bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Changes in Systems of Values in Polish Radio Programmes on Historical Subjects
Authors: Szpocinski Andrzej
Published: March 2007

The article describes a study of systems of values contained in radio shows concerning historical subjects intended for school pupils in Poland. Radio programmes from four time periods at intervals from the early 1950s until the early 1980s were examined. The results show, firstly, that such programmes do exhibit patterns of support for certain values of relevance to the contemporary society and that each period is distinctive in the particular combination of values emphasized. There is change and development in the general direction of more ambiguity and less clear structure, compared to the explicitness of values during the first period studied.
Media Logic and Party Logic in Campaign Coverage: The Italian General Election of 1983
Authors: Mazzoleni Gianpietro
Published: March 2007

This article gives an account of the first attempt in Italy to investigate the behaviour of the mass media in an election campaign, from the perspectives of both information and propaganda. Starting from the observation of major changes in the Italian political scene, such as the secularization of politics, the crisis of the mass party and the increased commercialization of broadcasting, it was hypothesized that the media, traditionally subordinate to the party influence, would experience some emancipation. This was expected to appear in the following forms: a preponderance of `media logic' over `party logic'; a greater independence of journalists; a tendency for media to set the agenda of the election debate. Despite some contradictory evidence, the findings confirm some tendencies in the predicted direction.
The Social Construction of the Information Revolution
Authors: Brants Kees
Published: March 2007

The supposed effects of the so-called `information revolution' are, at least in part, an ideological construct in which different actors fulfil different roles in defining the reality of technological developments in such a way as to leave little room for deviating views. This article sketches the actors involved in this process of social construction and discusses some of the assumptions about its outcome, notably that it creates jobs, leads to more information and can best be achieved by deregulation.
The National Press of the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia:
Authors: Yakimov Oleg Dimitrievich , Morrison Joy F.
Published: March 2007

For many decades the Siberian indigenous peoples' press functioned as a part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's general press system. The structure and types of Native (indigenous minority groups) newspapers were determined by resolutions of the Communist Party, and only within autonomous republics, regions and districts of Siberia. At the beginning of perestroika, only the Siberian Native people who had received `autonomy', such as the Yakut people, had newspapers in their own language, although some groups (Nanais, Nivkhs, Evens) had a written language and even their own literature. At present, local newspapers in the Evenkjiski, Koryakski and Taimyrski autonomous districts are published only in Russian. Did the granting of real sovereignty to former autonomous states and the disintegration of traditional Native life in Russia begin the disintegration of the newspapers of Native Siberians in line with the new democratic changes? It is impossible to understand the current mass media processes without examining the history of this press.
ON THE STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS: SOME METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE USE OF HOUSEHOLD DATA
Authors: Berge Erling
Published: March 2007

It is argued that instead of trying to use the complex everyday concept of household, one should record the various characteristics which go into this concept. From a systems perspective nine ways of characterising households as analytical units are identified. The distinction between absolute, distributional and relational data is, together with the distinction between three levels of characterising the household, used to discuss the utility of concepts like `class-position of household', `head of household', `Minimal Household Units' and kinship-based typologies of household.
EMOTIONAL `MAN': II. CORPORATE ACTORS AS EMOTION-MOTIVATED EMOTION MANAGERS
Authors: Flam Helena
Published: March 2007

Corporate actors are usually analysed from either the rationalistic or normative perspective. This paper proposes a third - emotional - perspective as a complementary point of departure. It also shows, with the help of sundry examples, the many different ways in which corporate actors are in fact emotion-motivated emotion managers.
Overseas Studies and the Rise of Foreign Cultural Capital in Modern China
Authors: Huang Hui
Published: March 2007

The process of social transformation and opening to the outside world in modern China accompanied a process of rising importance and popularity of overseas studies. As a result, foreign education (mainly western education) gradually replaced traditional Chinese education as the dominating cultural capital and the most important means of social mobility in modern China. However, foreign education was by no means assumed valuable in the initial stage of its introduction, but experienced a long process of transformation from negative social meanings to positive cultural capital. The careers and life experience of the first group of returned students from the USA in the 1880s represent very well the process of such transformation. Three factors were crucial in the explanation of such a process: social contexts, occupational contexts and group formation. The unique social contexts of the mid-19th and early 20th centuries in China provided the first returned students' opportunities to demonstrate their outstanding performance and professional accomplishments. At the same time, the process of adopting western practices and lifestyles created increasing demand for western knowledge and western skills in China, and subsequently caused an occupational transformation which helped the rise of the new occupational sector in which the returned students made careers. Finally, the first returned students as a group actively promoted western education in China and constructed the identity of western-returned students as a positive social symbol.
Globalization, Unreason and the Dilemmas of American Military Strategy
Authors: Roxborough Ian
Published: March 2007

