bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Public Involvement as a Negotiation Process
Authors: Syme Geoffrey J. , Eaton Elizabeth
Published: April 2010

The burgeoning public involvement literature has resulted in a series of criteria being developed by many authors as to how the process “should” be conducted (e.g., public involvement should be instituted early in the planning process). A representative list of such criteria is evaluated in the context of three Western Australian case studies. It is concluded that such lists are not sufficient to describe or interpret the case studies presented, and that understanding of the role of public participation in environmental planning will be enhanced if it is viewed as a negotiation process. Eccles' two‐dimensional classification of negotiations may provide a valuable template for this view of public involvement by labeling environmental negotiations along “ideological‐distributive” and “internal‐external” dimensions. This approach also encourages application of social psychological methodology and theory to research questions such as why individuals participate, what negotiation procedures are preferred, and how the social contexts of environmental problems are defined by the public.
Can Social Science Explain Organizational Noncompliance with Environmental Law?
Authors: DiMento Joseph F.
Published: April 2010

Noncompliance with environmental law is an immense problem whether evaluated from its incidence or its consequences. Noncompliance often results from the activities of large corporations and agencies and their interactions. This paper presents a theoretical perspective on organizational compliance in the environmental field. It first reviews and analyzes the leading bivariate relationships between compliance and independent variables, including communication of regulations, enforcement, and characteristics of actors in the compliance event. Single factors can be influential in promoting compliance; however, only in rare cases will one psychological, organizational, or economic factor explain business response. Since regulatory systems attain compliance through a variety of routes, a multivariate perspective is offered that integrates several literatures and empirical studies.
Social Scientists' Contributions to Environmental Management
Authors: Freudenburg William R.
Published: April 2010

To understand the role of social science in environmental management, we must explore the institutional settings within which such contributions take place. In the United States, much of this work is done in the context of environmental and social impact assessments, and is shaped by the legal requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The issues of technological risk and waste management are likely to provide increasingly important contexts for social science input in the future. This article discusses the concepts of “socioeconomic impact assessment,” and of managing and “mitigating” impacts. It then examines the role actually played by social and behavioral scientists in the NEPA context—a role that has been quite paradoxical. Drawing from waste management experiences, the closing sections of the paper provide a brief analysis of some of the reasons behind this paradox and discuss implications for future work.
Value‐Guided Attributions: Maintaining the Moral Self‐Image and the Diabolical Enemy‐Image
Authors: Sande Gerald N. , Goethals George R. , Ferrari Lisa , Worth Leila T.
Published: April 2010

Previous research suggests that people subscribe to ethnocentric “mirror images” of their own country and enemy countries—one's own country is believed moral, whereas one's enemy is believed diabolical. The present research examined the role of value‐guided attributions in maintaining those images, whereby the actions of one's own country are attributed to altruistic motives but the identical actions taken by an enemy are attributed to self‐serving motives. In two experiments, American students made value‐guided attributions consistent with the moral self‐image and the diabolical enemy‐image. In a third experiment, by contrast, Canadian subjects attributed Soviet and American actions to the same motives, with the exception that only the United States was perceived as engaging in positive actions for self‐serving reasons.
Research on Enemy Images: Present Status and Future Prospects
Authors: Silverstein Brett , Holt Robert R.
Published: April 2010

This paper comments on the approach and findings of the preceding papers on the psychology of enemy images, and presents numerous suggestions about needed and feasible research. The research cited mostly used the approaches of attitude measurement and of social‐cognitive theories, including attribution and social identity theories, and it employed various research methods, including survey, quasiexperimental, and experimental methods. The main empirical focus of these studies was recent U.S. attitudes toward the USSR, which were found to bias the attitude holders' information processing, mostly in predicted ways. Nevertheless, available evidence suggests that most of the American public do not have extremely stereotyped, diabolical enemy images of the Soviet Union, its people, or its leaders, and furthermore, that U.S. attitudes toward the USSR are softening rapidly under the impact of events of the last few years. Determinants of anti‐Soviet attitudes are discussed, and hypotheses and speculations are presented about the motivations and sources of enemy images generally, how they may be changed, and their larger implications from the standpoint of cognitive and ego‐developmental theory.
Longitudinal Outcomes of Nursing Home Care for Severely Mentally III Patients
Authors: Bootzin Richard R. , Shadish William R. , McSweeny A. John
Published: April 2010

