After School Integration—What? Problems in Social Learning

A totally integrated school must include more than biracial enrollment. Open and positive communication at all social and educational levels is paramount in overcoming the complex problems related to the transition from segregated to integrated education. Remedial classes based on standardized achievement tests results can lead to intraschool de facto segregation and may retard positive interaction. Teachers assigned to integrated schools should be of demonstrated competence and should not be the recipients of a “last chance” teaching assignment. While teachers and counselors sharing race in common with students may lead to more easily established positive interactions and identification, the opportunity for wholesome interactions with competent staff of another race must not be ignored. School integration should occur at the early elementary levels to allow minority group students to profit from quality education throughout their academic careers.     

Promoting School Students’ Physical Activity: A Social Ecological Perspective

Guided by a social ecological perspective, the aim of this study was to investigate the predictive strength of individual (barrier self-efficacy), social environmental (support from parents, friends, physical education teachers), and physical environmental variables (equipment accessibility, neighborhood safety) toward physical activity among school students. Participants were 285 students enrolled in a suburban public school. Hierarchical linear regression analysis highlighted the influence of self-efficacy, social support from parents, friends, physical education teachers, and accessible equipment on students’ physical activity. The findings indicated that physical educators and health promoters need to consider multiple factors as they design effective interventions to promote physical activity and prevent physical inactivity among school students. This study also supported the use of a social ecological perspective to investigate students’ physical activity.     

“Ladettes,” Social Representations,and Aggression

The increasing share of arrests for violent offences by young women in Britain has prompted the media to brand such offenders as ladettes. Their behavior is argued to result from their adoption of laddish attitudes that in turn is derived from new, aggressive images of women in the media. These images explicitly portray female aggression as an instrumental act in contrast to the traditionally expressive stereotype of female aggression. We examine the relationship, in an undergraduate sample, among laddishness (here operationalized as attitudes that support the acceptability of traditionally working-class youthful male social behavior by young women), instrumental and expressive social representations of aggression, and self-reported aggression. In both genders, measures of aggression are correlated with holding a more instrumental representation of aggression. For young women, there is no relationship between laddish attitudes and either aggression or social representations. For young men, approval of laddish behavior by women is negatively associated with an instrumental view of aggression that is positively correlated with three measures of aggression.     

Should Social Aggression be Considered “Antisocial”?

There is converging evidence that physical aggression and non-aggressive rule-breaking constitute meaningfully distinct, if somewhat overlapping, dimensions of antisocial behavior, with different developmental trajectories, demographic correlates, and etiologies. Social aggression can also be factor-analytically and demographically distinguished from physically aggressive and rule-breaking antisocial behavior. However, there is ongoing debate as to whether social aggression should also be considered “antisocial” in the way the term is commonly understood, given that socially aggressive behaviors are generally legal and nearly normative during adolescence. The current study sought to empirically evaluate the notion that social aggression constitutes a form of antisocial behavior that is separable from other forms of antisocial behavior. We thus conducted a preliminary study to examine whether social aggression was associated with other forms of antisocial behavior and a variety of correlates of antisocial behavior in a sample of 497 undergraduates. Analyses revealed that social aggression was independently associated with other measures of antisocial behavior, substance use and unethical behaviors, as well as the personality traits known to predict current and future antisocial behavior. These associations were particularly pronounced in women. Such findings are consistent with our hypothesis that social aggression constitutes a distinct form of antisocial behavior.     

“Neighborhood Matters”: Assessment of Neighborhood Social Processes

Neighborhoods are important contexts for understanding development and behavior, but cost and difficulty have challenged attempts to develop measures of neighborhood social processes at the neighborhood level. This article reports the development, reliability, and validity of Neighborhood Matters, a collection of instruments assessing three aspects of neighborhood social processes, namely, norms (five subscales), informal social control (six subscales and total scale), social connection (two subscales), as well as individual scales for assessing neighborhood change, neighborhood resources, and neighborhood problems. Six hundred six residents of Chicago, chosen at random from 30 neighborhoods (defined by US Census tracts), completed the measures. Neighborhoods were selected randomly from pools that balanced poverty and predominant (African‐American vs. Latino Hispanic) ethnicity. Within each neighborhood 20 individuals were selected at random, balanced by age (18–24 vs. 30+) and gender. Scaling and item analysis permitted reduction of the number of items in each scale. All subscales had individual‐level internal consistency in excess of .7. Generalizability theory analysis using random effects regression models found significant shared variance at the neighborhood level for three norms subscales, four informal social control subscales, both social connection subscales, and the neighborhood change, resources and problems scales. Validity analyses found significant associations between neighborhood‐level scores on multiple Neighborhood Matters scales and neighborhood levels of violent, property, and drug‐related crime. Discussion focuses on potential applications of the Neighborhood Matters scales in community research.     

