Waving the Flag: National Symbolism,Social Identity,and Political Engagement*

This research examined the psychological underpinnings of concern for national symbols and ritualistic‐ceremonial activities or “symbolic involvement.” We propose and test a distinction between symbolic and “instrumental” involvement or concern for the functionality of national institutions and their capability to provide instrumental benefits to citizens. Items comprising the two constructs were found to be empirically distinct, evidenced by statistically reliable and orthogonal dimensions in exploratory factor analysis. Moreover, evidence based on divergent patterns of relations with various forms of national membership indicates that symbolic and instrumental involvement are rooted in distinct motivational concerns related to identity expression and object appraisal, respectively. These findings suggest that national symbolism evokes a psychological attachment to the nation as an abstracted social entity, but not as a concrete functional system.     

Cultural specificity of support sources,correlates and contexts: Three studies of African-American and Caucasian youth

Levels and correlates of parental support, peer support, partner support, and/or spiritual support among African American and Caucasian youth were examined in three contexts: adolescent pregnancy (Study 1), first year of college (Study 2), and adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15–29; Study 3). Partially consistent with a cultural specificity perspective, in different contexts different support sources were higher in level and/or more strongly related to adjustment for one ethnic group than the other. Among pregnant adolescents, levels of spiritual support were higher for African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, peer support was positively related to well-being only for African Americans whereas partner support was positively related to well-being only for Caucasians. Among college freshmen, family support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment for African Americans than Caucasians; conversely, peer support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment among Caucasians. Among 15 to 29-year-olds, levels of parental support and spiritual support were higher among African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, spiritual support was positively related to self-esteem for African Americans but not for Caucasians. Implications and limitations of the research are discussed. The third study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 MH40963. We thank Monica Greene, Shea Lyda, Wendy Stevenson, and the many undergraduate students who contributed to the three research projects. We also acknowledge the very thoughtful and helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Edison Trickett.     

Corporate consciousness: Defining the paradigm

The concept of corporate consciousness is defined and discussed. In response to Campion and Palmer (1996), it is asserted that corporate consciousness is not a construct related to conscientiousness or moral responsibility, but an entirely new paradigm, related to awareness and information processing; the concept is cognitive, not metaphysical. Corporate consciousness serves as a framework for understanding the current trend within organizations toward greater awareness of societal realities, and of the organization's impact within larger systems. This framework borrows heavily from the cognitive, social, and organizational psychological literature and can be understood from both micro and macro levels of analysis. Also discussed are the issues of why and how to study corporate consciousness, as well as implications for the organizational practitioner.     

Finite mathematics

A system of finite mathematics is proposed that has all of the power of classical mathematics. I believe that finite mathematics is not committed to any form of infinity, actual or potential, either within its theories or in the metalanguage employed to specify them. I show in detail that its commitments to the infinite are no stronger than those of primitive recursive arithmetic. The finite mathematics of sets is comprehensible and usable on its own terms, without appeal to any form of the infinite. That makes it possible to, without circularity, obtain the axioms of full Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Theory with the Axiom of Choice (ZFC) by extrapolating (in a precisely defined technical sense) from natural principles concerning finite sets, including indefinitely large ones. The existence of such a method of extrapolation makes it possible to give a comparatively direct account of how we obtain knowledge of the mathematical infinite. The starting point for finite mathematics is Mycielski's work on locally finite theories.I would like to thank Jeff Barrett, Akeel Bilgrami, Leigh Cauman, John Collins, William Craig, Gary Feinberg, Haim Gaifman, Yair Guttmann, Hidé Ishiguro, Isaac Levi, James Lewis, Vann McGee, Sidney Morgenbesser, George Shiber, Sarah Stebbins, Mark Steiner, and an anonymous referee for encouragement and various useful suggestions. The research described in this article and the preparation of the article were supported in part by the Columbia University Council for Research in the Humanities.     

Sex-role stereotyping and patterns of self-disclosure

Students enrolled in psychology courses completed a Bem Sex-Role Inventory and a self-disclosure scale. A three way ANOVA (sex by sex role by target of disclosure) was used to determine if androgynous subjects differed from stereotyped by not conforming to standard sex differences in: (a) pattern of targets disclosed to; (b) amount of intimate disclosure. Results indicated: (a) androgynous females reported a peers first profile, typical of males; (b) androgynous males reported more disclosure than stereotyped males, especially on intimate topics; (c) androgynous females reported more nonintimate discussions with their fathers; and (d) androgynous males reported the highest level of intimate disclosures to father. Sex role is a better predictor of reported self-disclosure than is sex.The order of the authors' names was randomly determined: Both contributed equally. Correspondence should be sent to either author at the following address: Department of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Cortland, Cortland, New York 13045.     

