Search

I am delighted to write the commentary for this very rich set of papers. It is wonderful to have such a diverse set of papers together in one volume. When I began my work on this topic in the mid 1970s, the focus in the field was entirely on the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the theoretical tools were quite limited, and the scholars were all of European-American heritage. These papers illustrate how far this area of study has advanced along each of these dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing a new policy of “check all that apply,” the Census Bureau accommodated a mushrooming multiracial lobby demanding that its members be allowed a right to self-identification. With its implied shifting meaning of race, newspapers portrayed the reaction to this change as a firestorm of debate along racial fault lines, highlighted by Black-American inferences that this was a perilous decision. Using textual analysis, I examine from 1996 to 2006 how five Black-American and three White-American newspapers characterized multiracial people. White-American papers framed the discussion in two ways: (a) multiracial people epitomize a new era in which race has lost its bite, and (b) Black America stands in the way of their gaining their civil rights. There were also two frames for the Black-American papers: (a) The lobby advocates individual identity and is undergirded by denial or distancing from Blackness, and (b) that focus undermines Black America's future by playing into the misguided notion that race is socially insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper comments on an article about the epidemiological distribution of central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. It argues against the use of Bender-Gestalt measure as the statistical basis of the empirical findings in the article. It expresses concern that the rates of CNS dysfunction in Afro-Americans as generated by the study are almost certain to be used in racist polemics and legal briefs. The paper has the potential of doing further disservice to investigators in the area of racial studies, particularly in the sociobiopsychologic factors of behavioral dysfunction in children, and tends to strengthen the deeply felt and considered opinion of many Afro-Americans in the country that scientific studies on race tend to do them more harm than good and that they should be discontinued.

This paper reviews current policy issues in child care in the United States. Recent statistics on the demand for and supply of child care in the United States from national surveys show that, even though there may be selective shortages, overall there is an adequate supply of child care for preschoolers. Today, the most important issues are not supply per se but the quality and cost of care, and freedom of choice. The paper describes the market for child care from the point of view of the somewhat conflicting interests of parents, providers, children, and government. It focuses on the trade-off between quality and cost, the effects of child care on children, the role of the government, and the effects of federal intervention. Finally, the nature of policy research is discussed with reference to the papers in this journal issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic turbulence in the early 1980s stimulated not only popular and governmental concern about the effects of unemployment, but also extensive research on the topic. This journal issue presents 10 representative reports of such recent research from the United States and Europe. Of the two principal methodologies used in this field, aggregate time-series analysis and individual-level surveys, this issue is limited to the individual-level literature. Two papers provide a social psychological and human developmental orientation to the topic. Then, six papers address the psychological costs of unemployment, four based on population surveys and two dealing with plant closings. Finally, two papers describe policy responses being considered or implemented in North America and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces two papers about marital dissolution in the United States. Norton and Glick use census statistics to describe American marriage and divorce trends during the past half century. They discuss the fluctuations with regard to associated changes in the population, the economy, and the culture, and in expectations concerning the roles of women. The authors attempted to extrapolate into the future. The other paper provides an overview of a social psychological analysis of the determinants of marital dissolution. Using the field-theoretical concept of group cohesiveness and a dyadic model of pair relatedness, Levinger integrates the research literature around three hypothetical constructs.

This article provides an overview of the topics discussed in the November 1946 issue of “Journal of Social Issues.” These papers represent addresses and roundtable discussions held in connection with the tenth annual meeting of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in the U.S. The first four papers initiate a relationship between research and social action. The second group presents the technical discussion of methods in social science. Finally, a proposal is presented for coordinating the efforts of action groups and research workers.

The article presents abstracts of papers published in the 1979 issue no. 2 of the "Journal of Social Issues." Regarding violence in the American families, one of the paper reviews current knowledge on violence between family members in the United States, including how and why family violence became a topic of interest after years of being masked by a public and professional perceptual blackout. It presents data from a nationally representative sample of 2,143 American families that measured the extent of child abuse, wife abuse, husband abuse, and violence between siblings. Regarding child abuse and family stress, one of the paper reviews sources of stress on the family, and especially considers infants as specific sources of stress within the family system. The problems of unrealistic expectations, use of physical punishment for child training and discipline, and the escalation from punishment to abuse are explored. Abuse cases are currently managed through mandatory reporting, official investigation, and disposition by authoritative bodies.

