Showing papers on "Peer group published in 1971"

Mate selection among second generation kibbutz adolescents and adults: Incest avoidance and negative imprinting

Abstract: Premarital sexual behavior and marriage patterns were investigated in Israeli kibbutzim. All adolescents and adults of the second generation (N =65)in one kibbutz were studied. There were no cases of heterosexual activity between any two native adolescents of the same peer group and no cases of marriage between any two members of the same peer group. The avoidance was completely voluntary. Among 2769 marriages contracted by second generation adults in all kibbutzim, there were no cases of intra—peer group marriage. These findings could represent a case of negative imprinting whereby collective peer group education which includes an incessant exposure to peers from the first days of life and an unimpeded tactile relationship among the peers between ages 0–6 results in sexual avoidance and exogamy.

The Later Years of Childbearing

Abstract: Why do American couples differ in the number of children they have? To answer this question the first major longitudinal study in American fertility was begun in 1957 with a series of interviews with parents of two children. "Family Growth in Metropolitan America" (1961) and "The Third Child" (1963) reported the results of the first two phases of this research project. In this book, in addition to evaluating the longitudinal design of the study, the authors report the results of the third and final interviews, a decade after the first, and attempt to answer such questions as: How well are couples able to predict their own fertility over the years? To what extent does the number of children desired affect the spacing of births? How is fertility affected by peer group relations, by the wife's participation in the labor force, by religion?Originally published in 1971.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Behavioral Norms, Moral Norms, and Attachment: Problems of Deviance and Conformity

Abstract: The relationship among moral norms, perception of peer behavioral norms, and behavioral attachment of institutionalized delinquents is examined using hypothetical problem situations. The study finds that delinquent behavioral attachment is doubly deviant. It is deviant from their own private moral norms, which are generally socially acceptable, and from their perception of their peers' norms, which they believe to be more deviant than their own behavior. This supports the formulation of Sykes and Matza that delinquents hold private norms which are consistent with the dominant social norms but transmit miscues to their peers suggestive of a delinquent commitment. Indeed, our data suggest that the delinquent is often less deviant from his moral norms than his comparative reference group. The data are discussed in relationship to the contributions of such others as Cohen and Short, Baum and Wheeler, Empey, Kemper, Reckless, the Schwendingers, and Yinger.

Raising Academic Motivation in Lower Class Adolescents: A Convergence of Two Research Traditions*

Abstract: This paper argues for the desirability of integrating two research traditions in the study of adolescent behavior. One is concerned primarily with the normal functioning of adolescent society, the other with the design of reward structures to foster academic achievement. Specifically, it is suggested that a combination of material inducements with a reward structure emphasizing peer group attainment can provide an effective strategy for motivating lowerclass adolescents.

Peer group conformity in adolescent smoking and its relationship to affiliation and autonomy needs

Abstract: The role of peer group conformity in adolescent cigarette smoking was investigated in children attending a rural high school. Analysis of questionnaire responses and sociometric data showed homogeneity among members of sociometric groups for both smoking behaviour and smoking attitudes. A subsequent experimental manipulation provided evidence that the “peer group conformity” motive can be instrumental in changing the attitudes of adolescents. Ss informed that their previous responses deviated from their own friendship groups' norms tended to change their opinions in the direction of the bogus norms. More or less conforming Ss were identified in advance on the basis of appropriate combinations of high and low affiliation and autonomy needs.

Structural Effects of Professional Schools on Professional Socialization: The Case of Protestant Clergymen

Abstract: This paper examines the structural effects of professional schools in the process of professional socialization. Fourteen hundred and fifty-one ministers who are relatively recent graduates of twenty-one Protestant seminaries constitute the sample. Seminaries are grouped into three types according to the modal ranking of the graduates of each seminary of four goals of theological education. These types are interpreted as approximating the major historic types of theology schools. A measure of each respondent's theological orientation is utilized as the socialization outcome (dependent variable). Blau's method for analyzing structural effects is used. Additional variables-parental socioeconomic status, denomination, respondent's preference for the school he attended, his peer group's orientation, and type of current ministry-are examined to test for spuriousness between seminary type and theological orientation. The data show that the structure of the schools is related to theological orientation in the predicted direction even when the additional variables are introduced into the analysis. The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, once concluded that the net effect of a university education was to turn the entering "bulls" into graduating "asses." Whether or not one agrees with this rather invidious appraisal of education, it is to be noted that Burns believed that educational institutions have a marked and detectable effect on their graduates. It is the purpose of this paper to report some of the findings of a larger research project (Carroll, 1970) investigating the effects on their graduates of one type of educational institution-Protestant theological seminaries. More specifically, the purpose is to examine the effects of different types of theological seminaries on the outcomes of professional socialization. A "structural effects"' design is used. THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS In their study of medical education, Merton et al. (1957:287) define professional socialization for the medical student as the processes through which [the medical student] develops his professional self, with its characteristic values, attitudes, knowledge and skills fusing these into a more or less consistent set of dispositions, which govern his behavior in a wide variety of professional (and extra-professional) situations. This definition is helpful in that it stresses that socialization into a profession is more than a cognitive process. To be sure, cognitive aspects -for example, transmission of the profession's specialized knowledge and skills-are an important part of socialization into a profession; however, agents of professional socialization are generally concerned also with the shaping of values and norms related to the practice of the profession. In short, they are concerned with the development of the recruit's professional self. As will be further emphasized in this paper, this is especially true of socialization into the ministry; however, it is also the case with other professions, as the following statement of a business educator indicates. Emphasizing that transmission of specific content was not the basic concern of business education, Kenneth * This paper is a revision of an earlier paper read at the annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1970. Appreciation is expressed to Professor Jeffrey Hadden of Tulane University for permission to use data gathered for the Danforth Study of Campus Ministries for secondary analysis in this study. ' The particular method of analysis used is that suggested by Peter Blau (1960). For similar concerns with "structural" or "compositional" effects with different strategies of analysis, see Davis et al. (1961), and Tannenbaum and Bachman (1968).

