Religion and Partisanship in Canada

Using a survey of three thousand Canadian adults conducted by the Angus Reid Group in the autumn of 1996, we examine the continuing role of religion in shaping partisan preferences. We find that traditional religious alignments still have some impact, but are being reshaped by both religious and political developments. We find that Evangelical Protestants are drawn toward the new Reform Party, Mainline Protestants still tend toward the Progressive Conservatives, and Catholics—both English‐and French‐speaking—remain the bulwark of the Liberal Party. The New Democratic Party, however, finds its greatest resonance among secular Canadians, and the Bloc Quebecois is strongest among nominal, rather than practicing, French‐speaking Catholics. In multivariate analysis, these religious variables stand up well against other influences in explaining partisan preferences.     

Cognitive and Attitudinal Factors in the Analysis of Alternatives to Binge Drinking1

The present study examined cognitive and attitudinal factors relevant to binge-drinking tendencies in a college sample. Results indicate that positive expectations about binge-drinking activities were related to binge-drinking tendencies. Binge-drinking tendencies were also negatively related to expectations regarding nonbinge-drinking alternatives. General attitudes toward drinking and normative influences were found to have complex influences on binge-drinking tendencies involving indirect, direct, and moderated effects. The findings are discussed with respect to developing prevention programs.     

Predicting Immigrants' Attitudes Toward Multiculturalism Using a Measure of Its Perceived Benefits

We examined the predictors of attitudes toward multiculturalism in a sample of Asian and African immigrants. Multiculturalism was measured in terms of its perceived benefits as realized through Canadian government policy. As well as replicating past findings, two hypotheses derived from social identity theory are supported: Canadian identity and acculturation into Canadian society were significant predictors of attitudes toward multiculturalism. Counter to previous research findings, perceived discrimination was a negative predictor of these attitudes. The distinction between predicting support for attitudes toward multiculturalism measured as an ideology versus attitudes toward multiculturalism measured in terms of its perceived benefits is discussed.     

Drooping out: Relationship of speaking anxiety to self-esteem, crime, and educational achievement.

This study focused on the relationship that anxiety about speaking has to educational achievement, self-esteem, and type of crime. The data gathered from 46 female felons indicated significant relationships and suggested that programs designed to decrease anxiety about speaking can be effectively presented. Perhaps such treatment should be the first step in developing and correcting deficiencies in skills thereby preventing the skid toward dropping out and delinquency.     

Parent involvement in school: English speaking versus Spanish speaking families

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between three predictor variables (attitude toward school, parent-child communication, and school commitment action) and the criterion variable (parent involvement) in a representative sample and to examine if these relationships were consistent across three groups (English speaking Caucasian family, English speaking Latino family, and Spanish speaking Latino families). Using a national database (N = 9.841), multi-group SEM analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between three predictor variables and the criterion variable in three family groups. While all three predictor variables significantly predicted parent involvement in English speaking Caucasian and Latino families, only two variables (parent-child communication and school commitment actions), significantly predicted parent involvement in Spanish speaking Latino families. The results of this study suggest that when administrators, teachers and counselors in school strive to share specific school-related information with Latino families, Spanish speaking families are more likely to become involved with schools.     

Restoring Equity or Introducing Bias? A Contingency Model of Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Programs1

We developed a model to explain how an individual's attitude toward the group targeted by affirmative action impacts support for the program. In this model, attitude toward the targeted group influences the extent to which an individual perceives discrimination to be responsible for workforce disparities. Perceived discrimination affects fairness judgments of affirmative action programs with the effect contingent on the extent to which the remedy involves preferential treatment. To test this, participants were told about the selection system in a company in which minorities were underrepresented. Participants evaluated the extent to which they believed that discrimination occurs in the hiring process and 3 possible remedies. Results supported attitudes toward the targeted minority group as an antecedent of perceived discrimination and found that the amount of perceived discrimination was negatively related to fairness judgments of opportunity enhancement programs, but positively related to evaluations of programs that involved preferential treatment. Fairness judgments were positively related to support for all 3 affirmative action programs.     

