bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Searching for Legibility
Authors: Herzog Thomas R. , Leverich Olivia L.
Published: July 2003

Legibility has been ineffective as a predictor of environmental preference primarily because of its correlation with another predictor, coherence. The authors tried to separate the two predictors by careful selection of field/forest settings and by using nontraditional definitions. The alternate definitions emphasized landmarks (for legibility) and the two-dimensional picture plane (for coherence). These strategies proved unsuccessful for the entire sample of settings. However, when an empirically derived subset of forest settings was examined, the desired pattern of relations among the traditionally defined constructs was found: Legibility had a slightly stronger correlation with preference than coherence, and legibility was clearly the stronger predictor in regression models that included several predictors. Post hoc analyses involving openness suggested visual access is a major component of legibility in forest settings. The authors now believe the forest setting category is a good domain for establishing the salience of legibility as an independent predictor of preference.
Further Validation of the Motivation Toward the Environment Scale
Authors: Villacorta Mark , Koestner Richard , Lekes Natasha
Published: July 2003

A study was conducted to further validate the Motivation Toward the Environment Scale (MTES). Results confirmed both the convergent and discriminant validity of the MTES by showing that peer reports corresponded to self-reports of environmental self-regulation and that environmental self-regulation was relatively distinct from self-regulation in academic and political domains. Results also pointed to some possible sources of autonomous self-regulation. Individuals were more likely to engage in autonomous environmental behaviors if (a) their parents had shown an interest in their developing attitudes about the environment, (b) their peers supported their freedom to make decisions about the environment, and (c) they had already developed life aspirations such as concern for their community. Finally, results confirmed the adaptive value of developing an autonomous regulatory style toward environmental activities. Thus, autonomous individuals were shown to report stable proenvironmental attitudes over time, a greater number of environmental behaviors, and higher levels of well-being.
Who Cares and Who Acts?
Authors: Teisl Mario F. , O'Brien Kelly
Published: July 2003

The relationship between a person's level of environmental concern/behavior and his or her participation in outdoor recreation has been a matter of study for approximately 25 years. However, previous research, primarily using correlation techniques on local/state data, provides only weak or inconsistent results. The authors use a nationally representative sample and probability models to reanalyze this issue. The results support the idea that participation in outdoor recreation is positively associated with environmental concern/behavior. In addition, the level of concern/behavior depends on the type of recreational activity. However, the relative effects of the different recreation activities differ across the measures of environmental concern and behavior. Thus, the idea that the direction of the effects is consistent across alternative measures is not supported.
Environmental Features Influencing Toddlers' Bioemotional Reactions in Day Care Centers
Authors: Legendre Alain
Published: July 2003

The investigation focuses on environmental features of day care centers likely to affect emotional and stress reactions of toddlers in group settings. To assess stress reactions, the morning cortisol changes of 113 children (18 to 40 months) were analyzed in eight day care centers. Children's cortisol levels in the centers remained stable between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., whereas at home, as expected, cortisol levels decreased at the same time of day. Children's cortisol changes showed differences among the eight centers, suggesting the influence of environmental factors. Cortisol increases were related to large group sizes ( n > 15), important age differences among children (> 6 months), less available area per child in the playrooms (< 5 m2), and unexpectedly, large number of caregivers in the team (> 4 adults). Overall, the findings support the claim that the physical and social attributes of preschool settings intervene in the regulation of children's bioemotional reactions.
Home and School Density Effects on Elementary School Children
Authors: Maxwell Lorraine E.
Published: July 2003

School or classroom density is most often studied as social density, namely, the number of people in a space. The current study investigates classroom spatial density effects on elementary school children. Outcomes included a measure of academic achievement, social behavior/disturbance, and a self-reported measure of psychological stress. Second- and fourth-grade children in urban public schools were the participants. Findings indicate amount of space per child in the classroom may be just as important as the number of children in a classroom. Girls' academic achievement was negatively affected by less space per student; boys' classroom behavior was negatively affected by spatial density conditions. There was no interaction of school and home density on the outcome measures; however, children in crowded homes were more likely to report more psychological stress than their less crowded peers. Home density also negatively affected academic performance.
Communication and Nation Building
Authors: Shah Hemant
Published: July 2003

