Who gets a mentor? A longitudinal assessment of the rising star hypothesis

This study assessed the rising star hypothesis, which proposes that individuals who are on the fast track to career success are more likely to gain mentors than others. The study used a sample of employees who had never been mentored and examined the relationship between rising star attributes measured at Time 1 and the attainment of a mentor a year later. In support of the hypothesis, individuals who were on the fast-track for promotion, had higher advancement expectations, and engaged in more proactive career behaviors were more likely to gain a mentor than individuals lacking these attributes. Implications of these results for the theory, research and practice of mentoring are discussed.     

Midlife Educational,Career, and Family Outcomes of Women Educated at Two Single-Sex Colleges

We examined midlife educational, career, and family outcomes of women who attended prestigious women's colleges in the 1960s. One college had a coeducational learning environment (CLE), the other was a single-sex environment (SLE). We hypothesized that in CLEs, exposure to men's standards of achievement might have resulted in greater educational and career status outcomes but more discrimination; in SLEs, there might have been fewer opportunities to engage with men intellectually, which could lead to lesser educational and career status outcomes, but the environment might have felt more supportive. Graduates of both colleges were very accomplished 30 years after graduation; however, those who had experienced a CLE reported more sexism and more active involvement in the women's movement than SLE graduates.     

Commitment First,Communication Later: Dealing with Barriers to Effective Couples Therapy

Teaching communication techniques to couples is a common way for therapists to begin treatment. In many cases, couples then use these newly acquired skills to express negative or even hostile information to each other, sometimes doing more harm than good to the relationship. Based upon years of clinical experience with hundreds of couples in treatment, this article presents the idea that having the couple see themselves as an entity first, not as two individuals, may be necessary before clear communication can be maximally therapeutic. The article outlines the Couple Power model of treatment, suggesting that four basic tasks—commitment, cooperation, communication and community—need to be accomplished in that order, postponing the teaching of communication skills until later in therapy. Theory behind the tasks and suggestions for effective techniques to achieve the “Four C’s” of Couple Power are presented and discussed.     

Fewer,Younger, but Increasingly Powerful: How Portrayals of Women,Age, and Power Have Changed from 2002 to 2016 in the 50 Top-Grossing U.S. Films

Sex Roles - A content analysis by Lauzen and Dozier (2005) of the 88 top-grossing U.S. films of 2002 found ample evidence for inequality of gender and age representation: Men made up 72% of all...     

Does viewing justified violence lead to devaluing others?

Viewing violent media has been shown to increase aggressive behavior, affect, and cognition. Viewing “justified” violence (the target is believed to be deserving of the violence) further increases the risk of aggression. The present study investigated whether viewing justified violence primes thoughts of devalued others, an inflated sense of self, or both. Participants viewed one of three eight-minute video clips depicting either justified violence, non-justified violence, or no violence. Participants' reaction times to four types of computer-presented sentences were then measured: sentences either valued the self, valued others, devalued the self, or devalued others. Viewing justified violence resulted in reaction time patterns that devalued others, but had no effect upon reaction times to self-relevant sentences. The possibility that viewing justified violence, by priming devaluing thoughts of others, may impact interpersonal behavior in non-conscious and automatic ways is discussed.     

Short- and Long-Term Impact of Receiving Genetic Mutation Results in Women at Increased Risk for Hereditary Breast Cancer

Forty-seven unaffected women from high-risk breast cancer families who had received results for hereditary breast/ovarian predisposition genes between 1 month and 5 years ago were interviewed regarding their experiences. Women responded to open-ended questions. The initial emotional turmoil reported by most was generally short lived. However, the impact of genetic testing went beyond the individual to the extended family and social context, particularly in the short-term. A common theme was the difficulty associated with divulging a result to family members, who were also adjusting to their own result. The majority of carriers reported advantages that were both physical (options for surveillance programs and prophylactic surgery) and emotional (reduced uncertainty, increased awareness of options and knowledge about risk, preparation time). Most carriers reported no change in lifestyle although some reported discovering their mutation status as a positive life-changing experience. Implications for genetic counseling and further research are discussed.     

