bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Resolving Research Controversy Through Empirical Cumulation
Authors: Taveggia Thomas C.
Published: March 2007

Recent years have witnessed an increasing belief that there is a paucity of reliable knowledge in sociology. This belief is attributable, at least in part, to institutionalized methods of summarizing sociological researches which emphasize contradictions and inconsistencies in research findings. Reasoning from the probabilistic nature of social research, attention is drawn to the strategy of empirical cumulation. When the findings of research in an area are pooled, reliable conclusions do emerge. Furthermore, contradictory findings are often found not to be contradictory, but simply the positive and negative details of a distribution of related findings.
Comparing Partial Rank Order Correlations From Contingency Table Data
Authors: Kritzer Herbert M.
Published: March 2007

This article describes an asymptotic method for obtaining estimates of variance and covariance for partial rank order correlation coefficients based on contingency table data The approach used is an extension of the Grizzle, Starmer, and Koch technique for the analy sis of complex contingency tables The variance and co variance estimates may be used to test hypotheses concerning the partial correla tions
Retrospective Reports of Family Structure
Authors: Cherlin Andrew , Horiuchi Shiro
Published: March 2007

We investigate response inconsistencies in a national panel of young women who were asked the following widely used retrospective survey question once in 1968 and once in 1972: "With whom were you living when you were 14 years old? We find a substantial amount of response inconsistency between the two administrations of the question, and this inconsistency is shown to be related to whether or not the respondent said in 1968 that at age 14 she was living with both parents. We suggest that some young people live in households with a frequently changing composition, so that there may be no single, true answer to the question for them. Others, we hypothesize, change their responses to a more socially desirable category as time passes. After reviewing evrdence for these hypotheses, we show that, despite the inconsistency, the 1968 and 1972 questions lead to similar conclusions in multivariate research when the responses are collapsed into a few categories. We conclude that the question is still useful as a crude indicator of past family life, but that more refined measures are needed in order to explain the influence of childhood family composition on events in adulthood.
Melodies Bristling with Change
Authors: BENNETT ADRIAN T.
Published: March 2007

Speech is organized in time through modulations of such perceptual dimensions as pitch, loudness, and tempo. These prosodic modulations help transform a stream of vocal sounds into meaningful speech—i.e., into something that has unity, pattern, replicability, and predictability. Prosodic patterning helps set up retrospective and prospective understandings of the speaker's utterances. If we understand meaning relations in speech as social relations, there is always a large element of interpretation involved in the analysis of meaning. The prosodic modulatons of speech provide clues to the listener as to how the speaker intends information to be organized into chunks that can then be highlighted, contrasted, or compared to each other. In this article the most important perceptual features of prosody are described, examples are given of how prosodic variations affect the understanding of intent and content, and a brief sample of crosscultural interaction is analyzed in which misunderstanding occurred between speakers who shared lexical and grammatical systems, but did not share prosodic systems.
Analyzing Relations in Dyads
Authors: LINCOLN JAMES R.
Published: March 2007

This article deals with the application of regression models to observations on relations in dyads. I address three problems that have troubled past investigations of this sort: (1) how to incorporate measures of nodal characteristics into models explaining ties in dyads, (2) how to specify and estimate the effects of reciprocity, and (3) how to measure and control auto-correlation arising from dyads having common nodes. A model is developed that is designed to overcome these problems. An illustration is then provided via an analysis of data on interorganizational relations. The analysis yields empirical results that suggest the potential of these methods for testing certain social network theories.
Power Models and Error Terms
Authors: WALLING DERALD , HOTCHKISS H. LAWRENCE , CURRY EVANS W.
Published: March 2007

An example is presented to illustrate potential problems of working with logarithmic transformations to linearize an intrinsically nonlinear power model. Recommendations to avoid the pitfalls identified herein are offered.
Recognizing Heterogeneous Responses to Policy
Authors: CALDWELL STEVEN B.
Published: March 2007

Depending on their attributes and on the particular social context, different microlevel actors typically respond differently to a given policy measure. Nonlinear single-equation models that recognize and incorporate microlevel response heterogeneity are appearing more frequently in the sociological literature. However, because nonlinear models resist analytic manipulation when embedded within multiequation systems, it becomes more difficult to assess their population-level policy implications. Policy analysts need to generalize single-equation policy responses to whole populations, to trace indirect and cumulative effects, to calculate distributional implications, and to assess the sensitivity of their estimates to different contexts. Based on numerical rather than analytic solution methods, the micromodeling strategy is designed to take full account of response heterogeneity while addressing each of these policy research tasks.
On Regression Standardization for Moments
Authors: CLOGG CLIFFORD C. , ELIASON SCOTT R.
Published: March 2007

