The U. S. Supreme Court and Value Legitimacy: An Experimental Approach With Older Americans

This study was designed to test the designed to test the legitimacy-conferring hypotheses as it relates to the United States Supreme Court. Conventional wisdom has long asscrted that the Court, in its role as interpreter of the Constitution, is a major force influencing the values and attitudes of Americans. However, little empirical research has been conducted on the issue, and that which has been conducted has been ambiguous. Using a split-ballot experimental technique, we found support for the legitimacy-conferring hypothesis among a sample of older Americans from twenty-two different states across the U. S. We found five of nine proposals to be more strongly endorsed when their attributed source was the Supreme Court rather than the U. S. Congress or when the source was unattributed. A factor analysis of the items was used to discover underlying value-orientations described by the nine items. An analysis to three derived factors added to our confidence in the legitimacy-conferring hypothesis.     

The relationship of modernity of sex roles to pregnancy planning

This study investigates the relationship of women's role modernity to pregnancy planning. The subjects were 59 married primiparous women aged 18 to 33 who had given birth in a metropolitan midwestern hospital. Over 1/2 the sample had some college eduction. The pregnancy planning variable is operationalized as the implementation of family planning goals. Subjects who desired pregnancy and actively attempted to conceive are considered to be planners. In contrast, nonplanners are defined as women who preferred to avoid pregnancy but were not successful and women who did not actively seek or avoid pregancy. The modernity of sex roles variable is operationalized through use of the Scanzoni instrument. This instrument is constructed from a series of items that measure 3 social positions related to sex roles in the family context: those of wife, husband and mother. The instrument is modified in this investigation, leaving 21 5-point scale items to be included in the data analysis. Smallest space analysis of the inter-item correlation matrix demonstrate that the social positions of wife and husband do not clearly reflect different aspects of sex role modernity. A comparison of the average inter-item correlation for the variables within each social position with the average inter-item for the variables across the positions reveals that the dimensions proposed by Scanzoni are not empirically different. In light of these findings, further exploratory data analysis of all items was conducted to discern which items do empirically cluster together. Scanzoni's 21 sex role items were submitted to principal component factor analysis; 3 factors emerged. 1) wife-husband equlity; 2) flexibility in role integration; and 3) values regarding primary role. 3 new sex role modernity values were created to correspond to the 3 factors and were then used to explore the relationship between sex role modernity and pregnancy planning. Chi square analyses were not statistically significant. Therefore, the hypothesis that women at the extremes of the modernity continuum would be more likely to plan than women who fall in the middle, was rejected. Although no relationship between the sex role factors and pregnancy planning was found, 6 of the Scanzoni items, when linearly combined, manifested a strong relationship to planning: 1) wife's emotional nature; 2) wife's most important task is caring for husbands and kids; 3) wife takes job if not satisfied with wife/mom role; 4) wife gives up job if inconveniences husband/kids; 5) wife's job as important as husband's job; 6) women's pay equal to man's. Although 4 of these items load on the sex role factors, it is unclear whether they are truly reflective of these factors.     

Is the SOGS an Accurate Measure of Pathological Gambling Among Children, Adolescents and Adults?

The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) is widely used to assess the prevalence of pathological gambling. For a variety of reasons, this instrument may not provide an accurate rate of the prevalence of pathological gambling. In this paper, one source of error in data provided by the SOGS is investigated. It is argued that individuals may not fully understand the meaning of some items, and that clarification of the meaning of misunderstood items may in some cases lead to a changed score on the scale. The present study evaluates respondents' understanding of the SOGS items. The results from three studies are reported, each using a different sample: grade school children, adolescents and adults. It was hypothesised that (1) participants would not understand some items of the SOGS, (2) problem gamblers and probable pathological gamblers would be more inclined to interpret items incorrectly than would non-problem gamblers and, (3) consistent with the first two hypotheses, clarification of items would decrease the number of participants identified as problem gamblers or probable pathological gamblers. The data obtained supported hypotheses 1 and 3. Furthermore, hypothesis 2 was supported for grade school children, but not for adolescents or adults. These results are consistent with recent literature on endorsement and acquiescence phenomena, and have implications for prevalence studies of probable pathological gambling.     

