bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unemployment and Health in Sweden: Public Issues and Private Troubles
Authors: Brenner Sten‐Olof , Starrin Bengt
Published: April 2010

The unemployment rate for a country seems to reflect unemployment policies rather than economic conditions. Variations in employment rates for selected Western countries are presented as a background for a discussion of unemployment and its individual and societal consequences in Sweden. Unemployment is both a private trouble—where individuals see the possibility of controlling their own lives diminishing, which leads to increased risk for psychological and physiological stress—and a public issue, for increased unemployment is associated with societal vulnerability, social polarization, and the breakdown of community ties, which lead to increased societal stress and increased mortality on the national and the community levels. However, for the large majority of workers, the Swedish welfare system buffers first against unemployment, and second against its negative economic effects. Less than 2% of the workforce are exposed to unemployment, and a minority of the unemployed seem negatively affected by the unemployment experience. An empirical longitudinal study of unemployed blue‐collar workers and two employed control groups indicated that a coping orientation involving an attitude of mastery or perceived control buffered against psychological and physiological stress reactions.
Psychological Weil‐Being Among Unemployed and Employed People After a Company Closedown: A Longitudinal Study
Authors: Iversen Lars , Sabroe Svend
Published: April 2010

In a three‐year longitudinal study, we examined the effects of unemployment and the fear of becoming unemployed on the psychological well‐being of 1153 employees at a shipyard that was closed down, and a control group of 441 employees from another, operative shipyard. On all three questionnaires, unemployed people were significantly lower in psychological well‐being than employed people. Change to or from employment was significantly associated with changes in psychological well‐being, whereas remaining employed or unemployed did not lead to any systematic changes in psychological well‐being. Among employed people, the fear of unemployment was strongly associated with reduced psychological well‐being. Thus, the health‐related consequences of unemployment affect not only the unemployed but also employed people who have little job security. Consequently, we stress the need to create new workplaces and to implement reforms that can reduce job insecurity in the labor market.
The Visual Environment: Public Participation in Design and Planning
Authors: Kaplan Stephen , Kaplan Rachel
Published: April 2010

In the process of making environmental decisions, many intangible qualities of considerable psychological significance tend to be ignored. The difficulty of measuring intangibles and the frustration inherent in commonly used methods of obtaining public input are major obstacles to correcting this unfortunate situation. In this paper we suggest a strategy for overcoming these difficulties. A procedure is presented for obtaining public input with respect to such intangibles as aesthetic values in the visual environment. Several examples illustrate how the approach has been applied. The procedure differs from current practice in a number of respects. The Reasonable Person Model, offered here as a psychologically more appropriate framework than the widely adopted Rational Man position, provides both a rationale for these differences and a guide to their implementation. This model‐guided procedure can (a) make public concerns more articulate, (b) make better use of the talents of the environmental professional, and (c) make the process considerably more satisfying for all concerned.
Use of Evaluation to Improve Energy Conservation Programs: A Review and Case Study
Authors: Kushler Martin G.
Published: April 2010

Program evaluation is a powerful tool available to social scientists as they address the multifaceted problems in the field of environmental management. This article focuses on one area of environmental concern—energy conservation—and provides a brief review of the history of social science contributions in that area, together with a detailed case study centering on the very successful Michigan Residential Conservation Service home energy audit program. The purpose of this case study is to illustrate how the Michigan effort emphasized use of evaluation results both to cut program costs and to revise and improve program services. The successes described in this case study suggest that this type of pragmatic evaluation approach might be beneficially applied to other areas of environmental management as well.
Environmental Ethics
Authors: Seligman Clive
Published: April 2010

The central question in this article is, on what ethical basis should we decide how to deal with nature? One important issue is whether a human‐centered utilitarian perspective is sufficient to protect the environment and, if not, what alternatives are possible. A key philosophical problem concerns the extent to which inherent value can be ascribed to things that are not human, including animals, vegetation, and even land. Philosophers do not agree among themselves on these issues. This article proposes that an environmental ethic should explicitly consider the consistency of our environmental actions with our values. A concluding discussion shows how a psychological theory of values may provide some insights into the way we think about ethical dilemmas.
Trends and Patterns in Americans' Attitudes Toward the Soviet Union
Authors: Yatani Choichiro , Bramel Dana
Published: April 2010

