Black Identity: The O. J. Simpson Case

The purpose of this paper is to review the White and Black perspectives regarding the O. J. Simpson trial. The henneneutic-dialectic (HD) method of inquiry will be utilized in order to comprehend how Whites and Blacks reached their respective conclusions concerning O. J. Simpson’s guilt or innocence. This method of inquiry employs discourses, separately by Blacks and Whites, the interchange of the recorded discourses, and last, the coming together of both groups of participants for further discourse. Blacks, in contrast to Whites, experienced justice through a common sense of identity forged historically by a minority people rather than by the immediate circumstantial evidence gathered at the time of the trial.     

Pathways into Bankruptcy: Accumulating Disadvantage and the Consequences of Adverse Life Events

This study combines theories of accumulating disadvantage and economic insecurity using the event of bankruptcy to investigate how certain adverse life events jointly affect inequality. I analyze National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data from 1985 through 2008 to highlight the complexities of financial hardship in the path to bankruptcy. By applying hybrid mixed effects models to parse out within‐ and between‐person variation, I show that, in the case of bankruptcy, financial hardship unfolds over a specific series of events, which can lead to the accumulation of disadvantage connected to changes in employment, marital, and health statuses. I find that bankruptcy results from people's recent experiences of illness and marital dissolution, but not always directly from employment disruption. The effects of job loss on bankruptcy become more apparent as these events accumulate over time and limit wealth creation. The timing of events and their relationship with net worth also influence when a person will file for bankruptcy. As a whole, my findings demonstrate how adverse events and financial hardship lead to bankruptcy through multiple pathways.     

Examining Skin Color and Discrimination Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents

Discrimination based on skin color is illegal, yet preferential treatment based on skin color persists and there is less clarity on how one’s nativity and parents play a role between skin color and discrimination. This study examined the associations among skin color and subtle discrimination (i.e., microaggressions) among Latina/o (63.5%) and Asian American (36.5%) adolescents (N?=?244; M_age?=?17.12, SD?=?.73; 55% female). This study also examined whether nativity status, parent ethnic racial socialization, and parental acculturation (via parent language proficiency) moderated the association between skin color and microaggressions. Adolescents with darker skin color reported more microaggressions. In addition, the association between skin color and microaggressions was found among foreign-born adolescents, but not US-born adolescents. Neither parental acculturation or parent ethnic racial socialization moderated the association between skin color and microaggressions. These results suggest that, like race and ethnicity, skin color may be a marker for adolescents receiving subtle discrimination, particularly among foreign-born youth.     

青少年饮酒:多种研究方法的综合应用

描述了综合运用定性和定量方法对中国青少年饮酒问题所进行的研究.使用文化人类学中的定量方法对三个已知可预测行为的心理学变量进行初步的小样本研究.这三个心理学变量是:青少年对饮酒行为后果的期望(饮酒期望),青少年对中国传统文化和西方文化所持的观点(文化取向),以及青少年在处理饮酒压力方面所表现的信心(自我效能).定性研究所获得的资料被用来设计问卷,测量饮酒期望,文化取向和自我效能.定量数据的调查在大样本青少年人群中进行.统计分析表明,这些问卷能够发现饮酒者和不饮酒者在饮酒期望、文化取向、自我效能方面的差别.对于调查数据进行深入分析的结果,将为政策的制订和健康教育项目的设计指明方向,降低青少年的饮酒风险.     

Manipulative Businesses: Secular Business Cults

Many destructive business leaders drive their companies into bankruptcy and dissolution, never to be heard from again in the business press. However, it is useful to study these organizations to prevent the same, or similar destructive business from taking on, and destroying, additional businesses. In this article, we describe one type of organization that follows the model of religious cults, which we call secular business cults. Building on Padilla et al., we describe an SBC toxic triangle of (1) Padilla et al.'s societal factors, (2) additional business factors, and (3) antisocial actors that set the stage for the SBC's emergence. We then describe the characteristics of the SBC's operations, such as an ultrastrong culture, formalized manipulation, manipulative hierarchical relationships, competition, and operations efficiency tools, and the frequent overcommunication of deceptive messages. It is our hope that this unique perspective on organizations will inspire research into an overlooked area of unethical behavior in businesses today. In our Part II paper on the topic, we intend to extend the idea of SBCs to manipulative businesses, which are essentially reorganized, well‐established and legally‐complying revisions of SBCs, and then to manipulative industries and societies.     

Effect of a workplace design and training intervention on individual performance, group effectiveness and collaboration: the role of environmental control

The effects of a workplace design and training intervention and the relationships between perceived satisfaction of office workplace design factors (layout and storage) and work performance measures (individual performance, group collaboration and effectiveness) were studied with 120 office workers using the Workplace Environment Questionnaire. Further, we examined whether environmental control had a direct effect on work performance, and then explored whether environmental control mediated or moderated the relationship between workplace design factors and work performance. Results showed a significant, positive impact of the intervention on environmental satisfaction for workstation layout. Satisfaction with workstation layout had a significant relationship with individual performance, group collaboration and effectiveness; and satisfaction with workstation storage had a significant relationship with individual performance and group collaboration. Environmental control had a direct impact on individual performance and group collaboration; whereas, the mediating and moderating effects of environmental control on the relationship between workplace design factors and outcome variables were not significant.     

Risk and the Media: A Comparison of Print and Televised News Stories of a Canadian Drinking Water Risk Event

This article explores the utility of using media analyses as a method for risk researchers to gain an initial understanding of how the public may perceive a risk issue or event based on how it is presented and communicated in news media stories. In the area of risk research, newspapers consistently provide coverage of both acute and chronic risk events, whereas televised news broadcasts report primarily acute risk events. There is no consensus in the literature about which news format (print vs. televised) may be better to study public conceptualizations of risk, or if one format (e.g., print) may be used as a surrogate measure for another format (e.g., televised). This study compares Canadian national televised and newspaper coverage of the same risk event: the E. coli contamination of a public drinking water supply. Using a content analysis, this study empirically demonstrates the overall similarity in story content coverage in both televised and print coverage, noting that televised coverage promotes primarily emotional story themes while print coverage tends to also include coverage of analysis and process. On this basis, the research draws two conclusions: 1) given its more comprehensive coverage, newspaper broadsheets may provide a better measure of media coverage of a risk event than televised coverage (if only one format can be studied); and 2) when the risk area of interest is chronic, and/or if the scale of analysis is at a community/local level (i.e., when it is unlikely that archived televised coverage is available), then a researcher may find the print media to be a more useful format to study.     

Gender Differences in Psychosocial Predictors of Attitudes Toward Reporting Child Sexual Abuse in the United Kingdom

There is a dearth of research investigating psychosocial correlates of attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse in males and females and a lack of such studies drawing on participants from the United Kingdom. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to examine gender differences in social and psychological predictors of attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse. Participants drawn from the United Kingdom general population were recruited via an opportunistic sampling method. Cross-sectional design using a self-report questionnaire was utilized. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that social support, masculinity, and age form significant associations with attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse in females (total variance explained by the model was 25%). In the male sample, the only significant predictor of attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse was interpersonal manipulation (total variance explained by the model was 9%). This study provides an important insight into psychosocial barriers and facilitators to reporting child sexual abuse. Such knowledge is crucial for the early detection and prevention of abuse.