Caregiver-Child Interaction in the Development of Self: The Contributions of Vygotsky,Bruner, and Kaye to Mead's Theory

A way of updating Mead's half-century old formulations is suggested. It entails regarding Mead's formulations as one of a class of interactionist theories of the genesis of self. Such theories regard the internalization of symbols and social relations as the basis of self development and stress the role of the interaction between caregiver and child. Sensitizing concepts developed by other theorists, namely, zone of proximal development (Vygotsky), scaffolding (Bruner), and the child-as-apprentice (Kaye), are reviewed as heuristic devices which specify the nature of the interaction between caregiver and child which facilitates the latter's self development.     

The Career Path Tournament: Developing Awareness of Sociological Barriers to Career Advancement

The author of this article presents the Career Path Tournament, a game for heightening participants' awareness of sociological factors (e.g., race, gender, and discrimination in hiring) influencing career advancement and of the need to anticipate and cope with these factors. The game, which is based on Rosenbaum's (1976, 1981, 1984) Tournament Model, is intended for junior high, high school, and college students in a classroom setting. Undergraduate participants' (N = 74) quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the game are presented as evidence that the game raised awareness of sociological barriers and provided participants with helpful suggestions for adaptively coping with these barriers.     

How Does Web Site Interactivity Affect Our Perceptions of an Organization?

This study investigates the effects of different levels of Web site interactivity on individuals' perceptions of an organization's reputation. The underlying theoretical mechanism for this relationship was explored by statistically investigating the mediating role of 3 variables—perceived customization, involvement, and liking—using bootstrapping analysis. Results indicate that the level of Web site interactivity positively influenced participants' perceptions of the organization's reputation, with liking and involvement fully mediating this relationship. These findings demonstrate the theoretical complexity of interactivity—it can at once attract users peripherally with likeable aesthetics and engage them centrally with features that involve them. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Discrimination and Reaction: The Practical Constitution of Social Exclusion

This article explores and extends Blumer's work on race prejudice and discrimination by using empirical data from an ethnographic study of minority communities in Greece. Blumer explains prejudice as the result of an interactional process through which one group defines itself as superior or dominant in relation to the other. His work on race prejudice has often been misinterpreted as emphasizing the individual's subjective imaginary of the “other.” Here I illustrate the importance of the intersubjective processes involved in defining a particular social situation as discriminatory. A central point of the article is to elaborate on his analysis by looking at the experience of prejudice and discrimination from the receiving end, through the participants' interpretation of their social interactions with the dominant group. Therefore I focus on how members of the subordinate group interact with the process that Blumer identifies.     

Is Vygotsky Relevant? Vygotsky's Marxist Psychology

This article explores the connections between Vygotsky's psychology and Marxism, arguing that his was a “Marxist psychology” in its “historical foundation”: a specific conception of history. This conception of history is evident in Vygotsky's analysis and diagnosis of the crisis in psychology. The creation of a Marxist, general psychology was the historical task that was defined by this crisis, and his developmental psychology was the historical project of such a psychology. In his practice of the methodology of this general psychology, Vygotsky recounted “child history”: the history of the genesis of mind. The conception of history evident in Crisis throws new light on Vygotsky's texts on child development: They tell a history of the objective tendencies of consciousness, of the dialectical processes of sublation, and of self-mastery. As Vygotsky interpreted the higher mental functions, they are manifestations of the child's ability to master himself or herself as a consequence of the “social moment” of consciousness. In fostering these functions, one shaped a human consciousness capable of free and deliberate choice.     

ECOFEMINISM,HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY,AND ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT PARTICIPATION IN BRITISH COLUMBIA,CANADA, 1998–2007: “WOMEN ALWAYS CLEAN UP THE MESS”

This article draws upon two waves of interviews with environmental movement members in British Columbia, Canada, in order to examine participants' interpretations of the relationship between gender and environmental politics. Four claims emerge from this analysis. First, our results support the notion that there is an affinity between environmental politics and feminism. Second, despite recent critiques of ecomaternalism and the dual subjugation of nature and women within ecofeminism, these discourses remain useful as interpretive resources for research participants. Third, while ecomaternalism is a recurrent theme, it appears to be declining in relative importance as a discursive resource. Finally, notions of hegemonic masculinity are becoming more salient as an interpretive framework. While the first two claims emphasize continuity in participants' interpretive framework, the latter findings describe shifts in participants' understandings of gender and environmental politics.     

