Two transitions and two crises in youth: A response to P. S. Fry's "Changes in youth's attitudes toward authority."

In a critical discussion of P. S. Fry's (1976) studies, a discussion of psychoanalytic theory's failure to account for the increase of negative attitudes toward authority during the early phase of the identity process is presented. An alternative developmental schema is proposed as more appropriate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in attitudes toward authority figures with the move to college: Three experiments.

Explored changes in attitudes toward authority of 2 samples of students (N = 508), who were tested before and after college entrance. Differences were reported between the sexes and between students who continued to reside at home and those who moved to the campus. The increase in negative attitudes toward authority observed in high school adolescents was found to continue into the college years, in contrast to predictions derived from psychoanalytic theory. The changing attitudes are interpreted in the context of other cognitive changes during the college years. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's attitudes toward rational versus inhibitory parental authority.

"Starting with Fromm's (1941) distinction between rational and inhibitory authority, the study investigates children's attitudes towards their parents' restrictive norms and checking actions… . The results indicate that if parents' restrictive norms and checking actions are accompanied by authoritarian motivations (inhibiting authority), the children's positive attitudes towards these are negatively correlated with chronological age, verbal intelligence… and preference for altruistic alternatives to authoritarian ones… . If the… actions are accompanied by rational motivations (indicating rational parental authority), the attitudes have a tendency to correlate positively with these three independent variables." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4FG15P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral judgment, personality, and attitudes toward authority.

Two studies investigating attitudes toward authority using the Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA) clarify the dynamics of conformity. The SEA and a semantic differential were administered to 369 college students, who rated the concepts mother, father, police, and government on 10 evaluative adjective pairs. Ss endorsing the "ethics of social responsibility" held more favorable attitudes toward authority than did those endorsing the "ethics of personal conscience." This result was replicated in the 2nd study. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wives' employment and husbands' attitudes toward work and life.

Previous research has established that wives' employment has a positive association with the mental health of wives but a negative association with the mental health of husbands. The present study investigated the connections between wives' employment and husbands' work life, using data from the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey on 208 couples in which both husband and wife worked and 408 couples in which only the husband worked. Data indicate that wives' employment had nonspurious negative associations with husbands' job and life satisfaction. Husbands of working wives felt less adequate as family breadwinners than did husbands of housewives, and this appeared to account for their lower levels of job and life satisfaction. Findings suggest that the occupational domain is particularly important to understanding the negative relations between wives' employment and husbands' job and life satisfaction. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in neighborhood poverty from 1990 to 2000 and youth's problem behaviors.

This study used data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a multilevel, longitudinal study of children sampled from 80 diverse neighborhoods, to explore associations among changes in neighborhood poverty from 1990 to 2000 and changes in youth's internalizing problems and property and violent offenses over 6 years (N = 3,324; mean age across waves = 12.6 years). After accounting for a host of background characteristics and weighting for the propensity to stay in the original sampled neighborhood, results indicated that neighborhood poverty dynamics were unfavorably linked to boys' problem behaviors. In high-poverty (>30% in 1990) neighborhoods, decreasing poverty was associated with boys' greater internalizing problems and higher probability of increasing in violent behavior than stable neighborhood poverty. In moderate-poverty (20%–30% in 1990) neighborhoods, boys in neighborhoods that got poorer had more internalizing problems than boys in stably poor neighborhoods. Likewise, in low-poverty (     

Change in attitudes toward the Negro in a Southern university.

"Attitude toward the Negro… appears to be remarkably stable as far as group means are concerned. In view of the social tension prevalent in the South during the period 1955-1958, one might reasonably expect to find a change in attitude towards desegregation… . Contrary to such popular beliefs, no change… was found in comparing a random sample of students at the University of Texas in 1958 with a similar sample in 1955." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in attitudes toward a low-rent housing project.

Opinions of residents in the neighborhood of a low-rental housing project were studied before construction of the project, after construction but before occupancy, and after occupancy. There was a consistent trend in the more favorable direction in attitudes toward the project, in regard to economic-centered fears, in regard to effect of the project on neighborhood attractiveness, and similar factors. Individuals who responded in the survey at two stages shifted in the same direction as the total samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding attitudes toward affirmative action programs in employment: Summary and meta-analysis of 35 years of research.

Affirmative action programs (AAPs) are controversial employment policies in the United States and elsewhere. A large body of evidence about attitudinal reactions to AAPs in employment has accumulated over 35 years: at least 126 independent samples involving 29,000 people. However, findings are not firmly established or integrated. In the current article, the authors summarize and meta-analytically estimate relationships of AAP attitudes with (a) structural features of such programs, (b) perceiver demographic and psychological characteristics, (c) interactions of structural features with perceiver characteristics, and (d) presentation of AAP details to perceivers, including justification of the AAP. Results are generally consistent with predictions derived from self-interest considerations, organizational justice theory, and racism theories. They also suggest practical ways in which AAPs might be designed and communicated to employees to reduce attitudinal resistance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of students' attitudes toward counseling at a predominantly Black university.

