The Role of Social Goals in Bullies' and Victims' Social Information Processing in Response to Ambiguous and Overtly Hostile Provocation

Understanding what social goals are associated with bullying and victimization behaviours, even after allowing for biases in interpretation of and affective responses to social events, is critical for understanding the socio‐behavioural profile of bullies and victims. In the present study, 181 nine‐ to ten‐year‐olds' affective responses, attribution of intent, and social goals were assessed in the context of a series of ambiguous and overtly hostile provocation vignettes. Results showed that even after allowing for other social information processing biases, social goals were meaningfully associated with bullying and victimization scores. Bullying was inversely associated with relationship‐building goals, and positively associated with goals to be assertive over the provocateur when provocation was overtly hostile. Being victimized was associated with having submissive goals even when provocation was ambiguous and after accounting for attribution of hostile intent. Findings are discussed in light of theoretical and practical implications.     

Popular and Rejected Children's Reasoning Regarding Negative Emotions in Social Situations: The Role of Gender

Two studies compared popular and rejected children's reasoning regarding social interactions involving negative emotions. The first study, with 23 rejected and 23 popular 10‐ to 11‐year‐olds, involved hypothetical social scenarios where a classmate ‘victim’ was likely to experience a negative emotion. Although popular and rejected children both recognized negative emotions and were equally likely to suggest helping behaviour to aid the victim, there were gender effects on the type of helping behaviour suggested. Specifically, popular girls were significantly more likely to offer comforting behaviour than advice whereas popular boys offered advice more than comfort; no such preferences were exhibited by the rejected children. Furthermore, popular girls were significantly more likely than other children to refer to emotional states when justifying their helping response. In the second study, 30 popular and 30 rejected eight‐ to 10‐year‐olds identified the motives behind story characters' efforts to mask negative emotions. Popular girls were more likely to identify the target motives than rejected girls, but no such difference was apparent for the boys. The results are discussed in the light of evidence regarding gender differences in peer interaction patterns.     

Approaches to implementing manufacturing information systems

Since computers lie behind almost all aspects of new technology, industry now has the chance to develop true integrated Manufacturing Information Systems. This paper examines the developments in this direction which new technology makes available, and why companies should embrace them. Case studies are presented in which the progress achieved and problems encountered by three companies in realising their manufacturing information system are discussed. General conclusions are drawn from them and recommendations for successful implementation are put forward.     

On the multilateral index number system based on the factorial approach

This paper examines what of the Eichhorn-Voeller axioms are satisfied by the multilateral index numbers based on the factorial approach. Finally, concerning the overall performance of the system, a pertinent observation is made strengthening its dependability as a practical guide.     

Ten years after Beijing

For fifteen years, in the north of the state of Israel, a women's organization existed in which Israeli Jewish and Israeli Palestinian women activists worked together for peace and justice in a careful and challenging dialogue across difference. “Bat Shalom of the North” was the subject of research by the author in 1996. In this article she reports on her return in 2012 to re-interview former members. Applying the feminist concept of “transversal politics” she analyzes the organization's trajectory, radicalization and eventual closure in the context of a failed peace process and increasing violence in the region. Their perspective on Israel's oppression of its Palestinian minority led the surviving members of Bat Shalom of the North in its final days to envision not a “two-state solution” to the Israel Palestine conflict but a single, inclusive, multicultural and democratic country, in which subject identities are built not on a feeling of belonging to land, language or religion but on shared adhesion to human and democratic rights.     

An Examination of Factors Affecting Perception of Workplace Discrimination

This study investigates perceptions of workplace discrimination among racial minorities in Canada. Specifically, the study examines how objective experiences of disadvantage and expectations for equity influence racial minorities’ perceptions of discrimination. The results indicate that while both of these factors affect perceptions of discrimination, expectations for equity may be especially important. Although new immigrants are among the most disadvantaged groups in the Canadian labor market, they are less likely to perceive discrimination than longer term immigrants, who may have higher expectations for equitable treatment. Education also increases the perception of discrimination among immigrants, perhaps due to the higher expectations of educated immigrants. Lastly, objective income inequity is not found to be related to perceived discrimination.

Estimation of smooth regression functions in monotone response models

We consider the estimation of smooth regression functions in a class of conditionally parametric co-variate-response models. Independent and identically distributed observations are available from the distribution of (Z,X)$(Z,X)$, where Z is a real-valued co-variate with some unknown distribution, and the response X conditional on Z   is distributed according to the density p(·,ψ(Z))$p(·,\psi (Z))$, where p(·,θ)$p(·,\theta )$ is a one-parameter exponential family. The function ψ$\psi$ is a smooth monotone function. Under this formulation, the regression function E(X|Z)$E(X|Z)$ is monotone in the co-variate Z   (and can be expressed as a one–one function of ψ$\psi$); hence the term “monotone response model”. Using a penalized least squares approach that incorporates both monotonicity and smoothness, we develop a scheme for producing smooth monotone estimates of the regression function and also the function ψ$\psi$ across this entire class of models. Point-wise asymptotic normality of this estimator is established, with the rate of convergence depending on the smoothing parameter. This enables construction of Wald-type (point-wise) as well as pivotal confidence sets for ψ$\psi$ and also the regression function. The methodology is extended to the general heteroscedastic model, and its asymptotic properties are discussed.     

Social-Cognitive Factors in Childhood Social Anxiety: A Preliminary Investigation

The present study addresses the social cognition of socially anxious children, with particular emphasis on their ability to understand others' mental states in interpersonal situations. The heterogeneous sample used in this preliminary investigation consisted of 63 primary school children in England and the USA. The English children were from a mainstream classroom of 8- to 9-year-olds, while the children from the USA ranged in age from 6 to 11 years and had been selected by school district officials for a variety of social interaction difficulties. All children completed measures of social anxiety, shy negative affect, and various social-cognitive abilities, and teacher ratings of social skills were additionally available for the USA subgroup. Results showed that feelings of social anxiety are not associated with any basic deficit in the understanding of recursive mental states which concern facts about the physical world. However, there was evidence that socially anxious children—particularly those with high levels of shy negative affect—do experience specific social-cognitive difficulties in understanding the links between emotions, intentions, and beliefs in social situations. Providing further support for this link, socially anxious children were rated by their teachers as poorer than non-anxious children only on social skills that require insight into others' mental states. Directions for further examination of this complex interplay between cognitive and emotional factors in the development of social anxiety are discussed.     

Children's Differentiation Between Ingratiation and Self-Promotion

Previous research has demonstrated that 10-year-olds can provide interpersonal explanations for certain self-presentational tactics, but detailed information about the development of their understanding of these tactics is lacking. This research investigated children's understanding of the processes involved in ingratiation (used to indicate likeability) and self-promotion (used to indicate competence). In the first study, with a sample of 60 children aged six to 11 years, children saw ingratiation as leading to more positive social evaluation than self-promotion, which was seen as having a more concrete, instrumental function. Additionally, children's differentiation between ingratiation and self-promotion was correlated with their level of peer preference, as determined through sociometric nominations, particularly for boys. In a second study, with a sample of 63 children aged six to 11 years, it was found that audience type (peer vs. adult) was related to children's understanding of the self-presentational tactics: children offered more social evaluation justifications for a self-promotion tactic when the audience was a peer rather than an adult. Results are discussed with reference to emerging insights into the links between peer relations and social cognition.