More chronic mental patients reside in, and more mental health dollars go to, nursing homes than to any other single setting. Yet such care has been little studied. This article presents descriptive longitudinal outcomes from a study of such care for the outcomes of recidivism, symptomatology, social integration, and subjective well‐being. The study involved interviewing and gathering data on 163 patients in a sample of 20 skilled nursing and intermediate care facilities in a major metropolitan area, and following these patients at six‐month intervals for a year. Results showed a mixed picture of good and bad outcomes, and some resulting implications for the role of nursing homes in mental health long‐term care are discussed.
Community Integration and Well‐Being: Toward the Goals of Community Care
Authors: Kennedy Cille
Published: April 2010

This study examined the effects of social competence, social support, and their interaction in predicting the community integration and well‐being of young chronically disabled, mentally ill adults. The 159 participants, all between the ages of 18 and 45, were residents of New York City's supervised and supportive community residences, and single room occupancy hotels with mental health services. Significant positive relationships were found between social competence and community integration, emotional support and well‐being, and community integration and well‐being. The interaction of emotional support and community integration was significant in its prediction of well‐being. The interaction of social competence and community integration was significant in predicting well‐being when emotional support was held constant. Implications for housing, research, and policy for community care are discussed.
Financing Care of the Severely Mentally Ill: Incentives, Contracts, and Public Responsibility
Authors: Frank Richard G. , Goldman Howard H.
Published: April 2010

This paper discusses various approaches to financing care for the severely mentally ill that make use of market‐like incentives. It reviews the conditions under which each financing mechanism will work efficiently, discusses empirical evidence and practical considerations concerning service delivery to the severely mentally ill, and offers judgments about the specific situations where each mechanism might best be applied.
Coordination, Continuity, and Centralized Control: A Policy Perspective on Service Strategies for the Chronic Mentally Ill
Authors: Dill Ann E. P. , Rochefort David A.
Published: April 2010

Chronic mentally ill persons in the community depend on an array of psychological, social, and medical support services that are delivered by public and private sources and are under the auspices of different levels of government. In response to problems of fragmentation and disorganization of these services, improved coordination has emerged as a major objective of contemporary mental health policymaking. This article describes the major coordinating approaches that have been developed, analyzes barriers to their implementation based on insights from the policy sciences and other literatures, and examines the basis of coordination's appeal as a service system reform strategy.
Comparable Worth Theory and Policy
Authors: Wittig Michele Andrisin , Lowe Rosemary Hays
Published: April 2010

During the last 25 years, the wage gap between men and women full‐time workers in the United States has commanded much attention. Comparable worth theory asserts that sex segregation in the workplace has unjustly depressed wages in female‐dominated jobs. Comparable worth policy is designed to eliminate pay differentials between male‐ and female‐dominated jobs for which the skill, effort, responsibility, and risk are equivalent. Social scientists have important contributions to make to public debate over the theory and practice of comparable worth. Social psychological theorists and labor economists provide models of wage determination. Industrial‐organizational psychologists and compensation administrators evaluate jobs for the purpose of setting pay and serve on management–labor negotiating teams. Measurement specialists use their skills to reduce bias in job evaluation. All these professionals sometimes serve as expert witnesses, assisting attorneys in their presentation of evidence in pay litigation. This journal issue examines the theory and the implementation of comparable worth from all these perspectives. The presentation acknowledges the importance of social structural factors that perpetuate discrimination in wages, and it aims to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of comparable worth as a tool for overcoming that discrimination.
Gender Bias in Compensation Structures: A Case Study of Its Historical Basis and Persistence
Authors: Kim Marlene
Published: April 2010

Analysis of the California State Civil Service indicates that the salary structure established in the 1930s explicitly lowered salaries for female‐dominated job titles simply because these jobs were filled by women. Moreover, this wage structure continues to influence current wages, even while controlling for the wages paid by similar establishments. The stability of the wage structure results from the state's policy of maintaining the relative salary structure, despite conflicting market wages. As a result of maintaining this wage structure, female‐dominated jobs have been underpaid between $202‐$990 million in the period from 1973 to 1986.
Relative Deprivation and the Gender Wage Gap
Authors: Jackson Linda A.
Published: April 2010

Research on gender and pay satisfaction indicates that women are equally satisfied with less pay than men receive—the paradox of the contented working woman. Relative deprivation theory provides a framework for understanding how women's paradoxical contentment may contribute to the gender wage gap: Women may be content because they do not perceive a discrepancy between the pay they “want” and the pay they receive. A review of research on gender and the value of pay, and on gender and pay expectations, indicates that a value‐based explanation is needed to account for women's paradoxical contentment with their low pay. Research is described testing the hypothesis that gender differences in the meaning of money influence the value of pay and pay satisfaction, and a preliminary model of pay satisfaction is offered that integrates value‐based and comparative‐referent explanations of the paradoxically contented woman worker. Implications of gender differences in the value of pay for the issue of comparable worth are discussed.
Comparable Worth: Individual, Interpersonal, and Structural Considerations
Authors: Lowe Rosemary Hays , Wittig Michele Andrisin
Published: April 2010

