Social Status as a Predictor of Race and Gender Stereotypes in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

We examined race and gender stereotypes in fourth‐, sixth‐ and eighth‐grade White and Black children. The participants reported their perceptions of the competence of Black, White, female and male children in academic domains, sports and music. In general, low‐status groups (girls and Black children) did not endorse stereotypes that reflected negatively on their own group but were likely to report stereotypes that favored their social group. High‐status groups (boys and Whites) endorsed most traditional stereotypes, whether negative or positive, for their social group. Where age differences appeared, older children were more likely than younger children to report traditional stereotypes and status effects were more pronounced. The results are discussed in terms of group enhancement and relationships between social stereotypes and self‐views.     

Contextual Variation in Stereotype Content: An Investigation of Children's Central Tendency and Group Variability Judgements

Drawing upon self‐categorization theory, we predicted that the content of children's stereotypes concerning the gender ingroup would be contextually variable. Two studies are reported, each looking at five‐, seven‐, and 10‐year‐old children's stereotypes of the gender in‐group in two different contexts. Study 1 examined judgements of the perceived central tendency of the in‐group on specified dimensions. Study 2 addressed judgements of perceived variability within the gender in‐group on the same dimensions. Overall multivariate analysis of the data indicated that central tendency judgements were influenced by the context in which a group is considered, but that group variability judgements were not. Individual‐level analyses showed that the most typical pattern of response over the two conditions, in both Studies 1 and 2, was for children to provide consistent rather than varying judgements. However, in Study 1 (but not Study 2 ), among those children who changed their judgements, the nature of change was precisely as predicted by self‐categorization theory.     

Types of Identification and Intergroup Differentiation in the Russian Federation

The fall of the Soviet Union affected the established identity patterns and intergroup relations in the Russian Federation. A survey investigates the effect of Russians' and titulars' identifications with their ethnic group, their republic, and the Russian Federation on intergroup stereotypes. We hypothesized that identification at various inclusiveness levels is differently reflected in the positive/negative stereotypes about in-group and out-groups. While in-group stereotypes would be positively affected by all types of identification, out-group stereotypes would turn more negative by ethnic identification and more positive by republican and federal identification. Further, we expected that republican identification would improve titulars' in-group stereotypes and Russians' out-group stereotypes, while federal identification would enhance Russians' in-group stereotypes and titular's out-group stereotypes. Russians favored their in-group mostly in positive terms. Titular minorities favored their in-group mostly on negative stereotypes. A model of intergroup differentiation is proposed that takes into account social identification at different inclusiveness levels. This model makes clear the potential threat posed by republican identifications to the stability of intergroup relations in Russia.     

The role of gender stereotypes in the social acceptability of the expression of intimacy

This study explores the proposition that similar to the way that it is more acceptable for women than men to express traits that suggest vulnerability, such as loneliness or depression, it is also more acceptable for women to express emotional intimacy. Participants view an interaction between two men, two women, or a man and a woman, and evaluate the interpersonal attraction of the person expressing emotional intimacy. In Study 1, men gave the most negative evaluations to the man being intimate. In Study 2, thematic analysis of interview content suggests that participants hold gender stereotypes about intimacy and also that men frequently risk social rejection and may be perceived as gay when they engage in intimate expression, particularly when with other men. Overall, findings suggest that gender and related stereotypes have an observable role in the perceptions of an individual who is expressing intimacy.     

Models of the Aging Self

Older adults are faced with numerous physical, psychological, and social role changes that challenge their sense of self and capacity to live happily. In addition, they are inundated by our youth-oriented culture with negative ageist stereotypes. Nevertheless, most older adults live happy, fulfilling lives. In this article, we review theories of the aging individual that address this apparent paradox. These theories can be largely divided into those that emphasize control and goal attainment, and those that emphasize the self's organizational capacity. Of the self-oriented theories, we will highlight Whitbourne's (1996) identity process perspective, which is specific to the aging process and attempts to explain the self's unique capacity to remain stable yet change over time.     

Social Psychology,Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy

Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self‐identity and their related concepts. These include personality traits, self‐esteem, social comparisons, self‐enhancement, impression management, self‐regulation and social identity. To illustrate, we examine how elements of consumer culture and neoliberal political economy intersect with social psychological concepts of self‐identity through three main topics: ‘the commodification of self‐identity’, ‘social categories, culture and power relations’ and the ‘governing of self‐regulating consumers’. In conclusion, we recommend a decommodified approach to research with the aim of producing social psychological knowledge that avoids becoming enmeshed with consumer culture and neoliberalism.     

Korean Children's Evaluation of Parental Restrictions Regarding Gender‐stereotypic Peer Activities

Korean children's evaluations of parental restrictions of children's activities based on gender stereotypic expectations were investigated. Third and sixth grade Korean (N = 128) children evaluated scenarios in which a boy or girl desired to play ballet or soccer. Participants used stereotypes to support children's desires to play gender‐consistent activities and adhered to parental authority for choice of gender‐consistent social activities. Yet, they also rejected parental decisions to treat sons and daughters differently based on the view that it would be unfair. Stereotypic expectations decreased with age and were used more by boys than by girls when evaluating exclusion. The results are discussed in terms of exclusion, development, and culture.     