Conformity in Children as a Function of Grade Level, and Real versus Hypothetical Adult and Peer Models

Abstract: (1971). Conformity in Children as a Function of Grade Level, and Real versus Hypothetical Adult and Peer Models. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Vol. 118, No. 2, pp. 253-263.

Use of Group Activities and Team Rewards to Increase Individual Classroom Productivity.

Abstract: \"... all were potential school 'push-outs', i.e., chronically disruptive students who are no longer welcome in the school system.\" • National attention is currently directed towards changing our middle-class oriented educational system in working with minority group children. The need for change has been most apparent in working with children who are socially disadvantaged, potential school dropouts, or low-achievi.ng students (Bloom, 1966; Crotberg, 1965; Hunt, 1966; Miller, 196), 1964; Pressman, 1969). On the U. S. Mainland, the focus of attention is on urban ghettoes. In Hawaii interest centers on rural Hawaiians. This article describes how a token reinforcement system was used to reward group rather than individual behavior in order to promote academic development among low-achieving adolescent Hawaiian boys. The program described was based on a classroom field experiment conducted in an economically depressed Hawaiian community. o Twenty-four boys whose ages ranged from 14 to 17 were enrolled in a sel£contained class in an intermediate school. The Principal and Vice-Principal made all class assignments. All of the boys chosen demonstrated poor academic achievement and disruptive classroom behavior. • Academic problems demonstrated. Although the boys had been in eighth and ninth grade classes, they achieved considerably below their grade levels in every academic subject. Most were doing fourth-grade work in arithmetic and second-grade work in reading. At the beginning of the project, which was conducted during the Spring semester, only six students were doing any academic work at all. None had succeeded in course work and, in general, they viewed themselves as school failures.

Peer Group Approach to Drug Education

Abstract: Since our drug raid during the Fall of 1969 and the present application of the peer group approach much has been explored concerning the changing of attitudes and behavior. The complexities of the learning process, including the student, methodology and materials, must be re-examined.Drugs are not the problem. Finding ways to communicate so that the student has a chance to involve himself actively in the learning process is the secret. An active exchange of honest information will, in the long run, provide more lasting impact.Many approaches to solving the drug problem are being tried. The main advantage of the peer group approach is that we are involving students to help us with a mutual problem. The realization that students are an untapped resource to help society influence others is the hope of the seventies.

Social acceptability in the measurement of racial attitudes

Abstract: 204 white Ss were asked to indicate how most college students felt about people with certain values. Results indicated there was less perceived social acceptance of negative racial attitudes among college students than of other values. However, when similar groups of white students were administered the Situational Attitude Scale (SAS) they responded relatively negatively to blacks. Thus, there is evidence for a difference between what white students feel are socially acceptable attitudes toward blacks and what they actually feel.

Social Attraction and Choice Among Psychiatric Patients and Staff: A Review*

Abstract: This article reviews research conducted since 1940 on social choice behavior, sociometric status, and other related variables, and their empirical correlates among and between hospitalized psychiatric patients and staff. The bulk of these sociometric studies were motivated by Sullivan's concern with psychopathology as a disturbance of interpersonal relations and, more recently, by an increased interest in ward milieu and informal social system factors that may influence a patient's hospital course. While many findings were not consistent across studies, it did appear that frequency of social choice, sociometric status, involvement in a health-oriented peer group, and liking by staff were related to lower levels of pathology. Diagnosis was not generally related to sociometric variables. This review found a relative lack of longitudinal studies, infrequent use of biographical variables, and, considering their importance, relatively few studies on staff-patient relationships. Some suggestions for future research are made.

Antismoking education study at the University of Illinois.

Abstract: A STUDY conducted in Portland, Oreg., in 1958 by Horn and co-workers (I) served as a stimulus for a series of studies on the smoking behavior of youth. This research frequently involved an analysis of smoker and nonsmoker characteristics in addition to studying the effects of various types of antismoking messages presented by mass media. While this information may be useful for developing public health measures, the educator generally is more concerned with research on the teaching-learning process in the classroom environment. If health education in schools is to aid young people in resisting the pressures to smoke cigarettes, then such factors as the teacher's influence, teaching methods, curriculum materials, peer group, and parental influence need more intensive study. Before initiating such research, however, the study team at the University of Illinois agreed

Peer Ratings Revisited.

