The Power of Perception: Children's Appearance as a Factor in Adults' Predictions of Gender-typical Behavior

We examined the influence of 3‐year‐olds’ facial characteristics on adults’ predictions of children's gender‐typical behaviors. Eighty‐nine adults viewed 12 photographs of children's faces differing in masculinity/femininity but matched for attractiveness. Half of the adults were told the sex of each child; half were not. Adults reported that masculine‐looking girls would be more likely to engage in masculine gender‐typical behavior and less likely to engage in feminine gender‐typical behavior compared with feminine‐looking girls. Adults also indicated that feminine‐looking boys would be more likely to engage in feminine gender‐typical behavior and less likely to engage in masculine gender‐typical behavior compared with masculine‐looking boys. When presented with both gender information and appearance cues, adults relied more heavily on the perceptual cue of appearance when predicting gender‐typical behaviors for both boys and girls.     

Regime change: gender, class, and the invention of dieting in post-bellum America

"Regime Change" argues against commonly held interpretations that see dieting as a practice established in the 1920s to control women at a time when they gained suffrage and greater economic independence. This article offers an alternative reading, arguing that diet advice literature arrived in the US in the 1860s and originally targeted a male, white, middle-class audience. While the hegemonic beauty ideal for the female body was at its heftiest, men started to build muscle and reduce weight. The ideal of the slender male body was associated with white superiority, social mobility and the national ambition for an American empire. When white middle-class women eventually started dieting in greater numbers in the 1890s, it was because they claimed the same mastery over their bodies as men—and demanded the same privileges as their male peers over immigrants, African Americans and working-class people, who were increasingly imagined as overweight. Revising the history of dieting to show its origins as a masculine practice appropriated by women to stake a claim to class and race privilege invites a rethinking of power and resistance in the disciplining of the female body.     

‘Some hidden purpose’? Class conflict and co-operation in Belfast’s Working Men’s Institute and Temperance Hall 1865–1900

While debates over social control and working-class culture have formed a lively part of British urban and social historiography, they have received much less attention in an Irish context. This article provides an overview of working-class associations in Belfast throughout the nineteenth century, before investigating specific working- and middle-class attitudes towards Belfast’s Working Men’s Institute and Temperance Hall during its early phase in the 1870s. The aims of the institute’s gentlemen founders – to maintain social order by providing workers with an alternative to the tavern, moralizing lectures on topics such as temperance, and evening classes – were only partially achieved. Middle-class motives, although mixed, betray a clear desire for social control. Many of the benefactors’ words and actions were met with suspicion or resistance by a group of fiercely independent working men who, while not averse to self-improvement, carved out their own agenda. A strong working-class identity, free from any sectarian character, was expressed with articulateness and vehemence. This phenomenon is particularly striking in a city not known for working-class activism.     

"The law has no feeling for poor folks like us!" Everyday responses to legal compulsion in England's working-class communities, 1871-1904

During the late Victorian period, the role of the state increased dramatically in England's working-class urban communities. New laws on labor, health, and education, enforced by a growing bureaucracy of elected and appointed officials, extended the reach of public authority into daily life on an unprecedented scale. Everyday negotiations between these officials and working-class men and women, I argue, were key moments for determining the practical impact of new social welfare policies. This was particularly true in the contestation over children's compulsory school attendance, as I demonstrate through a close examination of the daily encounters between parents and education officials. Despite the growing size and authority of the Victorian state, working-class parents effectively mitigated the impact of the compulsory education laws on their families. They were able to do so because the categories that governed the level of enforcement—age, household economic status, health, and labor—were themselves determined through daily dialogues between parents and education officials. Parents' familiarity with the law and with the dynamics of the public education bureaucracy were key factors in these negotiations, as were internal fractures within the Victorian state itself. Working-class parents, and mothers in particular, also countered officials' moral policy justifications with their own discourse of right and wrong, which focused on the legitimacy of parental authority, an insistence on just treatment, and the elevation of household needs over the laws' requirements.     

A cultural model of pregnancy: a comparison between Mexican physicians and working-class women in Tijuana,B.C.

