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The economic experiences and economic anxiety of rural and urban residents of the Czech and Slovak Republics during the postcommunist reforms are compared and related to their support for the reforms. The analysis is based on five national surveys, 1992–1996, collected by the Sociology Institute of the now Czech Academy of Sciences. Net of controls, both Czech and Slovak rural respondents report more economic strain and unemployment, a difference that persists over the surveys. These experiences account for rural residents' greater economic anxiety, their fear of economic development and unemployment, which also persists over the surveys. These experiences and anxiety explain, in turn, their lower level of support for the reforms, and endorsement of a return to socialism and strong-hand government. Rural and urban respondents of the two countries have experienced the world differently since 1990, and this is expressed in their economic anxiety and political preferences.

In the Czech Republic, the privatization of property and the emergence of a market economy after the fall of communism created a unique “experiment in nature.” Before 1989, there was virtually no private sector and salary differences between rural and urban workers were relatively small. By the end of 1993, a substantial portion of both the rural and urban labor force had moved into the private sector. Using data from a sample of 443 men who were employed in 1989 and at the beginning of 1994, we found that urban workers who moved to the private sector had obtained larger salary increases and felt less economic pressure than rural workers and those who stayed in the public sector. Economic pressure, in turn, mediated between salary change and subsequent reports of health problems and psychological distress. Respondents also reported that the private sector offered them greater job flexibility. Job flexibility may reduce depressive symptoms by improving the match of workers' skills with the demands of the job, but private sector jobs may also be a source of uncertainty. Tensions associated with increasing rural disadvantage and with moving to the private sector are discussed.

This article examines differences in the role of spouses' hostile and supportive behaviors in predicting level and change in marital satisfaction and marital instability. We propose 2 competing hypotheses. The first hypothesis proposes that hostility is relatively volatile and support is relatively stable, and that change in hostility affects change in marital outcomes over the course of the study, whereas the overall level of support functions to maintain the level of marital outcomes. The second hypothesis argues that change in marital satisfaction is a function of change in support, whereas change in marital instability is a function of change in hostility. We tested the hypotheses by fitting growth curves to 3 waves of panel data collected from 436 Czech couples between 1994 and 1996. The results offer some support for the first hypothesis. However, the dominant pattern was for level and change in spouses' reports of their hostility to affect both wives' and husbands' level and change in marital instability, respectively, and for the level and change in husbands' reports of their support to predict level and change in wives' marital satisfaction. Other variables suggested by previous research in the United States and by the Czech transition to a market economy are examined. Key Words: growth curves, hostility, life stress marital quality, support. NOTE An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 94th annual meetings of the American Sociological Society in Chicago, August 6-10, 1999. This research was supported by NIMH Grants MH43270, MH48165, and MH50369. Additional support was provided by a NATO collaborative research grant and by the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, IA (Project 3320: Journal paper J-19094 of the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station). [Reference] REFERENCES [Reference] Booth, A., Johnson, D., & Edwards, N. J. (1983). Measuring marital stability. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 387-394. Conger, R. D., Elder, G, H., Jr., Lorenz, F O., Conger, K. J., Simons, R. L., Whitbeck, L. B., Huck, S., & Melby, J. N. (1990). Linking economic hardship to marital quality and instability. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 643-656. Conger, R. D., Ge, X., & Lorenz, F 0. (1994). Economic stress and marital relations. In R. D. Conger & G. H. Elder Jr. (Eds.), Families in troubled times: Adapting to change in rural America. (pp. 187-203). New York: Aldine. [Reference] Conger, R. D., Rueter, M. A., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (1999). Couple resilience to economic pressure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 54-71. Cutrona, C. (1996). Social support in couples: Marriage as a resource in times of stress. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [Reference] Dohrenwend, B., Krasnoff, S. L., Askensay, A. R., & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1978). Exemplification of a method for scaling life events: The PERI life events scale. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, 205-229. Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Fincham, E D., & Bradbury, T N. (1987). The assessment of marital quality: A reevaluation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 797-809. Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Gottman, J. M., Coan, J., Carrere, S., & Swanson, C. (1998). Predicting marital happiness and stability from newlywed interactions. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 5-22. Green, D. P, Goldman, S. L., & Salovey, P (1993). Measurement error masks bipolarity in affect ratings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 1029-1041. Heaton, T B., & Albrecht, S. L. (1991). Stable unhappy marriages. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 747-758. …

