Ethnic Identity Gratifications Selection and Avoidance by African Americans: A Group Vitality and Social Identity Gratifications Perspective

Abstract

This study explores the relatively new idea that individuals engage with media in an effort to meet their social identity needs. Specifically, the study broadens the social identity gratifications (SIG) approach to the domain of ethnicity by examining how African Americans’ ethnic identity gratifications selection and avoidance are related to their perceptions of ingroup vitality. Two mediation models involving level of ethnic identification are proposed. Although the model of television selection is not supported, the model of television avoidance is supported. Implications and future research are discussed.     

A game-based formal system for Ł∞

A formal system for , based on a game-theoretic analysis of the ukasiewicz prepositional connectives, is defined and proved to be complete. An Herbrand theorem for the predicate calculus (a variant of some work of Mostowski) and some corollaries relating to its axiomatizability are proved. The predicate calculus with equality is also considered.     

Suicide without explicit precursors: a state of secret despair?

Although it is usually assumed that all those who commit suicide give some prior indication of their intention to take their own life, there is growing evidence that a small but significant proportion of suicides occur without any clear, explicit indicators. It is proposed that these suicides share similar pathways to other suicides but that the despair involved is not expressed so clearly, often being kept secret. In order to identify such suicides and potential suicides it is helpful to have an indicator of the dominant sub‐sets of constituents that are precursors to suicide. A 14‐item Suicide Precursors Scale (SPS) was therefore developed. This was applied to 128 cases of suicide that occurred between January 1997 and December 2000 in Stockport (South Manchester, UK). A very high alpha coefficient of 0.98 supported the reliability and homogeneity of the SPS. A Multi‐Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis of the SPS revealed three prototypical sub‐sets of expressions of suicidal actions—illness, life circumstances, and depressive history. These are offered as coherent themes in the life of potential suicides, which may be of assistance both in determining whether an equivocal death is suicide or not, and in alerting caring agencies to the potential for suicide even when the despair is kept secret. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.