This paper discusses additional topics in the comparable worth controversy, organized into four broad areas corresponding to the structure of the journal issue. (1) To balance the historical, legal, and economic perspectives presented in Section 1, information is supplied on the views of workers themselves and of organized labor, and reasons are presented for expanding theory and practice to cover racial and ethnic minorities. (2) Concerning social psychological aspects of pay equity, ideas are presented on how equity theory itself may be extended, some relationships between actual and psychological equity, social comparison and other motives for seeking redress, relationships between comparable worth and procedural and distributive justice, and the social context in which judgments of fairness are made. (3) In relation to job evaluation, we address five additional concerns: reliability, agreement with a criterion, content validity, convergence of methods, and the meaning of job worth. (4) Concerning the implementation and implications of comparable worth, cross‐national and intranational comparisons are drawn, and three important strategies in the U.S. are described.
Selective Activation and Disengagement of Moral Control
Authors: Bandura Albert
Published: April 2010

Moral conduct is motivated and regulated mainly by the ongoing exercise of self‐reactive influence. But self‐regulatory mechanisms do not operate unless they are activated, and there are different psychological mechanisms by which moral control can be selectively activated or disengaged from inhumane conduct. Self‐sanctions can be disengaged by reconstruing detrimental conduct through moral justification, euphemistic labeling, and advantageous contrast with other inhumanities; by obscuring personal agency in detrimental activities through diffusion and displacement of responsibility; by disregarding or misrepresenting the harmful consequences of inhumane conduct; and by blaming and dehumanizing the victims. These mechanisms of moral disengagement operate not only in the perpetration of inhumanities under extraordinary circumstances, but in everyday situations where people routinely perform activities that bring personal benefits at injurious costs to others. Given the many psychological devices for disengagement of moral control, societies cannot rely solely on individuals, however honorable their standards, to provide safeguards against inhumanities. To function humanely, societies must establish effective social safeguards against moral disengagement practices that foster exploitive and destructive conduct.
Moral Exclusion, Personal Goal Theory, and Extreme Destructiveness
Authors: Staub Ervin
Published: April 2010

The article describes how certain motives can combine with the exclusion of people from the moral universe, leading to torture, genocide, and mass killing. Personal goal theory is presented as a framework. Personal goals and moral values have ranges of applicability from which certain groups may be excluded. When there is conflict between goals and values, stringent moral values can be replaced by others that allow harm doing—a process termed moral equilibration. The psychological and motivational sources of exclusion include devaluation of groups, just‐world thinking, self‐distancing by euphemisms or by an objectifying perceptual stance that reduces empathy, and ideologies that identify enemies. Certain cultural characteristics create a predisposition for group violence. Together with intensely difficult life conditions, they give rise to powerful motives and lead to ways of fulfilling them that turn the group against a subgroup of society. As they harm their victims, the perpetrators and the whole society change, progressing along a continuum of destruction that can end in genocide. Bystanders often encourage perpetrators, and they themselves are changed as they passively face the suffering of victims. However, bystanders also have great potential power to inhibit the evolution of increasing destructiveness.
Causes and Consequences of Delegitimization: Models of Conflict and Ethnocentrism
Authors: Bar‐Tal Daniel
Published: April 2010

Delegitimization is the process of categorizing groups into extremely negative social categories and excluding them from acceptability. This paper analyzes the causes and consequences of delegitimization, and suggests two models that describe the role of conflict in delegitimization and of ethnocentrism in delegitimization. During conflict, when the ingroup perceives the negating goal(s) of an outgroup as far‐reaching and evil, feelings of threat become intensified and delegitimization may be used to explain the conflict. Then, to prevent danger, the ingroup may harm the threatening group and justify the harm by delegitimization, which in turn increases perceived threat and intensifies harmful behavior toward the other group. Even mild conflicts can escalate, become violent, and lead to delegitimization as an explanation, and later, as justification. Ethnocentrism is related to this process because groups that are perceived as very different and devalued arouse feelings of fear and contempt. Their delegitimization leads to harm, and later, to intensified delegitimization to justify the harm.
Scope of Justice in the Workplace: How Survivors React to Co‐Worker Layoffs
Authors: Brockner Joel
Published: April 2010