Polynomial regression models can be used to standardize means of endogenous variables for moments of exogenous variables. In other words, standardized means obtained from polynomial models adjust for group differences in location and shape parameters that characterize distributions of exogenous variables. The suggested approach is a natural extension of the conventional method of regression standardization for means (or first moments) of exogenous variables, and it is a more direct analogue to standardization methods used in demography. We also give simple methods that can be used to test the significance of various components of a difference between two means.
On Measuring Intergroup Inequality
Authors: GROVE D. JOHN , HANNUM ROBERT
Published: March 2007

This article develops an alternative measure for use in comparing two income distributions. The measure builds on the argument that under certain conditions inequality and dissimilarity are not the same thing, and this difference can be used to develop a measure of “crossover.” As far as we know, no analyst has developed a statistical measure that can determine the size of crossover (overlap) between two cumulative distribution functions. The measure is then applied to racial income distribution data in the United States. The results show some of the “styles” of crossover that vary from bottom-up to top-down patterns. We argue that the overlap information generated by this measure can provide insight into who benefits by trends in intergroup convergence that is not gained when using existing intergroup inequality measures.
Intergroup Comparisons of Latent Means Across Waves
Authors: FAULBAUM FRANK
Published: March 2007

In this article, it is shown how one can estimate latent means in panel analysis. It is shown how simultaneous estimation of latent location parameters in different groups can be obtained and how latent means can be recalculated using the location parameters along with the stability coefficients. Latent means for attitudes toward guestworkers in Germany are computed for gender, age, and education and are compared with the means from composites based on the observed item means.
Sexual Morality, Pro-Life Values, and Attitudes toward Abortion
Authors: McCUTCHEON ALLAN L.
Published: March 2007

A simultaneous latent class analysis of survey data from 1978 and 1983 is used to clarify the current controversy over whether opposition to abortion reflects a conservative sexual morality or pro-life values. Results indicate that the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” dichotomy represents an incomplete characterization of the American public—a third group, characterized by a conservative sexual morality and opposition to discretionary abortion, but not to nondiscretionary abortion, must also be included in the classification. The evidence indicates that from 1978 to 1983 this sexually conservative group decreased from one-third to one-fourth of the U.S. adult population and that the “pro-choice” increased to approximately one-half of the population over the same period. The proportion of the population characterized as the “pro-life” class remained stable at approximately 1 of 4 over the same time period.
Testing MANOVA Designs with LISREL
Authors: KÜHNEL STEFFEN M.
Published: March 2007

It is possible to test for the equality of means between independent groups with LISREL, either specifying a model with dummy variables or a model with several groups. The specification of these models is not only simple, but testing means with the second model is also less restrictive than the conventional MANOVA test procedures. This is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo study. A further empirical example shows the application of the LISREL test in a sociological field.
Adjusting for Response Error in Panel Surveys
Authors: SHOCKEY JAMES W.
Published: March 2007

Estimation of the current distribution of labor force characteristics, as well as individual-level changes in these characteristics, is threatened in the Current Population Survey (CPS) by “rotation group bias.” Similar problems are likely to arise in other surveys that use a rotating panel format (e.g., the Survey of Income and Program Participation—SIPP) or are forced to administer questionnaires in different formats from wave to wave for some fraction of the sample. This article presents an analysis of response error (misclassification error) in the CPS that reconciles observed differences among rotation groups, and we propose that the same general approach can be used to model response bias in other panel surveys such as SIPP. It is hypothesized that the greater prevalence of unemployment observed in the initial CPS interview arises from errors in classifying individuals into labor force statuses. Multiple-group latent class models are developed for the November 1979 CPS file that estimate (1) the “true” prevalence of each labor force status, (2) the prevalence of misclassification, (3) the relationship between true labor force status and the type of interview conducted (i.e., telephone versus face-to-face interview, self versus proxy responses), and (4) the difference between the error structures observed in the first rotation group and those found in other groups. Results suggest that the true prevalence of labor force statuses is constant over rotation groups once response errors have been accounted for.
The Microdemographic Community-Study Approach
Authors: AXINN WILLIAM G. , FRICKE THOMAS E. , THORNTON ARLAND
Published: March 2007

Survey methods have been criticized for producing unreliable, invalid data and for failing to provide contextual information to test complex causal hypotheses. We discuss a technique that combines survey and ethnographic methods at every stage of the data collection process to overcome these shortcomings. We use ethnographic and survey evidence to show how the combined approach reduces coverage errors, nonresponse errors and measurement errors arising from the interviewer, the questionnaire, and the respondent. Complete integration of the two methods during data collection can uncover information that a survey alone would have missed. Ethnographic data can also be used to understand the meaning behind relationships among survey variables that would have otherwise been unclear. Finally, although the combined approach is intensive, it is flexible enough to be used in a variety of settings to study many different research questions.
Individual Level Models for Mobility Tables and other Cross-Classifications
Authors: BREEN RICHARD
Published: March 2007

