psychotherapy forms one variation of a number of psychotherapies that emphasize the importance of effective interpersonal relationships for psychological health (Grenyer, 2002a). The overall goal of SE psychotherapy is to help the client achieve mastery over their difficulties, gain self-understanding, and practice self-control over habitual drug use and related problems. From this framework, cannabis dependence is understood within the context of the client's interpersonal relationships, work, and social problems. The theory behind the SE approach emphasizes the formative influence of life experiences on the development of personality and on the genesis of problems, including habitual cannabis use. …

Using Acceptance And Commitment Training In The Support Of Parents Of Children Diagnosed With Autism, John T. Blackledge, Steven Hayes

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Parents of autistic children face enormous challenges, but very little attention has been paid to their psychological needs. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has previously been tested with parents as part of a comprehensive package, but not yet alone. The present study used a within-subject, repeated measures design to test the effects of a 2-day (14 hour) group ACT workshop on 20 normal parents/guardians of children diagnosed with autism. Parents were assessed three weeks before the workshop, one week before, one week after, and three months after. No significant change occurred while waiting for treatment, but pre to post improvements …

The Adverse Health And Psychological Consequences Of Cannabis Dependence, Wayne Hall, Nadia Solowij

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

People who become dependent on cannabis are more likely than infrequent users to experience any of the adverse health effects that are caused by chronic cannabis use. Dependent cannabis use is rare in comparison with the more prevalent pattern of experimental and intermittent use (Bachman et al., 1997), but it may nonetheless affect as many as 1% of adults in the USA and Australia in any 1 year (Anthony et al., 1994; Hall et al., 1999a). Dependent cannabis users typically smoke two or more cannabis cigarettes a day over periods of years or decades in a minority …

The Configural Advantage In Object Change Detection Persists Across Depth Rotation, Simone K. Favelle, Stephen Palmisano, Darren Burke, William G. Hayward

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Although traditionally there has been a debate over whether object recognition involves 3-D structural descriptions or 2-D views, most current approaches to object recognition include the representation of object structure in some form. An advantage for the processing of structural or configural information in objects has been recently demonstrated using a change detection task (Keane, Hayward, & Burke, 2003). We report two experiments that extend this finding and show that configural information dominates change detection performance regardless of an object's orientation. Experiment 1 demonstrated the advantage that configural information has over shape and part arrangement information in change detection across …

The Economic Value Of Healthy Workers, Shirley A. Musich, M Spooner, S Baaner, D Hook

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective

1) To demonstrate the feasibility of a designed intervention in changing targeted health behaviors and 2) to evaluate the impact of changes in health risks on the two measures of job performance (a self-reported measure of health-related work impairment (presenteeism) and an objective measure of illness absenteeism).

Design

A pre/post study design (2004-2005) utilizing Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) data to assess changes in prevalence of individual health risks and changes in two productivity measures.

Setting and Subjects

Employees of a private insurance provider in Australia.

Measures

An HRA questionnaire was used to evaluate self-reported work impairment on different aspects …

Do We Encourage Health Or Illness? A Survey Of Exercise Rehabilitation Practices For Patients In Australian Renal Units, Y. White, B. Grenyer

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background: People with end stage renal disease (ESRD) have been reported as having low levels of physical activity. Sedentary behaviours increase illness risks which may lead to burdens on the public health system which include costs of medical care. Research has established that exercise is reported to improve general health and wellbeing. Benefits include better aerobic tolerance, maintenance and improvement in physical function and capacity, and improvement in self-concept and well-being. These same improvements also occur in an exercising ESRD population, even though the improvements might be of less magnitude. Renal unit staff can have a major impact on patients …

Two Year Follow-Up Of A Community Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention Program In An Aboriginal Community, Frank P. Deane, Kim Capp, Caroline Jones, Dawn De Ramirez, Gordon Lambert, Beth M. Marlow, A Rees, Edwina Sullivan

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Few studies report long term follow-up of community gatekeeper training programs that aim to facilitate help-seeking for suicide and there are none in Aboriginal communities. This study aimed to determine long term effects of the Shoalhaven Aboriginal Suicide Prevention Program (SASPP), which used community gatekeeper training as its primary strategy. Following consultation with the Aboriginal community, a brief questionnaire and semi-structured interview was completed by 40 participants who attended a community gatekeeper workshop 2 years earlier. Fifteen of the 40 participants stated that they had helped someone at risk of suicide over the 2-year follow-up period. Intentions to help and …

