bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Estimation of Diffusion Processes from Incomplete Data
Authors: GREVE HENRICH R. , TUMA NANCY BRANDON , STRANG DAVID
Published: March 2007

Event-history analysis of the diffusion of practices in a social system can show how actors are influenced by each other as well as by their own characteristics. The presumption that complete data on the entire population are essential to draw valid inferences about diffusion processes has been a major limitation in empirical analyses and has precluded diffusion studies in large populations. The authors examine the impacts of several forms of incomplete data on estimation of the heterogeneous diffusion model proposed by Strang and Tuma. Left censoring causes bias, but right censoring leads to no noteworthy problems. Extensive time aggregation biases estimates of intrinsic propensities but not cross-case influences. Importantly, random sampling can yield good results on diffusion processes if there are supplementary data on influential cases outside the sample. The capability of obtaining good estimates from sampled diffusion histories should help to advance research on diffusion.
Finding Collective Events
Authors: MANEY GREGORY M. , OLIVER PAMELA E.
Published: March 2007

Researchers collecting data on collective events have often relied on ad hoc procedures and untested assumptions. A detailed comparison of different sources and data-gathering strategies for one month of events in one city challenges several assumptions made in prior studies. Police agencies and news sources have their own logics of jurisdiction, producing both incomplete and selective records of collective events. Different strategies for searching newspapers for stories about events yield very different results. News items about events do not occur at the same time as the events but are dispersed around them. All three of these patterns vary greatly from source to source and locale to locale. Comparisons of research findings between localities must more explicitly consider these selection issues. All data collection projects need to include methodological analyses of selection structures in their particular cases so that there can be some basis for comparison between studies.
Scaling Back Survey Scales
Authors: MOORE KRISTIN ANDERSON , HALLE TAMARA G. , VANDIVERE SHARON , MARINER CARRIE L.
Published: March 2007

To understand children's development, one must examine an array of constructs. Yet the time and budget constraints of large-scale survey research create a dilemma: how to cut scales to the fewest possible items while still retaining their predictive properties. In this article, the authors compare the predictive validity of several shortened versions of the Behavior Problems Index and the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment-Short Form with their full scales within the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 cohort. They use the scales to predict delinquency, reading recognition scores, parent-child activities, and smoking behavior of children at ages 13 or 14 from data gathered 2, 4, and 6 years prior. Analyses leave the authors cautiously optimistic that short scales, especially scales composed of items gathered at different time points and repeated regularly, may enjoy substantial predictive power. However, two-item scales may be too short, and psychometric study on additional scales is warranted.
The Measurement of the Effects of Overtraining On Job Attitudes
Authors: Kalleberg Arne L. , Sørensen Aage B.
Published: March 2007

This paper presents various models for measuring the effect of being overtrained, where overtraining refers to a discrepancy between a person's training and the educational requirements of his job. The various assumptions regarding the effects of overtraining that are embodied in the different models are discussed. It is found that a simple additive model describes the effect of overtraining on job satisfaction, while a model adding interaction terms is needed to account for the effect of overtraining on job involvement.
Information-Theoretic Measures and the Analysis of Social Structures
Authors: Horan Patrick M.
Published: March 2007

This paper presents a conceptual and methodological framework for the multivariate, nonparametric analysis of models of social structure. Following McFarland (1969), an information-theoretic measure of the openness of a social structure is developed. A Proportional-Reduction-in-Error (PRE) interpretation is presented for this measure and appropriate statistical testing procedures are indicated. This measure is applied to an analysis of the social structure of university teaching and its performance is compared with that of other PRE measures. Finally, the multivariate application of the measure is outlined.
An Omnibus Test for Social Structure Using Triads
Authors: Holland Paul W. , Leinhardt Samuel
Published: March 2007

A general or omnibus test of structure in social network data is proposed. The test exploits all of the information contained in the triad census. Analogous to the classical F-test for contrasts among means, the proposed test involves finding a weighting vector which maximizes a test statistic, τ 2 ( max), in the context ofan empirical data matrix and then determining whether this quantity is statistically significant by reference to a table of the chi-square distribution. An insignificant value of τ2 ( max) implies that the structure of the network data matrix is ran dom, and, therefore, that the search for recognizable or substantively meaning ful pattern in the data may be subject to artifactual discoveries. Empirical results are presented which indicate that, of the networks commonly studied by social researchers, some have random structure, others have nonrandom structure and exhibit strong indications of transitivity and still others, with strong indications of nonrandom structure, do not exhibit strong indications of transitivity.
Collinearity, Ridge Regression, and Investigator Judgment
Authors: Fennessey James , D'Amico Ronald
Published: March 2007