National survey questions have been asked in the United States about the Soviet Union since 1937, with repeated use of standard global favorability questions by Gallup since 1953 and by NORC since 1974. Americans expressed declining negativity toward the Soviets from 1953 until 1974, then rising hostility until 1982–1983, with another decline between 1983 and 1988. Problems in interpreting such survey data are discussed, including discrepancies between closed and open questions. Although closed questions elicit generally negative attitudes, there is reason to question their salience and depth, just as Stouffer (1955) did in interpreting attitudes toward domestic communists during the McCarthy period. Survey data are used to explore two plausible theories about anti‐Soviet attitudes in the United States: that such attitudes are (a) primarily ideological, reflecting hostility toward socialism and communism as social systems, or (b) that they are mainly a function of U.S. nationalism, indicating that the Soviets are viewed as national rivals in a competition for world dominance. The available data, although far from adequate to the task, seem more consistent with the nationalism explanation.
College Students' Definitions and Images of Enemies
Authors: Holt Robert R.
Published: April 2010

In a study of enemy images, 57 introductory psychology students were individually interviewed and tested in the winter of 1985–1986. For most respondents, a personal enemy was someone who does or intends harm to you or betrays you, while incompatible religious or political views do not hinder friendship. In contrast, other countries were considered enemies of the United States on grounds of opposing values or policies as often as because of perceived threat or danger from them. Over 80% of respondents thought the Soviet Union can harm us and is our enemy, but only 16% believed it intends us harm. Stereotypy of enemy image was defined as the proportion of extreme enemy adjectives attributed to the people of a nation. Only 7% of respondents used a majority of their 5 choices from a list of 20 adjectives to attribute stereotyped enemy characteristics to “the Russians,” whereas stereotypy of enemy image for “Nicaraguans” was significantly greater. Results were interpreted as indicating a change in the meaning of the term enemy with the emergence of a generation having no personal experience of conventional wars.
Biases in the Perception and Cognition of the Actions of Enemies
Authors: Silverstein Brett , Flamenbaum Catherine
Published: April 2010

Several studies have demonstrated that once people perceive an individual or group as hostile or threatening, i.e., as an “enemy,” biases enter their processing of information in regard to the actions of that individual or group. These biases may affect any phase of social information processing, including attention, encoding, memory, assessment of credibility, evaluation of hostility, expectation of future action, and attribution. In this paper, we use data from published reports as well as previously unpublished studies to demonstrate that such biases affect how individual citizens of the United States and the U.S. media process information regarding the actions of the Soviet Union. This bias reinforces and exaggerates the U.S. enemy image of the Soviet Union.
Ingroup Biases and the U.S.‐Soviet Conflict
Authors: Burn Shawn M. , Oskamp Stuart
Published: April 2010

This paper examines the role of ingroup biases in the distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union, and how such biases may undermine international relations. Findings from a questionnaire administered to American community college adults showed that U.S. citizens favor their country over the Soviet Union and interpret government actions in ways that preserve their positive views of the United States and negative views of the USSR. Americans' perceptions of the Soviets were associated with the way they interpreted Soviet actions, and a negative interpretation of Soviet actions was related to policy support for the Strategic Defense Initiative and increased U.S. defense spending. Results also supported the “blacktop illusion”: a view of the other side's leadership as evil and coercive, and its people as controlled or manipulated by their government.
American Elite Views of Relations with the Soviet Union
Authors: Koopman Cheryl , Snyder Jack , Jervis Robert
Published: April 2010

This study examined American elite views of relations with the Soviet Union, and investigated the relative effects of respondents' views and certain kinds of evidence on policy responses to a hypothetical crisis in the Persian Gulf. Four orthogonal factors were found to describe current elite views: (1) support for detente, (2) support for deterrence, (3) assumptions of rationality and accuracy, and (4) rejection of a cold war perspective. Four kinds of evidence were manipulated in a hypothetical crisis scenario: (a) Soviet intentions, (b) the local conventional military balance, (c) the nuclear balance, and (d) the degree of U.S. interest in the region. All belief factors and all four kinds of evidence were found to influence the policy responses in meaningful ways. However, for all policy items, the belief factors accounted for a greater proportion of the variance. These results provide qualified support for the idea that policy responses directed toward managing an adversary are significantly “theory driven.”
Effects of an International Conflict Simulation on Perceptions of the Soviet Union: A FIREBREAKS Backfire
Authors: Trost Melanie R. , Cialdini Robert B. , Maass Anne
Published: April 2010