Effects of consistency between self and in‐group on children's views of self,groups, and abilities

Children's developing views of self and in‐groups inevitably conflict at points during childhood (e.g., a girl who thinks of herself as strong encounters the gender stereotype that girls are weak). How are self and group views reconciled in such cases? To test hypotheses based on Greenwald et al.'s model of self, group, and attribute relations, children (N = 107; ages 7–12; M = 9 years, 6 months) were assigned to novel social groups, denoted by red and blue t‐shirts, in their classrooms. Across 3 weeks, children completed three novel tasks and received false feedback on personal and group task performance, producing a between‐subjects experimental design in which children received either consistent or inconsistent self and group feedback. Immediately after receiving feedback, children answered questions about the particular task. Finally, upon completion of all three manipulations, children completed measures of views of the self and novel groups. As predicted, children's views of the tasks, self, and groups were influenced by feedback. Unexpectedly, children viewed themselves as more similar to the in‐group than out‐group irrespective of feedback consistency. Furthermore, children developed in‐group biased attitudes, but these biases were largely unrelated to feedback.     

The Nature of Children's Stereotypes of Popularity

The present study investigated what types of attributions and expectations children have about peers who they believe are popular or unpopular with other children. Fourth and fifth grade children (N = 135) were presented with pictures of several unacquainted peers who were described as popular or unpopular (or neither). Children were then told about several hypothetical encounters between themselves and each of the peers and were asked to explain or rate what each peer's response would be to that situation. As hypothesized, children had negative stereotypes about children who they believed were unpopular, while stereotypes about children believed to be popular were a mixture of positive and negative elements. Results confirmed past research in suggesting that a distinction must be made between sociometric and perceived popularity. Gender differences were also discussed, because the stereotypes held by boys and girls differed in several respects.     

The Hopes and Fears of Older Australians: for Self,Family, and Society

This study refutes negative ageist stereotypes of how older people view themselves and society by reporting on their freely expressed main hope and main fear for the future. Data were collected through a population based cross‐sectional telephone interview survey conducted in NSW in 1999/2000. Participants (n=8,881) were randomly selected community dwelling older Australians (65+). Analyses revealed that participants were more likely to express a hope than a fear, and that a sizeable proportion of their hopes and fears were focused outwardly to family, or more broadly to social and environmental issues both locally and globally. These latter hopes and fears indicate awareness, interest and concern on a wide range of issues outside self and family. Some differences by gender and age were identified but views varied considerably among individuals. These findings provide evidence to dispel the negative image of older people as a self interested undifferentiated group whose members become progressively fearful as they age, by revealing an altruistic and outwardly focused dimension.     

The Role of Perceived Friendship Self‐efficacy as a Protective Factor against the Negative Effects of Social Victimization

This study examined perceived friendship self‐efficacy as a protective factor against the negative effects associated with social victimization in adolescents. The sample consisted of 1218 participants (557 males, age range 12–17 years). Perceived friendship self‐efficacy was associated with lower internalizing scores irrespective of adolescents' social victimization level and with lower externalizing scores at low, but not high, levels of social victimization. Furthermore, the relationship between perceived friendship self‐efficacy and all forms of adjustment did not differ between boys and girls, or between adolescents in both reciprocated and unilateral very best friendships. The role of perceived friendship self‐efficacy as a protective factor amenable to intervention in social bullying at school is discussed.     

Self‐control,peer preference,and loneliness in Chinese children: A three‐year longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to explore the longitudinal links among Chinese children's self‐control, social experiences, and loneliness, largely from a developmental cascades perspective (which postulates mechanisms about how effects within a particular domain of functioning can impact across additional domains over time). Participants were N = 1,066 primary school students in Shanghai, P. R. China, who were followed over three years from Grade 3 to Grade 5. Measures of children's behavioral self‐control, peer preference, and loneliness were obtained each year from peer nominations and child self‐reports. Results indicated that as compared with the unidirectional and bidirectional models, the developmental cascade model represented the best fit for the data. Within this model, a number of significant direct and indirect pathways were identified among variables and over time. For example, self‐control was found to indirectly contribute to later decreases in loneliness via a pathway through peer preference. As well, peer preference both directly and indirectly contributed to later increases in self‐control. Finally, loneliness directly led to decreases in self‐control from Grade 3 to Grade 4, but not from Grade 4 to Grade 5. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of self‐control for Chinese children's social and emotional functioning over time.     

Peer Nominations of Emotional Expressivity Among Urban Children: Social and Psychological Correlates

The current study examined associations between peer nominations of children's expression of negative emotions and psychological, social, and behavioral correlates in a sample of 523 first graders. Children (85 percent African‐American) completed a peer nomination measure for expressing negative emotions. In addition, three other domains of functioning were assessed using multiple raters: internalizing symptoms (self, parent), externalizing behavior (parent, teacher), and social competence (parent, teacher). Regression analyses indicated that peer nominations of negative emotions predicted higher levels of teacher‐rated externalizing behavior and lower levels of teacher‐rated social competence. Peer nominations of emotions were significantly associated with teacher ratings but unrelated to self‐ and parent‐report measures. Adding to a small but growing literature, our findings underscore the importance of assessing peer perceptions of children's emotional expressivity and their associations to social and psychological functioning in an urban, predominantly African‐American sample.     