At the time this research was conducted, it was reported that a significant percentage of women in Tijnana, B.C. (18.6%) who gave birth in a hospital did so having had little or no prenatal care [Núcleo Regional para el Desarrollo de Sistemas de Salud (NUREDESS) 1993]. Why does this underutilization of prenatal care occur? Frequently, explanations for health-seeking behavior among poor and working-class Mexican women tend to focus on cultural beliefs. This research examined the accuracy of such a cultural explanation by discerning the cultural model of prenatal care of a group of working-class Mexican women and comparing it to the biomedical model, as represented by a group of Mexican physicians. The results demonstrate that both groups actually share a similar model of prenatal care, one rooted in biomedicine. Therefore, it is important to consider broader, structural and economic variables as key factors that influence prenatal health care behavior.     

Social Class and Adolescents' Beliefs about Justice in Different Social Orders

We report on the justice beliefs of 4508 adolescents from 4 security societies in transition to market economies (i.e., Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Russia) and from 2 opportunity societies (Australia and the United States). Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), justice beliefs were examined as a function of type of society, social class, and gender. In the security societies, working-class teens wanted the state and schools to provide a safety net, while middle-class teens preferred that schools promote student autonomy and competition but also reported the most negative school climates of any group. In the opportunity societies, working-class youth believed success was based on individual merit, while middle class youth expressed more doubt about this connection .     

The Contextual Specificity of Masculinity and Femininity in Early Adolescence

Using a social constructionist perspective, we investigated the flexibility of early adolescents' (N = 80, 40 boys, 40 girls; M age = 13.14; SD = .65) masculinity and femininity as a function of the interpersonal context (same- or other-sex partner) and situational demands (co-operation or competition). Participants played a block-building game with a girl and a boy peer and were instructed either to play the game co-operatively or competitively. Boys' and girls' femininity scores were greater when working with a girl peer rather than a boy peer. Stereotypical gender differences in masculinity were most apparent when instructions emphasized co-operation. These findings provide empirical support for a social constructionist theory of gender development by demonstrating how the proximal situation changes adolescents' views of gendered aspects of their identity. A conceptualization of masculinity and femininity as flexible states is discussed as supplementing the idea that masculinity and femininity are enduring personality traits. Implications of the study for understanding how social situations maximize or minimize gender differences and similarities are discussed.     

Weaving cohesive identities: New Zealand women talk as mothers and workers

Abstract

This exploratory study examines the discourses which construct women as mothers and workers and explores the strategies the women use to weave these sometimes contradictory identities together. Discourse analysis was used to explore the talk of two focus groups of first‐time mothers, all New Zealanders of European descent in stable heterosexual partnerships with babies aged less than six months. The women deployed an intensive mother discourse which privileged their maternal role and positioned the babies as needing parental care and mothers as the natural providers of that care. However, they also felt the pressure of successful woman and economic rationalist discourses in which paid work is essential to wellbeing and good citizenship while motherhood is devalued. The women's decisions about re‐entering the paid workforce were characterised by conflict and constraint. The analysis focuses on the strategies of resistance that the women used to warrant their life choices, including constructing motherhood as a job, and deploying an independent mother discourse which serves to facilitate their striving for the best of both worlds. Also explored are some of the structural barriers that serve to further limit women's choices.     

Family Life and School Experience: Factors in the Racial Identity Development of Black Youth in White Communities

Eighteen middle-class Black college students were interviewed in-depth about their experiences growing up in predominantly White communities. Using Cross's model of racial identity development as a theoretical framework for analysis, case studies of three women and two men are presented to highlight the impact of varied parental socialization practices and school experiences on racial identity development. For all, positive same-race peer relationships, information about African-American achievements, the availability of role models, and the encouragement of significant adults were important for academic success and the beginning resolution of identity conflicts. The implications of these findings for understanding aspects of school integration and for developing relevant school-based interventions are considered.     

Young children's social withdrawal and teacher–child relationship quality: A cross-cultural comparison between the Netherlands and China

The present study investigated how young children's (5-to-8-year-olds) social inhibition and solitary behavior were associated with teacher–child relationship quality and whether these associations differed across the Netherlands and China. The Dutch sample included 35 teachers and 201 children (49% girls). The Chinese sample consisted of 19 teachers and 152 children (50% girls). Teachers rated children's social inhibition and solitary behavior, and their relationship (closeness, conflict) with each child. Multilevel linear modeling revealed that in both countries, social inhibition was associated negatively with closeness and solitary behavior was associated positively with conflict. These associations were equally strong in China and the Netherlands. One association differed across countries: Social inhibition was associated negatively with conflict in the Netherlands, whereas this association was not significant in China. As such, cultural values could affect how social inhibition links to teacher–child relationships. Caution is recommended when generalizing findings from one country to another country.     