In recent years a number of methods have been developed for introducing continuous covariates into mobility analyses and into the study of cross-classified data more generally. Drawing on the work of Logan, this article shows how McFadden's Conditional Logit Model can be used to fit existing log-linear models and can incorporate into them the effects of continuous covariates. The method is illustrated using a simple example.
Fixed-Effects Partial Likelihood for Repeated Events
Authors: ALLISON PAUL D.
Published: March 2007

Methods of event history analysis are frequently applied to data in which individuals are observed for a fixed interval of time, with repeated events during that interval. It is common to analyze such data as though each spell represented a distinct observation, ignoring the fact that some individuals contribute multiple spells. This approach is likely to yield downwardly biased standard error estimates and possibly biased estimates of the parameters themselves. One alternative is fixed-effects partial likelihood, which is accomplished by applying Cox's partial likelihood method with each individual treated as a separate stratum. Fixed-effects partial likelihood controls for all constant characteristics of the individual (whether measured or unmeasured), while estimating effects of those variables that vary across spells or over time within spells. Using simulated data, the author shows that the method has good properties under a wide range of conditions. When censoring is severe, however, fixed-effects partial likelihood estimators may be badly biased for variables that describe the preceding event history.
Modeling Multidimensional Transitions in Health Care
Authors: LIU XIAN , LIANG JERSEY , TU EDWARD JOW-CHING , WHITELAW NANCY
Published: March 2007

Conventional multistate life table accounting procedures are based on theoretical assumptions that are appropriate primarily for demographic events. Applying these approaches to the area of health care, however, may lead to serious biases given the frequent turnovers of events such as hospitalization and institutionalization. In addition, traditional approaches have been criticized for failing to capture population heterogeneity. This research introduces a new algorithm to estimate multistate life table indicators regarding health care use, taking advantage of the availability of information on average lengths of stay in hospitals and nursing homes. The survival analysis approach is used to estimate age-specific transition probabilities in order to address the issue of population heterogeneity.
Binomial-Beta Hierarchical Models for Ecological Inference
Authors: KING GARY , ROSEN ORI , TANNER MARTIN A.
Published: March 2007

The authors develop binomial-beta hierarchical models for ecological inference using insights from the literature on hierarchical models based on Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms and King's ecological inference model. The new approach reveals some features of the data that King's approach does not, can be easily generalized to more complicated problems such as general R × C tables, allows the data analyst to adjust for covariates, and provides a formal evaluation of the significance of the covariates. It may also be better suited to cases in which the observed aggregate cells are estimated from very few observations or have some forms of measurement error. This article also provides an examples of a hierarchical model in which the statistical idea of “borrowing strength” is used not merely to increase the efficiency of the estimates but to enable the data analyst to obtain estimates.
Secularisation in Hindu temples: The implication for caste
Authors: Selvam S.
Published: March 2007

This paper explores some important recent changes in the social organisation of a major Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu. It throws new light on the beginnings of the secularisation of its organisation and on the expansion of secular space within the temple. The inclusion of hitherto excluded groups in the social organisation of the temple indicates a significant broadening of its social base, which now comprises a wider range of castes and denominations than before. This universalisation is accompanied by a weakening of beliefs and practices relating to purity and pollution. Also, the intrusion of a bureaucratic administration into the affairs of the temple has given a new place to ideas of secular rationality in the religious activities of the temple. The process of secularisation is further strengthened by the fact that the priestly Adisaiva community is opting for secular education and employment in place of its traditional way of life.
Arabs, Moors and Muslims: Sri Lankan Muslim ethnicity in regional perspective
Authors: McGilvray Dennis B.
Published: March 2007

In the context of Sri Lanka's inter-ethnic conflict between the Tamils and the Sinhalese, the Tamil- speaking Muslims or Moors occupy a unique position. Unlike the historically insurrectionist Māppilas of Kerala or the assimilationist Marakkāyars of coastal Tamilnadu, the Sri Lankan Muslim urban elite has fostered an Arab Islamic identity in the 20th century which has severed them from the Dravidian separatist campaign of the Hindu and Christian Tamils. This has placed the Muslim farmers in the Tamil-speaking north-eastern region in an awkward and dangeruus situation, because they would be geographically central to any future Tamil homeland. The first part of this essay traces the historical construction of contemporary Muslim ethnicity and surveys their position in contemporary Sri Lankan politics. The second half of the essay provides an ethnographic portrait of a local-level Muslim com munity closely juxtaposed with their Hindu Tamil neighbuurs in the agricultural town of Akkaraipattu in the eastern Batticaloa region of the island.
Hope and despair: Textile workers in Kanpur in 1937-38 and the 1990s
Authors: Joshi Chitra
Published: March 2007