Evolution And Sustainability Of The Helping Hands Volunteer Program: Consumer Recovery And Mental Health Comparisoins Six Years On, Frank P. Deane, Retta Andresen

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The Helping Hands program commenced in 1999 and partners volunteers with mental health consumers for support and to increase social contact, recreational and friendship opportunities. The aim of the present study is to describe the evolution and sustainability of the program over the first 6 years. A description of consumers accessing the program using recovery-oriented measures and traditional measures of behavioural functioning is also provided. Service data was collected on the development of the program, service utilisation, volunteer participation and funding patterns. Cross-sectional measures of recovery and baseline and follow-up Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) were collected on …

Ascending Mount Kosciusko: An Exploration Of Motivational Patterns, Tracey Dickson, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores what, if any, usable market segments exist within those tourists visiting Mt Kosciuszko over the Easter period based upon their rating of a set of motivations. An assumption that might be made about visitors to Mt Kosciuszko is that their prime motivation was to ascend the summit of the highest point in Australia, however what this paper highlights is the wide range of motivations that inspire people to be on Mt Kosciuszko to visit and to return to the summit. This paper draws on previous research of visitors Mt Kosciuszko, investigates systematic motivational patterns among them and …

Our Retirement In Their Hands: A User Perspective, Cotinne Cortese, David Aylward, John Glynn

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This research reports on the results of a survey of Australian retirees which provide information on attitudes surrounding financial planning advice before, at or after retirement. These results demonstrate that, despite government initiatives aimed at enhancing consumer confidence in the financial services market, most retirees continue to feel dissatisfied with, and lack confidence in, the services provided by their financial advisors. This suggests an increased role for financial planners to provide not only the additional information required under government policy, but also to provide information that is understandable and useful to the retirees that rely on it.

Nature Conserving Tourists: The Need For A Broader Perspective, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The importance of environmental responsibility in tourism is widely accepted. Two main paradigms have emerged: ecotourism – a demand-driven concept limited to nature-based tourism - and sustainable tourism – a supply-sided view characterized by industry regulations. Unfortunately, ecotourism is limited in size, and supply-sided measures implicitly contradict the short-term aim of profit-maximization of the tourism industry. Alternative ways of integrating nature conservation and tourism are needed. This paper reviews tourism-specific pro-environmental approaches and research into pro-environmental behavior in general. A case for a broader demand-driven paradigm is made: the identification of nature-conserving tourists - a target market extending beyond the …

The Limitations Of Consumer Response To Csr: An Empirical Test Of Smith's Proposed Antecedents, Alan Pomering, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Despite an increase in consumer expectations for business to do more for society than deliver on economic conditions and many firms' increasingly adopting socially-responsible stances, marketplace behaviour highlights a gap between what consumers report they expect from firms and what they are prepared to reward. In an effort to rationalise this gap, Smith (2000) has proposed three limits on consumers' ability to respond to firms' socially-responsible practices, or corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on a study in Australia's retail banking sector, a high-contact service context, this paper empirically tests Smith's three proposed limits to consumers' CSR response. Key findings include …

Choosing A Primary School In Australia: Eliciting Choice-Determining Factors Using The Theory Of Planned Behaviour, Edmund Goh, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Many studies have been conducted in the past to identify why parents choose certain school types for their children. Although a number of interesting insights resulted from these studies, they did not take advantage of any of the established behavioural theories that may enable a more systematic analysis of school choice. In the present study we make a step towards filling this gap: we use the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a basis for our study of school choice in the Australian context. The aims of the study are (1) to elicit reasons for choosing and reasons for not …

The Rise Of Quantification In The Pacific (Indonesia 1830–1870), Parulian Silaen, Ciorstan J. Smark

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The “Culture System” was enforced in Java and other parts of Indonesia by the Dutch colonial government between 1830 and 1870. Under this system, Indonesian farmers were forced to put aside part of their land and labour for growing cash crops such as sugar, coffee, indigo, tobacco and pepper so that they could pay their land tax to the Dutch. This paper briefly examines some of the ramifications of this policy and how it supported the interests of the Dutch colonial masters. It also looks at how the policy promoted ideals of rationality, quantification and efficiency in the Indonesian archipelago. …

Social And Historical Power Plays: A Foucauldian Gaze On Mental Institutions, Ciorstan J. Smark, Hemant Deo

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

ABSTRACT: This research focuses on New South Wales’ process of deinstitutionalisation using a Foucauldian lens. By using this filtering process, this research aims to highlight the interchange between the concepts of power and knowledge as two vital and interrelated forces. These forces are seen as dominant forces within the process of deinstitutionalisation in New South Wales. The introduction of the policy of deinstitutionalisation is found to have highlighted the need for accounting and financial information to be distanced from the economic rationalist calculus in order that better policy decisions are made. The case study further explores some of the societal …

