Casework and Social Interaction Theory: Exchange and Interpersonal Negotiation

Social casework is analysed as an interpersonal relationship: dyadic, two-person social interaction. This approach is seen as necessary to supplement the clinical biases within the social work profession. In particular, an exchange theoretical analysis focused attention on the problematical nature of the formation, establishment and maintenance of the social work relationship. In addition, casework was examined as a basically negotiated interpersonal situation, and this perspective drew attention to the consequences of differential interpersonal power and the processes by which the social worker imposes his definition of the situation on the transaction.     

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.     

Framing Effects on Personal Opinion and Perception of Public Opinion: The Cases of Physician–Assisted Suicide and Social Security

Objective . A growing body of literature on issue framing has demonstrated the conditional influence of issue frames on self–reported opinion. The effects of frames are conditioned by message content, the medium of communication, and the predispositions of respondents. However, the literature has yet to explore the influence of issue frames on respondents' perceptions of public opinion. We draw from the psychological literatures on cognitive accessibility biases and impersonal impact and construct competing hypotheses concerning the likelihood of issue frames affecting perceptions of opinion. Methods . We test hypotheses using data from an experimental field study that exposed respondents to opposing issue frames on two important issues—reforming Social Security and physician–assisted suicide. Results . Our results largely support the impersonal impact hypothesis. Conclusions . We find that available information from issue frames influences personal–level opinion but in general does not affect perceptions of public opinion. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest avenues for future research.     

Gender Issues Related to Group Social Skills Training

Social skills training helps group members to develop ways to behave competently in specific interpersonal situations. This paper identifies gender related issues in such training and describes a non-sexist response to them. Some of the issues dealt with are the status considerations women face in assuming many roles, the gender biases in tools used to assess social skills, and the way gender affects cognitive and emotional variables related to such skills. Another issue discussed is that in discriminatory situations women, in particular, should be helped to change such situations or to resist their detrimental effects. Workers must be helped to recognize and change their own biases in these respects.     

Seeing the Insane in Textbooks of Abnormal Psychology: The Uses of Art in Histories of Mental Illness

Pictures in historical chapters of textbooks convey information about the values and assumptions of the authors'professions and the larger culture. We scrutinized 15 recent abnormal psychology textbooks for reproductions of art created before 1900. Thirteen works appeared in three (20%) or more textbooks. Overall, these pictures support a "Whiggish" account of history that celebrates the present and gives a distorted, incomplete rendering of the past. The 13 pictures tended to depict the mentally ill as an underclass who are released from their literal and metaphorical shackles by men who are "ahead of their time" in their struggles against prevailing ignorance. The pictures also emphasized the difference of the mentally ill by presenting a catalogue of stereotypic visual elements attributed to insanity throughout Western history. We argue for the inclusion in textbooks of "history for the sake of the past" as a way of genuinely engaging different ideologies and thereby stimulating interest in our own implicit values and biases.     

The Paradoxical Misuse of Power by Those Who See Themselves as Powerless: How Does It Happen?

Consideration is given to the paradoxical misuse of power by those who perceive themselves as powerless. A general model is presented to account for the coercive response style often shown by adults with low perceived power when they are placed in a position of authority (e.g., as parents or teachers). Specific hypotheses are tested here concerning control-oriented cognitive activity and speech patterns shown by "powerless" adults when their authority is challenged. Women with high or low perceived power (as measured by the Parent Attribution Test) attempted to teach a computer game to a responsive or unresponsive child. "Powerless" women showed high levels of control-oriented appraisal activity preceding teaching interactions and a high level of nonfluency during teaching interactions (an ineffective speech style). It was concluded that the responses shown by "powerless" women set the stage for misunderstanding and future conflict.     