This article compares two models of communication and nation building developed in the US. Daniel Lerner's model of communication and modernization, created in political and academic centers of the US from the 1960s onward, mirrors the thinking about communication and ethnic assimilation developed by Robert Park in the early part of the 20th-century US. Both models say an increase in shared characteristics among social groups and an increasing social homogeneity are a key to nation building. Both models require erasure of differences (in ethnicity, cognitive orientations, patterns of social interactions, etc.) for the creation of a cohesive, productive, just and affluent society. In both models various communication media assume an important role in providing information that facilitates key transformations in individuals and communities. By making this comparison, I want to reinforce the idea that ethnic minorities in the US and `Third World' populations assume similar positions in the thinking of western (white) nations and consider how, why and with what consequences certain types of knowledge created in one specific geopolitical and historical context are normalized and then deemed appropriate to explain phenomena in and create policy for different geopolitical contexts.
Censorship and Freedom of the Press Under Changing Political Regimes
Authors: Nossek Hillel , Rinnawi Khalil
Published: July 2003

This article examines the Palestinian media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in order to understand how censorship functions in an environment of changing political realities and the impact of censorship on matters related to freedom of the press. These questions are examined both in relation to the period of Palestinian self-governance under the Palestinian Authority (PA), and under the period of Israeli military (administrative) rule. Primary research questions include: How and to what degree have the Palestinian media changed under the two different systems of rule? To what extent do new Palestinian media organizations advance freedom of expression as part of the PA's development? If freedom of the press has not developed, why is this so, and what does this say about the PA's political structure? This case study of the Palestinian media before and after the periods of self-government suggests some important conclusions in the general context of media research and media relations with political authorities, and the use of censorship and other regulatory systems. The article examines the formal legal processes practised that have advanced or hindered the PA's development, and determines the particular type of political system to which the PA belongs. However, the most interesting question to emerge is whether boundaries of freedom of expression in Palestinian society have significantly changed - legally or in practice - as would be expected following the liberation of territories from foreign occupation and the subsequent creation of a new regime.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Effects of Sex Ratios and Work-Life Programs on Female Leadership at the Top
Authors: Dreher George F.
Published: July 2003

Data, at the level of the corporation, revealed that the percentage of lower-level managerial positions held by women in the 1980s and early 1990s was positively associated with the number of work-life human resource practices provided in 1994 and with the percentage of senior management positions held by women in 1999. In turn, the number of work-life human resource practices provided in 1994 was positively associated with the percentage of senior management positions held by women in 1999 and partially mediated the effect of lower-level female representation on senior level female representation. These results support the blending of a social contact theory perspective and a strategic human resource management perspective when explaining the glass-ceiling phenomenon, and have important implications for managing human resources and individual careers.
Applied Hermeneutics and Qualitative Safety Data: The CIRAS Project
Authors: Wallace Brendan , Ross Alastair , Davies John B.
Published: July 2003

This article describes the new qualitative methodology developed for use in CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System), the confidential database set up for the UK railways by the University of Strathclyde. CIRAS is a project in which qualitative safety data are disidentified and then stored and analysed in a central database. Due to the confidential nature of the data provided, conventional (positivist) methods of checking their accuracy are not applicable; therefore a new methodology was developed - the Applied Hermeneutic Methodology (AHM). Based on Paul Ricoeur's `hermeneutic arc', this methodology uses appropriate computer software to provide a method of analysis that can be shown to be reliable (in the sense that consensus in interpretations between different interpreters can be demonstrated). Moreover, given that the classifiers of the textual elements can be represented in numeric form, AHM crosses the `qualitative-quantitative divide'. It is suggested that this methodology is more rigorous and philosophically coherent than existing methodologies and that it has implications for all areas of the social sciences where qualitative texts are analysed.
Social Dreaming as Sustained Thinking
Authors: Lawrence Gordon
Published: July 2003

This article begins by describing Freud's work on dreams, and the importance this had for dream theory. Bion's perspective follows, with his questioning of Freud's theory that dreams exist to disguise the wishes and conceal the needs of the dreamer. The article then goes on to consider what happens if dreaming is regarded as a normal human activity, and the working through of thinking and creativity while the dreamer is asleep. From this point, it moves on to look at the emergent theory of social dreaming, which takes place in a matrix - where the matrix is the name given to the collection of people meeting to share their dreams. Finally, seven working hypotheses of the developing theory of social dreaming are described.
Skin Bleaching, Self-Hate, and Black Identity in Jamaica
Authors: Charles Christopher A. D.
Published: July 2003

The Afrocentric view concerning Jamaicans who bleach their skins is that they suffer from self-hate, a result of the lingering psychological scars of slavery. The self-hatred thesis is tested by comparing the self-esteem scores of a small convenience sample of skin bleachers with the scores of a control group. The two groups have almost the same average scores above the median, which indicates that skin bleaching did not occur because of low self-esteem. The preliminary results suggest that there are varied reasons for skin bleaching and there is a range of Black identities as each person constructs his or her identity in a multicultural society.
Apartheid and the Removal of Black Spots from Lake Bhangazi in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Authors: Skelcher Bradley
Published: July 2003