Spanish version of the Investment Model Scale

Voluminous work has catalogued the utility of Rusbult's (1980) investment model of commitment processes in understanding why some relationships persist whereas others fail. To date this work has been conducted almost exclusively with samples of English‐speaking individuals. To facilitate testing novel hypotheses among Spanish‐speaking populations as well examining various cross‐cultural questions, we present a Spanish version of the Investment Model Scale (Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1998). With a sample of Spanish‐speaking individuals from Chile, we demonstrate that our translation has the same structural properties as the English version (Study 1) and has good predictive validity (Study 2). The Spanish version of the Investment Model Scale will enable researchers to sample a larger subset of the population and allow for the examination of cultural influences on relationship processes.     

The evaluation of stress management services by Canadian organizations

Although there is a recognition that evaluation plays an important role in organizational programs to manage stress in the workplace, the literature shows that few evaluations are conducted and that many suffer from serious methodological inadequacies. A mail survey was conducted with a random sample of 500 Canadian organizations having at least 500 employees. Results from the 210 responding organizations revealed that only about 16% of organizations evaluate such programs and services and even at that major methodological weaknesses are apparent. Results are also presented by industry group and organizational size. Finally, several recommendations are offered to enhance the evaluation role in organizations.This study was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the annual conference of the Canadian Psychological Association in Calgary, June 1991.     

Religiosity, Personality, and Happiness: A Study among Israeli Male Undergraduates

A sample of 203 male Hebrew speaking undergraduate students completed the Hebrew translation of the Oxford Happiness Inventory together with the Katz–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism and the short form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data demonstrate that Eysenck's dimensional model of personality provides significant prediction of individual differences in both attitude toward Judaism and happiness. After taking personality into account there is a small but statistically significant positive correlation between religiosity and happiness.     

Reliability and Validity of a French Translation of a Short Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity

The reliability and validity of a French translation of the 7-item short form of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was examined among a sample of 462 female French university students. Analysis supports the reliability and validity of the scale and commends it for further use among French speaking samples.     

Target selection patterns in rape

Both theoretical and empirical studies of decision making in target selection have shown that this process is highly dependent on the physical environment. However, research specifically investigating decision making in sex offenders' target selection is scarce. The aims of the current study were to (1) identify target selection patterns in a mixed sample of 78 Canadian and Portuguese adult rapists, (2) investigate how geographical decision making influences target selection patterns, and (3) test the influence of the type of environment on target selection patterns. The results indicate that Canadian and Portuguese rapists exhibit different target selection patterns but that their geographical decision making is congruent and consistent with the environment within which they operate. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intention to Participate in Predictive Genetic Testing for Hereditary Cancer: The Role of Attitude toward Uncertainty

This study aimed to identify factors predictive of intentions to participate in genetic testing for hereditary cancer. Measures of the psychosocial influences on intention were based on the theories of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behaviour (TPB) and a new measure of Attitude toward Uncertainty. The participants (the breast cancer sample, n = 124; the colon cancer sample, n = 168) were recruited via a general practitioner's patient database and asked to complete postal questionnaires. The overall response rate was 57.4% (54.7% in the colon cancer sample, 61.4% in the breast cancer sample). In the colon cancer sample, 72% of respondents stated that they would choose to participate in genetic testing for colon cancer susceptibility. In the breast cancer sample, 77% of respondents stated that they would choose to participate in genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. The TRA components (attitudes and subjective norms) and Attitude toward Uncertainty emerged as the strongest predictors of intention. The Attitude toward Uncertainty appears to moderate intention in that participants with more negative attitudes toward uncertainty are more likely to undergo the test than those seeking more certainty.     

