Algebraic Representations of Beliefs and Attitudes Ii: Microbelief Models For Dichotomous Belief Data

It may often be the case that the beliefs about which survey researchers query respondents are composed of discrete components, such that holding all of the components isnecessary to give a "yes" response. Simple logical relations, which some researchers have proposed may structure belief data, may obtain between these components, and not between the beliefs that are actually measured. This paper demonstrates that an algebraic inversion of a data matrix, first used in test theory by Haertel and Wiley (1993), can be seen as a unique and interpretable decomposition that can recover information regarding the compositional formulas of the measured beliefs as well as the logical relations between the unobserved components. The inversion is illustrated with a set of data from the GSS. Finally, the conditions under which related techniques are then helpful or not helpful for analyzing survey data are discussed.     

Lifestyles,and Risk Perception Consumer Behavior

In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given very favorable media coverage. Probably because of this, it is often considered as a very important and promising approach by administrators working with the regulation of risk and risk communication. It may also be credible in some quarters because it affords a way of ‘explaining’ risk perception as being non-rational. In this paper, we give results from an empirical study of nuclear waste risk perception which is related to a basic risk perception model and three approaches to lifestyles: Kahle's List of Values, a Swedish adaptation of the ‘Agoramétrie’ approach suggested by a group of French researchers, and Dake and Wildavsky's Cultural Theory dimensions. It was found that nuclear waste risk perception could be modeled successfully with risk attitudes and perception data (basic model about 65% of the variance explained), but that lifestyle dimensions added virtually nothing to the explanatory power of the model. Lifestyle dimensions in isolation only explained a minor part of the variance.     

How Journalists Think about Media Effects—And Why We Should Care

Research suggests that journalists’ beliefs about media effects are influenced by unsystematically gathered knowledge and subjective-intuitive judgments. However, it has also been shown that these presumptions must be considered important factors for the formation of journalistic coverage. Against this background, this article synthesizes existing research on dimensions, determinants, and consequences of journalists’ presumptions of media effects. The resulting framework offers researchers in the field of journalistic content production a comprehensive overview of the possible role that presumptions of media effects could play for journalistic content creation. In a second step, we summarize the implications that the current state of research points at. We discuss why journalism scholars should integrate presumed media effects into their research agendas and what communication researchers, as well as journalists themselves, could do to promote more realistic beliefs about media effects among journalists.     

‘Sperm Milkshakes with Poo Sprinkles’: The Challenges of Identifying Family Meals Practices through an Online Survey with Adolescents

This article contributes to a long‐overdue discussion about research with adolescents. While young people are now recognised as competent and reliable participants, there are particular difficulties associated with using adolescents as respondents. Furthermore, it is rare for young people’s reactions to the research process to be heard. This article reports on some of the methodological challenges faced in designing and administering a Web‐based survey to 15‐year‐old school students in Perth, Western Australia, in an attempt to gain insight into meals practices and beliefs among adolescents and their families. Using empirical data, we discuss issues concerning the competence of adolescents to participate in social research. We conclude that using a Web‐based survey actively facilitates high levels of adolescent engagement in the research process, allowing them to be both subject and object of the research.     

Privatisation and economism: an investigation amongst 'producers' in two privatised public utilities in Britain

Both academic and political debate about the effects of privatisation upon employees in privatised companies has taken place in something of an empirical vacuum. In particular, there is a lack of systematic enquiries into the major privatised utilities. Despite the lack of evidence, a number of claims have been advanced, both about the impact of privatisation upon the political attitudes of employees, and about its effects on working conditions, worker motivation and behaviour. This paper presents the results of a survey of 442 employees in two privatised public utilities. It is divided into two parts, looking first at the more general social and political attitudes of these employees, then presenting their views on the impact of privatisation on the company they work for, and on their working lives. The findings reported here lend little support either to new right claims about privatisation's transformative powers or to the view that ‘for most people … privatisation will make very little difference at all’ (Saunders and Harris, 1990).     

