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.     

Education and Training of Children's Mental Health Professionals: The Existing and Potential Role of Schools of Public Health

Since the early 1980s, increasing attention has been devoted in the literature to the conceptualization, development, and implementation of integrated and comprehensive mental health systems of care for children and adolescents. In establishing this new children's mental health paradigm of community-based systems of care, there are presently very few well-trained professionals and leaders focused on collaborative (including interagency) initiatives in the delivery of children's mental health services. Nevertheless, the field of public health offers an interdisciplinary setting for the education and training of individuals in children's mental health services. This national survey of all 27 accredited schools of public health in the United States and Puerto Rico examined the existing capacity for and potential to expand educational and training opportunities in the organization, financing, and delivery of children's mental health services.     

Moral Expertise?: Constitutional Narratives and Philosophical Argument

Using the bench trial of Colorado's Amendment 2 as an example, this article focuses on the more general question of expert testimony in moral philosophy. It argues that there is indeed expertise in moral philosophy but argues against admitting such expert testimony in cases dealing with what John Rawls terms "constitutional essentials" and 'matters of basic justice." Developing the idea of public reason inherent in the Rawlsian concept of political liberalism, the article argues that philosophers can and should speak out on public issues, if they do so with due respect for certain restrictions, but that they should not serve as expert witnesses on core constitutional questions, since doing so suggests that they claim a type of authority that would require fellow citizens to defer to their views. Such claims to authority in basic ethical matters threaten the mutual respect for divergent comprehensive doctrines that lies at the core of political liberalism. Philosophers have a duty to serve the public good, and they perform this service in fruitful ways. But they should refuse a public role that appears incompatible with equal respect for the committed ethical searching of their fellow citizens.     

美国医疗保险为什么"抛弃"在职者

美国医疗保险领域存在一个令人费解的现象:老年人、儿童有着相对完善的医疗保险体系,而最具生产能力的在职者却成为公共医疗保险(社会医疗保险)的"弃儿",大量在职人口医疗保险制度的缺乏,对美国社会经济造成了显著负面影响,并开始引起人们的关注.在分析美国不同年龄段人口医疗保险制度现状的基础上,从美国公共医疗保险制度设计、雇主医疗保险制度特点等角度分析美国在职者无医疗保险现象产生的原因及其影响,并探讨美国医疗保险未来的发展走向.     

群体心理现象——一种后现代的公共精神卫生问题

探讨以群体心理为基础的公共精神卫生问题的概念、重要性,以及发生的病理机制。认为当代公共精神卫生问题所具有定性模糊、文化边缘化等后现代的特点都与群体非理性心理的性质有关。     

新公共卫生与后医学时代

现代社会出现的超重、肥胖、吸烟、吸毒、不安全性行为等社会压力和社会环境导致的各种退行性疾病和新传染病(艾滋病等)新公共卫生问题,主要靠非卫生部门的努力,即由政府主导、社会各部门和群众参与,按生物心理社会医学模式,用健康教育和健康促进战略,深入社区,对人们的行为进行干预,医生与服务对象(健康人、亚健康人、病人)共同努力才能取胜。医务人员需转变观念、更新服务模式,为提高全民健康素质,全面建设小康社会,自觉地促进此历史性的变革。     

Organizational Membership versus Informal Interaction: Contributions to Skills and Perceptions that Build Social Capital

Participation in formal organizations has been considered a marker of social capital, but informal interactions may also provide social-capital relevant benefits. The current studies (N = 252 undergraduates; 60 adult members of a service organization) assessed skills, outcomes, and social-structural perceptions that may be developed from organizational or informal participation. Results suggested that organizations serve as potential training grounds for diverse types of civic participation; individuals hone their leadership and public speaking skills within the structures provided by organized groups. On the other hand, informal interaction also contributed importantly to social capital formation by fostering negotiating skill, the sharing of opinions, and companionship, and by creating networks of mutual obligation.     

Belonging and Doing: Political Churches and Black Political Participation

The importance of the political church in Black political participation has brought to the attention of scholars the differences among Black churches and their effect on Black mobilization. The Black church has on many occasions transformed itself into a politicized organization. These political churches become settings that encourage political knowledge and skills ( Tate, 1993 ) and communicate political activity as a norm ( Calhoun-Brown, 1996 ). The earlier work on political churches has established the importance of these organizations for voter turnout and other forms of political participation. What has been left unexamined is the nature of the political churches themselves. This project disentangles these churches by looking at the heterogeneity within the structures of the political churches. In general, we seek to understand which of the internal activities of the political church tend to foster acts of political participation. We hypothesize that cost- underwriting activities and obligation-creating activities within the church setting have the greatest impact on participation. By examining a robust and expansive operationalization of the political church construct, we find that these types of political church activities matter more than other activities. In specifying how churches may work to directly affect the participation of their members, we seek to expand the scope of general comprehension of political churches.     

The devil you know: the effects of identifiability on punishment

Prior research has confirmed Thomas Schelling's observation that people are more sympathetic and hence generous toward specific identified victims than toward “statistical” victims who are yet to be identified. In the study presented in this article we demonstrate an equivalent effect for punitiveness. We find that people are more punitive toward identified wrongdoers than toward equivalent, but unidentified, wrongdoers, even when identifying the wrongdoer conveys no meaningful information about him or her. To account for the effect of identifiability on both generosity and punitiveness, we propose that affective reactions of any type are stronger toward an identified than toward an unidentified target. Consistent with such an account, the effect of identifiability on punishing behavior was mediated by self‐reported anger. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

说服效应的理论模型、影响因素与应对策略

说服效应是指面临说服性信息时, 个体态度发生转变并影响其决策行为的一种现象, 该现象普遍存在于政治选举、生活消费及商业广告等领域, 具有重要的应用价值。说服效应的两个主要理论模型包括双加工模型和自我功效理论。信息源的可信度、情绪、信息框架、社会网络、事件卷入度等是影响说服效应的主要因素。说服效应的应对策略包括公开承诺和自我控制。未来的研究应该从说服效应的产生根源、特征成分及应用领域等方面进行深入地探讨。