This article traces the appropriation of globalization concepts by American military strategists. It argues that the world views developed by the American military are ethnocentric, and draw heavily from a repackaging of modernization theory. This article draws on the professional military literature - speeches and articles by top military officers, articles in professional military journals, and military and other government reports - to map the strategy debates around globalization. By examining the role played by notions of globalization within American strategic debates, we can better understand how sociological concepts become appropriated and transformed by policy-makers, and how they act to frame policy debates. With the end of the Cold War, the US military was cast adrift, suffering from an extreme case of goal deprivation. With the Soviet Union no longer around to fulfill the role of arch-enemy, this massive bureaucracy needed a new definition of the principal threat. Of the various contending world views in the strategic community, popular notions of globalization came, by the late 1990s, to be seen by many to offer a coherent explanation of instability and threat in the post-Cold War world. This article provides a description and sociological critique of this strategic paradigm.
PRESSURE AND GUILT: WAR EXPERIENCES OF A YOUNG GERMAN SOLDIER AND THEIR BIOGRAPHICAL IMPLICATIONS (PART 1)
Authors: Schütze Fritz
Published: March 2007

The psychoanalysts Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich claimed in their widely discussed article (1977) that Germans would be incapable of mourning about and repenting of the disaster of the Second World War, the millions of deaths and suffering of the victims of Nazi terror. They argued that Germans would repress or deny what had happened to avoid suffering from severe depression. The Mitscherlich thesis is criticised in this study by displaying the wide landscape of deep personal involvement (called a `trajectory') in various autobiographical differentations of living within a world of total collective moral deterioration.

The research necessary to prove or disprove such a thesis works with `autobiographical narrative interviews' conceived by the author. The research style of meticulous structural descriptions is developed to utilise formal text indicators for localising such phenomena like fading out, delayed recollection, and compartmentalised phases of working-through. Typical for this method, its data arise from interviewing single cases, here that of an ideologically non-committed German. As a young German soldier in the Second World War, he too showed phases of incapacity to mourn and repent. But the informant did not remain in that state. Severe crisis experiences in his later private life led to sudden recollections of encounters with victims of Nazi terror. He started to mourn and repent. Besides empirical evidence of the feeling of personal entanglement in collective guilt also among those not engaged in intentional acts of immoral behaviour, we encounter the interesting phenomenon of delayed mourning about and repenting of the moral deterioration within the collectivity of `We, the Germans'. This finding is corroborated by data from many narrative interviews with other Germans who were non-committed to Nazi ideology but active in the German war machinery.
ENVIRONMENTALISM IN IRELAND: TWO VERSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT AND MODERNITY
Authors: Tovey Hilary
Published: March 2007

The paper proposes a conflict interpretation of environmentalism, seeing it as a vehicle through which the cultural politics of Irish development are reproduced and enacted. Contrasting two environmental movements in Ireland, one based around established conservation organisations and a developing environmental `knowledge elite', the other located within populist movements for rural community development, the author argues that these articulate opposed understandings of recent Irish history: as a process of cultural modernisation or as one of peripheral (under)development. The two movements are also characterised by very different attitudes to the part played in environmental matters by the Irish state. The paper ends by discussing how recent intervention into environmental management by the state itself may ironically be providing the ground on which some dialogue between the two movements is becoming possible.
IDENTITY, NATION AND RELIGION: EDUCATED YOUNG BANGLADESHI MUSLIMS IN LONDON'S `EAST END'
Authors: Eade John
Published: March 2007

In this article I seek to analyse the diverse understandings among British Bengalis of their social identities as shaped by national and Muslim belongings. The complexity of these understandings is described as the young Bengalis explore the interrelationships between these identities, attempt to rank them and, in some cases, look beyond national boundaries to a worldwide Islamic community. Their constructions of identity are influenced by their social situation within Britain where racism plays a significant role but also by political and religious developments within Bangladesh and other nation-states within the Indian sub-continent. Like other descendants of migrant workers in Western Europe, they are caught up in a public debate about national belonging where their supra-national links provide them with special insights into the construction of hybrid identities and new ethnicities and the maintenance of individual identities in a globalising world.
THE CORPORATE ETHIC, THE ETHIC OF SAMOSTOYATELNOST AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM: REFLECTIONS ON MARKET-BUILDING IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA
Authors: Kharkhordin Oleg
Published: March 2007

