bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Child Soldiers
Authors: Honwana Alcinda
Published: April 2010

This chapter analyzes specific social and cultural notions of health, mental health, and healing as they apply, in particular, to child soldiers' reintegration into society in Mozambique and Angola. It presents a number of case studies from Mozambique and Angola, and then considers why such understandings and practices are fundamental to the wellbeing of these populations. This chapter is organized in three main sections: the first examines the issue of culture and mental health by looking at Western concepts of mental health as cultural constructions; the second section deals with local concepts of heath, illness, and healing in Mozambique and Angola, and highlights the role of the spirits of the dead in processes of causation and healing of ill health; and the third section considers some of the therapeutic strategies employed by local populations in Mozambique and Angola to deal with mental distress caused by war. Community rituals to appease the spirits as well as cleansing rituals to purify polluted individuals are analyzed in this section.
Transborder Violence and Undocumented Youth
Authors: Solis Jocelyn
Published: April 2010

This chapter illustrates how cultural-historical theory is a potentially integrative means of analysis in the study of transnational immigration and youth violence. It identifies another negative outcome of globalization: transnationalization of communities in search of financial stability. In particular, it discusses the author's work with the Mexican community in New York, examining Mexican young people's experience of their identity in relation to the identities thrust on them by their political and economic status as undocumented immigrants in the capitalist system of the United States. It argues for the importance of focusing on individual experiences. Psychological analyses can complement sociological and political analyses, and can be incorporated in the study of youth violence and conflict in transnational communities in order to offer specific ideas for intervention.
Call to Order: How Sequence Effects in Humans and Artificial Systems Illuminate Each Other
Authors: Ritter Frank E. , Nerb Josef
Published: April 2010

This chapter begins by defining order effects and the intended audience for this book. It then describes the subsequent chapters to introduce them, make some preliminary conclusions, and note open problems.
Rules of Order: Process Models of Human Learning
Authors: Nerb Josef , Ritter Frank E. , Langley Pat
Published: April 2010

Science is concerned not only with data, but also with models or theories that explain those data. Because human cognition is dynamic and involves change over time, accounts of cognition often take the form of process models, which are sometimes called cognitive models. This chapter reviews the form such models have taken and their relation to order effects in learning. It begins by discussing the connection between artificial intelligence (AI) systems, including those from machine learning and computational models of human behavior, including some illustrations of the latter. It presents a computational model of order effects on a cognitive task, cast within a particular but simplified theoretical framework. It then explores more broadly the possible sources of order effects within such models and then briefly considers an alternative approach that models human behavior at a more abstract level. The chapter closes with some open problems in the area of modeling order effects and a charge to new modelers.
An Ordered Chaos: How Do Order Effects Arise in a Cognitive Model?
Authors: Gobet Fernand , Lane Peter C. R.
Published: April 2010

This chapter discusses how order effects arise within EPAM (Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer), an influential computational theory of cognition developed by Feigenbaum and Simon. EPAM acquires knowledge by constructing a discrimination network indexing chunks, closely integrating perception and memory. After a brief description of the theory, including its learning mechanisms, the chapter focuses on three ways order effects occur in EPAM: (a) as a function of attention; (b) as a function of the learning mechanisms; and (c) as a function of the ordering of stimuli in the environment. It illustrates these three cases with the paired-associate task in verbal learning and with an experiment using artificial material. It also addresses some of the implications of this work for education, including how to order hierarchically arrangeable material, and the need to focus learners on important and relevant features.
All Is in Order
Authors: Sweller John
Published: April 2010

The chapters in this book provide an extensive survey of the viewpoints and methodologies that have been and can be used to study order effects in learning. Either implicitly or explicitly, each chapter includes assumptions about the structures and function of human cognition. This chapter similarly takes as its departure point a particular view of human cognition and the consequent instructional recommendations. That view derives from cognitive load theory, which is primarily an instructional theory. However, the instructional principles generated by its assumptions have provided further insights into human cognitive processes, which in turn have led to further instructional recommendations. The chapters of this book are discussed in light of cognitive load theory.
Understanding Restorative Justice
Authors: Beck Elizabeth , Britto Sarah , Andrews Arlene
Published: April 2010

