Psychology, Social

The goal of this study was to test the gender self-socialization model (GSSM). This
model suggests that gender identity motivates children to strive for cognitive consistency
between their gender stereotypes and their self-efficacy for those stereotypes. This study
presents a novel approach to stereotype assessment by focusing on children's
idiosyncratic stereotypes (as opposed to number of commonly shared stereotypes, which
do not provide detailed information about the types of stereotypes individual children
hold). Participants were 305 children in grades three through eight (Mage = 10.8 years).
Independent variables included children's stereotypes of 62 contextually tagged
behaviors and gender identity (comprising five dimensions). Interactive influences of
children's stereotypes and gender identity on self-efficacy were investigated. As
expected, stereotypes and gender identity worked together to predict children's self-efficacy perception for the 62 behaviors. These findings suggest that the role of gender
identity is important in the adoption of personally held gender stereotypes.

This research study is a description of the meaning of membership in a network of families affected by HIV-AIDS. Four network members were interviewed using a phenomenological approach to guide the inquiry. Narrative descriptions were generated which revealed six essential themes. They were: "Reaching Out to Each Other", "Building a Foundation", "Sharing Hope", "Growing Stronger", "Respecting and Accepting", and "Belonging Together." One Metatheme emerged "Building a Community." The implications for nursing practice, education and research are discussed.

This thesis examines the rhetorical effects created by political cartoonists through their depictions of Ronald Reagan. A representative sampling of these cartoons demonstrates that the pictorial and symbolic language in their visual dialogue was extrapolated from the heroic, mythic character types Reagan portrayed during his film career and with which he sought to be identified. This thesis argues that because cartoons depicted and caricaturized Reagan as an archetypal hero, they touched a responsive chord in the electorate and persuaded them to regard Reagan favorably.

The Cold-War mother lived in an era of angst, animosity, and anxiety. The immigrant mothers of the Beats not only had to grapple with the demands of her children, but also had to take on the post-Freudian demands of their new society. This anxiety tainted her mind, her milk, and consequently her children's writing. The works of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso exhibit the dramatic effect that their mothers had on their life and cathartic writings. Mothers were the wellspring and crumbling foundation of these writers as well as the muse who inspired them to beatness.

The principles of action identification theory are used to form a foundation for a dynamic approach to social interaction that may capture both stability and change in social judgments. Attributions of blame in an ambiguous rape case were explored through the presentation of transcribed interviews with either an alleged rapist (Larry) or his alleged victim (Jane), under either an induced high or low level of action identification, followed by one of two courtroom "closing arguments," attributing primary responsibility for the incident to either Larry or Jane. Responsibility judgments and personality trait ratings were obtained from each subject on both Larry and Jane. Action identification questionnaires for the Larry and Jane perspectives were administered to each participant. As predicted, compared to the high level subjects, subjects in the low level identity condition were more malleable in their judgments of either target. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

There is a linguistic homoerotic flirtation between the characters of Viola and Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Through Jane Gallop's analysis of Jacques Lacan, readers can view the eroticized exchange between these female characters by observing the manner in which each character utilizes both words containing feminine roots or metaphors that are feminine in nature. While Viola and Olivia express female-female desire, they search for their own identities in the patriarchal system that they must exist. They challenge the idea that women need to be both sexually and verbally passive. Viola represents a woman's removal from and re-emergence into the patriarchal system through her disguise. She is able to use the idea of the phallus in her interaction with Olivia, allowing both characters to experience phallic power---both by wielding power and by affirming their feminine characteristics through specific language.

Previous research has concluded that individuals high in perspective taking respond less aggressively to provocation than do those low in perspective taking. Whether the perspective-taking effect is automatic or not and many other process-related questions remain largely unanswered. One hundred sixteen female college students participated in a competitive reaction-time task, received escalatory negative feedback purportedly from another participant. In addition to being categorized as either high or low perspective takers, participants also received either high or low levels of situational information about the other and high or low levels of cognitive busyness. Participants high in perspective taking who were under high cognitive load responded significantly less aggressively than did participants low in perspective taking. Results suggest that perspective taking is an automatic process. The findings are discussed in terms of attribution theory, complexity-extremity theory, and in terms of an arousal-dominant response model.

