UNEQUAL ATTENDANCE: THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RACE, ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY CUES, AND ABSENTEEISM

Although prior evidence has demonstrated racial differences in employee absenteeism, no existing research explains this phenomenon. The present study examined the roles of 2 diversity cues related to workplace support—perceived organizational value of diversity and supervisor–subordinate racial/ethnic similarity—in explicating this demographic difference among 659 Black, White, and Hispanic employees of U.S. companies. Blacks reported significantly more absences than their White counterparts, but this difference was significantly more pronounced when employees believed their organizations placed little value on diversity. Moreover, in a form of expectancy violation, the Black–White difference was significant only when employees had racially similar supervisors (and thus would expect their companies to value diversity) and perceived that the organization placed little value on diversity.     

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PAY, RACE, SEX, OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE, SUPERVISION, WORK AUTONOMY, AND JOB SATISFACTION IN A NATIONAL SAMPLE

Published evidence, based largely on bivariate methods of analysis, generally suggests that pay, race, occupational prestige, supervisory status, and work autonomy are associated with job satisfaction and that sex is not. Regression analysis of a representative sample of U.S. workers, which partialled out the effects of a number of other variables, affirms that supervisory status makes an independent contribution to job satisfaction and that sex is unrelated, but suggests that the zero-order effects of pay, race, occupational prestige, and work autonomy are spurious.     

RESPONSE-REINFORCER RELATIONSHIPS AND IMPROVED LEARNING IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In order to affect more rapid response acquisition for autistic children, researchers have recently begun to investigate the functional relationships of reinforcers to other components of the operant conditioning paradigm. Previous research suggested that functional relationships between target behaviors and reinforcers might be especially effective. For example, locating a reward inside a container might be a more efficient way to teach a child to open the container than by handing the child a reward for opening an empty container. The present experiment assessed, within a multiple baseline design, the possibility of improving autistic children's learning by changing arbitrary response-reinforcer relationships (while holding target behaviors and reinforcers constant) so that the target behaviors became functional (i.e., a direct part of the response chain required for the child to procure the reinforcer). The results showed that: (1) arranging functional response-reinforcer relationships produced immediate improvement in the children's learning, and resulted in rapid acquisition of criterion level responding; and (2) high levels of correct responding initially produced by functional response-reinforcer relationships were continued even when previously ineffective arbitrary response-reinforcer conditions were reinstated. The results are discussed in terms of understanding and improving autistic children's learning.     

INDIVIDUALITY IN THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND THEORIES OF EMBODIED COGNITION

Contemporary theological anthropology is now almost united in its opposition toward concepts of the abstract individual. Instead there is a strong preference for concrete concepts, which locate individual human being in historically and socioculturally contingent contexts. In this paper I identify, and discuss in detail, three key themes that structure recent theological opposition to abstract concepts of the individual: (1) the idea that individual human beings are constituted in part by their relations with their environments, with other human beings, and with God; (2) the idea that individual human beings are unique entities; (3) the idea that individual human beings cannot be conceptualized in atemporal terms. Subsequently, I seek to demonstrate that theories of embodied cognition offer broad, if not unconditional, support for the concept of the concrete individual. As such, I suggest, theories of embodied cognition provide a valuable resource for dialogue between contemporary science and theological anthropology.     

DEPRESSION IN WOMEN AS RELATED TO ANGER AND MUTUALITY IN RELATIONSHIPS

Self-in-relation theory (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991) proposes that a lack of mutuality in women's relationships predisposes them to depression and inhibits their ability to acknowledge and address effectively emotions such as anger. Research linking anger to depression has not examined women's emotional expressivity within the context of their partner relationships. Women's depression as a function of both their level of anger suppression or inappropriate anger expression and the level of perceived relationship mutuality was studied in a sample of 223 college women, aged 18 to 54. Lower levels of mutuality and higher levels of suppressed or inappropriately expressed anger were associated with depression. Moreover, mutuality made contributions to predicting depression beyond that explained by anger. Lower mutuality was also related to higher anger suppression, but unrelated to inappropriately expressed anger.     

PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIOURAL MEASURES: GENDER,AGE, AND RACE CONTRASTS IN AN AUSTRALIAN SETTING*

As a complement to previous comparative studies focusing on cognition, this study compares a number of personality and behavioural traits of Australian Anglocelt and Aboriginal children. The personality scales are Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N), Psychoticism (P), Lie (L), Impulsiveness (Imp), Venturesomeness (Vent), and Empathy (Emp); and the behavioural scales are Relating (R), Asserting (A), Investing (I). and Coping (C). The personality scales were administered to 113 and 42 sixth- and ninth-grade children, respectively. The teachers of the children completed a behavioural rating scale for each child. Thirty-three sixth-graders and 16 ninth-grader were Aboriginal. Sixth-grade males had higher means on P and Vent, while sixth-grade females averaged higher on L, Emp, R, I, and C. Aboriginal sixth-graders averaged higher on P, while Aboriginals overall averaged higher on E, R, A, I, and C than Anglocelts. Ninth-grade males averaged significantly higher on E, Imp, and Vent, and lower on L. The only significant difference for ninth-graders was that Aboriginals averaged higher on L. These results indicate cultural influences bearing upon contact, and support previous informal judgements that Aboriginal children tend to be more reserved in response to formal situations than Anglocelts. Implications are inferred for educational policy.     

COLLEGE WOMEN'S AGGRESSION IN RELATIONSHIPS:THE ROLE OF CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT VICTIMIZATION

Despite growing evidence suggesting that women engage in verbal and physical dating aggression, there is a dearth of research examining the predictors of women's engagement in these behaviors. Utilizing a college sample, the purpose of the current study was to explore women's perpetration of dating aggression within the context of victimization experiences. Women ( N  = 374) completed surveys at the beginning and end of a 10-week academic quarter for course credit. Results from two retrospective regression analyses (all Time 1 variables) suggested that (1) paternal physical abuse and adolescent/adulthood verbal victimization predicted women's reports of verbal perpetration and (2) childhood sexual abuse, adolescent/adulthood verbal victimization, adolescent/adulthood physical victimization, and adolescent/adulthood verbal perpetration predicted women's reports of physical perpetration. Results from the two prospective, longitudinal regression analyses suggested that (1) verbal perpetration (as measured at Time 1) and verbal victimization over the interim predicted women's reports of verbal perpetration over the interim and (2) physical perpetration (as measured at Time 1), verbal perpetration over the interim, and physical victimization over the interim predicted women's reports of physical perpetration over the interim. These data suggest the importance of considering previous victimization experiences, mutual partner aggression, and a history of aggressive behaviors when examining women's use of aggression in dating relationships.     

RACE AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN SEX ROLE ATTITUDES OF SOUTHERN COLLEGE STUDENTS

A sample of southern college students is used to investigate race and sex differences among nine Likert-type sex role attitudes. Results show that black and white men share a similar sex role orientation while black and white women also share a similar world view. There were only two instances where blacks were notably different from whites. First, blacks were more likely to feel that a woman's real fulfillment in life comes from motherhood, and second, blacks were more likely to feel that it was appropriate for a mother with school-age children to work.