bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Age and Gender Differences in the Well-Being of Midlife and Aging Parents with Children with Mental Health or Developmental Problems: Report of a National Study
Authors: Ha Jung-Hwa , Hong Jinkuk , Seltzer Marsha Mailick , Greenberg Jan S.
Published: January 2010

Using data from the Study of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), this article examines: (1) the effect of having children with developmental or mental health problems on parents mental and physical health, (2) the extent to which this effect varies by parental age and gender, and (3) the effects of disability-related factors on the well-being of parents of children with disabilities. Compared to parents of non-disabled children, parents of disabled children experienced significantly higher levels of negative affect, marginally poorer psychological well-being, and significantly more somatic symptoms, controlling for sociodemographic variables. Mothers did not differ from fathers in their well-being. Older parents were significantly less likely to experience the negative effect of having a disabled child than younger parents, suggesting an age-related attenuation of the stress of non-normative parenting.
Gender, Race-Ethnicity, and Psychosocial Barriers to Mental Health Care: An Examination of Perceptions and Attitudes among Adults Reporting Unmet Need
Authors: Ojeda Victoria D. , Bergstresser Sara M.
Published: January 2010

Though researchers have described psychosocial barriers to mental health care-seeking, limited research has examined ways in which gender and race-ethnicity are associated with individuals' perceptions and attitudes. This study investigates correlates of psychosocial barriers to mental health care in a population of adults reporting unmet need for mental health care, focusing on gender and race-ethnicity. Data are from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Multivariate analyses show that non-Latino white male status is positively associated with stigma avoidance and mistrust/fear of the mental health care system. Persons of lower income or educational status are less likely to report negative attitudes towards care. Findings imply a need to reconsider the roles of gender, race-ethnicity, and socioeconomic status within investigations of psychosocial barriers to care. Future research should examine the relationships among social status, help-seeking behaviors, and attitudes toward mental health care.
Epidemiological Sociology and the Social Shaping of Population Health
Authors: Link Bruce G.
Published: January 2010

When biomedical knowledge and technology create the capacity for humans to avoid disease and circumvent early death, sociological factors become more, not less important for population health. The transformation of disease causation from cruel fate, accident, and bad luck to circumstances that are under some degree of human control facilitates a powerful social shaping of disease and death. When humans have control, it is their policies, their knowledge, and their behaviors that shape the consequences of biomedical accomplishments, and thereby extant patterns of disease and death. I propose a “social shaping approach” that can frame our understanding of these processes and allow us to take action to optimize population health. Support for this approach is garnered from evidence of dramatic improvements in population health and in the uneven distribution of those improvements across persons, places, and times. Health improvements suggest that humans have gained control of disease whereas the uneven and very slow spread of such improvements underscores the critical importance of social factors. But the evidence presented represents a stick figure at best, one that needs to be filled in by a well-supported “epidemiological sociology” that uses a wide range of sociological concepts and theories to elucidate the social shaping of disease and death. Absent a robust societal investment in epidemiological sociology, population health will reside below its optimal level and the maldistribution of health-enhancing innovations will continue to create health disparities.
Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal: Women's Experience of Household Chemical Exposure
Authors: Altman Rebecca Gasior , Morello-Frosch Rachel , Brody Julia Green , Rudel Ruthann , Brown Phil , Averick Mara
Published: January 2010

We report on interviews conducted with participants in a novel study about environmental chemicals in body fluids and household air and dust. Interviews reveal how personal and collective environmental history influence the interpretation of exposure data, and how participants fashion an emergent understanding of environmental health problems from the articulation of science and experience. To the illness experience literature, we contribute a framework for analyzing a new category of embodied narratives—“exposure experience”—that examines the mediating role of science. We update social scientific knowledge about social responses to toxic chemicals during a period in which science alters public understanding of chemical pollution. This article is among the first published accounts of participants' responses to learning personal exposure data, research identified as critical to environmental science and public health. Our findings raise the importance of reporting even uncertain science and underscore the value of a community-based reporting strategy.
Family Structure and Fathers' Well-Being: Trajectories of Mental Health and Self-Rated Health
Authors: Meadows Sarah O.
Published: January 2010

