Tolerant (In)civility? A Longitudinal Analysis of White Conservative Protestants’ Willingness to Grant Civil Liberties

Past research has found conservative Protestants to be less willing than most Americans to grant civil liberties to unpopular groups. In light of evidence of high and growing civility by Smith (2000) and Hunter (1984), there is good reason to believe that conservative Protestants are becoming less distinctive with regard to granting civil freedoms. We update and expand previous research on conservative Protestants and civil liberties by examining the civil liberties measures in the General Social Survey over a 26-year period, with special attention to explaining conservative Protestantism's rejection of civil liberties. In comparison to mainline Protestants and Catholics, we find that conservative Protestants are still less willing to grant civil liberties to unpopular groups, though important qualifications apply. Various explanations are examined.     

Psychological factors and depressive symptoms in ischemic heart disease.

The aim of this study was to determine whether learned helplessness, cognitive distortions, self-efficacy, and dispositional optimism assessed at Time 1 (T1; questionnaires mailed at 1 month postdischarge) would predict depressive symptoms at Time 2 (T2; questionnaires mailed at 1-year follow-up) in a sample of 86 patients hospitalized with ischemic heart disease. Multiple regression results indicated that optimism and cognitive distortions at T1 were significantly associated with T1 depressive symptoms after controlling for confounding variables. When the T1 psychological factors were analyzed with T2 depressive symptoms, only optimism continued to predict depressive symptoms after controlling for confounds and T1 depressive symptoms. The global expectancies that optimism assessed appeared to be more stable over time than the statelike beliefs of cognitive distortions and may have accounted for why optimism predicted T2 depressive symptoms.