Adolescent Smoking Behavior and the Recognition of Cigarette Advertisements1

In a study designed to assess the relationship between smoking status and correct identification of cigarette brands, junior high school students from two schools viewed cigarette and automobile advertisements with brand and model identification deleted. Results showed that adolescents with higher ad recognition scores were more likely to smoke cigarettes. In addition, a relationship was found between age and correct identification of cigarette advertisements, with older students identifying more ads correctly than younger students. No significant effects emerged for identification of automobile advertisements except for sex, with boys identifying more advertisements than girls. Additional findings indicated that even “experimental” smokers, who smoked as little as once per year, recognized significantly more cigarette advertisements than nonsmokers. These and other results are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention and policy issues. It is argued that society's allowance of printed cigarette advertising overlooks adolescents' heightened vulnerability to the kinds of appeals used in cigarette advertisements. Present policy also overlooks adolescents' relative unresponsiveness to the health risk information required in cigarette advertisements.     

Spiritual Consumption in the United States: The Rumi phenomenon

This article deals with the impact of Jalal al-Din al-Rumi's work on the American public. It tackles how his work is taken nowadays out of the Muslim Sufi tradition into an elusive spiritual movement which the author terms the 'New Sufism'. The article studies the differences and similarities between the scholarly approach to the work of Rumi and the 'New Sufism' approach and focuses on four main aspects of this transition. The first treats the idea of human love in its relation to the divine love in both approaches. The second studies the concept of a dancing universe in both views. The third treats the theme of illusion versus reality in the two perspectives. The fourth analyses the differences between Muslim scholars and the 'New Sufism' with regard to the concept of emptiness. In the conclusion the article stresses how the work of Rumi is currently 'used' by the 'New Sufism' to treat depression and sell products, and how Americans in general have a tendency to 'play' with the religious traditions of the world .     

Cigarette Smoking and Panic Psychopathology

ABSTRACT— The present paper summarizes empirical evidence suggesting that smoking and panic problems often co-occur; that smoking is a risk factor for, and may serve to maintain, panic attacks and panic disorder; and that premorbid panic-specific vulnerability variables and full-blown panic problems are related to coping-oriented smoking motives and perhaps to the maintenance of smoking behavior. An integrative model is offered to stimulate further work on this topic, followed by future directions for research.     

Smoking cross-culturally: Risk perceptions among young adults in Denmark and the United States

Research examining smokers’ understanding of their smoking risk reveals that smokers acknowledge some risk but often deny or minimize personal risk. We examined risk perceptions of lung cancer among smokers and non-smokers in a smoking-lenient (Denmark) and a smoking-prohibitive (the United States) culture. Participants were 275 Danish students attending trade schools (mean age 22.6 years) and 297 US students attending community colleges in Florida (mean age 23.6 years). Results revealed cross-cultural differences suggesting that Danish smokers showed greater risk minimization than US smokers. In addition, in both countries the risk of a typical smoker was rated as lower by smokers than non-smokers, and smokers rated their personal risk as lower than they rated the risk of the typical smoker. Cross-cultural differences in moralization of smoking might be one explanation for these findings.     

Cigarette Smoking in the Movies: The Influence of Product Placement on Attitudes Toward Smoking and Smokers1

Product placement in which actors use products on screen to promote those products, has received little research attention. The current research examines the effects of cigarette use in movies on various attitudes toward smoking and to ward the actor using the product. Participants (N= 120) viewed a 20‐min clip of Die Hard; half viewing a clip in which the lead character smoked, and half viewing a clip in which the lead character did not smoke. Nonsmokers who were low in need for cognition and who saw the lead character smoking reported more favorable attitudes about smoking. In addition smokers who saw the character smoking rated him as more appealing, while nonsmokers' ratings of the character were not affected by his smoking. Results are discussed in terms of the role of the placement of cigarettes in movies in the development of important smoking‐related attitudes.     

Parental Smoking and the “Epidemic” Spread of Cigarette Smoking1

“Epidemic” models of transitions between stages of cigarette smoking describe the spread of smoking behavior through face-to-face encounters. An epidemic model was successfully fitted that allowed epidemic parameters to be conditioned on the smoking status of adolescents' parents. Model comparisons supported the conclusion that the transition from nonsmoker to trier involved social contacts, whereas the transition from trier to regular smoker was best modeled as a constant rate (i.e., did not depend on the population prevalence of smokers). The transition rate from nonsmoker to trier was more rapid in children of smoking parents than in children of nonsmoking parents. Adolescents with and without smoking parents did not differ in the rate of transition from trier to regular smoking.     