Using Personal Response Systems To Address The Net-Generation Of University Students, Brian Murphy, Ciorstan J. Smark

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Abstract: Personal Response Systems are a technology similar to use to a television remote control or a mobile telephone for sending SMS messages. They enable almost instant communication between student and instructor in lecture situations. This paper examines the claims made by Personal Response Systems and considers whether they may be especially appropriate to the preferences and expectations of Net-Generation students. The Net-Generation (also known as N-Gens) is made up of students born between 1981 and 2001. They now make up the bulk of finance students in universities across our region. But have we really adapted our lecturing styles to …

Business Ethics At Macarthur, Ciorstan J. Smark, C. Puttee

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Business Ethics has been taught at the “Macarthur” (now “Campbelltown” Campus) of University of Western Sydney in many forms over many years. This article outlines some of the forms that Business Ethics has taken at Macarthur and records some of the successes and failures therein. The authors draw on both current business ethics literature and their experiences in teaching Business Ethics in making some suggestions about various techniques available for incorporating ethics into the commerce curricula. Students' survey responses are also included.

Accounting And Asylums: A Case Study Reflecting On The Role Of Accounting Related Thinking In Deinstitutionalisation Policy In New South Wales, Ciorstan J. Smark

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

ABSTRACT This case study reflects on the way in which accounting-related thinking informed the process of deinstitutionalisation from mental hospitals in New South Wales. A test to establish dominant motivations in changes in social policy (developed by sociologist Andrew Scull (1984) in his study of deinstitutionalisation in England and the United States of America) is explained and applied to the outcomes of deinstitutionalisation in New South Wales. This test is applied using a policy evaluation model adapted from Puckett (1993). This case study concludes that the dominant force motivating the way in which deinstitutionalisation policy was implemented in New South …

The Role Of Contracts In Public Private Partnerships, G. Noble

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The very public stoush between Sydney’s CrossCity Motorway (CCM) and the NSW Government over the Cross City Tunnel provides observers of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with interesting insights into the workings of these unique forms of private sector - government relationships. The Cross City Tunnel conflict highlights the significance that formal contracts can have when a PPP goes awry. PPP contracts do not just codify who is responsible for what and how risk and rewards will be shared they also act as an important safety mechanism when the relationship between partners breaks down. Research I have conducted in both Australia …

Women's Leadership Journeys In Family Firms: Preliminary Results From A Qualitative Study, Mary Barrett, Ken Moores

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The family business literature has thus far not devoted much attention to understanding female vantage points in family firms (e.g. Dumas, 1998; Sharma, 2004). Poza and Messer (2001) and Curimbaba (2002) describe the varying roles that women adopt, but without explaining why they adopt such roles. Our research examines the career progression of women leaders in family businesses, specifically how various roles allow them to progressively learn skills and competencies.In an earlier book (Moores and Barrett, 2002) we found that successful family firm CEOs encountered a series of unique paradoxes. Exploring, understanding and perhaps managing these paradoxes took them on …

Conclusion: Building Collaborative Capabilities, Gordon Boyce, Stuart Macintyre, Simon Ville

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The aim of this volume is to explore how history can help us to understandmore fully the nature of those factors that undermine orenhance the effectiveness of inter-organisational relationships and toprovide guidelines for participants in these types of ventures. Theauthors believe that the past is a valuable laboratory in which toexamine cooperative phenomena because, unlike a perspectivefounded solely on current practice, it enables us to see the outcomesof experiments conducted by others. Moreover, historical analysiscalls for the ‘contextualisation’ of the experiments, and the sensitivitythat is required for this exercise—and the enhanced powers of intuitionthat stem from it—are useful in gaining …

Maintaining Social Marketing's Relevance: A Dualistic Approach, Gary I. Noble

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

There have been calls amongst academics and practitioners to move social marketing 'upstream'. This paper attempts to clarify what upstream social marketing is, its appropriate relationship with ‘downstream’ social marketing and how both approaches can be combined into a suitable theoretical framework. The paper argues that neither up or downstream social marketing is superior and suggests that a dual, synergistic approach is needed. This argument is supported through reference to current social marketing interventions in the areas of road safety and childhood obesity. The paper concludes by suggesting that Polonsky, Carlson and Fry’s (2003) ‘harm chain’ concept may be a …

