Political Ideologies and Support for Censorship: Is It a Question of Whose Ox Is Being Gored?

Two studies are described. one of 381 university students and the other a statewide survey of 295 adults, both of which examine the relationship between attitudinal support for censorship and political ideologies. The results of these studies are interpreted as challenging the view of Suedfeld, Steel, and Schmidt (1994) that support for censorship is a function of both the works in question and the political ideologies of the respondents. In both studies we find that support for censorship is somewhat consistent across messages and images of differing political content. and that support for censorship is generally greater among those with conservative political attitudes, regardless of the content of the works in question. A model of political attitudes (Maddox & Lilie. 1986) that conceptualizes American political idcologies as consisting of two relatively independent dimensions, rather than a single left-right dimension. is proposed as a more effective means of conceptualizing this issue.     

The medical research council’s approach to allegations of scientific misconduct

The UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) introduced a specific policy and procedure for inquiring into allegations of scientific misconduct in December 1997; previously cases had been considered under normal disciplinary procedures. The policy formally covers staff employed in MRC units, but those in receipt of MRC grants in universities and elsewhere are expected to operate under similar policies. The MRC’s approach is stepwise: preliminary action; assessment to establish prima facie evidence of misconduct; formal investigation; sanctions; and appeal. Strict time limits apply at all stages. The procedure will be evaluated after two years. The indications so far are that the procedure is robust, and its clarity and transparency have been an asset to all parties. The MRC is also convinced that it is equally important to achieve a working culture that fosters integrity. Thus education and training in good research practices are fundamental to the prevention of research misconduct. This paper was presented at a symposium, Scientific Misconduct: An International Perspective, organized by The Medical University of Warsaw, 16 November, 1998.     

Gay Identification and Psychological Health in HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Gay Men1

This paper reports a study of HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men focusing on comparisons between the HIV-positive and HIV-negative on gay identification, the interrelationships among gay identification variables, and the psychological correlates of gay identification. We hypothesized that better psychological health would be related to gay self-acceptance, participating in gay organizations and groups, socializing with other gay men, and parental disclosure and acceptance of being gay. The sample was composed of 169 gay men, including 98 asymptomatic HIV-positive and 71 HIV-negative men. The findings are largely consistent with our hypotheses. A strong and consistent relationship of the gay identification measures with psychological variables was observed, explaining up to one fifth of the variance in current level of mood and self-esteem. Among the HIV-positive subjects, participating in gay organizations and groups and having parents who accepted their sexual orientation were important correlates of psychological adaptation. Despite this, 36% of subjects had parents who disapproved of their sexual orientation, and 69% of HIV-positive subjects were not in any gay organizations or groups. Among the HIV-negative subjects, gay self-acceptance and disclosing their sexual orientation to parents were associated with better psychological adjustment. These results suggest that the psychological health and outlook of gay men may be influenced by gay self-acceptance, participation in gay groups, and parental disclosure and acceptance of their children's sexual orientation.     

Cognitive models of class structure and explanations of social outcomes

In this paper we argue that people's explanations of a wide range of social outcomes occur within a framework of expectations derived from beliefs about the pervasive influence of social class on individuals' life-chances. This claim is tested by examining the effect of varying the social class origins of vignette characters on judgments and explanations concerning their outcomes. Four domains of social activity are examined: occupational attainment, educational achievement, relationship success, and unemployment. In all of these areas, the class background of the characters was found to be associated with different outcome expectations, future expectations, judgments of responsibility and differences in the ways in which outcomes were explained. The results are consistent with the claim that people have cognitive models in which social class background is associated with particular social outcomes across a range of activities, and that these models are reasonably accurate representations of the relationships between social class and life-chances. This suggests that contrary to theories which have stressed the individualistic nature of belief systems in western societies, social class forms an important part of the popular representation of the influences on occupational, educational and relationship success.     

Is Androgynous Sex Role Related to Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents?1

The initiation of potentially health-threatening behaviors by adolescents, despite their realization of the dangers of such behavior, has been attributed to various social influences (e.g., peer pressure). It appears that some adolescents may be more likely to resist such influences than others. The present exploratory investigation tests the hypothesis that adolescents characterized as androgynous in “sex role” terms would be less vulnerable to social influences to engage in one such health-threatening behavior, smoking. Within a sample of seventh graders (n= 3,317), sex role identity was measured by relevant items from the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) as was frequency of cigarette smoking. Results indicate that “androgynous” subjects, as hypothesized, may smoke less than those characterized by other sex roles. Results are discussed in the context of our recommendations for more comprehensive testing of the relation between sex role and smoking.     

Order of Presentation and Verbal Recruitment Strategy Effectiveness1

This study examined the relative effectiveness of three different verbal recruitment strategies (opinion conformity, other enhancement, and self-enhancement) presented in different orders. Sixty undergraduates viewed three recruiters, each of whom used a different recruitment strategy to describe a hypothetical graduate program. Participants rated their impressions of each recruiter and then decided which program to attend. Results indicated that presentation order significantly affected participants' ratings of the opinion conforming and self-enhancing recruiters. Furthermore, although participants generally preferred the other enhancing and opinion conforming recruiters, this preference did not translate into a decision to attend the other enhancer's university. Implications for both the recruitment and impression management literatures are discussed.     

The effects of syntactic structure on discourse comprehension in patients with parsing impairments.

Syntactic complexity was systematically manipulated in sentence and discourse comprehension tasks. Aphasic patients, but not normal controls, showed effects of syntactic structure in the sentence comprehension task. Neither aphasic nor control subjects showed significant differences between the comprehension of syntactically simple and complex stories. This pattern confirms the clinical impression that some discourses can be understood by patients who cannot utilize syntactically based sentence comprehension mechanisms.