Acknowledging and transcending ‘failure’: lifeworld possibilities and system constraints

In this article, we interrogate the concept of methodological ‘failures’ as they arise during fieldwork, in the process of collecting empirical data. We highlight how the techniques of validity horizon matrices and power analysis can be used as methodological tools to illustrate moments in the fieldwork process where these ‘failures’ occur and to illustrate what makes them ‘failures’ rather than just opportunities for learning. Drawing on examples from our own research, we use validity horizon matrices to suggest that ‘failures’ largely occur as a result of disagreements about backgrounded, implicit normative claims. We distinguish between ‘failures’ where communicative possibilities exist for negotiating norms and those where systemic constraints make critique impossible, though we acknowledge that in practice opportunities for negotiating power are limited.     

Global Centrality and Income Inequality in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: A Test of Two Hypotheses

This article provides a quantitative assessment of two global city hypotheses: Sassen’s polarization and Hamnett’s professionalization claims. We conduct our analysis by using a continuous measure of global city status developed by researchers at the Global and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) and examining its correlation with the Gini index of household income inequality with relevant controls across a large sample of U.S. metropolitan areas in 2008. We examine industrial employment distribution as a causal pathway by which global city formation may influence urban income structures, as per Sassen and Hamnett’s original hypotheses. Results show that global city status is consistently associated with higher levels of inequality, but neither theorist’s claims about causal mechanisms are supported. This begs the question: What explains the correlation? We suggest an alternative hypothesis relating global city status to the distribution of educational credentialing.     

Football hooligans: theory and evidence

This paper describes empirical research amongst hooligans. Such research has not always been valued. The significant factor in hooligan behaviour may be asserted to be the generation of violence in the lower working class and its dissemination amongst football fans. It is commonly asserted that hooligans operate in well-organized groups. It is argued here that such assertions need to be based on better evidence. A detailed account is given of the behaviour of a notorious group of fans and its key individuals. This shows that the ‘hard core’ fans were distinguished from others only by greater dedication to football and their club; they had a potentiality for violence but only of the low level kind that many others shared; they were more often involved simply because they went to more matches; they lacked organization. Nevertheless outsiders were, not unreasonably, sure they were a violent, organized group. This casts doubt on similar beliefs held about other groups unless beliefs are well substantiated. Detailed ethnography is valuable because it helps to sort out the nature of the ‘hooligan’ problem that requires to be theorized.     

Demands and Devotion: Cultural Meanings of Work and Overload Among Women Researchers and Professionals in Science and Technology Industries

How do cultural meanings influence how people experience work‐life demands? Much research, especially quantitative research, on the effects of structural work and family conditions does not account for employees’ cultural beliefs about the meaning of work in their lives. This article uses unique survey data to investigate the effects of employee embrace of elements of the “work devotion schema”—a cultural model that valorizes intense career commitment and organizational dedication—on their sense of “overload,” an experience that includes feeling exhausted and overloaded by all one's roles, net of actual hours on the paid job and family responsibilities. We argue that by cognitively, morally, and emotionally framing work as a valued end, the work devotion schema reduces feelings of overload. Using a case of senior women researchers and professional service providers in science and technology industries, we find that those who embrace work devotion feel less overloaded than those who reject it, net of work and family conditions. However, this effect is curtailed for mothers of young and school‐aged children. We end by discussing implications for flexibility stigma and gender inequality.     

Beliefs underlying stress reduction and depression help-seeking among college students: An elicitation study

Objective: This study illustrates how a theory-based approach can identify college students’ beliefs about stress reduction activities and help-seeking for depression. These beliefs are the basis for intervention design. Participants: A sample of 53 undergraduate students at a public university in the Midwest participated in this research during March 2016. Methods: An open-ended belief elicitation survey was administered online. Beliefs were identified through qualitative thematic analyses. Results: Exercise was students’ most preferred stress reduction activity. Beliefs about exercise emphasized physical benefits yet also not having time for exercise. Beliefs about help-seeking for depression emphasized treatment efficacy, support from others, stigma, and time constraints. Conclusions: Whereas beliefs about positive outcomes inform educational and motivational messages, beliefs about time constraints underscore the need to also consider structural factors that can help students find time to attend to their well-being.     

