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Group Membership (group + membership)
Kinds of Group Membership Selected AbstractsThe Effects of Health Sector Market Factors and Vulnerable Group Membership on Access to Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health CareHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 3p1 2007Susan E. Stockdale Objective. This study adapts Andersen's Behavioral Model to determine if health sector market conditions affect vulnerable subgroups' use of alcohol, drug, and mental health services (ADM) differently than the general population, focusing specifically on community-level predisposing and enabling characteristics. Data Sources. Wave 2 data (2000,2001) from the Health Care for Communities study, supplemented with cases from wave 1 (1997,1998), were merged with area characteristics taken from Census, Area Resource File (ARF), and other data sources. Study Design. The study used four-level hierarchical logistic regression to examine access to ADM care from any provider and specialty ADM access. Interactions between community-level predisposing and enabling vulnerability characteristics with individual race/ethnicity, age, income category, and insurance type were explored. Principal Findings. Nonwhites, the poor, uninsured, and elderly had lower likelihoods of service use, but interactions between race/ethnicity, income, age and insurance status with community-level vulnerability factors were not statistically significant for any service use. For ADM specialty care, those with Medicare, Medicaid, private fully managed, and private partially managed insurance, the likelihood of utilization was higher in areas with higher HMO penetration. However, for those with other insurance or no insurance plan, the likelihood of utilization was lower in areas with higher HMO penetration. Conclusions. Community-level enabling factors explain part of the effect of disadvantaged status but, with the exception of the effect of HMO penetration on the relationship between insurance and specialty care use, do not modify any of the residual individual-level effects of disadvantage. Interventions targeting both structural and individual levels may be necessary to address the problem of health disparities. More research with longitudinal data is necessary to sort out the causal direction of social context and ADM access outcomes, and whether policy interventions to change health sector market conditions can shift ADM treatment utilization. [source] Group Identification: The Influence of Group Membership on Retail Hardware Cooperative Members' PerceptionsJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2004Leslie McClintock Stoel Due to the increasing popularity of retail cooperatives in hardware retailing, a new competitive dynamic has emerged, a hybrid of intratype/intergroup competition. Individual members of one cooperative group now fight for market share with one or more members of competing cooperative groups, in an effort to attain individual goals, as well as group goals. A model of competition that includes both individual and group conditions was tested. Results of the structural equation model (SEM) show that the data fit the theoretical model well (,2=12.414, 8 df, p=0.134, NFI=0.990, NNFI=0.993, CFI=0.996). Our results indicate that, for members of cooperative groups, feelings of identification with the cooperative group resulted in increased perceptions of conflict with a rival who was a member of a competing cooperative and that feelings of group identification influenced beliefs about the importance of competitive behaviors relative to that rival. [source] Group membership and everyday social comparison experiencesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Heather J. Smith In two everyday experience studies, we examined the degree to which everyday social comparisons are framed by group membership. In the first study, 30 undergraduates attending a public university in the United States completed short questionnaires about their social comparison experiences whenever they were signalled. In the second study, 34 ethnic minority undergraduates from the same university completed similar questionnaires about their social comparison experiences. Across both studies, comparisons in which participants viewed themselves as an ingroup member in comparison to an outgroup comprised less than 10% of the comparison experiences reported by participants. However, minorities in the second study who reported closer identification with their ethnic group reported more comparison experiences in which they mentioned their own or the comparison target's ethnicity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Group membership, group norms, empathy, and young children's intentions to aggressAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 3 2009Drew Nesdale Abstract This study assessed the effect of ingroup norms and empathy on 6 and 9-year-old children's (N=161) attitudes and aggressive intentions toward outgroup members. Prior to an intergroup drawing competition against an outgroup, participants' empathy was measured, and they were randomly assigned to a simulated group with a norm of direct or indirect aggression, or no aggression norm. Results indicated participants' attitudes were less positive toward the outgroup vs. the ingroup, and that both direct and indirect aggressive intentions were displayed toward the outgroup. Most importantly, the ingroup was liked less when it had an aggression norm, and the participants' aggressive intentions were not enhanced by the group aggression norm. Empathy was a significant negative predictor of direct but not indirect aggression intentions. Implications for understanding the instigation and inhibition of children's aggression intentions are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 35:244,258, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Generalized