The relation between age and distress was examined with four-wave panel data from the Czech Republic. Age was positively associated with Czech men’s 1999 depression (the older panel members compared with the middle-aged members) and negatively with women’s problem behavior prior to controls. Age was also associated with change in men’s depression between 1994 and 1999, but not change in women’s problem behavior. The additions of life-course variables, economic experiences, and health and social-psychological resources helped explain the relation between age and change in men’s depression, and this was particularly true for economic experiences and personal resources. These same variables were also related to change in men’s problem behavior and women’s depression. Men’s problem behavior and women’s depression appeared to be distress symptoms but simply not related to age.

The connection between age and attitudes toward social change has been a longstanding research interest in the United States. Hypotheses derived from this tradition are tested in the Czech Republic...

We tested if Punjabi students in Pakistan share, as a group, an ethnic hierarchy and exhibit the same types of prejudice found in the West. The sample is 192 students at the Punjab College of Business Administration in Lahore in 1996. The students responded to a questionnaire in English, with questions nearly identical to those previously used by American and Dutch researchers. Principle component analysis revealed that respondents shared an ethnic hierarchy of out-groups in social distance, with Pathans at the least and Muhajirs at the most social distance. Factor analysis showed that these students distinguished among aversive, symbolic, and biological prejudice parallel to American and Dutch results. There were two subtypes of symbolic prejudice, one in reference to the Pakistani quota system (affirmative action) and another to its uneven regional and ethnic development. Discussion centers on reasons that a shared ethnic hierarchy and types of prejudice found in Western countries appear in this Islamic country as well.

The authors report on the experiences of sixteen Czech families ten years after the Velvet Revolution. The families were selected from a four-year panel of 740 households and were interviewed in 1997-98. They talked about their lives during communism and since the reform. They recalled their initial high expectations, followed by facing new challenges and their later reassessment of the reform. Their stories show that the transition toward a market economy and democracy has been a mixed blessing consistent with social thought on the earlier Great Transformation. They also complement the notion that attitudes about the reforms differentiate into the dichotomy of winners and losers. These families gave well-measured accounts of this historic change whether winners or losers.

The authors examine the process by which criminal victimization can affect Czechs' well-being by considering models that include fear of crime, protection against crime, avoidance of crime, and controls. The approach merges criminology with the stress-distress perspective. The sample consists of 703 Czech households in the second wave of a 3-year (1994-1996) panel study. The authors found that criminal victimization resulted in distress, after controls. For Czech women, fear of crime intervened between victimization and distress by increasing the latter. For men, protection and avoidance intervened between victimization and distress. Protection reduced the men's depression, whereas avoidance increased both depression and anxiety. The effects of criminal victimization on Czechs' distress are direct and indirect and vary by gender. Interpretations of results rest on the meanings offear, crime, protection, and avoidance for Czech men and women.

(1999). A Comparison of Black and White Social Distance. The Journal of Social Psychology: Vol. 139, No. 4, pp. 536-539.

One-thousand two-hundred and ninety university students from twenty-seven ethnic⧹national groups across six locations in the former Soviet Union (Novopolotsk in Byelorussia, Kharkov in the Ukraine, Moscow and Nizniy Novgorod in Russia, Ufa in the Bashkir Autonomous Republic and Ulan-Ude in the Buryat Autonomous Republic) participated in 1991–1992 in a survey investigating the existence of ingroup preference in inter-ethnic contact, ingroup consensus on an ethnic hierarchy of outgroups and the measure of intergroup consensus on an ethnic hierarchy among the ethnic⧹national groups in each location. Hypotheses about ingroup preference, ethnic hierarchies and consensus were derived from realistic group conflict theory, social identity theory and from the assumption that outgroup preferences reflect considerations of the status effects of intergroup contact. It appeared that the last type of hypothesis could explain most of the results.

The authors examine models of the perceived increased risk of crime in the Czech Republic derived from both American criminology and research on the perception of risk. The sample is 740 households in the 1994 Czech Republic, with 577 husband and wife respondents, 146 single female household heads, and 17 single male household heads. Measures include criminal victimization, personal characteristics associated with exposure and vulnerability to crime, trust in government, economic stress, as well as perceived increased risk of crime since the postcommunist transformation. A victimology model of the perceived increased risk of crime based on exposure and vulnerability to crime is confirmed for the Czech Republic. Trust in government is also an independent and complementary contribution to explaining perceived increased risk of crime. The discussion includes an interpretation of the findings and their relevance to cross-national comparisons of perceived risk of crime.

