PERCEIVED IMPACT OF DEFAMATION: AN EXPERIMENT ON THIRD-PERSON EFFECTS

This paper explores the intersection of libel law and communicationtheory that occurs when libel juries assess the effect of adefamatory communication on others. The third-person hypothesissuggests that people often assume others will be more affectedby potentially persuasive communications than they are themselves.An experiment was conducted in which students were exposed toa variety of defamatory newspaper articles. The results confirmedseveral predictions. First, readers estimated that others wouldbe more affected by defamatory messages than the readers themselveswould be. Second, this effect was magnified as the "others"became progressively more distant from these readers. Third,when the defamation was attributed to a negatively biased sourcethe effect was also accentuated: readers themselves discountedthe message, while assuming others would be even more influenced.It is suggested that courtroom assessments of the effects ofdefamatory communications on others may be influenced by suchthird-person perceptions.     

Varieties of Social Cognition

Recent work within psychology demonstrates that unconscious cognition plays a central role in the judgments and actions of individuals. We distinguish between two basic types unconscious social cognition: unconsciousness of the influences on judgments and actions, and unconscious of the mental states (i.e., attitudes and feelings) that give rise to judgments and actions. Influence unconsciousness is corroborated by strong empirical evidence, but unconscious states are difficult to verify. We discuss procedures aimed at providing conclusive evidence of state unconsciousness, and apply them to recent empirical findings.     

Breaking the Rules: A Group Work Perspective on Focus Group Research

Marcia B. Cohen, University of New England, School of Social Work, Biddeford, Maine, USA, 04005. E-Mail: mcohen{at}mailbox.une.edu. Kendra J. Garrett, Department of Social Work, The University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota, USA 55105. E-Mail: kjgarrett{at}stthomas.edu. Summary Focus groups, originally used in fields such as marketing andconsumer research, are rapidly gaining popularity as a researchmethodology in the social sciences. It is interesting to notethat most of the scholarly work on focus groups continues tocome from business rather than the social sciences. Few researchershave discussed the differing purposes and goals in social scienceand consumer research (Ospina, 1994; Moore, 1996). Furthermore,the literature on focus group research rarely utilizes socialwork knowledge of group dynamics or group facilitation skills.Rather, the literature on focus groups tends to give guidelinesfor leading groups, telling focus group facilitators what todo and what not to do in leading such groups. We believe thatthese guidelines, while generally helpful, can lead to rigidityon the part of focus group leaders. We suggest that, in socialwork research, focus group facilitators should use their knowledgeof group dynamics and the values of individualization and empathyto modify focus group rules where appropriate. This paper describes part of a qualitative study of client/workerrelationships in residential mental health settings. Duringthe course of this research, group work principles came intoconflict, at times, with recommended guidelines for focus groupleaders. The paper illustrates how insights gleaned from groupwork theory and practice can enable a researcher to break focusgroup rules responsibly, thus bringing greater depth to thedata gathered and allowing the researcher to be more sensitiveto the needs of focus group participants.     

MEASURING AND COMPARING VOLUME FLEXIBILITY IN THE CAPITAL GOODS INDUSTRY

This paper presents a theoretical framework for measuring volume flexibility and relating these measures to firm performance. We develop four metrics using the principle that a volume flexible firm can handle similar levels of uncertainty (as measured by sales variability) with smaller fluctuations in inputs (as measured by variability in cost of goods sold and variability in inventory levels). Then, using 20 years of Compustat data on 550 firms in the capital goods industry, we find that on three of four process‐based measures, small firms are more volume flexible. However, when we incorporate financial performance into our fourth metric, we find that large firms are more volume flexible. We conclude that, to be volume flexible is one thing, but to benefit from this flexibility, firms need to focus on the cost of being flexible.     

AN INTEGRATIVE SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Since 1980, practitioner interest in the field of quality management (qm) has grown significantly, resulting in academic researchers embracing QM as a legitimate discipline of study. One approach to evaluating the intellectual health of a discipline is an examination of doctoral dissertation research. This work both complements and extends other published reviews of the quality management discipline by analyzing doctoral dissertation research since 1981, categorizing this research, examining shifts in major research themes, evaluating data collection and analysis methodologies, and discussing general trends in this research area. Our findings suggest that the challenges in QM have become more interdisciplinary and integrated, and reveal an encouraging trend toward more rigorous research methodologies and the increased use of theories from other disciplines, leading to a more mature body of research in this field.     

