bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised: A New Instrument to Identify Academically Able Students Who Underachieve
Authors: McCoach D. Betsy , Siegle Del
Published: June 2003

The purpose of this study was to design a psychometrically sound instrument to measure adolescents' attitudes toward school, attitudes toward teachers, goal-valuation, motivation, and general academic self-perceptions that could be used to explore the underachievement of academically able secondary school students. The final School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R) instrument consisted of 35 questions, each of which being an indicator of one of the five factors. The final model exhibited reasonable fit, X2(550) = 1,581.7, Comparative Fit Index = .91, Tucker Lewis Index = .92, root mean square error of approximation = .059, standardized root mean squared residual = .057. The scores in this study showed internal consistency reliability coefficient of at least .85 on each of the five factors. In addition, four of the five factors of the SAAS-R appear to differentiate gifted achievers from gifted underachievers. It is the authors' hope that the SAAS-R will allow researchers to more fully understand the relationship between these five factors and underachievement in gifted and nongifted populations.
Psychometric Properties and Item-Keying Direction Effects for the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-High School Version with Norwegian Students
Authors: Samuelstuen Marit S.
Published: June 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-High School Version (LASSI-HS) would yield reliable and valid scores when using a Norwegian translation with a sample of Norwegian high school students. In addition, the author examined possible response biases associated with item-keying directions within the LASSI-HS. Three alternative factor models proposed in prior research were evaluated, with results yielding support for the model suggested by Olaussen and Bråten. However, method effects associated with item wording were found, and positively worded items were characterized by more response biases than negatively worded items for the Norwegian students.
Is the Test Attitude Survey Psychometrically Sound?
Authors: McCarthy Julie M. , Goffin Richard D.
Published: June 2003

Research in the realm of selection and educational testing has begun to explore test takers' attitudes toward tests. However, valid measurement of test-taking attitudes is required before concrete conclusions may be drawn. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the psychometric properties of a popular measure of test-taking attitudes that may be used in occupational or educational selection testing applications—the Test Attitude Survey (TAS). Participants included 242 undergraduate students, each of whom completed a battery that included personality and test attitude items. Although results indicated adequate convergent validity for scores on the TAS, there is room for improvement to the overall structural validity of scores on this measure.
Factor Structure and Construct Validity of the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale
Authors: Thomas Adrian , Palmer Jerry K. , Coker-Juneau Carla J. , Williams David J.
Published: June 2003

The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP). An exploratory factor analysis ( N=358) found three factors underlying attitudes toward individuals with disabilities as measured by the IDP. These factors were labeled social discomfort, empathy, and fear of having the disability. The estimates of reliability were acceptable for the three factors. The putative factor struoture was recovered in a confirmatory factor analysis conducted on a second, independent sample ( N=272). The three factors were related in appropriate directions with other measures of attitudes toward individuals with disabilities, self-esteem, amount of prior contact, experience with, and the closeness of relationships with individuals with disabilities.
The Effect of Scale Tailoring for Cross-Cultural Application on Scale Reliability and Construct Validity
Authors: Arce-Ferrer Alvara J. , Ketterer John J.
Published: June 2003

This article summarizes main findings from a two-step investigation about the effects of tailoring a scale with etic and emic items and extreme-response styles on the validity and reliability of scores. The Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy scale was chosen, and its Spanish version was tailored with translated items, adapted items, and newly developed items. The tailored scale was administered to two independent samples of high school students from Mexico. Reliability estimates for the emic and etic scales were marginally different between them and with respect to those for the English language. Tailoring a scale with the best etic and emic items neither improved on the recovery of the five-dimension structure nor reduced the effects of the extreme response style variable.
The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM): Psychometric Review and Further Validity Testing
Authors: Ponterotto Joseph G. , Gretchen Denise , Utsey Shawn O. , Stracuzzi Thomas , Saya Robert
Published: June 2003

This article examines the psychometric strengths and limitations of a widely used measure of ethnic identity development: the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM). A review of 12 studies incorporating the MEIM found its two subscales—Ethnic Identity (EI) and Other-Group Orientation (OGO)—to be relatively distinct, have satisfactory levels of internal consistency, and have moderate degrees of construct and criterion-related validity. The first confirmatory factor analysis ( N=219) of the MEIM is reported, the results of which indicate that a two-factor structure is a better fit than a global model but that the goodness of fit is mediocre. A follow-up exploratory factor analysis identified weaker items, and suggestions for possible MEIM revision are presented. Finally, the first formal readability analysis of the MEIM places item difficulty at the sixth- to seventh-grade level.
An Examination of the Test Scores of the Folger and Konovsky Measure of Procedural Justice
Authors: DeConinck James B. , King Wesley C.
Published: June 2003