A note on the measurement,quantification, and use of consumer confidence

It is argued that consumer spending on durable items is not necessarily the only type of consumer spending to be influenced by consumer confidence but. given a certain degree of affluence. spending on non-durables can also be influenced by it.Different methods of quantification of consumer confidence are touched upon and the issue of equal weighting versus differential weighting, where weights are ascertained by the use of factor analysis, is discussed in more detail. Various indices of consumer confidence are computed and tested by means of regression analyses. It was found that it is immaterial whether a composite measure of confidence is based on factor analysis or simply on the summing and averaging of responses.The results of the regression analyses suggest that the hypothesis that consumer sentiment partly determines movements in private consumption expenditure holds true, especially in the case of durables. There are indications, however, that spending on non-durable goods might also be influenced by consumer sentiment.     

The Importance of Replicating a Failure to Replicate: Order Effects on Abortion Items

A failure to replicate a previously demonstrated order effecton responses to questions about abortion led to a second experimentwhich was designed to test the hypothesis that the failure wasdue to a change in the question context which had immediatelypreceded the abortion items in the original experiments by Schuman,et al. Unlike the results of the first experiment, the resultsof this second experiment showed that the order effect reportedby Schuman and his associates does replicate. In addition, thedata indicate that context may condition the magnitude of thisorder effect. The authors also suggest that the effect may bedue to the implicit contrast between the reasons given for abortionby the items when they are asked in one order rather than theother.     

AN EVALUATION OF A COGNITIVE THEORY OF RESPONSE-ORDER EFFECTS IN SURVEY MEASUREMENT

Previous research has documented effects of the order in whichresponse choices are offered to respondents using closed-endedsurvey items, but no theory of the psychological sources ofthese effects has yet been proposed. This paper offers sucha theory drawn from a variety of psychological research. Usingdata from a split-ballot experiment in the 1984 General SocialSurvey involving a variant of Kohn's parental values measure,we test some predictions made by the theory about what kindof response order effect would be expected (a primacy effect)and among which respondents it should be strongest (those lowin cognitive sophistication). These predictions are confirmed.We also test the "form-resistant correlation" hypothesis. Althoughcorrelations between items are altered by changes m responseorder, the presence and nature of the latent value dimensionunderlying these responses is essentially unaffected.     

Contextual Dimensions in Attitudes as a Function of Group-Originating Identities

Abstract

Rokeach's theory of attitude expression (that persons maintain both attitudes toward situations and toward objects or classes of objects) was redefined to make context and objects dimensions of attitude. This analytical distinction was empirically reproduced within a symbolic interaction framework. The hypothesis that persons including a higher number of group referents in verbalized self-identity are more likely to rely on the contextual dimension when evaluating an object-in-a-situation than are respondents including a lesser number was then tested. Instruments used were the Twenty Statements Test and a scale of favorability composed of five semantic differential items. Analysis of variance and regression techniques provided support both for Rokeach's model of attitudes as well as for the hypothesis.     

Transdiagnostic mechanism of social phobia and depression: The role of anger dysregulation

ABSTRACT

Emotion dysregulation has been identified as a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying social phobia and depression; however, there is much to learn about how emotion dysregulation leads to these specific outcomes. Thus, this study examined the relationship pattern between anger dysregulation and depression and how it is mediated by social phobia. Anger dysregulation was examined specifically considering anger as a significant emotional feature of both social phobia and depression. The mediation hypothesis within this study was empirically established. The data was drawn from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (2001–2003), in which 2,827 participants met DSM-IV criteria for lifetime major depressive disorder (14.3%), and 1,905 participants met criteria for DSM-IV lifetime social anxiety disorder (9.6%). Among participants, 4,250 (21.5%) reported that they perceived their anger as out of control and either broke items or hit (or tried to hit) others. The mediation hypothesis was tested with logistic regression models. Anger dysregulation was significantly related to social phobia and depression. A significant indirect effect of social phobia was detected through bootstrap analysis, supporting the partial mediation hypothesis. This study represents the first attempt to examine the mediating role of social phobia in the relationship between anger dysregulation and depression. The findings of this study suggest that anger dysregulation may be a transdiagnostic factor across social phobia and depression.     