This paper comments on the approach and findings of the preceding papers on the psychology of enemy images, and presents numerous suggestions about needed and feasible research. The research cited mostly used the approaches of attitude measurement and of social-cognitive theories, including attribution and social identity theories, and it employed various research methods, including survey, quasiexperimental, and experimental methods. The main empirical focus of these studies was recent U.S. attitudes toward the USSR, which were found to bias the attitude holders' information processing, mostly in predicted ways. Nevertheless, available evidence suggests that most of the American public do not have extremely stereotyped, diabolical enemy images of the Soviet Union, its people, or its leaders, and furthermore, that U.S. attitudes toward the USSR are softening rapidly under the impact of events of the last few years. Determinants of anti-Soviet attitudes are discussed, and hypotheses and speculations are presented about the motivations and sources of enemy images generally, how they may be changed, and their larger implications from the standpoint of cognitive and ego-developmental theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two centuries, enemy images have affected U.S. responses to a number of different nations. Since World War II, they have played an important role in stimulating and perpetuating the nuclear arms race. After reviewing the research traditions within psychology relevant to an understanding of the topic, we discuss the aspects of the psychology of U.S. images of the Soviet Union that are addressed by the papers in this issue. These papers demonstrate that psychologists can apply a wide range of methods and theories to investigating, and perhaps ameliorating, the causes and effects of the exaggerated enemy images of another nation that the people of one nation may hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How receiving society members perceive and respond to immigration are crucial factors that shape the context of reception for immigrants coming to a new country. In this paper, we examine these processes through the lens of intergroup contact research, with a focus on relations between immigrants and members of receiving societies, to discern ways in which receiving societies are or are not welcoming toward immigrants. Reviewing recent theorizing with illustrative empirical studies and ongoing programs of research that focus on new immigrants in Germany and the United States, we describe how direct and indirect forms of positive and negative contact can serve either to facilitate or inhibit positive immigrant‐receiving community relations. We also discuss factors that may contribute to the emergence of positive and negative contact experiences between immigrants and receiving society members. We close with a discussion of policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of asylum seekers and refugees across the world is rapidly increasing. Negative attitudes toward these groups are globally prevalent and typically hostile because most receiving country citizens perceive them to be a security threat and an economic burden. This paper aims to understand the antecedents of negative attitudes toward a large refugee group currently garnering a great deal of attention—Syrian refugees, and experimentally test ways to ameliorate negative attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 122), we investigated predictors of social distance—as a proxy for prejudice—and found right‐wing authoritarianism and intergroup anxiety to be significant predictors. In Study 2 (N = 162), we tested whether perceived acculturation orientation would predict social distance and found that Americans were less prejudiced toward Syrians who preferred to assimilate rather than integrate. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 153), we tested if a form of vicarious contact could reduce social distance via reduced intergroup anxiety; we found initial evidence for this mediation link. We discussed the potential for the vicarious contact intervention to foster positive intergroup relations and contribute to refugee wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the purpose of this collection of papers featured in the June 1973 issue of "Journal of Social Issues." The status of two racial groups, the Chinese and the Japanese, is to be examined. The study of these Asian Americans should be of particular interest to social scientists since it may bring different insights into majority-minority group relationships. If Asian Americans are model minorities, then it is important to determine how such a status is achieved, why American society has to some degree accepted Asians, and what interferences can be drawn regarding American racism.

The article focuses on the racial trends and countertrends in American organizational behavior. The present state of affairs is typified by a general disjuncture between life in black U.S. and the people, practices, and resources typically required for entry into the world of a corporate American more oriented to the "bottom line" than ever before. About the only positive aspect of this situation is the consensus of both papers that this state of affairs is not necessarily permanent. For some intrinsic reason, intergroup behavior in American business organizations actually differs from such relations in society at large--or at least it should. In this view, the often-cited liberalization of American racial attitudes since World War II should have reached the boardrooms and personnel offices of American corporations, if it did not actually begin there in the first place. The efficacy of the assumption of an increasingly racially liberal United States is highly questionable. Whatever the trend in society-at-large, corporate management, as an enlightened elite, should hold comparatively liberal racial views.

