Gambling attitudes and participation: A midwestern survey

In the last few years there has been a tremendous expansion of legalized gambling in the midwest. Multiple forms of gambling are now easily accessible. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of gambling in a midwestern state and to assess differences in gambling attitudes and behavior between men and women, in various income groups, living in rural and urban areas. In addition, because of the rapid increase in gambling in this region, respondents were also asked their opinions about legalized gambling. Results indicated that gambling was pervasive in all segments of this midwestern sample; however, men spent more than women and urban residents wagered more than rural residents. The poor spent a greater proportion of their income on gambling than those with middle incomes. Both the gamblers, and many of the non-gamblers, would like to see more gambling opportunities in their communities as most view gambling as a benign recreational activity. One in every ten that gambled, however, did report family problems related to gambling.     

Avoiding type III error in program evaluation : Results from a field experiment

A common, yet questionable assumption underlying many evaluations of service intervention programs is that program clients uniformly receive the services purportedly available. The authors draw upon the experience of a randomized field experiment to point out the hazards of that assumption. They found marked differences among clients in the amount of actual service received during participation in the program evaluated. Moreover, the data suggest that program outcomes varied as a function of the amount of service received. These findings are offered as a cautionary note to other evaluators; the amount of service actually received by clients should be accurately recorded and incorporated into the analyses of program outcomes.     

Nonverbal dominance in the communication of affect: A myth?

The claim that nonverbal signals are more important than verbal signals in the communication of affect is widely accepted and has had considerable impact on therapy, counselling, and education. In a typical experiment, subjects are presented with a long series of artificially constructed inconsistent messages (messages in which the verbal and nonverbal components are opposite in valence) and asked to judge the strength of the emotion felt by the encoder. In such studies little attempt is made to camouflage the nature of the stimuli or the intent of the experimenter. In this study, it is argued that the absence of camouflage (defined as naturally occurring consistent messages) may bias the results in favour of the nonverbal dominance effect, so that as the level of camouflage is increased, the size of the nonverbal dominance effect is decreased. Four groups of subjects (34 subjects per group) were required to rate a series of audiovisually presented messages. The level of camouflage varied between groups: 0% (all messages presented were inconsistent), 50% (half of the messages presented were consistent and half were inconsistent), 83% (the majority of messages presented were consistent), and 94%. The results clearly demonstrated that the nonverbal dominance effect was present when the level of camouflage was low, and disappeared when the level of camouflage was high. The implications of these findings for the nonverbal dominance hypothesis are discussed.This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme (Reference No. A78515618).     

“Always there for me”: Friendship patterns and expectations among middle- and working-class men and women

Using data from semistructured qualitative interviews with 52 working- and middle-class women and men, this paper compares differences in both friendship patterns and expectations of friendship. Working-class respondents' friendships revealed a high degree of reciprocity and interdependence with respect to material goods and services. Norms of working-class friendship emphasized being able to rely on friends for such services. Middle-class respondents, in contrast, celebrated shared leisure and the existence of large networks of interesting friends. Middle-class friendships enhanced the individuality that characterizes contemporary middle-class life. As a result of class differences in the meanings and expectations of friendship, the potential strains and conflicts differed. Working-class respondents reported far more open conflict with friends over the exchange of services than did middle-class respondents. Middle-class respondents reported difficulties in asking friends for help, even though being able to do so was a widely shared ideal of friendship.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, Massachusetts, March 1993.     

Estimates of early twentieth-century U.S. homicide rates: An econometric forecasting approach

Bureau of the Census death registration records, as reported in Mortality Statistics, are a primary source for early twentieth-century U.S. homicide statistics. Those data appear to show a massive rise in homicide during the first decade of the century, with a continuing increase through 1933. This increase is quite at variance with the trend away from violence in other industrialized societies. During the first one-third of the century, however, death registration was incomplete; it occurred only in an expanding “registration area” that was composed, in the earlier years, primarily of states with typically low rates of homicide. Further, in the first decade of the century homicides within the registration area often were reported as accidental deaths. As a result, apparent increases in rates of homicide in the United States between 1900 and 1933 may be illusory. I use a two-step process to address these problems. Drawing on internal evidence and commentaries in early volumes of Mortality Statistics, I use GLS regression to estimate the prevalence of undercounts. Then I create a series of GLS models that use registration area data to estimate early twentieth-century national rates. These estimates call into question the extent of homicide change early in the century.     