social phobia and avoidant personality disorder: meaningful distinction or useless duplication?,DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 1 2008Dianne L. Chambless Ph.D. Abstract Participants with generalized social phobia (GSP) with (n=36) and without (n=19) avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) were compared via contrasts of group means and classification analysis on purported core features of AVPD. GSP-AVPD participants proved to be more severely impaired or distressed on some group contrasts. Cluster analysis identified two groups in the sample, with group membership significantly correlated to AVPD diagnosis. However, almost all significant findings were nullified when severity of social phobia was statistically controlled. Thus, at least where participants with social phobia are concerned, it seems most parsimonious to consider AVPD a severe form of GSP rather than a separate diagnostic category. Depression and Anxiety 0:1,12 2006. Published 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test (CUPIT): development, reliability, concurrent and predictive validity among adolescents and adultsADDICTION, Issue 4 2010Jan Bashford ABSTRACT Aims To describe the empirical construction and initial validation of the Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test (CUPIT), a brief self-report screening instrument for detection of currently and potentially problematic cannabis use. Design In a three-phase prospective design an item pool of candidate questions was generated from a literature review and extensive expert consultation. The CUPIT internal structure, cross-sectional and longitudinal psychometric properties were then systematically tested among heterogeneous past-year users. Participants Volunteer participants were 212 high-risk adolescents (n = 138) and adults (n = 74) aged 13,61 years from multiple community settings. Measurements The comprehensive assessment battery included several established measures of cannabis-related pathology for CUPIT validation, with DSM-IV/ICD-10 diagnoses of cannabis use disorders as criterion standard. Findings Sixteen items loading highly on two subscales derived from principal components analysis exhibited good to excellent test,retest (0.89,0.99) and internal consistency reliability (0.92, 0.83), and highly significant ability to discriminate diagnostic subgroups along the severity continuum (non-problematic, risky, problematic use). Twelve months later, baseline CUPIT scores demonstrated highly significant longitudinal predictive utility for respondents' follow-up diagnostic group membership. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis identified a CUPIT score of 12 to be the optimal cut-point for maximizing sensitivity for both currently diagnosable cannabis use disorder and those at risk of meeting diagnostic criteria in the following 12 months. Conclusions The CUPIT is a brief cannabis screener that is reliable, valid and acceptable for use across diverse community settings and consumers of all ages. The CUPIT has clear potential to assist with achievement of public health goals to reduce cannabis-related harms in the community. [source] Ketamine use, cognition and psychological wellbeing: a comparison of frequent, infrequent and ex-users with polydrug and non-using controlsADDICTION, Issue 1 2009Celia J. A. Morgan ABSTRACT Introduction Preliminary research has indicated that recreational ketamine use may be associated with marked cognitive impairments and elevated psychopathological symptoms, although no study to date has determined how these are affected by differing frequencies of use or whether they are reversible on cessation of use. In this study we aimed to determine how variations in ketamine use and abstention from prior use affect neurocognitive function and psychological wellbeing. Method We assessed a total of 150 individuals: 30 frequent ketamine users, 30 infrequent ketamine users, 30 ex-ketamine users, 30 polydrug users and 30 controls who did not use illicit drugs. Cognitive tasks included spatial working memory, pattern recognition memory, the Stockings of Cambridge (a variant of the Tower of London task), simple vigilance and verbal and category fluency. Standardized questionnaires were used to assess psychological wellbeing. Hair analysis was used to verify group membership. Results Frequent ketamine users were impaired on spatial working memory, pattern recognition memory, Stockings of Cambridge and category fluency but exhibited preserved verbal fluency and prose recall. There were no differences in the performance of the infrequent ketamine users or ex-users compared to the other groups. Frequent users showed increased delusional, dissociative and schizotypal symptoms which were also evident to a lesser extent in infrequent and ex-users. Delusional symptoms correlated positively with the amount of ketamine used currently by the frequent users. Conclusions Frequent ketamine use is associated with impairments in working memory, episodic memory and aspects of executive function as well as reduced psychological wellbeing. ,Recreational' ketamine use does not appear to be associated with distinct cognitive impairments although increased levels of delusional and dissociative symptoms were observed. As no performance decrements were observed in the ex-ketamine users, it is possible that the cognitive impairments observed in the frequent ketamine group are reversible upon cessation of ketamine use, although delusional symptoms persist. [source] Opinion-based group membership as a predictor of commitment to political actionEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2007Ana-Maria Bliuc Research on group identification has shown it to be a surprisingly weak predictor of intentions to take large-scale social action. The weak links may exist because researchers have not always examined identification with the type of group that is most relevant for predicting action. Our focus in two studies (one in Romania and one in Australia, both Ns,=,101) was on opinion-based groups (i.e. groups formed around shared opinions). We found that social identification with opinion-based groups was an excellent predictor of political behavioural intentions, particularly when items measuring identity certainty were included. The results provide clear evidence of the role of social identity constructs for predicting commitment to social action and complement analyses of politicised collective identity and crowd behaviour. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Illusory and spurious correlations: distinct phenomena or joint outcomes of exemplar-based category learning?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2006Thorsten Meiser Stereotype formation about novel groups was analyzed with trivariate stimulus distributions that were generated by group membership, valence of behavior, and a context variable. Within this stimulus setting, we manipulated the confounding role of the context variable and the distinctiveness of events in terms of their relative infrequency. The experimental procedure allowed us to analyze illusory and spurious correlations in a joint framework, to conduct focused tests for memory effects of relative infrequency and to investigate the detection of covariations with the context variable. The results revealed that illusory and spurious correlations were formed without enhanced memory for infrequent events and with existing covariations of the confounding context factor being well extracted. These observations suggest that illusory and spurious correlations can be understood without assuming specific cognitive processes that are tied to the particular characteristics of a given stimulus distribution, such as enhanced memory in the case of relative infrequency and neglect of a context variable in the case of a confounding factor. Instead, computer simulations with an exemplar-based learning model demonstrated that exemplar-based category learning may provide a coherent and integrative theoretical framework for illusory correlations, spurious correlations and true contingency learning in social cognition. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Group membership and everyday social comparison experiencesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Heather J. Smith In two everyday experience studies, we examined the degree to which everyday social comparisons are framed by group membership. In the first study, 30 undergraduates attending a public university in the United States completed short questionnaires about their social comparison experiences whenever they were signalled. In the second study, 34 ethnic minority undergraduates from the same university completed similar questionnaires about their social comparison experiences. Across both studies, comparisons in which participants viewed themselves as an ingroup member in comparison to an outgroup comprised less than 10% of the comparison experiences reported by participants. However, minorities in the second study who reported closer identification with their ethnic group reported more comparison experiences in which they mentioned their own or the comparison target's ethnicity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Learner Accuracy and Learner Performance: The Quest for a LinkFOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2000Janet M. Renou Specifically, we examined learner performance in carrying out three steps of a written and oral grammatically judgment test. First, subjects' ability to identify and correct an error, and to provide the rule, which the correction entailed, was examined according to group membership (communicative or grammar), types of errors, and mode of presentation. In a second phase of the analysis, judgment ability was compared with specific aspects of L2 proficiency. Results show significant differences between the groups in their ability to provide the rule that the correction entailed. Furthermore, significant differences in judgment ability were found depending on whether the item was presented in the written or oral mode. Generally, little difference was found in levels of L2 proficiency between subjects who could correct the error and provide the rule in comparison with those who were only able to correct the error. [source] Use of a novel technology for presenting screening measures to detect mild cognitive impairment in elderly patientsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 9 2010D. W. Wright Summary Background:, Available screening tools for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a precursor to Alzheimer's disease, are insensitive or not feasible for administration in a busy primary care setting. Display Enhanced TEsting for Cognitive impairment and Traumatic brain injury (DETECTÔ) addresses these issues by creating an immersive environment for the brief administration of neuropsychological (NP) measures. Objective:, The aim of this study was to determine if the DETECTÔ cognitive subtests can identify MCI patients as accurately as standard pen and paper NP tests. Methods:, Twenty patients with MCI recruited from a memory disorders clinic and 20 age-matched controls were given both a full battery of NP tests (standard NP) and the DETECTÔ screen. Logistic regression models were used to determine whether individual tests were predictive of group membership (MCI or control). Demographic variables including age, race, education and gender were adjusted as covariates. Selection methods were used to identify subset models that exhibited maximum discrimination between MCI patients and controls for both testing methods. Results:, Both the standard NP model (C-index = 0.836) and the DETECTÔ model (C-index = 0.865) showed very good discrimination and were not