The purpose of this paper is to review experimental studies and short-term field investigations designed to assess the influence of violence in the mass media on aggressive behavior in the viewer. Major trends in research over three decades are examined. We also indicate some possible connections between research on effects of media violence and recent developments in cognitive psychology. The evidence is organized according to the theoretical explanations that have been given for the commonly reported correlation between the viewing of violence and aggressive behavior. The paper is divided into three major sections. In the first, evidence from laboratory experiments is reviewed. In the second section, studies carried out in field-experimental settings are summarized. In the third section, evidence from non experimental studies is analyzed. In our conclusion we suggest that the cognitive-neoassociationist hypothesis serves as the best explanatory model for the overall findings and we indicate how some of the other hypotheses concerning media effects on aggression may be subsumed by it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews current knowledge on violence between family members in the United States, including how and why family violence became a topic of interest after years of being masked by a public and professional perceptual blackout. It presents data from a nationally representative sample of 2,143 American families that measured the extent of child abuse, wife abuse, husband abuse, and violence between siblings. The paper then reports differences in child abuse rates according to factors such as the age and sex of the child, family income, occupation, stress, unemployment, social isolation, and previous exposure or experience with violence. It is suggested that the roots of family violence lie in the organization of the family and in the implicit cultural norms tolerating or approving violence as a means for social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper distinguishes three principal purposes of drug use: for social control, for pleasure, and for medical and quasi-medical reasons. The argument is made that a traditional view of the future as a leisure society may lead us to focus disproportionately on forms of drug use that have a pleasure or "mind expansion" motive. While acknowledging the likelihood of more drug use of these kinds, the authors offer a number of reasons why the greatest increase in drug use and the social problems it causes may, in a 20 or 30 year perspective, be in the area of medical prescription and self- doctoring for anxieties and behavioral abnormalities. The overlap of this area with the use of drugs for social control is identified as posing formidable ethical problems. The paper concludes with a speculative description of all the roles of mind-affecting drugs in the U.S. culture in the year 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on research on poverty and social issues in the U.S. in 1965. Key issues of interest; Analysis of pertinent topics and relevant issues; Implications on the social sciences.

The article focuses on the factors associated with the development of cross-cultural social interaction. Contact between cultures leads, on the societal level, to cultural diffusion and change; on the individual level, to a process of learning and adjustment. The social scientist, seeking to arrive at generalizations about the nature of what is diffused and changed, and by what process this takes place, is constrained to analyze the events in each situation of culture contact in terms of trans-cultural variables. In seeking to understand the character and the process of social change resulting from the contact of cultures, the social scientist views all situations of culture contact as, so to speak, potential case studies in the search for such trans-cultural variables, and as further opportunities to test their manifestation and interrelationship in one more contact situation. It is from this point of view that the present study of the effect of contacts between American and foreign students at Cornell University are reported here. The total study is designed to investigate this reciprocal effect. The present paper, however, reports oh only one aspect of the research.

The article focuses on the social and cultural change in the plantation area in the U.S. While quantitative evidence of change in demographic, economic, educational, religious, and political aspects of plantation area culture and society can be studied through census reports and other documents, this paper focuses on the functional interrelationships in a period of change, through qualitative analysis based on participant observation field study, interviews, and the study of documents. The author spent the year 1947-48 in a typical plantation county and has revisited there several times since, once as recently as the fall of 1953. While the case method approach yields rich functional evidence of change, still it is one-dimensional ecologically. It is hoped to undertake further case research in the Plantation Area, so as to gain perspectives of both space and time. Socio-cultural change is functionally interrelated with ecological, demographic, social structural, and foreign or culture contact components of a situation. Culture is the way by which men adjust to the components of their situation. Changes in the components of situations give rise to new needs for human adjustment via cultural change.