The studies described in this paper explored the effects of layoffs on the work behaviors and attitudes of the employees not laid off (the survivors). Survivors were hypothesized to become more withdrawn from their jobs and organization to the extent that they believe management handled the layoff unfairly. Moreover, these tendencies should be especially true when the layoff victims were included in survivors' scope of justice. The results of field and laboratory studies supported these predictions. Implications of the findings are discussed.
“The Public” in Public Schools: The Social Construction/Constriction of Moral Communities
Authors: Fine Michelle
Published: April 2010

The question posed in this paper is: How do public schools, which are supposed to be universally accessible moral communities, engage in patterns of systematic exclusion? Through three case studies of public secondary schools, in each of which issues of exclusion of groups of students have arisen, this analysis pierces educational ideologies of “merit,” “choice,” and “tradition” as they have justified moral exclusion from public education.
Extending the Moral Community: Logical and Psychological Dilemmas
Authors: Crosby Faye J. , Lubin Elisabeth Pearsall
Published: April 2010

Although the virtues of an extended moral community make it a valid and necessary goal, such an inclusive view also creates problems of a logical and psychological nature. Moral issues are thorny, and an expanded view of the moral community does not “solve” the basic thorny issues of morality. Instead, it puts some of these issues into high relief. This paper examines some of the dilemmas that confront us when we seek to extend our moral community beyond ourselves and our blood relations.
Deterring Moral Exclusion
Authors: Opotow Susan
Published: April 2010

This paper focuses on the detection and deterrence of moral exclusion. From a variety of perspectives, different authors have demonstrated the progression of moral exclusion: from conflicts of interest, to group categorizations, moral justifications, unjust procedures, and finally, harmful outcomes. Dissent, divergent opinions, and a pluralistic perspective all help to combat moral exclusion by enlarging the scope of justice. However, dissent and diversity can narrow as well as widen the scope of justice, so it is important to identify conditions that support pluralism and the right to dissent. Research approaches are suggested that combine scientific investigation with expansion of the scope of social justice.
Research on Homelessness: An Introduction
Authors: Shinn Marybeth , Weitzman Beth C.
Published: April 2010

Research on homelessness has tended to focus on problems of homeless individuals, sometimes diverting attention from underlying causes and reinforcing stereotypes about the population. A more comprehensive model of homelessness would include factors at the levels of individuals, social groups, and the socioeconomic context that contribute to homelessness. Papers in this issue investigate key factors at each of these levels. They consider the scope of homelessness and the history of society's responses, individual problems as both consequences and causes of homelessness, dynamics of entry to and exits from homelessness, and pertinent social policy at both micro‐ and macrolevels.
Homelessness: The Extent of the Problem
Authors: Breakey William R. , Fischer Pamela J.
Published: April 2010

Homelessness is a major national problem, but the exact extent of the problem is difficult to determine. The homeless are not a homogeneous category of people, but include a wide variety of types. The first problem in establishing the parameters of the homeless population is one of definitions. Different studies have focused on street people, shelter users, people applying for assistance, or those using services. Formal attempts to count the homeless have used indirect counting methods, direct counting methods, and one recent study used a capture—recapture estimation technique. Such methods have some validity in making local estimates, although each has its disadvantages. Attempting to make national estimates is much more difficult, and any national estimate must be regarded with great caution. The numbers of people in specific subgroups of the homeless may be of even greater importance for public policy and planning. While the root causes of homelessness are the scarcity of low‐income housing and the inadequacy of income supports for the poor, there are specific groups of homeless people who need special services. Such groups include the homeless mentally ill, alcoholics and drug abusers, AIDS victims, and families with small children. Assessing the extent of these problems among the homeless is therefore important for planning services.
Physical Health Status, Substance Use and Abuse, and Mental Disorders Among Homeless Adults
Authors: Struening Elmer L. , Padgett Deborah K.
Published: April 2010

To understand the influence of substance use, substance abuse, and mental disorder on the health status and physical condition of homeless adults, representative samples of 949 men and 311 women residing in the New York City shelter system for homeless adults during the summer of 1987 were interviewed with a structured protocol. A typology of ten groups was identified, based on their profiles on 7 measures of substance use, substance abuse, and mental disorder. Their scores on 16 measures of self‐rated health status and lifetime prevalence of physical conditions were the dependent variables. Results indicated strong associations between the degree and kind of involvement with drugs, alcohol, and mental problems and the respondents' physical health status. Homeless adults characterized by heavy use and abuse of substances and symptoms and/or histories of mental disorder reported the highest rates of poor physical health. Those involved only in the use of substances or in none of the 7 problems consistently reported the best health. Implications of the findings for policy determination are discussed.
Expectations and Delay in Seeking Medical Care
Authors: Jones Russell A.
Published: April 2010