Depression increases with old age in the United States. Three sources of stress are thought to account for this relationship: economic stress, poor health, and social isolation. The relation between these sources of stress and depression may be direct or mediated by mastery. This pattern is tested in the 1994 Czech republic. The data from 740 households in the Czech republic provided the 647 women and 554 men included in this analysis. Age is related to the three sources of stress and they are associated with depression. After controls for mastery, the effect of poor health on depression remains strong for both women and men. The relation between economic stress and depression also remains strong for Czech men. It is their sense of deprivation relative to the Communist past rather than absolute economic hardship that is depressing for men. For Czech women, the effect of economic hardship is mediated by mastery. Mastery also mediated the effect of social isolation on women's depression, but for men social isolation was directly as well as indirectly depressing. The discussion ends on the note that the relation between age, economic stress, and depression in the Czech republic may change in the future.

Research in the United States and Europe has focused on the prejudice of majority groups towards minority groups, the implication somehow being that majority groups were more prejudiced than minority groups. In the former Soviet Union, ethnic environments were more complex; the same ethnic group could be a majority in one region but a minority in others. Using a sample of 1,459 first‐ and fourth‐year university students from eight regions of the former USSR, this study focuses on Russian, Tatar and Ukrainian respondents (n = 821) to test the hypothesis that the status of an ethnic group (majority/minority) or in‐group bias explains members’ prejudice. According to in‐group bias, all ethnic groups are equally prejudiced, minority and majority alike, whereas group status posits that groups in a majority position are more prejudiced. Findings show that group status has greater impact on prejudice than does in‐group bias. This applies, however, only to Russians. Interpretations of the findings rest o...

Research on gambling has the double mandate of public service and the advancement of science. This paper is meant to carry forward that mandate. Latent in research on the causes of problem gambling is the policy insight that these causes represent different types of phenomena and are unequally mutable to practitioners' efforts to prevent and/or treat problem gambling. By making the issue of mutability manifest in research, findings from research would have more policy relevance and practical import. Data from a 1989 Iowa survey on lottery play and problem gambling are analyzed to illustrate this point. 1,226 respondents were contacted by phone and phone interviews were completed with 1,011 of these 1,226 eligible respondents. With multiple regression, we assessed the contributions of mutable and immutable variables to the explained variance in problem gambling. The results show mutable correlates explain enough variance in problem gambling to recommend their consideration in treatment/prevention. The results also suggest a social as well as a psychological etiology to problem gambling. Future research should, however, do a more complete comparison of social and psychological causes of problem gambling.

Gender differences in health have been linked to gender stratification in the United States. Women's relation to production, paid and unpaid work, and their experience of this gender inequality disadvantage their self-rated health compared to men. Men's consumption or health lifestyles disfavors their comparative health. This formulation is tested in the Czech Republic with a sample of matched wives and husbands (N = 577 households). This extends previous research in the United States on gender differences in health in two ways: into post-communist Europe and by comparing paired wives and husbands. Respondents completed questionnaires in 1994 on their health and well-being, jobs and finances, non-economic life events, marriage, psychological states, opinions about the changes in the Czech Republic, and socioeconomic background. Wives and husbands filled out separate questionnaires. The relation to production (both the objective relation and its subjective experience) did not impair wives' self-reported health any more than that of their husbands, and husbands' consumption or health lifestyles did not put them at a health disadvantage. Interpretations of these findings rest on both the extension of the study into post-communist Europe and by comparing matched wives and husbands.

The prejudice of White Americans has been extensively studied, but that of African Americans has been comparatively ignored in the social sciences. In this article, the prejudice of Black and White university students is compared. Black respondents were students at Mississippi State University and White respondents were students at Iowa State University in the spring and fall of 1993. After factoring prejudice into its component types, we found that Black students scored significantly higher on aver‐sive and overall prejudice, but there was no significant racial difference on biological prejudice. There were few racial differences, however, in the correlates of overall prejudice. The perception of out‐group threat was positively related to and voluntary intergroup contact was negatively related to prejudice for Black and White respondents alike. Stratification beliefs were a predictor of prejudice only for White respondents. These exploratory results suggest racial comparisons of prejudice should be on th...

