Structural predictors of problematic friendship in later life

The purpose of this study was to examine the constraining and facilitating effects of social structural position (age, sex, race, class, financial sufficiency, and number of friends) on opportunities for friendship. We hypothesized that the greater the number of people who share a given social structural location and the more access they have to situations where it is possible to meet new people, the less likely they are to have problematic friendships. The sample comprised 53 male and female community residents aged 55 to 84 years who enjoyed fairly good health. Logistic and multiple regression procedures revealed outcomes opposite to our predictions: those who were supposedly more social structurally advantaged actually reported greater numbers of problematic friendships. Potential interpretations include the possibility that these people are more critical than others of their friend relationships or more willing to acknowledge problems, that the norms regarding commitment to friends are weaker among these individuals, or that they learn to acquire friends but not to avoid and solve problems in their relationships. Apparently, people with more friends are not more likely than others to terminate problematic friendships or to redefine them as mere associations.     

Gender‐of‐author differences in study design of older adult friendship surveys

This research extends literature documenting gender differences in choice of quantitative or qualitative methods by examining whether men and women make different decisions regarding study design within one type of quantitative method—survey research. The population consists of 117 surveys (1960–1999) of older adults about friendship. We find that the use of communal methods, especially by women scholars, increased over time, and researchers who are women are more likely to use “communal” survey methods than researchers who are men. The gender difference in use of communal methods is not necessarily explained by essential differences between men and women or even by gender differences in commitment to feminist research as previous scholars have argued; rather, it is possibly explained by structured differences in access to resources to do agentic research.     

INVESTIGATION OF BIAS IN JOB EVALUATION RATINGS OF COMPARABLE WORTH STUDY PARTICIPANTS

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of knowledge of current pay levels and perceived job gender on subsequent job evaluations. The sample consisted of 53 job evaluators in professional and scientific positions at the University of Iowa who had previously received 20 hours of training in job evaluation and participated in over 100 hours of job evaluations during the implementation of a comparable worth pay system. The hypothesis that jobs with high (manipulated) pay levels would receive higher evaluations than jobs with low (manipulated) pay levels was confirmed, although the effects were smaller than those reported in other studies. In addition, evidence of a pro-female bias was found ( p < .08) in the job evaluation ratings. Implications of these findings for job evaluation research and practice are discussed.     

The effects of adult attachment style on post‐transgression response

Two studies examined the relation between adult attachment styles and post‐transgression responses. Secure participants were predicted to be forgiving, preoccupied participants to be grudge oriented, fearful participants to be avoidant, and dismissing participants to be vengeful. Study 1 was nonexperimental, using a community sample of adults (N = 565). Participants wrote about a moderately severe past transgression. Results supported the predictions. In Study 2, undergraduates' (N = 134) attachment styles were manipulated by varying working models of self and other. Model of self was manipulated with false performance feedback. Model of other was manipulated by altering a confederate's availability and responsiveness during a bonding exercise. Response trends replicated Study 1 with the exception of avoidance. Dismissing individuals were the most avoidant.     

THOMAS REID ON ACQUIRED PERCEPTION

Thomas Reid's distinction between original and acquired perception is not merely metaphysical; it has psychological and phenomenological stories to tell. Psychologically, acquired perception provides increased sensitivity to features in the environment. Phenomenologically, Reid's theory resists the notion that original perception is exhaustive of perceptual experience. James Van Cleve has argued that most cases of acquired perception do not count as perception and so do not pose a threat to Reid's direct realism. I argue that acquired perception is genuine perception and as direct as original perception. Perception is grounded in a productive and developing relationship between the mind and world.     

Faith‐Based Decisions? The Consequences of Heightened Religious Salience in Social Service Referral Decisions

Previous research suggests that clergy members are often an initial contact for people seeking advice or social services and clergy often refer such individuals in need to outside agencies. Recent "faith-based initiatives" seek to engage churches and religious groups more deeply in social service delivery, potentially changing the mix of organizations to which clergy might refer people in need. In addition, public debates about faith-based social services have drawn attention to religion, often in politically divisive ways. Using semi-structured interviews and vignettes in which key characteristics of outside agencies are experimentally varied, we explore the implications of this heightened attention to religion on clergy referrals. We find that increasing the salience of religion affects clergy referral choices, with some clergy even willing to sacrifice quality care and resources for an individual in need when religious options are available as referral choices. We argue that this occurs at least in part because making religion salient in policy and referrals makes religious differences salient as well.