Expectations about bodily states, symptoms, and diseases frequently produce delay in seeking medical care, and that delay is a serious social problem, one that takes its toll in unnecessary human suffering, premature mortality, and increased costs for medical care. Appraisal of whether an unusual bodily condition is indeed a symptom typically accounts for the major portion of delay. Expectations lengthen this period of appraisal in a variety of ways, including (a) attributing the cause of conditions to salient contextual stimuli, (b) an unrealistic optimism about the risk of contracting disease, (c) denial that a threat exists, and (d) biased monitoring of bodily changes. Expectations exert this influence, in part, because people are poor perceivers of internal states, and there is suggestive evidence that the symptom perceptions of those more finely attuned to their bodily states may be less influenced by expectations. Once a symptom has been clearly identified, the person must decide whether professional medical care is required. Here again, expectations stemming from several sources continue to guide the coping process. Several ways of reducing the detrimental effects of expectations on delay in seeking medical care are considered.
Expectancy Processes in the Health Care Interaction Sequence
Authors: Ditto Peter H. , Hilton James L.
Published: April 2010

This article presents a sequential analysis of health care interactions and examines the roles that the expectations of both care seekers and care providers play in affecting the outcomes of these interactions. Health care interactions follow a sequence of five steps: (a) the potential patient decides to seek medical attention, and (b) presents the problem to a physician; (c) the physician diagnoses the problem and selects a treatment, and (d) presents the treatment to the patient; (e) the patient adheres to the prescribed treatment. This series of decisions and interactions must be completed successfully if a person is to receive proper medical treatment. The rich expectancy literatures in the areas of health psychology and social perception are summarized to show the effects that expectations are likely to have at each step in the interaction and the ways that expectations often interfere with the successful treatment of illness.
Possible Selves in Balance: Implications for Delinquency
Authors: Oyserman Daphna , Markus Hazel
Published: April 2010

An approach to the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of delinquency is outlined in which an adolescent's possible selves play a pivotal role. Possible selves are the individual's self‐relevant expectations for the future. They include what a person hopes to become, expects to become, and fears that he or she might become. With respect to action control, a particularly important aspect of adolescents' configuration of possible selves is the balance between their expected possible selves and their feared possible selves. Balance occurs when expected possible selves (e.g., “I will get a good job”) are offset by countervailing feared possible selves in the same domain (e.g., “I could be unemployed and on the street”). Without balance between expected and feared selves in important domains, both the initiation and the maintenance of delinquent activity are more likely. The dynamic interaction between the social environment, expectations of the self, and delinquency involvement is highlighted.
Americans' Perceptions of Presidential Candidates: A Test of the Projection Hypothesis
Authors: Krosnick Jon A.
Published: April 2010

According to psychological theories of cognitive consistency, voters are likely to overestimate the degree to which political candidates they like agree with their own policy preferences, and to overestimate the degree to which political candidates they oppose disagree with their own policy preferences. This paper reviews and critiques the literature evaluating these hypotheses, referred to as positive and negative projection. Then it reports results of a new empirical investigation that applied improved analytic methods to survey data on three issues collected during the 1984 American presidential election. Analyses using traditional methods replicated previous findings of both positive and negative projection, but improved analyses indicated that neither positive nor negative projection occurred. The vast majority of voters were accurate in their candidate perceptions, especially political experts and citizens to whom an issue was personally important. These findings provide further evidence of the generally high accuracy of social perception, particularly among individuals who are especially attentive to a stimulus.
Religious Ideology, Hindu Women, and Development in India
Authors: Dhruvarajan Vanaja
Published: April 2010

Development efforts in modern India have largely failed to help women because of the male‐centered religious ideology of pativratya. This ideology encourages the adoption of a submissive and dependent position by Hindu women. There is a lack of political will to transcend this ideology because the status quo is beneficial to those in positions of power and privilege. Unless women who will be the beneficiaries of change demand it, changes in related policies and programs will not come about. This article proposes a series of action programs informed by the ideal of gender equality in order to diminish this oppressive ideology and empower women to demand necessary changes.
What Parents Pay For: Child Care Characteristics, Quality, and Costs
Authors: Waite Linda J. , Leibowitz Arleen , Witsberger Christina
Published: April 2010

