This article proposes and argues for the importance of a distinction between "low-" and "high-risk/cost activism" and outlines a model or recruitment to the latter. The model emphasizes the importa...

http://files.meetup.com/160880/High-risk%20activism.pdf

Recruitment to high-risk activism: The case of Freedom Summer.

Four replicable findings have emerged regarding the relation between income and subjective well-being (SWB): 1. There are large correlations between the wealth of nations and the mean reports of SWB in them, 2. There are mostly small correlations between income and SWB within nations, although these correlations appear to be larger in poor nations, and the risk of unhappiness is much higher for poor people, 3. Economic growth in the last decades in most economically developed societies has been accompanied by little rise in SWB, and increases in individual income lead to variable outcomes, and 4. People who prize material goals more than other values tend to be substantially less happy, unless they are rich. Thus, more money may enhance SWB when it means avoiding poverty and living in a developed nation, but income appears to increase SWB little over the long-term when more of it is gained by well-off individuals whose material desires rise with their incomes. Several major theories are compatible with most existing findings: A. The idea that income enhances SWB only insofar as it helps people meet their basic needs, and B. The idea that the relation between income and SWB depends on the amount of material desires that people's income allows them to fulfill. We argue that the first explanation is a special case of the second one. A third explanation is relatively unresearched, the idea that societal norms for production and consumption are essential to understanding the SWB-income interface. In addition, it appears high SWB might increase people's chances for high income. We review the open issues relating income to SWB, and describe the research methods needed to provide improved data that will better illuminate the psychological processes relating money to SWB.

Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?

This review of the family literature on domestic violence suggests that two broad themes of the 1990s provide the most promising directions for the future. The first is the importance of distinctions among types or contexts of violence. Some distinctions are central to the theoretical and practical understanding of the nature of partner violence, others provide important contexts for developing more sensitive and comprehensive theories, and others may simply force us to question our tendency to generalize carelessly from one context to another. Second, issues of control, although most visible in the feminist literature that focuses on men using violence to control “their” women, also arise in other contexts, calling for more general analyses of the interplay of violence, power, and control in relationships. In addition to these two general themes, our review covers literature on coping with violence, the effects on victims and their children, and the social effects of partner violence.

She wandered the streets, looking in shop windows. Nobody knew her here. Nobody knew what he did when the door was closed. Nobody knew.

(Brant, 1996, pp. 281)

/pdf/research-on-domestic-violence-in-the-1990s-making-ntbjyfzen0.pdf

Research on Domestic Violence in the 1990s: Making Distinctions

Past examinations of differential recruitment to and the differential growth of social movements have typically sought explanation at a social psychological/motivational level of analysis. That focus has recently been called into question by scholars concerned with the process through which movement organizations expand their ranks and mobilize support for their causes. Yet, as Useem (1975) and Zald and McCarthy (1979) have noted, there has been little systematic research conducted on the details of the influence process. Drawing on data derived from a synthesis of existing research and two primary sources, this paper attempts to shed greater empirical and theoretical light on the movement recruitment process. The findings indicate that differential recruitment is not merely a function of dispositional susceptibility, but is strongly influenced by structural proximity, availability, and affective interaction with movement members. The findings also indicate that a movement organization's network attributes function as an important determinant of its recruitment strategies and growth.

Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10652722.pdf

Intimate partner physical abuse perpetration and victimization risk factors: A meta-analytic review.

Employing data from a mailed survey of a sample of ecologically and spiritually aware respondents (N = 829), the study tests the hypothesized relationship between ecologically sustainable behavior (ESB) and subjective well-being (SWB). The proposed link between ESB and SWB is the spiritual practice of mindfulness meditation (MM). In multiple regression equations ESB and MM independently explain statistically significant amounts of variance in SWB, indicating, for at least the study’s sample, that there can be a relationship between personal and planetary well-being. The inter-relationships among SWB, ESB and MM suggest that for specific segments of the general population (e.g., the spiritually inclined) there may not necessarily be an insurmountable conflict between an environmentally responsible lifestyle and personal quality of life. The research reported here also points to the potential for meditative/mindful experiences to play a prominent role in the explanation of variance in SWB, a direction in QoL studies recently highlighted by several researchers (Layard 2005, pp. 189–192; Nettle 2005, pp. 153–160; Haidt 2006).