This chapter offers a brief history of the restorative justice movement in the United States. In order to do so it contrasts retributive and restorative justice goals and their application. Restorative justice is described as a theory and process designed to address needs and harms following a crime. Additionally, the needs of victims and offenders are explored. Towards the end of repairing harm, the chapter also examines two restorative processes: Truth and Reconciliation Commissions; and Victim-Offender Dialogue. Most importantly, it brings together the death row families with restorative justice and makes the case that they need to be included in restorative justice theory and supported by restorative justice-based processes. The chapter draws from an interview with Bud Welch, who met with Bill McVeigh following Timothy McVeigh's destruction of the Murrah Federal Building, which killed Bud Welch's daughter, Julie Marie.
Death Penalty Trials
Authors: Beck Elizabeth , Britto Sarah , Andrews Arlene
Published: April 2010

Restorative justice involves the identification of harm and processes for repair. This chapter explores the various ways in which family members of capital offenders have been pronounced guilty and punished by the criminal justice system, their community, and society. It examines community-based harm to include the media and the harm that results from being scrutinized by the community. It also explores harm that occurs from the criminal justice system. Issues raised regarding the criminal justice system include the treatment of family members, race, quality of defense attorneys, and presentation of evidence. The chapter includes a discussion of death row inmate, Troy Davis, who is gaining international attention to get the evidence in his capital case heard. It argues that the harms incurred by offenders' family members should be central to restorative justice programs aimed at capital cases.
Children of the Condemned
Authors: Beck Elizabeth , Britto Sarah , Andrews Arlene
Published: April 2010

Children of incarcerated parents hold multiple risk factors. This chapter explores the risk factors associated with parental incarceration, and adds the additional layer of a death sentence to that experience. Having a family member on death row is unique because loved ones experience greater stress due to a death sentence and because of the fact that visitation rules are often excluded from programs that bring together parents and their children. The chapter recounts the voices of both minor and adult children as children of and siblings to the offender. It argues that children desperately need help in being able to develop or maintain a relationship, if they so choose, with their older sibling or parent on death row; and that professionals need to know the unique effects associated with a death sentence.
Judaism and Marijuana
Authors: Dorff Elliot N.
Published: April 2010

This chapter approaches the issue of marijuana use from a Jewish perspective. The Torah demands that Jews become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Jewish tradition uses wine to sanctify holidays and marriages; it does not use marijuana for those purposes. Still, Judaism allows Jews to ingest many things that are not intrinsically holy as part of the effort to fulfill the responsibility to maintain a healthy body, mind and soul, and furthermore, as part of enjoying God's bounty, even when not directly related to matters of health. It further demands that one obey God's commandments, take responsibility for one's actions, and work to create a better world. Whether using marijuana recreationally fits into that Jewish description of the nature and purpose of life depends on what its effects turn out to be. If it decreases pain in dying patients, then one not only may, but must, work to make it legally available to them. Thus, in sum, marijuana in and of itself is not inherently bad or good; it must be judged in terms of its effects in creating a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Detailed Analyses of Religious Groups’ Divergent Positions on Marijuana
Authors: Thomas Charles
Published: April 2010

This chapter is in some ways an elaboration of the previous chapter, which summarized the marijuana-related positions of the nation's leading religious denominations and other groups. It gives detailed analyses of these religious groups' positions, including representative comments on their reasons for taking these positions.
Revisioning Youth Policy on Marijuana and Other Drug Use: Alternatives to Zero Tolerance
Authors: Skager Rodney
Published: April 2010

This chapter examines one of the most controversial issues in recent debates on medical marijuana. It takes a close look at data on teen attitudes and use in California after the passage of medical marijuana laws. Many have asserted that linking marijuana to medical illness could normalize the drug's use in teens' minds, thus suggesting to them that the drug must be harmless. The chapter shows that empirical work does not support the idea, and tells an intriguing tale about how holding dearly to the idea of medical marijuana normalizing teen use, even in the face of contradictory evidence, has led to strange reactions to these data.
Diagnoses, Syndromes, and Criminal Responsibility
Authors: Slobogin Christopher
Published: April 2010

This chapter describes in more detail both the nature of clinical culpability testimony (which has become increasingly imaginative) and the courts’ response to it (which has been very generous, even post-Daubert, except with respect to some types of syndrome testimony). The chapter ends by criticizing this judicial nonchalance to the extent it is explained by inattention to the substantive law of culpability. More specifically, it applies the materiality factor to culpability testimony and finds that many of the more novel claims made by clinicians should be excluded even if they are assumed to be reliable, because they are not responsive to the questions the law asks.
Beyond Relevance
Authors: Slobogin Christopher
Published: April 2010