Canonical Correlation as an Exploratory Technique of Attitude Scale Correlation

Concept measurement and the determination of unidimensionalityare usually based upon techniques which depend on the relationsbetween the items measuring the concept or concepts: a set ofitems having the same relations with one another is inferredto be unidimensional. However, an additional criterion for unidimensionalityis that these items also have the same relations with a setof predictors. One multivariate technique which explicitly considersthese relations between predictors and items is canonical correlation.In this study, after analysis of a set of items with factoranalysis, canonical correlation is applied. The results demonstratethe promise of the technique for exploratory data analysis.     

DO RESPONDENTS REALLY "MARK ALL THAT APPLY" ON SELF-ADMINISTERED QUESTIONS?

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of using "markall that apply" question instructions on survey reporting aspart of the field test for the Second Follow-up of the NationalEducation Longitudinal Study of 1988 Eighth Graders (NELS:88).Mark-all-that-apply instructions were compared with instructionsasking respondents to indicate "yes" or "no" to each responseoption on responses to three items dispersed throughout thequestionnaire and consisting of different topics and numbersof response options. For the three items, significantly fewerresponse options were selected with the mark-all-that-applyinstructions than with the yes/no instructions, but becauseexternal validity criteria were not available, overreportingto the yes/no instructions cannot be ruled out. Instructiondependentprimacy effects, predicted under the hypothesis that respondentswould engage in more superficial processing when given the mark-all-that-applyinstructions, were not found.     

"Don't Know": Item Ambiguity or Respondent Uncertainty?

What to do with "Don't Know" responses in survey data is dependentupon a prior understanding of their causes. A proximity analysisof the "Don't Know" responses alone yields the same scale asdoes a scalogram analysis of the definite responses alone indicatingresponse uncertainty as one source of the response. The qualityof the scales is improved by eliminating ambiguous items, indicatingstimulus ambiguity as another source. The data used are responsesto items on attitude toward abortion obtained in an island-widesurvey of Taiwan.     

The Fruits of Cultivation Analysis: A Reexamination of Some Effects of Television Watching

A set of items from the General Social Survey for 1975 and 1977measuring alienation and fear of walking near one's home atnight, which were claimed by Gerbner et al. (1978a) to be relatedto heavy television watching, are reanalyzed with simultaneouscontrols for age, sex, race, income, education, hours workedper week outside the home, church attendance, membership involuntary associations, and population size. The effects oftelevision watching on responses to these items which were claimedby Gerbner et al. are largely absent in this analysis. Itemsin the same data set used by Gerbner et al., but not includedin their analysis are analyzed using the technique above, withresults that fail to support the contention of Gerbner and hisassociates. The implications of these findings for a cultivationtheory of television effects are discussed.     

Developing a Crisis Management Index: Applications in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to develop a crisis management index that can gauge a corporation's integrated crisis management capabilities. Although most crisis management models have been devised in Western countries, no full-scale crisis management index has been developed outside the Western hemisphere. This study deploys multiple research stages that reflect the characteristics of crisis management. First, the study validates index items through an extensive literature review, in-depth interviews, and professional audits. The dimensions of the index items are evaluated through an exploratory factor analysis and verified with construct validity through a confirmatory factor analysis. The final index dimensions—the organizational strategy, the organization system and culture, and the execution and communication—were applied to the case of South Korean corporations, and the implications based on their index scores are discussed.     

Collective Self-Esteem and Coping Strategies among Vietnamese American Adolescents

This article reports on the “social empathy attitudes” results that were part of a larger study on empathy in college students at a large research university in the Southwest. Two hundred ninety-four students completed the Social Empathy Assessment Index (SEAI). The research hypothesis was that students of color would have higher levels of social empathy attitudes than Caucasian students. The statistically significant SEAI items suggested that Latino students identify as more collectivist and more optimistic and have higher levels of social empathy attitudes. Latinos may be more willing to help a stranger than either Caucasians or members of other racial groups.     