Personal and Planetary Well-being: Mindfulness Meditation, Pro-environmental Behavior and Personal Quality of Life in a Survey from the Social Justice and Ecological Sustainability Movement

This research examined the influence of religious denomination and church attendance on spousal violence, as measured by the Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus 1979). The data came from a representative national probability sample of the Canadian ever-married or cohabiting population, 18 years or older. Religious denomination was not found to be significantly related to spousal abuse. Also, the "religious patriarchy" thesis was not supported: Conservative Christian men do not abuse their partners significantly more often than do affiliates of other denominations, but Conservative Christian women appear to do so. Also, the relationship between church attendance, as an indicator of religious commitment, and spousal violence was weak and curvilinear. These results provided modest support for the Allport and Ross (1967) intrinsic-extrinsic conceptualization. Spousal violence was also examined in conjunction with sociodemographic and spousal interaction factors. When three multivariate models were applied, it was found that religion had little, if any, relationship to spousal abuse. Other variables, mainly spousal interaction factors, were found to be the best overall predictors of such physical abuse.

Religious Involvement and Spousal Violence: The Canadian Case

The authors suggest that confusion about differential growth rates among various kinds of churches might be clarified by examining the sources from which churches draw their new members. In the authors' investigation of membership additions to 20 evangelical congregations over a five-year period they found that over 70 percent of the new members came from other evangelical churches (reaffiliates such as migrants or transfers) while nearly another 20 percent were the children of members. Less than 10 percent were proselytes or converts from outside the evangelical community, and even these were primarily recruited from other churches or became members through intermarriage. This finding suggests interesting implications for evangelicals with the specific goal of proselytism. The authors argue that conservative churches may be growing faster than other churches because of their superior ability to retain their children and their mobile members.

The Circulation of the Saints: A Study of People Who Join Conservative Churches

This study proposes that apostasy be conceptualized as process of disengagement from two major elements of religion: belief and community. A typology of religious careers was developed to approximate the dynamics of apostasy through cross-sectional data. Data were derived from self-administered questionnaires from Canadian and American undergraduates. The career types Apostates, Switchers, Converts and Stalwarts were compared in terms of origins, reported early family experiences, persistence of beliefs and sources doubt. Finally, the consequences of apostasy - happiness, life-satisfactions, self-esteem, socio-political attitudes, gender traditionalism - were analyzed

Casting off the bonds of organized religion: a religious-careers approach to the study of apostasy

The hypothesis that religion is conservatively linked with gender attitudes was examined by means of questionnaire data provided by 938 American and Canadian postsecondary students. Multiple indicators were used for both religion and gender attitudes. In general, the higher the religiosity, the more traditional the gender attitudes. Current religious identification proved to be a stronger correlate of gender attitudes than childhood affiliation. The "Religious Nones" were the most egalitarian, followed by the Catholics, Mainline Protestants, and Fundamentalists, with the Mormons being the most traditional of all. The religion variables were considerably more powerful predictors of gender attitudes than were the demographic variables.

Merlin B. Brinkerhoff

Papers

Personal and Planetary Well-being: Mindfulness Meditation, Pro-environmental Behavior and Personal Quality of Life in a Survey from the Social Justice and Ecological Sustainability Movement

Religious Involvement and Spousal Violence: The Canadian Case

The Circulation of the Saints: A Study of People Who Join Conservative Churches

Casting off the bonds of organized religion: a religious-careers approach to the study of apostasy

Religion and Gender: A Comparison of Canadian and American Student Attitudes