This chapter concludes the discussion of culpability issues with an examination of the helpfulness and prejudicial impact factors. The helpfulness inquiry should involve a determination of the extent to which clinical testimony challenges lay conceptions of human behavior, by looking at so-called “factor-based incremental validity.” In practice, this requirement would tend to reinforce the admissibility of expert advice proffered by the defense, because that evidence is more likely to rebut lay assumptions that offenders intend the natural consequences of their acts and are sane when they commit crimes. The helpfulness requirement also has implications for the manner in which testimony is expressed. The chapter discusses when experts may use ultimate issue language, concluding that whereas legal conclusions should always be avoided, use of test language (e.g. the M’Naghten wording) should depend on the extent to which the proceeding is adversarial and otherwise structured to enable the fact finder to understand the issues. Finally, the chapter discusses the assessment of prejudicial impact, both on the parties to the dispute and on groups in society that, some have argued, might be pathologized by certain types of culpability testimony.
The Current State of the Science and the Law
Authors: Slobogin Christopher
Published: April 2010

This chapter begins by describing the current state of prediction science, which is improving but is still almost as likely to produce inaccurate judgments as accurate ones. It also makes the crucial distinction between clinical prediction testimony and prediction testimony based on empirically derived probability estimates (which includes not only actuarial prediction testimony but might also encompass testimony based on what has come to be called “structured professional judgment”). The chapter then canvasses judicial decisions concerning the admissibility of prediction testimony, decisions that, despite the high error rates associated with predictions, are even more welcoming than the decisions dealing with expert opinions about culpability. Finally, it presents an evidentiary analysis of prediction testimony with an assessment of its materiality, a concept that raises particularly interesting issues in connection with prediction testimony based on group data and demographic information.
Why Play = Learning: A Challenge for Parents and Educators
Authors: GOLINKOFF ROBERTA MICHNICK , HIRSH-PASEK KATHY , SINGER DOROTHY G.
Published: April 2010

Imagine a world in which children are encouraged to parrot answers, to fill in the blanks, and to not go beyond the facts. There is little time for play; the focus is on memorization of the “facts”. Indeed, play is viewed as a waste of time when more important “work”, the work of memorizing and parroting, could be done. As the pressure on children in school increases, paradoxically their ability to relax and just have fun through play is being restricted. This book confronts the prevailing popular “fact” that play is immaterial to children's development and instead argues that play is crucial to children's emotional health and it prepares them for school. Play offers both social and cognitive advantages for children and the adults they will become. This book challenges parents and educators to promote the value of play in children's learning.
Standards, Science, and the Role of Play in Early Literacy Education
Authors: CHRISTIE JAMES F. , ROSKOS KATHLEEN A.
Published: April 2010

Play is being shunted aside in early childhood programs in favor of more direct forms of instruction that address the new “pre-K basics” of language, early literacy, and numeracy skills. Although play was once seen as a key promoter of child development, administrators, policy makers, and some teachers increasingly regard play as a waste of instructional time with no clear benefits for high-priority cognitive outcomes, such as prereading skills. This chapter shows how play can help in achieving excellent early literacy instruction for all children — instruction that encompasses research evidence, strong standards, and play in the early childhood classroom. The role of play in a standards-based context is examined and its potential to assist children to meet more rigorous early literacy expectations is discussed, along with relationships between the “science of play” and the “science of early literacy”, noting the overlap between these two complex areas of preschool development and learning, and making the case for research-based connections between play and core literacy skills.
Make-Believe Play: Wellspring for Development of Self-Regulation
Authors: BERK LAURA E. , MANN TRISHA D. , OGAN AMY T.
Published: April 2010

The early childhood years are a crucial time for the development of self-regulation — an array of complex mental capacities that includes impulse and emotion control, self-guidance of thought and behavior, planning, self-reliance, and socially responsible behavior. Self-regulation is also essential for children to meet the academic and social requirements of school. The human need for complex, flexible regulatory systems that can cope with a wide array of environmental conditions means that the development of self- regulation begins early, takes place over an extended time period, and requires substantial external support. Early childhood is also the “high season” of imaginative play, when make-believe evolves from simple imitative acts into elaborate plots involving complex coordination of roles. This chapter presents wide-ranging evidence that pretense is pivotal in children's advancing mastery over their own thinking, emotions, and behavior. The data are based on the sociocultural theory of Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who viewed social experiences such as make-believe play as prime catalysts of development.
Computer as Paintbrush: Technology, Play, and the Creative Society
Authors: RESNICK MITCHEL
Published: April 2010