FIREBREAKS is a nuclear war education game in which participants role play U.S. or Soviet advisors weighing possible military action in a simulated Persian Gulf conflict. As a consequence of the insights gained from the experience, game participants are expected to show (a) reduced nationalism, (b) reduced negativity toward the Soviets, (c) less reliance on nuclear solutions to conflicts, and (d) greater political activism on nuclear topics. However, on the basis of social psychological theory and research, we predicted and found that the team competition character of the game would lead to intergroup hostility and bias, thereby inhibiting the achievement of the game's implicit goals. Most players became less inclined toward nuclear activism, and U.S. team members showed more favoritism toward the United States and more negativity toward the Soviet Union as a result of game participation. We also predicted that creating a superordinate (i.e., unifying) identity before splitting players into competing teams would reduce the bias and, consequently, the negative outcomes of the game, but this manipulation was not effective. The findings emphasize the need for social scientists to provide theory‐ and research‐based counsel to groups developing societal interventions, and the importance of doing so at the design stages.
After Deinstitutionalization: The Present and Future of Mental Health Long‐Term Care Policy
Authors: Shadish William R. , Lurigio Arthur J. , Lewis Dan A.
Published: April 2010

Deinstitutionalization is perhaps the most widely recognized term in mental health policy. It has dominated our thinking about policy, especially about mental health long‐term care policy, for nearly 30 years. But it is less clear that it is still the best way to characterize current mental health long‐term care, or the best policy for the future. In this article, we explore some reasons why this is so, and we present a new picture of current mental health long‐term care policy.
Seeking Person‐Environment Fit in Community Care Placement
Authors: Segal Steven P. , Silverman Carol , Baumohl Jim
Published: April 2010

Large numbers of patients leave mental hospitals to become residents of community‐based sheltered‐care facilities, yet little is known about how they use particular local environments to satisfy their needs and wants. This paper considers a crucial issue in community care placement, person‐environment fit, using survey data from interviews with 397 residents in 211 sheltered‐care facilities, drawn from 157 census tracts in California. It studies how individual characteristics interact with eight environmental contexts to influence sheltered‐care residents' external social integration. The results underline the power of social norms to determine ex‐patient outcomes within specific environments. Ex‐patients do relatively better in facility/community environments that allow their independent outreach, and also where they either share personal characteristics with the dominant social group or the dominant group is able to tolerate behavioral differences.
Worlds That Fail: A Longitudinal Study of Urban Mental Patients
Authors: Lurigio Arthur J. , Lewis Dan A.
Published: April 2010

This longitudinal study of state mental patients in Chicago investigated patient adjustment to everyday living outside state hospitals. Respondents (N = 313) were interviewed in person at the hospital and at two successive waves in the community, and a wide range of variables was measured. Findings showed that mental patients are overwhelmingly poor, unemployed, and on welfare. A substantial number are homeless, and many resort to criminal behavior as a means of support. The state hospital is often viewed as a place for meals, shelter, and companionship. Only about half of the patients receive help before returning to the hospital, and that help is mostly medication. Those who are younger and have a history of prior institutionalizations are most likely to be readmitted. Patients who refuse to sign into the state hospital are frequently persuaded or coerced to admit themselves “voluntarily” in order to circumvent the complicated involuntary commitment process. It is suggested that mental health care focus on helping patients handle everyday problems in living related to housing, jobs, and interpersonal relationships.
Deinstitutionalization: A Semantic Analysis
Authors: Bachrach Leona L.
Published: April 2010

Deinstitutionalization is a concept with multiple definitions and referents, and focused efforts must be made to remove some of the vagueness from this complex concept. An adequate definition of deinstitutionalization includes three primary processes: depopulation, or the shrinking of state hospital censuses; diversion, or the deflection of potential institutional admissions to community‐based service settings; and decentralization, or the broadening of responsibility for patient care from a single service entity to multiple service entities, with an attendant fragmentation of authority. Deinstitutionalization is a fact, a process, and a philosophy, and disjunctions among these aspects of the phenomenon must be reconciled.
Policies of Inclusion and the Mentally Ill: Long‐Term Care in a New Environment
Authors: Lewis Dan A. , Shadish William R. , Lurigio Arthur J.
Published: April 2010

We propose “policies of inclusion” as a conceptualization of current mental health long‐term care policy. Inclusionary policies refer to the fact that deinstitutionalization, and all the policy changes associated with it, resulted in the forcible inclusion back into society of patients formerly excluded by institutional placement. This compelled both society and the patient to change in profound but often unpredicted ways. This conceptualization can explain and unite many phenomena associated with deinstitutionalization—for example, how its problems resemble those of racial desegregation, why it results in increasing differentiation of types of patients, and how it turned what had formerly been a mental health problem into a broader welfare problem. The paper ends with suggestions about future research implied by this conceptualization.
Wage Discrimination and Comparable Worth: A Legal Perspective
Authors: Pinzler Isabelle Katz , Ellis Deborah
Published: April 2010