Several recent articles have suggested that ridge regression may provide an "optimal" procedure for dealing with the problems created by highly collinear regressors in linear models. In this article, we review the consequences of collinearity among the regressors in a well-specified structural equation model and the several variants of ridge regression that may be considered as possible responses to such collinearity. Based on thts review and on application of several ridge regression methods to an actual structural equation model in which collinearity is high, it becomes clear that one or another form of investigator judgment is unavoidable when any specific estimates are obtained via a ridge adjustment. The article indicates how the several ridge techniques implicitly involve distinct criteria whereby an estimator should be judged and some of the complications involved in each.
Stratification and Mobility in Big-Time College Football
Authors: Tsai Yung-Mei , Sigelman Lee
Published: March 2007

White's (1970) vacancy chain model of stratification and mobility in a social system was applied to American big-time college football teams during the postwar period. Two specific vacancy chain models were generated, the binomial and the more general models. Both models were found to describe the empirical results well. The vacancy chain model appeared to show potential for developing broader understandings of the generic processes of stratification and mobility. Substantively, the empirical results demonstrate the extreme stratification and slow mobility that characterize the big-time college football system, and underline the difficulties outsiders face when they try to become members of the football elite.
Three Methods of Estimating a Model of Group Effects
Authors: Igra Amnon
Published: March 2007

Three methods of estimating a model of school effects, involving either contextual or structural variables, are compared. The comparison shows that two methods, ordinary least squares and an approach based on the analysis of covariance, produce unbiased estimators under a given set of assumptions. The third method, based on a residualized input-output approach, produces biased estimators. When the model involves only contextual variables, the first two methods result in the same estimators. These results are presented using a matrix algebra formulation: they apply to the case where the model contains one or more covariates, and one or more school level variables. The relative advantages of the first two methods are considered, and it is suggested that in most situations the ordinary least squares approach is preferable.
The Common Role Structure Improved Blockmodeling Methods Applied to Two Communities' Elites
Authors: McConaghy Maureen J.
Published: March 2007

The claim by Breiger and Pattison (1978) that the joint homomorphic reduction indicates the role structure common to two populations is shown to be incorrect. The actual common role structure is defined and then calculated for the elites of two communities. A new measure of the similarity of two role structures is also provided. The results show that, in contradiction to Breiger and Pattison's claims, the two community elite role structures do not share relative strength of ties and are, in fact, very different from one another.
Analyzing Properties of Dyads Determinants of Similarity of Marijuana Use in Adolescent Friendship Dyads
Authors: Shrout Patrick E. , Kandel Denise B.
Published: March 2007

Similarit between members of dyads has been studied for a variety of attributes, but not much is known about how similarity varies as a function of dyad charac teristics One reason for this is the existence of methodological problems that have restricted the analy ses of similarity. In this article, a multinomial logistic regression method is presented which allows the examination of similarity as a function of multiple independent variables. As an applic ation of the method, data on similarity of marijuana use among 1,367 adolescent frienciship dyads are analyzed Intensity of friendship bond is the only significant predictor of variability on similarity.
Factors Affecting Religious Participation
Authors: UPTON GRAHAM J.G.
Published: March 2007

Duncan (1979) analyzed the effects of sex, marital status, and color on a response variable that he termed religious participation. This variable was a coded form of the categories of the two separate response variables: member of church and member of church-connected organization. The present article presents a reanalysis based on the original response variables.
Goodman and Kruskal's TAU-B Statistic
Authors: BERRY KENNETH J. , MIELKE PAUL W.
Published: March 2007

Goodman and Kruskal's Tb statistic is frequently employed by sociologists to measure association among categorical polytomies. The test of the null hypothesis Tb = 0 is presently limited to an asymptotic approximation that fails to adjust for unbalanced marginals, yielding inaccurate probability values. This article details a nonasymptotic test of significance that adjusts for unbalanced marginals.
Three-Mode Principal Component Analysis of Multivariate Longitudinal Organizational Data
Authors: KROONENBERG PIETER M. , LAMMERS CORNELIS J. , STOOP INEKE
Published: March 2007

The exploratory role three-mode principal component analysis can play in analyzing multivariate longitudinal organizational data is outlined by an exposition of the technique itself, and by its application to organizational data from Dutch hospitals. Relationships with some other techniques for such data are indicated.
A Cautionary Note on the Use of Principal Components Analysis
Authors: BORGATTA EDGAR F. , KERCHER KYLE , STULL DONALD E.
Published: March 2007

Principal components analysis and common factor analysis can provide similar results; however, to assume the results will be similar can lead to serious error. A simple example is provided to show how results can be substantially different.
Partialling and Purging:
Authors: SANTI LAWRENCE L.
Published: March 2007