In recent years, a growing number of educators and psychologists have expressed concern that computers are stifling children's learning and creativity and engaging children in mindless interaction and passive consumption. They have a point: today, many computers are used in that way. But that should not be the case. This chapter presents an alternate vision of how children might use computers more like paintbrushes and less like television, opening new opportunities for children to playfully explore, experiment, design, and invent. Illustrative examples are presented to provoke a rethinking of the roles that computers can play in children's lives: as a form of edutainment that promotes playful learning.
Pretend Play and Emotion Learning in Traumatized Mothers and Children
Authors: HAIGHT WENDY , BLACK JAMES , OSTLER TERESA , SHERIDAN KATHRYN
Published: April 2010

Pretend play is a context that facilitates learning. It facilitates children's learning about emotions, adults' learning about children, and children's and adults' learning together. Indeed, pretend play, a subcategory of play in which actions, objects, and persons are transformed or treated non-literally, has long been recognized as pivotal in facilitating early social and emotional development. Through pretend play, young children can express and communicate their emerging concerns and interpretations of the social and cultural world. Children's pretend play also allows adults to learn about children. When children and adults pretend together, they may spontaneously interpret emotionally important issues as they naturally emerge during everyday life. Yet, little is known about the roles of spontaneous, everyday pretend play with parents in children's emerging interpretations of stressful events. This chapter presents pilot data exploring the pretend play of mothers and children from high-risk families who have experienced recent trauma.
Play and Autism: Facilitating Symbolic Understanding
Authors: PREISSLER MELISSA ALLEN
Published: April 2010

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by impairments in three discrete domains: communication, social abilities, and imagination (resulting in repetitive interests and behavior). Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is now considered a national epidemic and has been expanded to include autism, Asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, and the rarer Rett's syndrome and child disintegrative disorder. The primary form of treatment for autistic children is educational therapy, combined with other specific therapies as needed (for example, physical, occupational, speech and language). The most frequently implemented educational treatment with consistent proven results is behavioral therapy, in which the principles of operant conditioning are applied to teach new skills across a broad domain. One increasingly recognized and legitimate component of therapeutic interventions involves play, because play skills are staggeringly different in children with ASD than in typically developing children. This chapter discusses the link between symbolic play and symbolic language, precursors to symbolic understanding, and play-based intervention designed to enhance autistic children's social skills.
Epilogue: Learning to Play and Learning Through Play
Authors: SINGER JEROME L.
Published: April 2010

This book has examined whether children's obvious enjoyment of play is a pleasant pastime with little significance for effective cognitive and social skill development, or whether play can be viewed as an intrinsic learning process, actually a critical method for learning. It provided a thought-provoking review of the way the government call for the No Child Left Behind program and its legislative implementation led many early childhood educators to emphasize drill-based literacy instruction even in preschool settings. Many preschool directors have therefore cut the time commitment for play as a part of children's early experience. This closing chapter establishes a broader context for the role of play in child development and discusses play as a critical feature of childhood adaptation.
Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Gentile Douglas A. , Buckley Katherine E.
Published: April 2010

Violent video games are increasingly popular, raising concerns by parents, researchers, policy makers, and informed citizens about potential harmful effects. Chapter 1 describes the history of violent games and their explosive growth. Chapter 2 discusses research methodologies, how one establishes causality in science, and prior research on violent television, film, and video games. Chapter 3 presents the General Aggression Model, focusing on how media violence increases aggression and violence in both short and long-term contexts. Important scientific questions are answered by three new studies. Chapter 4 reports findings from a laboratory experiment: even children's games with cartoonish violence increased aggression in children and college students. Chapter 5 reports findings from a survey study of high school students: frequent violent game play leads to an angry and hostile personality and to frequent aggression and violence. Chapter 6 reports findings from the first longitudinal study video game effects: elementary school children who frequently played violent games early in the school year became more verbally and physically aggressive, and less helpful. Chapters 7 and 8 compare a host of risk factors for development of aggression, and find video game effects to be quite important. Chapter 9 describes the role of scientific findings in public policy, industry responses to scientific findings, and public policy options. Chapter 10 recommends that public policy debates acknowledge the harmful effects of violent video games on youth, and urges a more productive debate about whether and how modern societies should act.
Violent Video Games: Background and Overview
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Gentile Douglas A. , Buckley Katherine E.
Published: April 2010

This chapter presents a brief history of violent video games, youth exposure to such games, and an overview of things to come. Although video games emerged in the 1970s, it wasn't until the 1990s that extremely violent games came of age. A few researchers began exploring potential harmful effects in the 1980s, but it was the rash of school shootings that began in the late 1990s that attracted the attention of the general public. Over time, the use of violent video games by children and adolescents has increased in several ways. Although boys are still more likely to play violent games than girls, the gap is closing. Boys still play more hours per week than girls, but the amount of time spent on violent games appears to be increasing for all subgroups. A brief overview of the developmental approach used in the rest of the book is also presented.
3 The General Aggression Model
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Gentile Douglas A. , Buckley Katherine E.
Published: April 2010