This essay focuses on two moments in the lives of Kanpur textile workers: 1937-38 and the 1990s. The first was a time of militant working-class struggle, often represented as a period of 'red Kanpur'. I look at the different ways in which this was narrativised. What seems to distinguish May 1938 from other periods of strike is the sense of a whole city in upsurge. It was a period when workers felt empowered, when existing hierarchies were questioned, when rules at the workplace were publicly flouted and order inverted. Industrialists, gripped with panic, had visions of a workers' take-over. The 1990s present a contrast. The textile industry is in a state of crisis, most mills are closed, the labour movement is fragmented and the working class appears decimated. For workers, closure is more than a threat to economic survival. Their lives and identities are closely intertwined with work in the mills. Work was physically empowering, its absence created a sense of weariness and physical disability, a loss of identity. I look at the ways in which this crisis is experienced by workers and how this moment of despair and worklessness reshapes the working class memory.
Politics of Revenue Extraction in Post-communist States: Poland and Russia Compared
Authors: EASTER GERALD M.
Published: March 2007

Since the late 1990s, a consensus has emerged among scholars of the post-communist transitions that an enfeebled state is not an asset but a liability to a transition economy. Moreover, it is now accepted that underdeveloped fiscal capacity is a leading cause of state weakness in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This article compares the alternative revenue extraction strategies developed by state leaders in post-communist Poland and Russia. It stresses political institutional constraints to explain why Poland opted for a social pact with labor over household incomes, while Russia developed a system of elite bargaining over corporate profits.
I. The “Paradox” of Knowledge and Power
Authors: Keenan Tom
Published: March 2007

What if thought freed itself from common sense and decided to think only at the extreme point of its singularity? What if it mischievously practiced the bias of paradox, instead of complacently accepting its citizenship in the doxa? What if it thought difference differentially, instead of searching out the common elements underlying difference?1
Difference, Diversity, and the Limits of Toleration
Authors: McCLURE KIRSTIE M.
Published: March 2007

We have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals.

Advocating the mere tolerance of difference between women is the grossest reformism.... Differences must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities....

Audre Lorde
Background Television and Reading Memory in Context
Authors: ARMSTRONG G. BLAKE , CHUNG LEEVA
Published: March 2007

Previous research has shown negative background television effects on reading comprehension and memory. This experiment addressed two questions about such negative effects: (a) Are these effects due to interference with processes of initial comprehension and memory encoding, processes of memory retrieval, or both? and (b) Are the effects of background TV stronger for recall or recognition memory? Possible compensating positive effects of background TV were also addressed: Can viewing similar background television content during recall as that viewed during reading improve memory through facilitative context effects? Participants read newspaper science articles with background TV or in silence and completed recall and recognition tests after a filled delay either with TV or in silence. Deleterious effects were obtained for recall memory only and resulted solely from the presence of background TV at the time of comprehension / encoding. No facilitative context effects were obtained by reinstating the same program at the time of recall as experienced at the time of reading.
User Control and Structural Isomorphism or Disorientation and Cognitive Load?
Authors: EVELAND WILLIAM P. , DUNWOODY SHARON
Published: March 2007

User control theory predicts that providing freedom in learning increases learning compared to traditional instruction, implying that the Web is more effective for learning than print. Theorists have also argued that navigation through Web sites mimics the associative nature of human memory and information processing—structural isomorphism—suggesting Web superiority. However, studies indicate that hypermedia increases cognitive load and produces disorientation, implying that hypermedia increases cognitive load and produces disorientation, implying that the Web would be less effective for learning than would print. An experiment comparing learning in print versus several Web site designs demonstrated that learning from print as measured by recognition is better than learning from linear and nonlinear Web designs but no different from a design including advisement. No significant differences across media conditions were found using cued recall as the measure of learning. Additional findings suggest that cognitive load inhibits learning, whereas Web expertise facilitates it. Curiously, a learning motivation tended to reduce learning.
A Competence-Based Approach to Examining Interpersonal Conflict
Authors: CANARY DANIEL J. , CUPACH WILLIAM R. , SERPE RICHARD T.
Published: March 2007