“Critique” immanent in “practice”: New Frankfurt School and American pragmatism

As a result of a new understanding of the relation between theory and practice, the “New Frankfurt School,” with Jürgen Habermas as its major representative, highly values the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism, in contrast to the first generation Critical Theorists represented by Max Horkheimer. In Habermas, the idea of “critique” is, both substantially and methodologically, closely connected with the idea of “praxis” in the following senses: communicative action, rational argumentation, public discussion and political culture. “Critique” is thus found to be immanent in “praxis”; or, a la Horkheimer, pragmatism turns out to be a “critical philosophical analysis” without “falling back upon objective reason and mythology.” __________ Translated from Huadong Shifan Daxue Xuebao 华东示范大学学报 (Journal of Huadong Normal University), 2001 (5), with minor modifications     

Children’s Elementary School Social Experience and Executive Functions Development: Introduction to a Special Section

Children’s executive functions, encompassing inhibitory control, working memory and attention are vital for their self-regulation. With the transition to formal schooling, children need to learn to manage their emotions and behavior in a new and complex social environment that with age increases in the intensity of social interactions with peers and teachers. Stronger executive functions skills facilitate children’s social development. In addition, new experiences in the social environments of school also may influence executive function development. The focus of this special section is on this potential impact of elementary school social experiences with peers and teacher on the development of children’s executive functions. The collection of papers encompass various aspects of peer and teacher social environments, and cover broad as well as specific facets and measures of executive functions including neural responses. The collection of papers sample developmental periods that span preschool through mid-adolescence. In this introduction, we summarize and highlight the main findings of each of the papers, organized around social interactions with peers and interactions with teachers. We conclude our synopsis with implications for future research, and a specific focus on prevention and intervention.     

Culture and Social Obligation: When “Shoulds” Are Perceived as “Wants”

This study explored motivational differences in the perception of social obligations by respondents from individualist versus collectivist cultures. Participants were 120 undergraduate students (60 Latinos and 60 Anglos) who completed a lengthy questionnaire assessing the extent to which they felt obligated to help and wanted to help across a variety of social situations. Although individuals from the two cultures reported a strong sense of obligation with regard to close friends and family members, Latinos expressed a greater desire (i.e., greater perceived “want”) to engage in these “should” behaviors. Furthermore, compared to Anglos, Latinos felt a stronger sense of both shoulds and wants in their motivations to help more distant family and friends. The two groups did not differ in their motivations to help distant acquaintances and strangers. Although wants were associated with life satisfaction for both groups, shoulds were positively associated with life satisfaction for Latinos but not Anglos. Overall, compared to the Anglo students, Latino students perceived helping others as both more obligatory and more personally desirable, suggesting a more congruent view of personal autonomy and societal control in collectivist cultures than in individualist cultures.     

“Sacred Moments”: Social anxiety in a larger perspective

A treatment protocol was developed and piloted to examine whether perception of the sacred dimensions of their lives can be enhanced for people with social anxiety, and if so, whether that has therapeutic benefit. A 10-session manualized group treatment was developed to increase perception of sacredness in various domains of daily life. The treatment is described, as are preliminary results from two pilot groups. The small sample size limits quantitative analysis, but qualitative follow-up interviews, single-case analysis, and case material indicate decreased anxiety over time. Enhanced sense of sacredness appeared useful in broadening attentional focus, interrupting dysfunctional thought patterns, and generating behaviors incompatible with social anxiety. Focusing on sacredness instead of symptoms allowed participants to form supportive interpersonal relationships within the group, providing a corrective experience of social interaction. Although health professionals rarely discuss religion and spirituality with their clients, participants in these pilot groups welcomed the opportunity to do so.     