In this paper, the author proposes a social psychology research, which may increase understanding of inter-personal relations in the U.S. The methods which seek to take account of the individual as a dynamic process are the clinical ones. These approaches will be best used when coordinated with other techniques already developed in the field of social psychology. An example of such coordination in the investigation of social psychological problems is to be found in the University of California Public Opinion Study. For the study of anti-democratic trends, projective techniques have been found valuable. Whereas in the area of internal economic tensions, an assessment center is needed to incorporate principles such as: basing of research upon a fundamental theory of personality; assessment of persons as wholes and as members of natural groups; use of multiform clinical procedures with the techniques of attitude and opinion measurements.

The article discusses issues concerning witnesses and testimonies in congressional hearings in the U.S., a social problem in need of social research. Congressional hearings focused general interest on the witness. A large variety of situations arose in each of which the testifying person appeared in a different light. Some social psychologists felt that it would perhaps be advisable to examine carefully the problems involved in the area of witness behavior, to take stock of what has already been done, and to outline a program of research for the future. In their preliminary thinking they became aware of the fact that similar problems concerning witness performance also exist in connection with court trials.

In this article, the author comments on methodologies in social psychological work proposed by participants of the roundtable discussion conducted by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issue in the U.S. The techniques of surveying, has had exceptional use in solving the practical problems encountered in administrative work. With regards to the dynamics of face-to-face human groups, the clinical approach to social psychological problems was appropriate in that the former isolation between social psychologists and clinicians has been breaking down. The author suggested that there are no really unique methods in the field.

In the four decades since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation decision, social psychologists have generally avoided direct involvement in policy making in the arena of intergroup relations. A review of research and theory on the social psychology of intergroup relations since the 1960s is used to argue that it is time to renew such involvement. In recent years, policy making in the United States has shifted from assimilationism to various forms of pluralist or multicultural politics. This paper suggests that the route to multiculturalism may be perilous unless better informed by relevant social psychological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite more than 30 years of public health programs to reduce tobacco use, smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. In response to this continuing epidemic, voters in California (1988), Massachusetts (1992), Arizona (1994), and Oregon (19%) approved ballot initiatives that established state- wide tobacco control programs funded by cigarette excise tax revenues. Evaluating these innovative public health interventions is important, both to improve existing programs and to guide other states in developing and implementing similar interventions. In this paper we describe the methods being used to evaluate the statewide anti-tobacco campaigns in California and Massachusetts, and review the findings of process and outcome evaluations of both programs. Our review suggests that both programs have had a substantial impact on the public `s health by reducing cigarette consumption and stimulating the development of policies to reduce environmental tobacco smoke exposure. However, it does not appear that either program has reduced smoking initiation among adolescents. Our evaluation suggests three problems in pm gram implementation that future anti-tobacco campaigns must avoid in order to produce long-term, sustained effects: (1) the gradual erosion of program funding by the state legislatures and governors; (2) the lack of a consistent, supportive constituency within state government and (3) inconsistency in campaign themes, messages, and programs. We conclude by offering recommendations to correct these problems so that state- wide cigarette-tax -funded anti-tobacco campaigns can realize their potential to become one of the most effective public health interventions available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the single most preventable source of mortality and morbidity in the United States. Experimentation with tobacco typically begins in adolescence, and smoking during this period is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of adult smoking status. In the present paper, we review several prominent decision models that have been applied to adolescent smoking, and point out important limitations of these models. We then propose a new process-oriented framework of decision-making based on the concept of mental models, and discuss the implications of this framework for developing effective smoking prevention and cessation interventions for adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the morbidity and mortality caused by cigarette smoking occur in adult- hood, the initiation of tobacco use and the development of nicotine addiction typically occur during adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of nicotine addiction, focusing on the development of addiction in youth, and to explore implications for public health policy. An understanding of the pharmacological and nonpharmacological factors that determine the course of nicotine addiction is critical in developing rational policies regarding tobacco products. The Food and Drug Administration `s rule to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products is discussed. The fact that smokers typically make the transition from casual use to nicotine addiction during adolescence argues for developing and implementing effective prevention efforts and smoking cessation treatment programs that are youth-oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A health system should meet the health needs of the population. Given limited resources, choices are made about problems--typically, diseases--to attack. Then, choices must be made as to how to identify, treat, and ultimately, prevent their occurrences. This process is the subject of this article; it uses the case of breast cancer to examine allocation of resources to disease prevention and treatment. The paper reviews current allocation patterns among three strategies for prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each varies with respect to where the disease process is halted and in the amount of technological support required. Currently, the U.S. health care system allocates most resources to tertiary prevention, with scant support of primary and limited support of secondary prevention. Possible explanations for the current allocation patterns are discussed. Areas where social sciences have made contributions are highlighted. Finally, cost-effectiveness analyses are presented to illustrate a relatively balanced method for making decisions about future allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article uses a methodological critique of the key research to argue that prevalence rates for psychological risks following legal abortions in the U.S. should be viewed with great caution. The focus is on legal abortions in the U.S. that neither were performed due to genetic indications nor required the legal approval of a psychiatrist. In addition, this article scrutinizes to what extent the research evidence can show conclusively whether legal, non-therapeutic, abortion causes psychological illness postabortion. Although all the studies reviewed in this paper possess various design and methodological weaknesses, we will also present evidence showing that neither all the studies nor their conclusions are equally compromised. Finally, the authors of this article conclude that U.S. studies of legal abortions finding that negative reactions postabortion are similar to those following childbirth merit more credibility than those cited showing that "postabortion syndrome" is a frequent reaction to abortion.