significantly different (p = 0.7323). Conclusion:, The DETECTÔ system shows good agreement with standard NP tests and is capable of identifying elderly patients with cognitive impairment. [source] Empathic Experience and Attitudes Toward Stigmatized Groups: Evidence for Attitude GeneralizationJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2010Mark Tarrant Two studies investigated the extent to which empathizing with a single member of a stigmatized group can yield positive attitudes toward other stigmatized groups. Participants read a scenario in which a member of a socially stigmatized group described the experiences of group membership. Participants then reported their attitudes toward the target group and a second group. Both studies revealed a generalization effect such that experiencing empathy for the target was associated with more positive attitudes, both toward the target group and the second group. Study 2 demonstrated that this generalization effect is confined to those groups located within the same superordinate category. Implications of these findings for attempts to structure people's orientation to stigmatized groups are discussed. [source] Green woodhoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus territories remain stable despite group-size fluctuationsJOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Andrew N. Radford Cooperatively breeding groups may be constrained in size by the territory available to them, or territories may be expanded to accommodate extra group members. Here, we show that there was no relationship between the number of adult green woodhoopoes Phoeniculus purpureus in a group and the size of its territory. Furthermore, territories were remarkably stable between seasons, with no significant changes in area, despite fluctuating group sizes. These results suggest that food was not limiting at the group sizes found in this study: sufficient resources were available within existing territories for groups that were expanding in size. Following an increase in group membership, a larger proportion of the available area was utilised. Groups also used a larger area in the non-breeding season compared to when breeding: in the latter instance, foraging was concentrated in the vicinity of the nest. [source] Mechanisms of change in mentalization-based treatment of BPDJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2006Peter Fonagy There are very few less contentious issues than the role of attachment in psychotherapy. Concepts such as the therapeutic alliance speak directly to the importance of activating the attachment system, normally in relation to the therapist in individual therapy and in relation to other family members in family-based intervention, if therapeutic progress is to be made. In group therapy the attachment process may be activated by group membership. The past decade of neuroscientific research has helped us to understand some key processes that attachment entails at brain level. The article outlines this progress and links it to recent findings on the relationship between the neural systems underpinning attachment and other processes such as making of social judgments, theory of mind, and access to long-term memory. These findings allow intriguing speculations, which are currently undergoing empirical tests on the neural basis of individual differences in attachment as well as the nature of psychological disturbances associated with profound disturbances of the attachment system. In this article, we explore the crucial paradoxical brain state created by psychotherapy with powerful clinical implications for the maximization of therapeutic benefit from the talking cure. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 62: 411,430, 2006. [source] Portrayals of Violence and Group Difference in Newspaper Photographs: Nationalism and MediaJOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, Issue 1 2003Jessica M. Fishman The authors analyzed group membership of violent agents and types of violence in front-page photographs from 21 years of The New York Times. Using a trimodal definition of media violence, they confirmed the hypothesis that non-U.S. agents are represented as more explicitly violent than U.S. agents, and that the latter are associated with disguised modes of violence more often than the former. The recurring image of non-U.S. violence is that of order brutally ruptured or enforced. By contrast, images of U.S. violence are less alarming and suggest order without cruelty. The study showed how violent imagery is associated with in-group and out-group status stratification. [source] Doing weight: Pro-ana and recovery identities in cyberspaceJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Sarah Riley Abstract This paper explores the role of online ,body talk' (text-based communication about bodies and bodily experiences) in the management, negotiation and development of eating disorder related identities. Two anorexia related Internet discussion forums (a ,pro-ana' and a ,recovery' website) were analyzed through the means of discourse analysis. The analysis focused on the type of body-talk produced in the different sites and the functions of this talk in relation to eating disorder related identities. Three forms of body talk were identified: descriptions of doing something with the body; descriptions of the body and descriptions of bodily experiences. On both sites these forms of body talk reproduced the thin ideal; demonstrated valid claims of group membership; and, for the pro-ana group, dynamically (re)produced eating disorder related identities through the reframing of health/appearance concerns as markers of success. