Knowing your place: self-perceptions of status in face-to-face groups

Status is the prominence, respect, and influence individuals enjoy in the eyes of others. Theories of positive illusions suggest that individuals form overly positive perceptions of their status in face-to-face groups. In contrast, the authors argue that individuals' perceptions of their status are highly accurate--that is, they closely match the group's perception of their status--because forming overly positive status self-perceptions can damage individuals' acceptance in a group. Therefore, the authors further argue that individuals are likely to refrain from status self-enhancement to maintain their belongingness in a group. Support for their hypotheses was found in 2 studies of status in face-to-face groups, using a social relations model approach (D. A. Kenny & L. La Voie, 1984). Individuals showed high accuracy in perceiving their status and even erred on the side of being overly humble. Moreover, enhancement in status self-perceptions was associated with lower levels of social acceptance.     

Figure-ground assignment in pigeons: evidence for a figural benefit

Four pigeons discriminated whether a target spot appeared on a colored figural shape or on a differently colored background by first pecking the target and then reporting its location: on the figure or the background. We recorded three dependent variables: target detection time, choice response time, and choice accuracy. The birds were faster to detect the target, to report its location, and to learn the correct response on figure trials than on background trials. Later tests suggested that the pigeons might have attended to the figural region as a whole rather than using local properties in performing the figure-background discrimination. The location of the figural region did not affect figure-ground assignment. Finally, when 4 other pigeons had to detect and peck the target without making a choice report, no figural advantage emerged in target detection time, suggesting that the birds' attention may not have been automatically summoned to the figural region.     

Preschoolers' extension of familiar adjectives

In two experiments, we examined the role of labels in guiding preschoolers' extension of three types of familiar adjectives: emotional state adjectives, physiological state adjectives, and trait adjectives. On each trial, we labeled a target animal with one of the three different types of adjectives and asked whether these terms could apply to a subordinate-level match, a basic-level match, a superordinate-level match, or an inanimate object. In Experiment 1, participants extended trait adjectives, but not emotional or physiological adjectives, to members of the same basic-level category, regardless of whether an explicit basic-level label was provided for the target animal. Similarly, children in Experiment 2 also extended trait adjectives to the members of the same basic-level category, even when explicit superordinate- and subordinate-level labels were provided for the target animals. Together, these results demonstrate that children appreciate that emotional and physiological adjectives cannot be generalized to the same extent as can trait adjectives, and the results document the privileged status of basic-level categories in preschoolers' extension of trait adjectives.     

Are over a third of foster parent molestations homosexual?

50% of foster parent abuse in a general population survey and 34% of abuse as determined by the Illinois DCFS was homosexual. In news stories in the 50 largest newspapers and wire services 1980-2003, 175 foster parents sexually abused 351+ charges. For the 169 whose sex of victim could be determined: 149 (88%) were men; 76 (53%) victimized homosexually; and 85 (50%) were unmarried. Men assaulted 319 (91%) victims, homosexual practitioners 222 (63%), and the unmarried 164 (47%). From 1980-1994 57% of the victims were girls; after 1994 56% were boys. In 21 group homes, the molestation was homosexual in 15 (71%) and 31 of the 32+ perpetrators were male and at least 334 of 349+ victims were boys.     

Child molestations by homosexual foster parents: Illinois, 1997--2002

Do those who engage in homosexuality disproportionately sexually abuse foster or adoptive children as reported by child protective services? Illinois child services reported sexual abuse for 1997 through 2002. 270 parents committed "substantiated" sexual offenses against foster or subsidized adoptive children: 67 (69%) of 97 of these mother and 148 (86%) of 173 of these father perpetrators sexually abused girls; 30 (31%) of the mothers and 25 (14%) of the father perpetrators sexually abused boys, i.e., 92 (34%) of the perpetrators homosexually abused their charges. Of these parents 15 both physically and sexually abused charges: daughters by 8 of the mothers and 4 of the fathers, sons by 3 of the mothers, i.e., same-sex perpetrators were involved in 53%. Thus, homosexual practitioners were proportionately more apt to abuse foster or adoptive children sexually.     

Exploring the relationship between students’ values and the values of postsecondary institutions

Little is known of how institutional and individual value systems are related among university undergraduates. With three different measures and samples of college students, perceptions of university mission and values (i.e., institutional values, creating pro-social climates, and developing a life-long commitment to values) loaded independently of their personal values systems, and often negatively with social desirability. Perceptions of institutional values were generally independent of personal value systems, using either a rank-order (Sample 1, n = 199) or rating scale method (Sample 2, n = 107), or by focusing on moral behavior structures (Sample 3, n = 208). Together, these results indicate that higher education assessment may reflect institutional values that are independent of student personal value systems.Portions of this paper were presented at the 2004 Institute for College Student Values, Tallahassee, FL     

Social Value Orientations and Decisions to Take Proenvironmental Action1

This study assessed whether social value orientations influence decisions to actively support a proposal for a transportation pollution reduction program. Participants with prosocial or proself orientations were given the opportunity to send letters of support or opposition to the program director. Proself participants were more likely to send letters opposing the program, whereas prosocial participants were more likely to send letters of support. Although proself and prosocial participants reported equivalent support for the program and equivalent perceptions of the program's environmental benefits, proself participants reported higher perceptions of personal costs associated with the program. Social value orientations may lead to differences in environmental behaviors, primarily because of differences in perceptions of the personal costs incurred from engaging in these behaviors.     

Toward a social ecology of the minister's family

The family life of the clergy has received scant attention in the published literature. Existing studies which may be relevant generally do not address the family directly from within an organized conceptual framework. This article proposes to set forth the broad outlines of an ecological systems model, in which the minister's family is to be understood as a social system embedded within a more complex web of interlocking socioemotional systems. The discussion will be organized according to Urie Bronfenbrenner's four levels of the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. In addition, the phenomenon of boundary ambiguity between the clergy family and the congregational family will be cited as an example of the utility of an ecosystem approach.     

A COMPARISON OF THE CULTURAL VALUES OF SCOT AND U.S. CHILDREN

Afin de mettre en évidence les différences qui peuvent exister dans le système de valeurs des Américains et des Ecossais, on a administré à 1 189 enfants écossais et 1 268 enfants américains, de 10 à 18 ans, une question à réponses libres et un questionnaire de type Likert qui comporte 27 items relatifs aux valeurs suivantes : compréhension - utilité - espace vital - liberté - égalité - absence de besoins physiques - communauté - statut social. Les réponses à ce questionnaire permettent d'ordonner les valeurs selon un ordre décroissant : compréhension - utilité - égalité - communauté - absence de besoins physiques - espace vital - statut social - liberté; L'âge, le sexe, la culture n'entraînent pas de différences. Avec le questionnaire à réponses libres, il apparaît que les Ecossais mentionnent plus fréquemment les valeurs suivantes : bonheur - carrière - santé - besoins biologiques tandis que les enfants américains valorisent davantage L'éducation, la famille et la réalisation de soi-même. On peut en conclure que le système de valeurs est très semblable d'un pays à L'autre et reflète le caractère capitaliste de L'organisation sociale. La valeur relativement faible attribuée à la liberté et à la communauté d'une part, la valeur relativement élevée de L'utilité d'autre part, seraient indicatives de L'aliénation moderne de L'homme.