Attitudes to new technology in relation to social beliefs and group memberships: A preliminary investigation

Though the term “new technology” is widely used and discussed, there has been very little systematic study of attitudes to technology and their relation to other beliefs and group memberships. This article describes an initial investigation into the nature of attitudes towards new technology (n=534 undergraduates) and demonstrates that, as yet, these attitudes are only weakly structured and are not fully integrated with other social beliefs. General evaluations of the benefits of technological advance appear to be almost unrelated to beliefs about the inevitability of these advances or the desire to acquire training to deal with them. Contrary to popular expectations, evaluations of video games are unrelated to other beliefs about technology while other social beliefs are, as yet, only weakly integrated with these attitudes. This study also identifies gender differences in the assessment of potential benefits and highlights other differences attributable to academic group memberships. These finding are discussed with reference to the literature on sex-role stereotyping and group socialization processes.     

The Politics of Pears: Augustine on the Ethics of Privative Versus Eucharist Communities

In my essay, I interpret Augustine's Confessions as a political text that portrays Augustine's attempt to find a true community. This search includes a critique of various defective communities that cannot provide the public good necessary for a true public. To show this, I focus on Augustine's account of the pear theft as an example par excellence of a privative community. I examine the story as an account of an inexplicable act of willing against the good that unmakes the will. I then argue that the supposed resolution—that Augustine was willing the good of community—in fact exacerbates the inexplicability of the pear theft. In feasting on iniquity, this community un-makes itself. I conclude by showing how the pear thieves represent a perverted imitation of the eucharistic community, which does not steal but shares the Good and so shares its goods.     

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN REACTION TO FAILURE1

Les Occidentaux admettent qu'on critique leur performance; ils réagissent en général à la critique en essayant de faire mieux. En Extrême-Orient, il n'est pas convenable de dire à quelqu'un qu'il a échoué en quelque chose; le faisant, on a toute chance de le voir renoncer ou faire plus mal encore. Cette différence de comportement dans les deux civilisations s'explique par des différences d'organisation cognitive. Les AA. ont comparé, dans trois groupes d'étudiants de culture différente (Américains; Extrême-orientaux suivant les cours d'universités américaines; Thais de Thaïlande), les individus qui ont réussi et ceux qui ont échoué dans leurs études. Les sujets américains réagissent à l'échec en réduisant les relations entre toutes les variables étudiées, ce qui constitue un mode de défense en profondeur par le biais d'une organisation plus souple. Les sujets des deux autres groupes réagissent à l'échec par une réduction des contacts personnels et une rigidité accrue de l'organisation personnelle interne. Ces résultats ont une grande importance pratique relativement aux effets sociaux du développement économique en Extrême-Orient.     

My path into the profession

Contemporary Family Therapy -     

Linking qualitative and quantitative methods in cross-cultural survey research: Techniques from cognitive science

Survey research with diverse cultural and ethnic minority groups is a complex and challenging endeavor that confronts the researcher with problems related to linguistic and conceptual equivalence and measurement as well as problems related to difficulties that respondents have with the sociocultural dimensions of the survey/interview process. One way to improve the quality of cross-cultural surveys and to insure that the findings are culturally relevant and accurate is to combine qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper proposes that certain qualitative techniques from cognitive science, specifically cognitive anthropology and cognitive psychology, are particularly well suited to being combined with survey research. These techniques provide information corresponding to the underlying thought processes of respondents and enable researchers to better understand how different cultural and ethnic groups construe the world. The information obtained can be used improve the formulation of survey questions, design and structure questionnaire formats to coincide with the way particular groups organize concepts, and help researchers understand difficulties respondents may have with the survey/interview process. In addition, the techniques produce data that are easily codifiable and more manageable than traditional qualitative techniques including participant observation and in-depth interviews.     

An odd effect: Lengthened reaction times for judgments about odd digits

Eight experiments are reported that first establish and then explicate a serendipitous finding that judgments about whether digits are odd or even take longer for odd than for even digits. The slowing of judgments about odd digits is more pronounced when digit pairs or triples are used, but is still weakly present when a single digit must be classified. A similar effect is seen when judgments of nouns are based on whether the nouns are the names of living or dead objects. Nouns that name dead objects are judged more slowly than ones that name living objects. The concept "alive" is linguistically marked. Past research has shown that unmarked concepts are processed more rapidly than marked ones. The similarity in the pattern of results when digits and words are judged is used to argue that the slower judgments about odd digits are due to the fact that "odd" is a linguistically marked and "even" a linguistically unmarked concept.     

Indirect modes of aggression among women of Buenos Aires,Argentina

This study utilizes the construct indirect aggression to investigate aggressive behavior among middle class Argentine women and men by administering an attitude and self-report survey to 95 inhabitants of Buenos Aires and by analyzing ethnographic interviews and observations conducted over a nine month period in 1992. An examination of sex roles in Argentina, including machismo and marianismo, provide a cultural context for interpreting aggression. Factor analyses revealed the presence of indirect aggression (e.g., social manipulation, gossip, exclusion) in addition to verbal and physical aggression. Survey and ethnographic findings converge in suggesting that women employ more indirect aggression than men, while men utilize more physical aggression. While competition and aggression are salient elements of social life for both sexes, women and men tend to favor different approaches. The findings are compared with the literature on female aggression from other cultural settings. We conclude that cultural and evolutionary perspectives elucidate aspects of female aggression.We would like to thank the Ford Foundation for providing the financial support to make this research possible. We would also like to thank Patricia de Gyldenfeldt and Debbie Bandura for their endless contributions with translations, ideas, and help in general. Finally, we would like to thank Eckerd College, la Universidad del Salvador, and Michael Hobson for their base of support, all those in Argentina, especially Agueda, Andrea, Carmen, Cecilia, Claudio, Daniela, Heidi, Ingrid, Javier, Julio, María, Mariela, Roberto, and Victor, who offered their enthusiastic assistance and ideas, and Victoria Burbank, Ayala Gabriel, and the anonymous reviewer for their helpful suggestions.