This chapter presents the General Aggression Model in detail, and shows how it can be used to understand developmental processes and a risk and resilience approach to human aggression. Briefly, the model shows how factors in the immediate situation (such as being insulted while in front of friends, and having just played a violent video game) combine with factors that people bring with them to the situation (such as positive attitudes towards using aggression, impulsive personality, and a habit of taking slights too personally) to produce an internal set of aggression-related thoughts and feelings that are likely to yield aggressive behavior. The model also shows how repeated life experiences of a variety of kinds can lead to the development of an aggressive personality. The chapter concludes with a section on how the General Aggression Model can be used to understand and predict effects of media violence on the development of aggressive behavior and aggressive personality.
5 Study 2: Correlational Study With High School Students
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Gentile Douglas A. , Buckley Katherine E.
Published: April 2010

This chapter presents Study 2, which examined the correlations between measures of video game violence exposure and aggressive behaviors among high school students, and included several important control variables. As expected, adolescents who play a greater amount of violent video games hold more pro-violent attitudes, have more hostile personalities, are less forgiving, believe violence to be more typical, and behave more aggressively in their everyday lives. Even after statistically controlling for sex, total screen time, aggressive beliefs, and attitudes, playing violent video games was still a significant predictor of heightened physically aggressive behavior and violent behavior. These effects occurred for both boys and girls. Furthermore, the more time high-school students spend playing video games, the poorer their school performance.
6 Study 3: Longitudinal Study With Elementary School Students
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Gentile Douglas A. , Buckley Katherine E.
Published: April 2010

430 third- to fifth-grade children were followed across a school year to see whether children who play more violent video games early in the school year have changed to become more aggressive by the end of the school year. Researchers measured the children themselves, their peers, and their teachers. They found that both the amount and content of video games matter. The amount of game play was a significant predictor of later poor school performance. Playing violent games increased hostile attribution bias (perceiving the world as a mean place), increased verbal and physical aggression, and decreased pro-social behaviors (as measured by peers and teachers). The effects were reduced (but not eliminated) if parents set limits on the amount and content of screen media for their children.
8 New Findings and Their Implications
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Gentile Douglas A. , Buckley Katherine E.
Published: April 2010

This chapter focuses on the new findings and how they relate to a host of theoretical issues. Study 1 found that even games that are designed for children can cause significant short-term increases in aggression if they contain scenes in which the main character has to harm other game characters. Study 2 found that habitual exposure to violent video games is strongly associated with a wide range of aggressive behavior, including verbal aggression, moderate forms of physical aggression, and even violent behavior. Study 3 showed that amount of violent video game play early in the school year predicts an increase in physical aggression later in the school year. The studies also found evidence that total screen time (not just violent) leads to poorer school performance. They also showed that when parents are actively involved in their children's video game choices and play times, the effects of violent games may be reduced. Finally, the studies showed that the harmful effects of violent video games are somewhat larger than the harmful effects of TV.
Adolescents, Media, and the Law
Authors: Levesque Roger J. R.
Published: April 2010

There is much controversy about the dangers of a free media when it comes to children and adolescents. Many believe that this constitutional right should be amended, altered, or revoked entirely in order to prevent the young from being negatively influenced. Graphic violence, sexual content, and the depiction of cigarette smoking have all come under fire as being unacceptable in media that is geared toward adolescents, from television and movies to magazines and advertising. Yet not much has been written about the developmental science behind these ideas, and what effects a free media really has on adolescents. This book presents a synthesis of all current knowledge about the developmental effects of a free media on adolescents. The author first presents a full analysis of research studies into the media's effects on adolescents in four key areas: sexuality, violence, smoking, and body image. All findings are assessed within the context of normal adolescent development. The author then discusses how this knowledge can be used to inform current standards for the regulation of free speech with regard to adolescents. Both legal restrictions and less formal regulatory bodies (schools, parent groups, etc.) are reviewed in order to present a full picture of the ways in which a free media is constrained to protect adolescents' development.
Building Capacity for Positive Youth Development in Secondary School Classrooms: Changing Teachers’ Interactions With Students
Authors: Pianta Robert C. , Allen Joseph P.
Published: April 2010

