Self-interest often drives US states’ adoption of evidence based policy measures

In the US, lawmaking at the state level is often heavily linked to the ideology of the party which controls the legislature. Evidenced Based Policy, on the other hand, provides a means for lawmakers to develop measures based on research and data. In new research, Luke Yingling and Daniel J. Mallinson look at what drives the adoption of Evidence Based Policy across the states, finding that it is often motivated by reasons of practicality and electoral self-interest rather than a desire to improve policy outcomes

Why it will be difficult for Jeff Sessions to put the genie back into the bottle on marijuana policy

Last week, the US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced that he would be revoking Obama-era Department of Justice guidance which left the enforcement of marijuana policy to the states by giving prosecutors more discretion to pursue marijuana cases. A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson write that Sessions' policy about-face draws opposition from many of those in his own party, state US attorneys, interest groups, and state legislatures. Given that the federal government is dependent on state and local law enforcement for implementing drug prohibition, this opposition could well push Congress to change federal marijuana law

Uncooperative federal government has led to innovation on marijuana policy in more liberal, less religious states.

In the past two decades, 29 states and Washington DC have liberalized their laws on the use of medical marijuana - in defiance of federal regulations. A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson look at why some states have become 'defiant innovators' in this area. They find that if a state is more liberal and less religious, if the state ..

How the US states have learned from each other to create more comprehensive medical cannabis policies.

Medical cannabis was first legalized in California in 1996 – since then, 32 more states have done the same, and 11 have made the drug legal for recreational use. A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson take a close look at how the US states have learned from each other on how to regulate cannabis in the face of a continuing [...

Why legal cannabis may be more widespread in the US after the election.

The process of implementing comprehensive cannabis legislation varies between states and is often met with bureaucratic challenges. With many states putting medical and recreational cannabis on the ballot this election, Lee Hannah, Gideon Cunningham and Daniel Mallinson look at the key differences in these states’ approaches to legalisation. The increasing momentum on legal cannabis, they write, is likely to put further pressure on Congress to pass national cannabis policy reform

How Pennsylvania has taken steps to address the cannabis industry’s equity problem

While cannabis decriminalization and legalization has grown across the states, the profits from cannabis-related businesses have tended to flow mainly to white men, raising issues of equity. In new research, Lee Hannah, Daniel Mallinson, and Lauren Azevedo evaluate measures introduced in Pennsylvania to improve equity in who benefits from cannabis sales

Outnumb3r3d : intrinsically motivating mathematics for the PlayStation 4

This paper and accompanying poster describes the design of an intrinsically integrated educational game to improve children’s competencies in mental mathematics. A number of researchers have suggested that educational games are more effective when they are closely integrated with their learning content. Specifically work by the lead author has showed that a closer integration between an educational game's core-mechanics and its learning content can be both more appealing (in terms of time spent on-task) and more educationally effective (in terms of learning outcomes) than a less integrated "edutainment" approach. However, cursory approaches to integrating learning content remain common in contemporary educational software, and the literature lacks an exemplar of what can be achieved using an integrated approach. The Outnumb3r3d game was conceived to provide a commercial and theoretical exemplar of intrinsic integration for the Nintendo Wii, but was never completed. This project is now porting the original Wii prototype onto the PlayStation 4 in order to revive Outnumb3r3d as a research project. This paper details the design of Outnumb3r3d with reference to the key theoretical constructs that underlie its pedagogical design. In doing so it provides an example of a game design created to integrate mathematical learning content seamlessly into the game's core mechanics, ensuring that the mathematics is what makes the game intrinsically motivating to play rather than trying to hide or "sugar coat" its learning content. At the time of writing the game’s implementation is still a “work in progress”, but is expected to be the subject of future empirical evaluations into its effectiveness as a teaching tool

Maximizing Social Equity as a Pillar of Public Administration: An Examination of Cannabis Dispensary Licensing in Pennsylvania

Public administration upholds four pillars of an administrative practice: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and social equity. The question arises, however, how do administrators balance effectiveness and social equity when implementing policy? Can the values contributing to administrative decisions be measured? This study leverages the expansion of medical cannabis programs in the states to interrogate these questions. The awarding of dispensary licenses in Pennsylvania affords the ability to determine the effect of social equity scoring on license award decisions, relative to criteria that represent the other pillars. The results show that safety and business acumen were the most important determining factors in the awarding of licenses, both effectiveness concerns. Social equity does not emerge as a significant determinant until the second round of licensing. This study then discusses the future of social equity provisions for cannabis policy, as well as what the findings mean for social equity in public administration

Perfectionism worksheets

A series of worksheets on perfectionism

Perfectionism and Training Distress in Junior Athletes: The Mediating Role of Coping Tendencies

Training distress occurs when athletes fail to cope with physiological and psychological stress and can be an early sign of overtraining syndrome. Recent research has found that perfectionism predicts increases in training distress in junior athletes over time. The current study provides the first empirical test of the possibility that coping tendencies mediate the perfectionism-training distress relationship. Adopting a cross-sectional design, 171 junior athletes (mean age = 18.1 years) completed self-report measures of perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, problem-focused coping, avoidant coping, and training distress. Structural equation modelling revealed that avoidant coping mediated the positive relationship between perfectionistic concerns and training distress, and mediated the negative relationship between perfectionistic strivings and training distress. Problem-focused coping did not mediate any relationships between dimensions of perfectionism and training distress. The findings suggest that the tendency to use coping strategies aimed at avoiding stress may partly explain the relationship between perfectionism and training distress but the tendency to use, or not use, problem-focussed coping does not