This article explicitly demonstrates the relationship between the purging method of rate adjustment introduced by Clogg and his associates and the more general framework of log-linear analysis. After a review of the general multiplicative (or log-linear) model, two types of purging are discussed; these “purged” rates are shown to be related to the parameters of this model. A parallel discussion of “purged” odds follows, wherein either purging method is shown to produce summary odds whose ratios are identical to the corresponding odds ratios of an appropriate log-linear model. These various formal relationships are illustrated by means of a numerical example.
Latent Variable Models of Dichotomous Data
Authors: SCHOENBERG RONALD , ARMINGER GERHARD
Published: March 2007

This issue of Sociological Methods & Research contains four excellent illustrations of current methods for analyzing dichotomous data: dichotomous factor analysis (Muthén, 1989), latent trait analysis (Eaton et al., 1989), and grade of membership analysis (Woodbury and Manton, 1989). These methods are now sufficiently developed for use by researchers, though a lack of available software for the grade of membership model renders that method mostly theoretical. Of these methods the factor analysis model succeds in carrying out the tasks set by the editors with the fewest problems. Researchers would do well, however, to look over all the methods to find the best approach for their particular problem.
A Critical Evaluation of the Randomized Response Method
Authors: UMESH U. N. , PETERSON ROBERT A.
Published: March 2007

Warner (1965) introduced the Randomized Response Method (RRM) 20 years ago. This method has been advocated as a useful tool in eliciting sensitive information. Much of the early research focused on various parameter estimation methods. This article provides a comprehensive review of applications of the randomized response method with emphasis on recent publications, identifies issues now being studied, and suggests future research directions. As such, the article addresses method validation, respondent jeopardy, and new applications. In so doing, the method is considered in the broad context of obtaining responses to sensitive questions. Judging by the number of articles published, randomized response method continues to be of interest in numerous and diverse disciplines.
Networks of Elite Structure and Decision Making
Authors: KNOKE DAVID
Published: March 2007

Recent research on community power structures and national political elites increasingly incorporates social network concepts, principles, and methodologies. Analysts using this perspective seek to uncover the various mechanisms underlying the cleavages and coalitions among state managers, political parties, corporations, interest groups, social movements, mass publics, class segments, and other social formations. By combining reputational, positional, and decision-making measures, researchers delineate the networks of communication ties and resource exchanges, which shape collective actions that attempt to influence the outcomes of political controversies. This article critically reviews recent power structure research that applies network techniques to the analysis of elite structures and decision making. Specifically, the following topics are examined: the specification of political network content, the delineation of political elite system boundaries, the identification of key or core actors, the representation of network structures, elite actors' individual and collective participation in policy events, the determination of policy event outcomes, and future directions for elite research using network perspectives.
Modeled Variance in Two-Level Models
Authors: SNIJDERS TOM A. B. , BOSKER ROEL J.
Published: March 2007

The concept of explained proportion of variance or modeled proportion of variance is reviewed in the situation of the random effects hierarchical two-level model. It is argued that the proportional reduction in (estimated) variance components is not an attractive parameter to represent the joint importance of the explanatory (independent) variables for modeling the dependent variable. It is preferable instead to work with the proportional reduction in mean squared prediction error for predicting individual values (for the modeled variance at level 1) and the proportional reduction in mean squared prediction error for predicting group averages (for the modeled variance at level 2). It is shown that when predictors are added, the proportion of modeled variance defined in this way cannot go down in the population if the model is correctly specified, but can go down in a sample; the latter situation then points to the possibility of misspecification. This provides a diagnostic means for identifying misspecification.
Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Analytical Induction
Authors: HICKS ALEXANDER
Published: March 2007

This article bridges two research traditions, analytical induction (AI) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in the context of a study of early welfare state formation. First, the article differentiates classical AI from neoanalytical induction (NAI), tracing the latter to the former and identifying some problems with NAI. Next, it outlines QCA and identifies some problems with it. Third, it sketches two bridges, along with solutions that they offer for some limitations of NAI and QCA. One bridge links NAI's method, in essence a logical implementation of the idea of the working hypothesis, to QCA's powerful Boolean technology. The second bridge joins AI's stress on the reformulation of hypotheses in the face of negative evidence to QCA's capacities for complex inductive and logical specifications of the relations of explanatory to dependent variables. Following that, the article summarizes portions of a study of early 20th-century welfare state formation and uses them to illustrate the bridges. It concludes with a discussion of the analytical promise of a variant of QCA that stresses theory building in the AI tradition.
Data Analysis Using SAS
Authors: HALLAHAN CHARLIE
Published: March 2007

