Who is a Distracted Driver? Associations between Mobile Phone Use while Driving,Domain‐Specific Risk Taking,and Personality

Mobile phone use while driving (MPUWD) is an increasingly common form of distracted driving. Given its widespread prevalence, it is important for researchers to identify factors that may predict who is more likely to engage in this risky behavior. The current study investigates associations between MPUWD risk behaviors, domain‐specific risk perceptions, and broad personality dimensions. An Italian community sample (n = 804) completed a survey regarding MPUWD risk perceptions and engagement in MPUWD, in addition to the HEXACO‐PI‐R, a broad six‐factor personality inventory (honesty‐humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience), and the DOSPERT, a six‐factor domain‐specific self‐report risk‐taking measure (health/safety, recreational, social, ethical, gambling, and investment). With respect to domain‐specific risk taking, greater frequency of SMS use while driving most strongly was associated with greater risk taking for the health/safety, gambling, and ethical risk domains. Further, greater honesty‐humility and conscientiousness, two traits related to cognitive control and risk behaviors, and to a lesser extent openness to experience, were associated with less frequent MPUWD, and positively associated with MPUWD risk perceptions. With growing public safety concern surrounding MPUWD, understanding associated personality factors is not only important for identifying psychological mechanisms underlying risk behavior, but also for more effective prevention and intervention programs.     

Immigrant trajectories into homeownership: a temporal analysis of residential assimilation

"This study explores the rate of advancement into homeownership of immigrants, relative to native borns, in Southern California, a principal region of immigrant settlement.... Recent immigrants as well as young native borns are newcomers to the housing market and have lower attainment levels than earlier arrivals or older cohorts. Cohort trajectories are tracked from 1980 to 1990, adjusting for the influence of income, education, English proficiency, and marital status. Asian immigrants achieved extraordinarily high levels of homeownership soon after arrival, whereas Hispanic immigrants demonstrated sustained advancement into homeownership from initially very low levels."     

Recent trends in multiple-caused mortality 1968 to 1982: Age and cohort components

Declines in mortality at advanced ages have been observed recently in the United States. These declines have been related to a reduction in the risk of major circulatory diseases, such as stroke and heart disease. In this paper we examine the contribution of two additional major factors in those declines. The first is the effect of conditions associated with circulatory diseases. This effect can be examined by using multiple-cause mortality data in which all conditions reported by the physician on the death certificates are recorded. The second is the contribution of cohort mortality differentials to temporal changes. If major cohort differentials are identified, we may be able to determine if recent declines in mortality are likely to continue-and to what levels. Such insights would be useful both in improving projections of the size and age structure of the U.S. elderly population and its entitlement groups and in helping to identify future patterns of needs for preventive and other health services.     

North Central Sociological Association 2012 Ruth and John Useem Plenary Address. Political Renewal: Occupations,Springs, and Tea Parties

Novelty is paramount in the development of sociological theory—so much so that sometimes novelty is attributed even when it does not really exist. The study of social movements is hardly exempt from this problem and at times the craving for newness can become palpable. Despite that desire, however, some have concluded that things really have not changed much over a score of years—at least in terms of the implications for theory—but now, we think the time has finally come. Three recent mobilizations have provided us with something new into which we can sink our collective teeth. The Tea Party, the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street represent changes in the motivations and tactics driving social and political change that can renew the study of protest and collective political influence. These three bursts of political behavior reveal important edges of social movement study even as they exhibit roots in the now classic ideas in the field.     

College Students' Exposure to Tobacco Marketing in Nightclubs and Bars

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether a college student's exposure to tobacco marketing in nightclubs and bars was affected by the presence of a smoke-free law. Participants: A random sample (N = 478) of students participated in the survey (no smoke-free law, n = 240; smoke-free law, n = 238). The analysis was limited to students who reported being in nightclubs and bars (n = 171). Methods: A nonexperimental, cross-sectional, 2-group design was used. Results: Students in the smoke-free law city were more likely to be approached by tobacco marketers (34.7% versus 20.2%, p = .02), offered free gifts (41.7% versus 24.2%, p = .02), and take free gifts for themselves (34.7% versus 19.2%, p = .02). They were more likely to be exposed to direct marketing strategies (1.83 versus 1.12, p = .02). There was no difference on indirect tobacco marketing by site. Conclusions: Tobacco marketing is pervasive in nightclubs and bars. Smoke-free laws may protect against exposure to secondhand smoke but not the “pro” smoking messages students encounter.     

Freezing time? The sociology of egg freezing

In the past decade, social scientists and bioethicists have produced a significant body of work tracking the technical, legal, ethical, and sociocultural development and implications of human egg freezing. What began as a treatment to “preserve” the fertility of cancer patients has transformed into a technology enabling delayed childbearing. We provide an overview of four research areas that have received the most attention in the sociological and anthropological literature of egg freezing: medicalization, gender, temporality and risk, and markets. What emerges from much of the research is the sense that egg freezing has become entangled with cultural imperatives to take future-oriented responsibility for one's own health, financial, social, and reproductive needs through self-management, risk reduction, calculation, and optimization. Throughout, we consider the implications of this novel reproductive technology within national and transnational “reproflows” that stratify reproduction along raced and classed lines.     

The influence of childhood personality and environment and onset of the psychosis on recovery from dementia praecox 1

Beyond Ego Psychology: Developmental Object Relations Theory. Rubin and Gertrude Blanck. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.)

The Perilous Bridge: Helping Clients Through Mid‐Life Transitions. Naomi Golan. (New York: The Free Press, 1986.)

Progress in Self Psychology (Vol. I). Arnold Goldberg (Ed.). (New York: Guilford Press, 1985.)