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The validation aspect of simulation games is highlighted. A method for visualizing the multidimensional initialization space is presented.

Drawing from past research on women's motives for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, correlates of women's perpetration, and correlates of nonviolent conflict, we created a scale containing 125 possible motives, representing 14 broad domains (e.g., self-defense, retaliation). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of women who had perpetrated no physical 1PV against their current partner (n = 243), threats but not physical IPV (n = 70), nonsevere physical IPV (n = 193), and at least one act of severe (e.g., choke) physical IPV (n = 93). An exploratory factor analysis yielded a seven-factor solution, representing Partners' Negative Behaviors, Increase Intimacy, Personal Problems, Retaliation, Childhood Experiences, Situation/Mood, and Partners' Personal Problems. Differences by women's IPV perpetration and race and/or ethnicity were tested with means representing these seven factors and a computed variable representing self defense. Although motives differed by perpetration type, main effects for Partners' Negative Behavior, Personal Problems, Retaliation, and Childhood Experiences were modified by interactions, suggesting ethnicity should be considered when developing interventions. Keywords: female perpetration: low-income: partner violence: race/ethnicity: scale development

A model is proposed to examine the manner in which social actors narrate their life-story and actions in terms of the factors determining them. A case study of the narration of a woman's life story is used to understand how the model can help investigate the subjective interrelationships between agency, structure, communion and serendipity.

An attempt is made to show how abstract philosophical theories do not always reflect the reality of human behavior. The fact that people decide in favor of pets, for example a dog, rather than an unknown, needy human being is elaborated to illustrate this point.

The serotonium hypothesis of depression, as it was formulated in clinical and laboratory experiments during the 1950s are addressed. The serotonin hypothesis of depression serves to explain the perceived efficacy of magic bullets with the relation between pathological and normal variations in human personality and mood.

The humanitarian attitudes of graduates of various social work programs of universities and colleges in Hong Kong and China are examined. These responses reflect on self-reliance as a means of achieving human dignity.

Popper's version of situational analysis, with its focus on the logic of situations and the rationality principle, fails to provide cogent explanations of the human decisions and actions underpinning social phenomena. It is argued that although there are crucial gaps in his ontology, it can be augmented to give situational analysis the potential to reach beyond pure logic and rationality and to bring social theory closer to grasping the real world of human action.

8 PerspectivesPerspectives on Neuroscience and BehaviorCocaine, orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and impaired decision-making SAGE Publications, Inc.2008DOI: 10.1177/10738584080140010401 Impaired decision-making is a central pathologic feature of addiction. Addicts continue to use substances [...]