The association between marital status and health among men has been well documented, but few studies track health trajectories following family structure transitions among unmarried fathers. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study this article examines trajectories of paternal mental health and self-rated health, focusing on transitions into and out of residential relationships with the child's biological mother or a new partner during a five-year post-birth period (N = 4,331). Continuously married fathers report higher time-specific self-rated health and fewer mental health problems than continuously single fathers, controlling for underlying health trajectories. The disparity, however, does not increase over time, providing little support for the marital resource model during these years. Static group differences suggest that resources fathers carry with them into unions may buffer them from the negative effects of union dissolution. The implications of these findings for cohabitation, as well as selection and causation arguments, are also discussed.
Acculturation and Substance Use: Social Influence as a Mediator among Hispanic Alternative High School Youth
Authors: Myers Raquel , Chou Chih-Ping , Sussman Steve , Baezconde-Garbanati Lourdes , Pachon Harry , Valente Thomas W.
Published: January 2010

Research suggests that acculturation increases the risk of substance use among Hispanic youth. However, this process is not well understood. This study examined associations between acculturation and several substance use indicators among a sample of 714 Hispanic youth attending alternative high schools in southern California. Peer social influence was assessed as a potential mediator. Acculturation, measured by language use, was associated with increased risk of lifetime alcohol, marijuana, and current alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and hard drug use, controlling for age, socioeconomic status, and gender. Results of mediation analyses indicate that peer social influence mediated the relationship between acculturation and lifetime alcohol, and current alcohol, cigarettes, and hard drug use. Evidence for partial mediation was observed with lifetime and current marijuana use. These results provide evidence that peer social influence is an important mediating variable that should be considered when examining the relationship between acculturation and substance use.
Understanding the Effects of Personal and School Religiosity on the Decision to Abort a Premarital Pregnancy
Authors: Adamczyk Amy
Published: January 2010

Although much research has examined the relationship between religion and abortion attitudes, few studies have examined whether religion influences abortion behavior. This study looks at whether individual and school religiosity influence reported abortion behavior among women who become pregnant while unmarried. Hierarchical Logistic Models are implemented to analyze two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Findings show that personal religiosity is unrelated to reported abortion behavior. However, conservative Protestants appear less likely to obtain abortions than mainline Protestants, Catholics, and women of non-Christian faiths. Regardless of personal religious affiliation, having attended a school with a high proportion of conservative Protestants appears to discourage abortion as women enter their twenties. Conversely, women from private religious high schools appear more likely to report obtaining an abortion than women from public schools.
Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Psychological Distress: Same Continuum or Distinct Phenomena?
Authors: Payton Andrew R.
Published: January 2010

In this article, I argue that the relationships among mental health, disorder, and distress are a key source of conflict in the sociology of mental health and that the features of the conflict have the potential to call into question much of the accumulated scientific knowledge on mental health. To address this issue, I attempt to empirically assess three competing frameworks regarding these relationships: (1) the “modal perspective,” (2) the “Mirowsky and Ross perspective,” and (3) the “positive psychology perspective.” Results, however, support a “discontinuous perspective:” no underlying continuum among any of the three concepts. These results suggest that researchers need to avoid the common practice of “lumping together” distress, disorder, and mental health and study each in their own right. Subsequent tests attempt to further specify the relationships among these concepts. Results indicate a strong positive directional association from distress to disorder, a strong negative directional association from distress to mental health, and no significant relationship between mental health and disorder. These results are used to generate a number of directions for future research.
Community Characteristics, Sexual Initiation, and Condom Use among Young Black South Africans
Authors: Burgard Sarah A. , Lee-Rife Susan M.
Published: January 2010

Individual and household-level characteristics that influence sexual behavior have been extensively studied in South Africa, but community characteristics have received limited attention. We use multilevel discrete time hazard models and multilevel logistic regression models to analyze data from a representative sample of young people in KwaZulu Natal, and from several sources of community data. Results suggest that, net of individual and household characteristics, higher levels of community concentrated disadvantage are associated with increased hazard of sexual initiation and higher risk of unprotected sex. Social disorder increases the hazard of sexual initiation, while greater community social cohesion is associated with delayed sexual debut, although the latter association appears stronger for young men than for young women. We discuss these results and the ways they vary from predictions based on U.S. theory in light of conditions prevailing in contemporary South Africa.
Marital Status, Marital Transitions, and Body Weight
Authors: Umberson Debra , Liu Hui , Powers Daniel
Published: January 2010

We consider how marital status and marital transitions, important features of the social environment, influence weight change over time, and how these effects vary by age, race, and gender. Growth curve analysis of a four-wave national survey suggests that marital transitions are more important than marital status in predicting change in body weight, and that marital dissolution is more important than marital formation in affecting weight. Widowhood effects on weight loss are a particular concern for population health trends, especially among African Americans.
Who's to Blame? Perceived Responsibility for Spousal Death and Psychological Distress among Older Widowed Persons
Authors: Carr Deborah
Published: January 2010