Clearly, the forced removal of Africans from White-designated areas during apartheid in South Africa is not unique to world history. So, what can be learned from studying a group of rural Africans living in a communal arrangement for 1,000 years or more? By investigating the case of the removal of African people from the Lake Bhangazi area within Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park in South Africa from 1956 through 1974, light can be shed on one aspect of forced migration. This may lead to an understanding of other forced movements of people throughout world history. It may also provide a better understanding of the rural phase of forced removals during apartheid. Most South African studies have focused on urban removals. The following article is the story of the people from Lake Bhangazi in KwaZulu-Natal set within the broad context of South African apartheid and “black spot” removal.
Framing Supreme Court Decisions
Authors: Clawson Rosalee A. , Strine Harry C. “Neil” , Waltenburg Eric N.
Published: July 2003

The Supreme Court regularly makes decisions with profound policy implications, but it largely leaves it to others to shape public opinion regarding those policies. The media play an important role in framing the Court's decisions, yet few studies have examined media coverage of the Court. It is quite possible that not all media frame the Court's decisions in the same way. We analyze the Black and mainstream presses' coverage of the Court's 1995 Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Federico Pena, Secretary of Transportation, et al. decision on affirmative action and find systematic differences between the two types of newspapers.
Use of Real-time FTIR to Characterize Kinetics of Amine Catalysts and to Develop New Grades for Various Polyurethane Applications, Including Low Emission Catalysts
Authors: Chaffanjon P. , Grisgby R. A. , Rister E. L. , Zimmerman R. L.
Published: July 2003

The use of in situ Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) to follow PU reaction kinetics has been studied using a heated probe matching the PU material temperature. The results obtained show that, although not giving access to concentration of formed chemical bonds, the technique is a unique tool to assess subtle differences in catalysts behavior during actual PU formation, going beyond the currently used but restrictive characterization of catalysts in terms of gelling, blowing or trimerization grades.

Examples of the use of the technique for the development of new amine catalysts are given for flexible and rigid foams.

For flexible foams, it is shown that FTIR characterizes the gel potency in good agreement with the behavior of known gel catalyst molecules and is therefore a good tool to develop new ones. Results comparing gel strength and foam emission data show that several experimental grades have potential to be brought on the JEFFCAT® Catalyst range. They also confirmed the good performance of commercial low emission grades such as JEFFCAT® ZF-10 as blow catalyst and JEFFCAT® ZR-50, DPA and Z-130 as gel catalysts.

For rigid foams, it is shown that FTIR provides good insight into the extent of trimer formation and is therefore the technique of choice to optimize catalyst blends for best fire performance and processing.
Effective Use of Compatibilizers to Achieve Resin Stability with Hydrocarbon Blowing Agents
Authors: Lyon James T. , Riley Robert E.
Published: July 2003

The increasing use of hydrocarbon blowing agents brings with it additional problems for resin producers. First and foremost are the flammable hazard and VOC restrictions. However, resin incompatibility is another issue that is not as obvious. It is difficult to obtain a homogeneous resin mixture because dissimilar polarities of typical polyols and hydrocarbons lead to separation when not stirred sufficiently and/or continuously. This can result in separation of resin components in storage vessels.

The purpose of this presentation is to offer a formulation technique that avoids resin separation. Resin stability can be achieved through the addition of additives described as compatibilizers. Suitable compatibilizers will be identified chemically and by trade name. Also, the optimum compatibilizer will be matched to the type of polyol used in the resin.

The amount of compatibilizer added to the resin determines whether the resin is a stable emulsion or a micro-emulsion. Data will be presented identifying additive levels required to obtain both states, as well as the storage stability of typical resins.

Physical property data will also be presented to demonstrate the effect the compatibilizer has on rigid foam properties.
Novel Method for Measuring the Extensional Viscosity of PE with Blowing Agent and its Impact on Foams
Authors: Ramesh N. S. , Lee S. T. , Lee K.
Published: July 2003

The nature of blowing agent seems to dominate the dynamics of bubble growth, melt strength, extensional viscosity, and foam properties. A novel technique for measuring the extensional viscosity data will be presented for LDPE with propane and isobutane as blowing agents. The difference in solubility and volatility appears to play an important role in controlling extensional viscosity that has a profound effect on foam processing. Its impact on foaming process and properties show that the dynamics of foaming process is very complex in nature. More rheological exploration is needed to understand new polyolefin materials in the presence of hydrocarbons as blowing agents.
Fire Behavior of Polyurethane Foams
Authors: Bastin B. , Paleja R. , Lefebvre J.
Published: July 2003

Combustibility of polyurethane foam is an important industry issue. Many test methods are in place to characterize foam combustion, and legislation exists to ensure that the foam complies with specified standards.