Behavioral and Relational Contexts of Adolescent Desire,Wanting, and Pleasure: Undergraduate Women's Retrospective Accounts

Studies of adolescent female sexuality often focus on coitus to the exclusion of noncoital behaviors, the relational context of sexual interactions, and adolescent women's subjective perceptions of their experiences. In this study, 38 undergraduate women's retrospective accounts of their adolescent heterosexual experiences were examined. Generalized estimating equation models were used to test the relation of diverse heterosexual behaviors and relationship types to participants' subjective perceptions of desire, wanting, and pleasure. Of the sexual behaviors, coitus was the strongest predictor of participants' subjective perceptions. Compared to coitus, erotic touching, manual stimulation, and fellatio were significantly less predictive; there were no differences between coitus and cunnilingus or coitus and kissing. Of the relationships (serious, dating, “friends with benefits” [FWBs], and “hookups”), FWBs was the strongest predictor of participants' desire, wanting, and pleasure; in comparison, hookups were significantly less predictive. These findings offer insight into the sexual behaviors and preferences of young women, as well as distinctions between types of non-romantic sexual relationships.     

Platonic Forehand versus Aristotelian Smash - the use of computers as macroscopes in knowing the social world

This paper draws on Desrosie ¤ res, Hayles and Tukey in arguing for an exploratory approach to the use of numerical taxonomy and related approaches in quantitative social research. It asserts that rather than trying to develop algorithm (either in the form of equation sets or game rules) based representations which abstract 'variables' as analogies of Newtonian forces, we should centre on cases and deal with classifications. Then trajectories can be explored in terms of changes both in the classification location of particular cases and changes in the actual form of the classification sets themselves. This approach seems to correspond with Aristotle's notion of intuitive induction with computing technology understood as extending the cognitive capacities of the taxonomist.     

Oral Cancer Risk Behaviors Among Indiana College Students: A Formative Research Study

Objectives: In fall 2004, the authors used a survey to assess the knowledge, attitudes, motivations, and behaviors of college students relative to oral cancer prevention to inform development of targeted prevention programming. Participants: A convenience sample of 1,003 undergraduate students at one public university in Indiana participated. Methods: Discriminant function analysis was employed to analyze participants' motivations; perceived risks; individuals who influence participants' alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use; and factors that facilitate and discourage use. The study sample was divided into users and nonusers to differentiate between groups and predictor (discriminating) variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which participants' knowledge, attitudes, peer perceptions, sex, age, and ethnicity contributed to participants' combined alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use behaviors. Results: With 2 exceptions, discriminant function analysis (p < .01) correctly categorized user status (ie, nonusers vs combined users of alcohol and cigarettes; nonusers vs combined users of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana) by the predictor variables. Multiple regression analysis to determine whether independent variables predicted combined drug use generated significant (p < .01) results across all combined use behaviors. Conclusions: Multiple oral cancer prevention program options along with additional formative research efforts were suggested by study results.     

Campus Sex in Context: Organizational Cultures and Women's Engagement in Sexual Relationships on Two American College Campuses

An “inhabited” approach to the study of institutions examines how organizational actors produce locally distinctive meaning in response to similar institutional forces. Adopting inhabited institutionalism to the study of campus sexual life, this study draws on interviews with 54 undergraduate women at two four‐year universities in the United States—Ivy U and State U—to show campus cultures unique to a university inform women's decisions to engage in hookups and/or relationships. For women attending Ivy U, an elite institution where pressure to succeed is palpable, both hookups and long‐distance relationships alike are posited as advantageous for the time‐crunched, preprofessional student. At State U, a public school with a party reputation, women explain their engagement in hookups as part of the “fun” of college life, while women seeking or involved in committed relationships are obligated to negotiate the effects of the party culture in their partnerships. This study challenges the notion of a monolithic sexual culture across university settings by showing how campus cultures cultivated at the local level create unique organizational conditions within which undergraduate women forge and explain their engagement in hookups and relationships alike.     