I examine the ways that bereaved older adults attribute responsibility for their late spouses' deaths, and the consequences of such attributions for psychological adjustment to loss. Data are from the Changing Lives of Older Couples, a prospective study of married persons ages 65 and older. Bereaved persons whose late spouse smoked and had a sedentary lifestyle attributed higher levels of blame to the decedent. Persons who believe that their late spouse's stressful lifestyle and poor health care compliance contributed to the death report significantly lower levels of yearning, yet these effects are no longer statistically significant when marital quality is controlled. Bereaved spouses who believe health care providers contributed to the death report significantly more anger symptoms. The findings suggest that older adults adhere to a “secular morality”; deceased spouses who previously maintained unhealthy lifestyles are viewed as partly responsible for their own deaths.
Risk Assessment, Policy-Making and the Limits of Knowledge: The Precautionary Principle and International Relations
Authors: McLean Craig , Patterson Alan , Williams John
Published: January 2010

This paper looks at the way in which the idea of the Precautionary Principle, increasingly influential in environmental and other policy areas, is being and might be used in foreign and security policy. It aims to contrast the relative precision with which the term is used in the environmental arena with the current usage in international relations. Contrasting the Precautionary Principle with ideas of precaution, prevention, pre-emption and similar terms in post-structuralist analyses of risk, humanitarian intervention and US foreign policy in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, the paper identifies costs and benefits in deploying a more carefully specified account of the Precautionary Principle. In particular, it highlights key issues of regulatory authority and the way in which policy-makers and analysts understand and respond to the limits of knowledge and knowledge systems as important challenges to which careful use of the Precautionary Principle can potentially contribute. The paper concludes by suggesting that both policy-making and policy analysis could potentially be improved by adapting and extending the idea of the Precautionary Principle as it is deployed in other policy arenas.
Reclaiming ‘Bare Life’?: Against Agamben on Refugees
Authors: Owens Patricia
Published: January 2010

Giorgio Agamben claims that refugees can be seen as the ultimate ‘biopolitical’ subjects: those who can be regulated and governed at the level of population in a permanent ‘state of exception’. Refugees are reduced to ‘bare life’: humans as animals in nature without political freedom. Contra Agamben, it will be argued here that if refugee populations are not to face some inexorable trend toward a rule of ‘exception’, then it will not be through reclaiming ‘bare life’. It will be wholly dependent on the ability to forge a public realm grounded on the appropriate distinction between nature and political artifice, between human life and the political world. This argument is made through contrasting Agamben’s writing on refugees with Hannah Arendt’s. What is at stake in the difference is illustrated through the example of refugee lip-sewing.
The Global Ideology: Rethinking the Politics of the ‘Global Turn’ in IR
Authors: Chandler David
Published: January 2010

Many commentators appear to take for granted the fact that the sphere of political power and contestation has shifted from the national level to the global level. This article seeks to question the assumptions made about politics at the global level, highlighting the elision of ‘global politics’ with the globalisation of the political. It will be suggested that major changes have taken place in terms of political subjectivity and how we view political community, blurring the lines of distinction between the domestic and international realms. The understanding of these changes in primarily spatial terms — from the level of the nation state to the global — mystifies the qualitative shift in political consciousness, political engagement and political instrumentality involved. In fact, the relationship between political subjectivity and the external world is inversed. The Global Ideology posits material changes at the global level as the explanatory factor for the breakdown of state-based forms of political identification and collective engagement, understanding these changes as marking the birth of global politics. In relocating this shift in consciousness in the attenuation of political engagement and collective identification it is possible to explain the shift in political subjectivity in terms of the globalisation of the political — as the result of our more individuated relationship to our external world.
Descriptive Analyses of Pediatric Food Refusal: The Structure of Parental Attention
Authors: Woods Julia N. , Borrero John C. , Laud Rinita B. , Borrero Carrie S. W.
Published: January 2010

Mealtime observations were conducted and occurrences of appropriate and inappropriate mealtime behavior and various forms of parental attention (e.g., coaxing, reprimands) were recorded for 25 children admitted to an intensive feeding program and their parents. Using the data from the observations, lag sequential analyses were conducted to identify changes in the probability of child appropriate and inappropriate mealtime behavior before and after various forms of parental attention. A combination of univariate and repeated measures ANOVAs using frequency of child behavior were also conducted to corroborate conclusions drawn from the visual analysis of individual participant data. Results showed that parental attention was frequently followed by temporary decreases in inappropriate mealtime behavior and increases in bite acceptance. Moreover, various forms of parental attention resulted in statistically significant changes in child behavior, which supports the clinical utility of these data.
The Color of the Undergraduate Experience and the Black Self-Concept: Evidence From Longitudinal Data
Authors: Oates Gary L. St. C.
Published: January 2010