This chapter describes how teachers' social and instructional interactions with students affect their learning and social development, and how a professional development intervention can improve the quality of these interactions. Three particularly important classroom processes are described: supportive relationships between teachers and students; supports for autonomy; and relevance to youth's everyday lives. A teacher professional-development (My Teaching Partner) that targets these classroom processes for improvement is described, as well as a well-validated measure of them (the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, or CLASS).
Classroom Settings as Targets of Intervention and Research
Authors: Jones Stephanie M. , Brown Joshua L. , Aber J. Lawrence
Published: April 2010

This chapter focuses on the classroom context as a primary setting for positive youth development. It highlights the theory and evaluations of two programs that aim to promote caring classroom communities and positive youth development through a focus on teachers' professional development and the implementation of a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. It begins with a discussion of the programs' theory of change, which emphasizes the role of teachers' own SEL skills and everyday interactions with colleagues and students in promoting a positive and effective classroom climate and, ultimately, positive youth development. This discussion is followed by a description of a theory of the classroom setting as a dynamic system of four interconnected elements related to positive youth development. Each of these domains is reviewed including its research base, examples of intervention activities, and assessment tools used in the research.
An Intervention in Progress: Pursuing Precision in School Race Talk
Authors: Pollock Mica
Published: April 2010

This chapter describes the problem of avoidance of race talk, as well as shortcomings of race talk, and potential intervention approaches to improve the ability of educators to talk about race in ways that can help and not harm students of color. Educators all too often avoid discussing race entirely, or discuss it reductively, too quickly, or with insufficient information. Three avenues to address this problem are presented. First, educators can pursue more precise talk about student subpopulations and their needs. Second, educators can pursue more precise talk about the causes of racial disparities. Third, educators can engage in more precise talk about the everyday educator-acts that can assist or harm students of color. Examples of each of these solutions provide direction to educators who wish to improve the capacity of their schools and districts to engage with racial issues productively.
Chapter 1 Using Well-Being to Inform Public Policy
Authors: Diener Ed , Lucas Richard E. , Schimmack Ulrich , Helliwell John F.
Published: April 2010

This chapter introduces the idea that measures of well-being provide information that can be useful to policy makers in enhancing quality of life by creating more astute policies and regulations. The themes of the chapters in the book, including the shortcomings of existing measures and how surveys of well-being can complement these limitations, are introduced. The chapters provide insights into why well-being measures are needed, and answer common objections to the measures. Policy issue examples are described, and the nature of the surveys that are needed is outlined.
Chapter 4 Contributions of Well-Being Measures
Authors: Diener Ed , Lucas Richard E. , Schimmack Ulrich , Helliwell John F.
Published: April 2010

Subjective measures of well-being are important because they capture not simply objective circumstances, but people’s reactions to them. Thus, subjective measures provide information that is complementary to the objective ones. An advantage of subjective measures is that they reflect people’s desires and values, not just the judgments of the policy elites, and they are therefore inherently democratic in nature. Furthermore, subjective measures solve certain problems facing objective measures, such as how to make a complete list of them and how to weight them into an aggregate indicator of quality of life. Subjective measures can help policy makers when difficult trade-offs between policies exist. Subjective measures are essential when it is realized that societal well-being is not just an outcome of good conditions, but can also act as a causal factor in creating the conditions for peace and prosperity. Evidence for the positive effects of well-being on society in areas such as health, work performance, and cooperation are reviewed.
Chapter 8 Health and Well-Being: Policy Examples
Authors: Diener Ed , Lucas Richard E. , Schimmack Ulrich , Helliwell John F.
Published: April 2010

Health is now thought of as more than absence of disease, with positive health including feelings of well-being. Thus, subjective well-being is an inherent part of the health of societies. Importantly, research has now shown that high well-being can foster health and longevity, and that low well-being can impair the immune and cardiovascular systems, and have other deleterious effects on physical health. Another intersection between health and well-being is mental illness, which is a major cause of ill-being in industrialized societies. Thus, well-being is integral to disease prevention and health promotion, especially in the economically developed nations where epidemic diseases have been greatly reduced. Specific health policy issues are described, and how well-being can inform debates about policies directed at these issues is discussed. For example, the well-being of people with various diseases can be used to help more fairly allocate money to research on various medical conditions.
Chapter 12 Existing Surveys
Authors: Diener Ed , Lucas Richard E. , Schimmack Ulrich , Helliwell John F.
Published: April 2010