Rokeach's Value Survey in use: an evaluation with criterion attitude scales and party identification*

Le but du rapport suivant est de fournir aux chercheurs une matière sur laquelle fonder une évaluation de l'intrigante ‘Value Survey’ faite par Milton Rokeach (1969 a; 1969 b; 1971; Rokeach et Parker, 1970; Rokeach, Miller et Snyder, 1971). La première section de l'article, qui s'appuie sur des données réunies à partir d'une vaste enquête fondée sur des exemples pris au hasard d'étudiants dans une université canadienne, prouve que la Value Survey est l'un des outils de travail les plus économiques et les plus capables de saisir les différences, qui puissent être utilises pour l'instant pour établir les différences individuelles telles qu'elles sont révélées par les stimuli verbaux. La seconde partie est un compte-rendu des recherches publiées par Rokeach avec la Value Survey, et fournit quelques preuves montrant que cet instrument est efficace dans tous les pays. The purpose of the following report is to provide researchers with material on which they might base an evaluation of Milton Rokeach's intriguing ‘Value Survey’ (1969a; 1969b; 1971; Rokeach and Parker, 1970; Rokeach, Miller and Snyder, 1971). The first section of the paper, which is based on data collected from a large random sample survey of students at a Canadian university, demonstrates that the Value Survey is one of the more economical and discriminating instruments in use at the moment for the assessment of individual differences as elicited by verbal stimuli. The second part reports a replication of Rokeach's published research with the Value Survey and provides some indication that the tool is robust across nations.     

Race-of-Interviewer Effects in Telephone Interviews

Previous studies have found a race-of-interviewer effect onsurvey questions dealing with racial issues. This effect hasbeen found in both personal interviews and on questionnairesfilled out in the presence of an interviewer. This study examineswhether a race-of-interviewer effect is also present in telephoneinterviews. The results show that a race-of-interviewer effectdoes occur in telephone interviews on racial questions.     

The ties that bind: the role of migrants in the uneven geography of international telephone traffic

Recent work suggests that migrants have been a major driving force in the dramatic growth of international telephony over recent decades, accounting for large rises in telephone calls between countries with strong immigrant/emigrant connections. Yet, the existing literature has done a poor job of evaluating the substantive importance of migrants in explaining large disparities in levels of bilateral voice traffic observed between different countries. It has also failed to go very far in examining how domestic and relational factors moderate (namely amplify or attenuate) the influence of migrant stocks on international calling. Our contribution addresses these gaps in the literature. For a sample, which includes a far larger number of countries than previous studies, we show that, together with shorter‐term visitors, bilateral migrant stocks emerge as the relational variable with one of the substantively largest influences over cross‐national patterns of telephone calls. We also find that the effect of bilateral migrant stocks on inter‐country telephone traffic is greater where the country pairs are richer and more spatially distant from one another.     

Children's Welfare, Surrogacy and Social Work

Correspondence to Eric Blyth, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of Hudders-field, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH Summary Although surrogacy appears to have been practised throughouthistory across a diverse range of cultural groups it has onlyrecently emerged as a significant social problem, posing legal,ethical, social and psychological dilemmas. Developments inmedical technology, legislative change and shifts in professionalpractices have combined to make surrogacy potentially a moreacceptable form of family creation for more infertile and involuntarychildless people. Hitherto social work involvement in surrogacy has been marginal.However a more explicit focus on the welfare of the child, togetherwith the likely increase in prevalence in surrogacy, imply amore central role in future for social work. The commitmentof the Government and the newly-created Human Fertilizationand Embryology Authority to keeping surrogacy under review isexpected to result in further policy developments. In the meantimethis paper begins the process of identifying those areas ofsurrogacy practice in which social work intervention could beeffectively and appropriately focused and considers the implicationsof these for both social work agencies and practitioners.