This paper provides a basic understanding of foam combustibility based on the British Standard BS5852 test method. Dynamic weight loss of foams made with two types of liquid flame retardants with and without melamine is used to provide this understanding. Thermogravimetric analysis and cone calorimeter have been used to support the discussions.

In melamine free foams, our study has shown that the decomposition temperature of the liquid flame retardant is a key parameter, which governs the foam combustion.

In the melamine containing foams, the overall combustion behavior is independent of the type of liquid flame retardant used. However, intrinsic differences do exist, and synergy is seen between melamine and liquid flame retardant under specific conditions.

Applying this basic understanding and the actual combustion standards, foam producers can attain flexibility in designing cost effective foam formulations.
Advancing Humanistic Psychology and Psychotherapy: Some Challenges and Proposed Solutions
Authors: Cain David J.
Published: July 2003

The intent of this article is to advance humanistic psychology in academia, practice, and the general public. Despite its enormous contributions and advances, there are a number of issues, problems, and challenges faced by humanistic psychology. Primary among these are humanistic psychology's minimal representation in American universities, declining membership in humanistic organizations, a lack of a coherent and shared vision, a plan for future development, and strategies to enhance our growth and impact. Concrete proposals are offered to address the challenges facing humanistic psychology. A call to action is issued to those concerned about our future.
A Challenge to Humanistic Psychology in the 21st Century
Authors: Criswell Eleanor
Published: July 2003

Humanistic psychology began in the 1960s as an alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Humanistic psychology's larger mission is nothing short of freedom and autonomy for all human beings. The challenge to humanistic psychology is to realize its larger mission and organize its resources to fulfill that mission. The challenge to humanistic psychology is to fulfill its own potential, to have a positive effect on global well-being. Humanistic psychology needs to encourage education for humanistic behavior; actualization of personal potential: mind, body, and spirit; diversity/multiversity; global well-being; humanistic research; media coverage; collaborative efforts; humanistic cyber education; and appropriate funding. The need for humanistic psychology in the world is greater than ever. Individualistic tendencies of humanistic psychology need to blend with a more collaborative model.
Voices of Psychology Graduate Students: Humanistic Training for the 21st Century
Authors: Eulert Don
Published: July 2003

This study seeks to identify significant issues/challenges faced by humanistic psychology, in particular a more available humanistic psychology in the training of clinicians. Current candidates and recent graduates were surveyed with the question, “Will you please take the time to describe your ideal training for future impact in the field of psychology and the public we serve?” Comments on training were sorted into why they need a humanistic psychology, what they want in the academy, and how these goals might be advanced. These voices from “consumers” challenge the status quo. They name key issues for discourse about the future of humanistic psychology and give most apt advice about how present practitioners must provide visibility and mentoring. For context and summary, the author's observations over two decades of keeping humanistic psychology alive in an APA-accredited clinical training program also suggest courses of action.
Building Bridges, Not Walls
Authors: Richards Anne C.
Published: July 2003

During the Old Saybrook 2 Conference, held May 11-14, 2000, on the campus of the State University of West Georgia, the author participated in a dialogue session about the challenges facing humanistic psychology and the opportunities that exist to more effectively sustain continued contributions to this movement.1 Extending this discussion here, disparate developments are highlighted that suggest the humanistic psychology movement is alive and well, even where it is not specifically referenced. The existence of numerous allies or kindred spirits, it is argued, constitute an extended but often unrecognized community of support for humanistic psychology's ideals, aims, and purposes. Yet more could be done by those committed to this movement to acknowledge, express appreciation for, and build productive bridges to the contributions of these individuals and groups.
The Relevance of Humanistic Psychology
Authors: Aanstoos Christopher M.
Published: July 2003

Humanistic psychology, as with any paradigm, is defined by its position with respect to matters of content, method, and approach. This article reviews how the humanistic paradigm defined itself in these respects in its founding generation and then looks ahead to the question of its relevance for the future. It demonstrates that the humanistic vision is historically one of holism. Furthermore, this holistic vision is precisely what is most needed to resolve crucial issues of the next generation, including globalization, health, ecology, and spirituality. By fulfilling its own potential as holistic psychology, the humanistic paradigm can continue to flourish by providing a time-less vision to a world in timely need of it.
The Fluid Center: An Awe-Based Challenge to Humanity
Authors: Schneider Kirk J.
Published: July 2003

