Sympathy for the Devil: Evidence That Reminding Whites of Their Mortality Promotes More Favorable Reactions to White Racists

Terror management research has often shown that after reminders of mortality, people show greater investment in and support for groups to which they belong. The question for the present research was whether or not this would extend to Euro American investment in their identification as White. Although it seemed unlikely that White participants would directly exhibit increased identification as Whites, we hypothesized that mortality salience would increase sympathy for other Whites who expressed racial pride or favoritism toward Whites. In support of the hypothesis, a White person expressing pride in his race was viewed by White participants as particularly racist relative to a Black person who does so in Study 1, but was deemed less racist after White participants were reminded of their own mortality in Study 2. Similarly, in Study 3, White participants rated an explicitly racist White employer as less racist when they were reminded beforehand of their own mortality. The results were discussed in terms of implications for affiliation with racist ideologies and terror management defenses.     

A survey of university counselling in the united kingdom and some observations on evaluation

Universities were surveyed about their counselling services during 1987 using a postal questionnaire. Information is presented from 44 universities and includes the extent of counselling provision in relation to the number of students, the staffing and accountability of the services, the needs of the clients and how they are met, and some theoretical and professional concerns mentioned by the counsellors. Finally, some observations are made on the need for more systematic evaluation of the services.     

A modern elaboration of the ramified theory of types

The paper first formalizes the ramified type theory as (informally) described in the Principia Mathematica [32]. This formalization is close to the ideas of the Principia, but also meets contemporary requirements on formality and accuracy, and therefore is a new supply to the known literature on the Principia (like [25], [19], [6] and [7]).As an alternative, notions from the ramified type theory are expressed in a lambda calculus style. This situates the type system of Russell and Whitehead in a modern setting. Both formalizations are inspired by current developments in research on type theory and typed lambda calculus; see [3].Supported by the Co-operation Centre Tilburg and Eindhoven Universities. ¹[32], Introduction, Chapter II, Section I, p. 37.Presented by Wolfgang Rautenberg     

Measuring clients' experience of careers guidance interviews: Exploratory studies

Initial findings of the development of a measure of client experience of the careers guidance interview are reported. Initially based on the Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale (Wolf et al., 1978), items were derived which sampled across affective, cognitive and behavioural components of careers interviewing. The scale is pilot tested on 60 15 and 16 year-old school pupils, of low academic potential and all of whom had experienced a careers interview with a careers officer. Initial results are only partially supportive of the findings of Wolf et al. (1978). Results of a further field study of the 20-item scale based on 54 careers interviews are also reported where factor analytic data are promising. The contribution of the scale in testing related hypotheses (e.g. met expectation hypothesis) is indicated.     

Curriculum bias in standardized tests of reading decoding

This study examined overlap between four basal reading programs and the phonetic analysis subtest of three standardized achievement measures. Raw scores, percentages of items correct, grade equivalents, and percentile scores were computed for a hypothetical student who had mastered all grapheme-phoneme correspondences taught at each grade level. The results indicated that (a) programs differed in the number and sequence of phonics skills taught; (b) percentile and grade-equivalent scores differed across programs at each grade level for a given test; and (c) the proportion of grade-equivalent scores falling at or above expected grade levels differed across tests for a given program (range of 29%–71%). The implications for selecting and interpreting standardized measures of reading decoding are discussed.     

The definability of objective becoming in Minkowski spacetime

In his recent article On Relativity Theory and Openness of the Future (1991), Howard Stein proves not only that one can define an objective becoming relation in Minkowski spacetime, but that there is only one possible definition available if one accepts certain natural assumptions about what it is for becoming to occur and for it to be objective. Stein uses the definition supplied by his proof to refute an argument due to Rietdijk (1966, 1976), Putnam (1967) and Maxwell (1985, 1988) that Minkowski spacetime leaves no room for objective becoming whatsoever. However, Stein's proof does not seem to go far enough. By considering only what events have become from the standpoint of any given event, Stein's uniqueness proof fails from the outset to allow for a more general kind of becoming whereby it is understood to occur from the standpoint of events on the particular worldlines followed by observers. This suggests that there may, after all, be more than one way to define objective becoming in Minkowski spacetime once each observer's worldline is allowed to figure in the definition. This suspicion is further aroused by two recent proposals for objective, worldline-dependent becoming due to Peacock (1992) and Muller (1992) who advocate ways of defining becoming that are not equivalent to the definition Stein's uniqueness proof delivers. Nevertheless, we show that Stein's uniqueness proofcan be extended in a natural way to cover this more general kind of becoming, provided one does not enrich standard Minkowski spacetime by privileging certain sets of worldlines over others in an unwarranted manner. Thus we aim to reinforce Stein's point that standard Minkowski spacetime does make room for objective becoming, but in essentially only one way, despite arguments and proposals to the contrary.     

Coping with intractable controversies: The case for problem structuring in policy design and analysis

Intractable controversies and other types of policy disagreements correspond to policy problems with a different structure. The more structured a problem is, the more consensus there is about which values and information are at stake in the process of problem solving. Policymakers like to treat problems in as structured a way as possible. Three policy strategies are described to move away from the unstructured to the more structured problem type. However, policymakers run the risk of oversimplifying an ill-structured problem, which means that elements of the problem situation relevant to other actors are overlooked or denied. Hence, policy controversies may become intractable. The remedy is a fourth strategy, characterised by problem structuring. This strategy requires political participation of actors with different views on the problem, and an argued political problem choice. His main research areas are problem structuring in public policy, knowledge use, environmental risk, technology and democracy. He is currently working on knowledge-based policy strategies for addressing the issue of climate change. His research interest is to develop and apply discursive and/or argumentative approaches to the policy process.     

Cross-informant consistency in externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence

The concept of cross-informant consistency has long been a topic of interest for those involved in assessment of behavior problems in adolescence. The purpose of the present study was to replicate and expand the existing literature by including four informants (mother, father, teacher, and adolescent self-report) and examining correlations among them as well as differences between reporters on an absolute level of both internalizing and externalizing problems. Fifty-two young adolescents (ranging in age from 11 to 15 years) and their mothers, fathers, and social studies teachers participated in the study. The Conduct Disorder subscale, Socialized Aggression subscale, and Anxiety/Withdrawal subscale of the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist were used. Results indicated that teachers showed little agreement with other informants on conduct problems (teachers reporting fewer problems), while parents and adolescents showed significant agreement. Informants showed no agreement on the measure of covert problems (socialized aggression), and all reports showed agreement on internalizing problems (although teachers continued to report fewer problems). Implications for assessment of young adolescents are discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavior Research.     

Psychological Responses to the Threat of Nuclear War

We investigated the nature of psychological responses to the threat of nuclear war and the relationships between attitudes and behavior in three studies. The first was a quasi-experimental study of the effects of a film depiction of nuclear war on attitudes and behavior. Results suggested that exposure was mediated by a sense of control over political events, but that exposure itself had no significant effect on psychological responses to nuclear war. The second was an experimental investigation of the effects of efficacy enhancing, fear arousing, or informational tactics as well as individual differences on memory for relevant information and political activism on the issue of nuclear arms control. Results indicated that men exposed to the fear arousal tactic were less likely to take action than those exposed to information alone or efficacy enhancement, whereas women exposed to fear arousal were more likely to act. Gender differences are explained in terms of the socialization of male responses to fear, the "macho" response. Those who showed less denial were more likely to act, as were those who stated intentions to take action. The third study employed structural modeling to examine the relationships between attitudes and behavior. Results supported the Model of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) in showing that intentions to act mediated the relationship between attitudes and behavior on this issue.