Although most children whose mothers work receive some nonparental care, this “child care” varies tremendously in its characteristics, especially quality. Child development researchers and practitioners have explored in detail the characteristics of child care that provide the best environment for children. However, we know virtually nothing about which parents select “high‐quality” care for their children, or which arrangements most often have the features associated with the best outcomes for children. This paper explores these issues, using parents' reports of characteristics of their child's care arrangement from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results show that on several dimensions care in a home—the child's own, a nonrelative's, or a relative's—provides features linked to quality care. However, in general, parents do not pay more for the features of child care associated with high quality in the child development literature. The implications of these results are discussed.
Variation in Child Care Quality and Its Implications for Children
Authors: Zaslow Martha J.
Published: April 2010

The “first wave” of day care research, asking whether the development of children in day care and home‐reared children differs, has gradually given way to a “second wave” of research, asking what are the implications for children's development of variation in day care quality. Although this second wave of day care research is still actively underway, it is a fruitful time to evaluate how far we have come in our understanding of day care quality. This article examines how research defines and operationalizes quality, and it assesses the evidence for four questions: Does variation in day care quality have implications for children's daily experiences in day care? Do cognitive and socioemotional development vary with day care quality while children are still in care? Is there any evidence of enduring implications of day care quality for children's development? And how are family socioeconomic and psychological factors and day care quality linked?
Gone Yesterday, Here Today: Consumer Issues in the Agenda‐Setting Process
Authors: Mayer Robert N.
Published: April 2010

How do consumer problems become transformed into consumer issues? One view is that consumer problems go through three stages. First, they are publicized by the mass media, then they arouse public opinion, and only then are they addressed by public policymakers. A second, less unidirectional view holds that the process is sometimes reversed, with issues originating from policymakers. This article attempts to specify the media, public, and policy agendas so that the two views can be assessed. Evidence from the period of 1960–1987 supports the view that consumer issues began on the policy agenda but then followed the unidirectional pattern of media to public opinion to government.
Young Minds and Marketplace Values: Issues in Children's Television Advertising
Authors: Kunkel Dale , Roberts Donald
Published: April 2010

This paper reviews research on young children's responses to television commercials in the context of the history of attempts to regulate television advertising directed to children. Concern with regulation emerged in the 1960s, when children were recognized as a market in their own right. The few available and relevant empirical studies played a clear role in shaping early Federal Communications Commission (1974) policy. Subsequent research demonstrated that young children have difficulty distinguishing between programs and commercials, that most manifest little or no understanding of commercials' persuasive intent, and that those who do not understand persuasive intent are highly vulnerable to commercial claims and appeals. These findings led the Federal Trade Commission (1978) to attempt to ban television advertising to children too young to understand persuasive intent. However, the history of regulatory attempts demonstrates that research findings are not a dominant influence on policy decisions. Rather, policy is a result of competing value orientations (e.g., protection of the marketplace or protection of the child) and the political maneuvering they engender.
Characteristics of Successful Product Information Programs
Authors: Russo J. Edward , Leclerc France
Published: April 2010

A review of 28 field‐tested product information programs for consumers revealed the characteristics that distinguish successful from unsuccessful programs. Success in changing purchase or consumption behavior was associated with increases in information benefits and decreases in processing effort. Greater intensity of consumer participation in a program, such as through personal goal setting, also was associated with higher success rates. In contrast, hortatory reminders that neither provided new benefits nor reduced effort costs were unsuccessful. Similarly, a program's magnitude per se was unrelated to its success. We conclude that the design of product information programs should be guided by a cost‐benefit analysis of information use from the consumer's perspective.
Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior
Authors: Hunt H. Keith
Published: April 2010

Research on consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and complaining behavior, as a consumer‐protection social issue, began in response to government public policy needs. How it developed into a valuable approach for public policy and private business decision making is the focus of this article. Topics discussed include alternative definitions of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, special groups of vulnerable consumers, situations where satisfaction is legally constrained, and how dissatisfaction can lead to social change. The error of treating dissatisfaction as cognitive rather than emotional is emphasized. Three dissatisfaction outcomes (voice, exit, and retaliation) are described, along with a discussion of longer run consumer grudge holding.
Health‐Related Quality of Life in Patient Decision Making
Authors: Kaplan Robert M.
Published: April 2010

Several studies suggest that patients want control and will seek to make choices that maximize their health outcomes. This paper describes a General Health Policy Model that can help patients exercise control by participating in choices related to their care. The model expresses health outcome as a combination of mortality and morbidity and can be used to explain circumstances in which patients appear to act irrationally—e.g., nonadherence to a prescribed medical regimen, overuse of medical interventions, signing living wills, and preference for unconventional treatments. Directly incorporating patient preferences into treatment decisions can enhance the patient's sense of autonomy while achieving comparable health outcomes and reducing health care costs. Policy models that incorporate patient choice (in comparison to more traditional models) may result in a different allocation of our scarce health care resources.
Self‐Generated Feelings of Control and Adjustment to Physical Illness
Authors: Taylor Shelley E. , Helgeson Vicki S. , Reed Geoffrey M. , Skokan Laurie A.
Published: April 2010