This paper examines the role of ingroup biases in the distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union, and how such biases may undermine international relations. Findings from a questionnaire administered to American community college adults showed that U.S. citizens favor their country over the Soviet Union and interpret government actions in ways that preserve their positive views of the United States and negative views of the USSR. Americans' perceptions of the Soviets were associated with the way they interpreted Soviet actions, and a negative interpretation of Soviet actions was related to policy support for the Strategic Defense Initiative and increased U.S. defense spending. Results also supported the ‘blacktop illusion’: a view of the other side's leadership as evil and coercive, and its people as controlled or manipulated by their government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sight of homeless people in U.S. cities and countrysides has entered our national consciousness. Many writers blame the increase in homeless people on the deinstitutionalization movement that occurred in the last 30 years. This paper disputes that conclusion and suggests that solutions to the growing problem of homelessness will not be found in admission wards of state mental hospitals. Relaxing commitment laws, imposing mandatory outpatient commitment, or forcibly transporting homeless people to emergency wards of psychiatric hospitals will not end homelessness, nor will they provide homeless mentally ill people what they need most: a decent home and supportive services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have demonstrated that once people perceive an individual or group as hostile or threatening, i.e., as an ‘enemy,’ biases enter their processing of information in regard to the actions of that individual or group. These biases may affect any phase of social information processing, including attention, encoding, memory, assessment of credibility. evaluation of hostility, expectation of future action, and attribution. In this paper, we use data from published reports as well as previously unpublished studies to demonstrate that such biases affect how individual citizens of the United States and the U.S. media process information regarding the actions of the Soviet Union. This bias reinforces and exaggerates the U.S. enemy image of the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the role of social science in environmental management, we must explore the institutional settings within which such contributions take place. In the United States, much of this work is done in the context of environmental and social impact assessments, and is shaped by the legal requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The issues of technological risk and waste management are likely to provide increasingly important contexts for social science input in the future. This article discusses the concepts of "socioeconomic impact assessment," and of managing and "mitigating" impacts. it then examines the role actually played by social and behavioral scientists in the NEPA context—a role that has been quite paradoxical. Drawing from waste management experiences, the closing sections of the paper provide a brief analysis of some of the reasons behind this paradox and discuss implications for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on article of Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein entitled "Beyond Deterrence," which is about the theory of deterrence and nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union. The authors described detailed studies of many significant cases in which deterrence failed, as a scholarly and political warning against naive and dangerous models of interaction between states. It is noteworthy that they begin this article with a discussion of their own biases against deterrence and later also try to reintegrate some of the traditional logic. There is a need to be very careful in our defining "deterrence success." There exist a tendency to underestimate the possibility of defensive motives on the side of the challenger and the limitation of his challenge and also the contribution of previous actions by the alleged defender to the provocation of the challenge, both in crises of deterrence and in long-term deterrence relationships. And also underestimate the weight of political as compared to military factors. The authors do not distinguish clearly enough between the relevance of deterrence and the causes of failure. It is important to first distinguish acts of deterrence, direct political and military threats in a political crisis and a deterrence system, the relations in which the political, psychological, and material apparatus of deterrence forms an important part of the conflict structure.