The present study assesses the impact of attending colleges with higher black enrollment on African Americans' self-esteem and self-efficacy. It tests Rosenberg's proposition that racially “consonant” environments enhance self-appraisals. The LISREL models control for various pre-college attributes and for institutional selectivity. Higher black enrollment enhances post-college self-esteem but does not significantly influence self-efficacy. Both dimensions of the self-concept are enhanced substantially by post-college socioeconomic status, an objective indicator of achievement. Longitudinal NLS-72 data are merged with institutional selectivity data and continuous data on black enrollment to facilitate these analyses, a process that previously would not have been possible.
Managing Troubles in Answering Survey Questions: Respondents' Uses of Projective Reporting
Authors: Moore Robert J.
Published: January 2010

Standardized survey interviewing is a form of institutional talk whose special constraints often conflict with ordinary conversational practices. Although survey manuals tend to recognize the conflict between standardization and respondents' requests for clarification, an alternative strategy for managing troubles in answering—“projective reporting”—is largely missing from the literature. Respondents may report circumstances in response to fixed-choice questions rather than providing an answer option. Such reports invite the interviewer to infer its relevance for an answer. Respondents use projective reporting in two different ways: to account for particular answers and to defer judgments in answering. Speakers and recipients in ordinary conversation have a variety of options for dealing with the upshots of projective reportings, but some of these options are prohibited in standardized interviews. When respondents use reporting to defer judgment, ordinary conversation and standardized interviewing can conflict.
The Role of Reflected Appraisals in Racial Identity: The Case of Multiracial Asians
Authors: Khanna Nikki
Published: January 2010

Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing minorities in the United States and show the highest outmarriage rate; yet little research has investigated the racial identity of multiracial Asians. This study explores the racial identity of multiracial Asians in the United States, using survey data on 110 Asian-white adults, and examines the factors that shape this identity. The literature suggests a number of factors; drawing on the theoretical framework of reflected appraisals, I hypothesize that certain factors will be more important than others in this process. When respondents were asked with which race they identified more strongly, Asian or white, two factors were shown to exert the strongest influence on racial identity, namely phenotype and cultural exposure. Logistic regression and qualitative responses reveal that the racial identities of this sample of Asian-white adults are shaped largely by the reflected appraisals of others regarding their appearance and cultural knowledge.
Verification Across Multiple Identities: The Role of Status
Authors: Stets Jan E. , Harrod Michael M.
Published: January 2010

We explore how the external social structure influences internal self-processes by examining whether one's status in the social structure influences one's ability to self-verify across multiple identities. We also examine whether greater verification is related to positive self-feelings (higher self-esteem and mastery) in a stable manner, across identities. We investigate three identities: the worker identity and the academic identity (both instrumentally oriented) and the friend identity (expressively oriented). We consider the status characteristics of race/ethnicity, gender, age, and education. Using data from a random sample of Los Angeles County residents, we find that high compared with low status characteristics are associated with the verification of identities. Different status characteristics are related to the verification of different identities through a common system of meaning. Further, greater verification is associated with higher self-esteem and higher mastery across identities. The findings reveal how one's position in the social structure infuses interaction with meaning, producing perceptions that facilitate or impede the development and maintenance of a positive regard for the self.
Resources, Cooperation, and Problem Solving In Early Marriage
Authors: Tallman Irving , Hsiao Ying-Ling
Published: January 2010

Couple cooperation is hypothesized to be essential in the resolution of interpersonal marital problems. Data from a sample of newlywed couples support this hypothesis as well as the validity of our measure of cooperation. We then test a model stipulating marital satisfaction and trust as antecedent conditions leading to cooperative problem solving for each of three time periods, using structural equation modeling methods. We also test the overall fit and lagged effects of the model combining all three periods. Finally, we examine how the amount and distribution of 10 resources influenced how the model functioned. By waves 2 and 3, education, liking, and a combined measure of interpersonal skills all showed significant effects on the model. We discuss the relevance of the findings for a theory of marital problem solving and consider the significance of studying newlyweds.
Social Distance in the Clinical Encounter: Interactional and Sociodemographic Foundations for Mistrust in Physicians
Authors: Schnittker Jason
Published: January 2010

