We report the results of a randomized field experiment involving approximately 30,000 registered voters in New Haven, Connecticut. Nonpartisan get-out-the-vote messages were conveyed through personal canvassing, direct mail, and telephone calls shortly before the November 1998 election. A variety of substantive messages were used. Voter turnout was increased substantially by personal canvassing, slightly by direct mail, and not at all by telephone calls. These findings support our hypothesis that the long-term retrenchment in voter turnout is partly attributable to the decline in face-to-face political mobilization.

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The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment

This paper looks at the relationship between adult sex roles and mental illness.A fairly precise definition of mental illness is used limiting it to functional disorders characterized by anxiety (neurosis) and/or mental disorganization (psychosis). A number of characteristics of the woman's role in modern industrial societies that might promote the development of mental illness are discussed. The rates of mental illness for men and women following Wolrd War II are then compared by looking at community surveys, first admissions to mental hospitals, psychiatric treatment in general hospitals, psychiatric outpatient clinics, private outpatient psychiatric care, and the practices of general physicians. These data uniformly indicate that adult women have higher rates of mental illness than adult men. A survey of other disorders which appear to be a response to stress also shows women to have higher rates than men. Alternatives to the role explanation of the observed relationships are shown to be inadequate.

Adult sex roles and mental illness.

Experimental and survey data were gathered from residents of a large urban neighborhood with a community wide curbside recycling program in order to determine the extent to which recycling could be conceptualized as altruistic behavior. Results confirmed that recycling behavior is consistent with Schwartz's altruism model, according to which behavior is influenced by social norms, personal norms, and awareness of consequences. Data further showed that a block-leader program, in which residents encouraged their neighbors to recycle, influenced altruistic norms and increased recycling behavior. Prompting and information strategies were also introduced into the community recycling program as experimental interventions in order to com- pare their effects with the block-leader approach. Results showed that prompting and information increased recycling behavior but did not affect norms and attitudes. Further- more, all the intervention strategies influenced behavior independently of the measured norms; block le...

Recycling as Altruistic Behavior: Normative and Behavioral Strategies to Expand Participation in a Community Recycling Program

In modern Western societies women have higher rates of mental illness than men. In this article it is suggested that this difference can be attributed to the role of married women. More specifically, it is shown that married women have noticeably higher rates of mental illness than married men. In contrast, it is shown that when single women are compared with single men, divorced women with divorced men, and widowed women with widowed men, these women do not have rates of mental illness that are higher than their male counterparts. In fact, if there is a difference within these marital categories, it is that women have lower rates of mental illness. In a recent paper Gove and Tudor (1972) looked at the proportion of men and women who were mentally ill in modern industrial societies as indicated by community surveys, first admissions to mental hospitals, psychiatric treatment in general hospitals, psychiatric outpatient clinics, private outpatient psychiatric care, and psychiatric illness in the practices of general physicians. All of these sources indicated that women are more likely to be mentally ill than men. As most studies indicate that never married and formerly married persons have higher rates of mental illness than those who are married, one might expect that the difference between the rates of men and women could be attributed to unmarried women having extremely high rates of mental illness. This would conform to the stereotype of the carefree bachelor and the rejected spinster (or former wife). However, in this article I will indicate that this expectation is incorrect and that it is the relatively high rates of mental illness in married women that account for the higher rates of mental illness among women. Furthermore, I will attempt to show that it is the roles confronting married men and women that account for the high rates among women and not some other factor such as women being biologically more susceptible to mental ill-

