Search

Psychological science offers a variety of methods to both understand and intervene when acts of potential racial or ethnic racism, bias or prejudice occur. The Trayvon Martin killing is a reminder of how vulnerable African American men and boys, especially young African American men, are to becoming victims of social inequities in our society. We examine several historical events of racial bias (the Los Angeles civil disturbance after the Rodney King verdict, the federal government’s launch of a “War on Drugs” and the killing of Trayvon Martin) to illustrate the ways in which behaviors of racism and race-based discrimination can be viewed from a psychological science lens in the hopes of eliminating and preventing these behaviors. If society is to help end the genocide of African American men and boys then we must broaden our focus from simply understanding instances of victimization to a larger concern with determining how policies, laws, and societal norms serve as the foundation for maintaining implicit biases that are at the root of race-based discrimination, prejudice, bias and inequity. In our call to action, we highlight the contributions that psychologists, particularly racial and ethnic minority professionals, can make to reduce the negative impact of racial and ethnic bias through their volunteer/pro bono clinical efforts.

This study explored the antecedents of self-efficacy beliefs for literacy instruction and the relationship of these beliefs to self-efficacy for teaching in general. Factor analysis demonstrated construct validity of the measure of TSELI developed. Moderate correlations between TSELI and the more general TSES suggest that while there is some overlap, they are not the same thing. In a regression analysis, the quality of university preparation, highest level of education, participation in a book club, school level, resources available for classroom books, teachers’ sense of efficacy for instructional strategies and for student engagement all explain variance in TSELI.

The purpose of this article is to explore the motivation for and content of young adult literature author's blogs and the potential use of these blogs for teaching and learning the English language arts and 21st-century literacy skills.

Empowerment has been advanced as a strategy for eliminating remaining health disparities. Popular education promotes community empowerment by increasing individuals’ and communities’ awareness of their capacity and providing a framework and strategies through which participants can identify and resolve problems. Poder es Salud/Power for Health, a community-based participatory research project, sought to improve health and decrease disparities in African American and Latino communities in Multnomah County, Oregon, through the intervention of Community Health Workers (CHWs) who used popular education. In-depth interviews were conducted with five CHWs involved in the project to explore their perceptions of the effects of the use of popular education on the CHWs and their communities. Results suggested that CHWs possessed a shared understanding of popular education. Effects on the CHWs included increases in community participation and identification, desire to advocate for the community, and sense of personal...

Like the fingerprints that show on the edge of my door frame, all of us are different—our families are different; our kids and young adults are different. Our tastes differ; our reading needs diffe...

This study compared the effects of 2 interventions often used to enhance social relationships in preschool classrooms. Social Integration Activities involves a teacher structured play activity along with teacher provided roles, suggestions, and feedback. Group Friendship Activities involves adapting songs and games so that opportunities occur for peers to demonstrate positive, affectionate, friendship behaviors to targeted students. One preschooler with a developmental disability and one at risk for delay participated. Results indicated differential benefits across the 2 approaches, suggesting a need to tailor the selection of interventions to the individual child's characteristics, skills, and interests. Findings stress the importance of closely monitoring children's social behaviors to determine if interventions are achieving desired outcomes.

To survive in an increasingly competitive environment, companies today are searching for innovative ways to enhance the creative potential of their workforce. Like total quality management (TQM) and re‐engineering, empowerment has become a 1990s mantra. Yet empowerment in practice is more than just a current buzzword: it is a significant leadership challenge. To confront this challenge, we have developed the Empowerment Strategy Grid, an assessment tool which can help companies avoid the implementation pitfalls associated with group differences, variations in the definition and degree of empowerment across an organization, and human‐resource interventions which unintentionally disempower. Comprehensively describes the Empowerment Strategy Grid and its practical application in facilitating a leading US multinational’s transition to empowered work teams and potential achievement of empowerment benefits. Also presents implications for companies managing similar change.

This paper investigates the price-quality relationship for consumer electronics, housewares, major appliances, and photography equipment in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A very large range in the correlation coefficients at the product-line level was found; however, the mean value of the correlation coefficients over the entire product sample ranged between 0.18 and 0.35. The results are very similar to the results reported in price-quality studies conducted during the past four decades in the United States. The lack of a strong price-quality relationship for consumer products appears to be an international phenomenon.

The present paper was inspired by and is a response to the Rola-Rubzen, Hardaker and Dillon paper ‘Agricultural economists and world poverty: progress and prospects’ (Rola-Rubzen et al. 2001). It is agreed that the position of agricultural economists in foreign aid and poverty programs has declined over recent decades. Such a feeling of guilt and remorse expressed by the above authors does indeed create considerable ‘angst’. A major reason for this state of affairs lies in ‘the flavour of the month’ approach of the development agencies. These include women in development, gender-based farming systems research, household nutrition and food security, people participation, and targeting the poorest of the poor. These fads have driven disciplinary considerations to the wall and the more widely-defined objectives have reduced the drive for economic efficiency. We argue there is still a place for better designed and delivered assistance programs within the wider framework of assistance that has become fashionable. Greater application of institutional principles in both the political processes associated with assistance and the implementation agencies would improve the outcomes of many projects. Particular attention would need to be given to the interface between the development agencies and recipient governments. The present paper picks up on the market failure aspects of agriculture's rather poor contribution to development, and develops a wider perspective in terms of the new institutional economics and a continuing role for the agricultural economist.

This chapter provides a new perspective on the competitive advantage of electronic mail within organizations. Essentially, e-mail assists individuals with efficiency and effectiveness. It improves the overall productivity of the firm and provides better coordination of internal processes. Electronic mail has been considered an important channel of communication. Since quality, time and cost are considered the main means of competition in today’s global market, this study investigated the relationship between the strategic uses and competitive benefits of electronic mail in contemporary organizations. A sample of 99 management-level staff members in 41 companies responded to a questionnaire assessing their e-mail usage and their perceived e-mail benefits. The results suggested that e-mail usage could augment the competitive posture of the firm.