Abstract: The present study compares the differences in peer and supervisory judgments of counselor trainees in both guidance institutes and regular program groups. The key conclusion of the study is that institute supervisors and institute members have significantly higher positive agreement (r = .77) on who is a good counselor than that found among supervisors and students in a regular education program, where (r = .46).

Emotional handicaps to learning in two cultures.

Abstract: Deteriorating academic performance in schoolchildren may be due to emotional rather than intellectual causes, but these are not always recognized. The problem is likely to be of increasing importance in African children in Rhodesia as the general level of education rises. Emotional problems in 11 European and 16 African schoolchildren are compared. Although no firm conclusions can be drawn, the evidence suggests that the same conceptual framework may be used for both groups; that physical symptoms may present more often in African children; and that 'over-driving' and peer group rejection may be more common. psychopathological factors in African children.

Educational, Familial, and Peer Group Influences on Occupational Achievement. Final Report.

Abstract: The research subjects are all of the males in the graduating class of Fort Wayne, Indi ana Community Schools in 1963, all males in the senior class of 19(39, and selected samples of boys in the sixth and ninth grades in 1969. Data were collected by questionnaire and taken from school records. In addition, interviews were conducted with the parents of samples of the boys in the three youngpr (in-school) cohorts. The analysis focusses on factors associated wIth levels of educational and occupational expectations of the in-school cohorts and attainments of the graduates. Path analysis is the basic method used. Explanatory variables considered are social status of origin, IQ, school performance, personality, parental influence, and peer associations. As much as one-half of the variance of the dependent variables is explained in this way, but wide differences are found among age cohorts and between blacks and whites. These differences involve both the level of explanation and the kinds of variables which Provide that explanation. Both through interpretation of the results for the four cohorts and through a synthetic longitudinal analysis of the data, the findings_are vi ewed from a processual as well as a crosssectional perspective.

Dietary habits and attitudes of adolescent girls in Brisbane.

Abstract: The morning break and after school are the constant times for between‐meal snacks. Adolescent girls are frequent tuck‐shop patrons, and at socials more than half this sample favoured sweet, sticky foods. Weight was an important consideration to the girls, and the most likely reason for them to change their food patterns. The mothers’ influence was more important than that of the peer group, the mass media and the school In the choice of food. The need for further education on diet was expressed by at least half of the girls. The mothers of adolescents would be the most rewarding target for education on diet, well before the children approached the adolescent growth spurt.

Attitudes of personnel: determinants of or deterrents to good patient care?

Abstract: PIP: The article reviews the problems of staff attitudes in abortion care services and discusses possible solutions. Negative attitudes are a serious problem in health care. Abortions are a particularly acute problem because the diverse factors of religion, sexuality, social control, morality, and individual rights are involved. Negative attitudes can result in professionals avoiding their responsibility, feeling anger or resentment against their patients, or psychologically damaging their patients. A conceptual model used by the UCLA School of Nursing breaks the behavioral system into 8 subsystems: aggressive, affiliative, achievement, restorative, dependency, ingestive, eliminative, and sexual. Aberrations of the behavioral environment in one subsystem upsets the others, resulting in feelings of envy, anger, bitterness, frustration, fear, detachment, and self-anger. These feelings are directed toward the upsetting stimulus (in this case, the patient), which is disastrous to the performance of professional health care. One example in the sexual subsystem is when the professional feels inadequate in her own sexual identity or success and resents the apparent sexual success of the abortion patient, resulting in anger and jealousy. The health professional should recognize that these feelings are deep-rooted results of the socialization process, that they inhibit abortion care, and that they can be changed. Methods of attitude improvement available to the hospital staff include administrative or peer pressure, observing performance of other staff members, increasing understanding of the procedure, personal experiences, and group discussion. Paramedical personnel should also be included in these studies. There should also be an abortion service for attitudinal study before admission of patients.

Factors affecting the success of a family planning program in a low-income neighborhood in Caracas.

Abstract: 200 women living in a low-income neighborhood in Caracas were interviewed by a trained nurse to determine the characteristics of the women interested in the clinic and those not interested the reasons why women did not want to visit the clinic and the structure of their peer groups and patterns of communication in the neighborhood. The average age of the women was 28.7 years; they had lived in this neighborhood for 2-3 years (though in Caracas for 15 years); they had an average education of 2 years and had 4.3 children. 38% were legally married. Only 42 women showed no interest in the program; 108 were interested. 31 were pregnant and 19 were using contraceptives. Size of the groups and attitudes of opinion leaders and confidantes in each group influenced the womens decisions on whether or not to go to the clnic. On the basis of this study and a similar study in a nearby neighborhood recommendations include 1) interviewing women in the community to determine the nature of groups and communication between groups in the community the opinion leaders and confidantes and attitutdes of women (apathy fear) and 2) conducting educational campaigns as well as providing services to women who have problems getting to the clinic. Following these suggestions could attract 20-40% of the eligible women.