bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
International Mediation: Conflict Resolution and Power Politics
Authors: Zartman I. William , Touval Saadia
Published: April 2010

This study examines mediation as an exercise in which the mediator has interests and operates in a context of power politics and cost‐benefit calculation. It is based on eight cases of international mediation‐the U.S.S.R. between India and Pakistan (1966), Algeria between Iran and Iraq (1975), the United States and Great Britain in Rhodesia (1975–1979), the five Western States in Namibia (1977–1983), Algeria between the United States and Iran (1980–1981), and the ongoing activities of the Organization of African Unity, The Organization of American States, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was found that a mediator intervenes because of its interest in the conflict or in obtaining an outcome, and it can play three roles‐communicator, formulator, manipulator‐ in accomplishing its objectives. The mediator is accepted by the parties, not because of its neutrality but because of its ability to produce an attractive outcome. The mediator's power, or leverage, comes from the parties' need for a solution, from its ability to shift weight among parties, and from side payments.
The Selection of Mediation Tactics in Public Sector Disputes: A Contingency Analysis
Authors: Carnevale Peter J. D. , Pegnetter Richard
Published: April 2010

How do professional mediators decide what tactics to use in public sector disputes? The present study was designed to evaluate the general proposition that mediators tailor their tactics to the particular dispute circumstances. The respondents were 32 mediators working with the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board. Interviews with these mediators were followed by a questionnaire that asked them to rate, for one case, the extent to which the dispute arose from any of 24 sources and the extent to which they used any of 37 mediation tactics. Correlations were calculated between the measures of dispute sources and mediation tactics. These correlations support the hypothesis that mediators adapt their activities to different dispute circumstances. Among the findings: Bargainers' “unrealistic expectations” are positively associated with mediator efforts to change these expectations and with telling the parties their position is unrealistic. Bargainer “hostility” is positively associated with mediator attempts to control hostility by using humor to lighten the atmosphere and by using directive tactics such as pressing hard for concessions. “Too many issues” is positively associated with mediator efforts to simplify the agenda, organize priorities, suggest trade‐offs, clarify needs with constituents, and hold long sessions to facilitate compromise. Bargainers who “lack experience/expertise” lead mediators to simplify the agenda and to educate them to the impasse process.
An Assessment of Mediation in a Small Claims Court
Authors: Vidmar Neil
Published: April 2010

Mediation has frequently been advocated as an alternative to adjudication for minor civil disputes that appear in the small claims court. It has been claimed that mediation is more likely to result in compromise, greater compliance, and higher disputant satisfaction with the outcome. This article raises questions about these claims for the superiority of mediation and poses an alternative hypothesis. The hypothesis was tested in the context of a field study of a small claims court that utilizes mediation in pretrial resolution hearings. It was found that differences between adjudication and mediation outcomes could be partly explained by differences in the cases' “admitted liability.” Cases involving the defendant's denial of all liability were more likely to be adjudicated, whereas those involving admission of partial or full liability were more likely to be settled by mediation. Many mediated settlements involved no compromise; many were more the result of coercive than of consensual processes. Compromise, when it did occur, was not necessarily a satisfactory outcome for one or both of the disputing parties.
Themes in the Mediation of Social Conflict
Authors: Kressel Kenneth , Pruitt Dean G.
Published: April 2010

During the last several years there has been an upsurge in interest in the mediation of social conflict. Innovations in mediating disputes at all levels of society have also given rise to research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of mediation and a better understanding of the nature of the mediation process. We critically examine the burgeoning empirical literature, with particular reference to the research reported in this volume. Four major issues are examined: (1) Evidence about the general effectiveness of mediation, especially in comparison to adjudication; (2) findings regarding the types of disputes and disputing parties for which mediation appears most useful; (3) classification of mediator tactics and evidence regarding the effectiveness of these tactics; and (4) methodological and conceptual problems confronting the student of mediation.
Applying Social Support Research: Theoretical Problems and Future Directions
Authors: Rook Karen S. , Dooley David
Published: April 2010

Two independent research traditions have evolved that deal with social support‐an analytic tradition that emphasizes theory‐based tests of hypotheses and an applied tradition that emphasizes evaluations of interventions. This paper seeks to stimulate feedback between these two traditions by examining how implicit assumptions and conceptual distinctions embedded within the analytic literature translate into suggestions for intervention. Assumptions that bear on the soundness of undertaking interventions of any kind are considered first, followed by assumptions that bear on the conceptualization of specific intervention strategies. Issues that underlie efforts to implement interventions (e.g., funding, staffing) are also discussed. Examples of research questions that explicitly link the analytic and applied traditions are provided.
After the Bus Arrives: Resegregation in Desegregated Schools
Authors: Epstein Joyce L.
Published: April 2010