This article discusses SAS as a language and environment for statistical computing. The SAS System has developed over the past 20 years from being primarily a statistical package into providing a diversified system for managing and analyzing data. The part of SAS most appropriate for statistical computing is the interactive matrix language, SAS/IML. IML is used to illustrate tasks such as M-estimation, bootstrapping, and kernel density estimation. An extensive collection of preprogrammed statistical procedures is available in SAS to carry out more standard statistical analyses such as generalized linear models or categorical modeling.
An Introduction to Causal Inference
Authors: SOBEL MICHAEL E.
Published: March 2007

Sociologists routinely employ regression analysis and a variety of related statistical models to draw causal inferences from survey data. Typically, the parameters of the models are interpreted as effects that indicate the change in a dependent variable that would occur if one or more independent variables were set to values other than the values actually taken. The purpose of this article is to formally demonstrate, in a fashion accessible to the social researcher who is not a methodologist, why the interpretations above do not generally hold, even when the model is correctly specified and a causal theory is given. Some implications for the way in which social research is and should be conducted are discussed. In particular, the usual strategies for testing competing causal explanations are misdirected. Further, the emphasis on causation in contemporary sociology is often misdirected.
An Empirical Evaluation of the Predictive Mean Matching Method for Imputing Missing Values
Authors: LANDERMAN LAWRENCE R. , LAND KENNETH C. , PIEPER CARL F.
Published: March 2007

This article reports empirical explorations of how well the predictive mean matching method for imputing missing data works for an often problematic variable—income—when income is used as an explanatory variable in a substantive regression model. It is found that the performance of the predictive mean method varies considerably with the predictive power of the imputation regression model and the percentage of cases with missing data on income. In comparisons of single-value with multiple-imputation methods, it also is found that the amount of bias and the loss of precision associated with single-value methods is considerably less than that associated with a weak imputation model. Situations in which using imputed data can lead to seriously biased estimates of regression coefficients (and related statistics) and situations in which the bias is so minimal as to be nonproblematic are identified.
Wind, traffic and dust: The recycling of wastes
Authors: Rosin R. Thomas
Published: March 2007

Indian conceptions about the earth's recycling of wastes is an important domain for investigation. The use of dust as a cleansing agent leads us to inquire into local notions about elemental processes, the tropic cycle, and the role of the streets as venue and traffic as process in recycling the detritus and castaways of daily life. We relate local expectations about waste disposal to textual sources, utilise Ayurvedic theory and practice to understand traffic as a flow, and examine Samkhya philosophical underpinnings for a humoral world- view. By reviewing ethnographic and Indologic analyses of how bathing, or entering the flow, is experienced, we examine the deep implicit meaning of flows and churning. We argue that the very entering into traffic is transformative, an experience that is further sanctified in the ritual elaboration of some travel as pilgrimage. There emerge from our inquiry recurrent themes on flows, and their outcomes, for which we select an ethnosociological frame on which such patterns, symmetries and inversion may coalesce into a single coherent design.
Fast Speech and the Origin of the Standard English Verbal Suffix -s
Authors: Shields Kenneth
Published: March 2007

It is suggested in this paper that the problematic third person singular present indicative verbal ending -(e)s of Standard English originated as a fast speech variant of the earlier suffix -eth. This hypothesis is supported by the findings of some recent studies of the largely unexplored phenomena of fast speech and by direct and indirect evidence concerning the linguistic, stylistic, and social significance of the desinence during the Early Modern English Period.
Some Processes in the Cultivation Effect
Authors: Hawkins Robert P. , Pingree Suzanne
Published: March 2007

This article addresses several elaborations and specifications of Gerbner and Gross' (1976) cultivation hypothesis: that heavy television viewers incorporate biases present in television content into their own construc tions of reality. Subjects were 1280 children from grades 2, 5, 8, and 11 in Perth, Western Australia who answered questions designed to tap their perceptions of violence and "meanness" in society. The cultivation relation ship between viewing and beliefs was replicated with these Australian schoolchildren, but only for adolescents, suggesting that the integration of discrete television events into social reality beliefs requires cognitive skills not available to or unused by younger children. Division of children's viewing into different content types indicated that beliefs about violence stemmed most clearly from crime-adventure programs and cartoons, but perceiving a mean world is related more globally to all television viewing.
Family Communication Patterns and the Social Uses of Television
Authors: Lull James
Published: March 2007

Audience members "use" television in a variety of ways. The social environment in the family home is a major contributor to differential uses of the medium by individuals. Previous research on family communication patterns, for instance, has demonstrated that families which stress harmo nious social relations at home (socio orientation) differ in many attitudes, activities, and media habits from families which stress the independent expression of ideas (concept orientation). This survey research explores the ways in which socio-oriented and concept-oriented audience members differ in their uses of television as a resource for the accomplishment of interpersonal objectives at home. Differences were found for behaviors which range from structuring daily activities and talk patterns to more complex interpersonal goals such as communication facilitation, affilia tionlavoidance, social learning, and demonstration of competence/domi nance.
The Media and Social Reality Effects
Authors: Allen Richard L. , Hatchett Shirley
Published: March 2007