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ,But everyone else is doing it': a closer look at the occupational taxpaying culture of one business sectorJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Julie S. Ashby Abstract When individuals embark on their careers they not only become acculturated into their occupational sectors' day-to-day norms and practices, but also their taxpaying ones. Although the research on taxpaying cultures is still in its infancy, understanding more about taxpaying cultures could improve our understanding of the processes underlying tax compliance. To this end, this study aimed to build a detailed picture of the taxpaying culture (i.e. the norms and values) of one business sector,the hairdressing/beauty industry. Nineteen small business and self-employed hairdressers/beauticians were interviewed and a variant of Grounded theory was used to uncover the main themes that ran through the interviews as a whole. The main themes that emerged,which appear to characterize this sector's culture,include a reliance on accountants/tax advisors, the notion of an acceptable level of cash-in-hand payments, and the use of different mental accounts for different types of income. Although some of these themes have already arisen in the small business literature they have often been couched in individualistic terms. We build a case that these issues are more cultural than individual,they are tied to occupational group membership as they are socially constructed within occupational groups and are a key component of the group's taxpaying culture. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Sense of community, civic engagement and social well-being in Italian adolescents,JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2007Cinzia Albanesi Abstract This study investigates the relationship between sense of community, civic engagement and social well-being in a sample of Italian adolescents. Participants were 14,19 year-old high school students (N,=,566) from two demographically distinct cities. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing sense of community, social well-being (Keyes, 1998), involvement in structured group activities (group membership) and civic engagement. Results showed that involvement in formal groups is associated with increased civic involvement and increased sense of community. Sense of community predicts social well-being and explains some of the association between civic engagement and social well-being. Findings suggest that, to increase social well-being, it is important to provide adolescents with more opportunities to experience a sense of belonging to the peers' group and promote prosocial behaviours in the community context. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Validation of A brief sense of community scale: Confirmation of the principal theory of sense of communityJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008N. Andrew Peterson First-order and second-order models of sense of community (SOC) were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data gathered from a random sample of community residents (n=293) located in the midwestern United States. An 8-item Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) was developed to represent the SOC dimensions of needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and shared emotional connection. The CFA results for the BSCS supported both the scale's hypothesized first-order and second-order factor structure. The overall BSCS scale and its subscales were also found to be correlated as expected with community participation, psychological empowerment, mental health, and depression. Findings provide empirical support for the BSCS and its underlying multidimensional theory of SOC. Implications of the study are described and directions for future research discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Unsanctioned aggression in rugby union: relationships among aggressiveness, anger, athletic identity, and professionalizationAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 3 2009J. P. Maxwell Abstract Aggressive players who intentionally cause injury to their opponents are common in many sports, particularly collision sports such as Rugby Union. Although some acts of aggression fall within the rules (sanctioned), others do not (unsanctioned), with the latter tending to be less acceptable than the former. This study attempts to identify characteristics of players who are more likely to employ unsanctioned methods in order to injure an opponent. Male Rugby Union players completed questionnaires assessing aggressiveness, anger, past aggression, professionalization, and athletic identity. Players were assigned to one of two groups based on self-reported past unsanctioned aggression. Results indicated that demographic variables (e.g., age, playing position, or level of play) were not predictive of group membership. Measures of aggressiveness and professionalization were significant predictors; high scores on both indicated a greater probability of reporting the use of unsanctioned aggressive force for the sole purpose of causing injury or pain. In addition, players who had been taught how to execute aggressive illegal plays without detection were also more likely to report using excessive force to injure an opponent. Results provide further support that highly professionalized players may be more likely to use methods outside the constitutive rules of Rugby Union in order to intentionally injure their opponents. Results are discussed within the context of the increasing win-at-all-cost attitude that is becoming more prevalent in sport and its implications for youth athletes. Aggr. Behav. 