An Empirical Analysis of Image Restoration: Texaco's Racism Crisis

As in any social science, theory in public relations is advanced by making and testing predictions from that theory. This article reports the results of a study designed to test some claims advanced by image restoration theory, a theory that is being used and cited frequently in crisis management research. The experimental study subjects conclusions from a case study to empirical analysis. More precisely, claims about the effectiveness of various image restoration strategies used in Texaco's efforts to combat a racism incident are tested. The results suggest that many conclusions drawn from image restoration case studies should be taken only as tentative. The results recommend a more rigorous application of image restoration theory to unpack its utility for crisis management and public relations.     

Worker perceptions of procedural justice in workers’ compensation claims: Do unions make a difference?

The differences between union and nonunion workers’ perceptions of the fairness of the workers’ compensation claims process are examined. The hypothesis tested is that union members should perceive this process as more fair due to union “voice.” The data were collected in a survey of injured workers in Michigan who had filed a workers’ compensation claim. The empirical results indicate that unions have little impact on the perceived fairness of the claims process and that the main contribution of unions is the provision of a complaint mechanism. From the Bill of Rights to Chief Justice Earl Warren’s recurring inquiry of counsel, “but is it fair?” fair treatment has been treated as a value enforceable by law, standing at the very core of the constitutional, political, and social rights of the individual. —Westin and Feliu (1988, p. 255)     

Social accountability as social movement outcome: Protests in a Chinese city

ABSTRACT

Social accountability is a concept that has been used much in development studies and democratic theory to study informal ways for civil society to achieve social change and hold governments accountable. Surprisingly, it has been far less used in social movement scholarship and we argue that social accountability, understood as a combination of answerability, legal claim attainment, and sanction, is a useful way to examine social movement outcomes in China. Social accountability directs the focus of research towards the target of protest and not only whether the protest resulted in policy changes or not. Based on field work in 2013–2015, this article examines four cases of social protests in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. In line with previous research we find that when citizen claims accord with government policies and protesters are well-organized, local authorities tend to accommodate the protesters’ claims. However, answerability and sanction do not always follow the same pattern. Answerability can be relatively high also when legal claims are unsuccessful. This means that cases that are commonly seen as unsuccessful protests because the legal demands were not accommodated may still result in partial social accountability. In addition to the presentation of original empirical findings, the study makes a theoretical contribution by linking the two research fields of social movement and social accountability, which will be of interest to a wider scholarly audience.     

Misgivings of medicine?: African Americans' skepticism of psychiatric medication

Research has consistently documented black-white differences in rates of voluntary psychiatric treatment that cannot be reduced entirely to differences in either need or access. A variety of explanations have been offered for the gap that remains, but the empirical testing of alternative propositions has thus far been minimal. Using the 1998 General Social Survey's Pressing Issues in Health and Medical Care module (n = 1,387), I find consistent and substantial black-white differences in a variety of beliefs about psychiatric medications, one of the most common treatments for mental illness, and the predisposition to use them. Specifically, blacks express less willingness to use psychiatric medications themselves or to administer them to a child for whom they are responsible. Neither socioeconomic status, knowledge, religious involvement, nor trust in medicine appears to explain this reluctance. Rather, it stems almost entirely from blacks' beliefs about psychiatric medications' efficacy and side-effects. The results indicate, first, that researchers should not assume that African Americans will use psychiatric medications at rates similar to whites if offered equal access. Second, the results indicate that blacks' skepticism of psychiatric medications may be rooted in specific beliefs about psychiatric medications, rather than general ideologies about medical practice. Health beliefs about psychiatric treatment, therefore, will continue to play an important role in understanding race differences in the use of psychiatric medications.     