This article raises two basic questions: What is humanistic psychology's relevance to post 9/11/2001? and, Can that relevance be practically applied to daily life? To address these questions, the author elaborates a humanistic concept that he calls the “fluid center.” The fluid center is an “awe-based” consciousness exemplified by playful constraint, humble daring, and reverent adventurousness. Whereas 9/11 represented the triumph of personal and interpersonal polarization (e.g., arrogance, humiliation), the fluid center, by contrast, represents the opportunity for personal and interpersonal revitalization (e.g., openness, dialogue). To illustrate this position, the author proposes two social visions that draw on the fluid center: awe-based education and awe-based vocation. He concludes that not only can such alternatives modify institutional settings; they can radically transform lives.
Overcoming Tough Challenges: An Invitational Theory of Practice for Humanistic Psychology
Authors: Purkey William Watson , Aspy David
Published: July 2003

The challenge for humanistic psychologists is not so much the further development of theoretical constructs. The challenge is to develop theories of practice that move from abstract formulations to concrete models. “Invitational Education” is one humanistic theory of practice that was used to help transform 12 suffering inner-city schools. The story of how this was done follows.
Teacher Preparation Research
Authors: Wilson Suzanne M. , Floden Robert E. , Ferrini-Mundy Joan
Published: July 2003

The authors were asked by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement and the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a review of high-quality research on five questions concerning teacher preparation. As part of that assignment, they were asked to develop a set of defensible criteria for including research in the review. In this article, they summarize what the research says about the five questions posed by their funders, and they discuss the development of the review criteria. The questions included attention to the subject matter and pedagogical preparation of prospective teachers, to the content and character of high-quality field experiences and alternative routes, and to research on the effects of policies on the enhancement of teacher preparation.
The Career of the Sport Supporter: The Case of the Manchester Storm
Authors: Crawford Garry
Published: July 2003

This article presents a theorization of the induction and patterns of behaviour of the sport supporter along a social and moral career path. I argue that too often theorizations of contemporary sport supporters have relied upon restrictive and rigid typologies or dichotomies based upon excessively subjective codes of authenticity. I suggest that what is required is a return to the Chicagoan concept of status passage and career, married with an understanding of the fluidity and temporality of many contemporary `communities'. Specifically, here I apply this model to the case of supporters of the British ice hockey team the Manchester Storm, but suggest that this theorization could be applied to many other supporter, enthusiast or fan `communities'.
Disability and Bodies as Bearers of Value
Authors: Edwards Claire , Imrie Rob
Published: July 2003

This article considers the relevance of Pierre Bourdieu's conceptions of the body to the development of disability theory. We begin by discussing the limitations of reductive conceptions of disability. In so doing, we consider how far Bourdieu's (1990) concept of habitus offers a way of bringing an analysis of the body to bear upon an understanding of the social inequalities which are core to the lives of disabled people. Through focus groups with disabled people, the article explores aspects of disabled people's corporeal identities, feelings and (embodied) encounters in a range of social settings. The research shows that disabled people's lives are connected to different `valuations' attributed to corporeal forms, and to systems of signification and representation, which underpin them. We conclude by reaffirming the need to consider Bourdieu's ideas in helping in the development of disability theory.
Temp(t)ing Bodies: Shaping Gender at Work in Japan
Authors: Gottfried Heidi
Published: July 2003

This article explores how gender is embodied and embedded in organizations. Organizational embodiment and gendered work are linked to new forms of labor market segmentation around aesthetic labor. The analysis makes visible the situated forms of body management and the productive modes of embodiment in a gender regime as ways of organizing and ordering masculinities and femininities in a valued hierarchy. A case study of temporary employment provided by a multinational temporary-help company situates the global in culturally local contexts of gendered work and employment conditions.
Childhoods in the Majority World: Miniature Adults or Tribal Children?
Authors: Punch Samantha
Published: July 2003

Drawing on ethnographic data from rural Bolivia and applying the theoretical approaches of the minority group child and the tribal child (James et al., 1998), this article shows that majority world children integrate work, play and school, moving back and forth between child and adult-centred worlds. It argues that majority world children have largely been perceived in relation to their work, and that the overlapping arenas of their everyday lives tend to be ignored. A more holistic perspective which considers how they may combine work and school with play could be more appropriate for understanding children's childhoods.
Consistency of Findings Produced by Two Multidisciplinary Research Teams
Authors: Gladney Alicia P. , Ayars Candace , Taylor Wendell C. , Liehr Patricia , Meininger Janet C.
Published: July 2003