Federal law, as currently written, is theoretically capable of redressing widespread sex‐ and race‐based wage discrimination. However, courts are not now applying these laws in ways that will attain that goal. In legal terms, comparable worth does not describe a legal problem or a theory of liability. The problem is sex‐ and race‐based wage discrimination, and the theories of liability are classic employment discrimination theories. Comparable worth studies may be used as part of the proof that wage discrimination exists, and wages based upon the comparable worth of jobs may be ordered as a remedy if plaintiffs prove discrimination. This article discusses several ways to close the gap between courts' current approach and the law's potential to change wage inequities.
What the Common Economic Arguments Against Comparable Worth are Worth
Authors: Bergmann Barbara R.
Published: April 2010

Most economists believe the free market results in wage rates that are efficient and fair. Consequently, they oppose comparable worth proposals, which would require wage rates different from those the market has ordained. These views derive from economic models that ignore or deny the importance of social and psychological factors that lead to discrimination against women, and hence to a market that produces an unfair and distorted result. Comparable worth reforms would produce wage rates closer to those dictated by a nondiscriminatory market in which human capital is the main determinant of wages. Thus comparable worth could well improve the labor market rather than distort it. The experience of Australia suggests that predictions of widespread dislocations would prove false.
Fairness Conceptualizations and Comparable Worth
Authors: Hegtvedt Karen A.
Published: April 2010

What degree of equality or inequality between work and wages is fair? This paper examines wage‐setting policies as different conceptualizations of fairness. Focusing particularly on comparable worth as an alternative to existing wage‐setting policies, it demonstrates how social psychological approaches to justice contribute to the understanding of these policies. More specifically, it analyzes the contributions of research on distributive justice and procedural justice to understanding the determination of job worth and the dynamics of implementing comparable worth policy. The discussion illuminates theoretical issues regarding the nature of the relationship between individual deservingness, social fairness, and social power. Finally, suggestions are offered for future research that links policy with basic theoretical problems.
Measurement Error in Comparable Worth Pay Analysis: Causes, Consequences, and Corrections
Authors: Greig Jeffrey J. , Orazem Peter F. , Mattila J. Peter
Published: April 2010

This paper discusses various problems that may arise in a comparable worth pay analysis, as illustrated by experiences with comparable worth in Iowa and other states. These problems include the choice of the number and type of job factors, the method of assigning values to each job factor, the method of selecting factor weights, and political and other modifications made when a pay plan is implemented. Special attention is given to the role of market wages in setting wages in the context of an internal labor market and as part of the comparable worth pay analysis. The paper also analyzes the impact of interteam rater reliability on pay analysis and suggests a method for correcting for variation in reliability among the job factors.
Incorporating Employee Values in Job Evaluation
Authors: Beuhring Trisha
Published: April 2010

Concerns about the validity and reliability of existing job evaluation plans led the University of Minnesota's Personnel Department to design its own point‐factor plan based on employee values of job worth. Items for the new plan were selected by employee committees, grouped into factors, and weighted by means of a general employee survey. The items were turned into a job evaluation questionnaire for employees to use in describing their own positions, and the questionnaire was used to evaluate 1426 positions in a representative set of 125 job classes. These data provided a basis for refining the plan, assessing its validity and reliability, implementing comparable worth, and revising the university's position classification system.
Predicting the Effects of Comparable Worth Programs on Female Labor Supply
Authors: Nakamura Alice , Nakamura Masao
Published: April 2010

Economists have devoted considerable effort to analyzing wage effects on labor supply behavior. This research has broad policy implications since many government tax and transfer programs alter the wage rates that workers receive, or alter their perception of the value of the wages received. Comparable worth programs are explicitly intended to alter the wage rates of working women. Accepted theories in labor economics of how the female labor supply is affected by the wage offers that women receive are surveyed in this paper, and the implications concerning expected effects of comparable worth wage adjustments on female labor supply are summarized. Then available empirical evidence bearing on the theory of female labor supply is examined, and the stated implications for comparable worth programs are qualified.
Moral Exclusion and Injustice: An Introduction
Authors: Opotow Susan
Published: April 2010

Moral exclusion occurs when individuals or groups are perceived as outside the boundary in which moral values, rules, and considerations of fairness apply. Those who are morally excluded are perceived as nonentities, expendable, or undeserving. Consequently, harming or exploiting them appears to be appropriate, acceptable, or just. This broad definition encompasses both severe and mild forms of moral exclusion, from genocide to discrimination. The paper discusses the antecedents and symptoms of moral exclusion, and the interaction between the psychological and social factors that foster its development. Empirical research on moral exclusion is needed to pinpoint its causes, to predict its progression, and to effect change in social issues that involve the removal of victims from our moral communities. The last section of the paper introduces the articles that follow.
Alien Justice: The Exclusion of Haitian Refugees
Authors: DeWind Josh
Published: April 2010