Q-Methodology For The Active Process Of Knowledge Management, Joseph A. Meloche, Helen M. Hasan, Michelle Mok

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Knowledge Managament for the provision of Health Information Services is a developing field and one that is usefully informed by applied research. The current study is conducted with Intensive Care Unit (ICU) professionals to capture and distil their views in regard to a developing a Web-Based Information Service. This service is provided by a central coordination and monitoring unit for intensive care units across NSW, Australia. The study is part of a larger research initiative that is being done to advance the provision of health information in ICU's across the state. Given the complex and dynamic context of ICUs, there …

Identifying Structural Breaks In The Lebanese Economy 1970-2003: An Application Of The Zivot And Andrews Test, Charles Harvie, Mosayeb Pahlavani, Ali S. Saleh

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

During the 1960s and early 1970s the Lebanese economy was characterized by low inflation, high growth, sizeable balance of payments surpluses and small public sector deficits, which made it a highly attractive business centre. During this period the country was described as the Switzerland or Paris of the East. This macroeconomic stability did not last long, however, as the economy subsequently underwent fundamental structural changes during most years after the mid 1970s. The aim of this paper is to identify the timing of major structural breaks in the Lebanese economy by applying the Zivot and Andrews (ZA) (1992) procedure, using …

Long-Term Relationship Between Intra-Trade And Total Trade Of Member Countries Of Asean, Nelson Perera, Mokhtar M. Metwally

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper uses cointegration and regression analyses to examine the long-term relationship between intra-trade of the five original member countries of ASEAN, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand , and their total trade with non- member Countries of ASEAN. The LR tests based on maximal eigenvalue of the stochastic matrix and the trace of the stochastic matrix suggest that the null hypothesis of no cointegration cannot be rejected for all the five original members countries of ASEAN. Thus, there is no evidence of long-term relationship between intra-trade of each ASEAN member with other members and total trade with non-ASEAN …

Implementation Of An Integrated Accounting And Cost Management System Using Sap System: A Field Study, Sudhir C. Lodh, Michael J. Gaffikin

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Not only are in-depth (theoretically informed) longitudinal (reflexive) field studies few and far between, it has been argued in those studies that little is known about the design and implementation of accounting and information systems that operate in today's world-class organizations. Using such an approach this study seeks to illustrate and analyse the implementation processes of an integrated accounting and cost management system using the SAP system at a major steel producer in Australia. It is demonstrated that the technical design of the system is only a part of the implementation process. Keeping 'actor-networks' in line and managing change including …

'Not Cricket': A 'Nexus Of Silence' Over The Cricket Match-Fixing Scandal, Michael Gross

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

An international cricket match-fixing scandal in 2000, the biggest crisis in the game’s 250 year history, disclosed corruption by many players and officials that cricket authorities had failed to address for a decade. Analysis of the case has revealed that institutional-wide behavior, conceptualized as the phenomenon of a ‘nexus of silence’, occurs in organizations and institutions where authorities decide to hide, rather than control, unethical behavior. This paper presents a substantive theory of a ‘nexus of silence’, developing current literature on organizational silence and organizational hypocrisy. Discussion on the applicability of a ‘nexus of silence’ to management theory and directions …

Learning Across Communities Of Practice: How Postgraduate Students Cope With Returning To Higher Education In An International Setting, L. Smith

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is an exploratory case study into the way postgraduate students cope with the transition from the workplace to university in an international environment. It looks at how students move successfully between these two communities of practice, and the kind of learning that is involved in this process. As well as personal motivation, key factors found in boundary-crossing between the communities are multi-membership of communities and the use of identity as a bridge. Learning is found to involve a collateral transfer, or reconstruction, of knowledge in both directions. The study is intended to inform the development of a learning …

Explaining The Benefits Of Ebay's Features In Consumer Problem Solving Decisions, Joshua Chang

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

the Internet has provided significant search and evaluation benefits to shoppers over traditional alternatives. According to theory in the economics of information, proceding media technologies constrain the quality and quantity of information available to shoppers.

Job Quality In Call Centres: Key Issues, Insights And Gaps In The Literature, Zeenobiyah N. Hannif

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The number of call centres has increased rapidly over the last decade as technological advancements have increased the geographical reach and potential applicability of call centre operations to a wide variety of industries and business functions. These developments have been followed closely by an influx of research on various aspects of call centre operations. Issues associated with job quality have arisen from various call centre studies, often incidentally as researchers examine other facets of call centres and their functioning’s. However, there is yet to be a study that deliberately and systematically examines job quality in this context, despite it being …