Is quantum mechanics an atomistic theory?

If quantum mechanics (QM) is to be taken as an atomistic theory with the elementary particles as atoms (an ATEP), then the elementary particlcs must be individuals. There must then be, for each elementary particle a, a property being identical with a that a alone has. But according to QM, elementary particles of the same kind share all physical properties. Thus, if QM is an ATEP, identity is a metaphysical but not a physical property. That has unpalatable consequences. Dropping the assumption that QM is an ATEP makes it possible to replace the assumption that elementary particles are individuals with the assumption that there are various kinds of elementary stuff that have smallest quantities — the smallest quantity of light, for example, is a photon. The problems about identity disappear, and the explanatory virtues of an ATEP are maintained.I would like to thank various referees for their comments, as well as David Albert, Gerald Feinberg, Isaac Levi, James Lewis, Andre Mirabelli, Sidney Morgenbesser, Sarah Stebbins, Chris Swoyer, and Steve Yablo for useful discussions, and Arthur Fine for his comments on a presentation at Stanford University of a preliminary version of this paper in 1986.     

Threat, Authoritarianism, and Selective Exposure to Information

We examined the hypothesis that threat alters the cognitive strategies used by high authoritarians in seeking out new political information from the environment. In a laboratory experiment, threat was manipulated through a "mortality salience" manipulation used in research on terror management theory ( Pyszczynski, Solomon & Greenberg, 2003 ). Subjects (N = 92) were then invited to read one of three editorial articles on the topic of capital punishment. We found that in the absence of threat, both low and high authoritarians were responsive to salient norms of evenhandedness in information selection, preferring exposure to a two-sided article that presents the merits of both sides of an issue to an article that selectively touts the benefits of the pro or con side of the issue. However, in the presence of threat, high but not low authoritarians became significantly more interested in exposure to an article containing uniformly pro-attitudinal arguments, and significantly less interested in a balanced, two-sided article. Finally, a path analysis indicated that selective exposure to attitude-congruent information led to more internally consistent policy attitudes and inhibited attitude change. Discussion focuses on the role of threat in conditioning the cognitive and attitudinal effects of authoritarianism.     

Quantification and Ontology

Quineans have taken the basic expression of ontological commitment to be an assertion of the form ' x ', assimilated to theEnglish 'there is something that is a '. Here I take the existential quantifier to be introduced, not as an abbreviation for an expression of English, but via Tarskian semantics. I argue, contrary to the standard view, that Tarskian semantics in fact suggests a quite different picture: one in which quantification is of a substitutional type apparently first proposed by Geach. The ontological burden is borne by constant symbols, and truth is defined separately from reference.     

On the Varieties of National Attachment: Blind Versus Constructive Patriotism

Two studies explored a theoretical distinction between "blind" and "constructive" patriotism. Blind patriotism is defined as an attachment to country characterized by unquestioning positive evaluation, staunch allegiance, and intolerance of criticism. Constructive patriotism is defined as an attachment to country characterized by support for questioning and criticism of current group practices that are intended to result in positive change. Items designed to investigate these dimensions of national attachment were administered to two groups of undergraduates in separate surveys. Measures of the two constructs derived from factor analysis of the responses proved to be reliable and valid. Blind patriotism was positively associated with political disengagement, nationalism, perceptions of foreign threat, perceived importance of symbolic behaviors, and selective exposure to pro-U.S. information. In contrast, constructive patriotism was positively associated with multiple indicators of political involvement, including political efficacy, interest, knowledge, and behavior. The implications of this distinction for theory and research on patriotism are discussed.     

Effects of Goal Type on Performance,Task Interest,and Affect Over Time1

The purpose of this study was to increase understanding regarding the effects of goal-setting practices on a wide range of dependent variables over time. Goal type (control group, quality goal, quantity goal, and dual goal) was manipulated across 3 time periods. Goal × Time interactions were predicted such that quantity, effort, task interest, and positive affect would initially be low, but by later trials would be higher in the quantity and dual-goal conditions compared to the quality goal and control groups. Quality was expected to be greatest in the quality goal condition and to be relatively constant over time. Participants (N= 80) were undergraduates at a large midwestern university. Results indicated some support for our hypotheses in that Goal × Time interactions were found for quantity produced, rated effort, task interest, and positive affect.