Alternative Employment Arrangements: A Gender Perspective

In this study we drew on national-level data to investigate the gendered nature of two alternative employment arrangements (independent contractors and temporary agency help), preferences for such arrangements, and the extent to which such arrangements accommodate work/family career quandaries of contemporary workers. Multivariate analyses revealed the perpetuation of gender schema and gendered structures, but this varied by type of alternative employment arrangement. Greater preference for temporary agency employment by married women than by married men derived from women not having to be the primary source of family income, rather than from an effort to balance work and child-rearing responsibilities. There were also gender differences in the tendency of married men and women to be independent contractors; women were less likely to be contractors. However, this alternative employment arrangement offers potential for both men and women to satisfy or challenge other gendered family structures and schema.     

managing the action: sports bookmakers as entrepreneurs

More and more states have moved to legalize various forms of gambling as a viable way to raise substantial revenues. And while some have considered adding sports betting to their menu of games, Nevada continues to be the only state where placing a bet on sports events is legal. This is both puzzling and ironic considering the popularity of gambling and the prominence of sports. Despite the lack of concrete knowledge about illegal sports betting, two justifications for keeping it illegal have dominated the public debate. The first has to do with whether legal sports betting could successfully compete with illegal operations were it to be legalized and the second has to do with a purported link between gambling on sports and organized crime. This paper focuses on the second line of argument and examines the social, organizational, and occupational features of bookmaking. If bookmakers are conduits for organized crime, as is claimed, there should be evidence of this in the day-to-day activities of bookmaking and in the career trajectories of bookmakers. The analysis is based upon interviews with 47 sports bookmakers working in the Rust Belt region. Drawing upon what sports bookies themselves have to say about their experiences in the business and their career trajectories, there appears to be little merit to the organized crime link argument. The analysis suggests that unlike other types of deviance, the social organization of bookmaking insulates bookies from the more typical consequences associated with frequent and prolonged deviant activity, for example, getting arrested, being prosecuted, serving time in prison, and forced association with other criminals. In fact, the findings suggest that bookies are more like entrepreneurs than criminals. While a single study cannot resolve the normative question about whether sports bookmaking should be criminalized, the findings do show that the social construction of bookmaking and bookmakers found in the public debate and popular culture does not reflect the reality of sports bookmaking.     

Attitudes toward women's right to self-determination

Abstract

After briefly describing the purpose, structure, and functions of a typical family planning center, the paper suggests and gives support for a more relationship-centered service delivery system. The major thesis of the paper is that these centers should adopt a system which recognizes and promotes intimate human relationships, and that marriage and family counselors would be highly valuable resources in such a system. The paper stresses the importance of attending to the myriad relationship issues involved in the entire process of enabling individual couples to more effectively plan and control their own fertility. Several ways in which the marriage and family counselor can work with and within the family planning center are outlined.     

Chance,command, and chaos in ancient military engagements 1

The Greeks and the Romans believed that commanders ought to exercise their foresight to preclude risks in combat. They also tried to inculcate and to preserve order in their military systems by the use of initiatory mechanisms, repetitive drill, and replication of the military order in social, economic, and spatial arrangements. In spite of their efforts to minimize entropy within their military units, these systems sometimes underwent chaotic transformations during set‐piece engagements on the battlefield. These set‐piece battles which followed a simple, formulaic pattern provide the data for a case‐study in the behavior of military systems within a relatively simple set of constraints. The results suggest that command functions can have little influence once a system is actively engaged with the enemy and that small effects can drive even simple military systems irreversibly over thresholds into chaos. They illustrate the dangers in any analysis of military phenomena which assumes linear rather than chaotic change. They also suggest that prediction, let alone control, of the course of an engagement is considerably more difficult than is often assumed. It is even difficult to label known outcomes as victories or losses, since the same result may appear differently to two observers occupying different vantage points. Military analysts should take into account values held by society at large.