Data from 5284 fifth‐grade students and 886 teachers in 94 elementary schools are used to examine two aspects of the prevalence and effects of resegregation in desegregated schools. First we explore teacher and school characteristics that affect how teachers organize opportunities for intergroup contact and academic learning in their classrooms. Results suggest that positive attitudes toward integration influence teachers' selection of grouping practices that promote student interaction, such as active learning and equal‐status programs. Negative attitudes toward integration, or teachers' beliefs in separate education for blacks and whites, promote their use of less flexible, resegregative practices, such as tracking and within‐class grouping. Next, with data from teachers and students, we investigate whether different classroom organizations influence black and white students' achievement and behavior. Multiple regression analyses show that, with other important student, teacher, and classroom structures controlled, less resegregative classroom structures are more advantageous for black students' achievement. There is higher black achievement in classrooms using equal‐status programs, cooperative activities, or flexible tracking.
Cooperative Learning: Applying Contact Theory in Desegregated Schools
Authors: Slavin Robert E.
Published: April 2010

This paper reviews research on instructional methods designed to operationalize the principal elements of Allport's (1954) contact theory of intergroup relations. These cooperative learning methods employ ethnically mixed learning groups, who study material presented by the teacher and are rewarded based on the learning of the group as a whole. Field experimental research on these methods in desegregated elementary and secondary schools has found relatively consistent positive effects on intergroup relations, as well as on the achievement of minority and majority students. The implications of this research for contact theory and for instruction in desegregated classrooms are discussed in light of the research evidence.
The Role of Experience and Contact in the Recognition of Faces Of Own‐ and Other‐Race Persons
Authors: Brigham John C. , Malpass Roy S.
Published: April 2010

Failing to recognize someone or misidentifying someone can have important personal and social consequences. The perceiver may suffer feelings of embarrassment or stupidity. The target may feel insulted, stereotyped, or in extreme cases may be falsely identified as a criminal. If the perceiver and the target are of different ethnic groups, misidentification can increase intergroup hostility, stereotyping, and intergroup anxiety. Laboratory and field research demonstrates an own‐race bias in recognition accuracy. People are better able to identify members of their own race than members of another race. The significance of own‐race bias in the criminal justice system and intergroup contact situations is reviewed, and cognitive and motivational correlates of own‐race bias are discussed. Four possible explanations for this differential recognition effect are presented. The explanation derived from intergroup contact theory—that differential recognition stems from limited experience with members of other groups—has received surprisingly weak research support thus far, Greater attention to assessing different types of contact may increase our understanding of the ways in which intergroup contact can affect intergroup perceptions.
Intergroup Anxiety
Authors: Stephan Walter G. , Stephan Cookie White
Published: April 2010

A model is presented that traces the origins of the anxiety people experience when interacting with outgroup members to fear of negative psychological or behavioral consequences for the self and fear of negative evaluations by ingroup or outgroup members. Prior relations between the groups, intergroup cognitions, the structure of the situation, and personal experience are hypothesized to determine the amount of anxiety that participants in intergroup interactions experience. It is proposed that high levels of intergroup anxiety amplify normative behavior patterns, cause cognitive and motivational information‐processing biases, intensify self‐awareness, lead to augmented emotional reactions, and polarize evaluations of outgroup members. Regression analyses of data from Hispanic students indicate that high levels of intergroup anxiety are associated with low levels of contact with outgroup members, stereotyping of outgroup members, and assumed dissimilarity to outgroup members.
Academic Professional Women Organizing for Change: The Struggle in Psychology
Authors: Walsh Mary Roth
Published: April 2010

This paper examines the organized efforts of women psychologists who confronted sex discrimination in two different historical periods: 1941–1959 and the period beginning in 1969. During the first period, the National and then International Council of Women Psychologists promoted the advancement of women in the profession. During the more recent period, the Association for Women in Psychology and then APA's Division 35 have performed similar functions. Source material to document these efforts is drawn from published sources and archives of the history of American psychology at the University of Akron, and from the American Psychological Association Archives in the Library of Congress. The paper compares women's efforts during these two very different historical periods and offers a long range perspective on social change for those working to improve the status of women in academe.
Costs and Benefits of Advocacy for Faculty Women: A Case Study
Authors: Graham Dee L. R. , O'Reilly Patricia , Rawlings Edna I.
Published: April 2010