This article attempts to elaborate a culturalist approach to the problems of the current economic reform in Russia, which is based on the works of Karl Polanyi and Max Weber. It argues that the currently predominant corporate ethic of Russian industrialists may not necessarily be viewed as an obstacle to national market-building. On the contrary, it may prove useful in the initial phases of constructing the Russian national market, because it seems to foster the creation of financial and industrial concerns, united in a national network of exchanges. However, the article also argues that a profound cultural change is a prerequisite for the later stages of successful market-building in Russia. The potential for and mechanisms of the transition from the corporate ethic of the currently dominant economic actors to the new individualistic ethic of samostoyatelnost are discussed. The Weber-inspired analysis points to the curious cultural change which has already occurred in some groups of formerly zealous collectivist ascetics.
MONEY AND THE NATION-STATE: CONTESTED BOUNDARIES OF MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY IN GEOPOLITICS
Authors: Dodd Nigel
Published: March 2007

Has international monetary integration undermined monetary sovereignty? In this paper, a sociological approach is taken towards two of the major conditions which are reputed to have contributed to the erosion of monetary sovereignty: financial deregulation and the growth of offshore markets. In the first section, the reconstruction of international monetary and financial networks is examined with particular reference to Japan, Germany and Britain. The concept of deregulation is questioned as a description of the regulatory changes which took place in these financial centres during the 1980s. In the second section, this argument is extended in an examination of the development of offshore markets during the past thirty years. These markets have relied upon substantial government encouragement, in addition to a high proportion of sovereign funds, in order to expand at the rate that they have: any perceived threat to monetary sovereignty posed by such markets must therefore be treated with caution. In the concluding section, the implications of monetary integration for two `contested boundaries' within contemporary sociology - between geopolitics and international markets, on the one hand, and economy and society, on the other - are outlined, both in the context of debates over monetary sovereignty and in the light of arguments about the `embeddedness' of economic action in recent sociological approaches to economic life.
Basic Themes Derived from Survey Findings on Human Behavior in the Mexico City Earthquake
Authors: Quarantelli E. L.
Published: March 2007

Two population surveys of Mexico City residents were conducted, the first three weeks after the earthquake of September 1985 and the other a year later. We found that: (1) small percentages, because of the size of the metropolitan area population, translated into large absolute numbers for personal disaster behavior; (2) social class (or socioeconomic status) was important as a differentiating factor in earthquake-related behavior; (3) there was little dissatisfaction with organizational efforts to deal with the earthquake consequences along with (4) no noticeable increase in dissatisfaction from the time of the initial impact up to the year's anniversary of the disaster; (5) the earthquake-related sheltering and housing of people was not as problematical as the extensiveness of the activity might suggest; (6) the volunteering pattern of individuals was quite complex; (7) there was extremely heavy mass media usage in the earthquake aftermath; and (8) earthquake victims learned little from their experience on how to prepare for future disasters. The paper primarily uses these generalizations from the survey findings to advance eight basic themes about human behavior in disasters that might be comparatively examined in future cross-societal studies.
Forms of Capital: The Case of Russian Bankers
Authors: Dinello Natalia (Evdokimova)
Published: March 2007

Influenced by classical sociology, constructionist tradition and Pierre Bourdieu's writings, this article examines the capital of Russian bankers who are perceived as the prime movers of Russia's transition to the market. The bankers were selected as subjects for analysis because they represent profit-making enterprises in a country where money and capital had pejorative meanings prior to the recent capitalist-style reforms. It was not money but social relations that served as a primary medium of exchange in the Soviet system. Exploring what constitutes the major `currency' in the new Russia, this article also questions whether the bankers' constructions of self and society differ from the prevailing code of the Russian/Soviet cultural repertoire that is seen as anti-individualistic, anti-materialistic and anti-capitalist. Relying upon a survey of 484 bankers and 61 interviews with managers from Moscow and St Petersburg commercial banks, the article comes to the conclusion that these bankers possess substantial holdings in the form of money and social resources, and are also culturally well equipped for market experiences. However, their economic, social and cultural capital is only partially converted into symbolic capital interpreted as the most universal form of capital. Inadequacy of symbolic capital may question the legitimacy of other economic, social and cultural assets, and have negative repercussions for market-building in Russia.
The Muffling Effect of Social Policy: a Comparison of Social Security Systems and Their Conflict Potential in Australia, the United States and Norway
Authors: Øyen Else
Published: March 2007