Men Don't Put on Make-up: Toddlers' Knowledge of the Gender Stereotyping of Household Activities

Toddlers’ knowledge of the stereotyping of traditionally feminine and masculine household activities was examined in two experiments. The experiments used a generalized imitation paradigm which required toddlers (total N = 63) to select a male or female doll to imitate nine masculine, feminine and neutral activities (e.g., shaving, vacuuming, sleeping). In the first experiment, 24‐month‐old girls, but not boys, demonstrated knowledge of both feminine and masculine activities. Results from study 2 indicated that boys possess some knowledge of these stereotyped activities by the age of 31 months. The results of the two experiments suggested that knowledge about the gender stereotyping of familiar activities can be demonstrated in children as young as 24 months.     

Discourses about children's mental health and developmental disorders in North American women's magazines 1990–2012

This paper describes and analyses the portrayal of children's mental health and developmental issues (CMHI) in articles located in a random sample of a selection of available high‐circulating English language North American ‘women's magazines’ indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature from 1990 to 2012. It is based upon a qualitative discourse analysis. CMHI are portrayed as materially, biologically real, prevalent and growing in incidence, and severity. They are also portrayed as located in the ‘non‐normal’, ‘non‐nice’, ‘disliked’ and ‘non‐successful’ individual child. Neither the facticity nor the biomedicalization of CMHI is questioned. The psy‐scientists and practitioners cited as experts for the ‘disorders’ offer contradictory and confusing information and advice. The possible theoretical and pragmatic explanations and consequences of this portrayal are discussed.     

What you say,and how you say it: Preschoolers' growth in vocabulary and communication skills differentially predict kindergarten academic achievement and self‐regulation

The idea that language skills support school readiness, predicting later self‐regulation and academic success, is widely accepted. Although vocabulary is often emphasized in the developmental literature, the ability to use language appropriately in the classroom, or social communication skills, may also be critical. This article examined longitudinal contributions of children's vocabulary and social communication skills, from preschool to kindergarten, to kindergarten academic achievement (reading and math) and self‐regulation (executive functions and learning behaviors). Participants were 164 children (14% Latinx, 30% Black, 56% White; 57% girls) enrolled in Head Start programs. Results revealed that initial levels and growth in vocabulary and communication skills predicted better academic achievement. Social communication skills uniquely predicted self‐regulation, after accounting for vocabulary. We discuss potential mechanisms for these links and recommend that strategies to build social communication skills be incorporated in preschool interventions promoting school readiness.     

Mother–Child Conversations about Emotions: Linkages to Child Aggression and Prosocial Behavior

We examined associations of maternal and child emotional discourse and child emotion knowledge with children's behavioral competence. Eighty‐five upper middle‐income, mostly White preschoolers and mothers completed a home‐based bookreading task to assess discourse about emotions. Children's anger perception bias and emotion situation knowledge were assessed in a separate interview. Children's prosocial behavior, relational aggression, and physical aggression were observed during a preschool‐based triadic play task. Mothers' emotion explanations were correlated with children's emotion situation knowledge and relational aggression. Both mothers' and children's emotion explanations predicted prosocial behavior whereas mothers' use of positive emotional themes was negatively associated with children's anger perception bias. Physical aggression was predicted by mothers' emotion comments, children's anger perception bias, and lack of emotion situation knowledge. Maternal emotion socialization variables were less strongly related to children's behavioral competence after accounting for demographics and child emotional competence. Implications of these findings for future research on emotion socialization are discussed.     

How I am Constructing Culture‐inclusive Theories of Social‐psychological Process in our Age of Globalization

Accepting Cole's the premise that, “cultural‐inclusive psychology has been … an elusive goal” (1996, pp. 7–8) but one worth striving to attain, I first set out to identify my domain of interest and competence as an intellectual. Deciding it to be social interaction between individuals, I then searched out theoretical approaches to this domain that encompassed as many approaches to this trans‐historical concern that have emerged from cultural traditions bequeathing us their legacies. Doing this search comprehensively required me to move outside my Judeo‐Christian, Greco‐Roman, Renaissance heritage and its international diffusion via the European Empires since the 1500's, embodied most recently the American dominance of intellectual discourse since the Second World War. In my case, this journey has taken me in to Chinese culture and psychology where I have worked towards integrating the Chinese worldview and its psychological measures into the discipline of social psychology. Striving for a more inclusive culture‐view, I am now using multi‐cultural data bases to transcend this two‐cultural focus and incorporate wider measures of cultural variation into our theorizing and empirical validation of universal models for social interaction. This paper describes my current procedures for such culture‐mapping.     