Goffman' s (1963) theory of stigma holds that rejection by "normals" leads people with disabilities to adopt practices that help them to pass as normal or cover the immediate impact of their physical difference. However, such an attempt to mitigate the effects of stigma does not characterize the life histories of three adults with severe multiple congenital limb deficiencies described in this paper. For them, self-display, within the context of American culture in the 1980s, is a strategy for self empowerment in which the primary focus is the experience of the person with disabilities rather than the reactions of people who are "normal." Their adaptations suggest some limitations to the applicability of Goffman's theory in a changing social context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on article of Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein entitled "Beyond Deterrence," which is about the theory of deterrence and nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union. Lebow and Stein provide many illustrations of the failure of deterrence. They then go beyond deterrence to suggest that under certain circumstances deterrence might well be supplemented with reassurance and under other circumstances the emphasis might even be on reassurance rather than on deterrence. They did not focused on nuclear deterrence and not centered their discussion on the relations between the superpowers. Moreover, it lacks specific relevance to the problems and opportunities arising from the development of nuclear weapons and hence it does not directly address the issue of avoiding nuclear war. Many psychologists have long been concerned about the strategic doctrine of nuclear deterrence because of our concerns about nuclear war. The theory of nuclear deterrence is ensnared in its inherent dilemmas and in the attempt to elude these dilemmas, it has moved increasingly toward non-rational automated, preprogrammed decisions that have the potential of precipitating the catastrophe it seeks to deter.

The article reacts to the comments made on their article entitled "Beyond Deterrence," which is about the theory of deterrence and nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union. A central concern expressed in several comments was the extent to which lessons from conventional deterrence are applicable to nuclear deterrence was deliberately not discussed in the original paper, which sought to develop our critique of deterrence on the basis of empirical evidence. The distinction between "need" and "opportunity" is central to the analysis of deterrence and reassurance. Opportunity and vulnerability are theoretically distinct concepts. In practice, they are not mutually exclusive. Another related but distinct concern is the designation of the "challenger" and "defender." A challenger can become a defender over time, and a defender can see an opportunity to exploit and resort to military force. This concern is appropriate to general deterrence, where perceptions and interests change over time, as do the situational and structural conditions of a conflict. The consideration of a resort to force that designates the challenger is readily identifiable.