The arena of social policy could be a constant battlefield were it not confined within political institutions. Conflicts are extended into the organisation of social programmes and exert pressure on policy objectives and the contents of the programmes. Social programmes can accommodate these pressures in different ways. During this process programmes become transformed, some to such an extent that their social policy value diminishes and they serve other needs than those which they were designed to meet. This is the muffling effect of social policy. Ideally a social programme can be constructed with a low conflict potential. In this paper some basic characteristics of a low conflict system of social security are identified. Three different systems of social secunty are compared with regard to these characteristics and it is asked how conflict-ridden the different systems have been since they were first introduced. The model seems to have some predictive power. The methodological problems of such an approach are discussed.
Grounding a Theory of African Migration in Recent Data on Ghana
Authors: Achanfuo-Yeboah David
Published: March 2007

A number of demographic, economic, socio-cultural and psychological factors determine the nature, pattern and direction of migration in Africa. Much of the existing literature tends to emphasise the economic motives for migration. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that socio-cultural and other non-economic factors are also very important, and that a realistic explanation of African migration should be multidisciplinary. This theory of African migration shows that migration in Africa is determined by economic factors such as employment, social factors such as education and demographic factors such as population growth. The results indicate that these three factors explain 70 per cent of the variance in net migration, and that the economic factor is the single most important determinant of migration. The theory shows further that the existing socio-economic institutions in Africa tend to support the prevalence of rural-rural and rural-urban migration.
The Light Bulb as a Symbol of the Connectedness in STS
Authors: Brant Lynn A.
Published: March 2007

The common variety of incandescent light bulb has been in use for over a century, and although perhaps manufactured by highly technological systems, it is not a "high tech" device. Light bulbs are also found in nearly every home and business in this country. Because of these characteristics, the light bulb lends itself to use as a symbol of material things in modem industrial culture.
The Community College and Technique
Authors: Goudreau Kim A.
Published: March 2007

Community Colleges, as contemporary educational institutions, are best understood by elucidating their legitimacy needs in a technological society. The nature of a technological society has been most clearly articulated in the work of Jacques Ellul. The growth of the technological society is inextricably tied to a vision of reality centered upon the empirical world and its manipulation by humans. This capacity to manipulate becomes so compelling that reality is virtually ex hausted of anything that cannot be objectively verified and subject to manipulation. Within this framework, precise quantitative measures and manipulation be come the sole form of legitimacy. The community college is caught in this predicament and in compliance mutates into a pseudo-laboratory of interventions on its objects. The proposed trajectory of said institutions is one that is incapable of providing the fertile soil for the development of character or the discovery of meaning.
Dynamic Growth Models of Self-Esteem and Adolescent Alcohol Use
Authors: Scheier Lawrence M. , Botvin Gilbert J. , Griffin Kenneth W. , Diaz Tracy
Published: March 2007

Latent growth modeling was used to test dynamic relations between self-esteem and alcohol use in 740 middle school youth assessed at four time points. Self-esteem was characterized by a negative growth trajectory, whereas alcohol use increased steadily in a linear fashion. An initial simplified model positing bidirectional influences indicated an inverse relation between changes in self-esteem and alcohol use over time, but that initial levels of neither alcohol use nor self-esteem influenced changes in the other construct. With the addition of external covariates (i.e., gender and indices of social skills and competence risk), findings indicated that high initial levels of self-esteem fostered more increases in alcohol use compared to low initial levels of self-esteem. Findings further indicated that youth with poor competence skills advanced more rapidly in their alcohol use and declined more gradually in their self-esteem, and that poor social skills accelerated the rate of decline in self-esteem. Results indicate that self-esteem is part of a dynamic set of etiological forces that instigate early-stage alcohol use.
Perceptions of Sibling Qualities and Activities of Early Adolescents
Authors: Cole AmyKay , Kerns Kathryn A.
Published: March 2007

The purpose for this study was to address the ways in which conflictual and positive relationship qualities in the sibling relationship differ at different grade levels during early adolescence. This question was addressed using a cross-sectional design with 170 early adolescents in fourth grade (n = 60), sixth grade (n = 44), and eighth grade (n = 66). Reports of the behaviors engaged in by children as well as their perceptions of conflictual and positive relationship qualities were obtained. Age-related differences were found both in children’s perceptions and in behavioral reports of the sibling relationship. Several prosocial relationship qualities were lower for sixth graders and higher for eighth graders. In addition, children’s perceptions of sibling relationship qualities differed by gender composition of the sibling relationship, with boy/boy dyads reporting lower levels of positive relationship qualities including caring, intimacy, and conflict resolution than did either boy/girl or girl/girl dyads.
Revised Description and Measurement of Ego Development in Early Adolescence:
Authors: Westenberg P. Michiel , van Strien Suzanne D. , Drewes Martine J.
Published: March 2007

