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Individual Attitudes (individual + attitude)
Selected AbstractsSimilarities and Differences Between African Americans' and European Americans' Attitudes, Knowledge, and Willingness to Communicate About Organ Donation,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2003Susan E. Morgan While little is known about African Americans' attitudes and knowledge about organ donation, even less is known about how African Americans' attitudes, values, and beliefs affect their behavior and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation; or how African Americans' views are similar to or different from those of European Americans. Adults working 2 sites of a national corporation were randomly selected to complete a survey about organ donation willingness, intention to sign an organ donor card, knowledge and attitudes toward organ donation, and level of altruism. Results indicate that African Americans differ significantly from Whites on several individual attitude and knowledge items. However, the basic relationship between knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors regarding organ donation between the 2 groups appears the same. Furthermore, these results indicate that future organ donation promotion campaigns must focus on increasing basic knowledge and countering myths about organ donation for both populations. [source] From individual attitudes towards migrants to migration policy outcomes: Theory and evidenceECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 56 2008Giovanni Facchini SUMMARY Attitudes and migration policy We are experiencing a wave of globalization that includes everything but labour. In this paper, we argue that this is the result of restrictive migration policies implemented by destination countries. In democratic societies individual attitudes of voters represent the foundations of policy making. To understand policy outcomes, we analyse the patterns and determinants of voters' opinions on immigration. We find that, across countries of different income levels, only a small minority of voters favour more open policies. Furthermore, our analysis supports the role played by economic channels in shaping public opinion. We next investigate how attitudes translate into policy outcomes, considering two alternative frameworks: the median voter and the interest groups model. On the one hand, the very low percentages of voters favouring immigration are, in light of the existing restrictive policies, consistent with the median voter framework. At the same time, given the extent of opposition to immigration that appears in public opinion, it is somewhat surprising in a median voter framework that immigration takes place at all. We find that interest-groups dynamics have the potential to explain this puzzle. , Giovanni Facchini and Anna Maria Mayda [source] How nursing home staff deal with residents who talk about deathINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 4 2007Barbro Wadensten PhD Aims., The overall aim of this study was to gain knowledge about how nursing staff treat and communicate with residents who talk about death and about their reasons for their treatment as well as to investigate how staff explain residents' reasons for talking about death. Background., Studies have established that nursing staff have problems in dealing with patients who talk about death and that staff do not know how they should relate to talking about death. Method., A qualitative explorative design. Interviews with staff were performed and analysed using a qualitative content analysis. Findings., Staff descriptions of their various ways of dealing with a situation in which residents talk about death could be divided into two qualitatively different main categories: ,allow and facilitate talk about death' and ,avoid talk about death'. The most common explanation provided by staff in all categories was that they acted the way they did because they did not know how to address discussions about death. Staff members' descriptions of residents' reasons for talking about death were quite different. Conclusions., The study indicates that nursing staff need to reflect on their own attitudes towards death and that they need to develop further. Their behaviour may depend on each staff member's individual attitudes and development. Nursing staff need training in and knowledge about how to communicate with residents who talk about death. This knowledge could be acquired through training, guidance and joint reflection in groups. [source] Towards tourism: a Laotian perspectiveINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 5 2010Wantanee Suntikul Abstract This paper reports the findings of a study of the attitudes of residents towards tourism in the District of Viengxay, Lao People's Democratic Republic, where tourism is in its infancy. Based on focus group interviews, the paper analyses the societal and individual attitudes of the residents towards tourists, tourism development and employment in the tourism field. It was found that locals have little understanding of the motivations of tourists for visiting their villages. Villagers look forward to tourism development to bring more communication and fame to their village, as well as to tourism's contribution to the local economy. Community-mindedness, control and organisation, cultural exchange, understanding and cultural awareness are prime motivators in forming local attitudes towards tourism. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A Cross-National Comparison of the Internal Effects of Participation in Voluntary OrganizationsPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2008Marc Morjé Howard This article draws on two recent and largely untapped sources of data to test empirically the Tocquevillian argument about the impact of involvement in civic organizations on individual attitudes and behaviors. Our analysis is based on two related studies , the European Social Survey (ESS) and the US ,Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy' (CID) survey , that incorporate innovative and detailed measures about respondents' involvement in voluntary associations in nineteen European countries and in the United States. These surveys provide us not only with rich individual-level data within a cross-national comparison, but they also allow us to develop and test a new measure of civic involvement that distinguishes between different levels of participation. After employing our ,civic involvement index' in pooled and individual country analyses, we find general support for the Tocquevillian argument. On average, those persons with greater levels of involvement in voluntary organizations also engage in more political acts, have higher life satisfaction and are by and large more trusting of others than those who do not. These findings highlight the general importance of actual involvement as opposed to nominal membership. [source] Immigration and the Imagined Community in Europe and the United StatesPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2008Jack Citrin Both Europe and the United States are confronting the challenges of economic and cultural integration posed by immigration. This article uses the ESS and CID surveys