This article examines the consistency of research findings between two multidisciplinary research groups, which conducted independent analyses of interviews with 63 middle school students about their beliefs related to violence. The question addressed by this methodological study was: Is the consensus process so robust that it transcends disciplines (i.e. individuals from different disciplines inter-acting in multidisciplinary teams) to produce consistent findings? One group analyzed transcripts of interviews. Another group analyzed audiotapes (without typed transcripts). In spite of the different methods used by the two groups, and differences in the structure of the descriptive outcomes of each group's analysis, the content of findings was consistent. This suggests that there was internal reliability even with the diverse disciplinary perspectives involved in the analysis and interpretation of data.
From Ethics to Analytics: Aspects of Participants' Orientations to the Presence and Relevance of Recording Devices
Authors: Speer Susan A. , Hutchby Ian
Published: July 2003

In discussions of sociological research based on the recording of interactional occasions, participants' awareness of the presence of recording devices is often deemed to have a detrimental effect on the `authenticity' or `naturalness' of the data collected. We propose an alternative approach to this issue by seeking to turn participants' observable orientations to the presence and relevance of recording devices into an analytic topic, and exploring the precise kinds of situated interactional work in which such orientations are involved. Drawing on a substantial data corpus from three distinct research settings, we analyse a range of interactional functions associated with participants' orientations to the fact of their talk being recorded. Instead of assuming that it will act as a constraint on the production of `natural' talk, we show how the relevance of a recording device is negotiated and used in situ as a participants' matter and interactional resource.
Cultural Issues in Comprehensive School Reform
Authors: Cooper Robert , Jordan Will J.
Published: July 2003

This article's primary interest is an exploration of the complexities of educational and social conditions encountered by African American males in public schools. It focuses on the ability and effectiveness of comprehensive school reform to overcome the barriers to learning that hinder the urban Black male student, such as concentrated poverty, drug use, and violence. Current trends in comprehensive school reform tend to overlook the importance of cultural relevancy and student/teacher cultural synchronization in educating Black males. As such, this article argues that efforts for the reform of policy and practice be conjoined with the recruitment of educators and school staff. Specifically, this article addresses the effectiveness of recruiting well-educated African American male teachers to teach in schools with large populations of African American male students.
Developing the Talents of African American Male Students during the Nonschool Hours
Authors: Fashola Olatokunbo S.
Published: July 2003

This article presents information that speaks of the disparity in academic achievement between African American males and other ethnic groups, male and female alike. It also shows how after-school programs could provide services that would address and decrease some of these disparities. The article is divided into three sections. The first section addresses policy issues affecting the targeted population. The second section presents four programs that have successfully improved the academic achievement of minority students. The four programs profiled in this article are generally offered during the nonschool hours. The third section addresses additional ways in which after-school programs can develop the talents of males above and beyond academic achievement.
The Trouble with Black Boys:
Authors: Noguera Pedro A.
Published: July 2003

There is considerable confusion regarding why Black males are overrepresented in categories typically associated with negative behavioral outcomes. Drawing on research from a variety of disciplines, this article explores the influence of environmental and cultural factors on the academic performance of Black males. The article also examines the ways in which environmental and cultural forces shape the relationship between identity, particularly related to race and gender, and school performance. Finally, strategies for countering harmful environmental and cultural influences, both the diffuse and the direct, are explored with particular attention paid to recommendations for educators, parents, and youth service providers who seek to support young African American males.
Political Influence and Policy Variation
Authors: Schmidt Diane E.
Published: July 2003

Spatial studies of political behavior have examined the structure of influential interests, yet there is little comprehensive, coherent, theory-based research of such influences on policy administration at the local and regional levels. Borrowing from the work of many scholars and integrating findings from across various subfields, this study identifies indicators for explaining the politics of area and administration. In particular; the author argues that the nature and degree of field office responsiveness depends on its place within the institutional structure, the congruence between organizational norms and societal expectations, areal effects arising from political context, and the structure of organized interests.
Avoiding Captain Ahabs
Authors: Ross Jerry
Published: July 2003