The applicability of the Loevinger conception of ego development was explored for the period of early adolescence. Recent modifications of the earliest ego levels are summarized, and a new version of the measure is presented: the Sentence Completion Test for Children and Youth (SCT-Y). Questions were considered about the reliability and validity of this new instrument. The main question addressed was whether an oral administration would yield essentially different responses and significantly differing ego-level scores as compared to the standard written administration in an early adolescent sample (9.5 through 15.5 years of age; N = 120). The results indicated that an oral administration of the SCT-Y did not yield essentially different responses or significantly differing ego-level scores, regardless of the respondent’s age, gender, reading/writing skills, and preference for either presentation mode. The findings indicate that the revision of the ego development construct and measure for (early) adolescence does not seem to be an artifact of the written procedure.
Sex Education and the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancies: Prospects for the 1980s
Authors: Jorgensen Stephen R.
Published: March 2007

Pregnancy risk is conceptualized as the frequency of unprotected sexual intercourse among adolescents, and therefore can be reduced only by reducing the frequency or likelihood of sexual activity or improving the effectiveness of contraceptive behavior among those who are sexually active. It is argued that formidable barriers continue to undermine the attempts of sex education programs' to reduce pregnancy risk among adolescents. Four barriers are discussed: (1) adolescents who intend to become pregnant due to untenable family situations or unful- filled affectional and attachment needs, (2) variable rates of adolescent cognitive growth and development which may be out of phase with contemporary modes of sexuality and contraceptive education, (3) sex role structures of adolescent couples which, in a traditional mode, encourage precocious sexual activity and inhibit effective contraceptive behavior, and (4) lack of parental knowledge, understanding, and support in regard to providing information on human sexuality and contraception to children. Research is reviewed which documents the existence of these barriers, and which suggests that sex education will have minimal impact on pregnancy risk among adolescents until these barriers are removed or greatly weakened. Hence, too much immediate payoff is expected from school-based sex education programs if they are to be justified and evaluated on the basis of their ability to significantly reduce the adolescent pregnancy rate. Consequently, sex education programs are likely to fail from the outset when sex education sympathizers and critics under-emphasize or fail to recognize the barriers which continue to plague the implementation of effective programs.
The Development of Political Thinking in Early Adolescence
Authors: Abraham Kitty G.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the development of political thinking in early adolescence. Subjects for the study were 57 fourth and fifth grade chil-dren enrolled in a public elementary school in the southwest. Children were interviewed relative to: (a) their criteria for the selection of a presidential candidate in their school's mock presidential election, and (b) their convictions about what the president should do. Scores were assigned to interview responses on the basis of a scoring scale designed to reflect incremental levels in thought. Chi Square analysis revealed a significant difference (p < .01) for the main effect, Sex, in relation to Question 1, indicating higher level thinking on the part of females, and a significant interaction effect (p < .05) in relation to Question 2, indicating higher level thinking on the part of fifth grade females. No significant differences for the main effect, Grade, were revealed in relation to either question.
Priorities for Research in Early Adolescent Learner Characteristics: A Report of a National Survey
Authors: Clark Donald C. , Babich George , Burpeau Michele Y.
Published: March 2007

A national survey was conducted among members of the National Middle School Association during September, 1980 to determine the areas and extent of interest they had toward research needs among early adolescents. Data in this article focus on the learner characteristics and behaviors. Strong concern for research was indicated for 16 of the 25 topics listed in the questionnaire with the greatest concern being in the area of early adolescent motivation and interest in school (97.1 percent of the responses). Concerns also center around early adolescent attitudes toward authority and their involvement in expressive, contemporary behaviors.
The Fertility Related Behavior of Mexican American Adolescents
Authors: Lindemann Constance , Scott Wilbur
Published: March 2007

Data from a clinic sample of pregnant adolescents are analyzed for differences in fertility related variables between Mexican American and non-Mexican. The independent variables are birthplace, ethnicity, and exposure to U.S. culture of Mexican and non-Mexican adolescents. The dependent variables are talking about sex, pregnancy, birth control, hearing about birth control, and use of birth control. The data support the hypothesis that in the process of acculturation the fertility related behavior of immigrant Mexican adolescent females is affected by the indigenous United States Mexican culture rather than by United States Anglo culture. Implications for delivery of services are discussed.
The Relationship of Middle School Program Features, Instructional Strategy, Instructional Performance, and Student Engagement
Authors: Mergendeller John R. , Mitman Alexis L.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated whether school program features consistent with the middle school concept were associated with differences in teachers' instructional strategy, teachers' instructional performance, or student engagement.