to compare transatlantic public opinion about immigrants and immigration. We find more tolerance for cultural diversity in the United States, but we also find that Americans, like Europeans, tend to overestimate the number of immigrants in their countries and tend to favor lower levels of immigration. The underpinnings of individual attitudes are similar in all countries and immigration attitudes are surprisingly unrelated to country-level differences in GDP, unemployment and the number and composition of the foreign born. An implication of these findings is that acceptance of higher levels of immigration, deemed by many to be an economic need, will require both more selective immigration policies and an emphasis on the cultural assimilation of newcomers. [source] Localised attitudes matter: a study of sickness absence in SwedenPOPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 3 2008Katarina Haugen Abstract The central issues explored in this article are the importance of geographical location in explaining the attitudes of individuals, and the interplay between these attitudes and overt behaviour. The context is as follows: In the late 1990's, sick-listings in Sweden underwent a substantial increase, causing the public expenses for the general sickness insurance to soar. Moreover, the extent of the usage of the insurance was found to vary significantly across different regions within the country. This development of the sickness insurance generally, and the regional differences specifically, have since been the subject of an intense debate. Differences and/or changes in attitudes toward sick leave within the population have been proposed as possible reasons for the regional variations. Much of the discussion has, however, been based on speculative arguments rather than empirical studies. Using data from a survey conducted in 2005, this research explores whether geographical location influences individual attitudes toward sick leave, and whether these attitudes in turn influence the sickness absence of individuals. The data are analysed using factor analysis, ordinary linear regressions and logistic regressions. The results provide some support for the idea that geographical factors matter to individual attitudes, and that variation in these attitudes is in turn associated with propensity for sickness absence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Restoring Equity or Introducing Bias?JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2006A Contingency Model of Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Programs We developed a model to explain how an individual's attitude toward the group targeted by affirmative action impacts support for the program. In this model, attitude toward the targeted group influences the extent to which an individual perceives discrimination to be responsible for workforce disparities. Perceived discrimination affects fairness judgments of affirmative action programs with the effect contingent on the extent to which the remedy involves preferential treatment. To test this, participants were told about the selection system in a company in which minorities were underrepresented. Participants evaluated the extent to which they believed that discrimination occurs in the hiring process and 3 possible remedies. Results supported attitudes toward the targeted minority group as an antecedent of perceived discrimination and found that the amount of perceived discrimination was negatively related to fairness judgments of opportunity enhancement programs, but positively related to evaluations of programs that involved preferential treatment. Fairness judgments were positively related to support for all 3 affirmative action programs. [source] Attitudes Toward Nurse Practitioners: Influence of Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Education and IncomeJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS, Issue 7 2000Carol Y. Phillips PhD ABSTRACT Survey research was undertaken to measure relationships between gender, age, ethnicity, education, income level, and an individual's attitude toward using a nurse practitioner (NP) for health care. Pender's Health Promotion Model provided the theoretical basis for the research initiative and instrument design. Following initial pilot work, 238 individuals were surveyed. While no significant differences on the basis of gender and race were found, high school graduates demonstrated significantly more positive attitudes toward NPs than non-high school graduates, and older subjects and those with lower incomes were less positively inclined to use NP services. These findings have implications for the marketing of NP services, NP education, and public education, and should be used as a basis for additional research in this area. [source] After prostate cancer: Predictors of well-being among long-term prostate cancer survivorsCANCER, Issue 10 2006Thomas O. Blank Ph.D. Abstract BACKGROUND Despite growing numbers of prostate cancer (PCa) survivors, to the authors' knowledge there is little research regarding how personality, coping, and treatment influence men's psychologic well-being, as distinct from the often-studied functional, health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine how hope, optimism, use of coping strategies, and primary treatment predict well-being, positive and negative affect, impact, depression, and adaptive changes among PCa survivors. METHODS A questionnaire tapping personality, primary treatment, and coping strategy predictor variables and outcome variables of both positive and negative aspects of well-being was sent to 1,8-year PCa survivors. The final sample included 490 men. RESULTS Basic univariate analyses demonstrated that the men reported being happy, hopeful, and positive, with low levels of negative outcomes. Regression analyses demonstrated that positive outcomes were influenced primarily by personality. Negative outcomes were found to be affected by both personality and coping strategies. Adaptive changes were the only ones found to be significantly affected by primary treatment. CONCLUSIONS Although longer-term survivorship of PCa does not appear to be a highly traumatic experience, personality factors and the use of coping strategies years after treatment were found to introduce variability to well-being in complex ways, differing in relation to positive and negative outcomes. Clinical attention should be given to how the experience of cancer fits within the larger context of an individual's attitudes, choices, and coping strategy orientation. Cancer 2006. © 2006 American Cancer Society. [source] UNCERTAINTY, LEARNING AND GROWTHTHE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 5 2008RAGCHAASUREN GALINDEV The paper extends Blackburn and Galindev's (Economics Letters, Vol. 79 (2003), pp. 417,421) stochastic growth model in which productivity growth entails both external and internal learning behaviour with a constant relative risk aversion utility function and productivity shocks. Consequently, the relationship between long-term growth and short-term volatility depends not only on the relative importance of each learning mechanism but also on a parameter measuring individuals' attitude towards risk. [source] | ||||||||||||||||