School psychology consultation: “Frenzied,faddish, or fundamental?”

A review of the current school psychology literature reveals that the term consultation is increasingly used to describe a variety of intervention goals and processes. The history of the consultation role in school psychology and the background and assumptions of three currently popular consultation models are discussed. Finally, suggestions are offered for more precise usage of the term consultation in order to accurately describe, implement, and research the school psychologist's roles.     

How Should What Economists Call “Social Values” Be Measured?

Most economists and some philosophers distinguish individual utilities from interpersonal social values. Even if challenges to that conceptual distinction can be met, further philosophically interesting questions arise. I pursue three in this paper, using, as context for the discussion, health economics and its attempt to discern empirically a social welfare function to help guide rationing decisions. (1) To discern these utilities and values in a manner that is morally appropriate if they are to influence rationing decisions, who should be queried? To discern individual health state utilities, persons in precisely those states should be asked (generically, “patients”), but for social values, representatives of the general public should be. (2) To discern social values, what should representatives of the public be asked? They should be asked “person trade-off” (PTO) questions that encompass their own self-interest, not PTO questions that focus only on others. (3) What must public representatives understand before they respond to such questions? Despite the philosophically complex problem of patient adaptation, they should understand (among other things) the health state utilities elicited from actual patients with the conditions at issue.     

“Socializing” Achievement Goal Theory: The Need for Social Goals

Cultures shape the types of goals that students pursue in the classroom. However, research in achievement goal theory seems to have neglected this cultural aspect with its exclusive focus on individualistically-based goals such as mastery and performance goals. This emphasis on mastery and performance goals may reflect Western individualist psychological thinking. Thus, social goals, which may be more salient in collectivist cultures, are relatively neglected. There is a dearth of studies investigating the role of social goals in academic motivation, and the few studies that did explore them are somewhat problematic. This paper reviews research done within the achievement goal theory, considers the need for more studies on social goals, and concludes with the argument that social goals are important in understanding student motivation especially in collectivist cultures.     

Social Surrogacy and Adjustment: Exploring the Correlates of Having a “Social Helper” for Shy and Non-Shy Young Adolescents

A social surrogate is an individual who offers help and comfort in social situations or makes social events more exciting. In this study of 157 young adolescents (55% female; M_age = 13.84 years, SD = 0.75 years), the authors examined whether the linear and curvilinear associations between self-reported social surrogate use and adjustment outcomes (social problems, loneliness, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms) varied as a function of shyness and gender, after accounting for the effects of positive friendship quality. Regression analyses revealed that low and high levels of social surrogate use were related to greater social problems for all adolescents. In addition, shyness emerged as a moderator for several curvilinear effects. Specifically, results indicated that (a) high levels of social surrogate use were associated with greater anxiety for adolescents high in shyness; and (b) low levels of social surrogate use were associated with greater depressive symptoms for adolescents low in shyness. Findings highlight the developmental importance of specific types of relationship experiences during early adolescence and point to different implications of social surrogate use for shy and non-shy young adolescents.     

Social Science as a Guide to Social Metaphysics?

If we are sympathetic to the project of naturalising metaphysics, how should we approach the metaphysics of the social world? What role can the social sciences play in metaphysical investigation? In the light of these questions, this paper examines three possible approaches to social metaphysics: inference to the best explanation from current social science, conceptual analysis, and Haslanger-inspired ameliorative projects.     

Revisiting Bion’s “Notes on Thinking”: Implications for School Psychologists

Bion’s “Notes on Thinking” (1962a) is not typically associated with the practice of school psychology. However, most of the ideas articulated in the paper, such as the need to learn to engage with what feels frustrating, the capacity to contain emotions and process experiences, and the role of the mother in enabling her child to tolerate emotional states, are applicable to the challenges school psychologists and teachers routinely face in schools. Perhaps the most prominent of these are the need to be able to tolerate and contain the reactions difficult children generate with their acts and the ability to create conditions that help school personnel reflect on the behavior of these children and thus be more attuned to their needs.