Minority comparison model: Effects of Whites’ multiracial evaluation on symbolic racism and racialized policy preferences

Most Racial Studies primarily focus on African Americans without paying attention to nonblack minorities, and it fails to capture recent increase in racial diversity. Based on previous theories and empirical findings, we propose a new model, minority comparison model, which accounts for theoretical shortcomings in Racial Studies. This model (1) captures psychological processes that compare blacks and nonblacks, and (2) explores the effects of whites’ multiracial evaluation on racialized policy preferences. Drawing on a 2008 national representative sample, this study finds that whites who have positive stereotype of nonblacks (e.g., Hispanics and/or Asians) but negative stereotype of blacks show substantially higher symbolic racism and stronger opposition to Affirmative Action, whereas whites who have positive stereotype of blacks but negative stereotypes of nonblacks have stronger opposition to expansive immigration policy. Our study offers new ways of understanding and accounting for symbolic racism in modern context, and shows how whites’ preferences in racialized policies are influenced by multiracial evaluation.     

Gender and Emotion: Beyond Stereotypes

Stereotypes about gender and emotional expression tend to be imprecise and misleading. They fail to acknowledge situational, individual, and cultural variations in males' and females' emotional expressiveness. They also tend to generalize across emotional intensity and frequency, as well as across different modalities of emotional expression, e.g. verbal vs. behavioral modalities. Moreover, they tend to exaggerate the extent of gender differences in emotional expression. I argue that when gender differences in emotional expression do occur, they can be traced to social processes such as dissimilar gender roles, status and power imbalances, and differing socialization histories of males and females. These processes may predispose some males and females to express emotions differently in some cultures and in some contexts. To support this argument, I present data from two studies, one showing that the amount of time fathers spend with their children relates to the gender stereotypic nature of their children's emotional expressiveness; and the other showing that gender differences in emotional expressiveness are culturally specific in a sample of Asian international, Asian‐American, and European-American college students. Finally, I note the potentially destructive limitations imposed by stereotypes on males' and females' interpersonal functioning as well as on their mental and physical health.     

Gender, Self-Esteem, and Focus of Interest in the Use of Power Strategies by Adolescents in Conflict Situations Schwarzwald and Koslowsky

Considerable evidence indicates that an individual's preference of power strategies for gaining compliance is associated with personal and social variables that may affect the quality of the relationship between the parties involved. This study examined how adolescents manage conflict situations and tested the importance of personal and situational characteristics in choosing power strategies for influencing others. Using Raven's (1992, 1993) power interaction model of interpersonal influence, hypotheses regarding the relationship between gender, self-esteem, and focus of interest (self versus group), on the one hand, and power choice, on the other hand, were formulated. Eighth graders (N = 356) were given scenarios of conflict situations and were asked to indicate the extent to which they would resort to each of the power strategies listed in the questionnaire to influence the other party in the scenario. Gender and focus of interest explained most of the observed variance. Boys, as compared to girls, indicated greater influence attempts regardless of strategy type. Adolescents with a self-interest focus, as compared to those with a group interest focus, resorted more to coercion and less to dependence. Low-self-esteem adolescents preferred reciprocity when compared with high-self-esteem ones. Because gender differences explained the bulk of the variance, the discussion emphasized social ramifications concerning cross-cultural differences and gender role development as they relate to power strategy preferences.     

Gender Differences in Preschool Aggression During Free Play and Structured Interactions: An Observational Study

We observed 48 children from rural preschools (M=64 months old) in two different social contexts to test hypotheses about the type (relational, physical, verbal, nonverbal), contextual independence, and sociometry of girls’ and boys’ aggressive tactics. We predicted and generally found that (1) girls displayed more relational aggression than boys while boys displayed more physical and verbal aggression than girls, and that children received more physical and verbal aggression from male peers, and tended to receive more relational aggression from female peers, (2) behavioral observations of aggression corresponded with teacher reports of children's aggressive styles, (3) aggression observed during free play predicted children's aggressive styles in a structured setting at both the group and individual levels, and (4) aggressive tactics were associated with projected sociometric characteristics (dominance and peer acceptance).     