Although a disproportionate number of measures are used to assess the objective conditions of societies through social indicators, and ignore subjective well-being, there has been some progress in implementing subjective surveys of well-being. The chapter reviews instances where well-being is tracked on a broad basis. For example, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study assesses life satisfaction for a large and representative panel of Germans on an annual basis, as well as many other factors. Similar surveys in Australia and the United Kingdom reveal the potential implications that the initial attempts at assessing societal well-being can have for policy questions. The well-being measures allow a more in-depth understanding of how factors such as income and crime influence quality of life. The limitations of the existing surveys are reviewed, and recommendations for creating more sophisticated national accounts of well-being are advanced.
Chapter 6 The Role of Persuasion Strategies in Motivating Individual and Collective Action
Authors: Snyder Mark , Omoto Allen M. , Smith Dylan M.
Published: April 2010

Voluntary citizen participation is often viewed as a meaningful solution to a wide range of societal problems. However, while volunteerism is widely endorsed by individuals from across the political spectrum, citizens' behaviors often fall short of their civically-minded attitudes. Beginning with these premises, this chapter develops a conceptual model to explain voluntary civic behavior, and identifies persuasion strategies that can effectively initiate and sustain voluntary citizen participation. Research suggests that there is great practical potential in employing persuasion strategies that focus on both promoting participation and on overcoming barriers to involvement. These findings have implications above and beyond volunteerism, informing our understanding of persuasion and voting behavior, as well as social movement participation.
Chapter 12 Collective Identity and the Mass Media
Authors: Gamson William A.
Published: April 2010

This chapter explores the relationship between media practices in the United States and normative conceptualizations of a healthy democracy. While a media system that discourages participation meets the normative standards of representative democracy, democratic theorizations that call for an active and engaged citizenry require a media that can develop and articulate a sense of collective identity. From this normative perspective, the chapter explores the personalization of news and the media's use of adversarial frames. Each of these media trajectories presents a double-edged sword for advocates of participation-oriented democratic theory. Personalization tends to discourage the development of a collective identity, yet it also provides the opportunity for grassroots constituencies to mobilize around particular issues. Likewise, adversarial framing encourages individuals to actively participate on behalf of one side of a conflict. At the same time, adversarial frames can create unnecessary and misleading oppositions, and impede the development of cooperation and coalition formation.
Chapter 13 Social Identity and Representations of Society and Politics in the News
Authors: Bennett W. Lance
Published: April 2010

This chapter argues that a model of communication based on demographic-targeted marketing and strategic political communication has become a dominant force in the United States, and that this development has profound consequences for the patterns of social identification in late modern society. In particular, over the past twenty years television news content has trended toward fewer displays of collective representations, fewer positive portrayals of government, and fewer stories about policy issues. The move toward a more personalized and consumer-oriented news format, charged with negative emotional images, has numerous political implications. The chapter argues that changes in the media have engendered a sense of isolation, failing to connect citizens who might share a collective sense of concern and need for action. The implications of this dynamic are explored, as well as the potential for internet communication to correct for the shortcomings of mainstream news.
Chapter 14 Experimental Social Psychology, Broader Contexts, and the Politics of Multiculturalism
Authors: Sears David O
Published: April 2010

This chapter contends that experimental social psychology — particularly that dealing with intergroup relations — is shaped by multicultural political sensibilities. Multiculturalism is based on the expectation of intergroup conflict, and as such is incompatible with individual-centered social psychological theories that emphasize individualism, integration, and assimilation. Given that political psychology uses experimental investigations based largely on college student samples, the field is not well situated to assess the external validity of multicultural- and individual-centered approaches. As an illustration, the chapter presents evidence indicating it is problematic to make universal claims of an “incompatibility” between ethnic and national identities, instead suggesting that the relationship between these identities is highly nuanced and contextualized. In conclusion, the chapter suggests that cross-talk between psychology and political science may be helpful in overcoming these difficulties, providing a healthy, generative stimulus for the development of the field as a whole.
Chapter 15 Political Psychology: The Promise of (and Impediments to) Synergistic Interdisciplinary Scholarship
Authors: Levitan Lindsey C. , Visser Penny S. , Fiske Susan T.
Published: April 2010

The field of political psychology is currently flourishing, owing by and large to the strength it draws from its interdisciplinary nature. Interdisciplinary connections can generally be characterized as exportation: borrowing a principle from the other discipline while remaining steadfastly within one's own disciplinary paradigm. While exportation has yielded numerous important findings, political psychology stands to benefit the most from synergistic interdisciplinary connections. This chapter explores why genuine synergy has been so rare, and provides guidance for developing a synergistic interdisciplinary research agenda.
Chapter 16 What Has Political Psychology to Offer Regarding Democratic Citizenship?
Authors: Marcus George E.
Published: April 2010