PERCEPTION OF THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT OF SPEECH BY CANADIAN AND MEXICAN CHILDREN,ADOLESCENTS, AND ADULTS

The study at hand was undertaken to assess and compare the respective abilities of Canadian and Mexican subjects to identify emotion in speech. Canadian and Mexican female teachers, speaking whatever words they wished in their own languages, attempted to simulate four emotional states (i.e., happiness, sadness, love, and anger). After the initial recording, these samples were passed through an electronic filter which removed the semantic content while leaving intact the tonal qualities of the speech. The filtered vocal expressions were played to Canadian and Mexican subjects 5, 9, 13, 17, 25, 45, and 65 years of age. From 5 through 25, there was a progressive increase with age in ability to identify the emotion expressed. Ability did level off, however, and eventually even decreased (such that the 65 year-olds performed less accurately than the other adult groups). Overall, the Mexican subjects were significantly more sensitive to emotion in speech than their Canadian counterparts. As well, both Canadian and Mexican subjects judged speech samples from Mexican speakers more accurately than those from Canadian speakers.     

Psychological Reactance and Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Tobacco-Control Measures

The theory of psychological reactance predicts that, to the extent that smoking-control measures are perceived as threatening the individual's freedom to choose among behavioral alternatives, they may be met with resistance. Data were collected from a national representative sample of 2,400 young people (ages 16–20) by telephone interviews. Dispositional reactance was shown to be associated with smoking. Principal components analyses revealed that a distinction should be made between attitudes toward weak and attitudes toward strong smoking-control measures. Attitudes toward strong measures were particularly negative among regular smokers. Among regular smokers, dispositional reactance was found to be significantly associated with attitudes toward strong tobacco-control measures. Processes of psychological reactance deserve attention when designing smoking control programs.     

The influence of speaking rate on articulatory hypokinesia in parkinsonian dysarthria

This study addressed the question of whether or not speaking rate influences articulatory hypokinesia in dysarthria associated with Parkinson's disease. Analyses of parkinsonian speech samples revealed mean speaking rates consistent with normal controls. Thus, speaking rate was not abnormal overall in this group of dysarthric subjects. Kinematic analyses of labial displacement amplitude, peak instantaneous velocity, and movement time were made during repetitive syllable production spoken at two speaking rates: 3-5 syllables/sec and 5-7 syllables/sec. The results suggested that labial movements were normal at the slower of the two speaking rates. Conversely, labial movements became hypokinetic as speaking rate increased to the rate consistent with conversational speech. These findings provide a physiologic basis for the perception of hypokinetic dysarthria in Parkinson's disease and suggest that speaking rate may be an important control variable contributing to articulatory hypokinesia in Parkinson's disease. Moreover, these findings provide quantitative evidence that articulatory hypokinesia plays a dominant role in the perception of parkinsonian dysarthria.     

Acculturation and adjustment among immigrant Chinese parents: mediating role of parenting efficacy

This study examined parenting efficacy beliefs as a mediator of the association between acculturation and adjustment. The sample consisted of 177 immigrant Chinese mothers and fathers with early adolescent children in Canada. Acculturation was assessed bidimensionally as Canadian and Chinese orientations. A latent psychological adjustment variable was composed of symptoms of depression, feelings of self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Results showed that relations between Canadian orientation and psychological adjustment were partially mediated by parenting efficacy. As expected, the more parents were oriented toward Canadian culture, the more efficacious they felt in their parenting, which in turn was associated with better psychological adjustment. In contrast, mediation of relations between Chinese orientation and psychological adjustment was not supported, as Chinese orientation was not associated with parenting efficacy and was positively associated with psychological adjustment for mothers only. Similar results were found when the meditational model was extended to evaluate parenting practices as an outcome (i.e., warmth, reasoning, and monitoring). That is, parenting efficacy mediated the relation between higher Canadian orientation and more positive parenting practices, whereas Chinese orientation was unrelated to parenting practices. Invariance testing suggested that the models were similar for mothers and fathers. Results support the theory that higher orientation to Canadian culture may advance feelings of parenting efficacy because parents have the cultural knowledge and skills to feel confident parenting in a new intercultural context. Further, they support the expectation that parenting efficacy beliefs, in turn, are important determinants of psychological adjustment and effective parenting for immigrant parents.     