Although many observers have drawn attention to the low levels of trust in physicians among members of racial/ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status, the reasons for this mistrust are not well understood. Using a social distance perspective and a large, nationally representative data set, I find that blacks and Hispanics are less trusting of their personal physicians than are whites and that education and income both increase physician trust. A fraction of each of these differences can be explained by physicians' behavior (the perceived thoroughness of the last examination, how well the physician listened, and how well the physician explained), but most of each difference remains well after physicians' behavior is held constant. The otherwise positive, strong effect of physicians' behavior has only a limited capacity to explain these differences because social distance moderates the strength of the effect of that behavior. For blacks, Hispanics, and those of lower socioeconomic status, physicians' behavior exerts much less effect on trust than for whites and those of higher socioeconomic status. A social distance perspective helps to explain this downweighting, as well as the divergent ways in which different sociodemographic groups evaluate physicians. By understanding the inference of trust as a social cognitive process, scholars can understand more clearly why some groups are more receptive to physicians than others, and why some groups' mistrust is more resistant to updating.
Community Social Context and Individualistic Attitudes Toward Marriage
Authors: Barber Jennifer S.
Published: January 2010

I develop a theoretical framework explaining how community social context affects attitude formation via nonfamily institutions and related behaviors. Empirical tests of the framework use data from a study of the Chitwan Valley in rural Nepal. The analyses focus on attitudes toward seven aspects of marriage: child marriage, arranged marriage, intercaste marriage, mother-in-law obedience, polygyny, divorce, and widow remarriage. Regression analyses show a dramatic relationship between community social context and attitudes toward these aspects. Individuals whose childhood communities contain schools, employers, markets, and bus service hold more individualistic attitudes toward marriage. Behaviors related to these nonfamily institutions are related strongly to individualistic attitudes. Neighbors' behavior also is related to individualistic attitudes toward marriage, but much more weakly than individuals' own behaviors. I conclude that continuing increases in nonfamily institutions and related behaviors are likely to transform marriage from a family-controlled experience to an experience largely controlled by the individual.
Psychological Well-Being in the Early Life Course: Variations by Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity
Authors: Mcleod Jane D. , Owens Timothy J.
Published: January 2010

Our analysis focuses on the implications of social status characteristics for children's psychological well-being. Drawing on social evaluation theories and stress-based explanations, we hypothesized that disadvantage cumulates across statuses (the double jeopardy hypothesis) and over time as children move into the adolescent years. To test this hypothesis, we estimated the independent and interactive effects of socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity on the latent growth curves for four outcomes, from preadolescence to early adolescence, using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth data set. Our results were consistent with the double jeopardy hypothesis for the interaction of race/ethnicity and poverty, but not for the other interactions we estimated. In the case of gender and poverty, the strength of the evidence for the double jeopardy hypothesis varied by outcome: evidence was more consistent for scholastic competence and self-esteem than for depression and hyperactivity. In the case of gender and race/ethnicity, our results consistently refuted the double jeopardy hypothesis.
Self-Esteem, Depressive Symptoms, and Adolescents' Sexual Onset
Authors: Longmore Monica A. , Manning Wendy D. , Giordano Peggy C. , Rudolph Jennifer L.
Published: January 2010

We examine whether self-esteem and depressive symptoms influence sexual onset when important controls such as age, dating, race, and income are examined. Analyses are based on the first two waves of the restricted-use sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. We examine adolescents who reported at wave 1 that they had not had sexual intercourse. Using logistic regression models run separately for males and for females, we find that depressive symptoms, when entered simultaneously, exert a greater effect than self-esteem on sexual onset. Depressive symptoms have less effect on sexual onset for African-American girls than for white girls. Higher self-esteem is associated with greater likelihood of sexual debut at older ages for boys. Our findings suggest that although many positive benefits of self-esteem have been suggested, the conceptual and empirical link between depressive symptoms and adolescent sexual onset may be more crucial.
Gendered Power Dynamics in Intentional Communities
Authors: Levi Martin John , Fuller Sylvia
Published: January 2010

Using network data from 40 groups, we examine the effect of social context on the gendering of power relations. By modeling reported data on power relations as the result of a stochastic response process that may be gendered, we examine how this gendering is related to group-level contextual factors. We find that much of what appears to be a gendering of the way in which power relations are perceived, namely that women tend to stress equality in relationships more strongly than men, is actually due to their structural position, although women increase their propensity to stress equality when the balance of power between the genders is structurally anomalous.
Classroom Roles and School Adjustment
Authors: Van Rossem Ronan , Vermande Marjolijn M.
Published: January 2010