This study examines the validity of the Folger and Konovsky measure of procedural justice through confirmatory factor analysis of data from two distinct samples: 416 bank employees and 221 marketing managers. The results failed to support the original three-factor structure of feedback, recourse, and planning, but indicated that feedback and planning could be collapsed into one factor. Analysis of the results from the original feedback and planning subscales indicate that a construct underlying the items in these two subscales is the communication relationship between the manager and the employee.
Skepticist Philosophy as Ethnomethodology
Authors: Dennis Alex
Published: June 2003

Ethnomethodology is in trouble, its conceptual apparatus prone to indifference or misunderstanding both from “conventional” sociologists and from its own practitioners. This article describes some of these loci of confusion and suggests that they have a common root in the relationship between ethnomethodology and conventional sociology. Ethnomethodologists' desire to find a principled theoretical framework for dealing with this relationship is shown to be the common basis for subsequent confusion, and some of the corollaries of their putative solution(s) are elaborated with regard to their philosophical and programmatic implications.
A New Societist Social Ontology
Authors: Schatzki Theodore R.
Published: June 2003

This article delineates a new type of social ontology—site ontology—and defends a particular version of that type. The first section establishes the distinctiveness of site ontologies over both individualist ontologies and previous societist ones. The second section then shows how site ontologies elude two pervasive criticisms, that of incompleteness directed at individualism and that of reification leveled at societism. The third section defends a particular site ontology, one that depicts the social as a mesh of human practices and material arrangements. The article concludes by outlining what is involved in giving site-ontological analyses of social things.
Nonreductive Individualism Part II—Social Causation
Authors: Sawyer R. Keith
Published: June 2003

In Part I, the author argued for nonreductive individualism (NRI), an account of the individual-collective relation that is ontologically individualist yet rejects methodological individualism. However, because NRI is ontologically individualist, social entities and properties would seem to be only analytic constructs, and if so, they would seem to be epiphenomenal, since only real things can have causal power. In general, a nonreductionist account is a relatively weak defense of sociological explanation if it cannot provide an account of how social properties can participate in causal relations. In this article, the author extends NRI to address this weakness and provides an account of social causation that he refers to as supervenient causation.
Linguistic Archaeology
Authors: Trudgill Peter , MaClagan Margaret , Lewis Gillian
Published: June 2003

Approximately 20 percent of the original settlers to New Zealand came from Scotland, and Scottish influence is still visible around New Zealand and in New Zealand English (NZE) vocabulary. But the phonological systems of NZE and Scottish English are so different that it is difficult to see any residual influence of the early Scottish settlers in New Zealand pronunciation today. In this study, the authors use a database of historical recordings held in the Origins of New Zealand English project to track the possible influence of the early Scottish settlers on modern NZE phonology. They show that although the centralized vowel in the lexical set of KIT is not a legacy from the early Scottish settlers, Scottish English nevertheless had a discernible influence as NZE developed out of the initial dialect-contact situation in which the first European settlers found themselves.
Causative Get and Have
Authors: Gilquin Gaëtanelle
Published: June 2003

The study presented here centers on the causative verbs get and have. Within the framework of frame semantics and on the basis of corpus data, it is shown that the two verbs have a number of features in common but also present important differences. In addition, this study is an illustration of how the cognitive theory of frame semantics can be combined with a corpusbased approach.
“God Forbid!”: A Historical Study of the Verb Forbid in Different Versions of the English Bible
Authors: Iyeiri Yoko
Published: June 2003

The present article discusses why the particular phrase God forbid alone preserves subordinate clauses (i.e., God forbid that...), even in Present-day English, whereas forbid normally takes infinitives with to. Apparently, there was an interesting gap of usage between the God forbid type and the other uses of forbid from the beginning, which is most outstandingly illustrated by the absence of expletive negation after God forbid. However, the decline of expletive negation in general from the later Middle English period onward made the gap smaller. God forbid could have merged into the development of the other uses of forbid if the expansion of the use of infinitives after the ordinary type of forbid had occurred slightly earlier.
Continuing and Changing Group Identities: The Effects of Merging on Social Identification and Ingroup Bias
Authors: van Leeuwen Esther , van Knippenberg Daan , Ellemers Naomi
Published: June 2003