This article reports a test of a longitudinal model linking interpersonal conflict communication and relationship quality. The model stresses episodic factors that function to mediate the conflict-relationship link. In particular, the competence-based model specifies that assessments of competence and one's own communication satisfaction filter the effects of conflict on relational quality when measured concurrently at Time 1 (T1). In addition, the competence-based model includes the hypothesized impact of relational features at T1 on conflict strategies weeks later at Time 2 (T2), which indicates a reciprocal causal connection between message behavior and relational features. Structural equation modeling analyses support the mediational role of episodic assessments, which constitutes the heart of the model. However, relational quality at T1 did not predict conflict behavior at T2. Instead, analyses revealed that conflict behavior at T1 and partner conflict at T2 predict conflict behavior at T2.
Relations Between Gratifications Sought and Obtained
Authors: Palmgreen Philip , Wenner Lawrence A. , Rayburn J.D.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the relationship between gratifications sought (GS) from television news and gratifications obtained (GO) from network evening news programs Each GS correlated moderately to strongly with its corre sponding GO for the respondent's most-watched program. Correlations between each GS and noncorresponding GOs were generally much lower. In addition, the degree of dependence on a particular program was posi tively related to the strength of the GS versus GO relationship. The differ ences in the GS and GO factor structures appear attributable to medium and program content characteristics. The findings indicate considerable promise for a sought versus obtained conceptualization of uses and gratifi cations.
Using the Mass Media
Authors: Kippax Susan , Murray John P.
Published: March 2007

Patterns of media use in an urban setting are related to media gratification processes, but the relationship of media use to the needs of the media users is a complex one. Television, newspapers, and books are perceived as the most helpful media sources of need gratification, while radio, magazines, and films are perceived as less helpful. Use of the media is, in general, related to their perceived helpfulness. However, use of the media is not clearly related to the expressed needs of the audience members. The media appear to form two groups, books, magazines, and films as contrasted to radio, television, and newspapers. This dichotomy appears to be based not only on content but on availability and accessibility.
LEVELS OF ANALYSIS IN MASS MEDIA DECISION MAKING
Authors: DIMMICK JOHN , COIT PHILIP
Published: March 2007

The article proposes a taxonomy consisting of nine levels of analysis and two forms of influence which operate within and between levels. Together with a multilevel research strategy, the taxonomy and the types of influence form a framework for the analysis of complex media decision systems. Data from a national sample of reporters are used to illustrate the multilevel research strategy. The results indicate that experience and the industry in which the reporter works explain more variance in autonomy than organization size.
OLDER PERSONS' TV VIEWING PATTERNS AND MOTIVATIONS
Authors: RUBIN ALAN M. , RUBIN REBECCA B.
Published: March 2007

Television viewing motivations and viewing patterns were examined for a sample of 340 aging and aged persons. Correlational relations between viewing motivations and viewing patterns were evident. Viewing motivations were found to be intercorrelated and canonical analysis located associations among viewing motivations and patterns. Companionship, habit, relaxation, arousal, escape, pass time, and product advertising motivations were interrelated and associated with increased television affinity, viewing levels, and game show and daytime serial watching. Information and entertainment motivations were interrelated and associated with news, documentary-magazine, and talk-interview program viewing. Multiple regression analysis determined that the salience of habit, pass time, and entertainment viewing motivations contributed to increased viewing levels; the salience of habit, companionship, product advertising, and entertainment viewing motivations contributed to increased television affinity. Implications of the findings for aging and mass communication research were discussed.
SEEING OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US
Authors: SYPHER BEVERLY DAVENPORT , SYPHER HOWARD E.
Published: March 2007

Participants' descriptions of their own communication behavior were found to correlate very poorly with descriptions contributed by peers, subordinates, and superiors in a large corporate organization. Participants' responses reflected an egocentric bias in their tendency to rate themselves higher than others rated them. Also, strong intrarater consistency reflected the possible influence of raters' implicit perceptions of role-related communicative behavior. We concluded that self and other attributions of communicative behavior, since they tended not to agree, pose further questions regarding the use of rating scales in communication research. It appears that we often do not see ourselves as others see us, and this finding may be especially problematic for researchers who rely exclusively on one type of rating procedure.
ADVERTISING AND GOVERNMENT INFLUENCES
Authors: MATTOS SERGIO
Published: March 2007

The past 20 years have seen the growth of two private television systems in Latin America that rank in size just behind the three U.S. commercial networks. One of these TV systems is Mexico's Televisa, and the other is TV Globo in Brazil. The author analyzes how TV Globo grew to its present position of dominance. It is argued that the development of Brazilian television is understood better by looking at national factors such as advertising and the role of the post-1964 Brazilian government rather than at international explanations such as media imperialism and dependency theory. TV Globo rose as a result (1) of the fast growth of the Brazilian economy and its advertising industry, and (2) of favorable relationships with the Brazilian military regimes governing the nation.
CRISIS EFFECTS ON INTRAORGANIZATIONAL COMPUTER-BASED COMMUNICATION
Authors: DANOWSKI JAMES A. , EDISON-SWIFT PAUL
Published: March 2007