Anything women can do men can do better: An experiment examining the effects of stereotype threat on political knowledge and efficacy

Negative stereotypes have been shown to create cognitive burdens that decrease intellectual performance in a number of tasks such as math and standardized tests. Applying a multidisciplinary approach and an experimental research design, this paper examines the effect of stereotype threat on political knowledge and political efficacy. A sample of 226 undergraduate students completed an online survey on political knowledge and efficacy. Participants were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat condition or a non-threat condition. Contrary to what was hypothesized, stereotype threat does not explain the political knowledge gap between men and women; men score significantly higher than women in both conditions. However, preliminary evidence suggests the presence of stereotype lift in men's sense of political efficacy. Men's political efficacy demonstrates a moderate increase in the stereotype threat condition while women's sense of efficacy does not change (d = .53).     

Biases in Ethical Decision Making among University Faculty

Over the years, cognitive biases have been examined throughout the decision-making literature, but little work has investigated the cognitive biases operating in ethical decision making. The present effort explores a taxonomy of biases through interviews with university faculty members. Additionally, this study identifies the psychological processes giving rise to these biases in ethical decision making. Results suggest that the biases listed in the taxonomy are indeed operating in the ethical decision making of university faculty. Implications of these results are discussed.     

人际资本与机会利益

人际资本的特点主要是人际资本表现为人与人之间的关系。它既不依附于独立的个人,也不存在于物质生产过程中,人际资本是无形的,人际资本具有公共物品的性质。机会利益具有时效性、不确定性。人际资本能够通过声誉机制来约束内部的获取分配性机会利益的行为,人际关系大大地提高了信息的利用率,增加获得机会利益的机会。     

Confidence biases and learning among intuitive Bayesians

We design a double-or-quits game to compare the speed of learning one’s specific ability with the speed of rising confidence as the task gets increasingly difficult. We find that people on average learn to be overconfident faster than they learn their true ability and we present an intuitive-Bayesian model of confidence which integrates confidence biases and learning. Uncertainty about one’s true ability to perform a task in isolation can be responsible for large and stable confidence biases, namely limited discrimination, the hard–easy effect, the Dunning–Kruger effect, conservative learning from experience and the overprecision phenomenon (without underprecision) if subjects act as Bayesian learners who rely only on sequentially perceived performance cues and contrarian illusory signals induced by doubt. Moreover, these biases are likely to persist since the Bayesian aggregation of past information consolidates the accumulation of errors and the perception of contrarian illusory signals generates conservatism and under-reaction to events. Taken together, these two features may explain why intuitive Bayesians make systematically wrong predictions of their own performance.     

Citizen contacting and bureaucratic treatment-response in urban government: Some further evidence

Citizen—bureaucratic relationships are particularly important in the urban government context. Drawing upon survey data from one city, this article examines whether certain individual-level characteristics, such as ethnic background and age, are related to citizen evaluations of bureaucratic treatment. Different individual-level characteristics are related to citizen evaluations of different types of bureaucratic contacts. The evidence also suggests that several dimensions of bureaucratic treatment (e.g., politeness, understanding) may be evaluated somewhat differently. In general and most important, these findings support the contention that at the interpersonal or “street-level” certain biases, perceived or real, may exist.     

Young People's Images of Self and Others

In an analysis of the validity of popular stereotypes of youthful conflict with adult society, based upon surveys carried out in Melbourne, the attitudes of young people are compared with the attitudes which they impute to their friends, parents and teachers. The results indicate that young people are influenced in their estimate of the friends' attitudes by the popular stereotype of young people which may in turn, influence their own attitudes. This interpretation explains the distribution of responses along the conservative-innovative continuum, except in regard to opposition to de-humanization where the respondents are more likely to attribute innovative responses to themselves than to their friends. Most young people perceive their interpersonal environment to be supportive of their own attitudes.     