The peer group is an important developmental context for children. In this paper we present a method to operationalize a child's integration into the classroom by their informal social classroom roles, which we obtained using a blockmodel analysis based on role equivalence. This method differs in several respects from the common socio-metric status approach. Analysis of multiplex social relationships of 1,241 first-grade children in 71 classrooms showed nine empirical classroom roles. The roles were not associated with physical attractiveness not with ethnic ancestry, were associated only weakly with age, sex, and intelligence, and were associated strongly with school adjustment. Classroom roles and sociometric status were clearly associated, but measured different aspects of a child's integration into the classroom. For all school problems except academic performance, classroom roles explained a much larger proportion of the variance than did sociometric status.
Networks, Norms, and Trust: The Social Psychology of Social Capital∗ 2004 Cooley Mead Award Address
Authors: Schweers Cook Karen
Published: January 2010

Networks of trust relations often emerge under conditions of uncertainty or risk to facilitate social exchange. Under some conditions, such networks represent a form of social capital that can be mobilized in support of general social cooperation in the society. Under other conditions, however, such networks may have negative effects on the degree of social cooperation in the society. To examine these conditions I draw on experimental work on cooperation and trust, as well as recent work on social exchange under conditions of uncertainty and risk. After an introduction, in which I acknowledge those who have been influential in my career, I comment on the implications of this work for recent research on social capital.
Trust Building via Risk Taking: A Cross-Societal Experiment
Authors: Cook Karen S. , Yamagishi Toshio , Cheshire Coye , Cooper Robin , Matsuda Masafumi , Mashima Rie
Published: January 2010

The role of risk taking in building trust relations has largely been overlooked in the burgeoning literature on trust in the social sciences; yet it is central to understanding how trust develops. We argue that a series of risk-taking behaviors is indispensable to building a trust relation. We conducted experiments in Japan and the United States to examine the independent and cross-cultural effects of risk taking on trust building. The results of these experiments indicate that the American participants took more risks than did the Japanese, supporting the general claim that Americans are inclined toward risk taking and trust building. Even so, the Americans were no better than the Japanese at improving the level of cooperation. The cumulative results of these experiments imply that risk taking is a critical element in trust building for Americans, but less so for the Japanese. Our results show clearly that it is important to distinguish trusting behavior from cooperation and to measure them separately if we are to study trust and trust building in relation to social cooperation.
Examining Medical Interview Asymmetry Using the Expectation States Approach
Authors: Gallagher Timothy J. , Gregory Stanford W. , Bianchi Alison J. , Hartung Paul J. , Harkness Sarah
Published: January 2010

In this study we examine medical interview asymmetry using the expectation states approach. Physicians lead clinical interviews because of a feature inherent in those interviews, namely the status difference between doctor and patient. This power differential varies: it is greatest when the biomedical aspects of the interview are emphasized. These observations are consistent with status characteristics theory (SCT), which is based on the expectation states approach to understanding the emergence of power-prestige orders in groups facing shared tasks. From an SCT perspective, when the required scope conditions are met the status characteristics of doctor and patient trigger expectation states that result in inequalities relevant to the biomedical tasks of the interview. We examine interactions between medical students and standardized patients from the perspective of SCT. We observe the emergence of vocal spectrum inequalities when the interview task is biomedical. Other nonverbal behavioral outcomes emerge as well, which are consistent with the asymmetry literature.
“Empathy” and “Sympathy” in Action: Attending to Patients' Troubles in Finnish Homeopathic and General Practice Consultations
Authors: Ruusuvuori Johanna
Published: January 2010

This paper analyzes “empathy” and “sympathy” as situated practices, sequential processes that are coconstructed by the participants in the situation. The data consists of 228 sequences of patients' descriptions of their problematic experiences and professionals' responses to them in videorecorded general practice and homeopathic consultations. One deviant case, in which the practitioner shows compassion to the patient in an exceptional way, is subjected to detailed analysis. It is argued that both professionals and patients orient to a degree of professional neutrality in these situations, but also that affiliative practices can be adjusted to the otherwise problem-governed course of the consultation. These orientations seem to address questions similar to those of theoretical distinctions made between the terms empathy and sympathy.
Sexual Orientation and Psychological Distress in Adolescence: Examining Interpersonal Stressors and Social Support Processes
Authors: Ueno Koji
Published: January 2010