This research examined an organization's change in computer-based communication structures in response to a crisis. All private electronic mail messages were captured in a state extension organization for one year. Month-by-month network analysis revealed that electronic mail patterns changed with the occurrence of a crisis associated with merger, funding changes, and staff positions. Amount of communication increased. Number of communicators increased. Messages became shorter. Individual-level networks became less interlocking. One large user group formed. Finally, communication structures largely returned to baselines without oscillation. Content analysis of messages revealed significant increases in words associated with the organizational changes. This evidence helped rule out rival explanations. The study illustrated some of the advantages of research using computer-based and monitored communication data. Findings from earlier crisis research were testable in a naturalistic, unobtrusive, quantitative case study using network analysis and content analysis.
EMOTIONAL RESPONSES TO A TELEVISED NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST FILM
Authors: CANTOR JOANNE , WILSON BARBARA J. , HOFFNER CYNTHIA
Published: March 2007

A random telephone survey of parents of children between the ages of 3 and 18 was conducted the night after The Day After was aired on television. Based on theories and research indicating a developmental shift from perceptual to conceptual information, it was expected that the level of emotional upset to the movie would increase with age. This prediction was confirmed, despite the fact that the movie was not very upsetting overall. Other findings revealed that children's postviewing behaviors were significantly related to both age and degree of upset. Nonpermissive parents (those who had prevented a child from viewing the movie) were more likely than permissive parents to have been upset by the movie. Parents reported mass media to be more influential than schools, in their decisions regarding whether or not to let a child view the movie; schools, in turn, were more influential than both religious and political organizations. The influence of advice from schools was stronger among nonpermissive than among permissive parents.
Audience Activity and Television News Gratifications
Authors: RUBIN ALAN M. , PERSE ELIZABETH M.
Published: March 2007

The variable nature of audience activity was examined with a sample of 329 local television news viewers. Instrumental news viewing was expected to be related to audience intentionality, selectivity, and involvement with local news. Hierarchical regression found that affinity, selectivity, and involvement predicted intentionality; pass time motives, perceived realism, and reduced intentionality predicted nonselectivity; pass time motives and reduced affinity predicted distractions; and information and nonentertainment motives, perceived realism, and intentionality predicted involvement. Canonical correlation found two news viewing orientations. Instrumental use, or seeking exciting and entertaining information gratifications, was related positively to perceived news realism, affinity, intentionality, and involvement. Ritualized use, or more habitual and time-consuming viewing, was related negatively to news affinity, selectivity, and intentionality, and positively to coviewing distractions. Implications of the links between instrumental media use and audience activity for uses and effects research are discussed.
Age-Based Perceptions of Language Performance Among Younger and Older Adults
Authors: RYAN ELLEN BOUCHARD , SEE SHEREE KWONG , MENEER W. BRYAN , TROVATO DIANE
Published: March 2007

The present study tested differences between younger and older adults in self-perceptions and social perceptions of language performance. Sixty younger adults (M = 26.4 years) and 60 older adults (M = 72.9 years) completed the Language in Adulthood Questionnaire for themselves and then in terms of typical adults aged either 25 years or 75 years. As predicted, the younger respondents reported fewer problems with receptive and expressive aspects of conversational language performance than did their older counterparts. I terms of social perceptions, the two respondent groups expected individuals aged 25 to experience fewer problems with receptive and expressive language than individuals aged 75, except for two specially selected items for which the ratings predictably favored those aged 75 (i.e., telling enjoyable stories, sincere when talking). To provide perspective for these youth-oriented findings in the language domain, perceptions of conversational differences between adults of 25 and 75 were seen by both respondent groups to be less than age differences in memory and hearing. The study was designed and interpreted within a framework of multiple influences of language performance in later life that emphasizes cognitive, situational, and social psychological determinants.
Elderly Identity in Conversation
Authors: TAYLOR BRYAN C.
Published: March 2007

Conversational texts gathered in a study of relationships between elderly individuals and college students are interpreted as the discursive production of elderly frailty. Conversation is explored as the relational arena in which elderly identity is assembled and displayed. Accomplished in and through discourse, an elderly identity of frailty orients communicators to illness and death and reflects the allocation of power within relationships between the elderly and others. Frailty is also examined as a frame for the narration of accumulated life experience.
The Influence of Mass Media and Interpersonal Communication on Societal and Personal Risk Judgments
Authors: COLEMAN CYNTHIA-LOU
Published: March 2007