With data from a 1989 Iowa survey (N=1,011), adult male and female respondents are compared on their problem gambling, its correlates, as well as their gambling behavior. Gambling behavior means its scope, frequency, wagering and leisure time spent at gambling. Women's gambling behavior was lower than that of men, due to their having a narrower scope of gambling behavior, but the genders were not significantly different on frequency, wagering and time spent at gambling. Women and men did not differ significantly on problem gambling. Problem gambling is measured as loss of control over gambling, and consequences due to gambling as well as gambling behavior. Women and men did differ significantly, however, on several predictors of problem gambling. Women's estrangement from a conventional lifestyle and integration into a social world of gambling appeared to help explain their problem gambling. Alcohol consumption appeared to be a more important predictor for men than women. The genders shared the attitude that the odds can be beat as well as being big spenders as predictors of their problem gambling. The results are interpreted with practitioners' efforts to prevent and treat problem gambling in mind.

Social scientists predict that inequality will surely grow during the economic and political restructuring of East Europe. This inequality will result in uneven distress in these societies, according to stress-distress researchers. Furthermore, the relations between inequality of position and distress (depression and anxiety) are mediated by mastery and appraisal; these two elaborated models were tested in this study. The results generally supported both elaborated models. First, in the revised models only two indicators of position (education and gender) were directly related to distress. Regardless of mastery and economic coping, Czech women in 1990 reported increased levels of both depression and anxiety, findings consistent with previous research in the Czech Republic [Lee et al. 1994]. Respondents with higher education reported more depression. Secondly, the relations of the exogenous variables (social position) to both mediator variables (mastery and appraisal) were in the expected directions. For example, household size is significantly and positively related to economic coping, whereas age is significantly but negatively related to economic coping. Younger respondents and those from bigger households reported a greater need to make economic adjustments in 1990. Both mastery and economic coping were significantly related to depression and anxiety in the predicted directions. They also mediated the relations between exogenous variables (position) and distress outcome, with the exception of gender and education. These elaborated models, when empirically revised, were significant improvements over the theoretical models; the full models made no significant improvements to them. Czech Sociological Review, 1994, Vol. 2 (No. 2: 173-185)

The Czech Republic is changing rapidly and its current economic transformation is a strain on Czech families. In this study, the connection between economic strain and individual well-being is investigated via mailed questionnaires from 234 households in the Czech Republic. For Czech women, depression rises more with economic strain than does hostility, while Czech men become more hostile than depressed in the face of economic strain. For women, social support is a buffer between economic strain and hostility, whereas self-esteem is a buffer for depression. For men, both self-esteem and social support exacerbate hostility in the context of economic strain.

The relationship between age and gambling has received relatively little attention in the social sciences. An aging American population might have a fundamental effect on gambling behavior suggesting that such research is needed. A random telephone survey of 1,011 Iowa residents was conducted. Chronological age was found to be negatively related to gambling behavior in this study. Within this trend, however, people of different ages were also found to be participating in different types of gambling. The general decline in gambling across age categories can be conceptualized as a result of an age decline in experimentation with gambling for self-identity, self-presentation, as well as an historical increase in the social acceptance of gambling. The differential rates of participation in different types of gambling could result from differential needs and resources related to different stages of development and thus age categories.