A social identity approach to the investigation of group-based reactions to a merger is outlined, in which a merger is analyzed in terms of the continuation or change of the pre-merger group identity. In two experiments, the relationship between pre-merger identification, post-merger identification, and ingroup bias was investigated using a minimal group paradigm. Results from both studies showed that the perceived continuation of the premerger group identity in the post-merger group strengthened the positive relationship between pre-merger identification and identification with the superordinate post-merger group. Moreover, perceived continuation strengthened, rather than reduced, ingroup bias at the subordinate level of the merged groups. Some theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Prior Source Exposure and Persuasion: Further Evidence for Misattributional Processes
Authors: Weisbuch Max , Mackie Diane M. , Garcia-Marques Teresa
Published: June 2003

To assess the persuasive impact of prior source exposure, two studies paired persuasive messages with a source to whom participants had previously been exposed subliminally, explicitly, or not at all. In Experiment 2, participants' attention also was drawn to information that potentially undermined the implications of any reaction to re-exposure. Compared to no exposure, prior subliminal exposure increased the source's persuasiveness, an effect not mediated by source liking. Explicit exposure increased source persuasiveness to the extent that the source was liked more and only absent a recall cue. Results favored misattributional accounts of prior exposure effects.
Level of Self-Esteem and Contingencies of Self-Worth: Unique Effects on Academic, Social, and Financial Problems in College Students
Authors: Crocker Jennifer , Luhtanen Riia K.
Published: June 2003

The unique effects of level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college on academic, social, and financial problems experienced during the freshman year were examined in a longitudinal study of 642 college students. Low self-esteem predicted social problems, even controlling for demographic and personality variables (neuroticism, agreeableness, and social desirability), but did not predict academic or financial problems with other variables controlled. Academic competence contingency predicted academic and financial problems and appearance contingency predicted financial problems, even after controlling for relevant personality variables. We conclude that contingencies of self-worth uniquely contribute to academic and financial difficulties experienced by college freshmen beyond level of self-esteem and other personality variables. Low self-esteem, on the other hand, appears to uniquely contribute to later social difficulties.
Social Interactions and Cardiovascular Reactivity during Problem Disclosure among Friends
Authors: Fritz Heidi L. , Nagurney Alexander J. , Helgeson Vicki S.
Published: June 2003

The authors examined the relations of social interactions with cardiovascular response in the context of two friends disclosing a problem. They also examined the relations of the sex composition of the dyad and partner gender-related traits (communion/agency) with social interactions. Same-sex and opposite-sex dyads (N = 79) came to the lab. One friend disclosed a real-life problem while the partner provided support; cardiovascular response was monitored. Women provided more emotional support than men, and this sex difference was due to women's higher levels of communion. Agency was linked with greater advice, whereas unmitigated communion was linked with greater negative interactions. Negative interactions predicted slower diastolic blood pressure (DBP) recovery, whereas advice predicted slower heart rate (HR) recovery. Sex composition of dyad moderated some of these effects.
Identification and Status Revisited: The Moderating Role of Self-Enhancement and Self-Transcendence Values
Authors: Roccas Sonia
Published: June 2003

Two studies examined the moderating role of the importance attributed to self-enhancement and self-transcendence values on the association of group status with identification. In the first study, students reported their personal value priorities, their identification with a group, and their perception of the status of that group. The more importance respondents attributed to self-enhancement and the less importance to self-transcendence, the more their identification with a group depended on the group's status. In the second study, the salience of self-enhancement and of self-transcendence values was experimentally manipulated. Identification with a group depended more on the status of that group when self-enhancement values were salient than when self-transcendence values were salient.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Work Orientations as Moderators of the Effect of Annual Income on Subjective Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: Malka Ariel , Chatman Jennifer A.
Published: June 2003

Income is only weakly associated with both subjective well-being (SWB) and job satisfaction in the United States, a surprising finding in light of the importance placed on financial status in capitalistic societies. To explore this further, the authors examined intrinsic and extrinsic work orientations as potential moderators of the effects of financial compensation on SWB and job satisfaction. Master's of business administration students (N = 124) completed measures of work orientation and, 4 to 9 years later, reported their current salary, SWB, and job satisfaction. As predicted, individuals high in extrinsic orientation experienced higher SWB and job satisfaction to the degree that they earned more money, whereas those high in intrinsic orientation were lower on SWB at higher income levels. These findings are discussed in terms of the Values as Moderators Perspective of SWB and Cognitive Evaluation Theory.
A Four-Component Model of Procedural Justice: Defining the Meaning of a “Fair” Process
Authors: Blader Steven L. , Tyler Tom R.
Published: June 2003

