A Model of Neutralization Techniques

ABSTRACT

Neutralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior. We can find many different and overlapping techniques of neutralizations in the literature, which may be a reason for inconsistent research findings on the use and influence of neutralization techniques. Therefore, by following both a deductive and an inductive approach, this article develops a model that covers these techniques in a logical way. This is a novel approach in studying neutralization techniques. We distinguish four categories of neutralizations: distorting the facts, negating the norm, blaming the circumstances, and hiding behind oneself. Based on a broad inventory of neutralizations that are identified in the literature – something that has not been done before – we operationalized each of the four categories into three techniques, each of which consists of five subtechniques. The resulting model aims to reduce the risk of arbitrariness in the selection of techniques for empirical research and thereby facilitates more consistent future research findings. The model also aims to help better understand how neutralizations work.     

亲子依恋与初中生亲社会行为:有调节的中介效应

亲社会行为是个体在人际交往中表现出的谦让、帮助、合作、分享等行为,是青少年社会能力发展的重要方面。以往研究表明,安全的亲子依恋对亲社会行为具有重要影响,但亲子依恋发挥作用的具体机制及作用条件还有待深入探讨。本研究在发展系统理论及依恋理论指导下,构建一个有调节的中介效应模型,检验心理资本在亲子依恋与亲社会行为之间的中介作用,以及不良同伴交往对上述中介路径的调节作用。采用亲子依恋问卷、心理资本问卷、不良同伴交往问卷以及亲社会行为问卷对737名初中生进行测查。结构方程模型分析表明:(1)在控制了年龄、性别和社会经济地位后,亲子依恋对亲社会行为具有显著的正向预测作用。(2)中介效应检验表明,心理资本在亲子依恋与亲社会行为之间具有完全中介作用。(3)有调节的中介效应检验进一步表明,不良同伴交往调节了"亲子依恋→心理资本→亲社会行为"的前半段,即当初中生的不良同伴交往偏多时,亲子依恋对心理资本的促进作用减弱。本研究的发现表明,安全的依恋关系有利于培养初中生的心理资本,进而促进亲社会行为。但是,较高的不良同伴交往会阻碍亲子依恋积极作用的发挥。本研究验证了家庭系统、同伴系统和个人系统对亲社会行为的联合作用,对初中生亲社会行为的培养具有一定的指导意义。     

Psychological and Social Factors as Predictors of Online and Offline Deviant Behavior among Japanese Adolescents

The rise of cyberspace and technological advancement has created new opportunities for deviant behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate online and offline deviant behavior in a sample of high school students, as well as compare a number of theoretical frameworks for predicting deviance. Employing structural equation modeling, the findings of the study indicated that one’s normative beliefs or psychological factors are more important than social factors when it comes to deviant behavior. Attitudes toward violence, low self-control, and peer attachment were positively associated with offline deviance, while parental attachment and neighborhood attachment had negative associations. For online deviance, toxic online disinhibition and attitudes toward violence were positive predictors, while parental attachment had a negative association.     

Pediatric discourse on corporal punishment: A historical review

Corporal punishment is a commonly used, but controversial disciplinary technique. This article reviews the pediatric professional response to corporal punishment over the past century. We focus predominantly on the discourse written to educate pediatricians, for the most part, textbooks. Using the sociologic construction of deviance proposed by Conrad and Schneider, we show how corporal punishment has moved from a condoned behavior to a socially deviant behavior. Based on our review of this literature, we delineate three distinct pediatric professional attitudes toward corporal punishment over this century:(a) corporal punishment as morally sanctioned behavior, (b) corporal punishment as atool for controlling behavior, and (c) corporal punishment as abusive. We show how each of these stances developed and demonstrate how these stances inform paradigms that are still operative today. By reviewing changes in pediatric thought toward corporal punishment, this article provides a useful framework for child health professionals struggling with the appropriateness of corporal punishment as a disciplinary technique.     