The study described in this article examines the influences of mass media, interpersonal channels, and self-efficacy on risk judgment, using data from a sample of New York State residents. Risk judgment is conceptualized on two distinct domains: personal-level risk judgment and social-level risk judgment. The health and risk communication literature suggests that mass media channels are more likely to influence social-level risk judgment, and the current study bears out this hypothesis. But, unlike typical findings, personal-level risk was found to be influenced, to some degree, by mass media channels. Interpersonal channels account for a portion of the variance on social-level risk judgment, as does self-efficacy. The health risks examined include heart disease, AIDS, smoking, and hazards from drinking water, household radon, chemicals on food, household chemicals, and low-level radioactive waste.
The Relationship of Empathy to Comforting Behavior Following Film Exposure
Authors: TAMBORINI RON , SALOMONSON KRISTEN , BAHK CHANGMO
Published: March 2007

Building on previous research by Tamborini, Stiff, and Heidel and by Tamborini and Mettler, an experiment was designed to investigate differences in comforting behavior that are associated with dimensions of empathy and exposure to film. Several weeks prior to viewing a positively or negatively charged film, subjects completed a questionnaire measuring characteristics of fictional involvement, empathic concern, and emotional contagion. Following exposure to one of the two films, comforting behavior in response to a distressed confederate was recorded. Regression analyses suggested that fictional involvement and empathic concern were important predictors of comforting behavior. In addition, after accounting for the influence of these dimensions of empathy, film condition explained further differences in comforting behaviors. Moreover, the study extended research in the area of emotional response by including an overt measure of communication behavior.
Arousal-Augmented Priming Effects
Authors: HANSEN CHRISTINE HALL , KRYGOWSKI WALTER
Published: March 2007

Two experiments were conducted to test predictions from the arousal-extremity model that priming effects produced by music videos would be stronger under high than low arousal. Experiment 1 established the content of two sets of music video primes: 2 male and 2 female sex-object videos. In Experiment 2, video priming effects were found on attribute judgments of an ambiguous but phenotypically similar TV commercial, and these effects were further exaggerated when subjects were highly aroused by exercise. Results of MANOVAs and discriminant function analyses indicated that in high-arousal conditions priming effects were more extreme and more closely resembled music video content than in low-arousal conditions.
Multiple Resource Theory II
Authors: BASIL MICHAEL D.
Published: March 2007

Multiple resource theory proposes that attention is a process of resource allocation. These resources may be shifted among different modalities and information-processing tasks. This study investigated whether selective attention to a particular television modality results in different levels of attention to the visual and auditory modalities. Two independent variables manipulated selective attention—the modality with the most information (audio or video) and viewers' instructed focus (audio or video). These variables were fully crossed in a within-subjects experimental design. Attention levels were investigated by measuring reaction times to cues in each modality (audio tones and color flashes). All five manipulation checks suggest that subjects were able to focus on a particular message channel. Reactions to cues were faster, however, when the audio channel contained the most information and when viewers focused on the audio channel. These results suggest a common pool of limited attentional resources and therefore bimodal attention.
Broadcast Adwatch Effects
Authors: CAPPELLA JOSEPH N. , JAMIESON KATHLEEN HALL
Published: March 2007

Several national news networks adopted a strategy for responding to misleading, attack ads during the presidential campaign of 1992. These were called adwatches. The adwatches evaluated the content of political commercials for errors and deceptive and misleading claims. They did so, not simply by replaying the offending material and then offering commentary, but rather by interrupting the ad with commentary and repositioning the ad on the screen. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the adwatch on people's attitudes toward the source of the ad, the target of the ad, the ad itself, and recall and interpretation of the ad's content. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate overall effects of the adwatch procedures on an ad generated by the Buchanan campaign during the Michigan primary. The ad attacked the credibility of George Bush and his advisers. Particular formats were also tested. The adwatches affected attitudes toward the source of the ad and toward the perceived fairness and importance of the ad. Adwatches did not affect attitudes toward the object of the attack ad nor interpretation of the ad's content. Education interacted with experimental condition such that interpretations of the ad by the least well-educated portion of the sample were adversely affected by the adwatches in contrast to the better educated.
Telenovela Audiences
Authors: McANANY EMILE G. , LA PASTINA ANTONIO C.
Published: March 2007

Audience studies of popular culture have recently revived in Anglo-America and Latin America, but the literature often makes reference to only a few major works, like those of Katz and Liebes or Morley, and discusses those few works over and over. The most watched television genre globally is probably the Latin American telenovela, or soap opera, that has a dominant presence during prime time in most of the regions' networks. Although many Latin America researchers have been concerned about the telenovela's role and impact on society, relatively few have done audience studies to understand the phenomenon. A review of 26 telenovela studies from Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latin America is presented with a methodological critique. A final summary of findings shows that, although an emerging picture of the telenovela audiences is present, much still needs to be done.
Presidential Support During the Iran-Contra Affair
Authors: PARK EUNKYUNG , KOSICKI GERALD M.
Published: March 2007