The authors describe their own experiences in advocating for faculty women confronting sex discrimination at a large urban university. They discuss specific successful strategies used. Although a number of women were helped with respect to retention, tenure, promotion, salary, etc., there were some negative effects. One paradox observed has been the university administration's attempt to use these successes to counter claims of sex discrimination in a class action suit that faculty women have filed against the university. The authors offer specific suggestions for possible avenues to reduce sex discrimination at the university based on their experiences.
Dealing with Employment Discrimination and Damaging Stereotypes: A Legal Perspective
Authors: Taub Nadine
Published: April 2010

Claims of sex discrimination in individual cases generally require the complainant to identify a male in a similar situation who received better treatment. As academic employment opportunites decrease, such identifications become increasingly problematic. Even where adverse employment decisions are obviously grounded in sex‐based stereotypes, they are likely to be beyond the reach of antidiscrimination legislation. This article argues for an expansion of traditional notions of discrimination to permit antidiscrimination suits where the adverse employment decision was based on an expectation that women should conform to a certain pattern of behavior whether or not that expectation was based on hostility and whether or not there is a similarly situated male who received different treatment.
Experimental Research and Social Policy: Must It Be Rigor versus Relevance?
Authors: Brewer Marilynn B.
Published: April 2010

… the acquirement of knowledge was interesting and attractive but it could only give clear and exact results in proportion to its inapplicability to the question of life. The less it had to do with these questions, the clearer and more exact it was; the more it took the character of a solution of these questions, the obscurer and less attractive they became….(Tolstoy, 1887, p. 41)
Academic Freedom, Civil Liberties, and SPSSI
Authors: Sargent S. Stansfeld , Harris Benjamin
Published: April 2010

An implicit goal of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) at its founding was the protection of members who investigated controversial social issues. This essay reviews SPSSI's work in defense of academic and intellectual freedom from 1936 to 1970, using committee records, private correspondence, and published documents. Cases reviewed are those of Ellis Freeman, David Krech, George Hartmann, Goodwin Watson, Gardner Murphy, Ralph Gundlach, Bernard Riess, Harry Steinmetz, and Lawrence Northwood. Also reviewed is SPSSI's involvement in the University of California loyalty oath dispute and in Health, Education and Welfare's (HEW) blacklisting of scientific consultants. While its efforts cannot be said to have achieved notably successful outcomes, the Society's moral and financial support was helpful to those under attack. Overall, SPSSI's efforts were an important positive contribution with implications for the present and future.
Research on Anticipatory Ideological Compliance: Comment on Sargent and Harris
Authors: Cook Stuart W.
Published: April 2010

In their paper, “Academic Freedom, Civil Liberties, and SPSSI,” S. Stansfeld Sargent and Benjamin Harris (1986) give an account of the threat to individual liberties that characterized SPSSI's early years. Based to some extent on my personal experience during the post‐World War II peak of this threat (i.e., the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy), I add a brief supplement to Sargent's and Harris's account. I provide a description of initial attempts by SPSSI members to discover the social psychological principles that help to understand the erosion of individual rights and freedoms that took place in those years.
Psychologists for Society and Societies for Psychologists: SPSSI's Place Among Professional Organizations
Authors: Morawski J. G.
Published: April 2010

The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) has been a prominent conduit for American psychologists' involvement in political and social affairs. For years SPSSI has stood as the center of political activism in American psychology. An examination of SPSSI and several other professional organizations founded during the period between the two world wars indicates that, despite its activism, SPSSI shared with the others a set of conventional assumptions about the irrationality of human nature, an unstable social order, and the preference for scientific judgment. Early SPSSI documents also contain more radical aspirations: critical self‐reflection about the scientific enterprise, candid culture criticism, and political activism. However, these did not remain dominant in the organization. While being an occasion for celebration, the 50th anniversary of SPSSI also offers occasion to reevaluate these mixed commitments.
The Small Group and Democratic Social Engineering, 1900–1950
Authors: Graebner William
Published: April 2010

Democratic social engineering was a method of social control utilizing the small group, discussion, leadership, and participation of the objects of control. Grounded in late 19th‐century progressive education, pragmatic philosophy, and the social sciences, the technique was especially prominent between 1917 and 1945. Case studies of the foremen's clubs, the Golden Age clubs, pediatrician Benjamin Spock, and Kurt Lewin describe and analyze the practice of democratic social engineering. They serve as a backdrop for a concluding discussion of alternatives.
Introduction: The Search for Connections
Authors: Crosby Faye , Clayton Susan D.
Published: April 2010