Two studies test the prediction of the four-component model of procedural justice that people evaluate the fairness of group procedures using four distinct types of judgment. The model hypothesizes that people are influenced by two aspects of the formal procedures of the group: those aspects that relate to decision making and those that relate to the quality of treatment that group members are entitled to receive under the rules. In addition, people are hypothesized to be separately influenced by two aspects of the authorities with whom they personally deal: the quality of decision making by those authorities and the quality of the treatment that they receive from them. The results of two studies support the hypothesis of the four-component model by finding that all four of the procedural judgments identified by the model contribute to overall evaluations of the fairness of group procedures.
Measuring Individual Differences in the Tendency to Forgive: Construct Validity and Links with Depression
Authors: Brown Ryan P.
Published: June 2003

Four studies examine the construct validity of the Tendency to Forgive Scale (TTF), a brief measure of dispositional forgiveness. Study 1 showed that romantic partners' ratings of targets converged with targets' self-ratings, and Study 2 demonstrated that higher scores on the TTF were associated with lower offense accessibility. Study 3 examined the TTF's relation to self-reported depression symptoms, both independent of and interacting with attitudes toward forgiveness and dispositional vengeance. Lower TTF scores were associated with higher degrees of depression, especially for individuals with positive attitudes toward forgiveness or those low in dispositional vengeance, although neither of these latter variables displayed significant zero-order relations with depression. Finally, Study 4 examined relations between the TTF, dispositional empathy, another recent measure of dispositional forgiveness, and the dimensions of the Big Five, providing both convergent and discriminant validity evidence for the TTF.
It's Not My Fault: When and Why Attributions to Prejudice Protect Self-Esteem
Authors: Major Brenda , Kaiser Cheryl R. , McCoy Shannon K.
Published: June 2003

This study tested the hypothesis that awareness of the possibility of being a target of discrimination can provide individuals with a means of self-esteem protection when they are faced with negative outcomes. Men and women contemplated being rejected from a course due to sexism, personal deservingness, or an exclusively external cause. Regardless of gender, participants in the sexism condition blamed themselves less, attributed the rejection less to internal causes, and anticipated feeling less depressed than those in the personal deservingness condition. Furthermore, the more participants discounted the rejection—blamed it more on discrimination than themselves—the less depressed emotions they anticipated feeling. Discounting did not buffer participants from feeling hostility or anxiety. These findings advance our understanding of when and why attributions to prejudice protect emotional well-being.
Stereotype Threat and Arousal: Effects on Women's Math Performance
Authors: O'Brien Laurie T. , Crandall Christian S.
Published: June 2003

Theories of arousal suggest that arousal should decrease performance on difficult tasks and increase performance on easy tasks. An experiment tested the hypothesis that the effects of stereotype threat on performance are due to heightened arousal. The authors hypothesized that telling participants that a math test they are about to take is known to have gender differences would cause stereotype threat in women but not in men. In the experiment, each participant took two tests—a difficult math test and an easy math test. Compared to women in a “no differences” condition, women in the “gender differences” condition scored better on the easy math test and worse on the difficult math test. Men's performance was unaffected by the manipulation. These data are consistent with an arousal-based explanation of stereotype threat effects. Data were inconsistent with expectancy, evaluation apprehension, and persistence explanations of the stereotype threat phenomenon.
The Antecedents and Implications of Interracial Anxiety
Authors: Plant E. Ashby , Devine Patricia G.
Published: June 2003

Drawing on previous theorizing from both the prejudice and social anxiety literatures, a model of the antecedents and implications of intergroup anxiety is offered. It is argued that a lack of positive previous experiences with outgroup members creates negative expectancies about interracial interactions, which result in intergroup anxiety. This anxiety is posited to result in heightened hostility toward outgroup members and a desire to avoid interacting with outgroup members. Study 1 examined White participants' responses to interacting with Black people using a range of self-report measures; the associations between these responses supported the relationships outlined in the model. Study 2 explored White participants' responses to an anticipated interaction with a Black person or a White person. The findings revealed that high levels of anxiety about an interaction with a Black person, but not a White person, were associated with a lower likelihood of returning for the interaction.
Evidence and the Future of Medicine
Authors: Miké Valerie
Published: June 2003

For the foreseeable future, the rapid influx of information from sequencing the human genome will raise to a still higher level the complexity of scientific and ethical issues confronting the practice of medicine. Sustained attention to the nature and quality of medical evidence and the extent of medical uncertainty is thus important for all concerned—health care providers, policy makers, the media, and the general public. The situation poses a special challenge for educators. This article presents the author's Ethics of Evidence, an approach for dealing with the uncertainties of medicine in the full context of contemporary culture. Meant to be of service to all of society, the Ethics of Evidence can be symbolized by a lighthouse—a beacon to warn of danger and to show the way. It is illustrated here by the example of hypertension, a medical condition afflicting tens of millions of Americans.
The Use of Placebo Interventions in Medical Practice—A National Questionnaire Survey of Danish Clinicians
Authors: Hróbjartsson Asbjørn , Norup Michael
Published: June 2003