The programs of six schools were classified as consistent or inconsistent with the middle school movement on each of four features: (a) the assignment of students to non-mathematics classes, (b) the establishment of homeroom or core classes, (c) the modification of the standard class schedule, and (d) the use of supplemental counseling approaches. Few relationships were observed between school program features and class-level variables, and these were attributed to chance occurrences. A second analysis conducted at the class level revealed strong relationships between teachers' instructional performance and student engagement, although no relationships were observed between the instructional strategy variables and student engagement. Implications of these findings for the middle school movement and school reorganization and improvement are discussed.
Contextual Demands for Early Adolescent Behavioral Style
Authors: Lenerz Kathleen , Kucher Joseph S. , Lerner Jacqueline V. , Lerner Richard M.
Published: March 2007

The focus of this investigation was to describe the contextual demands placed on early adolescents and to determine if these demands differ across contexts. In addition, we assessed whether adolescents could accurately perceive the demands placed on them and if their "fit" with demands differed across contexts. By focusing on demands regarding behavioral style, or temperament, and studying 101 early adolescents (56 males, 45 females), from the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study, we assessed adolescents' self-rated temperament and the demands placed on the adolescents by their peer group, their teachers, and their parents. Results of multivariate analyses of variance indicated that parents and peers hold different demands for behavioral style. Adolescents perceived several of their peers' demands as being significantly different than the peers' actual demands. Finally, except for one of nine attributes of temperament, the adolescents' self-rated temperament attributes exceeded the contextual expectations for behavioral style in all settings and exceeded the demands of parents and teachers more than they exceeded the demands of their peers. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are noted.
Psychologically Referred Adolescents: Demographics of a Clinical Population
Authors: Mowder Barbara A. , Miller Shirley A. , Lawton-Smith Nancy
Published: March 2007

Previous research on psychological intervention with adolescents has focused on psychiatric, inpatient populations, or the population of adolescents that exhibit serious debilitating psychological disorders. In contrast, this study considers adolescent clients of private practice psychologists. The research explores demographic variables associated with this population of adolescents; included are age, sex, nature and severity of the presenting problem(s), family marital status, siblings, school progress, therapy goals, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III, 1980) diagnosis, and assessment characteristics. The findings reveal that in the sample studied early adolescence is the stage at which most adolescents are seen by private practitioners. Trends and conclusions regarding the data are presented and discussed.
Student, Teacher, and Observer Perceptions of the Classroom Environment Before and after the Transition to Junior High School
Authors: Feldlaufer Harriet , Midgley Carol , Eccles Jacquelynne S.
Published: March 2007

Student and teacher perceptions of the classroom environment were assessed during mathematics instruction in 117 sixth grade elementary school classrooms and the following year in 138 seventh grade junior high school classrooms. Observer perceptions were collected in a subset of these classrooms. As hypothesized, after the transition students were given fewer opportunities for input, interaction and cooperation; whole class task organization and the use of social comparison increased; and student/teacher relationships deteriorated. Contrary to predictions, competition was more prevalent before than after the transition and the frequency of grading did not change. It is suggested that a "developmental mismatch" may exist between maturing children and the classroom environments they experience before and after the transition to junior high school.
Perceived Maturity as a Function of Appearance Cues in Early Adolescence: Ratings by Unacquainted Adults, Parents, and Teachers
Authors: Johnson Bette Magyar , Collins W. Andrew
Published: March 2007

Two related studies addressed the extent to which appearance cues affect perceptions of early adolescents' physical maturity, age, and social maturity and the degree to which perceptions of unacquainted adults and perceptions of parents and teachers correspond. Photographic slides of 6th through 9th graders were rated by unacquainted adults on 7-point rating scales of physical maturity, age, and attractiveness. Physical appearance cues were potent elicitors of age perceptions. Subsamples of these adolescents were rated by their parents and teachers on physical and social maturity. Parents', and to a lesser extent teachers', physical-maturity ratings contributed significant portions of the variance in their social-maturity ratings of the target adolescents. Unacquainted adults' ratings of attractiveness significantly correlated with their ratings of boys' physical maturity but not with the physical-maturity ratings of boys or girls by parents or teachers. Fathers' social-maturity ratings and independent attractiveness ratings of their daughters showed moderate correlations.
Early Adolescents' Self-Reports of Major Life Stressors and Mental Health Risk Status
Authors: Reese Finetta L. , Roosa Mark W.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the relationship between elementary school-aged children's self-reports of major life stressors and symptomatology using an epidemiological survey of all fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in an inner-city school district. A sample consisting of 755 children was divided into five risk groups: (a) no risk, (b) parental divorce, (c) parental death, (d) children concerned about parental drinking, and (e) multiple risk Participants responded to questions regarding major family stressors, mental health outcomes, and potential mediators of the stress process. Multivariate analyses revealed a significant effect for risk status. In general, the parental drinking and multiple risk groups demonstrated more problems than did their no risk and parental divorce peers. There were no significant differences between the no risk and divorce groups on any of the measures. Also, the parental drinking and multiple risk groups did not differ significantly from one another.
Ecological and Typological Characteristics in Early Adolescent Truancy
Authors: Sommer Barbara , Nagel Stacy
Published: March 2007