Since the fall of communism in 1989, criminal victimisation has become an issue in the Czech Republic, and research indicates that it is a stressful experience. The relationship between criminal victimisation and depression was examined by adding fear of crime, protection against crime, avoidance of crime, mastery over one's life, social support, and trust in government (as well as socio-demographic controls) to successive regression equations. A total of 703 Czech households in the second of a threewave (1994-1996) panel study were studied. For men, the total and direct effects of criminal victimisation on depression were significant. However, the relation of men's fear of crime and depression was mediated by avoidance. For women, criminal victimisation was not related to depression. The relation of women's fear of crime and depression was mediated by mastery. Interpretations of these results are grounded in the different relevance criminal victimisation has for the well-being of men and women. Czech Sociological Review, 2000, Vol. 8 (No. 2: 195-209) Since the fall of communism in 1989, the issue of criminal victimisation has become a public concern in the Czech Republic. American research shows that criminal victimisation has real consequences, such as the diminished psychological well-being of victims, and it can be assumed that it poses a threat to the well-being of Czech citizens also. In this analysis, criminal victimisation in the Czech Republic is examined within the theoretical framework of the stress-distress perspective. The analysis begins with a brief discussion of rising crime during the period of the Czech transformation prior to 1994. Rising Crime in the Czech Republic Since the fall of communism in 1989 crime rates have been rising in former Czechoslovakia. The 1992 International Crime Survey (ICS) revealed that of all Czechoslovak respondents in the survey, 10.9% reported having been a burglary victim, 22% reported having had personal property stolen, and 9.4% reported that they had been the victims of an assault the second highest proportion of assault victims reported for post-communist countries [Valkova 1993]. In addition, among Czechoslovak respondents in the 1992 ICS, 9% of the women reported having been the victims of sexual offences, and almost 44% of car owners in the survey had experienced car vandalism [Siemaszko 1993]. In Prague, Burianek [1994] found an increase in types of crime new to the Czech Republic, such as drug dealing, economic crime and organised crime. The 1992 ICS also reported that 33.4% of Czech respondents felt 'a bit unsafe' and 10.5% felt 'very unsafe' when walking alone in their area at night [Valkova 1993]. *) NIMH (Grant 50369) and a NATO Collaborative Research Grant supported this research. *) Direct any correspondence to Lee Michael Johnson, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, 107 East Hall, Ames, I A 5001 1-1070, USA, phone +1-515-294-8012. 195 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.123 on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 05:42:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Czech Sociological Review, VIII, (2/2000) While the Czech public's concern with crime has increased, its faith in the state to control it has decreased. In a 1992 national poll, 86% of Czech respondents reported that they were dissatisfied with police [Hraba et al. 1996]. The 1992 ICS showed that 55.4% of respondents were dissatisfied with the way police handled reported crime, and 32.4% thought the police do a bad job of patrolling streets [Valkova 1993]. The 1992 ICS also showed a lack of faith in police as the main reason given in former Czechoslovakia for not reporting car vandalism [Siemaszko 1993]. Hraba et al. [1998] found a perceived increased risk of crime among Czechs that was due to a lack of trust in government as well as criminal victimisation. One reason for the rise in crime is that economic motives for crime have increased in the Czech Republic. With the transformation, the state no longer guarantees employment and public entitlements have diminished. Earnings inequality began to increase in 1990, with higher incomes rising and diverging from others [Rondinelli 1994; Vecernik 1995, 1996a], who in turn have experienced declining income, economic insecurity, and subjective poverty [Matějů and Řehakova 1996; Musil 1992; Vecernik 1996b]. These factors have been associated with arrest rates in the United States [LaFree and Drass 1996] and may also serve as economic motives for crime in the Czech Republic. Criminal Victimisation in the Stress-Distress Perspective Consistent with both criminological and stress-distress research, criminal victimisation is posited to be a Stressor that can produce depressive symptoms in victims [Coyne and Downey 1991; Hraba et al. 1999; Kilpatrick et al. 1985; Mawby and Walkate 1994; Norris and Kaniasty 1994; Proulx et al. 1995]. The effect of criminal victimisation on depression may depend, however, on the emotional reactions of victims to victimisation. Increased fear of crime is one of these reactions. In criminology, fear of crime is defined as a feeling of dread about being victimised by crime [Ferraro 1995; Garofalo 1981; Giles-Sims 1984; LaGrange and Ferraro 1989; Miethe and Lee 1984; Taylor and Hale 1986], and it is considered to be a consequence of crime itself [Giles-Sims 1984; Ferraro 1995; Garofalo 1981; Norris and Kaniasty 1994; Roundtree and Land 1996; Thompson and Norris 1992]. It is also seen as a cause of psychological distress in stress-distress research [Ross 1993]. This analysis will test whether Czech victims become depressed in direct response to criminal victimisation, or whether they must first fear it (interpreting it as a threat to personal well-being) in order to become depressed. The effect of criminal victimisation may also depend on victims' behavioural responses to victimisation and fear of crime. These reactions can be stress-coping strategies. Approach strategies are those intended to increase one's resistance to stress, and avoidance strategies are those intended to reduce the occasions when one is confronted by stress. Approach strategies appear to have more power in reducing distress [Coyne and Downey 1991; Elder 1974; Lorenz et al. 1996]. The restrictions to personal freedom associated with avoidance strategies may have a negative effect on people's psychological well-being, thus reducing their effectiveness in reducing distress [Hraba et al. 1999]. Similarly, criminologists are interested in protection and avoidance as reactions to crime. Protection strategies are those which are intended to increase a person's ability to resist criminal victimisation learning self-defence techniques, for example. Avoidance strategies, on the other hand, are those which are intended to reduce the opportunities for others to offend not going out after dark or into certain neighbourhoods, for example [DuBow et al. 1979; Garofalo 1981; Liska and Warner 1991; Roundtree and Land 1996].

