THE USE OF POWER AND INFLUENCE IN A GENDERED WORLD

A review is presented of empirical research on the effects of gender and power on the use of influence strategies in interpersonal relationships. Several variables are considered, including gender, power, status, relationship of agent to target, and the goal of the influence attempt. Although gender appears to account for some of the findings, power and status are more critical variables in choice of power strategies. Because gender is inextricably linked to power and status, the relationship of gender to influence strategy usage can only be understood in terms of its relationship to power and status.     

CROWDING,TASK PERFORMANCE,AND COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION IN YOUTH AND OLD AGE

Following Altman's privacy regulation model, this research was based on the assumption that the relationship between achieved and desired levels of privacy is a major determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups. Further, on the basis of evidence that advancing age is associated with a chronic lack of communicative interaction, it was assumed that the achieved level of privacy among elderly persons generally is greater than that experienced by young adults. Given these assumptions, it was predicted that the crowding threshold of young adults would be significantly lower than that of older persons. To test this hypothesis, the research varied conversation distance (close, far) and density (small room, large room) and assessed the quality of communicative interaction and task performance among small groups of college-age females and retired women over 60 years of age. Results showed that task performance among younger subjects deteriorated in close interaction conditions, whereas the performance of older subjects was improved by spatial intrusion. Further, older subjects exhibited positive communication behaviors in response to close conversation, high-density conditions, while younger subjects responded either with negative communication behaviors or were unaffected by spatial restriction. Finally, the research confirmed previous findings that conversation distance is a more important determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups than physical density. The significance of the results for Altman's privacy regulation model and their implications for the study of human communication behaviors were discussed.     

Rawlsian Civic Education: Political not Minimal

abstract In Political Liberalism and later work John Rawls has recast his theory of justice as fairness in political terms. In order to illustrate the advantages of a liberal political approach to justice over liberal non‐political ones, Rawls discusses what kind of education might be required for future citizens of pluralistic and democratic societies. He advocates a rather minimal conception of civic education that he claims to derive from political liberalism. One group of authors has sided with Rawls’ political perspective and educational proposal, holding that a political approach and educational requirements that are not too demanding would have the advantage of being acceptable to a wide range of citizens with different religious, moral and philosophical perspectives. A second group of authors have criticized Rawls’ educational recommendations, holding that the production of a just society composed of reasonable citizens requires a more demanding civic education and, hence, that the political approach is not viable. The present paper argues that both groups are only partially right, and that there is a third way to understand civic education in Rawlsian terms, a way that is political but not minimal.     

ENGINEERING CAREERS: WOMEN IN A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD

A national survey was conducted to compare the background and career characteristics of men and women engineers differing in the number of years since they completed their BS degrees (0–5, 6–10, 11–15, and 16–20 years). The parents of women engineers were more likely to have college degrees and to be employed in professional positions than were the parents of men engineers. Women engineers were less likely to be married and were more likely to be childless than were the men. Both men and women were influenced by courses and work–related factors in their decisions to pursue engineering, but men made their career decisions sooner than women. Although men and women reported comparable levels of technical responsibility in their present jobs, gender differences favoring men were found for supervisory responsibility and salary among those with more than five years of experience, with the gap between men and women increasing with experience. Men with 16–20 years of experience and all four degree cohorts of women endorsed the opinion that there are better opportunities for men than women in engineering.     

Environmental Modesty

Despite this virtue's history as an instrument of women's oppression, modesty, at its most basic, means voluntary restraint of one's power, undertaken for the sake of others. It is a mechanism that modifies unequal power relationships and encourages greater compassion and fairness. I use a Christian perspective with influences from Jewish and Muslim sources to examine modesty. The modest person, I argue, must be in relationship with others, must be honestly aware of her impacts on others, must be sensitive to those impacts, compassionate toward others, and willing to hold back for others' sakes. Moreover, modesty is not only a virtue that pertains to sexuality and clothing, but it also can promote virtuous environmental behavior, particularly as it leads to awareness of, and sensitivity to, the effects of everyday behaviors on vulnerable others.     

The contribution of personality characteristics to the relationship between social support and perceived physical health

Although a great deal of research has been conducted on the relationship between social support and physical health, the contribution of personality characteristics to this relationship has rarely been assessed. Structural equation modeling was employed to derive and test a model of the direct and indirect relationships between personality characteristics, social network size, the perceived availability of support, socially supportive behaviors, and perceived physical health with a sample of Pennsylvania adults. Significant paths indicate that individuals who perceive themselves as affiliative and as help seekers and help givers report larger social networks, receive more socially supportive behaviors, and perceive that more support is available to them. The perception that support is available shared a direct relationship with perceived physical health. The utility of including multiple measures of social support and personality characteristics related to receiving support in investigations of the relationship between social support and physical health is discussed.