Peer modeling and college men's sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of peer modeling on sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory. Male participants with and without a self‐reported history of sexually aggressive behavior viewed video clips depicting nonaggressive and sexually aggressive behavior and then chose one of the clips to show to a female confederate. Half of the participants were first exposed to a male confederate who showed the sexually aggressive video clip to a female confederate. The other half of the participants were exposed to a male confederate who showed a nonaggressive video clip to a female confederate. Exposure to a male confederate who showed a sexually aggressive video clip to a female was associated with participants' choosing to engage in this same behavior. A self‐reported history of sexually aggressive behavior was also associated with participants' showing the sexually aggressive video clip in spite of believing the effect on the female viewer would be negative.     

Voices rarely heard: Personal construct assessments of Sub-Saharan unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee youth in England

Unaccompanied refugee minors are particularly vulnerable to stress and risk during the journey to asylum-countries and in the post-migration environment. This study aimed to determine ways in which positive post-migration development and integration could be achieved for this group. Thematic analysis of interviews based on Personal Construct assessments reflected young asylum-seeking and refugee individuals' experiences of their social situation in England. Participants emphasised the importance of social support as a means for hope, as an escape from distress and as an opportunity to form relationships that resembled family bonds. They expressed their desire to move forward and to achieve their goals, as well as their fear of rejections and issues related to trust. The participants' voices illustrate areas where gaps remain to be filled in terms of providing sufficient support to unaccompanied minors and youth in England, with implications for future research, policy and practice. The importance of providing unaccompanied children and youth with an opportunity to engage in meaningful activities with peers and adults is demonstrated and the need to provide initiatives that seek to prevent discrimination is highlighted.     

Parent—Child Interaction in the Context of a Chronic Disease

The parent—child relationship plays a crucial role in every chronic disease and especially in the course of childhood diabetes type 1. The present study explores the characteristics of parent—child interaction in Greek families in which one child suffers from diabetes, and the way that this relationship has affected the family's capacity to deal with the psychosocial aspects of the disease. Our extended research employed qualitative methods (observation and in‐depth interview), using criteria based on the structural model of the ‘psychosomatic family’. We provide a typology of the parent—child relationship in these families: enmeshment, mother—patient coalition, parental splitting, over‐protectiveness, lack of limits, the patient's involvement in marital crisis, parentification of a non‐symptomatic child, and ambiguity of roles and rules. These characteristics seem to typify the parent—child relationship in various chronic diseases.     

Looking for artifacts and agency: A basic approach to diversity for preservice and inservice teachers

This paper provides a starting point for preservice and inservice multicultural education teachers to consider five concepts and assumptions from what is generally known as sociocultural theory, derived from the work of Vygotsky, Luria, and Leont'ev (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996; Luria, 1979). These concepts and assumptions about learning and development, and the links to multicultural education, are expressed by a focus on concrete and abstract artifacts and how these mediate activities. We believe this focus can inform inservice and preservice teachers' present and future practice in diverse settings by providing them with a framework for understanding the psychological tools associated with cultural artifacts embedded in learning and development. Vygotskian perspectives on mediated activity (Wertsch et al., 1993) and the links to other sociocultural concepts and assumptions are followed by a review of three studies (Duke, 2000; Kamberelis & Bovino, 1999; Neuman & Celano, 2001) that are related to Vygotskian perspectives and have implications for multicultural issues and literacy. The implications for multicultural issues and literacy revolve around access and engagement with various types of text (e.g. informational text) and how this in turn affects equity. Finally, a classroom activity to make these Vygotskian concepts and assumptions more accessible and applicable to instruction is presented.     

How Do Social Workers Respond to Potential Child Neglect?