Researchers in the United States have found that education and health are related. This relation may be due to the better market position of the educated, their greater store of personal and social resources, and/or their healthier lifestyle. These three connections between education and health are tested in the Czech Republic with three waves of panel data. We regress self-reports of health and physical functioning in 1994 on multiple indicators of market position in 1994, change in market position from 1989 to 1994, personal/social resources and health lifestyle with demographic controls. These regressions are followed by a longitudinal analysis of changes in panel members' health and physical functioning between 1994 and 1996. The cross-sectional results are similar to those in the United States with important exceptions. Unlike the United States, market position does fully mediate the relation between education and health in the Czech Republic, largely through subjective feelings regarding market position. The longitudinal analysis shows that prior health and physical functioning mediate the effect of education on health and physical functioning in 1996.

This paper examines the effects of economic change on change in indi- vidual well-being for a panel of Czech respondents during a time of rapid social and economic transformation (1990-91), and compares married Czech women with a sample of married women in the United States. In examining five specific hypothe- ses from the stress-distress tradition in the United States, data from a panel of 192 Czech men and women showed that respondents who were forced to make economic adjustments reducing their standard of living also reported increased health problems and depressive symptoms. Contrary to findings sometimes observed in the United States, the relationship between economic adjustments and change in depressive symptoms was strongest among those who reported having the strongest sense of personal control (mastery) and the highest perceived social support. Compared with , the sample of married U. S. women from Iowa, married Czech women reported more depressive symptoms, had more health problems, and were lower in feelings of mastery. In addition, these Czech women recorded significantly stronger paths link- ing education to changes in both health conditions and depressive symptoms, whereas Iowa women had signficantly stronger paths linking actual economic con- ditions to subsequent economic adjustments. The data suggest that the stress-distress model developed in the U. S. applies in the Czech Republic as well, but further un- derstanding of the differentiated role of social support and mastery for Czech and U.S. women is necessary to more completely interpret the observed interactions.

Educated Czechs fared poorly during the communist regime (1948-89) but have done relatively well since the Velvet Revolution. This phase change is consistent with transition theory and suggests that educated Czechs may be more supportive of the postcommunist reforms as a consequence. To test this hypothesis, the authors examined 11 national surveys (1990-98) of Czech respondents to determine if economic standing and other controls explained the relation between education and attitudes about the country's reforms. They also tested whether the effects of education interacted with phases of the reforms. The results showed that better-educated respondents enjoyed an economic advantage, supportive of transition theory. However, this advantage and other controls did not explain the significant effects of education on attitudes about the Czech reforms. These pat terns were stable during the survey period with one exception, as indicated by education * time interaction terms. These findings suggest that values associated with education may play a role in attitudes about postcommunist reforms independent of economic standing, expanding the view that economic experiences during postcommunist reforms differentiate attitudes about them

This is a participant-observation study of shopping in Poland during severe consumer shortages. Field work was done in November and December of 1982 in three Polish cities. The focus was to observe shopping queues, behavior in those queues, and to interview shoppers about their shopping tactics within and outside of the queues. One-hundred and forty queues were observed and 158 people were interviewed. Observations of queues included their size, composition, organization over long waits, and the behavior of queue participants. Shopping tactics are actions meant to locate scarce goods and save time with shopping. Some shopping tactics were done alone, but more likely these tactics involved others in shopping and distribution teams. This study is placed in the sociological context of response to scarcity and disruption.

