Conducting a barriers analysis is an important first step when designing proenvironmental behavior change interventions. Yet, detailed information on common barriers to energy conservation campaigns remains unavailable. Using a pair of original surveys, we leverage the theory of planned behavior to report on the most important barriers for fourteen energy conservation behaviors common in univer...

There are few practical examples of the use of RRA in the field of health and nutrition described in the literature. This paper describes the use of wealth ranking as part of rapid nutritional assessments undertaken in Darfur by an Oxfam nutrition team led by myself. The assessments were unique in approach as they combined two complementary techniques; wealth ranking (Grandin, 1988) and measure...

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. ...

Parametric design is an emerging research issue in the design domain. However, our current understanding of creativity in relation to either a process or product standpoint is limited. This paper presents a formal approach for the description and identification of creativity from both perspectives. The framework combines: (i) protocol analysis for encoding cognitive design activities, providing...

Studies have consistently found that safety and security are major public concerns; however, crime is rarely considered as an outcome in public health. The recent shift by planning policy towards promoting compact, 'walkable' communities close to public transport aims to redress many of the problems associated with urban sprawl. However, communities that do not feel safe are less likely to be a...

Excerpt] In this paper, we argue that there remain several unanswered questions surrounding selfassessments of knowledge that must be addressed before we can reach a more definitive conclusion on the viability of these measures. The answers to these questions may provide further evidence that self-assessments should not be used as an indicator of learning or they may serve to qualify the condit...

INTRODUCTION The CTSA Community Engagement Consultative Service (CECS) is a national partnership designed to improve community engaged research (CEnR) through expert consultation. This report assesses the feasibility of CECS and presents findings from 2008 to 2009. METHODOLOGY A coordinating center and five regional coordinating sites managed the service. CTSAs identified a primary previsit C...

The paper presents research conducted within the narrative psychology paradigm. Its main purpose was to explore the relationships between features of adolescents’ identity narratives and their assessments of family functioning and themselves as family members. The choice of subject was motivated by current reports on identity formation difficulties in adolescence. Adolescents’ narratives were s...

The time lag between needs assessment and implementation of faculty development curricula assumes a certain stability of participants' individual and contextual needs which may not reflect the often complex and shifting priorities in health professional schools. In addition to the variability of issues they face, participants are typically better able to recognize and articulate their needs onc...