Although international agreements require states to protect refugees from persecution, frequently national security interests lead them to exclude refugees from justice. The problem is illustrated by the U.S. government's policy of denying asylum to Haitian refugees. By prejudging Haitians to be “economic migrants,” denying them access to fair hearings of their asylum applications, and deporting them to Haiti, U.S. government officials have deprived Haitian refugees of just treatment. These actions appear to have been motivated by national security interests, particularly the U.S. alliance with the Haitian government against communism. The unjust treatment of Haitians, who were the first large nationality group to seek asylum in the United States, has set a pattern that has been applied to other groups of refugees fleeing persecution by governments allied with the United States. Assuring that the United States would fairly adjudicate asylum applications would require institutional separation of the adjudication process from the management of foreign affairs.
The Japanese‐American Internment: Perceptions of Moral Community, Fairness, and Redress
Authors: Nagata Donna K.
Published: April 2010

This paper examines the issues of moral community, fairness, and redress with reference to the Japanese‐American internment of World War II. Perspectives on these issues are presented for three different groups of individuals affected by the internment: the Caucasian Americans who supported the internment, the Nisei, or second‐generation Japanese Americans who were interned, and their children, the Sansei generation. Finally, a comparison across the perspectives of the three groups is given.
Local Research
Authors: Sommer Robert
Published: April 2010

Setting‐specific research has a long and honored tradition in the natural sciences. The value of this approach for action research in social psychology is discussed. Key concepts include local variation, seeing the general in the specific, connectedness as the fundamental law of ecology, and the value of field stations for community research.
Constantly Compromised: The Impact of Homelessness on Children
Authors: Molnar Janice M. , Rath William R. , Klein Tovah P.
Published: April 2010

This review summarizes the small body of research and literature to date that focuses on the specific effects of homelessness on children. In each of the major areas surveyed—health, development, and education—studies reveal that homeless children are not simply at risk; most suffer specific physical, psychological, and emotional damage due to the circumstances that usually accompany episodes of homelessness for families and children. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the research and policy implications of this research.
Disaffiliation to Entrenchment: A Model for Understanding Homelessness
Authors: Grigsby Charles , Baumann Donald , Gregorich Steven E. , Roberts‐Gray Cynthia
Published: April 2010

The diversity of homeless people and the complexity of their problems challenge our understanding of how best to serve them. This article argues that disaffiliation and reaffiliation processes are keys to understanding entrenchment in homelessness and developing remediation strategies. Survey data collected from 166 homeless persons in Austin, Texas, identified four clusters: (1) the Recently Dislocated have small social networks and mild mental health problems; (2) the Vulnerable have been homeless longer, have fewer people in their social networks, and border on severe dysfunction; (3) the Outsiders have been homeless about as long as the Vulnerable but have much larger social networks and function as well as the Recently Dislocated; (4) the Prolonged have been homeless for more than five years, have few people in their networks, and appear moderately dysfunctional. Comparison of life experiences of these four groups provided information on the social processes leading toward entrenchment in homelessness.
Family Homelessness: A Systemic Problem
Authors: McChesney Kay Young
Published: April 2010

Homelessness is analyzed systemically in terms of the “low‐income housing ratio”—the number of households living below the poverty line divided by the number of affordable housing units available. When there is a shortage of affordable low‐cost housing units, some low‐income households pay more than they can afford for housing and others double up with friends or family. However, once those households that can pay more or double up have done so, if there are still more low‐income households than there are low‐cost housing units, homelessness will inevitably result. This will be true regardless of the characteristics of the households that become homeless. Thus, mental health approaches that treat the individual without changing the overall low‐income housing ratio will be ineffective in reducing homelessness, as will programs providing only emergency shelter or transitional housing. Only those programs that reduce poverty or increase the supply of affordable housing will be effective in decreasing the total number of homeless families in the United States.
Social Policy and Social Science Research on Homelessness
Authors: Blasi Gary L.
Published: April 2010

The research reported in this journal issue represents some of the most sophisticated and careful of current social science research on homelessness in the United States. Much of the early research was limited to assessment of the numbers and characteristics of the homeless. More sophisticated studies utilizing longitudinal and ethnographic methods are now available. All of this research is useful for planning purposes—for informing those charged with managing or ameliorating homelessness. However, if research is to inform efforts to end mass homelessness, the focus of current research must be broadened and research questions redefined. Epidemiological studies can indicate only who is likely to lose in the competition to find housing. But the causes of homelessness may ultimately have much more to do with social facts that account for the distribution of housing and other resources than with facts about individual homeless people. Much useful research remains to be done on such things as how images of homelessness are communicated through the mass media, the determinants of attitudes of both ordinary citizens and policy‐making elites toward the poor and homeless, how and why organized advocacy on these issues has succeeded, and how and why it has failed.
Expectancies and Social Issues: Introduction
Authors: Jussim Lee
Published: April 2010