This study investigated some key theoreticalpropositions derivedfrom a synthesis of two related areas of research: the construction of social reality and cultivation analysis. A total of eight hypotheses were generated from the following propositions: (1) three broad construct categories (objective, symbolic, and subjective) constitute, to a major degree, the construction of social reality; (2) indicators of subjective reality can be placed usefully on a close-remote continuum based on their distance from the everyday life experiences of the individual; and (3) the accumulation of television exposure has a dominant influence on the shaping of beliefs and interpretations of the world, the direction of influence being contingent on the "bias "of the specific content consumed. A national sample of black adults, 18 andover, was usedto test the hypotheses. Path analysis provided some support for the hypotheses.
THE SHORTWAVE AUDIENCE IN THE USSR
Authors: PARTA R. EUGENE , KLENSIN JOHN C. , DE SOLA POOL ITHIEL
Published: March 2007

Populations where free access is denied pose special problems to the survey researcher. In attempting to make general estimates of the size and composition of the audience in the USSR to Western radio broadcasts, a simulation technique has been developed which provides estimates of underlying data from aggregate results. A methodology is also proposed as an approach to estimating the reliability of the findings, which are drawn from a large, but demographically unrepresentative sample of Soviet travelers to the West.
VIEWER APPREHENSION ABOUT VICTIMIZATION AND CRIME DRAMA PROGRAMS
Authors: WAKSHLAG JACOB J. , BART LEONARD , DUDLEY JOHN , GROTH GARY , McCUTCHEON JOHN , ROLLA CHERYL
Published: March 2007

Subjects were assigned to one of two apprehension conditions (high versus low) based on their responses to fear of victimization items embedded in a more general questionnaire. Subjects within each level of apprehension were randomly assigned to view one of two versions of a made-for-TV movie. The original version concluded with the antagonist getting shot. The second version was identical to the first except that it ended with the protagonist being shot. Physiological responses indicated that apprehensive viewers reacted more intensely to the program than their less apprehensive counterparts. Importantly, there were no significant differentiations in physiological response to noncrime content seen by the same subjects. Evaluations of the program's endings were also more negative for apprehensive viewers. Apprehensive viewers also found the antagonist to be more reprehensible than their less apprehensive counterparts. These findings are interpreted as being consistent with the view that individuals who are apprehensive about crime and victimization find crime drama particularly exciting and that this excitement induces more intense evaluations of the show. The present findings are analyzed with respect to prior research and theory and are shown to be compatible with the selective exposure hypothesis (apprehensive viewers are particularly attracted to crime drama).
THE RISE AND POSSIBLE FALL OF THE SWEDISH PARTY PRESS
Authors: HADENIUS STIG
Published: March 2007

In contrast to many other western countries, Sweden still has a party press system. The historical background of the Swedish party press, its present situation and its possible future is outlined in this article. The party press is an integral part of the Swedish political structure. It worked well for the better part of a century, but today it is threatened from two quarters: the economy and the increasing professionalism among journalists. The politicians have an interest in keeping the system alive. They may divert the economic threat, at least for some time, by increasing and reallocating the press subsidies existing since the early 1970s. The threat against the party press system stemming from the journalistic professionalism may be more difficult to influence.
THE BEIJING AUDIENCE STUDY
Authors: ROGERS EVERETT M. , ZHAO XIAOYAN , PAN ZHONGDANG , CHEN MILTON
Published: March 2007

Communication research in China is in an early stage of development, but there are an increasing number of training and research activities in universities and in independent institutes. The Beijing Audience Survey in 1982 was the first large-scale communication field study in China. It showed a very high degree of penetration of the mass media among both urban and rural audiences in the metropolitan area of Beijing, with 97% of the sample of 2430 individuals listening daily to radio, 92% viewing television, and 81% reading a daily newspaper. The high degree of exposure to television is surprising, given that the purchase of TV receivers by Chinese families only began at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
LISTENERS' BODY MOVEMENTS AND SPEAKING TURNS
Authors: HARRIGAN JINNI A.
Published: March 2007

In conversation, speaking turns are exchanged rapidly and without explicit decisions about turn allocation. This suggests that participants cue each other in the process of switching speaker-listener roles. The verbal and nonverbal behaviors of five interactants engaged in conversation were analyzed in detail in relation to turn-taking. A significant number of speaking turns, compared to feedback responses, were prefaced by nonverbal behavior. The distinction between speaking turns and feedback responses was also reflected in the types of body movement preceding them; hand gestures occurred more often before speaking turns, and emblematic acts were associated with feedback. Differences in head/gaze direction were noted between successful interruptions and unsuccessful interruptions. Results were discussed with respect to functions of body movements in speech.
Core Journals of the Rapidly Changing Research Front of “Superconductivity”
Authors: BROOKS TERRENCE A.
Published: March 2007