The authors sent a questionnaire to 772 randomly selected Danish clinicians and asked them about their use of placebo interventions. Sixty-five percent responded. Among the general practitioners, 86% (95% confidence interval 81-91) reported to have used placebo interventions at least once, and 48% (41-55) to have used placebo interventions more than ten times, within the last year. Hospital-based doctors and private specialists reported to have used placebo interventions less frequently (p <.001). The most important reason for the use of placebo interventions was to avoid a confrontation with the patient. Typical placebos were antibiotics for viral infections. Approximately 30% (28-36) of the clinicians believed in an effect of placebo interventions on objective outcomes, and 46% (42-50) found clinical placebo interventions generally ethically acceptable.
Context Effects
Authors: Di Blasi Zelda , Kleijnen Jos
Published: June 2003

This article provides an analysis of the way in which placebo effects could be investigated and taken into account, supported by a description of some of the major articles that have been published on this topic. Based on conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues, the authors highlight some of the reasons for current controversies regarding the nature of placebo effects. They suggest the use of the term context effects to overcome some of the negative connotations associated with the term placebo and to highlight the therapeutic nature of the health care context, and they present the major findings and limitations from their systematic review of the therapeutic effects of health care interactions. Recommendations for future research are proposed.
Measurement in Abstinence Education
Authors: Smith Thomas E. , Steen Julie A. , Spaulding-Givens Jennifer , Schwendinger Andrea
Published: June 2003

The purpose of this article is to identify, assess, and offer solutions to common measurement errors found in sexual abstinence education evaluation. A critical review of the methodology of adolescent sexuality research was performed. “Gold standards” of their measurement strategy were derived and applied against 14 selected studies. Many of the articles reviewed had substantial limitations in their measurement strategies. However, several articles demonstrated excellence and serve as models for future efforts. Sexual abstinence education evaluation is plagued by the inherent weaknesses of self-report and health outcome measures. However, with careful adherence to the gold standards proposed, it is possible to limit the threat from these weaknesses, maximizing the benefit of self-report surveys and county-level health indicators.
Evaluability Assessment
Authors: Thurston Wilfreda E. , Graham Jennifer , Hatfield Jennifer
Published: June 2003

Using a local cross-cultural health service program as a framework, the authors describe the process of an evaluability assessment (EA) and illustrate how it can be a catalyst for program change. An EA is a process that improves evaluation. The key product was a logic model, which traces the links between objectives, activities, and outcomes. Four key insights emerged. First, the distinction of who was included and excluded in the target population, originally ambiguous, was clearly defined. Second, through the development of the logic model, staff members were able to analyze their goals and assumptions and critically explore possible gaps between expected outcomes and activities. Third, the EA enabled reflection on and clarification of both process and outcome measures. Finally, global goals were pared down to better match the project capacity. Developing an evaluability assessment was a cost-effective way to collaborate with staff to develop a clearer, more evaluable project.
Toward Validation of an Assessment Tool Designed to Measure Medical Students' Integration of Scientific Knowledge and Clinical Communication Skills
Authors: Hugh Feeley Thomas , Manyon Andrea T. , Servoss Timothy J. , Panzarella Karen J.
Published: June 2003

This article reports on a study undertaken to validate an assessment tool of medical students' ability to integrate clinical skills and scientific knowledge within the patient encounter. One hundred forty first-year medical students at the State University of New York at Buffalo examined a standardized patient with either acute lower back pain or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Forty-eight clinical exams were evaluated by two raters to test the interrater reliability of the instrument. Results were promising but mixed. The tool displayed high internal consistency. However, results from a generalizability study indicated that a significant amount of variance in student scores was due to faculty raters. It is recommended that future studies undertake a training workshop for raters and examine different cases in an effort to expand the flexibility of the instrument.
A Short History of Randomized Experiments in Criminology
Authors: Farrington David P.
Published: June 2003

This article discusses advantages of randomized experiments and key issues raised in the following articles. The main concern is the growth and decrease in the use of randomized experiments by the California Youth Authority, the U.S. National Institute of Justice, and the British Home Office, although other experiments are also discussed. It is concluded that feast and famine periods are influenced by key individuals. It is recommended that policy makers, practitioners, funders, the mass media, and the general public need better education in research quality so that they can tell the difference between good and poor evaluation studies. They might then demand better evaluations using randomized experiments.
The “Experimenting Agency”
Authors: Palmer Ted , Petrosino Anthony
Published: June 2003