Patients with chronic or advancing disease often generate perceptions that they or others can control aspects of their illness such as its symptoms, course, and treatment. This article considers self‐generated feelings of control, and provides evidence from patients with cardiac disease, cancer, and AIDS concerning the adaptiveness of these feelings. The research suggests that beliefs in personal control generally appear to be adaptive. Perceptions of control do not appear to be explained by the absence of negative affectivity, and instead, appear to reduce anxiety and depression. Cognitions concerning control by others yield more mixed results. Whereas women and patients with good prognoses appear to profit psychologically from feelings of vicarious control, men and patients with poor prognoses do not. Implications for the literatures on psychological control, the illusion of control, and adjustment to chronic illness are discussed.
Job‐Related Threats to Control Among Older Employees
Authors: Remondet Jacqueline H. , Hansson Robert O.
Published: April 2010

This study investigated those aspects of the work experience of middle‐aged and preretirement‐aged adults in which personal control is most likely to be threatened, and it identified related problems in performance, job satisfaction, and adjustment. Four dimensions of work experience emerged as sources of threat to personal control: Workload Demands, Limited Growth Opportunity, Personal/Family Crises, and Working Conditions. Diminished control in these areas was associated with increased job stress, generalized stress, depression, injuries on the job, and absenteeism, as well as with decreased job involvement, lower job satisfaction, and disrupted performance. In contrast to popular stereotypes, older workers actually exhibited fewer control concerns and less job stress, and greater job involvement and job satisfaction. Work‐specific control problems were related to generalized control beliefs only among the younger age group.
Experimental and Measurement Approaches to Internal Control in At‐Risk Older Adults
Authors: Reich John W. , Zautra Alex J.
Published: April 2010

Perceived control and similar concepts are of central importance in studies of coping, adjustment, and well‐being; research suggests that these concepts might be usefully considered in a transactional, person‐environment framework. The studies reported here assessed internal‐external control and personal mastery in samples of at‐risk older adults coping with the major life stressors of recent physical disability or conjugal bereavement. These studies assessed the latent factor structure of control perceptions, and examined the role that dependency on other people and social networks plays in internal beliefs. The findings indicated that belief in one's ability to control the events of one's life is influenced by the life events one is experiencing, and that people who do not endorse internality beliefs (“low internals”) show significant positive mental health gains from dependency and reliance on other people. The social policy implications of these findings are discussed.
Introduction: The Heritage of Kurt Lewin
Authors: Bargal David , Gold Martin , Lewin Miriam
Published: April 2010

This journal issue commemorates the recent 100th anniversary of the birth of Kurt Lewin, a founder of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and of this, SPSSI's journal. It appears that his influence in academic social psychology has declined of late, but a review of recent literature reveals that Lewin's thought and work still guide activity in applied social psychology, particularly studies of groups, and in the practice of action research. The articles in this issue further demonstrate that contemporary social scientists find stimulation and direction for theory, research, and action in Lewin's legacy.
The Impact of Kurt Lewin's Life on the Place of Social Issues in His Work
Authors: Lewin Miriam
Published: April 2010

This article, based on personal memories of his daughter, explores aspects of Lewin's own life experiences that had the greatest impact upon his professional focus on social issues, such as intergroup relations and prejudice, and that influenced his general field theoretical approach to psychology. Selected aspects of his childhood, his education, his experiences as a combat soldier in World War I, and his experiences with anti‐Jewish prejudice earlier in his life resulted in the unusual equalitarianism that so many people who knew him observed, as well as a distinctive approach to psychology. The massive impact of fascism—the effect of his flight from Germany, his efforts to rescue his extended family, and the death of his mother in the Holocaust—greatly influenced his choice of and his approach to research problems.
A Personal Assessment of Lewin's Major Contributions
Authors: White Ralph K.
Published: April 2010

The author, a student of Lewin's, views his most important contributions as stimulating scientific creativity in many colleagues, aiding the downfall of stimulus—response theory, suggesting many useful concepts, and initiating experiments on formerly intractable topics. Lewin's limitations included lack of interest in unconscious factors and in social misperception, and less rigorous thinking and use of mathematics than he seemed to claim. In an overall assessment the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.
Values, Valences, Expectations, and Actions
Authors: Feather Norman T.
Published: April 2010