The aim of this paper is to put research on social distance towards ethnic minorities in The Netherlands in the context of theory on social representations. Two aspects of social distance are distinguished: one is the amount of social distance towards ethnic minorities, and the other is an ethnic hierarchy of minorities in social distance. In two surveys of 291 and 304 university and secondary school students, it was found that the respondents' social distance reactions towards ethnic groups formed hierarchical cumulative scales indicating a consensual ethnic hierarchy. In these hierarchies, European groups were placed on top, followed by colonial and then Islamic groups at the bottom. The ethnic distinctions contained in this hierarchy, however, varied across respondents, contexts of application and type of representatives of the out-groups. It is concluded that the ethnic hierarchy found is a social representation with strong dynamic overtones, a finding that is consistent with recent revisions of social representation theory.

From its onset the sociological study of delinquency has had the double mandate of public service and the advancement of science. A formulation is offered for carrying this double mandate forward. Latent in theories of delinquency is the practical insight that delinquency causes are unequally mutable to practitioners' efforts. By making the issue of mutability manifest in research, it is argued, findings from research would have more practical import. Data are analyzed so as to illustrate this argument.

It is argued that sociological theories of ethnicity can be subsumed under two basic paradigms. One assumes modernity means increasing individual freedom (an assumption derived from classical liber...

The relation between stereotypes and social distance towards The Netherlands' minority groups is analysed in a survey of 204 secondary school and university students. Two aspects of social distance are distinguished. One is the amount of social distance towards minority groups, and the other is an ethnic hierarchy of minority groups in social distance. This ethnic hierarchy was shared by a majority of the students. Forty‐eight stereotypes scored for seven ethnic groups were found to converge into six latent dimensions common to all groups. The association between stereotypes, social distance and the ethnic hierarchy depended on the domain of contact. Stereotypes appear to anchor the ethnic hierarchy into Dutch institutions and values, rather than classical racism.

A demographic diagnosis of self-reported delinquencies is proposed and its utilit 1' is examined. The hipothesis that some delinquency correlates operate differentli lin different demographic categories of lvouth is supported. This finding suggests that researchers should be aware of the possible interaction between causes of' delinquencY and the demographic context in which that causation occurs. For prac titioners, the usefulness of a demographic diagnosis lies in knowing if delinquenci' causes are different in different demograhpic categories of youth.

This paper examines the use of qualitative methodology in the sociology classroom by demonstrating the use of photographs and music in teaching the human element of social change. The authors maintain that traditionally only one side of social change is taught to the students; the objective view with facts and figures. By adding the other side of social change, the subjective view, the students are better able to appreciate the significance of the larger social change process. The authors maintain that photographs and music best relay the subjective view to the class. By using the modernization of American society as an example, the authors proceed to identify specific pictures and music which they feel most accurately depict this view of social change. A detailed description of their selection process is also presented.

People's religiosity occupies a central place in the sociology of religion. This study employs indepth life histories to describe the subjective lives and religiosity of fifty Czech-American elderly in Iowa. The life history method effectively taps the religiosity of these elderly through their expressed concerns in life. Results indicate ecumenism and humanism among these elderly. This meaning system coincides with their liberal religious heritage. Thus, the cultural and religious family heritage of Czech-American elderly helps to mold their present world view. Findings also suggest that rural Czech-American elderly, who are either exclusively mainline church-goers or freethinkers, find ultimate meaning through ecumenism and humanism rather than through sectarianism.

This paper describes a multimedia aid to teaching about ethnic relations in American history, whose purpose is to enhance student understanding of the sub ject through visual and musical images. The instruc tional technique and its content are relevant to a wide range of courses, not only to those on ethnic relations. Bower cites evidence that visual imagery can aid the learning of abstractions (2). The abstraction here is that social change in America forms three phases: agrarian, industrial and post-industrial (1). This history of the na tion frames that of its ethnic groups, and both are il lustrated with photographs and music in this slide and music presentation. Our approach is consistent with the statement of Brown, Lewis and Harcleroad (5) on the merits of still photography in instruction, and that of Quinney, (8) and Smith (9) on the use of film in the teaching of social science. It is also consistent with our experience. Recognizing that students are individuals and respond as such to instruction (7), we nonetheless find that in our own state university most students come from culturally homogeneous backgrounds and have a time perspective bound by their own biographies. It is dif ficult to teach about different ethnic groups in an historical framework. Therefore, we developed a slide and music presentation. Visual images and music were used on the premise that today's students turn toward both for meaning. Historical photographs from a multitude of sources