The role of appraisal distortion, contempt, and morality in couple conflict: a grounded theory

A common goal of couples' therapy is to help individuals modify their view of each other and the relationship. Distorted views and appraisals contribute to conflict, and these can be manifest by use of rationalization or denial. This study explored appraisal distortion as an evaluative and moral process that occurs during partner conflict, particularly when it becomes contemptuous and aggressive. Using a philosophical base that is grounded in the ethical relationship, a model of appraisal distortion and couple conflict was created using constructivist grounded theory methods. The theoretical concepts derived from the data show relationships between one's relational stance, appraisal distortion, and verbal and physical aggression. This model implies that helping individuals take responsibility for appraisals is important in treating conflict.     

The Efficacy and Impact of the Alien Transfer Exit Programme: Migrant Perspectives from Nogales,Sonora, Mexico

The Alien Transfer Exit Programme (ATEP) is a US deportation strategy created in 2008 whereby migrants are returned to border regions of Mexico distant from their initial place of apprehension. The goal of this strategy is to geographically separate migrants from their coyotes [paid crossing guide], who are often waiting for them in Mexico, in an attempt to discourage people from attempting additional border crossings. The official government stance concerning this programme is that it is both effective at deterring migration and that it protects migrants from abusive coyotes who often “force” them to cross the harsh Sonoran desert. The effectiveness of this new policy or its impact on the experiences of migrants has yet to be examined. Using a combination of ethnography and archaeology, I describe ATEP and its impacts on the social process of border crossing with an emphasis on the experiences of migrants who have been deported from California to the Mexican border town of Nogales. I argue that recent formalized deportation strategies such as ATEP build on previous lateral relocation programmes that have long been ineffective at slowing migration. In addition, ATEP contributes to sustaining previous migration control policies of exclusion (based on age, gender, and health) that now produce new dangers for both those included and excluded from this programme. ATEP should be viewed as an enforcement strategy aimed at systematically placing migrants in harm's way by relocating them geographically and by undermining the resources (i.e., human and social capital) that people have come to rely on for successful (and safer) border crossings. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the anthropology of deportation and the critical phenomenology of illegality.     

Emotion Socialization by Mothers and Fathers: Coherence among Behaviors and Associations with Parent Attitudes and Children's Social Competence

This study examined inter‐relations among different types of parental emotion socialization behaviors in 88 mothers and 76 fathers (co‐residing with participating mothers) of eight‐year‐old children. Parents completed questionnaires assessing emotion socialization behaviors, emotion‐related attitudes, and their children's social functioning. An observed parent–child emotion discourse task and a child social problem‐solving interview were also performed. Parent gender differences and concordance within couples in emotion socialization behaviors were identified for some but not all behaviors. Fathers' reactions to child emotion, family expressiveness, and fathers' emotion coaching during discussion cohered, and a model was supported in which the commonality among these behaviors was predicted by fathers' emotion‐coaching attitudes, and was associated with children's social competence. A cohesive structure for the emotion socialization construct was less clear for mothers, although attitudes predicted all three types of emotion socialization behavior (reactions, expressiveness, and coaching). Implications for developmental theory and for parent‐focused interventions are discussed.     

Experiences of adolescent participation in a four-week community-based workshop designed to improve psychosocial skills: what are the key benefits?

The present study sought to explore the experiences of young adolescents who participated in a community-based workshop designed to improve psychosocial competence. The workshop involved 14 adolescent children aged between 10 and 14 years, who lived in socially disadvantaged areas of Liverpool, UK. Focus groups were employed to assess whether participation in ‘Skills for the Street’ workshops improved adolescents’ psychosocial functioning and personal development. A number of themes were identified in the analyses, including increased confidence, increased self-awareness, admiration and team building. These themes are discussed, and we argue that the findings attest to the benefit of community-based approaches for young people living in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the UK.     

Decomposition of urban atmospheric carbon in Sonoran Desert soils

Urban atmospheres can have high concentrations of particulate organic carbon (oC) but the rate and fate oC deposition in near-urban ecosystems are rarely quantified. We collected atmospheric particulate matter in Phoenix, AZ and applied these samples to Sonoran Desert soils in a series of laboratory incubation experiments. The addition of fine particulate matter (<2.5 μm aerodynamic diameter) increased microbial respiration in soils collected from the interspaces between desert shrubs. The increase in soil respiration was equivalent to 25% to 30% of the added oC. In contrast, we did not detect increases in respiration when coarse particulate matter (>2.5 μm aerodynamic diameter) was added to interspace soils, suggesting that coarse particulate oC is recalcitrant to microbial decomposition. Due to comparatively higher background levels of C mineralization, we rarely detected changes in microbial respiration when fine or coarse particulate oC was added to soils collected beneath shrub canopies. We measured total atmospheric C concentrations within and surrounding Phoenix and, using inferential methods, estimated rates of deposition that ranged from 0.02 to 0.58 mg C m⁻² d⁻¹ for fine particles and from 0 to 6.15 mg C m⁻² d⁻¹ for coarse particles. Results show that fine atmospheric particulate matter deposited at low rates downwind of Phoenix is a labile oC substrate for soil heterotrophs. In contrast, oC deposited at higher rates as coarse particulate matter may accumulate in soils due to slow microbial decomposition rates.     