The Relationship Between Sex Roles, Marital Status, and Mental Illness

Who recycles and when? A review of personal and situational factors

The effects of two prompting procedures to promote curbside recycling of newspapers were evaluated. Results indicated no effect on weekly percent participation after handbills alone, and modest increases after handbills plus verbal prompting. The findings also showed there were effects of block characteristics across groups. The presence of one or more recyclers prior to intervention was associated with significantly higher percentages of new participants when examining only blocks which also had block clubs. Also, the existence of a block club was associated with a significantly lower percentage of new participants after intervention, when looking only at blocks where there had been no participants prior to intervention. The implications of these findings are discussed. Psychologists with an interest in pro-environmental behavior have begun to contribute information on the relative effectiveness of various intervention strategies to promote participation in the recycling of domestic waste. Some studies have suggested that \"prompt\" information alone results in minimal levels of participation, whereas prompts which also include incentive offers [1], or devices that enhance convenience [2, 3] , tend to result in significantly higher participation levels. Other research has suggested that prompt effectiveness may also vary depending on how the information is presented [3, 4] . For example, in-person

Effects of Verbal Prompting and Block Characteristics on Participation in Curbside Newspaper Recycling

The print and electronic media have been used effectively in the past to assist individuals in altering negative health behaviors and attitudes associated with obesity, stress, hypertension, and smoking. This article presents the use of a multimedia-based, health promotion strategy targeted toward AIDS prevention within the family unit. In November of 1988, for 6 consecutive days, 5- to 10-minute segments addressing AIDS and the family were televised on the noon and 9 p.m. news broadcasts of a major television station in the midwest. One hundred fifty-one 8th-grade students and their parents were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions. The intervention consisted of prompting participants to view the broadcasts and giving them printed material regarding AIDS and how the topic could be discussed within the family. This AIDS educational newspaper supplement paralleled the content of the daily telecasts. All participants completed questionnaires approximately 1 week prior to and after the media program. Controls were not given the prompt or provided the supplements. Children who were encouraged to watch the program viewed significantly more of the broadcasts, talked more about sexual issues within their families, and were more knowledgeable about AIDS than controls. Parents of children identified as at risk for HIV infection had more difficulty discussing AIDS with their children than parents of children not at risk.

A multimedia-based approach to increasing communication and the level of AIDS knowledge within families

Prompting dog owners to pick up dog droppings

DURING the past several years increasing emphasis has been placed on returning patients to their community as soon as their psychiatric condition makes this possible. As a consequence, community agencies have been encouraged to develop after-care and other programs in order to provide the services needed by patients released from mental hospitals. The need for such community programs is indicated by the more than doubling of net releases from state and county mental hospitals between 1955 and 1965. 1 In addition, coupled with the rapid increase in hospital releases, 55% of all admissions in 1965 had a history of previous hospitalization. 1 This high rate of readmission has called into question the effectiveness of community programs and hospital prerelease planning, and highlights the importance of establishing a close and effective hospital-community liaison. This study is concerned with an analysis of the return rates

Hospital return rates and prerelease referrals.

This study investigated the extent to which posters requesting that lights be turned off in classrooms would increase energy conserving behaviors. A multiple baseline design was used with two groups of eleven classrooms. Results indicated that with onset of the intervention phase, moderate increases in energy conserving behaviors occurred in both clusters of classrooms. These findings indicate that prompting techniques are an effective strategy for getting lights turned off in classrooms. The conservation of electrical energy can be approached from two different perspectives: increasing the efficiency of equipment which is operated by electricity and the installation of automated equipment to eliminate waste on the one hand, and the modification of behavior patterns of people with respect to energy consumption. For maximum effectiveness, both approaches — the technical and the behavioral — have to be combined. While solely informational procedures have had only negligible effects on energy saving [1], incentive payments reducing energy use [2], and regular feedback seem to be strong behavioral procedures for inducing energy conservation [3]. One area where different strategies have been infrequently implemented is in college classrooms. Winett, in a study of conservation in a classroom, reported that a large two foot by three foot sign was effective in reducing the per cent of lights turned off * Poster presented at the Association for Behavior Analysis, Milwaukee, May 1982.

Edwin S. Zolik

Papers

Effects of Verbal Prompting and Block Characteristics on Participation in Curbside Newspaper Recycling

A multimedia-based approach to increasing communication and the level of AIDS knowledge within families

Prompting dog owners to pick up dog droppings

Hospital return rates and prerelease referrals.

Conservation of Electricity on a College Campus