Ingroup and outgroup preference and rejection among young children of different ethnic groups in the Netherlands

The current study investigated the ethnic hierarchy in ingroup and outgroup preference and rejection among 6- to 10-year-old children of the dominant White Dutch group (n = 145), and the underrepresented Turkish-Dutch (n = 78), and Afro-Dutch (n = 57) groups (55% girls, M = 7.49, SD = .98) in the Netherlands. Results from a social preference task indicated that White Dutch children showed clearly more preference for their own ethnic group (ingroup preference) compared to the two outgroup preferences (Middle Eastern and Black), while Turkish- and Afro-Dutch children showed limited ingroup preference. Both White and Turkish-Dutch children showed less preference for and more rejection of the Black outgroup compared to Afro-Dutch children. Younger children showed more Black rejection compared to older children. This study provides much-needed evidence for the generalizability of prejudice patterns in children beyond the United States, and suggests that interventions aimed at improving interethnic relations are already relevant at primary school age.     

Low-Income Parents and the Public Schools

This article addresses the responses likely to be received by low-income parents from teachers and staff in their children's public schools in the United States. A review of the relevant literature reveals that teachers and school administrators tend to subscribe to the dominant beliefs that low-income parents do not care about their children's schooling, are not competent to help with homework, do not encourage achievement, and do not place a high value on education. This article presents examples of such middle-class bias in the words and actions of individual teachers, and research findings that tend to contradict these stereotypes. The barriers that exist for low-income parents in interacting with the schools are discussed, and suggestions are offered for ways in which schools can recognize and respect the standpoint and potential contributions of these parents.     

Assimilation and discriminatory perceptions and experiences: The case of Hispanics in the United States

This paper examines the relationship between assimilation and discriminatory practices encountered by Hispanic-Americans. Theories of intergroup relations have typically assumed that as members of minority ethnic groups assimilate to a dominant group, they perceive and experience lower degrees of discrimination directed against them. In reviewing theories of majority–minority relations, we have called this the “assimilationist” model. This view has been opposed by some scholars who argue that as minority ethnics assimilate and become more knowledgeable of the larger society, they perceive and experience higher levels of discrimination against them and their group. We have termed this the “conflict model” of interethnic relations. Using data from the 2002 National Survey of Latinos, conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, we test opposing hypotheses based on these two models. Our findings, while exploratory, largely support the assimilationist model, with a few contradictory results. We discuss these findings and their implications for understanding the current situation of Hispanics in the United States.     

An Exploration of Major Factors in the Cultural Ecology of the German Aesthetic Discourse of Modernity＊

德意志审美现代性话语是近代以来德意志历史发展的自我显现，由德意志自然、历史、社会、思想共构的德意志文化生态，统摄着德意志审美现代性话语的历史命运，也现实地决定着德意志审美现代性话语的本质特征。德意志由文化立族，新教精神是德意志的民族意识、思想观念、文化理解、生活经验的灵魂。由市民社会孕育、养成的社会结构、生活方式、文化制度等德意志市民文化生态情境，极大地决定了德意志审美现代性话语的形态。德意志启蒙思想中的感性确立与美的独立、理性主义调整与价值理性的生成、艺术公共性的建立三大思想情致，是德意志文化生态的构成元素。     

21世纪以来中国电影女导演创作研究

新世纪以来,两岸三地中国电影女导演的创作呈现出非常活跃的态势,老中青几代电影人纷纷推出自己的新作,成为新世纪中国影坛不可忽视的一股创作力量。在新世纪中国电影女导演的影片中,两性形象的塑造有着诸多相似之处,女性力量的张扬、女性气质的挥洒与男性形象的令人失望交相辉映,充分展现出新世纪中国女性自我实现的信心和行动力,她们在不无落寞的独舞中努力绽放仅仅属于女性的精彩。