The Attitudes and Attitude Estimates of Catholic,Protestant, and Jewish Students

Summary

This study was a cross-cultural extension of previous research concerning the relationship between attitudes toward homosexuality, attitudes toward heterosexual sexual practices, personal sex-guilt, and sex stereotyping. One hundred twelve Brazilian male college students completed a series of attitude measures previously administered to a comparable sample of Canadians. As had been previously found in Canada, antihomosexual (Anti-H) Ss were more disapproving of various heterosexual sexual practices and reported greater personal sex-guilt than prohomosexual (Pro-H) Ss. The intercorrelations among the three principle attitude scales were only moderately positive in both samples, suggesting that attitudes toward homosexuality are somewhat independent of more general sexual attitudes. Anti-H Ss also stereotyped the sexes more than did Pro-H respondents and were more willing than Pro-H Ss to label a male as homosexual when he exhibited what they thought was a single feminine characteristic. In these respects the Brazilian and Canadian results were strikingly similar.

More antihomosexual prejudice was found in the Brazilians. They also assigned much higher probabilities to a “feminine” male being homosexual than did Canadian Ss. The findings of this study provide potent cross-cultural confirmation of Churchill's theory of antihomosexual prejudice within a sex-negative environment.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Job Stressors: A Study in a Third World Setting

The present study investigates the antecedents and consequences of job stressors, especially role conflict and role ambiguity, in an environment where multiculturalism is a dominant feature of the workforce. This study used a sample of 397 employees in various manufacturing and service organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Path analysis revealed that age is negatively related to role conflict and positively to role ambiguity, and that nationality is positively related to role ambiguity. Results further indicate that role conflict directly and negatively influences job satisfaction, whereas role ambiguity directly and indirectly influences job satisfaction. Role conflict (directly), role ambiguity (directly and indirectly) and positively influence absenteeism. Both role conflict and role ambiguity negatively influence affective and behavioral tendency dimensions of attitudes toward organizational change, while role ambiguity directly and negatively influences cognitive attitude toward organizational change. Implications, limitations, lines of future research, and contributions were discussed.     

Predicting return of fear following exposure therapy with an implicit measure of attitudes

We sought to advance understanding of the processes underlying the efficacy of exposure therapy and particularly the phenomenon of return of fear (ROF) following treatment by drawing on a social psychological view of phobias as attitudes. Specifically, a dual process theory of attitude-related behavior predicts that a positive response to exposure therapy may reflect change in either the automatic (the attitude representation itself) or controlled (skills and confidence at coping with the fear) responses to the phobic stimulus, or both. However, if the attitude representation remains negative following treatment, ROF should be more likely. We tested this hypothesis in a clinical sample of individuals with public speaking phobia using a single-session exposure therapy protocol previously shown to be efficacious but also associated with some ROF. Consistent with predictions, a post-treatment implicit measure of attitudes toward public speaking (the Personalized Implicit Association Test [PIAT]) predicted ROF at 1-month follow-up. These results suggest that change in the automatically activated attitude toward the phobic stimulus is an important goal of exposure therapy and that an implicit measure like the PIAT can provide a useful measure of such change by which to gauge the adequacy of exposure treatment and predict its long-term efficacy.     

Ratings of speech naturalness of children ages 8-16 years

The focus of this cross-sectional study was the investigation of Speech Naturalness (speech that sounds normal or natural to the listener) of 60 normal speaking children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 16 years. 26 naive adult listeners rated the naturalness of videotaped and computer-presented speech samples, using a 9-point-Likert rating scale (1: highly natural sounding speech and 9: highly unnatural sounding speech). The children and adolescents who participated as speakers were distributed among 5 age groups (8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 yr.) with 6 boys and 6 girls in each group. Each child demonstrated normal articulation, language, voice, and speech fluency skills. Age and sex comparisons indicated boys' and girls' speech was rated comparably; however, 8-yr.-olds' speech was rated as significantly less natural than those of 12-, 14-, and 16-yr.-olds. Preliminary ratings of Speech Naturalness for normal speaking children were presented. Suggestions for the clinical application of the findings as a target criterion in treatment programs with communicatively impaired children were suggested. Replication with a larger and more representative sample is in order.