Personal, family, and setting characteristics associated with truancy were assessed for 25 junior high school truants and 25 nontruants, matched for age, grade, gender, and socioeconomic level. Truants were less likely to live with both parents, had more siblings, and scored lower in academic ability and achievement. They did not differ in attitudes or interests, nor on self-esteem. Truants who graduated four years later were very similar to graduating nontruants. The former scored significantly higher on academic ability and GPA, and lower on number of siblings than truants of unknown graduation status. Compared with previous studies, these truants showed less personality disturbance, less school absence, and expressed more favorable attitudes toward school, differences that may reflect community characteristics. Conducting a series of incremental multimethod studies on a specific problem across settings is offered as a productive and economical alternative to single large-scale tests of theory, independent of setting.
Dialectics, Organicism, and Contextualism
Authors: Adams Gerald R. , Ryan Bruce A. , Corville-Smith Jane , Normore Alison , Turner Bonnie
Published: March 2007

In his commentary on the dialectical model offered by Adams, Day, Dyk, Frede, and Rogers, Lerner suggests that dialectical theory be abandoned in favor of developmental contextual theory on the grounds that dialectical theory shares an identity with organicism, a metatheoryfatally flawed with a teleological causality. An examination of the concepts identified by Lerner show that although his reservations concerning organicism appear justified, no compelling reason is given to reject dialectics as an analytical tool within contextualisnm
Variation in Adolescent Helpfulness toward Parents in a Family Context
Authors: Eberly Mary B. , Montemayor Raymond , Flannery Daniel J.
Published: March 2007

Adolescent voluntary helpfulness toward mothers and fathers was examined as a function of gender, age and pubertal status, and parental behavior. A random sample of 85 adolescents (44 males, 41 females) and their mothers and fathers participated. Parents completed the Parent Report of Helping Behavior, a new instrument designed for this study. Adolescents completed the Children's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory and were interviewed about their pubertal status using Tanner's stage classification. Results generally showed that parents received more help from daughters than from sons and that mothers, in comparison to fathers, received more help. Between late childhood and middle adolescence, parents reported less helpfulness, and adolescents perceived less parental acceptance. Different combinations of age and pubertal status in different dyads predicted these developmental changes. Parental acceptance was positively related to adolescent helpfulness. Results are discussed in terms of gender role socialization and the parent-adolescent distancing hypothesis.
Looking Forward to Adolescence
Authors: R. Freedman-Doan Carol , Arbreton Amy J.A. , Harold Rena D. , Eccles Jacquelynne S.
Published: March 2007

One hundred five parents were surveyed about their expectations for what their relationship with their sixth-grade child would be like when their child becomes an adolescent. Parents rated a series of items concerning how much they felt they could influence their child's behaviors and interests currently and when their child becomes an adolescent. Parents also rated their child's level of pubertal development on several items, as well as the quality of their current relationship with their child Findings suggest that mothers and fathers do not differ in their expectations for how their sons or daughters will change as they move into adolescence. Nevertheless, the relation between the gender of the child and parental expectations, taking the child's pubertal status into account, is mediated by current parent-child relationships in predicting parental expectations for change during adolescence. These findings are discussed in terms of the impact current parent-child relationships can have on future relationships.
Predictors of Middle School Students' Use of Self-Handicapping Strategies
Authors: Midgley Carol , Urdan Tim
Published: March 2007

Recently, attention has been focused on the strategies children use in school to portray themselves as able to others. By procrastinating, allowing others to keep them from studying, deliberately not trying, and using other "self-handicapping" strategies, students can convey that those circumstances, rather than lack of ability, are the reasons for subsequent poor performance. Survey data from 256 eighth-grade students indicated that boys used those strategies more than did girls, and low achievers more than did high achievers. In separate regressions, feeling self-conscious in school low self-worth& being oriented to extrinsic and adult approval achievement goals, perceiving that the school emphasized performance goals, and associating with friends with a negative orientation toward academics predicted the use of those strategies. When all significant predictors were entered into one regression analysis, low achievement, being oriented to extrinsic goals, and associating with friends with a negative orientation toward academics remained significant.
Information Versus Meaning
Authors: Merten Don E.
Published: March 2007