35:237,243, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Trajectories and predictors of indirect aggression: results from a nationally representative longitudinal study of Canadian children aged 2,10AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2007Tracy Vaillancourt Abstract The purposes of this study were to model the development of indirect aggression among a nationally representative sample of 1,401 Canadian children aged 4 at T2, 6 at T3, 8 at T4 and 10 at T5, and to examine predictors of trajectory group membership from T1 (age 2) child, familial, and parenting variables. Using a semi-parametric group-based modeling approach, two distinct trajectories were identified: "increasing users" comprising of 35% of the sample and "stable low users" comprising of 65% of the sample. Using logistic regression analyses to distinguish these two groups, we found that for girls, more frequent, increasing use of indirect aggression was associated with prior prosocial and physically aggressive behavior, low SES and low parental social support at age 2. For boys, increasing use of indirect aggression was associated with prior parenting issues at age 2,inconsistency and less positive parent,child interactions. Although this study provides unique information regarding the early development of indirect aggression and its predictors, more longitudinal research is needed to fully understand its development. Aggr. Behav. 33:314,326, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The Performance Effects of Business Groups in RussiaJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2009Saul Estrin abstract This study analyses the impact of business group affiliation on firm performance during a time when business groups are newly formed, when the economic and institutional environment is changing, and when group survival is uncertain. Based primarily on a transaction cost approach, we develop two hypotheses, concerning profitability and risk sharing (redistribution) respectively. The positive profitability hypothesis proposes that company affiliation with a business group directly and positively affects the profitability of each affiliate. A positive direct effect emerges when each affiliate benefits from access to group resources. The redistribution hypothesis considers the simultaneous possibility that inter-affiliate transfers of resources through internal markets are designed to redistribute profits among group members. We argue that variance-reducing redistribution from strong to weak group members is linked to group survival in times of institutional change. Our empirical approach focuses on testing these two linked hypotheses (and their alternatives) using a relatively large, contemporary and time varying database of Russian firms. We also develop a framework that distinguishes among the four possible empirical outcomes associated with the hypotheses. Our results provide unambiguous support for the case where the impact of group membership on profitability is positive and redistribution is variance-reducing. We term this outcome Business Group Robustness, and contrast it with other possible empirical outcomes. [source] Patterns of analogical reasoning among beginning readersJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 3 2004Lee Farrington-Flint Despite compelling evidence that analogy skills are available to beginning readers, few studies have actually explored the possibility of identifying individual differences in young children's analogy skills in early reading. The present study examined individual differences in children's use of orthographic and phonological relations between words as they learn to read. Specifically, the study addressed whether general analogical reasoning, short-term memory and domain-specific reading skills explain 5- to 6-year-olds' reading analogies (n=51). The findings revealed an orthographic analogy effect accompanied by high levels of phonological priming. Single-word reading and use of visual analogies predicted young children's orthographic and phonological analogies in the regression analyses. However, different findings emerged from exploring profiles based on individual differences in reasoning skill. Indeed, when individual differences in composite scores of orthographic and phonological analogy were examined, group membership was predicted by word reading and early phonological knowledge, rather than general analogical reasoning skills. The findings highlight the usefulness of exploring individual differences in children's analogy development in the early stages of learning to read. [source] Promoting student engagement in science: Interaction rituals and the pursuit of a community of practiceJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 1 2007Stacy Olitsky This study explores the relationship between interaction rituals, student engagement with science, and learning environments modeled on communities of practice based on an ethnographic study of an eighth grade urban magnet school classroom. It compares three interactional events in order to examine the classroom conditions and teacher practices that can foster successful interaction rituals (IRs), which are characterized by high levels of emotional energy, feelings of group membership, and sustained interest in the subject. Classroom conditions surrounding the emergence of successful IRs included mutual focus, familiar symbols and activity structures, the permissibility of some side-talk, and opportunities for physical and emotional entrainment. Sustained interest in the topic beyond the duration of the IR and an increase in students' helping each other learn occurred more frequently when the mutual focus consisted of science-related symbols, when there were low levels of risk for participants, when activities involved sufficient challenge and time, and when students were positioned as knowledgeable and competent in science. The results suggest that successful interaction rituals can foster student engagement with topics that may not have previously held interest and can contribute to students' support of peers' learning, thereby moving the classroom toward a community-of-practice model. