Sociopolitical Development as an Antidote for Oppression—Theory and Action

Although psychology has an ample vocabulary for describing individual pathologies, the development of theory and concepts for understanding societal pathology remains in its infancy. Because community psychology theory views human behavior in its context, it is essential that interventions not be limited to stress management, personal coping, and similar programming. Interventions should not leave social injustice undiscussed and unchallenged. In this spirit we present a theory of oppression and sociopolitical development that informs an intervention with young, African American men in an urban setting. The five-stage theory highlights the role of Freire's notion of critical consciousness, a sociopolitical version of critical thinking, in enhancing an awareness of sociopolitical as well as personal forces that influence behavior. The theory also draws on African American social-change traditions and their spiritual aspects. The action section of the study describes the Young Warriors program's use of mass culture (rap videos and film) as stimuli for the development of critical consciousness. Highlights from an empirical investigation of an eight-session high school version of the program will be presented to illustrate the practical challenges and benefits of sociopolitical interventions.     

Eliciting children’s and adults’ accounts of road accidents

Psychological knowledge from eye-witness research is applied here to the particular problem of reporting road accidents. Thereby the paper highlights some of the assumptions in eye-witness research. The interface between that research and the reporting of road accidents is examined by reference to existing social psychological notions. These are notions about questioning and about hypothesis testing. The paper makes special reference to the questioning of child witnesses because problems therein are particularly acute.     

The Politics and Economics of Computer-Aided Careers Guidance Systems

The impact of computer-aided careers guidance systems is strongly influenced not only by technical and professional issues but also by political and economic ones. The development of the main North American systems, and of the UK PROSPECT system, is examined. The roles of government, of the private sector, and of guidance professionals, in relation to the future of such systems are discussed, particularly in relation to guidance in Europe.     

The impact of the 'New Right': Policy challenges confronting careers guidance in England and Wales

The influence of the 'New Right' on careers guidance policy during the Thatcher era is analysed. It is suggested that three main strands of such influence can be discerned: using guidance as a form of social control; supporting guidance as a means of making markets work; and making guidance services themselves more responsive to market forces. The implications of these pressures for guidance philosophy and practice are discussed.     

Dual-route models of print to sound: Still a good horse race

Summary Dual-route models assume that pronunciations are generated along both a lexical route and a nonlexical route. The lexical route has been characterized as more automatic. Accordingly, if the naming task is paired with a concurrent task, then the nonlexical route should be more susceptible to interference than the lexical pathway. A relative slowing of the nonlexical route should eliminate the regularity effect obtained with low-frequency words while significantly enhancing the small frequency effect obtained with regular words. These predictions were confirmed. Exception words were actually named 39 ms faster under high load. The results are inconsistent with any straightforward application of single-route models.     

The logic of implication

The principles that AN INSTANCE OF A CLASS IS THE CLASS and A CLASS IS AN INSTANCE OF ITSELF allow for the so called LAWS OF THOUGHT

Careers education and the informal economies

It is suggested that careers education tends to be preoccupied with the bureaucratised sector of the formal economy. The importance of the free' sector of the formal economy is outlined, as is the growing importance of three informal economies: the 'black' economy, the 'communal' economy, and the 'household' economy. The implications for careers education of these alternative economies are discussed.     

Race,socioeconomic status,and age: The social context of American masculinity

This article seeks to delineate the social context of American masculine attainment and identity. The effects of race, socioeconomic status, and age on masculine role perceptions are analyzed for a sample of Black middle-class men. Comparative data from previous research on a sample of Black working-class men are discussed. Comparisons are also made to the findings of a Psychology Today survey sample consisting primarily of middle-class White men. Data are analyzed to exemplify the importance of studying masculine roles within a framework that takes into account the relative social location of American men. Future research needs for the study of masculine role identity from a social structural perspective are discussed.This article was presented as a paper at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development conference on gender role research, Bethesda, Maryland, September 30–October 2, 1981. The author is grateful to Gloria Wolford for her assistance in preparing the mailing of the questionnaires and for coding the returned instruments for computer analysis. The author is also grateful to Roger Libby of the University of Massachusetts for his comments on an earlier draft of this article.