Showing papers in "American Behavioral Scientist in 1995"

Aging Well With Friends and Family.

Abstract: Aging encourages people to enhance their friend and family relationships. In general, the elderly tend to have more heterogeneity in relationships as they grow older. They depend on these relationships for instrumental, financial and emotional support. As a result, older adults who have many friends and have close ties with their families are more socially and psychologically well-adjusted than those who are alienated from their networks.

Social Comparison, Advertising, and Consumer Discontent

Abstract: Consumers encounter countless advertising images during the course of everyday life Many of these images are idealized, representing life more as it is imagined than as it actually exists This article uses theories originating in social psychology to examine the impact these idealized advertising images have on consumers' perceptions of their lives, particularly with respect to their material possessions Using social comparison theory as a basis, the author argues that exposure to idealized images leads consumers to compare, often unconsciously, their own lives with those represented in idealized advertising images In addition, information integration frameworks are used to explain how repeated exposure to idealized images raises consumers' expectations and influences their perceptions of how their lives ought to be, particularly in terms of their material possessions The result of both these processes, for some consumers, is consumer discontent and an increased desire for more

Uniting Critical Theory and Public Policy to Create the Reflexively Defiant Consumer

Abstract: Postmodern extensions of critical theory are used to explore traditional notions of consumer education. Generally, marketing researchers, consumerists, and policymakers have emphasized the importance of making the consumer critical through providing consumers with more complete information and better skills. However, this focus on improving consumers' decision making leaves the existing system virtually unquestioned and intact. An alternative vision of a critical consumer is offered. The authors suggest that consumers must become more radically critical or reflexively defiant by dropping this natural attitude toward the existing order and, instead, questioning economic, political, and social structures. This article attempts to create a new discourse for consumers and suggests that public policy can help consumers become aware of their power to define and fulfill their own needs.

Portrayals of African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans in Magazine Advertising:

Abstract: A content analysis of magazine advertisements from 1993 and 1994 is performed to examine advertising portrayals of African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans. The issues investigated are the frequency of portrayal of minority groups, the representation of groups in technical versus nontechnical product categories, and the settings and relationships in which each group appears. Results indicate that (a) Hispanic Americans are significantly underrepresented in magazine advertising, (b) portrayals of Asian Americans reflect societal stereotypes, and (c) portrayals of African Americans have become less stereotyped over the years, but nonetheless remain sufficiently stereotyped to raise societal concerns.

Suicide and Shame

Abstract: But basically I've lost my mind completely that's all people have told me. I really am crazy. I think I am. I've heard tell the only people who commit suicide are real muts well I'm a nut. Always h...

Marketing and the Poor

Abstract: It is proposed that marketing exchanges are unbalanced in favor of marketers when one of the parties is a poor consumer, but in addition, marketers are presented with ethical conflicts in such exchanges. An exchange model that includes poor consumers is described. By strengthening ethical foundations of exchange, five implications for making the balance more equitable are discussed. One implication leads to the idea that small buying groups can increase the exchange power of poor consumers, thereby increasing the real and perceived equity as well as the level of commitment of all parties to a marketing exchange.

Social Criticisms of Target Marketing Process or Product

Abstract: The social acceptability of targeting is largely a function of judgments about particular consumers and specific products. Targeting that involves consumers who are viewed as essentially “equal participants” in transactions is typically regarded as acceptable. Transactions involving “acceptable” or “socially desirable” products are generally evaluated as beneficial. Objections are almost certain if targeting entails “disadvantaged” or “vulnerable” consumers participating in transactions involving products such as alcohol and cigarettes. Although some members of all groups are less well equipped to navigate the marketplace, there is no empirical basis on which to characterize women and minorities as vulnerable consumers. On the contrary, consumers appreciate the various roles played by advertising and the health consequences of tobacco and alcohol consumption regardless of gender or race. Choices at variance with those prescribed by critics of tobacco or alcohol do not constitute a reasonable definition of...

