CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND RESOLUTION OF SOCIAL DILEMMAS

We report an experiment on payoff-equivalent, sequential provision and appropriation games with high- and low-caste Indian villagers. A central question is whether caste identities affect resolution of social dilemmas. Making caste salient elicits striking changes in behavior compared to baseline treatment with no information about others' castes. Homogenous groups with high caste villagers are more successful in resolving social dilemmas than homogenous groups with low caste villagers. The success of mixed-caste groups is somewhere between, which is inconsistent with a group identity model. Absent salient information on caste, behavior is inconsistent with unconditional social preferences but as predicted by reciprocity. (JEL C93, H41, Z13)     

PERSONAL INFORMATION AND SOCIAL LIFE*

This paper revolves around the informational aspect of social relationships, attempting to identify the fundamental social patterning of personal information and to establish the basic conceptual framework necessary for analyzing this topic from a sociological perspective. The paper explores the major parameters of personal information (amount, scope, and depth), relating them to sociological variables such as social distance, social power, privacy, and intimacy. It then examines the “information preserve”, a quasi-spatial territory of the self, discussing various forms of defending it (such as discretion, concealment, and fabrication), as well as ways in which it is protected by others (with a particular emphasis on confidentiality and tact).     

A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF IMMIGRATION POLICY AND PRACTICE DILEMMAS FOR SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS

Effective social work education that promotes social justice requires expanded curricular models and creative pedagogical approaches. This article presents a curricular case study demonstrating the use of current events to enhance both implicit and explicit curricula. How the cultural crisis of Hurricane Katrina was used to engender transformative learning for both students and teachers is described. Practical tools and resources that can be adapted by educators to incorporate other current events into their teaching-learning are provided. A critique of the process and suggestions for future implementation are discussed. Student perspectives illustrate the effectiveness of this pedagogical approach to provide transformative learning that promotes social justice.     

DILEMMAS IN RESEARCH: ISSUES OF VULNERABILITY AND DISEMPOWERMENT FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER/RESEARCHER

Qualitative research ethics discussions have established a sound knowledge and practice base which advises on the protection and rights of the research informants. This paper, although supporting the primacy of informant safety, will highlight less visible research debates. The potential for vulnerability and harm of the social work researcher will be explored. The value of achieving heightened empathy and emotional resonance with research participants is considered as a process which the author suggests is likely to increase the richness of the research data, but also may accentuate researcher vulnerability or distress. The author's experience of doing personal research with vulnerable informants, and of being a social work research supervisor, will be used to reflect on processes and practices which she claims may make social work researchers particularly vulnerable to conflict and distress. Data from her recent research which explored the experiences of social work researchers will be used to illustrate these issues.     

GENDER DILEMMAS, GENDER QUESTIONS, AND THE GENDER MANTRA

This paper discusses the social constructions of gender and the problematic effects of these constructions-masculine/feminie-on intimate attachments. It summarizes the aspect of feminist scholarship which revised the traditional developmental paradigm to include a psychology of women and cites recent infant research which re-describes development as a process of increasingly complex forms of relatedness rather than as a progression from attachment to separation. The authors are influenced by the school of feminist revisionism which argues on behalf of the integration of male and female attributes in each person. Two clinical techniques are suggested-"gender questions" and the "gender mantra"-which identify the contradictions inherent in the social construction of gender and encourage alternative constructions that more adequately represent men's and women's actual psychological experience.     

MONEY AND MIDDLEMEN IN AN ECONOMY WITH PRIVATE INFORMATION

This paper extends the Williamson-Wright model to study interaction between money and middlemen in an economy with qualitative uncertainty concerning the consumption goods. It is shown that with private information as the only trading friction, given that expert middlemen endogenously arise, people may still be willing to adopt indirect exchange involving money. Generally recognizable money improves welfare by promoting useful exchange and economizing on the cost of agents becoming middlemen. In an economy with trading frictions caused by private information and a double coincidence of wants problem, we show that there is room for both intermediary institutions. ( JEL E40, D82)     

PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH LESBIAN COUPLES: INDIVIDUAL ISSUES,FEMALE SOCIALIZATION,AND THE SOCIAL CONTEXT*

Relationship patterns in lesbian couples vary systematically from relationship patterns in heterosexual couples in ways that are related to the exclusively female composition of these couples, their stigmatizable identity, and the lack of social recognition and acceptance for such family units. These patterned differences are addressed from a systemic perspective in five arenas: distance regulation and boundary maintenance, sexual expression, financial arrangements, breaking up, and stage differences in coming out and acceptance of lesbian identity.     

