Claudia König

Convergence and Divergence in the Contemporary World System : An Introduction

There is growing consensus among sociologists that since the 1980s the world has experienced a process of accelerated time-space-compression (Harvey, 1989; see also Martinelli, 2005). Transnational social interactions have not only become more numerous but also considerably faster and more widespread. Moreover, there has been an impressive increase in the number of institutions regulating these interactions. Institutions of global governance have challenged the sovereign power of nation-states and the state’s role in world politics is being reshaped. As a consequence of these changes, an axiom of world-systems theory has been accepted by scholars of other theoretical approaches as a premise of sociology altogether: to make sense of social processes on the national or sub-national level, adequate models must also take into account global influences. While national societies are increasingly influenced by the global environment, scholars disagree on whether this process of globalization produces ‘convergence of societies toward a uniform pattern of economic, political, and even cultural organization’ (Guillén, 2001: 244) or rather provokes more pronounced divergence. For Guillén (2001), this is one of the five key debates in contemporary globalization discussions. He identifies three ideal-typical theoretical positions in this debate: global convergence, global divergence, and the creation of global-local hybrids that has sometimes been referred to as ‘glocalization’ (Roland Robertson) and ‘creolization’ (see Boli, this issue). In its most orthodox formulation, the global convergence hypothesis predicts the world’s complete McDonaldization (Ritzer, 1993), that is, the conquest of the entire world by organizations, institutions and cultural practices originating in the western core nations. Adherents of the global divergence position, however, argue that up to now structural and cultural differences across nations have not only persisted but in some respects even grown more pronounced. Anthony Giddens (1991, cited in Guillén, 2001: 145), for example, points out the ambivalent and dialectical nature of contemporary global changes: ‘Globalization has to be understood as a dialectical phenomenon, in

The Double Dividend of Expanding Education for Development

Education has been used in models of both econometricians and sociologists to explain differences in the speed of economic development. This important field of research is, however, theoretically underspecified, and the empirical tests have remained incomplete for they only model the direct effects of education suggested by the human capital school. This article complements this individualistic view by also considering functions of education stressed in sociology. The educational system is seen as a device to integrate society and legitimize socioeconomic inequality. Such a perspective allows one to consider both cohesion as well as socioeconomic conflict as mediating between public educational expenditure and economic achievement; this translates into a model that contains direct as well as indirect effects. The resulting proposition of a ‘double dividend’ of education in development suggests that in the short and medium term the educational efforts of governments may contribute to legitimizing society, which is reflected in tempering socioeconomic conflict. This again fosters economic growth via greater motivation of citizens and higher propensity to invest. In this article, the double-dividend thesis is corroborated in an empirical test using a sample of 83 societies.

Stabilisation of health as the centre point of a health psychology of ageing

Current health psychological theories and research mainly cover improvement of health, recovery from illness or maintenance of health. With this theoretical manuscript, we argue that in ageing societies in which chronic illness and multimorbidity become the norm rather than the exception, this focus of health psychology is no longer sufficient. Instead, in line with a recent conceptualisation of health as “the ability to adapt and to self-manage”, we suggest that the centre point of a health psychology of ageing needs to be the stabilisation of health. Current theories of lifespan development, such as the model of selection, optimisation and compensation, the motivational theory of life span development, the two-process model of assimilative and accommodative coping and the recently introduced functional quality of life model are described with regard to their assumptions and related research focussing on stabilisation. All of these models explicitly comprise stabilisation as an important process of successful, healthy ageing. So far, however, the empirical research examining these models does not take stabilisation into account. Implications for research methods and practise of health stabilisation are discussed.