The 1978 independent counsel law was designed to create an impartial prosecutor to increase public confidence that high-ranking government officials accused of misconduct would be fairly investigated. Many independent counsels have come under bipartisan criticism for being overzealous. Such overzealousness and excessive persistence may not be the random result of isolated personalities but may instead be the predictable outcome of escalation determinants embedded in the position of independent counsel. The author outlines these escalation determinants, shows how they may have influenced independent counsels, demonstrates how they may be counteracted, and discusses the general implications for the design of administrative positions.
“America's Greatest Criminal Barracks”
Authors: Gilfoyle Timothy J.
Published: July 2003

New York City's Halls of Justice, better known as “the Tombs,” was the physical representation of nineteenth-century criminal justice. Considered by many to be the most famous prison on the continent, the Tombs contained the entire corpus of criminal law: judges, juries, magistrates, attorneys, courtrooms, and cells of incarceration. The daily operation, living conditions, and organization of the Tombs departed sharply from nineteenth-century ideas of penal reform. The Tombs embodied an ideology more reminiscent of older, preindustrial forms of punishment—the absence of penal routine and labor; the lack of special diets; few prisoners locked in separate cells; and easy access to family, friends, games, and recreation. The treatment of the incarcerated depended less on penal ideology and more on informal procedures and personal relationships between law enforcement authorities and inmates. The Tombs ultimately symbolized the inadequacies of nineteenth-century urban criminal justice: the abuse of bail, “pigeonholed” indictments, and a corrupt fee system. Rather than the state imposing the conditions of punishment, inmates negotiated with a variety of officials regarding not only prison conditions but sometimes their legal status.
“Close that Place of Hell”
Authors: Willrich Michael
Published: July 2003

Historians have emphasized the animosity that urban working-class people felt toward Prohibition. In fact, many poor women called for Prohibition enforcement to abolish what they perceived as a chief cause of poverty and violence in their homes: the illicit saloons where their husbands spent their wages. In Chicago, poor women wrote letters to Mayor William E. Dever, asking him to enforce Prohibition in their immigrant neighborhoods. This article places those letters in a long tradition of petitioning in American political culture that extends from the colonial period through the New Deal. Although the institutional tradition of the petition encouraged the women to position themselves as supplicants to the mayor's authority, the letter writers made bold demands upon the local state to use crime fighting to protect home life. Their petitions echoed the political rhetoric of “social responsibility for crime” forged by middle-class women reformers during the Progressive Era. Mayor Dever acted on these petitions, and they triggered numerous arrests.
The Racketeer's Progress
Authors: Cohen Andrew W.
Published: July 2003

This article considers urban crime and the origins of the term racketeering in the United States during the 1920s. The etymology of this muddled concept can help historians separate facts from the ideologically charged rhetoric of that period. The noun racketeering emerged in Chicago amidst Prohibition-era debates about gang violence, labor unions, and competition. In 1927, Gordon Hostetter, an antiunion activist, promoted the term to describe unions and associations in trades like construction, laundry, and kosher foods, which governed prices and wages through strikes, boycotts, and violence. He sought not to expose gang influence in the labor movement but rather to direct public concern about bootleggers like A1 Capone against organizations he saw as extortionate. Union officials fought this definition, eventually convincing the public that they were victims of blackmail, not its perpetrators. But Hostetter's language significantly shaped the legal status of collective action before and after the New Deal.
China's Zhiqing Generation
Authors: Yang Guobin
Published: July 2003

Using interview data and a content analysis of personal narratives, this article shows that the nostalgia exhibited by China's zhiqing generation in the 1990s emerged as a form of cultural resistance against the changing conditions of Chinese modernity. At the center of this collective nostalgia was a concern for meaning and identity newly problematized by the conditions of contemporary life. Under these conditions, among former educated youth, nostalgia becomes a means of identity construction. Nostalgia connects individuals to their past, compels them to articulate their generational experience in narratives, and contrasts a past viewed as containing beauty, meaning, and purpose with a present increasingly dominated by economic inequality and instrumental rationality. In its conclusion, the article suggests that the zhiqing nostalgia marks a shift in contemporary Chinese political life from a macropolitics of mass political campaigns to a micropolitics of social and cultural orientation.
Fornication in the Late Qing Legal Reforms
Authors: Yeung Alison Sau-Chu
Published: July 2003

Chinese laws were long conceived as supplements to moral teachings, and moral misconduct was often given legal penalty. For example, voluntary sex by a woman outside of wedlock, whatever her marital status, was defined as a criminal offense from the Tang dynasty onward. But the late Qing reform introduced a clear legal distinction between the concepts of fornication and adultery, implying that sexual activity by unmarried women and widows should go unpunished. This article examines how the debate in the National Assembly and the press shifted from concentrating on specific statutes to deliberating on broader topics, such as the traditional connection between law and morality. Framed as a conflict between two different kinds of law—one based on legal principles (fali), the other on moral teachings (lijiao)— the debate over the fornication issue helped to crystallize awareness of the implications of Westernstyle reforms for Chinese society.
Teasing Apart Secondary Students' Conceptualizations of Peer Teasing, Bullying and Sexual Harassment
Authors: Land Deborah
Published: July 2003