Recent gains in black occupational status, importantly aided by such programs as affirmative action, have created new interracial job situations throughout American society. This paper reviews the problems that arise at the recruitment, entry, and promotional stages for black Americans. The problems arise from two interrelated sources: the structure of the situations themselves and the operation of antiblack prejudice in both its traditional and modern forms. A social psycho- logical analysis is advanced that emphasizes the biases introduced by the "triple jeopardy" these new workers often endure: (1) negative racial stereotypes, (2) the solo role-when the worker is the only black in the work group, and (3) the token role-when new black workers are viewed by white co-workers as incompetent simply because they received their jobs through affirmative action. The barriers to black inclusion created by this triple jeopardy are discussed at. several levels: biased and stressful recruitment practices; assumed dissimilarity and exaggerated expectations on entry; and later polarized, biased evaluations of performance. These processes often deny the new black employee needed realistic feedback and informal social support. The results, then, can involve not only biased evaluations but actual decrements in black job performance. The analysis is illustrated by several suggested micro-remedies. But these micro-remedies alone are unlikely to be sufficient unless administered in the larger context of structural, macro-remedies. Two illustrative macro-remedies are advanced, both of which aim to prevent solo situations and enlarge the black pool of qualified workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to Kinder's critique of our assessment of the symbolic racism research program, we cite both the research procedures and actual writings of symbolic racism researchers, paying particular attention to contradictions between positions previously taken by Kinder and those he now takes in response to our paper. We also maintain the following: (a) there is no persuasive evidence that symbolic racism represents a new, qualitatively different form of racism- one cannot, after all, establish that there is a new kind of racism without demonstrating that it is in fact different from the old; (b) the term "symbolic racism" is logically defensible only if one adopts a definition of the construct that Kinder eschews; and (c) symbolic racism research systematically blurs the distinction between racist and nonracist sources of white opposition to policies to assist minorities and, in the process, politicizes both the concept of racism and the social science research process. We conclude by sketching a constructive agenda for research on racial policy reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal history may determine the individual's style of expressing political beliefs as much as or more than it influences the beliefs themselves. Connections between private life history and public political style have most often been studied in U.S. presidents. However, studies of prominent foreign-policy advisers can be just as useful for an understanding of how individual life history shapes the expression of political beliefs. This paper examines areas of apparent linkage between private life and public style in four of the most prominent Amen can foreign policy advisers of the 20th century: I-louse, Dulles, Kissinger, and Haig. Three styles of dealing with foreign policy issues-Machiavellianism, ego-idealism, and authoritarianism-are considered in relation to the public and private behavior of each man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediated negotiation has recently been used to supplement traditional methods of resolving complex public resource allocation disputes in the United States. Although many of these efforts have apparently been successful, procedural concerns have been raised by a number of analysts. In this paper, we focus on five of these concerns: (1) problems of representation, (2) the difficulties of setting an appropriate agenda, (3) obstacles to joint fact finding, (4) difficulties of binding parties to their commitments, and (5) obstacles to monitoring and enforcing negotiated agreements. Our discussion builds on three cases: a negotiated investment strategy undertaken by the state of Connecticut; a dispute over the siting of a low-income housing project in Forest Hills, New York; and an environmental dispute involving energy production facilities along the Hudson River. These experiences indicate that the difficulties associated with mediation can be overcome with the application of innovative techniques, and the assistance of a skillful and astute mediator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relative importance of perceived dispute characteristics and mediator skills for predicting the settlement of child custody cases. The cases studied were child custody and visitation disputes mediated in three different legal jurisdictions: The Los Angeles Conciliation Court; the Hennepin County, Minnesota, Superior Court; and the Connecticut Superior Court. Although the ability to predict mediation outcomes was limited, several significant predictors were found: the duration and intensity of the dispute, the quality of the exspouses' relationship, and the perceived ability of mediators to promote interspouse communication and to provide disputants with interpersonal insights. Dispute characteristics and perceptions of the mediators' behavior were about equally useful for predicting mediation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and evaluates the four approaches to nuclear threat assessment that are most commonly employed by U.S. national security analysts: (1) comparisons of U.S. and Soviet expenditures on nuclear forces; (2) comparisons of static indicators of nuclear capability, such as number of weapons or measures of the destructive power of these weapons; (3) using deterrence theory and battle simulations to predict nuclear war outcomes and evaluate the deterrent capability of U. S. nuclear forces; and (4) analyzing official Soviet military doctrine to make inferences about Soviet goals, images, and plans for nuclear war. The analysis of each approach begins with a brief description of how the approach is implemented. Next the conceptual bases of the approach both theoretical and empirical are examined. Then applications of the method are evaluated in terms of how well they deal with the uncertainties inherent in any attempt to assess nuclear capability or threat. Finally, applications of each method are evaluated in terms of how they incorporate subjective judgment, how well they document critical assumptions, and the extent to which they use sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of varying critical assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

this article presents information on several psychologists and geographers of the U.S. W.A.V. Clark is a professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests are focused on intraurban migration and neighborhood change. Halford H. Fairchild is an assistant professor of Psychology and a faculty associate at the Center for Afro-American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his research interests are school desegregation effects, macro-level analyses of academic achievement, and the effects of pro-social television programs on intergroup attitudes and behaviors. Marc Fried is professor of Psychology and research professor of Human Sciences at Boston College. His research has mainly concerned problems associated with social inequalities: social class, race and ethnicity, residential relocation, migration, and the meaning of community in modern life. Stephen Golant is associate professor of Geography at the University of Florida. He has authored many papers and the two books "The Residential Location and Spatial Behavior of the Elderly" and "Location and Environment of Elderly Population."