Pediatric discourse on corporal punishment: A historical review

Corporal punishment is a commonly used, but controversial disciplinary technique. This article reviews the pediatric professional response to corporal punishment over the past century. We focus predominantly on the discourse written to educate pediatricians, for the most part, textbooks. Using the sociologic construction of deviance proposed by Conrad and Schneider, we show how corporal punishment has moved from a condoned behavior to a socially deviant behavior. Based on our review of this literature, we delineate three distinct pediatric professional attitudes toward corporal punishment over this century:(a) corporal punishment as morally sanctioned behavior, (b) corporal punishment as atool for controlling behavior, and (c) corporal punishment as abusive. We show how each of these stances developed and demonstrate how these stances inform paradigms that are still operative today. By reviewing changes in pediatric thought toward corporal punishment, this article provides a useful framework for child health professionals struggling with the appropriateness of corporal punishment as a disciplinary technique.     

The Relationship Between Perceived Violation of Social Norms and Social Control: Situational Factors Influencing the Reaction to Deviance

Social control is the generic term for all reactions through which people express their disapproval to someone who engages in a counternormative behavior or who holds a counter-normative attitude. The literature on helping behavior suggests that perceived personal implication should play an important role in the decision of whether or not to exert social control. A field study involving 5 different experimental settings was conducted in order to test this hypothesis. Confederates engaged in a variety of behaviors that violated social norms. Perceived personal implication was consistently the best predictor of social control behavior, such that the more someone felt that a deviant behavior affected him or her personally, the more he or she was likely to communicate his or her disapproval to the deviant confederate. Perceived deviance of the behavior was a less powerful predictor of social control. These findings speak to the moderating factors of social control behavior and to the circumstances under which social norms protecting public property are likely to be perpetuated.     

Why Study White Supremacist Terror? A Research Note

This article discusses how the current neglect of white supremacist violence impedes the development of terrorism scholarship. The decentralized organization of contemporary white supremacists is often confused with disorganization that has led some observers to claim that white supremacist terror (WST) poses a relatively benign threat and is essentially irrelevant. In contrast, I argue that white supremacist violence is part of a broader social movement strategy. Lastly, I discuss how four hot-button issues may contribute to a new large-scale wave of WST.     

亲子关系与青少年冒险行为的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

该研究探讨了亲子关系与青少年冒险行为的关系,并提出一个有调节的中介模型,考察自控力的中介效应和不良同伴交往对该效应的调节效应。对1263名青少年采用问卷调查,研究工具包括关系网络问卷、中学生自我控制能力量表、同伴群体特征问卷、青少年冒险行为问卷。结果表明：（1）自控力在亲子关系与青少年冒险行为之间起中介作用,即亲子关系通过自控力间接影响青少年的冒险行为。（2）亲子关系通过自控力的间接效应受到不良同伴交往的调节,交往较多的不良同伴使低自控力青少年的冒险行为增多。因此,自控力在亲子关系与冒险行为之间存在中介效应,且该效应受到不良同伴交往的调节。     

Predictors of mental distress and poor physical health among homeless women

Abstract

We tested a latent variable path model in which situational, personal, and social resources predicted several mediators and the key health outcomes of mental distress and poor physical health among 871 homeless women. Mental distress was predicted by risky sexual behavior, less social support, avoidant coping, less self-esteem, client abuse history, social support from deviant sources, less drug self-efficacy and health care utilization. Poor physical health was predicted by a client abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, fewer perceived rewards for drug use, higher perceived costs for drug use, and a doctor visit. Current risky sexual behavior was predicted by a parent drug abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, and more social support from deviant sources. Current drug use was predicted by parent drug abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, more social support from deviant sources and by high perceived costs for drug use. Implications of results for intervention and theory are discussed.     

Occupational mobility in the world of prostitution: Becoming a madam

Prostitution may be viewed as a sexual service industry that includes various occupational sub‐categories, such as streetwalker, call girl, madam, pimp. These occupational sub‐categories differ in terms of work environment, financial rewards, work hazards, etc. Occupational mobility is possible within the prostitution business but is dependent upon factors similar to those found in more legitimate occupations (e.g., race, mental acumen, personal contacts, presentation of self, ambition).

This paper will attempt to show, principally through the case history technique, the manner in which a small group of prostitutes exercised occupational mobility and became madams. It is believed that the benefits of such an inquiry may be twofold. First, as Everett C. Hughes argued on more than one occasion, the study of deviant occupations and institutions can yield data of value to the study of legitimate occupations and institutions. Secondly, it is hoped that the continued utility of a sociology of work approach to the study of deviant behavior will be demonstrated. A basic orientation of this paper is that prostitution may be more fruitfully studied as an occupation than as a “social problem.”     