This article conceptualizes the relations between values and actions from the point of view of expectancy‐value theory. Key assumptions are that values induce valences on events and potential outcomes, and that these valences in association with expectations are important determinants of the final action that is taken. The approach is illustrated by results from a recent study concerned with job‐seeking behavior among the unemployed. The approach is discussed in relation to Lewinian theory and to recent theoretical statements concerning commitment, volition, and self‐regulation. Related approaches to conceptualizing relations between values and actions are briefly noted, along with the need to take account of the activation of values and valences in relation to the cognitive‐affective system.
Lewin's Impact on Education: Instilling Cooperation and Conflict Management Skills in School Children
Authors: Maruyama Geoffrey
Published: April 2010

There are implications of several ideas by Kurt Lewin for addressing the challenges facing today's schools and school children. A Lewinian orientation to educational problems provides a very different view of schools from those that currently prevail. It focuses on social bases of difficulties and takes multiple perspectives. It views classes as dynamic, it examines the social forces surrounding the children as well as the various environments that they experience, and it encourages active involvement of students in their learning. This orientation not only fits current “innovative” thinking in education such as models for making education multicultural, but it has also provided the bases of important applied work on cooperative learning techniques and constructive ways of structuring conflict within educational settings.
Trends in the Study of Socialization: Is There a Lewinian Heritage?
Authors: Maccoby Eleanor E.
Published: April 2010

Work on “democratic” and “authoritative” parenting is traced to historical roots in the Lewinian work on group atmospheres. A consistent theme, running through socialization research for many years and especially strong at the present time, is that successful socialization of children involves not only bringing about their outward conformity to parental directives, but also enabling them to become self‐regulating, and motivating them so that they become willing to cooperate with parental socialization efforts. Research seeking to identify the parenting practices most associated with self‐regulation and willing compliance is reviewed. Reciprocity between parents and children, and the bidirectional nature of influence, are stressed.
Ethnicity and Mental Health: Research and Policy Issues
Authors: Sue Stanley
Published: April 2010

The relationship between social science research and public policy/program advocacy has been controversial. One position is that policy advocacy should be preceded and guided by research findings that clearly provide a rationale for the advocacy. Another position is that promotion of policies may be wise even in the absence of a strong research justification, because research findings are often inconclusive and the urgency of many social issues demands immediate action. Citing ethnic mental health research, I argue that the critical issue is the intertwining of research with policy recommendations, not whether one precedes or follows the other.
An Empirical Study of the Psychological Antecedents and Consequences of Induced Abortion
Authors: Miller Warren B.
Published: April 2010

On the basis of empirical studies previously reported in the research literature, this article develops a theoretical model of the psychological antecedents of abortion and a family of related theoretical models of the long‐term psychological consequences of abortion. Then, using data collected during the mid‐1970s as part of a longitudinal study of 967 women living in the San Francisco Bay Area, these models are tested with multiple regression analysis. The results provide considerable support for the model of psychological antecedents and for several of the models of psychological consequences. The specific findings are discussed and some of their policy implications are described.
Postabortion Syndrome: An Emerging Public Health Concern
Authors: Speckhard Anne C. , Rue Vincent M.
Published: April 2010

Elective abortion, the most common surgical procedure in the United States, continues to generate considerable moral, legal, medical, and psychological controversy. This article reviews the pertinent literature, defines and describes postabortion syndrome (PAS) as a type of Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder. Four basic components of PAS are proposed: (a) exposure to or participation in an abortion experience, which is perceived as the traumatic and intentional destruction of one's unborn child; (b) uncontrolled negative reexperiencing of the abortion event; (c) unsuccessful attempts to avoid or deny painful abortion recollections, resulting in reduced responsiveness; and (d) experiencing associated symptoms not present before the abortion, including guilt about surviving. Clinical evidence and the cardinal features of PAS are presented, and objections to the validity of this diagnostic category are discussed.
Psychological and Legal Issues in Minors' Rights to Abortion
Authors: Pliner Anita J. , Yates Suzanne
Published: April 2010

Adolescents' rights to abortion have traditionally been restricted more than adults' because of their presumed immaturity. In many states, minors must obtain adult consent for an abortion, but these laws all include a “bypass” stipulation allowing minors to seek consent from a designated third party—usually a judge—if they were denied parental consent or chose not to seek it. Consent and bypass statutes were designed to promote the welfare of minors, but lack of clarity in the standards for judging maturity has made it difficult for these laws to function as intended. Data indicate that courts cannot discriminate mature from immature minors, and that minors are put at greater risk by delaying the abortion in order to obtain third‐party consent. Unless an alternative to or modification of bypass legislation is adopted, the best interests of minors may continue to be jeopardized by arbitrary application of the “mature minor” standard.