Connections between the facts of people's personal circumstances and their judgments about social and political issues are often murky or invisible. This seems counterintuitive. The nature of social issues is such that most people in a particular society possess some information about them and, if pressed, will be able to offer an opinion concerning them; it would seem reasonable to assume that these opinions reflect the individual's personal circumstances in some way. Similarly, if a set of events is to qualify as a “social issue” it must affect people, even if indirectly; it is thus to be expected that social issues would influence the interpretation of and behavior in people's personal lives. Yet researchers who make these assumptions are frequently surprised. What is the nature of the associations between the events in one's private life and one's attitudes about sociopolitical matters? How often do the abstractions of larger issues remain isolated from the concrete realities of daily existence, and what circumstances bring the abstract and the concrete into alignment?
Ideology and the Interpretation of Personal Experience: Procedural Justice and Political Quiescence
Authors: Tyler Tom R. , McGraw Kathleen M.
Published: April 2010

Objectively disadvantaged groups in American society often fail to take political actions that would rectify their disadvantaged state. Scholarly treatments of this failure to mobilize have traditionally examined the beliefs of the disadvantaged about distributive fairness, i.e., about the fair distribution of money or opportunities across members of society. This paper explores citizens' beliefs about the fairness of the procedures by which outcome distributions are made. We argue that procedural evaluations are a key input into evaluations of the political system and, through such evaluations, into political actions. In fact, people's beliefs about procedures are often more important than their beliefs about the fairness of the distribution of income or opportunity. An examination of procedural justice beliefs suggests, in turn, that citizens' views about the fairness of procedures focus on opportunities to speak rather than on actual control over decisions. This focus on voice probably results from socialization. In the terminology of Crosby and Clayton [(1986) “Introduction: The Search for Connections,” Journal of Social Issues, 42(2), 1–9], people's societal values may override their experiences with their current objective situation in the development of their views about society. As a result, objectively unjust procedures may be viewed as fair.
Symbolic Racism: Problems of Motive Attribution in Political Analysis
Authors: Sniderman Paul M. , Tetlock Philip E.
Published: April 2010

Research on symbolic racism attempts to identify the underlying psychological sources of public resistance to policies designed to promote racial equality. This research program has been built on the fundamental idea that, although old‐fashioned, overt forms of racism have lost much of their appeal in American politics, new, more subtle and symbolic forms of racism continue to exert a pervasive influence on policy debates, making themselves felt, for example, in opposition to busing, to affirmative action, or even to black candidates running for office. This paper identifies serious empirical, logical, and methodological shortcomings in the case that researchers have advanced to support the symbolic racism thesis. Most serious are (a) the lack of clarity in theoretical definitions of symbolic racism, (b) the major inconsistencies in the operationalization of the construct, (c) the confounding of “independent” and “dependent” variables in the construction of symbolic racism scales, (d) the politically controversial nature of the item content of certain symbolic racism scales, (e) the frequent failures to distinguish the impact of traditional racial prejudice from that of symbolic racism on policy preferences, and (f) the tendency to pose a very restrictive conception of self‐interest as the major explanatory alternative to symbolic racism interpretations of policy preferences.
Media Violence and Antisocial Behavior: An Overview
Authors: Huesmann L. Rowell , Malamuth Neil M.
Published: April 2010

Do media portrayals of interpersonal violence engender aggression among the observers? This question has been the focus of social scientific inquiry for over a quarter of a century. The initial research efforts of numerous investigators led to the surgeon general's research program on television and social behavior in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The surgeon general's conclusion that “television violence, indeed, does have an adverse effect on certain members of our society” (Steinfeld, 1972) stimulated a torrent of research, congressional hearings, and expressions of public concern. The late 1970s and early 1980s also saw the emergence of cable television and the video cassette as major media forces. Accordingly, many teenagers and even preadolescents became frequent viewers of scenes that graphically couple sex and violence. Not surprisingly, a new research focus developed on the effects of such media stimuli.
The Immediate Effects of Media Violence on Behavior
Authors: Geen Russell G. , Thomas Susan L.
Published: April 2010

The purpose of this paper is to review experimental studies and short‐term field investigations designed to assess the influence of violence in the mass media on aggressive behavior in the viewer. Major trends in research over three decades are examined. We also indicate some possible connections between research on effects of media violence and recent developments in cognitive psychology. The evidence is organized according to the theoretical explanations that have been given for the commonly reported correlation between the viewing of violence and aggressive behavior. The paper is divided into three major sections. In the first, evidence from laboratory experiments is reviewed. In the second section, studies carried out in field‐experimental settings are summarized. In the third section, evidence from nonexperimental studies is analyzed. In our conclusion we suggest that the cognitive‐neoassociationist hypothesis serves as the best explanatory model for the overall findings and we indicate how some of the other hypotheses concerning media effects on aggression may be subsumed by it.
Naturalistic Studies of the Long‐Term Effects of Television Violence
Authors: Turner Charles W. , Hesse Bradford W. , Peterson‐Lewis Sonja
Published: April 2010

