The Effectiveness of Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in Localized Contexts

The professionalization of addressing conflict creates a field filled with specialists highly trained to apply modularized and manualized, often evidence-based solutions. But how effective are these professionalized conflict management strategies in Indigenous and localized cultural contexts compared to homegrown Indigenous approaches? While instances of these Indigenous peacebuilding and conflict management strategies are routine throughout the world, to date, no one has attempted to test which conflict management approaches are most effective empirically, nor has the literature sufficiently addressed the contexts in which strategies are most helpful. Using multi-dimensional scaling and chi-square tests of independence applied to a similarity matrix of co-occurrences from select Outline of Cultural Materials subjects from the Human Relations Area Files cultural database, this study tests the hypothesis: Indigenous conflict management strategies are more effective (i.e., less associated conflict) than non-Indigenous conflict management strategies in Indigenous contexts. We show that Indigenous conflict management approaches co-occur with conflict less often than non-Indigenous strategies. From an applied perspective, when we break conflict into four discreet types—sociocultural/interpersonal, political, legal/judicial, and economic—Indigenous conflict management strategies co-occur most often with socio-cultural types of conflicts. The results suggest that Indigenous approaches are more effective in Indigenous contexts overall, while they are most often applied to socio-cultural and interpersonal conflicts. Based on our findings, homegrown solutions effectively manage, resolve, and transform localized conflicts.

How Graduate Students With Vocal Fry Are Perceived by Speech-Language Pathologists

Purpose Vocal fry (VF), a low-pitched, grating voice quality, appears to be trending among young women. Current research lacks consensus of listeners' perceptions associated with VF. This study investigated practicing speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) perceptions of graduate speech-language pathology students who speak with VF. Method Thirty-two graduate students were recorded reading the Rainbow Passage and providing a brief monologue. VF was detected perceptually and acoustically for all 32 students' recordings. For the 127-syllable passage, percent of VF (%VF) ranged from 2.36% (three syllables) to 40.16% (51 syllables) with an average of 12.25% (15 syllables). Twelve recorded passages were selected and sorted into two statistically significant groups ( p = .001; seven with the most %VF and five with the least). Passage samples were randomly uploaded into a Qualtrics survey. Practicing SLPs listened to each sample and provided categorical and visual analog ratings for voice pleasantness and perceived speaker competence, education, hirability, and professionalism. Results The online survey was completed by 150 experienced SLPs who spanned differing geographical locations, work settings, and years of experience. Chi-square tests of independence and independent-samples t tests revealed statistically significant findings for all rated characteristics, indicating that VF samples were less pleasant, and their users less competent, hirable, educated, and professional. Conclusions These findings support those of Gottliebson et al. (2007), whereby 32% of our cohort had ≥ 15 instances of VF during passage reading, and those of Anderson et al. (2014), that VF negatively impacts how a speaker is perceived. Speech-language pathology graduate students should be cognizant of VF use, as they seek to secure competitive externships and jobs.

Timing and Motivations for Alternative Cancer Therapy: Insights from a Crowdfunding Platform (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Alternative cancer therapy is associated with increased mortality, but little is known about those who pursue it. OBJECTIVE We aimed to describe individuals’ motivations for using alternative cancer therapies and determine whether motivations differ based on individuals’ timing of seeking alternative therapies. METHODS We used data from 649 campaigns posted on GoFundMe® between 2011 and 2019 for beneficiaries with cancer pursuing alternative therapy. The data were analyzed using a mixed-methods approach. Campaigns were categorized by timing of alternative therapy (either before or after experiencing conventional therapy). Qualitative analysis identified motivational themes. Chi-square tests of independence and Fisher tests, all two-sided, determined significant differences in the presence of motivational themes between groups. RESULTS Campaigns for individuals who used conventional therapy first were significantly more likely to express concerns about efficacy of conventional therapy (63.3% vs. 41.7%, P<.001). Those who started with alternative therapy (compared to those who later switched from conventional to alternative therapy) more often expressed natural and holistic values (49.3% vs. 27.0%, P<.001), an unorthodox understanding of cancer (25.5% vs. 16.4%, P=.004), referenced religious or spiritual beliefs (15.1% vs. 8.9%, P=.01), perceived alternative treatment as efficacious (19.1% vs. 10.2%, P=.001), and distrusted pharmaceutical companies (3.2% vs. 0.5%, P=.04). CONCLUSIONS Individuals sought treatments that reflected their values and beliefs, even if scientifically unfounded. Many individuals who reported prior conventional cancer treatment were motivated to pursue alternative treatments because they perceived the conventional treatments to be ineffective.

Genes versus lifestyles: Exploring beliefs about the determinants of cognitive ageing

Objectives: Genetic and lifestyle factors contribute to cognitive ageing. This study explored people’s beliefs about determinants of cognitive ageing and whether those beliefs were associated with engagement in potentially beneficial behaviours.Methods: Data were collected through a UK-wide survey of people aged 40 and over. Responses from 3,130 individuals (94.0% of the survey sample) were analysed using chi-square tests of independence, principal component analysis and ANCOVAs.Results: Most respondents (62.2%) believed genes and lifestyle contribute equally to age-related changes in cognitive skills. Respondents who believed genetic factors were more influential were less likely to expect cognitive skills might be improved or maintained with age, less sure what behaviours might be associated with brain health, and less likely to engage in behaviours comprising mental challenge/novelty supported as beneficial for brain health.Conclusion: Our results indicate a need for clearer messaging highlighting the role of lifestyle factors for brain health.

On the power of Chatterjee’s rank correlation

Chatterjee (2021+) introduced a simple new rank correlation coefficient that has attracted much recent attention. The coefficient has the unusual appeal that it not only estimates a population quantity first proposed by Dette et al. (2013) that is zero if and only if the underlying pair of random variables is independent, but also is asymptotically normal under independence. This paper compares Chatterjee’s new correlation coefficient to three established rank correlations that also facilitate consistent tests of independence, namely, Hoeffding’s D, Blum–Kiefer– Rosenblatt’s R, and Bergsma–Dassios–Yanagimoto’s τ *. We contrast their computational efficiency in light of recent advances, and investigate their power against local rotation and mixture alternatives. Our main results show that Chatterjee’s coefficient is unfortunately rate sub-optimal compared to D, R, and τ *. The situation is more subtle for a related earlier estimator of Dette et al. (2013). These results favor D, R, and τ * over Chatterjee’s new correlation coefficient for the purpose of testing independence.