Predicting the Onset of Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study1

In a longitudinal study, the second-year-smoking status of adolescents who were initially Nonsmokers or Triers was predicted from their Year 1 standing on three types of social psychological variables: Ajzen and Fishbein's factors (predicting smoking transitions from attitudes, normative beliefs and behavioral intentions about smoking); Jessor and Jessor's distal variables (predicting smoking transitions from more generalized personality and perceived environment factors), and smoking environment variables (predicting smoking transitions from the extent of smoking models in an adolescent's social milieu). The predictive power of these three categories of factors was compared. All three classes of social psychological variables were statistically significant predictors of smoking transition, although the Ajzen and Fishbein variables were more important for Triers while the Jessor and Jessor and smoking environment variables were more important for initial Never Smokers. Moreover, each category of variables made independent contributions to the prediction of smoking transition. Finally, there were several age and sex differences in the relative importance of predictor variables. Implications of these findings for the design of effective smoking prevention programs are discussed. Smoking prevention programs might be more effective if they were aimed at a specific high risk audience (as identified by the current study) rather than at a general adolescent population.     

Attitude and Norm Accessibility and Cigarette Smoking

Social norms and attitudes play a critical role in adolescent smoking initiation and maintenance. Focus theory predicts that making a norm more salient—and thereby temporarily increasing its accessibility from memory—will increase the influence of the norm on behavior for as long as the norm remains salient. Likewise, the process model of the attitude–behavior relationship predicts that accessible attitudes are more predictive of behavior. The present research examining the role of the chronic accessibility of smoking related normative beliefs and attitudes in predicting smoking behavior in college students. Attitude and norm accessibility independently accounted for significant variability in smoking behavior beyond that accounted for by traditional measures of attitude and subjective norm.     

Psychosocial Predictors of Change in Cigarette Smoking

Over a period of 6 months, factors related to change in cigarette smoking were investigated in a group of 250 adult outpatients, all of whom smoked at the time of enrollment in the study. Among the variables tested were demographic, social, and situational factors, beliefs about the health effects of smoking and difficulty of quitting, and intentions regarding future smoking. Information was gathered at baseline and the first and sixth months by means of telephone interviews. Relative to smoking at 6 months, intention, education, and professional advice made independent contributions to cessation. The processes of quitting were examined in more detail. Attempting to quit was related to intention, professional advice, level of smoking, and social cues to smoke. Among those who tried to stop, difficulty with urges to smoke, and education affected success versus failure. Earlier success related to less anxiety and tension, and to less difficulty in not smoking when in negative situations. The findings suggest that a complex set of social and cognitive factors affect change in smoking behavior, and that somewhat different factors are operative at different stages.     

Social Discounting and Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy

In this study, we examined the association between social discounting and smoking status in a cohort of pregnant cigarette smokers (n = 91), quitters (n = 27), or never‐smokers (n = 30). The smokers and quitters were participants in clinical trials on smoking cessation and relapse prevention, whereas the never‐smokers were controls in a study on nicotine withdrawal during pregnancy. Social discounting was assessed using a paper‐and‐pencil task that assesses the amount of hypothetical money a person is willing to forgo in order to share with individuals in their social network ranging from the person who is emotionally closest to them to a mere acquaintance. The amount that women were willing to forgo in order to share decreased hyperbolically as a function of social distance, with smokers exhibiting steeper discounting functions (i.e., less generosity) than quitters or never‐smokers; discounting functions of quitters and never‐smokers did not differ significantly. In multivariate analyses controlling for potential sociodemographic and other confounds, social discounting remained a significant predictor of smoking status among smokers versus quitters. Overall, these results suggest that individual differences in social discounting may be a factor influencing the choices that women make about quitting smoking upon learning of a pregnancy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cigarette Smoking, Anxiety, and Depression

This review provides a detailed analysis of anxiety and depression as they relate to each stage of the cigarette smoking cycle: initiation, maintenance, and cessation with an emphasis on nicotine withdrawal. An analysis of the literature confirms that cigarette smoking is highly comorbid with anxiety disorders and clinical depression, and that this relationship appears to be moderated by factors such as age of the smoker, type of disorder, and level of nicotine dependence. Studies also offer evidence to suggest a relationship between smoking and both subclinical anxiety and depression. Research findings have not revealed whether common factors influence the development of anxiety, depression, and smoking, whether anxiety and depression lead to smoking, or whether the reverse is true. Nevertheless, a current understanding of the links among smoking, anxiety, and depression confirms current prevention and cessation techniques, as well as suggests new directions for research and clinical practice.     

Effects of Exposure to Cigarette Advertisements on Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Smoking1

One hundred seventy-eight adolescents viewed a magazine that either contained or did not contain 4 cigarette advertisements. Adolescents who have tried smoking reported more positive attitudes toward smoking. Of the adolescents who have tried smoking, those in the cigarette-advertisement-present condition expressed more positive attitudes toward smoking than did those in the cigarette-advertisement-absent condition. Consistent with the prediction that adolescents who have tried (vs. never tried) smoking would attend more to cigarette advertisements, adolescents in the cigarette-advertisement-present condition who have tried (vs. never tried) smoking correctly recognized more cigarette advertisements. Taken together, these results suggest that adolescents who have tried smoking are attending to cigarette advertisements and are impacted by cigarette advertisements; specifically, cigarette advertisements bolster these adolescents' attitudes toward smoking.     