Carefully controlled experimental laboratory research has provided valuable evidence about the effects of media violence on the aggressive behavior of viewers in laboratory settings. However, social stimuli such as media violence can produce different effects in laboratory as compared to nonlaboratory settings. Thus, research in laboratory settings may not provide accurate information about the effects of media violence in nonlaboratory settings. Some types of quasi‐experimental field research can provide evidence about the long‐term socialization and developmental effects of media violence on viewer's behavior in naturalistic settings. The present article summarizes the findings from a number of quasi‐experimental studies about the effects of naturally occurring media violence. We conclude that the balance of the findings are consistent with the hypothesis that television produces a long‐term increase in the aggressive behavior of boys but not of girls.
Situational Influences on Reactions to Observed Violence
Authors: Berkowitz Leonard
Published: April 2010

Although many discussions of the effects of media violence focus on the long‐term consequences of frequent exposure to these depictions, short‐term influences are also important, and adults as well as children observing aggression are apt to become more aggressive themselves for a brief period afterward. Such an effect is largely due to the activation of ideas and inclinations semantically related to the meaning of the observed event rather than to a long‐lasting learning. However, the likelihood of an openly aggressive reaction to television or movie violence is greatly dependent on situational conditions, and the present paper considers some of these conditions. Starting with an examination of what situational factors influence people's desire to view violent programming, this article then proceeds to research bearing on the effects of the presence of other observers, the nature of the available target, situational features operating as retrieval cues, the viewers' interpretations of and thoughts about the violent scenes including their perceived reality, and the observers' focus of attention. The paper argues that research into the effects of media violence should no longer ask how much of an influence is exerted by aggressive protrayals in the media generally, but it should investigate the conditions under which these depictions have a greater or lesser effect.
Issues Bearing on the Legal Regulation of Violent and Sexually Violent Media
Authors: Linz Daniel , Penrod Steven , Donnerstein Edward
Published: April 2010

In this article we consider a number of legal responses to the problem of media violence. We underscore the tension between evidence collected by social scientists and traditional First Amendment (free speech) protections, noting several criticisms of media violence research that challenge the use of this research to establish legal harms. The second half of this article covers legal actions against sexually violent materials to which social science research may be relevant. One legal alternative that has been suggested includes establishing liability for a range of social harms sustained to certain groups of persons, namely women, as a result of the proliferation of sexually demeaning images. Even though the courts give some credence to social science evidence concerning the harms of exposure to sexual violence, they are most concerned with balancing the harm done to women as a class against the harm done to the rights of free speech. The courts are currently unwilling to remove First Amendment protections for materials other than those that fall within traditional categories (e.g., obscenity). We suggest that social science research may be most useful in establishing liability for individual injuries sustained indirectly through media portrayals of sexual violence subsumed by traditional definitions of obscenity.
Covert Facilitation and Crime: Restoring Balance to the Entrapment Debate
Authors: Braithwaite John , Fisse Brent , Geis Gilbert
Published: April 2010

Covert facilitation of crime by or on behalf of government agents has always been viewed with suspicion, but the recent use of this technique of enforcement against power elites has resulted in a storm of protest from civil libertarians. The argument of this paper is that, although there is virtue in the standard libertarian objections, the use of covert facilitation is essential to ensure that the law is applied effectively against crime in high places. Covert facilitation should be subject to probable cause and other safeguards that would prohibit most of the covert facilitation presently undertaken by police. The greater concern, however, is that the technique will not be used frequently enough to combat the offenses of the powerful. Given this concern, enforcement agencies should be placed under a responsibility to use covert facilitation against white‐collar offenders to even up the scales of justice. The use of covert facilitation for this purpose is advocated because of the low visibility of much white‐collar crime and the principle of noblesse oblige. Concrete suggestions are set out for implementing this egalitarian policy, together with proposals for safeguarding persons against unjustifiable interference and abuse.
With a Little Help from Their Friends: Use of Social Support Systems by Persons with Retardation
Authors: Mest Grace M.
Published: April 2010

Within the past two decades there has been an increase in research studying the perspective of persons labeled as disabled, rather than relying solely on outsiders' (nonlabeled persons‘) perspectives about them. In this paper, a series of interviews with a small group of persons labeled as mentally retarded sought insights into their work environment, friendships, and future goals through their own words. The interviews revealed that they recognized being “different” in terms of the labels applied to them by others, but they did not use those same labels when defining themselves or choosing their close friends.
Disability as the Basis for a Social Movement: Advocacy and the Politics of Definition
Authors: Scotch Richard K.
Published: April 2010