This article introduces several broad issues concerning relations between expectations and social problems, issues that serve as the main themes of this volume. A myriad of social problems involve expectancies, and some expectancies create social problems whereas other expectancies reflect social problems. Expectancies may be either interpersonal (one person's expectations regarding another person) or intrapersonal (individuals' expectations for themselves). The paper concludes with an overview of the articles in this issue and the social problems they address.
Social Reality and Social Problems: The Role of Expectancies
Authors: Jussim Lee
Published: April 2010

From the standpoint of basic theory and social policy it is important to understand the extent to which expectancies contribute to social problems. Naturalistic and meta‐analytic evidence is reviewed showing that (a) expectations influence social reality and may contribute to social problems such as prejudice and inequities in educational and occupational opportunity, but (b) the influence of expectations on social reality generally is more limited than often claimed. One of the most important limitations on the contribution of expectations to social problems may be that they are often accurate (i.e., they predict others' behaviors and attributes without influencing those others' behaviors and attributes). Accurate expectations create neither cognitive biases nor self‐fulfilling prophecies, and this article reviews evidence showing that people are often quite accurate. Nonetheless, even relatively modest expectancy effects may contribute to some social problems in important ways. Further, research suggests that certain conditions facilitate or inhibit the occurrence of expectancy effects. Consequently, under some conditions, the contribution of expectancy effects to social problems may be larger than the current empirical evidence suggests. The article concludes by discussing how to “harness Pygmalion effects” to develop interventions for alleviating particular social problems.
Stereotype‐Based Expectancies: Effects on Information Processing and Social Behavior
Authors: Hamilton David L. , Sherman Steven J. , Ruvolo Catherine M.
Published: April 2010

Expectancies about others are often based on stereotypes of the groups to which they belong. This article reviews the effects of stereotype‐based expectancies on social perception and behavior. An information processing perspective is adopted in discussing the research evidence concerning the effects of stereotypes on (a) information processing and judgments, (b) information seeking and hypothesis testing, and (c) interpersonal behavior via self‐fulfilling prophecies. Possible strategies for undermining these effects are also discussed.
Gender Role Stereotypes, Expectancy Effects, and Parents' Socialization of Gender Differences
Authors: Eccles Jacquelynne S. , Jacobs Janis E. , Harold Rena D.
Published: April 2010

Gender segregation continues to exist in many activity and occupational domains. This article uses the expectancy effect perspective to analyze the role parents may play in influencing their children to engage in gender role stereotyped activities. It outlines the theoretical bases for such effects, and discusses how to distinguish between accuracy and perceptual bias in parents' gender role differentiated perceptions of their children's competencies and interests. Then it summarizes the results of a series of studies, which show that parents distort their perceptions of their own children in gender role stereotypic activities such as math and sports, that the child's gender affects parents' causal attributions for their children's performance in gender role stereotypic activities, and that these perceptual biases influence the children's own self‐perceptions and activity choices. Finally, the article presents a theoretical model of how these processes may occur.
Psychology for the Third World?
Authors: Sloan Tod S.
Published: April 2010

Most citizens in the industrialized nations know the Third World only through secondhand and distorting images conveyed by the mass media. While these images and related processes of globalization are increasing awareness of poverty, civil strife, and human rights abuses in the Third World, few people in the First World seem to care about changing these painful realities. Ignorance, neglect, and a form of defensive dehumanization allow the “developed world” to proceed as if there were no serious problems in the “developing world.” Yet even the most basic statistics on conditions in the poorest nations point to massive and systematic suffering. Western behavioral scientists, who clearly have much to contribute, have yet to manifest the sustained concern necessary to develop fruitful interventions. This is due in part to ideological constraints on psychology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, numerous researchers working in the Third World have been pioneering models and methods that may challenge others to rethink disciplinary assumptions, and begin to confront Third World problems effectively. This article surveys the development of these activities and issues a call for increased involvement.
Modulative and Generative Orientations in Psychology: Implications for Psychology in the Three Worlds
Authors: Moghaddam Fathali M.
Published: April 2010