A questionnaire survey of 377 students' attitudes toward counseling at a predominantly Black university produced results similar to those reported for predominantly White campuses. The predisposition to seek out counseling services depended on the type of problem. Most Ss were willing to discuss with the counselor matters related to vocational and educational concerns; however, for personal adjustment problems there was significant decline in the frequency with which the counselor's help was sought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of attitudes toward alcohol: Specific beverages differ from generic alcohol.

Examined the extent to which attitudes about alcohol in general differ from attitudes toward specific types of alcoholic beverages (e.g., beer, wine) and whether S variables such as drinking status and drink preference moderate alcohol-related attitudes. 82 male and 102 female college students completed a computerized attitude and drinking habits assessment. Ss did discriminate among alcoholic beverages on the dimensions of potency and positivity. Five of the 6 specific beverages were rated as less potent than generic alcohol (GA); mixed drinks were rated more positively than GA. Ss consistently rated their preferred beverage more positively than GA. Results suggest that the attitude structure characterizing specific alcoholic beverages differs from that of GA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing the structure of prejudicial attitudes: The case of attitudes toward homosexuals.

Two studies assessed the structure of attitudes toward homosexuals. In Study 1, Ss completed measures of stereotypes, symbolic beliefs, and affective associates as well as attitudes toward homosexuals. They also completed the right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale. The results reveal that (1) stereotypes did not provide a complete representation of attitudes, (2) RWA was negatively correlated with attitudes toward homosexuals, (3) the relative importance of the predictor variables differed for high and low RWA Ss, and (4) the 3 predictors accounted for more variance in the attitudes of low RWA than of high RWA Ss. Study 2 also included measures of past experiences and perceived value dissimilarity. Results revealed that past experiences significantly added to the prediction of attitudes only for high RWA Ss and that much of the RWA–attitude relation was accounted for by the consideration of symbolic beliefs and perceived value dissimilarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Appreciation of university education in relation to employment expectations.

A survey of students enrolled in Introductory, Fourth-Year, Graduate and Extension studies in psychology indicated that psychology was studied because it is intellectually challenging and is concerned with people. Students, particularly females, perceive difficulties in finding employment following graduation. The university is valued for its contribution to intellectual, personal and social development. Attitudinal differences between males and females, among the four subject groups, and among students from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trends in psychoactive drug use and in attitudes toward marihuana at a large metropolitan university.

3 surveys of 2,065 students in a large metropolitan university taken in February, 1971, November, 1971, and in October, 1972, show that the proportion of students who have tried or use marihuana has stabilized at .77, but the proportion of daily users continues to rise significantly. During the same period, the proportion of students reporting "hard drug" use has not increased significantly. Attitudes toward marihuana, measured on a factor represented by the mean score on 5 Likert-scaled items repeated in each survey, have become slightly more favorable. This finding, however, is confounded with the more favorable attitude of the increased number of daily users. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The formation of positive attitudes toward group members.

"Three-member groups of children played a game in which some members were rewarded and others were not. On a later sociometric test, outside of the game situation, rewarded Ss chose a significantly greater proportion of their fellow group members than did the nonrewarded Ss. These results were predicted from general principles. of S-R learning theory." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drug use and attitudes toward social and legal aspects of marijuana in a large metropolitan university.

Studied the responses of 788 students at a large metropolitan university on an anonymous questionnaire concerning marihuana. Ss' attitude toward marihuana shifted from strongly negative to strongly positive as frequency of marihuana use increased. With frequency of use controlled, attitude toward marihuana was even more favorable when other drugs had been tried, and also among Ss who were religiously inactive. 74% of the Ss had at least tried marihuana and 39% reported weekly or more often use. 34% of the weekly or more often users reported no experience with "ups" and "downs," hallucinogens, or opiates, and 14% who used all 3 of these reported no use of marihuana so the causal relationship, if any, was weak. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuality: A reply to Whitley and Kite.

B. E. Whitley and M. E. Kite (1995) included additional studies of gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuality in their meta-analysis in part because they located additional studies but also because they included studies that did not match our (M. B. Oliver & J. S. Hyde, 1993) definition of constructs or that contained insufficient information for correct computation of effect sizes. Regarding attitudes about civil liberties for homosexuals, our results (d?=?.00) and theirs (d?=?.04) agree: There are no gender differences. Regarding general attitudes about homosexuality, Whitley and Kite's effect size (d?=?.26) is larger than ours (d?=?–.01) but is based on some inflated computations of d and on the addition of numerous samples of college students. The existence and magnitude of a gender difference in general attitudes toward homosexuality are still open questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The female perspective: women's attitudes toward urogenital aging

Different perspectives toward symptoms of urogenital aging exist among postmenopausal women, influenced by social and cultural factors, but one constant is that women rarely feel able to discuss urogenital problems freely--with their physicians, husbands, or friends. European women >55 years old were brought up to prize "modesty" and to consider urogenital symptoms as private matters that the woman must solve herself. Sexuality in older age groups is recognized as important, but many postmenopausal women are reluctant to complain of deteriorating sex lives. In spite of a different view of the menopause, similar reticence is found in Japan. Physicians need to be better equipped to improve communications between themselves and their postmenopausal patients.