Many people with disabilities do not identify themselves as disabled or choose not to be part of a politically active community of disabled persons. This paper discusses both the barriers to the formation of a social movement of disabled people and the ways in which these barriers have been overcome. The role of public policy in the evolution of this movement is discussed, as are the current status and prospects of the disability rights movement.
Imagination and Peace: On the Inner Dynamics of Promoting Peace Activism
Authors: Watkins Mary
Published: April 2010

The relations between peace activism and the Utopian, anticipatory, sympathetic, and compensatory functions of the imagination are explored, and the results of a group process using inner dialogue to help participants understand the dynamics of their relation to peace activism are analyzed. Social action is viewed here as arising in part from a successful negotiation between inner voices that inhibit progressing from the awareness of social problems into action and voices that encourage this integration of awareness and action. A revised group method to facilitate and sustain peace action in one's life is described, building on both my findings and Elise Boulding's work on imagining a peaceful future.
Bereavement Research: An Historical Introduction
Authors: Stroebe Margaret S. , Stroebe Wolfgang , Hansson Robert O.
Published: April 2010

Early research in the field of bereavement and widowhood was often problem generated and focused on intrapersonal issues such as health consequences. More recent research has emphasized that, to understand the grieving individual, we must also understand the social context in which the bereavement occurred and in which recovery must progress. This introduction traces the historical development of theory, empirical research, and methodology in the field, and places current developments in perspective. The papers in this issue underline the complexity of the bereavement phenomenon, and the need for conceptual perspectives with which to understand the cultural, socioeconomic, interpersonal, and physiological determinants of grief, mourning, and recovery.
Loss and Recovery
Authors: Weiss Robert S.
Published: April 2010

Relationships whose loss triggers grief are termed “relationships of attachment.” These relationships are pair‐bond relationships, parental attachments to children, transference relationships to helpers, and persisting childlike attachments to parents. Because these relationships share significant characteristics, it is proposed that they are developments of a single socio‐emotional system—the attachment system of children. This point of view permits a unified treatment of a number of topics, including the threats that elicit attachment emotions and behaviors, the impact of loss, the nature and course of recovery from loss, impediments to recovery, and the forms taken by failures to recover.
Grief as an Emotion and as a Disease: A Social‐Constructionist Perspective
Authors: Averill James R. , Nunley Elma P.
Published: April 2010

This paper examines grief as an emotion and contrasts it with an alternative conception of grief as a disease. Emotions and (to a lesser extent) diseases are constituted, in part, through their relation to social systems. Recently, there has been a trend toward “treating” grief within the health care system. As this trend continues, grief will inevitably accrue some of the aspects of a disease, and it will lose some of its meaning as an emotion. The theoretical and social implications of this shift in meaning are explored.
Risk Factors in Bereavement Outcome
Authors: Sanders Catherine M.
Published: April 2010

Studies indicate that many factors that impinge on bereaved individuals can cause an elevated health risk. These include sudden unexpected death, lack of social support, concurrent crises, ambivalent or dependent personalities, age, gender, and death of a child. While any one of these factors alone can cause problems, a combination of factors poses the most major risks. This paper reviews the evidence of risks among four general categories: biographic/demographic factors, individual factors, mode of death, and circumstances following the loss.
Old Age and Widowhood: Issues of Personal Control and Independence
Authors: Hansson Robert O. , Remondet Jacqueline H.
Published: April 2010

This paper explores the interaction between the circumstances of old age and the demands of adjusting to widowhood. Most widowed individuals, especially women, have much of their life still before them. Three themes are developed: The implications of widowhood for successful aging, the utility of viewing the rest of one's life as a “career” to be planfully and actively pursued, and the increasing amount of heterogeneity among the elderly. These themes are related to issues of personal control and continued independence in old age.
Effects of Unemployment on Health in a Community Survey: Main, Modifying, and Mediating Effects
Authors: Kessler Ronald C. , Turner J. Blake , House James S.
Published: April 2010

Results from a community survey in a sample of high‐unemployment census tracts in southeastern Michigan showed significant elevations of depression, anxiety, somatization, and self‐reported physical illness among the currently unemployed. These adverse effects were largely reversed by reemployment. Subsequent analyses documented modifying effects of social support, self‐concept, and coping. We also found two mediating processes that account for the overall effects of current unemployment: (a) the intervening effects of financial strain, and (b) an influence of unemployment in creating heightened vulnerability to other stressful life events. The implications of these results for the design and implementation of preventive interventions are briefly discussed.
Psychological Effects of Unemployment on Workers and Their Families
Authors: Liem Ramsay , Liem Joan Huser
Published: April 2010