The brain basis of emotion: a meta-analytic review

Researchers have wondered how the brain creates emotions since the early days of psychological science. With a surge of studies in affective neuroscience in recent decades, scientists are poised to answer this question. In this target article, we present a meta-analytic summary of the neuroimaging literature on human emotion. We compare the locationist approach (i.e., the hypothesis that discrete emotion categories consistently and specifically correspond to distinct brain regions) with the psychological constructionist approach (i.e., the hypothesis that discrete emotion categories are constructed of more general brain networks not specific to those categories) to better understand the brain basis of emotion. We review both locationist and psychological constructionist hypotheses of brain-emotion correspondence and report meta-analytic findings bearing on these hypotheses. Overall, we found little evidence that discrete emotion categories can be consistently and specifically localized to distinct brain regions. Instead, we found evidence that is consistent with a psychological constructionist approach to the mind: A set of interacting brain regions commonly involved in basic psychological operations of both an emotional and non-emotional nature are active during emotion experience and perception across a range of discrete emotion categories.     

Deviant Heroes: Nonconformists as Agents of Justice and Social Change

Sociologists usually define deviance as a fluid construct, relative to given social circumstances, and something that is neither negative nor positive in and of itself. Despite the rejection of absolutist approaches, the vast majority of texts and studies concerning deviant behavior implicitly or explicitly present deviance as either a morally bad or morally neutral behavior. Such literatures wrongly conflate deviant behavior with villainous actions. We argue that some of the most important deviants have been at the leading forefront of positive social change and the creation of a more just, fair, and humane society. Deviant heroes are those individuals who violate unjust norms and laws, facing the repercussions of social control, while simultaneously effecting positive social change. This article considers the theoretical role of the deviant hero within classical and contemporary sociological traditions and identifies new directions for social research.     

家庭处境不利儿童的社会性发展研究述评

本文就家庭视角评述国外关于处境不利儿童的社会性发展有关研究。有关文献表明,处境不利儿童的自我概念有明显的外在化特征,区分性低,较少指向未来;他们存在社会信息加工中的译码困难和归因偏向,其信息加工技能和认知控制技能都存在一定的问题,社会性情绪发展也存在诸多困难;他们的亲子依恋往往是不安全甚至矛盾类型;他们往往难以被同伴所接纳,在交往中更多地表现出适应不良性行为,其友谊质量也比较差,但自我效能、自我调节以及良好的群体特征是改善其同伴交往的重要因素;家庭的各种不利因素还会对其社会交活动中的活动能力、活动数量、活动水平和活动技能带来影响,在他们身上也更容易出现攻击、退缩以及各种过错行为和违法犯罪行为。当前,有关这些儿童的神经生理与心理学结合的研究也正在进行之中。     

External threat and the definition of deviance

Research ( Lauderdale , 1976; Schachter , 1951) suggests that an external threat to a group can lead to the rejection of deviant members of the group and alteration of group communication patterns and solidarity. This study sought to extend those findings, integrate them with concepts from Simmel 's (1917/1955) work on group conflict, and link them to key issues in the societal reaction approach to deviant behavior. We examined the effect of variation in level of threat, the relationship between deviant status and nonconformity to the central task norm, the role of high-status actors in deviance designation, the relationship between rejection and negative definition of the deviant, and the effects of rejection and negative definition on group solidarity. Hypotheses were tested in an experimental design involving three conditions (strong threat, weak threat, and no threat). The results suggest that (a) the level of threat is directly related to the extent of rejection and negative definition, (b) nonconformity to the central task norm is not systematically related to deviant status, (c) high-status actors are more involved in the rejection of the deviant, (d) sociometric rejection of the deviant is accompanied by negative definition in the strong-threat condition, and (e) the level of group solidarity is related to the extent of rejection and negative definition. Implications of these findings are discussed relative to the societal reaction approach to deviant behavior and analogous processes in other social groups.     