Primary prevention of adolescent pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is associated with many health, emotional and socioeconomic problems including higher rates of anemia, labor complications, mortality, legal and social struggles and hhigher divorce rates. Professional social workers need strategies to help teenagers avoid early, unwanted pregnancy. This paper offers promising experential and research backing for a primary prevention group work strategy for all adolescents. Social and health programs overlook educational, cognitive anc interpersonal factors biasing youths' ability to comprehend and regulate contraception. Primary prevention to assist adolescents in thinking analytically about their sexual behavior must stress problem solving and decision-making as well as facts about human reproduction and birth control. To implement decisions, youths also need interpersonal communication skills. Small groups are ideal for delivering cognitive-behavioral primary prevention. This approach is based on the premise that youths become pregnant not because of a lack of relevant information, but because they lack cognitive and behavioral skills necessary to use information. Group work involving role-playing helps develop communication skills. Results from 2 field studies describe short-term and longitudinal benefits of the prevention strategy. Professionals can reach significant numbers of youth in this way. By treating sexual issues and the risk of pregnancy as normal in adolescence, social workers can introduce information and pertinent skills to all teenagers. No one is singled out as deviant and the group format enables young people to discuss taboo topics, discovering what the norms are and gradually learning how to deal with peers, family members, techers and others. Adolescents in primary prevention groups gained knowledge, cognitive skills and communication acumen. Improved attitudes toward family planning, increased regular contraception and less unsafe sex resulted from this cognitive-behavioral approach. Primary prevention should begin early to be most effective. Other personal and social issures such as a alcohol and drug abuse, delinquency, marital and family conflicts, parenting difficulties and money management may be dealt with effectively using a cognitive-behavioral approach.     

Restrictive Control and Information Pathologies in Organizations

Although the relation of power to knowledge is an often discussed theme, a psychological and sociological scrutiny of the issue is lacking. A new conceptual and theoretical approach to this issue is presented here that distingushes between restrictive and promotive control. Restrictive control is a form of power exertion in which one actor pushes his wishes through against the interests of another actor. In contrast, if an actor influences the other in line with his or her interests, this is called promotive control. Information pathologies, i.e., avoidable failures of distributed information processing, are introduced as an inverse measure for the quality and quantity of knowledge production. It is hypothesized that restrictive control has negative consequences for the production of new or better knowledge, because it induces information pathologies that in turn lower the effectiveness of joint action. These two hypotheses are tested in a study on 21 successful and 21 unsuccessful innovations with a dual qualitative and quantitative approach. The interpretive analysis of interviews with the main actors of each innovation case as well as the statistical analysis of questionnaire responses by the same actors strongly corroborate both hypotheses. Methodological problems, theoretical perspectives, and practical consequences are discussed.     

The Interference of Stereotype Threat With Women's Generation of Mathematical Problem-Solving Strategies

At the highest levels of math achievement, gender differences in favor of men persist on standardized math tests. We hypothesize that stereotype threat depresses women's math performance through interfering with their ability to formulate problem-solving strategies. In Study 1, women underperformed in comparison to men on a word problemm test, however, women and me performed equally when the word problems were converted into their numerical equivalents. In Study 2, men and women worked on difficult problems, either in a high- or reduced-stereotype-threat condition. Problem-solving strategies were coded. When stereo-type threat was high, women were less able to formulate problem-solving strategies than when stereotype threat was reduced. The effect of stereotype threat on cognitive resources and the implications for gender differences in mathematical testing are discussed.     

Mobilized by Direct Democracy: Short‐Term Versus Long‐Term Effects and the Geography of Turnout in Ballot Measure Elections*

Objectives. A number of recent studies find that direct democracy increases voter turnout. In this article, we ask: Who does direct democracy mobilize to vote and how are they mobilized? We distinguish between long‐term and short‐term effects on voter turnout, noting that much of the current literature has focused on participatory theory. Methods. Our research design harnesses the power of geographic information systems and examines turnout in special initiative‐only elections using registered voter lists. Our model draws on individual and Census tract data, incorporated using a hierarchical generalized linear model. Results. The findings demonstrate how partisan context mitigates the potential for direct democracy to mobilize from the middle, and clarifies the dominance of short‐term as opposed to long‐term effects in increasing voter participation in ballot initiative elections. Conclusion. Mobilization via direct legislation occurs mostly because voters are actively mobilized by partisan campaigns, not because of an increase in participatory fervor.