Examples of teasing, bullying and sexual harassment were collected from 147 secondary school students to determine how students distinguish among these forms of peer victimization. The inclusion of physical and sexual behaviours, references to fun/play, repetition of victimization, the number and gender of the actors, the gender of the targets, gender difference between the actors and targets and reasons for victimization were dependent upon victimization category. Few example elements were related to participants' gender or school. The results are discussed in relation to researchers' definitions of teasing, bullying and sexual harassment.
Cultural and Gender Differences in Perceptions of Stressors and Coping Skills
Authors: Hashim Ismail Hussein
Published: July 2003

The main objective of this research is to test the universal nature of stress and coping behaviour among overseas college students in China and to provide basic information towards understanding the problems that result from stress and coping which can best be defined in cultural terms. The sample consisted of 83 students from Africa and 76 students from Western countries attending eleven universities in China. Results indicated that academic and interpersonal sources of stress were the most common stressors perceived by the two groups. High levels of pressures and challenges perceived by both African and Western student were classified as daily hassles. No group differences existed in subtotal perceptions of interpersonal, intrapersonal, academic and environmental stressors. Group variations existed only in their sub-divisional areas of stress. Minor differences in perception of stressors such as attaining lower grades, missing too many classes and working with unfamiliar people were observed between male and female students. In comparison to African students, Western students demonstrated the highest ability to cope with stress. The two groups differed on the level of most measures, with Western subjects scoring higher on all seven sub-scales. On the coping scale, they did best on `ability to relax'. Both African and Western students scored lowest on `the resourceful coping' scale. Significant differences were observed between Western and African students in four out of the seven sub-scales measured. No differences were found between men and women in their ways of coping with stress in China.
Access to Structural Similarity in the Analogical Problem Solving of Children
Authors: Kim Minhwa , Choi Kyoung-Sook
Published: July 2003

In this study of the access process in analogical problem solving, preschoolers, first graders and third graders repeatedly listened to a variety of similar types of source stories until they could recall them completely. They then listened to a target story, were asked to retrieve the source story, were directed to solve a problem in a target story and to verify their responses. We found the following developmental differences: (1) the child could not access structural similarity at all; or the child could not maintain it until he/she reached a solution to the problem; (2) the child did not access structural similarity at first, but he/she re-accessed it during later processes of problem solving; (3) the child accessed structural similarity from the first and was able to maintain it with sound analogy. We described hypothetical reasons for such differences in analogical problem solving and provided suggestions for further research.
Specific and Nonspecific Treatment Factors in the Experimental Analysis of Behavioral Treatment Efficacy
Authors: Lohr Jeffrey M. , DeMaio Christine , McGlynn F. Dudley
Published: July 2003

Interest in the empirical demonstration of the clinical efficacy of psychosocial treatments has been rekindled by societal concerns over accountability and cost-effectiveness in the delivery of mental health services. Behavior therapy has had a long history of experimental research on treatment efficacy and enjoys a visible presence in contemporary mental health practice. The demonstration of behavioral treatment efficacy, however, requires experimental evidence that shows the efficacy of prescriptive structured procedures beyond nonspecific factors in delivery of such procedures. The authors provide an analysis of the nature of nonspecific treatment factors and nonspecific effects and suggest experimental procedures testing the incremental validity of specific treatments. They examine two widely promoted, prescriptive structured treatments to analyze the specificity of their clinical efficacy: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for anxiety disorders and cognitive-behavioral treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. They conclude that the treatments show different levels of efficacy and different degrees of specificity.
The Science and Practice of Empirically Supported Treatments
Authors: Herbert James D.
Published: July 2003

Despite impressive gains over the past three decades in the development and evaluation of empirically supported psychotherapies, such treatments are not used widely by front-line practicing clinicians. In an attempt to address this science-practice gap, efforts have turned recently to constructing lists of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) and disseminating information about these treatments to professionals and the public. This effort has been met with criticism, however, by both practitioners, on one hand, and psychotherapy researchers on the other. The current procedures for identifying ESTs are critically reviewed, and recommendations are offered to improve the scientific viability of the process. It is argued that lists of ESTs are viewed most productively as one step toward the development of best practice guidelines.