Social representations consist of beliefs, values and norms that influence thought and behavior. Moscovici's Social Representation Theory provides an explanation for how social representations are formed, mutate, and survive, while Dynamic Social Impact Theory provides a framework by which to examine the emergence of macro-social phenomena from everyday communication (i.e., clustering, consolidation and continued diversity). Previous research has not examined, but has assumed, the processes by which social representations of aggression develop. The purpose of the present study was to examine social representations (SRs) of direct and indirect aggression and the process by which SRs emerge from interpersonal communication. Specifically, participants were randomly assigned to fixed addresses in an electronic social space and communicated with four of their nearest neighbors, for four weeks about direct and indirect verbal aggression. In the present study, most people agreed about the aggressiveness of direct responses whereas judgments about indirect responses were relatively varied.

The time dynamics of moral judgments were investigated in two studies. In the first, participants recorded verbal recollections of an event in which they had been treated unjustly by another. Listening to their own recordings, participants used a relatively new instrument (the mouse paradigm) to express their moment to moment feelings, attributing "responsibility," "justification" and "intent" to their antagonist. In a second experiment, a different group of participants recorded their feelings about a scripted academic honor code violation. While listening to their recordings, participants used the computer mouse to indicate their moment to moment feelings about the "actor," "transgression," and "punishment" described in the story. Results from both studies suggest that at any one moment, participants made judgments that uniformly characterized the transgressor in either positive or negative terms. Expressions of moral judgments, however, often changed dramatically from moment to moment between positive or negative modal values. Moreover, the flow of moral judgment resembled the temporal patterns observed in many formal and natural dynamical systems. Despite these changes, moral judgments became more stable over time; demonstrated coherence among the separately measured dimensions; and showed sensitivity to an importance manipulation. By replicating these classic findings in the attitude literature, this research helps validate the utility of the mouse paradigm in measuring moral judgments. The results further suggest that moral judgments are multi modal over time---casting doubt on the usefulness of the (averaged) judgments that are computed with traditional questionnaire instruments.

The present study examined the relation between parenting practices and adolescent ethnic identity, behavior problems, and academic achievement. Four hundred and sixty-nine adolescents completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of parenting, ethnic identity, and social adjustment. Grades and achievement scores were obtained from participating schools. The study addressed four aims: (1) Examine the relation between parenting practices and adolescent outcomes; (2) Examine the relation between parenting practices and ethnic identity; (3) Examine the relation between ethnic identity and adolescent outcomes; and (4) Explore whether these associations vary across ethnic groups. It was hypothesized that parenting practices would influence adolescent outcomes similarly regardless of ethnicity. Specifically, it was hypothesized that parental involvement, autonomy granting, and strictness/supervision would be associated with fewer behavior problems and higher school grades for African Americans, Anglo Americans, and Cuban Americans. Additionally, it was expected that parental strictness/supervision, autonomy granting, and involvement would predict ethnic identity for African Americans and Cuban Americans, but not Anglo Americans. Finally, it was expected that ethnic identity would be associated with outcomes for African Americans and Cuban Americans, but not Anglo Americans. The findings revealed that parenting practices were associated with adolescent outcomes for African Americans, Anglo Americans, and Cuban Americans. For African Americans, strict parenting was negatively related to behavior problems, but unrelated to academic achievement. Parental autonomy granting was negatively related to behavior problems. For Anglo Americans and Cuban Americans, parental strictness/supervision, autonomy granting, and involvement were negatively related to behavior problems. Parental autonomy granting and strictness/supervision were positively related to academic achievement for Anglo Americans, but unrelated to academic achievement among Cuban Americans. Parenting practices predicted ethnic identity for Cuban Americans, but not African Americans or Anglo Americans. Ethnic identity was related to behavior problems for African Americans, but it was unrelated to Cuban American and Anglo American adolescent outcomes. The findings from this study provide insight into the unique contribution of parenting practices and ethnic identity to adolescent behavior problems and academic achievement. As expected, parenting practices were associated with adolescent outcomes, and similarities rather than differences characterized these associations in the three ethnic groups. Ethnic identity was related to adolescent outcomes with variations as a function of ethnicity. A central focus of this study was to distinguish parenting practices from parenting styles. This distinction is key when attempting to identify specific parental behaviors that contribute to adolescent adaptation. Changing demographics underscore the need for continued study of how parenting practices and ethnic identity influence adaptation among adolescents from diverse ethnic backgrounds.