Psychology in the United States and the other industrialized nations, as well as in Third World societies, has tended to be modulative in orientation, in that it “reacts to” rather than instigates societal change. The urgent need in Third World societies to achieve fundamental change and modernization has led some psychologists to show interest in generative psychology, which attempts to initiate and influence macrolevel change. A greater emphasis on a generative orientation will have important implications for psychology in all three worlds, particularly with respect to “despecialization,” the relationship between psychology and power elites, the role of psychological factors in national development, and the relationship between the speed of change in psychological, economic, and other spheres.
Ideology and Psychosocial Research in Third World Contexts
Authors: Montero Maritza
Published: April 2010

This paper stresses the importance of the concept of ideology as an overarching category in psychosocial research. It shows how ideology mediates people's understanding of the world, distorting and hiding actual causes of events and social conditions through cognitive processes in which meanings and representations are socially and individually produced as a function of power differences between groups. This process is illustrated by two studies carried out in Venezuela, one regarding national autostereotypes, the other on rationalizations of torture as a necessary evil in a just social order. The results are linked to similar findings in other Third World regions, and discussed in light of the concept of economic and cultural dependency, indicating the ideological processes common to such situations.
Underdevelopment in a North African Tribe: Toward a Psychology of Peripheral Social Orders
Authors: Gregg Gary S.
Published: April 2010

This paper reconceptualizes the “psychology of modernization” in light of the fact that many Third World societies are underdeveloping rather than developing. It draws on postcolonial research by North African social scientists and the author's ethnographic and life‐narrative research in the Moroccan pre‐Sahara to describe a traditional society that is not “becoming modern,” but “becoming peripheral.” In this society there is a provisional‐made‐permanent character of its household‐based, clientelistic social relations. Three social psychological fields derive from these social relations and define the dimensions along which this society—and perhaps peripheral orders in general—differ from core, industrialized societies: the familial, the persecutory, and the defensive dimensions. These differences may obtain between core and peripheral sectors within the developed nations as well.
Culture‐Relevant and Culture‐Modifying Action Research for Development
Authors: Pareek Udai
Published: April 2010

Development is the process of unfolding the unique potential and strengths of individuals and groups in a society. This process is fostered by the presence of certain values that constitute a special culture—a combination of assertiveness (autonomy, achievement, and creativity) and extension (concern for others and collective action). Each societal culture has characteristics that have both functional and dysfunctional aspects for development. The task of action research is to sift functional from dysfunctional aspects, to build on and strengthen the former, and to reduce and manage the latter. This article describes projects that led the author to this formulation and to his current emphasis on the role of political culture in development. Implications for the role of psychologists and other social scientists in contributing to the functionality of political culture are presented.
Child Care Policy Research
Authors: Hofferth Sandra L. , Phillips Deborah A.
Published: April 2010

This paper reviews current policy issues in child care in the United States. Recent statistics on the demand for and supply of child care in the United States from national surveys show that, even though there may be selective shortages, overall there is an adequate supply of child care for preschoolers. Today, the most important issues are not supply per se but the quality and cost of care, and freedom of choice. The paper describes the market for child care from the point of view of the somewhat conflicting interests of parents, providers, children, and government. It focuses on the trade‐off between quality and cost, the effects of child care on children, the role of the government, and the effects of federal intervention. Finally, the nature of policy research is discussed with reference to the papers in this journal issue.
Child Care as an Adult Work Environment
Authors: Phillips Deborah , Howes Carollee , Whitebook Marcy
Published: April 2010

A sample of 1307 center‐based child care staff was studied to assess predictors of job satisfaction and turnover, and to link these aspects of the adult work environment of child care to the quality of care, as assessed from a child development perspective. The staff were well educated in comparison to the female labor force, but they earned, on average, poverty‐level wages. High levels of career orientation and satisfaction with the day‐to‐day demands of child care work were expressed, alongside high intended and actual turnover rates, and very low satisfaction with salaries, benefits, and social status. Job satisfaction was significantly, but modestly, associated with wages, paid preparation time, reduced‐fee child care, and the quality of provisions for adult needs. Staff wages were the most important negative predictor of staff turnover and positive predictor of the quality of care provided to the children. The results highlight the need to incorporate facets of the adult work environment in research on the developmental effects of child care and in policy efforts to upgrade the quality of care.
Examining Profit and Nonprofit Child Care: An Odyssey of Quality and Auspices
Authors: Kagan Sharon L.
Published: April 2010

This article explores the relationship between profit and quality in early childhood care and education from historical, research, and policy perspectives. It analyzes why the profit/nonprofit debate is endemic to our current system and why it is so salient for current policy. Drawing primarily upon four studies that have compared quality in profit and nonprofit early care and education settings, and upon selected other studies, the analysis offers suggestions for future research and policy initiatives to improve the nation's child care system.
A Home Is Not a School: The Effects of Child Care on Children's Development
Authors: Clarke‐Stewart K. Alison
Published: April 2010

