Fitting in: How the intergroup context shapes minority acculturation and achievement

ABSTRACT

Children of immigrants are at risk of underachieving in school with long-lasting consequences for future life-chances. Our research contextualises the achievement gap by examining minority acculturation experiences in daily intergroup contact across different intergroup contexts. Acculturation researchers often find an adaptive advantage for minority youth with an integration-orientation (combining both cultures). But findings from Europe are inconclusive. Looking beyond individual differences in acculturation-orientations, this review shifts focus to the intergroup context of minority acculturation and achievement. We discuss longitudinal, multi-group, multi-level and experimental evidence of the up- and downsides of integration for minority inclusion and success in European societies. Our studies show that both (1) intergroup contact experiences and (2) intergroup ideologies affect achievement – either directly or through the interplay of (3) acculturation-norms, defined as shared views on acculturation in social groups, with individual acculturation-orientations. The findings suggest how schools can reduce achievement gaps through improving intergroup relations.     

Copts,the State and the 1949–1950 al-Majlis al-Millī Electoral Crisis: Articulating Community in a Time of Anxiety

ABSTRACT

In October 1949, the Coptic Communal Council, al-Majlis al-Millī, failed to run elections as scheduled in the midst of conflict with the clergy. The following April, the Egyptian government intervened by dissolving the Council in favour of an appointed body and by amending its bylaws to allow for the Coptic patriarch and the state to intervene in the case that future elections were delayed. This prompted controversy in the community, as supporters of the Council criticized the intervention for depriving the body of its democratic nature. However, opponents of the Council used the legislation to criticize the body for its aggressive posturing and to assert the authority of the clergy over the laity in communal affairs. This article explores the 1949–1950 intervention alongside the anxieties of late-liberal-era Egypt. By investigating the conversations that occurred in the government and the communal press, I argue that the election crisis served as a flashpoint for parties to lay claim to their particular visions of community by focusing on themes of communal representation, spheres of sovereignty and the maintenance of order.     

Religion–state relations and public opinion: norms,institutions and social consensus

ABSTRACT

Are levels of religion–state regulation associated with cross-national variation in attitudes related to the place of religion in public life? Data sources measuring both the institutional relationship between religion and state and public opinion on the political role of religion have significantly improved in recent years, but scholars have just begun to examine relationships between political institutions and public attitudes. This contribution tests several potential examples of such links by exploring the relationship between religion–state institutions and norms of religion and politics, both between and within countries. The contribution first develops theoretical expectations regarding the institutional correlates of public opinion, then conducts initial tests of these expectations by blending data from the Religion and State project with comparative survey data drawn from Waves 4 and 5 of the World Values Survey. Analysis demonstrates modest links between institutions and aggregate public views, a relationship between institutions and social consensus, and, most robustly, consistent variation in institutional effects across political regime type.     

Gift narration: dynamic themes of reciprocity,debt, and social relations in Theravāda Buddhist Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Scholarly studies of Buddhist gift-giving have explored the many ways in which gifts are or are not reciprocal. This topic is revisited in this article by the author drawing greater attention to the practice of narration. Instead of understanding Buddhist words about dāna as representing religious doctrines or the experience of its social practice, the author considers how Buddhists narrate dāna as a means of maintaining relationships with self and others. Examining narratives of one monastic gift-recipient, meanings of dāna and moral principles of gift-giving are shown to vary alongside shifting relations between givers and receivers. This case suggests that themes of reciprocity are most salient when narrators grapple with interpersonal threats. Offering possible interpretations of this correlation, the author argues how reciprocal forces could be external social conditions to which narratives respond as well as created ex nihilo through the practice of narration as a strategy of ordering interpersonal conflicts potentially unrelated to reciprocity.     

It’s not just “us” versus “them”: Moving beyond binary perspectives on intergroup processes

ABSTRACT

The social psychology of intergroup relations has emerged largely from studies of how one group of people (e.g., whites) think and feel about another (e.g., blacks). By reducing the social world to binary categories, this approach has provided an effective and efficient methodological framework. However, it has also obscured important features of social relations in historically divided societies. This paper highlights the importance of investigating intergroup relationships involving more than two groups and of exploring not only their psychological but also their political significance. Exemplifying this argument, we discuss the conditions under which members of disadvantaged groups either dissolve into internecine competition or unite to challenge the status quo, highlighting the role of complex forms of social comparison, identification, contact, and third-party support for collective action. Binary conceptualizations of intergroup relations, we conclude, are the product of specific sociohistorical practices rather than a natural starting point for psychological research.     

Obituaries

Obituary notices for:
James Seddon (1 June 1920–9 January 1999)
Elizabeth Osterman (27 July 1919–3 July 1998)     

Quality of the home,daycare and neighborhood environment and the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children in early childhood: A mediation analysis

The objective of this study was to investigate how socioeconomic factors and the quality of ecological environments affect motor and cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children. This is a cross-sectional, predictive and correlational study using structural equation modeling to analyze data on 147 economic disadvantage children of 24–36 months attending public daycare. The Bayley-III Scales, the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory, the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition, a socioeconomic index and a specifically designed questionnaire on neighborhood quality were applied. The ecological environments did not affect motor development, but 25 % of variations in cognitive development were explained by socioeconomic differences and differences in the quality of the neighborhood, home and daycare. However, only the quality of the home and daycare had a direct impact, with the other factors affecting the outcome indirectly and to a lesser extent. In conclusion, this study investigated the association between the ecological contexts of economically disadvantaged children and their cognitive and motor development. The findings showed that the environmental context had effect on cognitive development. The home was the environment that exerted the most significant direct effect, followed by daycare and, indirectly and to a lesser extent, the neighborhood. Therefore, the coordination of public policies between health, education and social assistance sectors, aiming at the three ecological environments is important in order to promote the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children.     

How to separate coordinate and categorical spatial relation components in integrated spatial representations: A new methodology for analysing sketch maps

Spatial relations between landmarks can be represented by means of categories and coordinates. In the present research, this paradigm was applied to sketch maps based on information acquired in goal-directed behaviour of exploration of a university campus area. The first aim was to investigate whether categorical and coordinate information can be considered conceptually independent in sketch maps. The second aim was to assess which kind of distance measure served better to represent coordinate information in the present case study, and finally to assess the factorial structure of coordinate and categorical data. Analytic methodology as well as statistical analysis were found to confirm that separating coordinate and categorical components was formally as well as empirically appropriate. A series of confirmatory factor analyses showed the best fit for the model with two correlated components, as well as an acceptable reliability of measures emerged. The two components were moderately correlated. Moreover, the adoption of Manhattan distance seemed to be the most effective method to represent coordinate spatial relations in spatial sketch maps of areas acquired through navigation.