This paper reviews findings from a panel study of Boston area unemployed men and their families. Psychological effects of unemployment on workers and their wives are summarized, particularly for the first half year of joblessness. Family responses to job loss are also examined, including the role of the marital relationship in buffering workers' stress. Finally, policy and service implications of this research are discussed. Consideration is given not only to the mental health needs of workers, but to frequently overlooked qualities of efficacy and resilience among the unemployed.
Layoffs, Plant Closings, and Worker Displacement in America: Serious Problems that Need a National Solution
Authors: Hansen Gary B.
Published: April 2010

Pervasive economic changes in America during the past decade have generated severe structural adjustment problems for millions of long‐service blue‐collar workers. Public and private efforts to help these workers are inadequate and tardy in delivery. This article examines the severity of the displaced worker problem, reviews what is currently being done, and argues that America needs a new displaced worker adjustment program. In December 1986 the Secretary of Labor's Task Force proposed such a program, and most of it has since been passed by Congress and signed into law. If this legislation is fully implemented, it will fill a major gap in the nation's employment and training policy, and help America remain competitive in the world marketplace.
Deinstitutionalization: How Did We Get Where We Are?
Authors: Warner Richard
Published: April 2010

More than three decades after the onset of deinstitutionalization in the United States, large numbers of the severely mentally ill receive little or no psychiatric treatment. Many are homeless or in jail, others are housed in boarding homes and nursing homes in conditions scarcely better (if at all) than the back wards of the old state hospitals. Why has this happened? A comparison of deinstitutionalization in different Western nations suggests that the process was stimulated by the opportunity for cost savings created by the introduction of disability pensions and, in some countries, by the postwar demand for labor. Where labor was in short supply, genuinely rehabilitative programs were developed. Where cost saving was the principal motivation, community treatment efforts were weak. In the United States, the tendency to reduce mental hospital beds with minimal community planning was exaggerated by the zeal with which state legislatures embraced the opportunity to pass expenses along to the federal government. Contrary to widespread opinion in American psychiatry, the shift to the community does not appear to have been primarily a response to introduction of the antipsychotic drugs.
Homeless but Not Helpless: Legal Issues in the Care of Homeless People with Mental Illness
Authors: Kanter Arlene S.
Published: April 2010

The sight of homeless people in U.S. cities and countrysides has entered our national consciousness. Many writers blame the increase in homeless people on the deinstitutionalization movement that occurred in the last 30 years. This paper disputes that conclusion and suggests that solutions to the growing problem of homelessness will not be found in admission wards of state mental hospitals. Relaxing commitment laws, imposing mandatory outpatient commitment, or forcibly transporting homeless people to emergency wards of psychiatric hospitals will not end homelessness, nor will they provide homeless mentally ill people what they need most: a decent home and supportive services.
The Economics of Long‐Term Care for the Mentally Ill
Authors: Frisman Linda K. , McGuire Thomas G.
Published: April 2010

Systems of long‐term care for the mentally ill have been largely shaped by financing and reimbursement, rather than sound treatment principles. An undue emphasis on institutional care and the lack of coordination among providers can be attributed to perverse economic incentives and multiple payers. This article argues that, because of the special nature of long‐term psychiatric disabilities, there is a predictable underutilization of long‐term psychiatric services. It considers three types of settings: state hospitals, nursing homes, and community care, discussing current financing mechanisms in each. Finally, it presents characteristics of ideal systems and examines several proposed financing models according to these characteristics.
The Case for Comparable Worth
Authors: Taylor Susan H.
Published: April 2010

Comparable worth is a necessary and feasible remedy for the systematic, sex‐related pay inequities found in most contemporary work organizations. It is necessary because discriminatory pay practices of the past were not fully addressed by equal employment opportunity legislation, and their effects have been perpetuated by conventional pay administration practices. It is feasible because it can be assessed and implemented simply, often using data already available, at a relatively small cost to the organization. Arguments against the necessity of comparable worth are based largely on academic studies of pay discrimination, which differ from comparable worth studies in their context, purpose, methods, and results. Arguments against the feasibility of comparable worth center on potential costs and technical criticisms of comparable worth pay policies, objections contradicted by the facts of actual comparable worth implementation.
Gender Differences in Comparisons and Entitlement: Implications for Comparable Worth
Authors: Major Brenda
Published: April 2010

