Race and Theory: Culture, Poverty, and Adaptation To Discrimination In Wilson and Ogbu

This article provides the theoretical resources to resolve a number of conundrums in the work of William Julius Wilson and John Ogbu. Contrary to what Wilson's and Ogbu's work sometimes imply, inner-city blacks are not enmeshed in a "culture of poverty," but rather are generally committed to mainstream values and their normative expectations. Activities that deviate from these values derive from the cognitive expectations inner-city blacks have formed in the face of their restricted legitimate opportunity structures. These expectations, which suggest that educational and occupational success are improbable for inner-city residents, are accurate. If their opportunities were to improve, their cognitive expectations would change and most would be committed to taking advantage of these new opportunities. The differences that separate the inner-city poor from whites center on cultural symbols, which help constitute their identity, sometimes in opposition to the white majority. Most deficiencies in performance among blacks stem not from these cultural attributes, but from the way they are processed in white-dominated organizations. Given a majority commitment to equal opportunity and a majority belief that blacks actually have equal opportunity, many conclude from their performance that blacks are in some sense inferior. This "new racism" overdetermines the performance of blacks.     

The Effect of Brief Functional Relaxation on College Students’ Needle Anxiety During Injected Vaccinations

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the effect of brief functional relaxation (FR) training on needle anxiety (NA) during vaccinations. Participants: From October 2010 through May 2012, 48 undergraduates were recruited through the psychology research participant pool. Methods: Students (N = 48) were randomly assigned to a 15-minute brief FR session delivered via MP3 player or a standard care condition (15 minutes of sitting quietly) prior to receiving injections at the immunization clinic. Measures were completed before (T1) and after (T2) the assigned condition, assessing expected NA, state anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate; and after the injection (T3), self-reported NA during the injection. Results: Unexpectedly, the groups did not differ at T2. However, during the injection, brief FR participants indicated lower self-reported NA (T3) than standard care. Conclusions: Brief FR is a simple, inexpensive technique that may reduce NA in college health settings and help decrease delays in treatment seeking.     

Book Review Misplaced Blame: The Real Roots of Population Growth. Alan Thein Durning and Christopher D. Crowther. Northwest Environment Watch (Seattle), 1997. 94 pages. ISBN 1-886093-05-9

Population and Environment -     

Book Reviews National Research Council. The New Americans: Economic,Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. Washington,D.C: National Academy Press, 1997. Pages 434. Free on request

Population and Environment -     

Sample size re-estimation without unblinding for normally distributed outcomes with unknown variance

Monitoring clinical trials in nonfatal diseases where ethical considerations do not dictate early termination upon demonstration of efficacy often requires examining the interim findings to assure that the protocol-specified sample size will provide sufficient power against the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true. The sample size may be increased, if necessary to assure adequate power. This paper presents a new method for carrying out such interim power evaluations for observations from normal distributions without unblinding the treatment assignments or discernably affecting the Type 1 error rate. Simulation studies confirm the expected performance of the method.     

A Comparative Study on Representational Gestures in Italian and Japanese Children

This study compares words and gestures produced in a controlled experimental setting by children raised in different linguistic/cultural environments to examine the robustness of gesture use at an early stage of lexical development. Twenty-two Italian and twenty-two Japanese toddlers (age range 25?C37?months) performed the same picture-naming task. Italians produced more spoken correct labels than Japanese but a similar amount of representational gestures temporally matched with words. However, Japanese gestures reproduced more closely the action represented in the picture. Results confirm that gestures are linked to motor actions similarly for all children, suggesting a common developmental stage, only minimally influenced by culture.     

Book Review The Ostrich Factor: Our Population Myopia. Garrett Hardin. Oxford University Press (New York), 1999. 168 pages. ISBN 0-19-512274-7

Population and Environment -