This paper examines the role that social science research plays in Federal transportation energy conservation policy; assesses the current forms and degrees of consideration of social issues in transportation energy conservation policy; and identifies additional contributions that the social sciences could make toward achieving energy conservation goals. The analysis begins with transportation energy consumption figures. It then discusses conventional techniques used to develop transportation energy conservation policy, provides an assessment of the implications of these conventional techniques, and finally, examines certain case studies to identify roles that the social sciences could play in transportation energy conservation policy. The conclusions reached include: that energy conservation policy does not consider psychological factors underlying mechanical economic realities except as evidenced by market responses to rising energy prices and other economic measures; that transportation and energy philosophy, analytical tools, and interpretive techniques do not allow for consideration of social and behavioral issues; that energy problems are causing a shift in the nature of the U.S. transportation system; and, that there is a serious need for government to identify, analyze and understand the psychological and sociological forces affected when national transportation/energy conservation policy is charted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a conceptual framework aimed at integrating the conservation behavior literature and facilitating the comparison of findings across studies. Within this framework, conservation behavior is approached from the theoretical orientations of attitude change, behavior modification and behavior maintenance. Seven commonly used approaches to encouraging conservation behavior are described in terms of these perspectives. Illustrative research related to each approach is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the roots and consequences of the "medicalization" of aging in America. The present set of programs under Medicare, Medicaid and Title XX are described, with particular attention given to the unproductive "dichotomy" created between health and medical needs (addressed primarily under Medicare and Medicaid) and the interrelated social needs of the elderly, provided for, albeit inadequately through Title XX. The present medically and institutionally based approach to care for the elderly in America is contrasted with approaches that seek to create environments that increase self-reliance for the elderly. Programmatic redesign strategies providing a full continuum of care are premised on such concepts as "normalization" and the "least restrictive alternative." Particular attention is focused on the area of community based home health and social services. The experiences of several states in providing more comprehensive community based services are explored. One such program-California's recently initiated Multi-Purpose Senior Services Project is described. It potentially provides a wide range of services that previously were unavailable through more narrowly designed categorical programs. The importance of broader programs of community based care for the elderly, and important research directions, are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of trends in marriage and divorce behavior among the adult population in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present time, focusing on the increasing incidence of marital dissolution through divorce. The discussion includes analyses of the probable causative impact of several types of changes on the stability of marriage: socioeconomic variables generally associated with divorce; overall social acceptability of divorce as reflected by lessened negative economic and social sanctions; and the roles of women in modern American society. The final section is devoted to a brief summation and offers related hypotheses regarding the future of marital stability in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents descriptive and analytic data about tolerance for civil liberties and dissent in the American public. Support for free speech and dissent in concrete situations is more limited than support for abstract principles, a gap explained in terms of dynamics of threat, value conflict, and cognitive dissociation. The large gap suggests that the relationship between support for abstract principles and behavior in real situations would be very tenuous. Socialization of tolerance and support for civil liberties over the life cycle is discussed, and it is concluded that few attempts are made to socialize Americans to be true civil libertarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criticisms are offered of the measures of family-size desires and unwanted pregnancies most often employed in U.S. fertility surveys and KAP surveys. This paper offers a reconceptualization of attitudes toward pregnancy as a set of perceived advantages and disadvantages to childhearing and as a dynamic decision-making process. A model is suggested which recognizes that attitudes toward pregnancy and fertility goals can differ in the preconception, pregnancy, and postnatal periods. It is hypothesized that within each stage, decision-making on fertility goals and birth planning depends on the couple's perceived susceptibility to pregnancy, the perceived significant advantages and disadvantages to childbearing, the knowledge, availability, and acceptability of birth-planning measures, and couple communication on these topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]