COMMITMENT, DEVIANCE, AND SOCIAL CONTROL

This article extends earlier work (Ulmer 1994) in applying Johnson's (1991) threefold commitment framework to deviance and social control. The central individual-level theories of deviance (differential association/social learning, opportunity, social control, and labeling) share the generic sociological goal of theorizing continuity in lines of action. This suggests the centrality of the concept of commitment, and in fact the concept is used throughout the study of deviance and social control. The threefold framework provides a superior conceptualization of commitment for the field of deviance. In addition, it integrates insights from the central deviance theories and directs attention to a wide variety of un- and underexplored directions for further research in deviance and social control. In addition, I briefly discuss broader implications of the commitment framework for other areas of inquiry, such as the study of social protest and the sociology of organizations.     

SOCIAL BACKGROUND,EDUCATION, AND INEQUALITY

The role parents' education plays for the educational achievements of children is a source of unequal opportunities. Through this channel the number of educated affects the options of future cohorts, creating a social multiplier effect making improvements in education self‐reinforcing. Policies to compensate for inequalities of opportunities—public education or transfers—have very different implications. Transfers not only reduce inequality on impact but also reduce social mobility, while public education—even if a perfect substitute to private education—works in the opposite direction. Social impediments to education are similar to a market imperfection, and publicly provided education may lead to a Pareto improvement. (JEL D3, I2, H2, H4)     

SOCIAL ATOMISM, HOLISM, AND TRUST

The metatheoretical difference between social atomism and social holism is clarified by analysis of the generic necessity of trust. A theoretical approach to trust can be traced from Durkheim, Simmel, Parsons, and the recent work of Luhmann and Barber. Trust functions as a deep assumption underwriting social order and is not reducible to individual characteristics. Changes in trust alter social relationships. The study of power, exchange, family, and politics illustrates how trust constitutes social reality as emergent and holistic. This helps us understand the formation of interpersonal relationships, the difference between economic and social exchange, and the discrepancy between attitudes toward society and toward particular institutional actors.     

INCOMPLETE INFORMATION STRENGTHENS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL APPROVAL

We present a theoretical model of a public good game in which the expression of social approval induces pro‐social behavior. Using a laboratory experiment with earned heterogeneous endowments, we test our model. The main hypothesis is that the expression of social approval increases cooperative behavior even if reputation building is impossible. We vary the information available and investigate how this affects the expression of social approval and individual contributions. The expression of social approval significantly increases contributions. However, the increase is smaller if additional information is provided, suggesting that social approval is more effective if subjects receive a noisy signal about others' contributions. (JEL C72, C91, D71, D83)     

CONTRACT DESIGN AND SELF‐CONTROL WITH ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION

We study optimal contracting by a monopolistic seller of investment goods to a time‐inconsistent consumer and, in doing so, introduce asymmetric information to the model of DellaVigna and Malmendier (2004) . We find (1) the below‐marginal‐cost‐pricing rule may fail for a low‐value consumer; (2) the firm's profit is no longer unaffected by the consumer's short‐run impatience, as the latter is sophisticated. We find that there is an important threshold value of short‐run patience. When the consumer's short‐term patience is below this level, then, as the patience increases, the firm suffers. When the consumer's short‐run patience is above this threshold, then, as it increases, the firm benefits. Finally, we show that unlike monopoly, perfect competition with asymmetric information achieves the first‐best outcome. (JEL D03, D82, D91)     

INFORMATION, CAPITALISM AND UNCERTAINTY

This article argues that the changes characterized by many commentators as announcing the 'information age' are better seen, not as heralding a new type of society, but as the continuation, consolidation and extension of capitalism - something which is accompanied by constant upheaval and innovation. The shift from conceiving the 'information society' as a result of technological breakthroughs to one which lays emphasis on the primacy of 'information' itself is observed. The importance especially of informational labour's 'flexibility' is regarded, not as indicative of a new age but of the requirements of globalized capitalism which engenders change the better to consolidate its practices. The instability of life today is ascribed, not to the upheavals resulting from the 'information revolution', but rather to the insatiable dynamic that has long been a distinguishing feature of capitalist enterprise. These processes are examined in terms of the shift from public to private provision of information and in the heightened uncertainty of existence today.     