Implementing a social norms approach to reduce alcohol abuse on campus: Lessons learned in the shadow of ‘The World's Largest Six-Pack’

Many institutions of higher education are struggling with the problem of excessive alcohol consumption by students. Colleges and universities want to be ‘good neighbors’ in their communities and must limit legal and social risks that result from excessive alcohol consumption by students. At the same time, colleges and universities operate in an increasingly challenging marketplace where many prospective students seek out institutions with a ‘party school’ reputation. Thus, higher education institutions are finding it difficult to define and carry out alcohol reduction measures that satisfy all constituents. This article discusses the approach taken at the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse. UW-L is an institution that identified a serious alcohol consumption problem and had to address the problem in a community where high levels of alcohol consumption are socially and culturally condoned. The article profiles the UW-L community and discusses the campaign model and strategy chosen. Quantitative and qualitative measures of success are discussed, along with lingering issues of resistance. The article ends with a summary of current issues and future directions being taken by the campaign.     

A RESPONSE TO JEFFREY ALEXANDER'S THEORETICAL LOGIC IN SOCIOLOGY CONCERNING THE ALLEGED UNIDIMENSIONALITY OF MARXIAN THEORY

In the second volume of his Theoretical Logic in Sociology (1982b), Jeffrey Alexander argues that Marxian theory is predicated on a unidimensional model of human action. That means that Marxian theory overlooks the normative dimension of action, thereby portraying human action as entirely egoistic and deterministic. This article argues that Alexander's criticisms of Marxian theory are unfounded, and, more fundamentally, that Alexander's unfounded criticisms reveal that his whole neo-Parsonian project is based on an underlying conception of human action that is seriously mistaken. A major objective of this article is to present a more tenable conception of action.     

Union campaign activities and voter preferences

The impact of campaign activity on voting preferences in union representation elections is investigated using a panel study approach. The context of this study is a four-year, multicampus, university system, in which two faculty unions competed vigorously for representation rights for several years. We propose a multivariate model of individual voting intentions which, we argue, depend on the precampaign expected consequences of collective bargaining, recent changes in institutional conditions, various normative and value constraints, and union campaign activity. Both self-reports of exposure to campaign activity and exogenous measures of campus-specific organizing efforts are used in the analysis. The use of exogenous indicators of campaign activity, which we argue is more appropriate, suggests that campaign activity exerts no appreciable effect on the manner in which individuals vote in such elections. Policy implications of these findings are discussed. The authors are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for comments on an earlier version.     

Teaching Family Therapy: A Program Based on Training Objectives

This paper presents a set of specific training objectives which constitute a base for a one-year clinical training program at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago. The training objectives include three categories of skills: observational, conceptual, and therapeutic. The training objectives and the program in which they are implemented are described.     

Irrational thinking among slot machine players

According to the cognitive perspective on gambling, regular gamblers persist in trying to win money at gambling because they hold a set of false beliefs about the nature of gambling, the likelihood of winning, and their own expertise. In order to investigate this claim, twenty seven university students were recruited who played one of three types of games at least twice a week: slot machines, video draw poker, and video amusement games. Subjects played their preferred machines on site (clubs, hotels and amusement arcades) first for at least thirty minutes and then the other two games for a minimum of twenty minutes each. During play, each subject spoke aloud into a microphone describing what he or she was doing or thinking about in the game. It was hypothesised that slot machine players would verbalise more irrational thinking than video poker or video amusement players and that slot machines would elicit more irrational thinking than video poker or video amusement machines. Most importantly, it was hypothesised that slot machine players would exhibit relatively greater amounts of irrational thinking when playing their preferred game. The data supported all three hypotheses. Out of all of the statements made by slot machine players when playing slot machines, 38% were categorised irrational. Furthermore, 80% of the strategic statements made by slot machine players while playing slot machines were categorised as irrational. These results are consistent with earlier work which showed high levels of irrational thinking in artificial gambling games. Together, the results provide support for a cognitive view of the origins of gambling problems.