During the 1960s and 1970s, the California Youth Authority embarked on a series of randomized field trials to test interventions for juvenile and young adult offenders. This article examines the institutional and political reasons why rigorous tests were adopted for such interventions as the Community Treatment Program. It also describes the effect these trials had on the agency and on California justice, as well as how the experimental method eventually became less often used in the Youth Authority. The authors explore some general reasons why this happened.
The Home Office and Random Allocation Experiments
Authors: Nuttall Christopher
Published: June 2003

By examining the history of the random experiment in the Home Office in the United Kingdom, this article demonstrates that research is not an altogether rational process and that fashion, personality, and politics are at least as important as science and evidence when setting research and policy programs and determining methodologies. The article also shows that even in 1970, the research world was a village and that issues and fashions on one side of it could determine the outcome of decisions on the other side, even though they had no direct relevance. On a more optimistic note, the article shows how the fashions go in cycles so that if you could not get the research funded in the last cycle, just wait 20 years for the cycle to come around and try again.
Explaining Feast or Famine in Randomized Field Trials
Authors: Shepherd Jonathen P.
Published: June 2003

A feast of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in medical science and comparative famine in criminology can be explained in terms of cultural and structural factors. Of central importance is the context in which the evaluation of interventions is done and the difference in status of situational research in the two disciplines. Evaluation of medical interventions has traditionally been led by practitioner (clinical) academics. This is not the case in criminal justice, where theory has had higher status than intervention research. Medical science has advanced in, or closely associated with, university teaching hospitals, but links between criminology and criminal justice services are far more tenuous. The late development of situational crime prevention seems extraordinary from a medical perspective, as does the absence of university police schools in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. These structural and cultural factors explain concentration of expectation, resource, and RCT productivity in medical science. The Campbell Collaboration and the Academy of Experimental Criminology are forces which are reducing this polarization of feast and famine in RCTs. But unless scientific criminology is embedded in university schools which are responsible for the education and training of law, probation, and police practitioners, convergence in terms of RCTs and implementation of findings in practice seems unlikely.
The Production of Criminological Experiments
Authors: Garner Joel H. , Visher Christy A.
Published: June 2003

The article examines the production of crime and justice field experiments during the 1990s. Data were collected on the characteristics of criminological experiments funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the principal research agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, during the 10-year period from 1991 through 2000. The analyses find that, whereas the funds available for research and evaluation at the NIJ increased during this period, the number of projects and the amount of funds awarded supporting field experiments declined. The article describes the characteristics of the experiments funded and assesses the extent to which the reduced support can be attributed to the characteristics of NIJ research funding, research topics, researchers, or criminal justice operational agencies.
Ethical Practice and Evaluation of Interventions in Crime and Justice
Authors: Weisburd David
Published: June 2003

In considering the ethical dilemmas associated with randomized experiments, scholars ordinarily focus on the ways in which randomization of treatments or interventions violates accepted norms of conduct of social science research more generally or evaluation of crime and justice questions more specifically. The weight of ethical judgment is thus put on experimental research to justify meeting ethical standards. In this article, it is argued that just the opposite should be true, and that in fact there is a moral imperative for the conduct of randomized experiments in crime and justice. That imperative develops from our professional obligation to provide valid answers to questions about the effectiveness of treatments, practices, and programs. It is supported by a statistical argument that makes randomized experiments the preferred method for ruling out alternative causes of the outcomes observed. Common objections to experimentation are reviewed and found overall to relate more to the failure to institutionalize experimentation than to any inherent limitations in the experimental method and its application in crime and justice settings. It is argued that the failure of crime and justice practitioners, funders, and evaluators to develop a comprehensive infrastructure for experimental evaluation represents a serious violation of professional standards.
Enhancing the Perceived Health of HIV Seropositive Men
Authors: Heinrich Carol R.
Published: June 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between hope, social support, uncertainty in illness, and spirituality and their effect on the perceived health of HIV seropositive men. A prospective design was used to test a causal model on a sample of 125 HIV seropositive men recruited from urban HIV/AIDS outpatient clinics. A goodness of fit index of .90 and a comparative fit index of .79 indicated minimal fit of the theorized model with the data. Findings revealed significant, positive paths from hope to perceived health and from spirituality to hope. Significant negative paths were found between social support and uncertainty in illness and uncertainty in illness and hope. The level of hope may play an important role in enhancing health of HIV seropositive men.
Ethnicity and Prenatal Health Promotion Content
Authors: Vonderheid Susan C. , Montgomery Kristen S. , Norr Kathleen F.
Published: June 2003