This article reports an analysis of the journals contributing articles to the literature of superconductivity over the last 15 years. The analysis reveals that the literature of superconductivity has tripled in absolute size and has grown more intense over time as well. Core journals were identified by the minimum perfect Bradford partition methodology. Citing / cited core journal analysis reveal a communication pattern dominated by a pair of journals. Problems of bibliometric methodology such as literature definition, Bradfordian mechanics, and citation analysis are critiqued.
The Use and Experience of the New Video Media Among Children and Young Adolescents
Authors: KUBEY ROBERT , LARSON REED
Published: March 2007

The media habits and experiences of 483 subjects whose ages ranged from 9 to 15 years were studied via the Experience Sampling Method. Respondents carried electronic paging devices and reported on their activities and subjective experiences when signaled. General descriptive findings on the use and experience of three forms of new video entertainment, music videos, video games, and videocassettes, are reported. For boys, these new video media were associated with higher reports of arousal and more positive affective states than was the case for the activities of television viewing, reading, and listening to popular music. Relative to boys, girls reported lower affect and arousal, especially during video games and music videos.
Effects of Cognitive Complexity on the Perceived Importance of Communication Skills in Friends
Authors: BURLESON BRANT R. , SAMTER WENDY
Published: March 2007

This study assessed individual differences in the value that college students placed on communication skills exhibited by same-sex peers. Participants (N = 410) rated items tapping eight different communication skills for their importance in same-sex relationships. The skills included ego support, conflict management, comforting, referential ability, conversational skill, regulative skill, narrative ability, and persuasive skill. Interpersonal cognitive complexity was assessed through Crockett's (1965) Role Category Questionnaire. Affectively oriented communication skills such as ego support and comforting were rated as more important than nonaffectively oriented skills such as narrative and persuasive abilities. However, type of communication skill interacted with cognitive complexity such that complex participants rated affectively oriented skills as more important than noncomplex participants did, whereas noncomplex participants rated nonaffectively oriented skills as more important than complex participants did. These results suggest that persons differing in cognitive complexity conceive of the friendship relation in qualitatively different ways.
Interpersonal Communication Motives and the Life Position of Elders
Authors: BARBATO CAROLE A. , PERSE ELIZABETH M.
Published: March 2007

The aim of this investigation was to contrast the contribution of chronological age and contextual age (physical health, life satisfaction, economic security, mobility, social activity, and interaction) in explaining elders' motives for communicating with others. A sample of 49- to 89-year-old adults (N = 272) completed self-administered questionnaires. Results indicated that contextual age was more important than chronological age in determining the interpersonal motives of elders. Those with a positive life position, that is, greater life satisfaction and higher levels of social activity, reported pleasure and affection as reasons for communicating with others. Elders who were less mobile, healthy, and socially active communicated to seek control or comfort. As in previous research using the Interpersonal Communication Motives scale (ICM), there were differences in communication motives due to gender. Women reported using communication primarily for emotionally expressive reasons, whereas men reported using communication for more instrumentally controlling ones. The interpersonal communication motives of elders differed some-what from the motives of broader range samples. In our study, respondents communicated for pleasure, comfort, affection, and control. Elders did not report escape as a salient reason for communicating with others.
The Contribution of Family Culture to Political Participation, Political Outlook, and Its Reproduction
Authors: LIEBES TAMAR , RIBAK RIVKA
Published: March 2007

In a secondary analysis of data from a study of political socialization among Israeli teenagers, this article employs a modified and abbreviated version of Chaffee and McLeod's typology of family communications (FCP) to examine its relationship to political participation, political outlook, and the “reproduction” of parents' political outlook in their children. The findings confirm that the pluralist family is most likely to induce political participation, measured by media exposure, political knowledge, and conversation. Family communication pattern was also found to be associated with political outlook, measured in terms of hawkish-dovish orientations to the Arab-Israeli conflict, with a disproportionate number of dovish parents and children in the pluralist families. Nevertheless, the rate of reproduction of specific outlook does not vary significantly among the four types of family communication patterns, except for a suggestion in the data that families have a better chance of reproducing doves when they encourage their children to argue.
Communication Concurrency and the New Media
Authors: VALACICH JOSEPH S. , PARANKA DAVID , GEORGE JOEY F. , NUNAMAKER J. F.
Published: March 2007