Adolescents with homosexual and bisexual orientations have higher levels of psychological distress than other adolescents. Drawing from previous studies, I hypothesize that this epidemiological pattern is due largely to the interpersonal problems that sexual minorities experience at home and at school. Analysis of longitudinal data based on a nationally representative sample showed that sexual minorities in fact experienced more problems with their parents and peers at school; these factors explained a moderate portion of the gap in distress level between sexual minorities and other adolescents. Adolescent friendships in general tend to develop within groups of individuals who share social backgrounds, but this pattern did not apply to sexual orientation; sexual minorities were not connected closely with each other at school. When they knew each other, however, their friendships reduced psychological distress and protected them from the psychological harm associated with interpersonal problems. I use these findings to discuss unique aspects of adolescent sexual orientation as a dimension of social inequality, focusing on implications for coping behaviors and mental health outcomes.
Does Power Affect Perception in Social Networks? Two Arguments and an Experimental Test
Authors: Simpson Brent , Borch Casey
Published: January 2010

This research investigates competing arguments about the relationship between power and perception in social networks. One line of research predicts that occupants of structurally advantaged positions have more accurate perceptions of ties in their networks (i.e., who is tied to whom); another line asserts that lower-power actors have more accurate perceptions. On the basis of previous work, we suggest that any relationship between power and perception (whether positive or negative) will be mediated by the distance between the perceiver and relevant ties. We explicate these arguments and test them experimentally. The results suggest that as distance between the perceiver and the tie increases, low-power actors have more accurate perceptions of the network than high-power actors.
Motives and Contexts of Identity Change: A Case for Network Effects
Authors: Mcfarland Daniel , Pals Heili
Published: January 2010

In this paper we interrelate different theories of identity and describe how various social contexts and cognitive motives influence the process of identity change. We consider two competing theories about the linkage of contexts with motives for identity change: the effect of category traits, based on social identity theory, and the effect of social networks, based on identity theory. To explore these relations, we use data collected on more than 6,000 adolescents at six high schools in two consecutive school years. Multilevel logit models reveal a strong relationship between contexts and perceived identity imbalances, and a strong effect of identity imbalance on identity change. More important than category traits are the social network characteristics of prominence, homogeneity, and bridging; these form social contexts that affect perceptions of identity imbalance, and the perceptions in turn lead to a heightened incidence of identity change.
An Integrated Model of Attribution of Responsibility for Wrongdoing in Organizations
Authors: Gailey Jeannine A. , Lee Matthew T.
Published: January 2010

Sociologists and psychologists have spent several decades attempting to improve our understanding of the factors that influence how people attribute responsibility for outcomes of social action, particularly wrongdoing. Members of two disciplines continue to refine Heider's seminal work in distinct ways, but have not developed a definitive test of attribution of responsibility (AOR) because of the ad hoc nature of existing research. To move towards a definitive test of AOR, we propose an integrated AOR model that is especially well suited to a neglected substantive concern: wrongdoing within organizations. In constructing our integrated model, we synthesize insights from the sociological and psychological research on AOR, while also incorporating concepts from organizational studies. An integrated model has the potential to provide a more stringent test of AOR in cases of organizational wrongdoing, which would move the field beyond its current stagnation and would carry important legal implications.
Contact in Context: An Examination of Social Settings on Whites' Attitudes Toward Interracial Marriage
Authors: Johnson Bryan R. , Jacobson Cardell K.
Published: January 2010

Using data from a New York Times poll conducted in 2000, we analyze whites' approval of interracial marriage by examining the contexts in which whites have contact with blacks. The contexts can be ordered by the type of contact they provide, from close and personal to distant or hierarchical. The results of our analysis show that the type of contact engendered by a variety of contexts is important in determining attitudes toward interracial marriage. The contacts in most of the social settings are associated with friendship; the contexts are related to approval of interracial marriage even when friendship, age, gender, income, political party, and region are included in the analysis.
“I'm Not an Immigrant!”: Resistance, Redefinition, and the Role of Resources in Identity Work
Authors: Killian Caitlin , Johnson Cathryn
Published: January 2010

In this paper we examine the identity negotiation processes of North African immigrant women in France. Participants engaged in various forms of identity work, including selective association and management of appearance, as well as resisting others' attempts to categorize them as immigrants. Given that these women have chosen to move to France and remain there, this finding is surprising. Using the concept of the Not-Me identity, we explore how people can redefine and refuse labels that seem to be self-evident and to lack room for negotiation. At the same time, we examine how class and educational resources and other structural factors influence these immigrant women's ability to control others' perceptions of their identity.
Identity Change
Authors: Burke Peter J.
Published: January 2010