Prenatal care health promotion education is an important strategy for reducing perinatal health disparities. The purposes of this study were to (a) identify differences between the health promotion content women wanted to discuss and the content women reported discussing and (b) determine whether ethnicity was related to health promotion content. A cross-sectional study used face-to-face interviews to obtain data about 159 Mexican American and African American pregnant women's prenatal experience. Women wanted more health promotion content than they discussed. Despite wanting information about more health promotion topics than African American women. Mexican American women discussed fewer topics. Ethnicity, number of topics women wanted to discuss, whether a woman had a primary provider, and type of prenatal provider model were also related to content.
Dieting, Perceived Deprivation, and Preoccupation with Food
Authors: Timmerman Gayle M. , Gregg Elizabeth K.
Published: June 2003

A prospective study using 14-day food diaries was conducted to determine whether perceived deprivation and preoccupation with food correspond to actual caloric and fat intake, using a sample of 121 adult women who were binge eating without purging or were currently dieting. Caloric and fat intake were not significantly related to perceived deprivation. Only weight cycling and Revised Restraint Scale was significantly correlated with perceived deprivation with 11% of the variation explained by the Revised Restraint Scale scores. These findings support the contention that psychological deprivation occurs regardless of caloric intake. For preoccupation with food, only fat intake and Revised Restraint Scale scores were significantly correlated with 15% of the variance explained by the Revised Restraint Scale scores.
A Qualitative Investigation of Fatigue among Healthy Working Adults
Authors: Aaronson Lauren S. , Pallikkathayil Leonie , Crighton Frances
Published: June 2003

Despite considerable attention to fatigue in acute and chronic illnesses, little is known about fatigue in a healthy population. A detailed exploration of fatigue, therefore, was conducted to answer the broad question of what fatigue is to a basically healthy population and to lay the groundwork for establishing an empirically based definition of fatigue. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Results of the qualitative phase of the study, in which 40 persons were interviewed, are presented here. Categories and themes of the experience of fatigue were identified. Based on the qualitative findings, we propose that fatigue in generally healthy adults is an acute, subjective, sometimes overwhelming, but temporary state (with physical, emotional, and behavioral manifestations) caused by stress and overwork in one's life roles, which disrupts activity and alerts the person to take restorative measures.
Magnet Hospital Nurses Describe Control Over Nursing Practice
Authors: Kramer Marlene , Schmalenberg Claudia E.
Published: June 2003

Staff nurses describe control over nursing practice (C/NP) as a professional nursing function made up of a variety of activities and outcomes. Greater acclaim, status, and prestige for nursing in the organization are viewed as a result, not a precursor, of C/NP. Interviews with 279 staff nurses working in 14 magnet hospitals indicated that effective C/NP requires some kind of empowered, formal organizational structure, extends beyond clinical decision making at the patient care interface, and is the same as or highly similar to what the literature describes as professional autonomy. From constant comparative analysis of nurses' descriptions of C/NP activities, five ranked categories of this real-life event emerged. The basis for the categories and ranking was “who owned the problem, issue, and solution” and the “degree of effectiveness of control” as reflected in visibility, viability, and recognition of a formal structure allowing and encouraging nurses' control over practice. Hospital mergers and structural reorganization were reported to negatively affect the structure needed for effective C/NP. Almost 60% of these magnet hospital staff nurses stated and/or described little or no C/NP.
Disentangling Perceptions of Subtle Racist Speech
Authors: Leets Laura
Published: June 2003

This investigation assesses E. Hall's 1976 communication context as one explanatory mechanism governing interethnic perceptions of subtle racist speech. Six hundred thirteen participants evaluated the perceived harm of direct and indirect racist slurs made by a White (European American) speaker to a non-White (Asian, African, or Hispanic American) target. A series of 2×2×2 (Message Explicitness: Direct vs. Indirect × Group Membership: In-Group vs. Out-Group × Racial Slurs: Roommate vs. Class Discussion) mixed-effects ANOVAs revealed that lower and higher context communication styles mediated the perception of racist speech harm. Asian Americans were more sensitive to the communication context, evaluating indirect racist speech as the most problematic; whereas European, African, and Hispanic Americans relied more on the actual message, rating direct racist statements most disturbing. Both theoretical and applied implications of the findings are discussed.
Healthy Living and Keeping Busy
Authors: Breheny Mary , Stephens Christine
Published: June 2003