Gender Issues in Social Group Work

This introductory essay outlines some of the reasons why a knowledge of gender is important for social group workers. We identify key concepts that are often confounded in our understanding of gender and discuss gender stereotypes and status differences between men and women and their implications for group work; we further discuss how disordered behaviors and social problems are related to these gender role stereotypes and status differences. Finally, we assert that many of the theories underlying social work practice reflect gender stereotypes, and that group work research and theory have largely ignored gender as a variable.     

When Are Net Effects Gross Products? Communication

The rush to judgment about the social effects of the new communications media has branded them as positive and negative in equal measure. Alienation from "real world" relationships coupled with a lack of social regulation within the medium is balanced by liberation from the influences, inequalities, and identities to which people are subjected in face-to-face interaction. We argue that such general conclusions may in fact be turned upside down and propose that these media may actually strengthen social bonds but also reinforce power inequalities. Reviewing evidence of our research with university students, employing the social identity model of deindividuation effects, we show how these technologies can often be more "social," and socially regulated, than face-to-face interaction.     

The (ab)sense of a concept of social support in parenting research: a social work perspective

Social support, as a complex, dynamic and multidimensional concept, has been studied extensively. However, a review of research publications on social support and parenting reveals that social work perspectives on social support are underdeveloped in the Social Sciences Citation Index. Social support is predominantly studied in relation to parental health, considering social support as a buffer against potential negative outcomes for children. This, in turn, legitimates extensive research on parents ‘at risk’. Specific target groups have been questioned abundantly using social support measures, mainly consisting of self‐reports. We conclude that social support is studied as a predefined concept, lacking conceptualizations that encompass the actual enacted support in relation to the perspectives of both givers and receivers of support. Moreover, the focus on targeted groups ignores the experience of social support in more diverse populations in general services and in everyday life. Issues of reciprocity, diversity and multivocality are central to our appeal for social work perspectives truly encompassing the relational aspect of social support. The question whether, and to what extent, social workers (including practitioners, policy‐makers and researchers) should give attention to this relational aspect is discussed.     

Immigrants’ support for social spending,self‐interest and the role of the group: A comparative study of immigrants in The Netherlands

This study examined immigrants’ support for social spending. We tested the dominant self‐interest hypothesis for a number of immigrant groups in the Netherlands with highly varying socio‐economic positions. We additionally examined the effect of immigrants’ group interest by testing the relevance of in‐group immigrant benefit participation rates and their effect on support for social spending. In this article, we discuss how immigrants’ sense of belonging to a group affects the association between immigrants’ self‐ and group interests in welfare and their support for social spending. We found that self‐interest has explanatory relevance, but that this is strongly correlated with level of income. Results showed weak support for the effect of group interest. Instead of the expected moderation effects of sense of belonging on the self‐ and group‐interest explanations of support for social spending, the results showed a direct effect of sense of belonging on support for social spending.     

Cognition and Emotion? The Dead End in Self‐Esteem Research

This article suggests that studies of self‐esteem using scales have reached a dead end, and suggest alternative directions. First we show how significance tests have obscured meager results. According to reviews, this huge body of research has yielded no substantial findings. Some sub‐fields show consistent, but trivially small, effects; reviews of the entire field show none at all. Most important, the size of effects does not seem to be increasing. Three questions are raised: 1. Are new standards needed to determine when to continue or stop a given line of research? 2. Are new approaches needed alternative to standardized scales and statistical tests? 3. Should future studies of self‐esteem emphasize feeling and social components at least as much as cognitive (self‐evaluative) components? Studies of self‐esteem using interview techniques by George Brown and his colleagues suggest the need to move closer to actual data. An exploratory study that takes this direction a step further is described. We analyze social and cognitive/emotional elements second by second in discourse about topics relevant to self‐appraisal and self‐feeling.     

Explaining Self‐Employment Success and Failure: Wal‐Mart Versus Starbucks,or Schumpeter Versus Putnam*

Objectives. Two powerful socioeconomic innovations are sweeping the nation, led by Wal‐Mart Stores, Inc. and Starbucks Corp. These innovations both affect and are driven by profound labor market changes, but exactly how they affect self‐employment or entrepreneurship has not been investigated. We examine the independent effects of these phenomena on the returns to self‐employment, which is itself an underresearched topic in labor economics. Methods. We apply spatial econometric analysis to data from more than 3,000 U.S. counties to analyze how big‐boxes and drinking places that facilitate social networking affect self‐employment earnings. Findings. The presence of Wal‐Mart stores is associated with higher returns to self‐employment, whereas the results for coffee shops and drinking places are mixed. A negative interaction effect on earnings emerges when Wal‐Mart stores and drinking places exist in the same county. Conclusions. We confirm both Schumpeter's and Putnam's assertions about the importance of creative destruction and social networking in raising the productivity of entrepreneurs, although the latter effect is not as clear‐cut as the former.