The cultural analysis that informs Marten's "Visibility and Vulnerability" article can neither be simply expanded by adding more variables nor simply assimilated to a framework that neglects meaning. The focus of the cultural analysis advocated here is the delineation of meanings used by cultural participants to shape and evaluate their own and their peers' actions. Such an analysis emphasizes emic categories as openings to understanding rejection phenomena. Knowing about more variables will not necessarily further understanding of the meaning of rejection to early adolescents.
Predicting Adolescent Moral Reasoning from Family Climate:
Authors: Pratt Michael W. , Arnold Mary Louise , Pratt Adelle T. , Diessner Rhett
Published: March 2007

The climate of parental interactions with adolescents at 14 years of age, and its longitudinal prediction to adolescent moral reasoning at 16 years of age, was studied in 40 Canadian families. Three measures of family climate were obtained, including the authoritative parenting style construct of Baumrind, the transactive dialogue measure of Berkowitz and Gibbs, and a novel index of responsiveness to the “child’s voice” in the stories told by parents about moral socialization, based on the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky and Bakhtin. Greater operational transact use in Time 1 discussions by fathers was predictive of gains in moral reasoning for children older than the 2 years. For mothers, stronger indications of responsiveness to the child’s voice in stories told when children were 14 years of age also predicted gains over time in moral reasoning for adolescents. Most generally, results indicated the need to delineate more fully the role of each parent in the moral socialization process.
Using Secondary Data in Marketing Research: A Project That Melds Web and Off-Web Sources
Authors: Castleberry Stephen B.
Published: March 2007

A marketing research project that is designed to answer research questions based on secondary data is described. The project incorporates Web sources without denigrating the traditional off-Web sources of secondary data. First, a review of the literature highlights the importance of becoming a knowledge worker in the new economy, the value of projects in marketing research courses, and the need to incorporate off-Web sources in projects. After project objectives are provided, the project is completely described. Project problems and some possible solutions are offered, followed by a brief discussion of the evaluation of the project. The project could be adapted for other courses in marketing.
The Role of Marketing in an Integrative Business Curriculum
Authors: Barber Clifford S. , Borin Norm , Cerf Douglas C. , Swartz Teresa A.
Published: March 2007

In recent years, many business schools have developed integrative programs in response to a number of internal and external factors. Although the exact nature of these programs varies, a significant common element is a desire to impart to students appreciation, knowledge, and skills for cross-functional business situations. This article focuses on marketing’s key role. With its rich history on drawing from and contributing to other academic disciplines, marketing is in a powerful position to serve an important role in guiding and binding together other areas in an integrated program. The article provides guidance and background to marketing academicians, which allows them to add integrated components to existing classes and/or programs or begin the design of an integrated program.
Guidelines For Effectively Teaching Large Introductory Marketing Courses Using Multi-Media
Authors: Murphy John H.
Published: March 2007

This paper presents ten recommendations for effectively teaching large classes of introductory marketing and advertising using a multi-media format. In addition, the author discusses the philosophy of using the approach and comments on the past success of the format.
The Introductory Marketing Text: An Examination of Readability
Authors: Spiro Rosann L. , Kossack Sharon , Kossack Edgar
Published: March 2007

This paper assesses basic marketing textbooks utilizing either tests of compre hension or readability formulas. It is argued that a test of comprehension provides a better measure than does the application of readability formulas. The results of a test of comprehension of ten basic marketing texts are presented and these results are compared to those found by applying widely used readability formulas.
Reinforce Marketing Concepts with an Industry Marketing Film
Authors: Nastas George
Published: March 2007

This article reports tile use of the film, "Is Anybody Listening?" by the Procter and Gamble Company, in an undergraduate introductory marketing course. The film is very useful for both summarizing and concluding the course and in highlighting and reinforcing, in terms of industry application, some of the more important marketing concepts which the student should take from the course.
The Marketing Education Task in Third World Countries
Authors: Ross Christopher A. , McTavish Ronald
Published: March 2007

Among marketers, there is a tendency to assume that essentially North American or Western European marketing ideas can be readily transplanted into the Third World environment. This article discusses the peculiar features of developing countries, stresses the need for modifications to marketing course content and makes recommendations to the educator.
An Analysis of How Marketing Students Perceived Benefits from Cassette Tape-Recorded Instructor Commentary on Writing Efforts
Authors: Wilkens Henry T. , Madden R. Burt
Published: March 2007

Use of a cassette tape to transmit teacher evaluations of student writing effort was analyzed. Students preferred the cassette tape to written evaluations Nearly all felt that the method was a highly personalized way of evaluation. Furthermore, cassette grading provided easier identification as to what was good or weak in the writing.