Menopause is a complex time in the lives of mid-aged women, and this contributes to the diversity of attributions of menopausal experience. In this study, participants' comments on a survey of attitudes about menopause were analyzed discursively to consider how mid-aged women account for their own and other women's experience of menopause. Two discourses drawn upon to make attributions about menopausal experience were identified. Women account for menopausal experience either by reporting a range of healthy habits such as good diet and exercise or by suggesting women can overcome menopause with a “get-on-with-it” approach to life. These discourses construct women as social actors within a moral order in which the absence of menopausal symptoms is an indicator of virtuous behavior, and health is a moral imperative. The way these attributions of menopausal experience position mid-aged women has important implications for women's self-image and health-seeking behaviors.
Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language
Authors: Clément Richard , Baker Susan C. , MacIntyre Peter D.
Published: June 2003

Past research has focused primarily on second language (L2) acquisition as a tool for promoting intercultural communication. The social context model, for example, stresses the importance of contact, L2 confidence, and identity in acquiring a L2. The willingness to communicate (WTC) model, however, emerged from a concern with the functions of L2 use. This study combines these two models to consider both contextual and individual difference variables in L2 use. Participants were 130 Anglophone (majority) and 248 Francophone (minority) students attending a Canadian bilingual university. Path analyses supported a model in which context, individual, and social factors were all important determinants of L2 use, although patterns of relations differed depending on the ethnolinguistic vitality of the group. The importance of subjective norms was further confirmed as moderators of the relationship between L2 confidence and identity among Francophones. Results are discussed within the context of current models of intergroup communication.
Language, Gender Salience, and Social Influence
Authors: Reid Scott A. , Keerie Natasha , Palomares Nicholas A.
Published: June 2003

Reductionist explanations for gender differences in language use continue to occupy much research attention. However, such approaches cannot explain when or why people might change their gender-marked language use. This article reviews and critiques several of these approaches and tests an alternative from the perspective of self-categorization theory. Male-female dyads (N = 42) discussed a gender-neutral controversial issue under conditions of low or high gender salience. When a shared student identity was salient, males and females used tentative language with equal frequency; but when gender was salient, women used more tentative language than men and held the floor longer. Furthermore, women who used more tentative language were more influential with men, but only when student identity was salient. The article suggests that women's tentative language use is influential with men when it serves to unconsciously confirm men's wider, socialstructural advantages over women.
The Errors of Thamus: An Analysis of Technology Critique
Authors: Rose Ellen
Published: June 2003

The anti-utopian technology critique of Ellul, Postman, and other important social analysts has been the primary mode of critical response to technological developments since the 1950s. However, this mode of technology critique has had a disappointingly small effect on the way we, as a society, receive technology. Rather than attribute this failure to the negativity of the anti-utopian perspective, this article suggests that there are other important and largely overlooked factors at work—in particular, the critics' inability to speak about technology in a way that relates to us as social individuals coping with the contingencies and realities of the day-to-day use of technological devices. The purpose of this analysis is not to suggest that we abandon as irrelevant the work and ideas of technology critics such as Ellul and Postman but, on the contrary, to find a way to reframe their important ideas for wider acceptance.
The Politics of State Legislature Web Sites: Making E-Government More Participatory
Authors: Ferber Paul , Foltz Franz , Pugliese Rudy
Published: June 2003

Web sites of the 50 state legislatures are evaluated on five criteria: content, usability, interactivity, transparency, and audience. An overall quality score for each site was computed. The evaluation revealed a wide range of quality in the sites, including that of features or aspects that could possibly foster citizen participation. The higher rated sites help define “best practices” in this regard and provide suggestions as to how other states' sites might make improvements and possibly increase participation.
Smart Men, Beautiful Women: Social Values and Gamete Commodification
Authors: Schonfeld Toby L.
Published: June 2003

For couples for whom assisted reproduction is the only way to have genetically related offspring, the donation of gametes by others makes available enhanced reproductive options. There has been an increasing demand for such services, as evidenced by the Web site launched by fashion photographer Ron Harris in the fall of 1999. Although the sale of such gametes is not new, this Web site does speak to a different set of priorities and values than has been witnessed in the context of assisted reproduction: the selection of particular traits, in effect, the creation of designer babies. With the expanding demand for such services come expanded liabilities, which are the focus of this article. The author argues that this kind of commodification of gametes reinforces dubious social attitudes, leads to potential harms for the children created by this technology, and suggests a departure from traditional paradigms in medicine: a departure in an ill-advised direction.
Halting Proliferation of Long-Range Ballistic Missiles
Authors: Shanebrook J. Richard
Published: June 2003

This article presents a plan of action to begin the process of halting proliferation of long-range ballistic missiles. These missiles are deemed particularly dangerous due to their ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, and chemical warheads) over intercontinental distances. Two treaties are proposed to help control the proliferation of these missiles. They are a Ballistic Missile Non-Proliferation Treaty and a Test Ban Treaty for Long-Range Ballistic Missiles. Provision is made for peaceful launches of satellites and space missions.