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach [source] Science versus Human Welfare?JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 3 2009Understanding Attitudes toward Animal Use Scientists have been portrayed as having an uncaring attitude toward the use of animals and being inclined to reject the possibility of animal mind (Baldwin, 1993; Blumberg & Wasserman, 1995), yet there is little empirical research to support these claims. We examined why disparate attitudes toward animal use are held. Scientists, animal welfarists, and laypersons (N = 372) were compared on questionnaire responses that measured attitudes toward four types of animal use, and factors that might underlie these views (including belief in animal mind). As expected, scientists and animal welfarists held polarized views on all measures, whereas laypersons fell between the two. Animal welfarists were consistently opposed to all types of animal use, whereas scientists expressed support for the use of animals for medical research, but not for dissection, personal decoration, and entertainment. Animal welfarists showed high levels of belief in animal mind for 13 animal types, and scientists believed some of the 13 animals to have at least a moderate capacity for cognition and most to have at least a moderate capacity for sentience. Hence, the negative image of the science community that is often portrayed was not supported by our data. Findings were discussed in relation to external (group membership) and internal (belief systems) factors, and it is concluded that some people hold fixed attitudes toward animal use, whereas others are more influenced by context. [source] Racing to Theory or Retheorizing Race?JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 1 2009Understanding the Struggle to Build a Multiracial Identity Theory Empirical research on the growing multiracial population in the United States has focused largely on the documentation of racial identification, analysis of psychological adjustment, and understanding the broader political consequences of mixed-race identification. Efforts toward theory construction on multiracial identity development, however, have been largely disconnected from empirical data, mired in disciplinary debates, and bound by historically specific assumptions about race and racial group membership. This study provides a critical overview of multiracial identity development theories, examines the links between theory and research, explores the challenges to multiracial identity theory construction, and proposes considerations for future directions in theorizing racial identity development among the mixed-race population. [source] Exploring social mobility with latent trajectory groupsJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 1 2008Patrick Sturgis Summary., We present a new methodological approach to the study of social mobility. We use a latent class growth analysis framework to identify five qualitatively distinct social class trajectory groups between 1980 and 2000 for male respondents to the 1970 British Cohort Study. We model the antecedents of trajectory group membership via multinomial logistic regression. Non-response, which is a considerable problem in long-term panels and cohort studies, is handled via direct maximum likelihood estimation, which is consistent and efficient when data are missing at random. Our results suggest a combination of meritocratic and ascriptive influences on the probability of membership in the different trajectory groups. [source] Procrastination and Motivation of Undergraduates with Learning Disabilities: A Mixed-Methods InquiryLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 3 2008Robert M. Klassen The purpose of this mixed-methods article was to report two studies exploring the relationships between academic procrastination and motivation in 208 undergraduates with (n= 101) and without (n= 107) learning disabilities (LD). In Study 1, the results from self-report surveys found that individuals with LD reported significantly higher levels of procrastination, coupled with lower levels of metacognitive self-regulation and self-efficacy for self-regulation than those without LD. Procrastination was most strongly (inversely) related to self-efficacy for self-regulation for both groups, and the set of motivation variables reliably predicted group membership with regard to LD status. In Study 2, individual interviews with 12 students with LD resulted in five themes: LD-related problems, self-beliefs and procrastination, outcomes of procrastination, antecedents of procrastination, and support systems. The article concludes with an integration of quantitative and qualitative results, with attention paid to implications for service providers working with undergraduates with LD. [source] GENOCIDE AND THE MORAL AGENCY OF ETHNIC GROUPSMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 3-4 2006KAREN KOVACH Abstract: Genocide is the deliberate destruction, in whole or in part, of a people. Typically, it is a crime that is committed by a people. In this essay, I propose an analysis of the concept of an ethnic identity group, which is, I argue, the concept of ethnicity at issue in many important discussions of group rights, group acts, and the moral responsibility of group members for the acts of the groups to which they belong. I develop the account of collective agency presupposed by this analysis and explore its implications for assessments of individual moral responsibility for genocide. I argue, further, that among other advantages over culturalist approaches to questions about group rights, the approach that follows from the concept of an ethnic identity group sheds light on the specific moral wrong of genocide. I reply to individualist objections to the idea that ethnic group membership may be morally significant and argue that morally adequate responses to genocide presuppose acknowledgment of the fact that groups act and are acted upon in morally significant ways. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||