Perceived Parental Attitudes and Family Concepts of Disturbed Adolescents,Normal Siblings and Normal Controls

This study tested the hypotheses that disturbed adolescents perceive lower parental attitudes (positive regard, empathic understanding, genuineness and unconditional regard) than are perceived by their normal siblings and normal controls; that normal siblings do not differ from normal controls on these variables; that levels of perceived attitudes are positively related to family concept measures of adjustment and satisfaction; and that attitudes perceived in one parent are positively associated with those perceived in the other. The hypotheses were substantially confirmed. In contrast to both normal groups, the disturbed adolescents failed to show positive relationships between maternal attitudes and the family concept measures and between perceived paternal and maternal attitudes.     

SEX DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSE TO SIMULATED EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE CASES

Personnel managers examined vignettes in which an employee had made a serious judgmental error. The employee was seen in a traditional male position (construction supervisor, production manager), or in a relatively more female-identified position (public relations officer, executive secretary), and was identified as male or female. Individuals employed in male-identified positions were viewed as more competent than those in traditional female positions. Overall, evaluations were correlated with recommended personnel actions. Punishing personnel action was least likely to be recommended, however, for males employed in traditional male positions. The results are interpreted as consistent with role theory and with certain attributional concepts. Implications are discussed for career strategy and for personnel policy.     

Estimating group size: effects of category membership,differential construal and selective exposure

The present study investigates the role of category membership, differential construal and selective exposure in consensus estimation concerning a relatively involving social categorization, namely religion. Christians, differing in their degree of religious involvement, and non-believers were asked to estimate the percentage of Christians in the general population. Respondents were expected to construe the general category of Christians differentially as a function of their own (religious) behaviours. These differential construals were expected to mediate respondents' estimates. Further, selective exposure, i.e. the religious behaviours of friends and relatives, was expected to affect the estimates. Results show a negative relationship between religious involvement and the estimated percentage of Christians, indicating a False Uniqueness Effect. As predicted, estimates were mediated by respondents' construal of the general category; involved Christians construed this category in more narrow terms than did the other two groups and that construal was related to lower consensus estimates. Further, selective exposure was positively related to consensus estimates. Thus, construal processes and selective exposure had opposing effects on respondents' consensus estimates.     

The Role of Attitudes in Reactions Toward Diversity in Workgroups1

The present study examined attitudes toward diversity as a moderator of outcomes of diversity in workgroups. Two studies were conducted that focused on the development of the Attitudes Toward Diverse Workgroups Scale (ADWS) and on the impact of diversity attitudes on task performance and psychological reactions in actual face‐to‐face diverse brainstorming groups. The first study supported the internal consistency and stability of the ADWS and revealed that it was related, in the predicted way, to the Big Five and general prejudice. The second study revealed that high scores on the productive and affective dimensions of the ADWS enhanced brainstorming performance (quality of ideas) in actual diverse groups and positive psychological reactions to the group experiences, respectively.     

Longitudinal Effects of Television on Children's Leisure-Time Reading A Test of Three Explanatory Models

Using a sample of 1,050 Dutch elementary schoolchildren who were in Grades 2 and 4 at the outset of the research, this study investigated (a) the longitudinal effects of television viewing on the frequency with which children read books and comic books at home, and (b) the causal mechanisms that underlie television's effects on leisure-time reading. The children were surveyed three times, at 1-year intervals. Structural equations analysis suggested that television viewing reduced children's comic book reading only in the period from Year 2 to Year 3. Book reading, however, was found to be reduced by television viewing over both measurement periods. The data suggest that two causal mechanisms underlie television's reductive effect on children's book reading: (a) a television-induced deterioration of attitudes toward book reading, and (b) a television-induced deterioration of children's ability to concentrate on reading.