Assessing adherence to multiple medications and in daily life among patients with multimorbidity

Objective: Chronic conditions often require multiple medication intake. However, past research has focused on assessing overall adherence or adherence to a single index medication only. This study explored adherence measures for multiple medication intake, and in daily life, among patients with multiple chronic conditions (i.e. multimorbidity). Design: Eighty-four patients with multimorbidity and multiple-medication regimens completed three monthly panel questionnaires. A randomly assigned subsample additionally completed a 30-day daily diary. Main outcome measure: The Non-Adherence Report; a brief self-report measure of adherence to each prescribed medication (NAR-M), and in daily life. We further assessed the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS), and a subsample of participants were randomised to electronic adherence monitoring. Results: The NAR-M indicated M = 94.7% adherence at Time 1 (SD = 9.3%). The NAR-M was significantly correlated with the MARS (rt1 = .52, rt2 = .57, and rt3 = .65; p < .001), and in tendency with electronically assessed adherence (rt2 = .45, rt3 = .46, p < .10). Variance components analysis indicated that between-person differences accounted for 10.2% of the variance in NAR-M adherence rates, whereas 22.9% were attributable to medication by person interactions. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance and feasibility of studying adherence to multiple medications differentially, and in daily life. Future studies may use these measures to investigate within-person and between-medication differences in adherence.

Prospective and retrospective memory are differentially related to self-rated omission and commission errors in medication adherence in multimorbidity

ABSTRACT We investigated the relations of self-rated omission errors (i.e., forgetting to take one’s medication) and commission errors (i.e., unnecessary repetitions of medication intake because of forgetting that it has already been taken) in medication adherence in multimorbidity to prospective and retrospective memory performance. Moreover, we examined whether these relations were moderated by the number of medications that had to be taken. Eighty-four patients with multimorbidity (aged 28–84 years, M = 62.4) reported medication adherence regarding the last seven days and the number of medications they had to take. In addition, we administered psychometric tests on prospective memory (PM) and retrospective memory performance. We found that reported omission errors in medication adherence were related significantly to lower PM performance. This relationship was increased in individuals with a lower number of medications. In comparison, reported commission errors in medication adherence were related significantly to lower retrospective memory performance. This relationship was increased in individuals with a larger number of medications. Present data suggest that omission errors in medication adherence in multimorbidity may reflect primarily PM errors, particularly if few medications have to be taken, while commission errors may reflect mainly retrospective memory failures, especially with a large number of medications that need to be taken as prescribed. From an applied neuropsychological perspective, these results underline the importance of trying to enhance PM and retrospective memory performance in patients with multimorbidity.

Invisible Support: Effects on the Provider's Positive and Negative Affect.

BACKGROUNDnSocial support that goes unnoticed by receivers (i.e. invisible support) seems to be most beneficial for the receivers well-being. The providers well-being, however, has been neglected so far. This study examines how invisible support is related to the providers well-being and whether this association is dependent on the providers relationship satisfaction.nnnMETHODSnOverall, 97 non-smoking partners of smokers who were about to quit smoking were examined. Invisible support was assessed dyadically: partners reports on smoking-specific provided social support together with smokers reports on received support were assessed at baseline. Partners relationship satisfaction was also assessed at baseline. Partners positive and negative affect were measured at baseline and six-week follow-up.nnnRESULTSnNo main effects of invisible instrumental or emotional support occurred. However, partners relationship satisfaction moderated the association between invisible instrumental support and change in partners negative and positive affect: For partners with lower relationship satisfaction more invisible instrumental support was related to increased negative affect and decreased positive affect, whereas for partners with higher relationship satisfaction the inverse effects occurred.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThe studys results emphasise that invisible instrumental support might have emotional costs for the providers. Relationship satisfaction seems to serve as a protective factor.

Health behavior change in older adults: testing the health action process approach at the inter- and intraindividual level

BACKGROUNDnHealth behavior change theories usually claim to be universally and individually applicable. Most research has tested behavior change theories at the interindividual level and within young-to-middle-aged populations. However, associations at the interindividual level can differ substantially from associations at the intraindividual level. This study examines the applicability of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) at the inter- and the intraindividual level among older adults.nnnMETHODSnTwo intensive longitudinal studies examined the HAPA model covering two different health behaviors and two different time spans: Study 1 (physical activity, N = 52 × 6 monthly observations) and Study 2 (medication adherence, N = 64 × 30 daily observations). The HAPA constructs (risk awareness, outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, intention, action planning, action control), and self-reported behaviors were assessed.nnnRESULTSnOverall, at the interindividual level, results of both studies largely confirmed the associations specified by the HAPA. At the intraindividual level, results were less in line with the HAPA. Only action control emerged as consistent predictor of behavior.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThis study emphasises the importance of examining health behavior change theories at both, the inter- and the intraindividual level.