Some Potential Negative Social Consequences of Cigarette Smoking: Marketing Research in Reverse1

The effects of cigarette smoking on first impressions were examined in an interlocking series of studies. Provided college students evaluated peers who were neither extremely attractive nor unattractive, smoking typically reduced the positivity of evaluations regardless of participants' smoking. Targets photographed with smoking material were rated, for example, to be less considerate, calm, disciplined, honest, healthy, well-mannered, and happy than when smoking material was absent. Replication with apparently older participants evaluating college students did not reveal smoking to influence ratings strongly. Further replication did not reveal smoking material simply to influence college students' ratings of an attractive professional model. These results were compared with earlier studies of the effects of cigarette smoking on interpersonal evaluation and an educational unit for deterring smoking was discussed.     

The Prevention of Cigarette Smoking in Children: A Comparison of Four Strategies1

Adolescent cigarette smoking remains a serious public health problem. Recent preventive efforts have concentrated on the social influences which encourage smoking onset. They appear more effective than earlier efforts which considered primarily the long term health risks of smoking. In spite of this progress, it has not been possible to identify the necessary or sufficient conditions for the reported treatment effects due largely to issues of research design. We report data from two consecutive studies designed to address this problem. In each study, four treatment strategies were compared for their effectiveness in deterring smoking onset and in minimizing future smoking levels. In the second study, an untreated reference condition was also included. Approximately 7000 students participated in the two studies. Baseline data were gathered in September of the seventh-grade year, interventions were conducted during the full year, and post-test and followup data were collected annually beginning in May of that year. These data suggest that a program which teaches specific skills to resist social pressures to begin smoking and which teaches students about the short term physiological consequences of smoking is more effective than a program which concentrates on long term health consequences. Perhaps most important, the use of same-age peer leaders as teachers appears to be a necessary condition for successful use of this intervention program.     

Adolescents' Cognitive Appraisals of Cigarette Smoking: An Application of the Protection Motivation Theory1

High-school students (N = 690) provided their cognitive appraisals of protection motivation theory (PMT; Prentice-Dunn & Rogers, 1986) factors in the context of cigarette smoking. A logistic regression analysis revealed that PMT predicted adolescents' current smoking behavior. Cognitions, including greater personal vulnerability to smoking-related diseases, minimizing the severity of the consequences of smoking, perceiving adolescent male smokers to be popular and mature, and perceiving limited health benefits for not smoking were found to be significant predictors of current smoking behavior. Intending to quit smoking in the near future was related to smoking occasionally, as opposed to regularly, and to perceiving the long-term risks of smoking to be severe. Possible applications for intervention programs are discussed.     

Third‐Party Dispute Resolution in India and the United States1

This study investigates the dispute‐resolution approaches of 50 Indian panchayats (a team of 5 male elders), 50 Indian elders, and 50 U.S. informal mediators. A literature review as well as preliminary interviews with Indian students in the United States (n = 90) and with villagers in India (n = 60) established that Indian villagers rely principally on a panchayat or male elder to handle their disputes. Our subsequent study of panchayats and elders in India indicated that they do manage disputes and that their approaches differ in several distinctive ways. Subsequent qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the Indian elders' techniques with those of the U.S. mediators indicated that Indian elders were more assertive in their approaches.     

美国医师的职责

在此讨论的主要问题是,什么样的社会力量能使医师对诊治病人和技术操作的质量担负起责任？这种社会力量的来源之一是职业理念;另一种约束力来自于正规社会机构的直接管理,相关权限的依据是国家和地区规范医院和医师行为的法律。第三种规范的形式和政府司法部门紧密相关,它在很大程度上是一种间接性的约束力,涉及病人因医疗事故对医生及其投保的责任保险公司所进行的索赔和诉讼。强调了第三种力量,并突出了在医师和医疗行业圈之外的社会力量对医疗活动的指导作用。     

Women in the United States Army

This article addresses the recent increase in the utilization of women in the United States Army. It traces the history of women in the Army from the turn of the twentieth century to the present and recounts research (both published and unpublished) concerning (1) attitudes toward the use of women in the Army, (2) the impact the changing role of women has had on the Army's ability to perform its mission, and (3) the adjustment of women to the Army. Finally, the author speculates about the future of women in the Army.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the meeting of the Southwest Regional Conference Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, Dallas, April 1978. This paper was written while the author was a Research Scientist at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect sponsorship or an institutional position of the U.S. Department of Defense or any agency of the U.S. government. The author would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of an anonymous referee.