Understanding the mobility chances of children from working-class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

Research in social stratification has shown that children from working-class backgrounds tend to obtain substantially lower levels of educational attainment and lower labor market positions than children from higher social class backgrounds. However, we still know relatively little about the micro-level processes that account for this empirical regularity. Our study examines the roles of two individual-level characteristics—cognitive ability and locus of control—in mediating the effect of individuals’ parental class background on their educational attainment and social class position in Britain. We find that cognitive ability mediates only about 35% of the total parental class effect on educational attainment and only about 20% of the total parental class effect on respondents’ social class position, net of their educational attainment. These findings contradict existing claims that differences in the life chances of children from different social class backgrounds are largely due to differences in cognitive ability. Moreover, we find that although individuals’ locus of control plays some role in mediating the parental class effect, its role is substantially smaller than the mediating role of cognitive ability. We measure individuals’ social class positions at different points in their careers—at labor market entry and at occupational maturity—and find that the mediating roles of cognitive ability and locus of control are remarkably stable across individuals’ working lives.     

The Influence of Divorcing Mothers' Demeanor on Custody Evaluators' Assessment of Their Domestic Violence Allegations

A gap exists between empirical evidence demonstrating the risks posed by domestic violence (DV) and the weight that evidence is given by custody evaluators. This gap may result from common beliefs about DV that diminish or deny its seriousness, which include that mothers often make false allegations to gain advantage and that DV and high conflict are synonymous and do not require differential approaches. Using a multiple segment factorial vignette design, we systematically assessed how these beliefs influenced custody evaluators' (N = 603) recommendations and judgments of the believability of allegations. Mother's demeanor (i.e., hostile vs. pleasant) was the most consistent predictor of evaluators' recommendations and judgments of credibility. Findings have implications for providing research-based education and training for evaluators.     

Queering Climate Change: Exploring the Influence of LGBTQ+ Identity on Climate Change Belief and Risk Perceptions*

Although researchers have broadly addressed how race, party identification, political ideology, and binary gender categories influence climate change opinions, little attention has been paid to the relationship between sexuality and gender variance (LGBTQ+ identity broadly) and climate change perceptions. Using a quota-based survey from 2022 that approximates the US population on key demographic characteristics and oversamples LGBTQ+ individuals, we assess the degree to which LGBTQ+ individuals' climate change beliefs and risk perceptions are comparable to cisgender, heterosexual (cishet) individuals, specifically examining climate change beliefs, the perceived threat climate change poses, and worry about climate change. We argue that LGBTQ+ individuals' views are likely to be distinct from their cisgender heterosexual (cishet) counterparts for three reasons: climate change is likely to exacerbate existing structural inequalities, create disaster responses that reinforce heteronormative and discriminatory patterns, and activate LGBTQ+ political culture. We find evidence that LGBTQ+ individuals express higher agreement with climate change beliefs, identify climate change as a greater threat, and worry more about climate change when compared to their cishet counterparts.     

Towards a Topology of ‘Doing Gender’: An Analysis of Empirical Research and Its Challenges

‘Doing gender’ is a much used term in research on gender, work and organizations. However, translating theoretical insight into empirical research is often a challenging endeavour. A lack of clarity with regard to the conceptualization and operationalization of key terms in turn often limits the theoretical and empirical purchase of a concept. The aim of this article is therefore to provide a systematization of empirical approaches to ‘doing gender’. This systematization leads to a topology of five themes that is derived from empirical research in the field. The five themes identified are structures, hierarchies, identity, flexibility and context specificity, and gradual relevance/subversion. Each theme explores a different facet of ‘doing gender’. This topology helps empirical researchers to be more specific about which aspects of ‘doing gender’ they are referring to. This in turn can help to unfold the theoretical potential of the concept of ‘doing gender’.