ADOLESCENCE, SOCIAL CLASS, AND OCCUPATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

Un survey sur questionnaire de trois cent quarante cinq (345) Ctudiants de dixikme annCe, provenant d'un milieu socio-kconomique hétérogé et fr6quentant les Ccoles secondaires polyvalentes d'un centre métropolitain fut réalisé afin de mesurer le niveau de convergence qui existe dans trois secteurs différents des conceptions Ctudiantes de leur avenir professionnel: (1) la convergence entre les valeurs professionnelles d'un étudiant et le choix de sa profession; (2) la convergence entre les aspirations hancikres professionnelles de l'ttudiant et ses gains monitaires probables; (3) et la convergence entre le choix professionnel d'un Ctudiant et celui de ses parents. Les rksultats dtmontrent que les Ctudiants provenant de strates socio-écono-miques supkrieures obtiennent une meilleure convergence par rapport aux trois dimensions que ceux qui viennent de milieux soci-économiques infirieurs. Des différences quant au sexe des rbpondants apparaissent seulement chez les étudiants des classes Cwnomiques défavorisées. On déduit de ces rhsultats quelques considerations se rapportant h la carribre professionnelle de ces étudiants. A questionnaire survey of 345 tenth-grade students in a socioeconomically heterogeneous, multi-program urban high school was conducted to measure the amount of congruence in three areas of the students' conceptions of their future work lives: (1) congruence between a student's occupational values and occupa- tional choice; (2) coqpence between a student's financial expectations of his work and his actual likely earnings; and (3) congruence between a student's oc-cupational choice and his parents' occupational choice for him. Findings showed that students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds experienced more congruence in all three dimensions than students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Sex differences were important only among students of lower socioeconomic background. Some implications for the future work life of these students are drawn.     

ENTRY COORDINATION AND AUCTION DESIGN WITH PRIVATE COSTS OF INFORMATION ACQUISITION

Auction design with endogenous entry is complicated by entry coordination among bidders due to multiple entry equilibria issue. This article studies auction design when information acquisition costs are private information of bidders. We show that this problem can be resolved by sufficient dispersion in these costs. First, we find that a simple second‐price auction with no entry fee and a reserve price equal to the seller's valuation is ex ante efficient, while a revenue‐maximizing auction involves personalized entry fees, which are determined by the hazard rates of their information acquisition cost distribution. Second, we show that sufficient dispersion in the information acquisition costs (more dispersion than a particular uniform distribution by the Bickel‐Lehman dispersive order) can coordinate bidders and implement uniquely the desirable entry. The dispersion in information acquisition costs is also necessary for this “unique implementation” result. (JEL D44, D82)     

THE STRUCTURE OF SEPARATED WOMEN'S COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR NONPROFESSIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKS

This study assessed separated women's communication with their social network members—family, friends, clergy, attorneys and therapists. Women and their social network members were asked about the frequency and timing of their communication pre- and post-separation. Of particular interest to therapists is the finding that women seem to communicate with therapists before they begin to seriously think about separating and after they have made the decision, but not during the decision-making process. Implications of this finding are discussed.     

EXPLAINING COMFORT WITH HOMOSEXUALITY AMONG SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS: THE IMPACT OF DEMOGRAPHIC,CONTEXTUAL, AND ATTITUDINAL FACTORS

While recent research explores the determinants of homophobia among college students, only a few studies look at the perceptions of homosexuals among social work students. Unfortunately these rare studies generally present a modest list of predictor variables or small sample sizes. To address this gap, this research explores the ways in which undergraduate social work students (N=748) from 12 colleges feel about homosexuality. In doing so, the work initially delineates the extent to which future social workers feel comfortable being around gay and lesbian persons. The work then explores the impact of specific social statuses, educational processes, and ideological beliefs. In the end, the role of homosexual peers is emphasized, as are the effects of familial attitudes, the perceived cause of homosexuality, conservative religious maxims, traditional gender role beliefs, and anxieties over AIDS.