An experiment investigated the ideational performance of groups using verbal or computer-mediated communication while face-to-face or distributed from one another. Groups using computer mediation outperformed groups using verbal communication. The proximity manipulation had no significant effects on performance. It is proposed that the difference between the new media (e.g., computer-mediated) and more traditional media (e.g., verbal) relates to the medium's concurrency—defined as the number of distinct communication episodes a channel can effectively support. Computer mediation can support an unlimited number of parallel and distinct communication episodes; traditional media support serial communication and therefore have a fundamentally different concurrency.
Motivation and the Knowledge Gap
Authors: VISWANATH K. , KAHN EMILY , FINNEGAN JOHN R. , HERTOG JAMES , POTTER JOHN D.
Published: March 2007

The study described here examined whether knowledge gaps decrease when motivation to acquire information or the functionality of information is similar among more and less educated groups. Surveys at baseline and 12 months compared two groups with differing motivation to acquire cancer and diet information in a community that received a year-long health campaign. The more motivated group (higher on measures of salience, perceived cancer risk, and self-efficacy) was composed of those who self-selected to receive home-based learning, a campaign strategy. They were compared to general population samples. The study found that education-based differences in knowledge were evident even among members of the more motivated group. However, the effect of membership in this group raised knowledge levels higher than the general population irrespective of education level. The study suggested that group membership, information functionality, motivation, and education combined to affect knowledge, rather than motivation alone over-coming the effect of education.
The 1992 Presidential Campaign and Debates
Authors: CARTER RICHARD F. , STAMM KEITH R.
Published: March 2007

The 1992 presidential campaign, especially its presidential debates, produced cognitive, affective, and emotive effects which the Cognigraphics research method was able to distinguish. George Bush's campaign decline was dramatically etched in respondent cognitions. Bill Clinton survived early emotion and continuing affective disadvantage to win the election on what seemed clearly cognitive grounds—the country's need for a change by someone seen as capable of changing things. Ross Perot was strongly criticized for dropping out of the race, but his debate performance turned around his affective picture, even though respondents seemed unconvinced that he was capable of making the needed changes.
Ross Perot and the Multinomial Distribution
Authors: ACZEL AMIR D. , HAUGHTON DOMINIQUE M.A. , JOSEPHY NORMAN H.
Published: March 2007

The authors present a graphical multivariate approach to the analysis and reporting of political poll results when more than two candidates command a significant percentage of the vote. The authors argue that joint statistical inference is a more meaningful methodology in this situation; the current margin of error reporting is potentially inaccurate and may lead to inappropriate conclusions. The authors' methodology is applied to the results of four major national polls reported the week before the 1992 presidential election, with surprising implications.
Yours, Mine, and Ours
Authors: MANUSOV VALERIE , FLOYD KORY , KERSSEN-GRIEP JEFF
Published: March 2007

In this article, we argue that nonverbal cues act much like other behaviors in triggering attribution making in couples' interactions. In a test of this contention with 60 couples, we found that negative behaviors were more likely than positive nonverbal cues to be noticed, satisfaction was related to attributions for positive behaviors, mutual attributions for the same behaviors differed significantly, and self-other attributional differences were enhanced by relational satisfaction. These results extend previous applications of attribution theory by providing some validation for the use of attribution theories with nonverbal behaviors and by showing that attribution making occurs in a way that reflects the mutually occurring, dyadic level of interpersonal communication.
The Effects of Cognitive Capacity and Suspicion on Truth Bias
Authors: MILLAR MURRAY G. , MILLAR KAREN U.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the effects of cognitive capacity and suspicion on veracity judgments. It was hypothesized that under low suspicion conditions, truth bias would be more pronounced when participants had low cognitive capacity than when participants had high cognitive capacity. One hundred and seven participants viewed presentations of people either truthfully or deceptively describing a series of pictures. Prior to the presentations, a short description designed to increase suspicion was read to half the participants. Participants viewed half of the presentations while working on arithmetic problems (low capacity) and the other half while not working on arithmetic problems (high capacity). Following each presentation, the participants were required to evaluate the communicator's performance on a number of scales and indicate whether the communicator was actually describing the picture. The results partially supported the hypothesis.
“Uh-huh. What's That All About?”
Authors: MULAC ANTHONY , ERLANDSON KAREN T. , FARRAR W. JEFFREY , HALLETT JENNIFER S. , MOLLOY JENNIFER L. , PRESCOTT MARGARET E.
Published: March 2007

