Your picture is your bait: use and meaning of cyberspace among gay men

The Internet is seen by many as a form of cyberspace or environment in which to interact and socialise. This research project drew from the data of a quantitative and qualitative study of gay men in Perth, Western Australia. We examined gay men's usage patterns of chat rooms and other social aspects of the Internet to meet sexual partners. We then reviewed in detail the meanings gay men have for the various Internet environments, and the range of friendship, relationship, casual, or esoteric sex-seeking goals. We argue that gay men view and engage with the Internet differently from how they view and engage with other more traditional gay spaces. This different approach influences how interaction between the men, either online or face-to-face, progresses and how assumptions and expectations are built. This has implications for how sexual health promotion interventions determine the appropriate role and relationship they have with these online social spaces.     

The Dramaturgical Model of Behavior: Its Strengths and Weaknesses*

By means of the dramaturgical model we freshly illuminate social behavior as role-like “performances” in which persons manage the impressions that others get of them. This impression management involves the concealment of data in a “dramatic” struggle with those others who wish to penetrate one's “mask.” But the chief limitations of the dramaturgical model are that it excites the invalid inferences that offstage “roles” are more like stage actors' roles than they really are, and that the person is nothing but these “roles.” The differences between onstage and offstage behavior are kept in view when the metaphorical concept of “role playing” is re-connected to its source in role playing onstage. Through an analysis of theatre and the concepts of appearance and time we conclude that while we must appear to others in a “role-like” way offstage in order to be ourselves, we are nevertheless involved in world-time offstage in a way that fundamentally distinguishes our “role-playing” from an actor's role playing. We are our “roles”, but not just our “roles.”     

Normative,Preferential, and Belief Modes in Adolescent Prejudice*

The concept of attitude often subsumes normative, preferential, and belief components; some attitude scales are composed of items exhibiting two or more of these modalities. Beliefs may, in turn, be classified as reports, stereotypes, consequences, and intentions. This article shows that attitude questions in different modes have differing origins and implications, and that it is an error to continue to use an attitude concept and attitude scales that are modally ambiguous. As well, it is an error to use factor analyses and lack of co-scalability as the only criteria for assessing modality differences within attitude scales. In support of this argument we show that adolescents respond differently to attitude questions concerning school integration that are phrased in the normative, preferential, and belief modes, although these same questions are also found to co-scale. A distinction is made between two ways of learning attitudes: through personal experience and through information from others. On the basis of this distinction, parallel results were predicted and found for preferences and intentions. These differed from results that we predicted and found for norms and stereotypes.     

Race,Region, and Earnings: Blacks and Whites in the South

Abstract Using data from the 1980 Public-Use Micro Sample (PUMS) A-file, we examine the effect of region on black and white earnings within the Black Belt and the rest of the South. We find that Black Belt residence depresses earnings for both blacks and whites, more or less equally. There was no support for the hypothesis that there would be a greater penalty to being black in the Black Belt, compared to being black in the non-Black Belt South. It is the additive effects of race and region that lead to lower earnings for Black Belt blacks. We conclude that region is a useful theoretical concept which needs to be more adequately theorized and incorporated into sociological analyses.     

The impact of institutional changes on corporate governance mechanisms in transition economies

We examine how institutional changes affect corporate governance in transition economies. We develop a transition model that specifies three stages of the transition process including the early, intermediate, and late. We develop a framework for assessing the effectiveness of widely recognized corporate governance mechanisms (CGMs) in and across these stages. Our general proposition is that as transition economies move from early, to intermediate, to late stages, effective CGMs tend to be those that are based on state administrative control power, social networks and private orders, and market forces and formal institutions, respectively. Our study has contributions and implications regarding the transition economies and the impacts of institutions on corporate governance.     

Characteristics of Older Adult Problem Gamblers Calling a Gambling Helpline

Background Few investigations have characterized groups of older adults with gambling problems, and published reports are currently limited by small samples of older adult problem gamblers. Gambling helplines represent a widespread mechanism for assisting problem gamblers to move into treatment settings. Given data from older adult problem gamblers in treatment, we hypothesized that older as compared with younger adult problem gamblers calling a gambling helpline would be less likely to report gambling-related problems.Design and methods Logistic regression analyses were performed on data obtained from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2001, inclusive, from callers with gambling problems (N = 1,084) contacting the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling Helpline.Results Of the 1,018 phone calls used in the logistic regression analyses, 168 (16.5%) were from older adults and 850 (83.5%) from younger adults. Age-related differences were observed in demographic features, types and patterns of gambling reported as problematic, gambling-related problems and psychiatric symptoms, substance use problems, patterns of indebtedness, and family histories of addictive disorders. Older as compared with younger adult problem gamblers were more likely to report having lower incomes, longer durations of gambling, fewer types of problematic gambling, and problems with casino slot machine gambling and less likely to report gambling-related anxiety, family problems, illegal behaviors and arrests, drug problems, indebtedness to bookies or acquaintances, family histories of drug abuse, and problems with casino table gambling.Conclusions Older as compared with younger adult problem gamblers calling a gambling helpline differ on many clinically relevant features. The findings suggest the need for improved and unique prevention and treatment strategies for older adults with gambling problems.