Ethnicity and Gender Stereotypes of Emotion

In three studies we investigated gender stereotypes of emotions among four ethnic groups in the U.S., using persons from these groups as informants about their own groups. European Americans’ reports of stereotypes were compared to those of African Americans (Study 1), Hispanic Americans (Study 2), and Asian Americans (Study 3). The examination of group differences was interpreted based on variations across ethnicities in norms concerning emotional expression and gender roles. Overall, gender stereotypes of emotion were evident among all ethnic groups studied, but European Americans’ gender stereotypes were the most gender differentiated. For example, European American stereotypes held that men express more pride than women do, but African Americans’ stereotypes of pride for men and women did not differ. Similarly, whereas among European Americans, women were stereotyped to express much more love than men do, the gender difference was smaller among Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans. These different norms may pose challenges for inter-cultural interactions, and they point to the importance of considering both gender and ethnicity simultaneously in the study of emotions.     

The Impact of Chronic Pesticide Exposure on Neuropsychological Functioning

The Psychological Record - This study compared neuropsychological test performance of individuals (n = 18) with an occupational history of pesticide exposure to individuals (n = 35) with no such...     

Using empowerment theory in collaborative partnerships for community health and development

Models of community empowerment help us understand the process of gaining influence over conditions that matter to people who share neighborhoods, workplaces, experiences, or concerns. Such frameworks can help improve collaborative partnerships for community health and development. First, we outline an interactive model of community empowerment that describes reciprocal influences between personal or group factors and environmental factors in an empowerment process. Second, we describe an iterative framework for the process of empowerment in community partnerships that includes collaborative planning, community action, community change, capacity building, and outcomes, and adaptation, renewal, and institutionalization. Third, we outline activities that are used by community leadership and support organizations to facilitate the process of community empowerment. Fourth, we present case stories of collaborative partnerships for prevention of substance abuse among adolescents to illustrate selected enabling activities. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities of facilitating empowerment with collaborative partnerships for community health and development. This work was supported by Kansas Health Foundation Grants 9206032B and 9206032A to support and evaluate community partnerships to prevent adolescent substance abuse. Thanks to Tom Wolff for sharing his wisdom about community coalitions so generously, and to Bill Berkowitz and anonymous reviewers for thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this manuscrpt. We also thank our colleagues from the Kansas Health Foundation, Mary K. Campuzano, Steve Coen, and Marni Vliet, and those from collaborating communities, who continue to teach us about ways to enhance community capacities to address local concerns.     

Character Attacks and Their Effects on Perceptions of Male and Female Political Candidates

The study examined the perceptions of political candidates (male and female) who make negative statements about the personality and integrity of their political opponents. Male and female participants (Sex of Participant factor) indicated their impressions of a male or female political candidate (Sex of Candidate factor) who either attacked or did not attack the character of his/her opponent (Attack factor) in a political leadership debate. Participants who read a speech given by a candidate of their own gender tended to rate the candidate as having greater integrity when the candidate attacked his/her opponent than when he/she did not. When judging a candidate of the opposite gender, participants tended to rate the candidate who attacked his/her opponent as having less integrity than a candidate who did not attack his/her opponent. Results are discussed with regard to the impact that aggressive campaign tactics can have on voter perceptions, and how similarity between voters and candidates may affect perceptions of such tactics.     

The Cultural Divide and Changing Beliefs about Gender in the United States, 1974–2010

The present paper examines claims of a growing cultural divide in the United States. We analyze social change in beliefs about gender over a period of 36 years (from 1974 to 2010) in the United States using data from the nationally representative General Social Survey (GSS). We find evidence of growing gender egalitarianism until the mid-1990s, with a reversal between 1996 and 2000, and a decline in state differences in beliefs about gender over time in our decomposition analysis and multilevel models. Although we find significant differences in gender beliefs among states in the 1970s based on their voting record on the Equal Rights Amendment and based on patterns of family formation and family life associated with the Second Demographic Transition, these differences among states decreased or disappeared entirely by the early years of the twenty-first century. We highlight the implications of our findings for the ongoing public and academic debate surrounding growing cultural differences among states.     

Relationships between attachment behavior in the laboratory and the caretaking environment

How useful are observations of patterns of attachment behavior in a structured laboratory setting for making inferences about the quality of caretaking received by an infant in the home environment? To address this question a sample of 107 12-month-old infants who had participated in a longitudinal intervention project beginning before birth through 14 months of age were observed in a structured laboratory setting. Patterns of attachment behavior were compared to maternal caretaking variables observed in the home environment as well as to ratings of the quality of the infants' play. The results indicated that attachment behavior in the laboratory can be used to make inferences about the quality of caretaking in the home environment with confidence when a consistent and unambiguous pattern of either optimal or problematical attachment behavior is present, but not when the attachment behavior pattern is inconsistent or ambiguous.     

Model-guided implementation of an instrument for program evaluation: The use of social policy and innovation models

A research program in the Netherlands is aimed at the implementation of an instrument for program evaluation in organizations for intramural treatment of juveniles with psychosocial and/or behavioral problems. The basis and guide for the implementation is a sequence of three complementary models, each model being more specific than its predecessor. The results of the research program in nine organizations suggest that the choice of an adequate guiding model depends on the policy level at which the organization is operating, the number of persons involved in the implementation, and the culture of decision-making in the organization. K. Mesman Schultz is senior investigator at the Leyden Institute for Social Policy Research (LISPOR) and director of the Research Centre for Youth-at-Risk (RCY) at the State University of Leyden, Rijnsburgerweg 100, 233 AE Leiden The Netherlands. His research mainly refers to diagnosis, decision-making and social policy in the field of youth care. W.I. Poot is investigator at LISPOR and RCY. She is in charge of the execution of utilization and implementation research projects in the field of youth care. P.H.M. van den Bogaart is senior investigator at LISPOR and RCY. He has wide experience in educational research and youth care research.     

Data analysis and the connectivity of random graphs

This paper presents empirical information on the adequacy of an asymptotic approximation developed by Erdös and Rényi dealing with the minimum number of lines needed to connect a random graph. It is shown that the approximation is poor for several data analysis applications of the result previously published in the behavioral sciences.