This study focused on the reasoning process through which people decided whether to support President Reagan during the Iran-Contra affair, and the role of the media in that reasoning process. Content analyses of network news showed that the media framed the Iran-Contra affair, with a high level of salience, as a valence issue (the Reagan administration's complicity in the secret dealing) rather than a position issue (the affair's international policy dimension). Path analyses of the national survey data supported the hypothesized differences in the reasoning processes based on the levels of political sophistication: Highly sophisticated people demonstrated a higher level of complexity and consistency in their reasoning process, considering more factors than less sophisticated people. The data also supported the hypothesized framing effects of the media.
The Relative Effectiveness of a Direct Request Message and a Pregiving Message on Friends and Strangers
Authors: BOSTER FRANKLIN J. , RODRÍGUEZ JOSÉ I. , CRUZ MICHAEL G. , MARSHALL LINDA
Published: March 2007

This study examined the role of the norm of reciprocity in mediating the relative effect of compliance-gaining message type on compliance in interactions involving friends and strangers. Subjects received either a direct request to purchase raffle tickets or received the request after having a favor done for them by a confederate, a pregiving message. Results indicate that friends comply more with requests than strangers and that their compliance is constant across message types. Among strangers, the pregiving message produced more compliance than the direct request.
Stressful Life Events and Television Viewing
Authors: ANDERSON DANIEL R. , COLLINS PATRICIA A. , SCHMITT KELLY L. , JACOBVITZ ROBIN SMITH
Published: March 2007

Mood management theory predicts that people experiencing stress use television to block anxious thoughts and to replace dysphoric moods. In a survey of 491 adults, Study 1 found that stress as measured by life events was unrelated to time spent TV viewing but for women, was positively related to scores on a scale of television addiction. In Study 2, viewing diaries of 329 families were examined with relation to stressful life events. Mood management theory was confirmed in that stress was associated with increased comedy and decreased news in the viewing diet. Stressed women watched more game and variety programming as well as more overall TV. Stressed men watched more action and violent programming. Study 3 examined time-lapse video recordings of 140 adults' TV viewing at home. In men, there was a positive correlation of stress with amount of looking at the TV.
Framing Social Reality
Authors: DILLARD JAMES PRICE , SOLOMON DENISE HAUNANI , SAMP JENNIFER ANNE
Published: March 2007

Relational communication researchers have asserted that dominance and affiliation are the fundamental features of social reality. The authors argue that when individuals interpret interaction, they focus on one dimension or the other, such that dominance and affiliation are differentially salient. On that premise, the authors hypothesized that the relative salience of dominance or affiliation would be a function of the goal-defined context. Further, some investigators have argued that the notion of involvement is also essential to the study of relational communication. Although the authors concur, they believe that involvement is a fundamentally different type of construct than dominance or affiliation. The authors hypothesized that involvement is relevant to both dominance and affiliation judgments; it functions as an intensifier variable. A study was conducted in which participants rated the relevance of a series of word pairs that operationalized dominance, affiliation, and involvement within 12 interaction scenarios. Although there was evidence that the biological sex of the judge moderated the magnitude of some effects, the results were uniformly supportive of the hypotheses.
Values as Sociotropic Judgments Influencing Communication Patterns
Authors: McLEOD JACK M. , SOTIROVIC MIRA , HOLBERT R. LANCE
Published: March 2007

Explanations of why people use various types of media content have been limited mainly to demographic location and self-interested motivational variables. The authors present an alternative, sociotropic source of influence on communication patterns: judgments of how the world works (worldviews), what societal values ought to be pursued (materialism vs. postmaterialism), and what normative roles the news media should play. A well-fitting structural equation model is used to account for substantial amounts of variance in entertainment television viewing, newspaper public affairs reading, and discussion of controversial issues. Sociotropic judgments mediate much of the influence of demographics and ideology on patterns of communication. Diversity in the composition of personal discussion networks has a strong and direct influence on communication patterns.
Cognitive Distortion and Problem Behaviors in Adolescents
Authors: BARRIGA ALVARO Q. , LANDAU JENNIFER R. , STINSON BOBBY L. , LIAU ALBERT K. , GIBBS JOHN C.
Published: March 2007

The authors investigated the prevalence of self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions and their specific relations to externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors in 96 incarcerated male and female delinquents and a comparison sample of 66 high school students. The incarcerated participants evidenced higher levels of cognitive distortion (self-serving and self-debasing) and problem behavior (externalizing and internalizing) than did comparison participants. Both self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions were associated with unique variance in overall problem behaviors. Most notably, self-serving cognitive distortions specifically related to externalizing behaviors, whereas self-debasing cognitive distortions specifically related to internalizing behaviors. The theoretical and treatment implications of the findings are discussed.