Aging Well in Contemporary Society Introduction

Abstract: In the summer of 1983, Robert Butler asked me to join a group of scholars conducting a seminar on “Health, Productivity, and Aging” in Salzburg, Austria. The “fellows” attending were young doctors and officials heading or developing government programs in a number of European and Latin American countries as well as Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United States.... Day after day, when participants broke into discussion groups after each lecture, they only wanted to talk about Alzheimer's, senility,and nursing homes. They vehemently objected to disucssing age in terms of any kind of productivity.... Clearly, they did not want to think about people over sixty-five except as helpless patients, clients of their compassionate care.—Betty Friedan, 1993

The Effectiveness of Alcohol Warning Lables: A Review and Extension

Abstract: Since the appearance of the federally mandated alcohol warning labels in 1989, there have been numerous research studies examining the effectiveness of the warnings. Such studies have explored awareness levels, risk perceptions, believability, attitudes, and behavioral changes associated with the alcohol warning labels. Unfortunately, although frequent and heavier drinkers are aware and have knowledge of consumption risks, they are also likely to discount such information and are quite reticent to change patterns of abusive behavior. Reasons for such resistance are offered based on what has been learned from cigarette warning research, the fear appeal literature, psychological reactance theory, the persuasive communications field, and studies of addictive behavior. Public policy alternatives are discussed, including the enhancement of warning information, counteradvertising, and alcohol education programs in the process of building cognitive defenses, changing beliefs, and internalizing alcohol risk information.

Social Support for Decision Making During Grief Due to Death

Abstract: Death creates a discontinuity in the lives of survivors. Formerly, family and friends provided social support as the bereaved reconciled the loss and created new identities for themselves. The availability of such support in postmodern society is lessened, making it more likely that the bereaved will turn to commercial service providers for support. Marketers need to prepare employees to provide such support, and assurance is needed that the support will be provided in a sensitive and ethical fashion.

Dividing the Indivisible

Abstract: An office, or a mistress, cannot be apportioned out like a common.Jeremy Collier, Essays Upon Several Moral Subjects

Marxism, Racism, and Ethnicity

Abstract: Marxism provides a profound analysis of the interrelations of events, putting economics into perspective. However, Marxism as a method in sociological research fails to provide substantial explanation to problems pertaining to race and ethnic relations. Assumptions which can explain economic relationships fail to explain contemporary racism and problems associated with it. Advocates of Marxism face the challenge of showing the relevance of their theoretical and historical views to contemporary forms of race and ethnic relations.© COPYRIGHT Sage Publications Inc. 1995Contemporary debates about race and ethnicity have been influenced in one way or another by Marxist and neo-Marxist scholarship and research. This is clear from both recent theoretical texts on the subject and from empirical and historical studies in a number of societies. Indeed, it can be argued that an engagement with Marxism has been at the heart of many of the most original contributions to recent debates in this field. It is therefore appropriate that, even at a time when Marxist scholarship is perhaps in relative decline and Marxism as a political ideology seems discredited, an attempt is made to reassess its contribution to our understanding of racial and ethnic relations in contemporary societies. This is what this article tries to do, at least in a partial sense, by taking a critical look at Marxist-influenced scholarship in this field.The first part of the article looks at the development of a Marxist approach to racism and ethnicity. This includes an attempt to define the key questions with which Marxists have been concerned during recent years. The emergence of new critical perspectives from within the Marxist paradigm is then explored by reference to some of the main texts produced over the past decade or so. The concluding part of the article looks at the attempts to develop a post-Marxist analysis that takes account of the limitations of existing accounts of the dynamics of racial and ethnic relations.FROM CLASSICAL TO NEO-MARXISMThe works of Marx and Engels contain a number of scattered references to the pertinence of racial and ethnic relations in particular societies - for example, the references to race as an economic factor in the slavery of the United States and the position of Irish migrant workers in Britain. But they contain little historical or theoretical reflection on the role of such processes in the development of capitalist social relations as a whole. Perhaps even more damaging, a number of critics have argued that several statements on race by Marx and Engels reveal traces of the dominant racial stereotypes of their time and an uncritical usage of common sense racist imagery. Additionally, a number of critics of Marxism have argued that the reliance by Marxists on the concept of class has precluded them from analyzing racial and ethnic phenomena in their own right, short of subsuming them under wider social relations or treating them as a kind of superstructural phenomenon (Solomos, 1986).This kind of criticism has been a recurrent theme in both sociological and historical writing on this subject over the years. Yet it is clear from writings in the United States, Great Britain, and other societies that Marxism has provided an important source of theoretical influence in research on race and ethnicity. This can be seen in the number of important theoretical studies that have been produced by Marxist writers. There is also by now a sizable number of historical studies that have been produced from within the Marxist paradigm. What seems clear is that Marxist discussion of race and racism is searching for a new agenda for the analysis of the dynamics of racial categorization, and there are some encouraging signs of development and renewal.What of the themes that have helped to define a specifically Marxist approach to the study of racism and ethnicity? Although it is not easy to state categorically what the main concerns of all Marxist approaches to this subject have been, it is clear that a number of themes have been emphasized in recent Marxist scholarship. For example, the role of political institutions has provided a major area of research for those scholars who have attempted to use a Marxist perspective. A number of studies have focused specifically on the role of the state as a site for the reproduction of racially structured situations. Drawing partly on recent Marxist debates on the nature of the capitalist state, a number of studies have analyzed the interplay between politics and racism in specific historical settings. Studies of the role of state institutions in maintaining racialized structures in a number of societies, particularly the United States and South Africa, have highlighted the importance of the political context of racism. This has raised important questions and problems: What is the precise role of the state in the reproduction of racially structured social relations? How far can the state be transformed into an instrument of antiracist political actions? These and other questions are currently being explored and debated.Important contributions are being made to this debate from American Behavioral Scientist Jan 1995 v38 n3 p407(14) Page 1- Reprinted with permission. Additional copying is prohibited. -

