The Effects of Mobility on Neighbourhood Social Ties

This research examines the strength of people's ties with close neighbours and the sensitivity thereof to changes in residential mobility, access to modes of public and private transport, and changes in the availability of modern communications technologies using the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP). All forms of mobility have increased over time and are negatively associated with visiting neighbours. With further increases in mobility, close neighbours may become less relevant. Nevertheless, presently the incidence of visits with neighbours is sizeable; in contrast to the frequent assertion in the literature that the neighbourhood is of no importance.Neighbourhood, Social interactions, Mobility, Transport, Internet, Family ties

Income Comparisons among Neighbours and Life Satisfaction in East and West Germany

A series of studies have suggested that changes in others' income may be perceived differently in post-transition and capitalist societies. This paper draws on the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) matched with micro-marketing indicators of population characteristics in very tightly drawn neighbourhoods to investigate whether reactions to changes in their neighbours' income divide the German nation. We find that the neighbourhood income effect for West Germany is negative (which is in line with the "relative income" hypothesis) and slightly more marked in neighbourhoods that may be assumed to be places where social interactions between neighbours take place. In contrast, the coefficients on neighbourhood income in East Germany are positive (which is consistent with the 'signalling' hypothesis), but statistically not significant. This suggests not only that there is a divide between East and West Germany, but also that neighbours may not be a relevant comparison group in societies that have comparatively low levels of neighbouring.Comparison income, Reference group, Life Satisfaction, Neighbourhood effects

Life satisfaction and material well-being of children in the UK

Life satisfaction is increasingly recognised as a desirable individual outcome. Policy attention with respect to child well-being has focused on improving the financial position of families with children. Using Understanding Society I show that child life satisfaction is not associated with household income (poverty), or with a set of new material deprivation measures of child poverty, introduced to help target effective policies that make a real difference to children's lives. Those interested in maximizing society's welfare should shift their attention from an emphasis on increasing consumption opportunities for families with children to an emphasis on increasing social contacts

Keeping up with the Schmidts: An Empirical Test of Relative Deprivation Theory in the Neighbourhood Context

We test empirically whether people's life satisfaction depends on their relative income position in the neighbourhood, drawing on a unique dataset, the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) matched with micro-marketing indicators of population characteristics. Relative deprivation theory suggests that individuals are happier the better their relative income position in the neighbourhood is. To test this theory we estimate micro-economic happiness models for the years 1994 and 1999 with controls for own income and for neighbourhood income at the zip-code level (roughly 9,000 people). There exist no negative and no statistically significant associations between neighbourhood income and life satisfaction, which refutes relative deprivation theory. If anything, we find positive associations between neighbourhood income and happiness in all cross-sectional models and this is robust to a number of robustness tests, including adding in more controls for neighbourhood quality, changing the outcome variable, and interacting neighbourhood income with indicators that proxy the extent to which individuals may be assumed to interact with their neighbours. We argue that the scale at which we measure neighbourhood characteristics may be too large still to identify the comparison effect sought after.Life satisfaction, neighbourhood effects, comparison income, reference group

Keeping Up With the Schmidts: An Empirical Test of Relative Deprivation Theory in the Neighbourhood Context

We test empirically whether people’s life satisfaction depends on their relative income position in the neighbourhood, drawing on a unique dataset, the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) matched with micro-marketing indicators of population characteristics. Relative deprivation theory suggests that individuals are happier the better their relative income position in the neighbourhood is. To test this theory we estimate micro-economic happiness models for the years 1994 and 1999 with controls for own income and for neighbourhood income at the zip-code level (roughly 9,000 people). There exist no negative and no statistically significant associations between neighbourhood income and life satisfaction, which refutes relative deprivation theory. If anything, we find positive associations between neighbourhood income and happiness in all cross-sectional models and this is robust to a number of robustness tests, including adding in more controls for neighbourhood quality, changing the outcome variable, and interacting neighbourhood income with indicators that proxy the extent to which individuals may be assumed to interact with their neighbours. We argue that the scale at which we measure neighbourhood characteristics may be too large still to identify the comparison effect sought after.Life satisfaction, Neighbourhood effects, Comparison income, Reference group

Reflective practice and continuing professional development among qualified clinical psychologists

Reflective Practice (RP) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) have become key concepts in the post-qualification education and training of healthcare professionals, linked to maintaining and improving competence and fitness to practice in a modernised health service. There is little empirical research about this in relation to clinical psychologists. This qualitative study explored how clinical psychologists experience RP and CPD and apply this to their professional practice. A focus group generated the topics for 16 semi-structured interviews with a diverse range of qualified clinical psychologists practising in a Strategic Health Authority Region in England. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, four higher-order themes and associated sub-themes emerged: (1) clinical psychologists as reflective practitioners, including the understanding of reflection, influences on development, and reflection and professional identity; (2) the reflective space, including supervision, enablers and obstacles in reflective practice; (3) functions of CPD and reflection, including quality and enhanced service provision, safety and clinical governance, and professional requirements; and (4) linking reflection and CPD, including the link between reflection and action, reflective practice as CPD, and CPD and life-long learning. Seven second interviews were conducted for member-validation, and a final focus group was convened for triangulation and validation of the thematic analysis. The findings are related to the existing literature, and to learning theory and attachment theory. The relevance of this research is discussed in relation to clinical psychology practice and the implications for training and CPD. The importance of the present findings to the issue of the professional identity of clinical psychologists is outlined, and suggestions for future research are proposed

Reclaiming Fault Resilience and Energy Efficiency With Enhanced Performance in Low Power Architectures

Rapid developments of the AI domain has revolutionized the computing industry by the introduction of state-of-art AI architectures. This growth is also accompanied by a massive increase in the power consumption. Near-Theshold Computing (NTC) has emerged as a viable solution by offering significant savings in power consumption paving the way for an energy efficient design paradigm. However, these benefits are accompanied by a deterioration in performance due to the severe process variation and slower transistor switching at Near-Threshold operation. These problems severely restrict the usage of Near-Threshold operation in commercial applications. In this work, a novel AI architecture, Tensor Processing Unit, operating at NTC is thoroughly investigated to tackle the issues hindering system performance. Research problems are demonstrated in a scientific manner and unique opportunities are explored to propose novel design methodologies

An initial look at non-response and attrition in Understanding Society

This paper describes the extent and correlates of non-response at waves 1 and 2 of Understanding Society. We examine both household-level and individual-level non-response at wave 1. For wave 2, we examine attrition relative to wave 1 both in terms of enumerated persons and in terms of adults responding to the individual interview. We analyse separately the general population sample and the ethnic minority boost sample. We also describe attrition for the BHPS sample between wave 18 of the BHPS and wave 2 of Understanding Society, when that sample was incorporated into Understanding Society

Earnings prospects for low-paid workers higher than for the unemployed but only in high-pay areas with high unemployment

There is considerable debate on whether the prospects of entering a high-paid job are better for those in low-paid jobs compared to the unemployed. Whilst some scholars argue that there is a scarring effect of unemployment others highlight that low pay might signal a low productivity and furthermore reduce the time searching for a better paid job. Using longitudinal data for working age men in England matched with local labor market indicators, we estimate several random-effects probit models and find no difference in the probability of becoming high-paid employed between low-paid workers and the unemployed in areas with low unemployment. However, in areas with high unemployment and high pay, low-paid workers have a higher probability of entering high-paid employment than the unemployed. Moreover, there is a penalty for low-wage workers compared to the unemployed in low-pay areas in their probability of entering high-paid employment