Although neglect is a common form of child maltreatment, it can be difficult to detect within a clinical interview between a social work clinician and client for the purpose of assessment and intervention, leading to a failure to act and secure a child's safety. This Canadian study utilized the objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) to assess social work clinicians' ability to recognize and respond to a case of suspected child neglect. Twenty-three participants (social work students, recent graduates of a Masters in Social Work programme, and experienced social workers) conducted a 15-minute interview with a standardized client followed by a structured reflective dialogue focusing on case conceptualization and emotional awareness. Qualitative analysis of the reflective dialogues revealed participants' difficulty in detecting child neglect as opposed to focusing on a client's negative self-beliefs or mental health issues. Implications for social work education and practice are suggested.     

Case Study: The First Israeli BSW Program for Haredi Women Students

The article summarizes a longitudinal case study of the very first Israeli program in social work targeted to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) population (1997–1999). The program's success played an important role in the last decade's dramatic change of attitude in the Israeli Council for Higher Education toward social work education and higher education for the Haredi population. Aside from describing an interesting case of intercultural educational encounter, exploring the dynamics of the interaction between the social work faculty and the Haredi students, and investigating changes in the participants' perceptions of themselves, the other, and the situation, the findings provide some theoretical and practical clues for the inclusion of culturally peripheral populations in social work and higher education.     

Associations of Mothers' Friendship Quality with Adolescents' Friendship Quality and Emotional Adjustment

Little research has examined the association of parents' friendships with adolescent's well‐being, perhaps because the association was considered too distal. However, developmental theories suggest that contexts in which parents, but not their children, are situated may be related to child development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 , 1986 ). The current work examined associations between the quality of mothers' own friendships and their adolescent children's friendship quality and emotional adjustment. Fifth‐, eighth‐, and eleventh‐graders (N = 172) whose mothers' friendships were characterized by conflict and antagonism reported having friendships that were high in negative friendship qualities as well as elevated internalizing symptoms. These associations held after controlling for mother–child relationship quality, suggesting that mothers' friendships may have a unique association with adolescents' adjustment.     

Care fit for children

SUMMARY. Following on from articles in Children and Society (3.1), this article discusses issues raised by recent research on foster and residential care practices, and centres on the question of whether children's homes should seek to provide child oriented day-to-day care. The role performed by children's homes in substitute child care is considered in order to highlight the dangers inherent in the notion that it may be appropriate to trade off child oriented care for the rather abstract notion of the ‘wider function’ of children's homes     

A parent's place: Parents', mentors' and program staff members' expectations for and experiences of parental involvement in community-based youth mentoring relationships

Youth mentoring has been conceptualized largely as a dyadic relationship between a mentor and mentee, with less attention paid to the role of parents. This study contributes to an emerging body of research on parent involvement by examining expectations for parents' roles in the mentoring process held by program staff, mentors, and parents themselves. In-depth interviews with mentoring program staff (n = 12), mentors (n = 30), and a parent or guardian of the youth being mentored (n = 30) were analyzed to identify these participants' views on the role of parents. Findings indicate that mentors and program staff were more aligned in their views and tended to be more focused on the ways that parents could potentially interfere with or otherwise disrupt the mentor–youth relationship. Parents' views were more varied and rooted in differences in both their individual values and beliefs about the role of a mentor in their child's life, their parenting styles and ways they expected adults outside of the family who were interacting with their child to engage with them. Implications for future research on parent involvement and for mentoring program practices are discussed.     

Chomsky Versus Mead

G. H. Mead's model of language and mind, while perhaps understandable at the time it was written, now seems inadequate. First, the research evidence strongly suggests that mental operations exist prior to language onset, conversation of gestures, or social interaction. Second, language is not just significant symbols; it requires syntax. Third, syntax seems to be part of our bioinheritance, that is, part of our presocial mind/brain—what Noam Chomsky has called our language faculty. Fourth, this means syntax probably is not learned nor a social construction that is internalized as a cultural template. Fifth, this suggests a basic reversal of the prevailing model of symbolic interaction, mind, language, and perhaps the self as well, although there has not been the time or space to engage that topic here. Therefore, symbolic interaction may turn out to be a more Chomskyan than Meadian process. Given the bioinheritance of our mind/brain we are able to engage in symbolic interaction; it does not appear that symbolic interaction creates our mind or the basic computational algorithms of language .