Race, Ethnicity, and the Weberian Legacy:

Abstract: The whole conception of ethnic groups is so complex and so vague that it might be good to abandon it altogether.—Max Weber (1922/1968)Economy and Society[The present century has witnessed] explosio...

Applying Social and Traditional Marketing Principles to the Reduction of Household Waste Turning Research Into Action

Abstract: This article provides an overview of past research on household waste management, particularly research that pertains to recycling and to green buying. The authors discuss social marketing principles and make suggestions as to how past research might be applied toward increasing recycling behavior in communities. They also discuss traditional marketing strategy and tactics in the context of selling products based on pro-environmental positionings or attributes, and make suggestions of how past research on green buying can be applied to encourage green buying practices.

Exploring Simultaneous Oppressions Toward the Development of Consumer Research in the Interest of Diverse Women

Abstract: In this article, the authors argue that to develop public policies that will work in the interests of diverse female consumers, it is imperative to recognize how sexism intersects with racism, classism, and heterosexism. The multiple simultaneous oppressions faced by diverse women make for vast differences in their consumption problems and the remedies they require. The authors illustrate how even consumer research that may seem to promote the interest of women actually serves privileged interests and ignores the reality of others. To move toward consumer research that will help shape public policy in the interests of diverse women, one needs to identify how research to date has enhanced the privilege of some women while neglecting or reinforcing the oppression of others. New research issues will need to be added to the agenda if the current situation is to improve.

Regional Economic Blocs, Cross-Border Cooperation, and Local Economic Strategies in Post-Socialism: Politics, Policies and Prospects .

Abstract: I focus on the former Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or CMEA) countries and examine the complex relations among (a) their attempts to move from state socialism to capitalism; (b) the formulation and implementation of proposals for supranational regional economic blocs, cross-border cooperation, and local economic strategies; and (c) the influence of various kinds of transnational, national, regional, and local agencies and governance mechanisms. This focus can be justified by the link between external structural adjustment and domestic restructuring in postsocialist economies and the complex spatial organization of capitalist economic relations. The CMEA's collapse has disrupted established regional linkages in the former Soviet bloc and opened opportunities for strategies oriented to greater subnational autonomy as well as supranational economic integrations. It has also left a legacy of interdependencies that constrain and limit the chances of successful integration into new regional economic systems even before one take account of the inadequacies of the policymaking and governance mechanisms developed so far to pursue these goals. In short, the forms and outcome of economic transformation will depend both on the local and regional dimensions of the emerging postsocialist economies themselves and on the position of different economic and political forces in relation to emerging postsocialist and/or capitalist regional blocs. In pursing this agenda the article first examines various discontinuities and continuities in Eastern and central Europe that bear on its economic transformation. It then reviews major changes in the capitalist economy into which some forces in the postsocialist economies are trying to become integrated. Given the complex dialectic between internationalization and regionalization involved in these changes, it then examines the problematic status of �regions�, proposes to interpret them as �imagined� economic spaces, and notes some basic material differences between regions in postsocialist and capitalist societies. The discursive character of regions is further illustrated through a brief review of 10 different types of supranational regional economic strategies proposed for one or more postsocialist societies. Then the article reviews subnational strategies for regional cooperation and development in postsocialist economies. These general overviews of regional strategies are followed by some brief comments on specific countries, but no attempt is made a comprehensive survey of developments in every postsocialist economy. The article concludes with some general remarks on present trends and future prospects in regional economic strategies and developments within and beyond the postsocialist bloc. In particular, it identifies some of the most important factors inhibiting the successful realization of local, cross-border, and supranational regional strategies.

From a Politics of Transgression Toward an Ethics of Reflexivity: Foucault, Bourdieu, and Academic Practice

Abstract: Perhaps one day [transgression] will seem as decisive for our culture... as the experience of contradiction was at an earlier time for dialectical thought.Michel Foucault (1977, p. 33)