This research examines two mechanisms by which persons' identities change over time. First, on the basis of identity control theory (ICT), I hypothesize that while identities influence the way in which a role is played out, discrepancies between the meanings of the identity standard and the meanings of the role performance will result in change. That is, due to the hierarchical structure of identity systems, change will occur not only to the role performance (to counteract the discrepancy), but also to the meanings of identity standard over time (to bring them more into line with the disturbance). A second mechanism of change in identities is hypothesized to result from persons holding multiple identities that share meanings. Identities that share dimensions of meaning influence each other's standard to maintain the shared meaning at a common level. Changing identity standards redefines who one is. Using data from the Marital Roles Project, I examine the spousal and gender identities of newly married couples over the first years of marriage as couples engage in routine activities. Hypotheses about change in identities are supported; implications for extending identity control theory are discussed.
Misconduct in the Prosecution of Severe Crimes: Theory and Experimental Test
Authors: Lucas Jeffrey W. , Graif Corina , Lovaglia Michael J.
Published: January 2010

Prosecutorial misconduct involves the intentional use of illegal or improper methods for attaining convictions against defendants in criminal trials. Previous research documented extensive errors in the prosecution of severe crimes. A theory formulated to explain this phenomenon proposes that in serious cases, increased pressure to convict encourages misconduct; further, serious cases increase perceptions of the suspect's guilt, which facilitate justification of the misconduct. A controlled laboratory experiment allows tests of theoretically derived predictions while controlling for extraneous factors common in naturally occurring settings. University undergraduate participants were assigned randomly to prosecute a contrived case of murder or assault; otherwise the two cases were identical. Results showed that participants improperly withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense more often in the murder case than in the assault case. Further, participants prosecuting the murder case expressed a stronger belief in the defendant's guilt than did participants in the assault case. Implications for future research in naturally occurring settings are discussed.
“Is That All There Is?” Possible Selves, Self-Change, and Weight Loss
Authors: Granberg Ellen
Published: January 2010

Possible selves typically are conceptualized as resources that facilitate identity development and that motivate and sustain self-change. The concept of possible selves, however, generally has not been extended to examining the aftermath of personal transformation. In this article I explore the self and social processes that operate during efforts to validate possible selves after self-change is complete. Using data gathered during in-depth qualitative interviews with 46 respondents who sustained weight loss over time, I analyze the role of possible selves in efforts to maintain intentional self-change. Findings show that many possible selves associated with weight loss are not fulfilled, and that the gap between potential and actual selves must be negotiated before persons can consider their weight loss both “successful” and “complete.” This gap is bridged by drawing on structural and cultural resources found within processes of self-verification and identity control and in the revision of personal narrative. By combining these resources, persons recognized and negotiated the gap between their expectations and the reality of intentional self-change.
Body Weight and the Quality of Interpersonal Relationships
Authors: Carr Deborah , Friedman Michael A.
Published: January 2010

We investigate whether underweight, normal-weight, overweight, and obese Americans differ in their evaluations of positive and negative aspects of their interpersonal relationships. Analyses are based on data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study, a survey of more than 3,000 adults ages 25 to 74 in 1995. We find no significant differences across the body mass index (BMI) categories in the quality of relationships with friends, coworkers, and spouses. Severely obese persons report significantly higher levels of strain and lower levels of support in their family relationships. This pattern, however, is contingent upon one's adolescent body weight. Among persons who were of “normal” weight at age 21, current BMI is not associated with relationship quality. For persons who were overweight at age 21, the level of social support received from family during adulthood declines as adult BMI increases. Implications for stigma theory are discussed.
Race Socialization Messages Across Historical Time
Authors: Brown Tony N. , Lesane-Brown Chase L.
Published: January 2010

In this study we investigated whether the content of race socialization messages varied by birth cohort, using data from a national probability sample. Most respondents recalled receiving messages about what it means to be black from their parents or guardians; these messages were coded into five mutually exclusive content categories: individual pride, racial group pride, deference to and fear of whites, color-blind, and whites are prejudiced. We examined three birth cohorts: pre- Brown v. Board of Education, protest, and post-protest. The content of messages varied significantly by cohort. For example, messages conveying deference to and fear of whites were more likely to be transmitted to children coming of age during the pre- Brown v. Board of Education era. We also found that respondents' current racial attitudes were correlated with messages they received during childhood.