Assessments of 150 2–4‐year‐olds in six different child care arrangements revealed that the social and intellectual development of children in centers (part time or full time) was advanced over that of the children in home care (with mother, sitter, or day care home provider). Previous research was reviewed to account for this finding. It was concluded that the most likely causes of the difference in children's development were educational lessons, opportunities to practice skills and follow rules with a variety of peers and nonparental adults, and encouragement of independence by nonauthoritarian teachers—experiences that are qualitatively different from the experiences most children have in home care environments.
Child Care Utilization by Disadvantaged Teenage Mothers
Authors: Kisker Ellen Eliason , Silverberg Marsha
Published: April 2010

This paper presents findings from a survey of child care use by teenage parent Aid to Families with Dependent Children recipients in three low‐income metropolitan areas. The teenage mothers surveyed were participants and control group members in demonstration programs that provided access to a range of services similar to those being implemented under the Family Support Act of 1988—employment training, education, and supportive services including child care assistance. The results focus on the need for care, the extent to which child care is a barrier to participation in employment‐related activities, the types of child care used, the cost of care, and mothers' satisfaction and problems with their arrangements. The child care arrangements made by the teenage mothers are also compared to those made by other mothers of young children in the local areas.
Whatever …
Authors: Goodchilds Jacqueline D.
Published: April 2010

A SPSSI presidential address can be a strange potpourri and this one is that. After a discussion of why the research history of this social psychologist (a) does not cumulate well and (b) is not exactly apropos for SPSSI people, it presents a plea for psychologists oriented toward social issues to involve themselves as psychologists in the examination of what it is about the human species that enables, leads, impels us to degrade and destroy the world we inhabit.
Research on Consumer Protection Issues: The Perspective of the “Human Sciences”
Authors: Friedman Monroe
Published: April 2010

This article gives an overview of consumer protection issues and the body of scholarly research in the human sciences that addresses these issues. A consumer rights approach is adopted for defining consumer protection issues, and the various articles in this journal issue are briefly described in the context of this approach. Next, overviews are presented of consumer protection issues in the consumer movement, and of consumer protection research relating to consumer behavior and to the societal contexts in which this behavior occurs. Finally, a typology of consumer protection research areas is proposed, based on the human effects of consumer policy initiatives.
Advertising as a Consumer Issue: An Historical View
Authors: Pope Daniel
Published: April 2010

Since the early 20th century, advertising has been a focus of concern for the consumer movement. As advertising itself has changed, it has raised new issues for consumer advocates. Both self‐regulation and external control have been utilized to deal with the consumer problems advertising has presented. With the rise of persuasive national advertising in the Progressive Era, advertising leaders launched a “Truth in Advertising” movement to establish their craft's credibility, but the industry's narrow concept of truth prevented it from dealing with some of the larger issues that advertising raised. State laws and the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accompanied this self‐regulation. In the 1920s and 1930s, a consumer movement attacked deceptive advertising, but internal reform was limited. A reinvigorated consumer movement, a more active FTC, and advertising based on market segmentation characterized the 1960s and 1970s, and advertising interests initiated new self‐regulatory procedures in 1971. More recently, deregulation has emerged as a rival method for promoting consumer well‐being. The broadened focus of consumerism suggests that advertising will continue to be a matter of concern for consumer advocates.
Consciences in the Marketplace: The Role of Cooperatives in Consumer Protection
Authors: Sommer Robert
Published: April 2010

As consumer‐controlled organizations, cooperatives have played a vanguard role in consumer protection. This article reviews consumer protection programs of the economically strong European cooperatives, and presents examples of protection programs by American cooperatives in two diverse sectors, funerals and foods. Research questions are posed relating to consumer protection and to social psychology. The article ends by examining the future of consumer cooperatives and assessing their potential contributions to their members as well as to consumers at large.
Consumer Boycotts: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda
Authors: Friedman Monroe
Published: April 2010

Although consumer boycotts have been of considerable interest to theorists and practitioners, social scientific knowledge about them is limited. This article seeks to advance scholarly understanding by developing a taxonomy of boycott actions, and by identifying factors believed likely to influence their effectiveness in furthering the consumer interest as well as other interests. The analytical framework draws distinctions between media‐oriented and marketplace‐oriented boycotts as well as those against surrogate targets vs. nonsurrogate targets. The article presents an action‐oriented research agenda and an assessment of the likely future for consumer boycotts in advancing the consumer interest.