Norm set and deviant behavior: The case of age‐sex norms

The paper incorporates the concept of social norms into the explanation of deviant behavior, in particular to an explanation of the forms deviant behavior may take. The paper introduces a new concept: norm sets. We argue that norm sets determine and regulate the repertoire of deviant acts people may choose to engage in. The paper focuses particularly on age and sex norms. Through an empirical investigation the study identifies social expectations regarding the age‐sex most appropriate for various deviant behaviors and examines their pervasiveness, consensus, and the role they play in the socially structuring of deviant behavior.     

A probabilistic model of cross-categorization

Most natural domains can be represented in multiple ways: we can categorize foods in terms of their nutritional content or social role, animals in terms of their taxonomic groupings or their ecological niches, and musical instruments in terms of their taxonomic categories or social uses. Previous approaches to modeling human categorization have largely ignored the problem of cross-categorization, focusing on learning just a single system of categories that explains all of the features. Cross-categorization presents a difficult problem: how can we infer categories without first knowing which features the categories are meant to explain? We present a novel model that suggests that human cross-categorization is a result of joint inference about multiple systems of categories and the features that they explain. We also formalize two commonly proposed alternative explanations for cross-categorization behavior: a features-first and an objects-first approach. The features-first approach suggests that cross-categorization is a consequence of attentional processes, where features are selected by an attentional mechanism first and categories are derived second. The objects-first approach suggests that cross-categorization is a consequence of repeated, sequential attempts to explain features, where categories are derived first, then features that are poorly explained are recategorized. We present two sets of simulations and experiments testing the models’ predictions about human categorization. We find that an approach based on joint inference provides the best fit to human categorization behavior, and we suggest that a full account of human category learning will need to incorporate something akin to these capabilities.     

Psychology and Culture: Back to the Future?

Psychology has a poor record in addressing cultural phenomena. One response is to turn to ancient concepts from local traditions and to use these as alternative analytic categories to explain behavior. However, there are problems with such an approach. These concepts will be read from the vantage point of the present and interpreted differently so as to propose different diagnoses (and solutions) for contemporary social problems. As an alternative, rather than using ancient resources as analytic categories in the explanation of behavior, we could instead examine how they are used as categories of practice as people actively make sense of their social context and themselves. Attending to such contemporary ‘lay’ usage (and the contestation it entails) allows for a more dynamic conception of cultural processes than is typical in psychology. More generally, I believe that it is possible to use our psychological constructs so that we can see the distinctive particularities of the phenomena before us in new and interesting ways, and in ways that respect their cultural specificity. This claim is illustrated through reference to recent work using the concept of social identity to illuminate aspects of Hindu pilgrimage.     

Social Categorization in Intergroup Contexts: Three Kinds of Self‐Categorization

In reviewing self‐categorization theory and the literature upon which it is based, we conclude that individuals' attempts to form social categories could lead to three kinds of self‐categorization. We label them intergroup categorization, ingroup categorization, and outgroup categorization. We review literature supporting these three types and argue that they can help to explain and organize the existing evidence. Moreover, we conclude that distinguishing these three kinds of self‐categorization lead to novel predictions regarding social identity, social cognition, and groups. We offer some of those predictions by discussing their potential causes (building from optimal distinctiveness and security seeking literatures) and implications (on topics including prototype complexity, self‐stereotyping, stereotype formation, intergroup behavior, dual identity, conformity, and the psychological implications of perceiving uncategorized collections of people). This paper offers a platform from which to build theoretical and empirical advances in social identity, social cognition, and intergroup relations.     

A Proposed Model of Organizational Behavior Aspects for Employee Performance and Well-being

The present paper outlines a model that incorporates employee performance and employee well-being as outcomes. In the performance outcome category, the model includes three forms of employee performance—task performance, contextual performance or organizational citizenship behavior, and negative behavior. In the well-being outcome category, it covers six forms of employee well-being namely; physical well-being, emotional/subjective well-being, psychological well-being, social well-being, ethical well-being, and spiritual well-being. In outlining the proposed model, the paper first briefly describes three forms of employee performance and six forms of employee well-being. It then discusses six models from the existing literature about organizational behavior aspects that address employee performance and/or well-being. Based on these models, the paper outlines a model of organizational behavior aspects for positive employee-related outcomes of employee performance and employee well-being. This proposed model identifies broad categories of organizational behavior aspects based on six existing models and arranges them in a plausible sequence of interrelationships.