Risk and Public Protection: Responding to Involuntary and ‘Taboo’ Risk

Growing media, political and public concern with high‐risk offenders in the community has focused policy attention on the concept of ‘public protection’. A notion that the public has the right to be protected, particularly from ‘monstrous’ offenders such as predatory paedophiles, has infiltrated much recent legislation and penal policy. This article will explore the critical factors in the ‘public protection’ trend and the framing of risk and risky offenders that has ensued. In particular, attention will be given to the new surveillance and intervention mechanisms under the Multi‐Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and whether these arrangements manage risk or displace it. To what extent are they driven by the ‘precautionary principle’ and defensive responses to risks that are over‐inflated? To what extent does this result in ‘perverse incentives’ to over‐manage certain risks and to over‐concentrate on restrictive risk management techniques such as electronic tagging, satellite surveillance and curfews rather than treatment? Does the system represent effective risk management or a system for dealing with risk anxiety – both of the public(s) and of politicians?     

Leveling the playing field: Dishonesty in the face of threat

We examined the effects of framing and perceived vulnerability on dishonest behavior in competitive environments. Participants were randomly matched into pairs and took a short multiple-choice test, the relative score of which determined their merit-based payoffs. After learning about the test scores, participants were asked to report them, thus affecting the final payoffs. Framing was varied as participants could either report their own scores or the scores of their counterparts. The presence of threat, or vulnerability to other players’ dishonesty, was varied as either one or both players in a pair could misreport scores. Participants who reported their counterparts’ scores were more likely to report honestly than participants who entered their own score. Participants, whose payoffs were threatened by their opponents’ misreporting, were more likely to cheat to the fullest extent. Furthermore, we found that framing significantly reduced misreporting in the absence, but not in the presence of threat. Results suggest that when actors feel vulnerable to other people’s dishonesty they would often cheat as much as they can in order to “level the playing field”, even when they strongly disapprove of the behavior.     

The moderating role of social support in Karasek's job strain model

The potential stressfulness of an event may depend on how it is appraised by the individual, although up to now there have been no longitudinal studies on the relationship between lay beliefs concerning work stress and perceived strain. This longitudinal study examines how lay theories of work stress at baseline were related to perceived mental strain at follow up. The present paper builds on an earlier study (Furnham, ), using a longitudinal design and a much larger population of the British workforce (N=2270). Lay beliefs were assessed by a scale consisting of 36 items. Factor analysis gave a solution with five factors on perceived causes and four factors of perceived alleviation of work stress. Linear multiple regression analysis revealed significant relations between lay beliefs of work stress at baseline and perceived mental strain as well as job stress 14 months later. The effect sizes were small but of a similar magnitude to those that have been found, for example, in occupational stress-reducing interventions. A problem with the factor analytic approach was the discrepancies between the factor solutions and the relative importance of the perceived causes of work stress. The results from the study suggest that subjective beliefs about work stress merits further analysis as potentially mediating between ‘objective’ working conditions and stress outcomes.     

The relationship between non-marital fathers' social networks and social capital and father involvement

Literature and research examining father involvement has focused primarily on outcomes associated with the well-being and development of children. Receiving limited attention in this literature has been the examination of the contextual factors associated with fathers and how these factors shape fathers' involvement with their young children. Addressing this limitation, this study focuses on the intra- and interdependent networks non-marital fathers maintain and utilize in fulfilling their parental responsibilities of father involvement. Results of the regression models indicate that non-marital fathers' relationship with their former spouse or partner and involvement with informal networks is positively associated with their involvement with young children. Policy and practice implications are discussed.     

BUILDING ENVIRONMENTALISM: The Founding of Environmental Movement Organizations in the United States, 1900–2000

Between the 19th and the mid‐20th century, the environmental movement transformed American culture, forcing a rethinking of the “Manifest Destiny” ideology that had long dominated political thinking toward an understanding of the need to protect and restore the balance between humans and nature. In 1900, there were only a few environmental movement organizations (EMOs), but by 2000, there were over 6,000 national and regional EMOs and over 20,000 local EMOs. What drove this phenomenal growth of EMOs? We examine a 100‐year time series of EMO founding, showing that, in addition to the “legitimation‐and‐competition” effects of organizational density, EMO founding is facilitated by the discourse‐creative activities of critical communities, objective threats in terms of air pollution, foundation giving, and powerful political allies in the presidency and Congress. Environmental discourses also legitimized and competed against one another, favoring “early risers” and preservationist discourse. Environmental mobilization needs to be understood in terms of the creation of new discursive frames that identify environmental problems, as well as objective environmental threats, resources, and political opportunities.