A large body of psychological research on citizen competence has resoundingly suggested that citizens are ill-equipped to meet the demands of sound democratic decision making. This chapter challenges this view, arguing that democratic politics presents a wide array of challenges, each demanding different civic skills. In particular, it contends that it is necessary to embrace a more agonistic view of democratic politics — one that places citizens at the center of a conflict over power and resources. Drawing broadly on interdisciplinary evidence, the chapter argues that citizens are actually quite adept at meeting the challenges of self-governance in the democratic polity.
“Still Talking About My Generation!”
Authors: Bennett Andy
Published: April 2010

Rock and Roll became an important form of popular music, entering mainstream youth culture by white translators of black music such as Elvis Presley. Youth readily identified with the themes of Rock and Roll, such as rebelling against parents, having fun, and earlier themes of love and romance. Succeeding generations expressed the concerns of youth at the moment. Disenchantment with the war in Vietnam produced the Hippy movement. The economic downturn of the 1970s led to Punk as a voice for the disempowered that later emerged in the form of Grunge. Gender bending and challenges to conventional interpretations of sexuality were expressed in Glam. Soul and Reggae music represented the voices of non-white youth, with Rap emerging in the 1980s and becoming a global influence. Each of these expressions of youth concerns has had a lasting effect on each generation as well as on culture at large.
Music Videos
Authors: Rich Michael
Published: April 2010

Music Video Television (MTV), launched in August 1981, became increasingly prominent in the 1980s. Although music videos had been pioneered before MTV, the cable channel afforded a dedicated platform to promote sales of recorded music, a function previously assumed by radio. Earlier “concept videos” using narration and abstraction had been employed by such artists as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. MTV grew and reached 27 million homes by 1986, and 52 million by 1990. Expressions of gender and race/ethnicity are critical factors in interpreting music videos, many of which prominently portrayed risk behaviors — such as the use of tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and violence — as well as relationships between racial/ethnic groups, genders, and romantic partners. Youth now have ample access to music videos on the Internet, and can easily create and disseminate their own music video content.
The Changing Portrayal of Alcohol Use in Television Advertising
Authors: Horner Jennifer , Jamieson Patrick E. , Romer Daniel
Published: April 2010

Beer has long been heavily advertised on television. Sales to youth under age 21 (primarily males) are estimated to represent 16% of alcohol sales. Early initiation of drinking is linked to alcohol disorders throughout life, and irresponsible use increases risks of motor vehicle accidents and a range of other injuries. In the mid-1980s, the national legal drinking age was raised to 21. As a result, adolescents had far greater legal and social barriers to obtaining beer. A content analysis of beer advertising over time indicates that this change was accompanied by a change in advertising themes, with more ads presenting beer as valuable, rare, and sought after — a message absent prior to this time. Alcohol advertising uses narratives that speak directly to adolescents, reinforcing the idea that beer is a precious commodity. More recently, new products such as “alcopops” — sweet alcohol beverages — are being marketed to attract adolescent female users.
Adolescents and the Internet
Authors: Jackson Linda A.
Published: April 2010

Although access to the Internet in U.S. and U.K. schools is almost universal, home Internet access is not. Large proportions of U.S. adolescents still do not use the Internet at all, and while there is no longer a gender gap, men use it more for commercial transactions, and women for social connections. The digital divide between those who do and do not have access could exacerbate inequalities and further divide people by education, race, and class. Concerns have also arisen about the dangers of excessive Internet use on youth. Although there is little evidence of the Internet benefiting adolescents' cognitive development, many of the negative social effects (e.g. cyberbullying) may be limited to those who are already depressed, anxious, or withdrawn. Nevertheless, many of the fears associated with increased Internet use have not materialized.
Conclusions
Authors: Jamieson Patrick E. , Jordan Amy , Romer Daniel
Published: April 2010

This chapter underscores the conclusion that mass media can promote both positive and risky development. Advertising and other content encourages a culture of youthful hedonism that directly contradicts the persistence needed to complete increasingly extended educational requirements and transition to adulthood. The distinction between adulthood and adolescence has become blurred, as in advertising that promotes sexy clothing to pre-teen girls but at the same time sells adult women baby-doll outfits. Media literacy training may protect young people from adverse effects, but this approach has not been rigorously tested. Nevertheless, youth with serious impulse-control problems may be vulnerable to problematic media content. As a result, further restrictions on tobacco and alcohol advertising are warranted along with more effective warnings about violence in the media. Media reflect not only who we are, but who we want to be. Problematic media will have costs for us all.