This article addresses the role of comparison processes in the persistence of the gender wage gap, its toleration by those most disadvantaged by it, and resistance to comparable worth as a corrective strategy. It proposes that the gender segregation of jobs and the underpayment of women and women's jobs lead women and men to use different comparison standards when evaluating what they are entitled to receive in terms of pay for work. I argue that gender differences in entitlement contribute to toleration of injustice among underpaid female workers, foster cultural beliefs regarding what is appropriate pay for male and female workers, and serve as sources of potential bias in job evaluation plans. In addition, a variety of structural, cognitive, and affective factors encourage individuals to compare within groups, to regard ingroup members as the most relevant and legitimate comparative referents, and to inhibit the outgroup comparisons that lie at the heart of the comparable worth strategy.
Sources of Bias in Job Evaluation: A Review and Critique of Research
Authors: Mount Michael K. , Ellis Rebecca A.
Published: April 2010

This article reviews existing evidence of sex bias in job evaluation judgments and analyzes research methods that have been used to study the issue. There are three potential sources of bias in job evaluation: (1) direct bias—jobs held predominantly by females are judgmentally underevaluated relative to predominantly male jobs with the same content; (2) indirect bias—job evaluation judgments are influenced by knowledge of potentially discriminatory current wages; and (3) sex‐of‐rater bias. Results of the empirical studies reviewed provide little or no evidence of either direct bias or sex‐of‐rater bias. However, consistent support was found for indirect bias in job evaluation: Jobs perceived as high paying are typically assigned higher job evaluation points (or higher pay rates) than those perceived as low paying. Methodological issues in the study of job evaluation are also discussed, particularly the dilemma of attempting to manipulate pay level and job sex in realistic ways (for high external validity) that are also effective and believable to subjects (for high internal validity).
Implementation of Comparable Worth in Canada
Authors: Gunderson Morley
Published: April 2010

This paper describes issues involved in the implementation of comparable worth in Canada, where comparable worth has been instituted in federal employment and in a number of provinces. The Canadian experience with comparable worth has international relevance because of its extensive coverage, its application to the private sector, its integration with collective bargaining, and its emphasis on a proactive, regulatory approach. The paper discusses issues of fairness associated with practical aspects of program design, implementation, and enforcement. Lessons to be learned from the Canadian experience include limitations of a complaints‐based system, the desirability of phasing in the legislation, the feasibility of flexibility, reduction of employer resistance through a maximum ceiling on adjustment costs, and the desirability of implementation through collective bargaining where it exists.
Psychological Roots of Moral Exclusion
Authors: Deutsch Morton
Published: April 2010

This paper asks whether or not there is a need, which emerges inescapably during the course of human development, to identify some people as allies and others as enemies. In answering this question, it describes the potential for moral splitting within all of us, and the circumstances that activate this potential.
Intrinsic Versus Community‐Based Justice Models: When Does Group Membership Matter?
Authors: Tyler Tom R. , Lind E. Allan
Published: April 2010

This paper examines the effects of group membership on group members' concerns about justice. Two types of effects are hypothesized to exist: inclusionary and exclusionary. Inclusionary effects involve the relationship between groups and their members. Exclusionary effects involve the relationship of groups to nonmembers. Data from a recent study of citizen reactions to encounters with legal authority suggest that inclusionary effects do occur—for example, people of differing centrality to the group differ in their justice concerns. This finding supports both social exchange and group‐value models of justice, both of which suggest that justice concerns are linked to group membership. The form of the inclusionary effects—which show that members of intermediate status care most about justice—supports the predictions of group‐value theory. A theoretical analysis of exclusionary effects suggests that such effects may be complex, being influenced by factors such as the structure and values of the group in question.
Public Shelter as “a Hybrid Institution”: Homeless Men in Historical Perspective
Authors: Hopper Kim
Published: April 2010

The histories of public shelter in Chicago and New York show that homelessness among single men has typically been viewed as a problem of troubled—and troublesome—individuals. In this viewpoint, the link between the labor market and emergency shelter use, so obvious during times of economic depression, has been lost. Shelters historically have been “hybrid institutions,” plugging gaps in the formal institutional array of supports, while at the same time serving as dwellings of last resort for usually‐working men who have exhausted informal resources of assistance. This double burden has made program design incoherent, barriers to access commonplace, and mystification of shelter functions the rule. Today, families continue to play the largest role in avoiding homelessness among single men, with shelters serving as intermittent, stopgap accessories. A coherent unemployment relief policy is still lacking, despite the centrality of labor market dynamics in the homelessness of these men.
Poor People, Poor Health: The Health Status of the Homeless
Authors: Wright James D.
Published: April 2010

Clinical data from the National Health Care for the Homeless program are analyzed to provide a portrait of the health status of the urban homeless. Ill health, physical as well as mental, is both a cause and a consequence of homelessness; homeless people suffer from many physical disorders at dramatically elevated rates. Homelessness also greatly complicates the delivery of adequate health care. The paper concludes that homelessness should be considered as a remediable condition of the environment that places a large and growing portion of the urban poverty population at high health risk.