Maltz and Borker argue that because men and women grow up in different sociolinguistic cultures, they learn to interpret conversational features differently—including backchannels (“uh-huh,”“yeah”) and questions (“What's next?”). If true, this might help explain conversational miscommunication that occurs across gender boundaries. This study tests this theory by assessing the effects of observer sex, observer gender schematicity, speaker sex, and partner sex on interpretation. Two hundred and sixty-eight observers rated 96 naturally occurring conversational excerpts, 48 containing backchannels and 48 including questions, in terms of: (a) apparent meaning of the utterance (control, other-focus, and uncertainty) and (b) speaker traits (dominance and sensitivity). Four-way MANOVAs indicated: (a) male and female observers interpret backchannels and questions differently, and (b) several interaction effects. However, no interactions were found to demonstrate female bilingualism, proposed by male dominance theorists. The results are discussed in terms of their support for two-cultures theory and their lack of support for dominance theory.
Telling Stories About Global Climate Change
Authors: McCOMAS KATHERINE , SHANAHAN JAMES
Published: March 2007

A theory of cyclical patterns in media coverage of environmental issues must account for more than intrinsic qualities of the issues themselves: Narrative factors must be considered. A content analysis of The New York Times and The Washington Post stories from 1980 to 1995 shows how media construct narratives about global warming and how these narratives may influence attention cycles. Empirically, the frequency of newspaper coverage shows cyclical attention to global warming. The content analysis further reveals that implied danger and consequences of global warming gain more prominence on the upswing of newspaper attention, whereas controversy among scientists receives greater attention in the maintenance phase. The economics of dealing with global warming also receive greater attention during the maintenance and downside of the attention cycle. The discussion offers a narrative explanation and suggests the outcome of the “master story” of global climate change may discourage future attention to global warming.
Female Violence and Personality
Authors: VERONA EDELYN , CARBONELL JOYCE L.
Published: March 2007

The present study investigated the validity of the overcontrolled hostility construct in explaining violent crime among 186 female state-prison inmates who were classified as nonviolent (NV), one-time violent (OV), or repeat violent (RV) offenders. The women's prison records were reviewed, and a complete Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (2nd ed.) (MMPI-2) protocol and Spielberger et al.'s Anger Expression Scale were administered. Overcontrolled Hostility (O-H) scale scores on the MMPI-2 effectively differentiated the OV group from the NV and RV offender groups. The OV women were overrepresented among female violent offenders, had significantly shorter nonviolent criminal histories than the other two groups, and were more likely to have committed an extremely violent act than the RV group. The RV offenders reported greater acting out when angered and exhibited more prison aggression compared to the other two groups. These data highlight the importance of the overcontrolled hostility construct and the undercontrolled/overcontrolled distinction in the analysis of violent offending among female inmates.
Criminal Psychopathy
Authors: SIMOURD DAVID J. , HOGE ROBERT D.
Published: March 2007

The present study explored whether a risk/needs perspective could assist in understanding the construct of criminal psychopathy as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Three hundred and twenty-one inmates serving sentences for violent offenses were assessed on the PCL-R and administered a variety of psychometric measures relevant to criminal conduct. Using a traditional PCL-R cutoff, 36 participants (11.2%) were designated as psychopaths and 285 (88.8%) were designated as nonpsychopaths and compared on various criminal conduct and psychometric variables. Results showed that psychopaths had significantly greater risk/needs areas than nonpsychopaths, and this pattern remained when alternative diagnostic cutoffs were used. Implications of the findings with respect to theory and practice are considered.
Group Training for Social Skills
Authors: HAZEL J. STEPHEN , SCHUMAKER JEAN B. , SHERMAN JAMES A. , SHELDON-WILDGEN JAN
Published: March 2007

A group training program for teaching social skills was conducted with 13 court-adjudicated youths on probation with a juvenile court. The program taught eight skills—giving positive feedback, giving negative feedback, accepting negative feedback, resisting peer pressure, problem-solving, negotiation, following instructions, and conversation. The youths were divided into three groups, two of which had a homenote procedure that required the youths to practice the skill at home during the week. The skills were trained in a multiple-baseline design across skills using skill explanation and rationales, modeling, and behavioral rehearsal with feedback. Behavioral role-play results showed substantial skill increases for the youths in all the groups with the youths in the two homenote groups showing more rapid increases in skill levels. Folow-up testing eight months later showed good retention of the majority of the skills. Self-report questionnaires showed that the majority of the youths viewed themselves as more competent following the training.
Validity of a Wisc-R Short Form for Female Delinquents
Authors: HAYNES JACK P. , BENSCH MARLENE
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the validity of the Vocabulary-Block Design short form as an estimate of Full Scale IQ in a clinical population of 78 adjudicated white female delinquents. The mean age was 14-10. The difference between the means of the short form and the Full Scale IQ was small and nonsignificant. The correlation between the short form and Full Scale IQ was .87 and accounted for 76% of the variance shared by the measures. The short form was found to classify correctly not quite two-thirds of the subjects by intelligence category. About two-thirds of the subjects matched Vocabulary-Block Design discrepancy direction with Verbal-Performance IQ discrepancy direction. The short form was found to be useful as a screening device but inadequate for making individual treatment program decisions or identifying potential recidivists.