Psychometric Evaluation and Discussions of English Language Learners’ Listening Comprehension

The importance of listening in the context of English language acquisition is gaining acceptance, but its unique attributes in language performance, while substantively and qualitatively justifiable, are generally not psychometrically defined. This article psychometrically supports listening as a distinct domain among the three other domains of language learning—reading, writing, and speaking—through the analysis of listening data from a large-scale K-12 English language proficiency assessment. Student responses in this study were compared on the basis of cognitive, metacognitive, and other learning strategies between high achieving and low achieving listening groups that were formed using a latent mixture distribution model. Latent mixture distribution and differential items functioning analyses together with classical item analysis were used to substantiate or draw attention to literature findings. The article also highlights the importance of social-interactive items that are inadvertently embedded in an assessment that is primarily created to measure academic language.     

MEASURING HAPPINESS IN SURVEYS: A TEST OF THE SUBTRACTION HYPOTHESIS

Responses to an item on general happiness can change when thatitem follows one on marital happiness. Asking about maritalhappiness first sometimes reduces reported levels of overallhappiness. This reduction may result from a change in the interpretationof the general happiness item. According to this hypothesis,when the general item follows the item on marital happiness,respondents take the item to ask about aspects of their livesother than their marriages-in effect, the respondents subtracttheir (mostly happy) marriages in answering the general item.The study reported here tests this subtraction hypothesis byasking versions of the general happiness item that correspondto the different interpretations. A version of the general itemthat asked about general happiness "aside from your marriage"yielded responses that were quite similar to those given tothe standard item when it followed the item on marital happiness.Another version that asked about general happiness "includingyour marriage" elicited responses quite similar to those elicitedby the standard item when it preceded the marital happinessitem. However, reanalysis of the studies that originally demonstratedthe impact of the order of the two happiness items casts doubton the subtraction hypothesis and related models as explanationsof the earlier findings.     

A Short Form of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children

A short form of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children was derived from the original 90 items. An exploratory factor analysis of each factor identified the four items from each of the original factors with the highest eigenvalues. These items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. The best fit was obtained for an 8-factor, 32-item model. The short form evidenced good convergent validity with parent ratings obtained from the Child Behavior Checklist, the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory, and the University of California at Los Angeles Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (UCLA PTSD RI). Norms (t-scores and percentiles based on raw scores) were calculated by age and by gender. The short form has promise as a screening measure with parents in settings like a child advocacy center.     

An Individual Mixed‐Evaluation Method for Career Intervention

Economic issues linked to career counseling are a cause for concern to policy makers in developed countries because they expect career practitioners to provide evidence of the efficiency of career counseling interventions. The aim of this study was to test an individual evaluation method mixing time series (outcomes) and life narrative (processes). The method used 5 items related to 1 client's career decision self‐efficacy and studied the evolution of those items throughout the intervention of 1 career counselor (43 days). Changepoint analysis helped in identifying the changes that have to be taken into account for time series and which are contextualized in the client's verbatim analysis. This mixed method highlighted that the career counselor's intervention increased the client's career decision self‐efficacy. Practitioners could use the methodology proposed in this article to evaluate their interventions. They could also report their practice to clients, employers, and decision makers.     

Did Growing Up in the 1960s Leave a Permanent Mark on Attitudes and Values?: Evidence from the General Social Survey

This paper explores the "tree ring" hypothesis that reachingyoung adulthood during certain historical periods raises orlowers attitudes above and beyond the contribution of demographicvariables and long-term cohort trends. It examines the deviationsfrom long-term, linear, cohort trends for twenty-eight NationalOpinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Survey (GSS) attitudeitems in birth cohorts reaching age 16 in the 1950s, 1960s,and post-1960s. Long-term cohort trends are estimated from regressionsof attitudes on cohorts reaching age 16 from 1917 to 1950 (netof year and five demographics). Popular impressions are supportedin that "rings" (residuals) are more liberal for Americans reachingage 16 in the 1960s. However, those reaching age 16 in the 1950sare more liberal than their immediate predecessors, not moreconservative. Furthermore, the three periods are not strikinglydistinctive as the items showing positive rings tend to be thesame in each period.